Why We Created This Blog

 Present day Missouri became the 24th state of the Union in 1821 under President James Monroe. The state capitol was located in St. Charles, Missouri until permanently designated to Jefferson City, Missouri in 1826. Prior to statehood, Missouri was part of the Missouri Territory previously the Territory of Louisiana. In 1812, Louisiana became a state and to differentiate between that state and lands purchased in 1803 from France, Congress renamed Louisiana the Missouri Territory. The map below shows some interesting differences between the United States today and the United States in 1814; the western border of the United States is on the east side of the Mississippi River.

When pondering the lines of our heritage a scenario comes to mind of mythological Atlas sitting on the earth watching the comings and goings of people migrating from foreign shores to North America. From this vantage point, he watches explorers moving down the St. Lawrence River into the Mississippi Valley down to the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, settlers from the eastern shores of the Atlantic are migrating westward toward the Mississippi River where at some point and time they meet in Missouri. This is the history of our heritage and that of many Americans.

We would like to share our history with you by posting our family lineage with the hope it will help anyone who might be searching for ancestors. While doing our own research there were times we came to a standstill and could not find certain names or family connections. However, help to move forward often came from other people who already found family members indirectly related to our lineage. As our project progresses we plan to offer postings on how we did our research and how to start researching a family history.