Francis E. Stout: Farmer

Many of my ancestors "worked the land." This week, I thought I would take a look at one of these farmers.

Francis E. Stout and his wife Mary E. Pugh Stout were my 3rd Great Grandparents. They were both born in North Carolina and made their way west into Tennessee where they raised a large family of 12 children. 

Here is part of their story:

In Search of Charlotte

I usually try to do a little genealogy every day. I also prefer to find everything I can in one source before moving on. This makes it easier to write those source citations.

The other day I thought I would go through the St. Louis, Missouri guardianship records on FamilySearch. I tend to go page by page, just in case the indexing isn't correct. In the first book, I found something unexpected. It appears that my 3rd great grandfather, Christian F. Kienlen, was made the guardian for a three year old girl named Charlotte, a "free mulatto girl." 

Christian was a young man of 27. 

He was married only the year before to Marie-Louise Moreau.

He was a confectioner, the first in St. Louis, and he bought and sold quite a bit of real estate at that time. 

But who is Charlotte?

Clearly, I'm going to have to find some additional court records, since all I found was the bond. I'll have to wait until all of the government buildings are opened back up again, but I really hope I can find out more about Charlotte. 

Who was she? 

Who were her parents?

What happened during her lifetime?

Did she grow up and have family of her own?

I don't want that little girl to be forgotten.

What Happened That Year?

For the past few weeks, I've been thinking a bit about how our current attempts to slow down a 

pandemic will influence us in the future. 

I am a nurse. I still go to work every day, not knowing when or by whom I may contract an illness.

This is not new for me, but this virus is different.

No one is immune to it.

No one, except for the people who already have it.

Everyone my age knew people who lived through The Great Depression, but unless you realize that, you don't quite understand why your grandma washed and reused aluminum foil or why your dad kept such detailed lists of his bills year after year. The Great Depression made people very careful with their money in ways we can't fully understand. We didn't live through it.

How will the 2020 global pandemic affect our lives?

Our "pop" or popular culture? 

Will there be more movies about pandemics?

Will people write books about social distancing?

Will video games have characters competing 

for toilet paper? 

Time will tell.

Honestly, some of the things I have seen are a bit concerning, but it's not the virus that worries me the most. 

I am worried about our children.

They are watching our reactions.

They watch people hoarding to the point that others can't get the things they need.

They are watching over-anxious adults unable to cope, or angry adults who are defying the recommendations.

We need to teach them to stay calm.

We need to teach them to be helpers.

We need to teach them to care about the more vulnerable in our society, even if it involves personal sacrifice.

I learned in a literature course that fantasy becomes more popular during times of economic recession or depression. It's a great distraction. Think about the things we've seen since 2008's Great Recession:

The Walking Dead, the Twilight series, True Blood, tons of superhero stuff - just to name a few.

My grandpa, Chester Paul Aden, was born in 1919.

This was the year after the pandemic flu that killed millions of people, many of them young, healthy adults.

Did that pandemic affect what people were doing when he was born?

Chester Paul Aden  1920

Here's a bit about my grandpa, who was born the year we were fighting the 3rd wave of the 1918 flu pandemic.

The Herbert Clark Family's Run of Bad Luck

Charles Herbert Clark and Ivah Frances Blair Clark were my husband's great grandparents. Like many families during the depression, they moved from a rural community to a more urban one. In their case, this was St. Louis, Missouri. 

You can read more about their daughter and some other siblings: HERE

They lost two sons in World War II, which led to the U.S. Marines sending their youngest son, Frank, to a safer place to spend the remainder of his military service. Frank was a radio operator at Iwo Jima, and you can hear him tell part of his story if you ever visit the
Missouri Soldier's Memorial in St. Louis.
There is an interactive video display.

Fox 2 News in St. Louis interviewed Frank a couple of years ago. The video is HERE.  There is more to his story from KSDK News HERE. Last year, Frank got to throw the first pitch at a St. Louis Cardinals Game. You can see that fun time HERE.

Frank is the youngest child of Herbert and Ivah. He was born in 1926.
Today I want to tell a bit about those early years, before Frank.
Since this week's theme is "Luck," I decided to highlight some of the bad luck they
had during that time.

Lucille Holland Aden - My Granny

When my Grandpa Aden died in 1993, Granny (Norma Lucille Holland Aden) was 71 years old. One of my favorite memories of her came a few years later, after she had moved back to St. Louis from Poplar Bluff, Missouri.  She was living in a condominium that she bought, and one of her neighbors was a nice old man named Tom Waggoner. They became quite close.

My mom said it felt "weird," but we all embraced Tom as part of our family.
Once we asked Granny if she and Tom were ever going to get married.
Her response:  "No! I never want to wash another old man's underwear again!"

I've often thought of her answer. It makes me smile.
She was, obviously, happy living on her own.
In fact, she told us that sometimes she'd act really tired just to get
Tom to go home so she could be alone.

I heard something else in her reply, though:
Women are just fine on their own.

Granny was born in Mill Spring, Missouri on July 8, 1922.
She was the oldest child in a large family.
They were poor. 

In 1940, she and my grandpa, Chester "Check" Aden ran off to Arkansas to get married. Her parents were pretty angry. She was just 18.

Check and Lucille soon had three children, and he spent some time serving in the
U.S. Army during World War II.

They both worked hard to support their young family in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
I don't know everything they did, but I know they were in the real estate business.
My grandpa drove a dump truck, I think, for a short time, and they owned a laundry.
They went to Oregon for a bit and there were some job prospects there, but according to my uncle, they didn't stay because Grandpa missed his mom.

When they moved to St. Louis, in the early 1960s, they both worked for the Missouri School for the blind. Later, Grandpa got a job at the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District, and I don't believe Granny had to work anymore after that.
It really wasn't until their children were married that I think they were comfortable financially.

Chester Paul Aden, Norma "Lucille" Holland Aden, and their granddaughters Valerie Ann Kienlen (on Lucille's lap), Elaine Margaret Kienlen (on the left) and Leslie Diane Kienlen (me - on the right)   1970

Granny lived from 1922 to 2007.

She started off her adult life as a married 18 year old, worked hard, and ended it content to be living on her own.

Just before Granny was born, women in the United States gained the right to vote.

The year after she was born, the first Equal Rights Amendment was proposed. It said, "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction." It never passed.

In 1928, when she was 5 years old, Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic.

In 1960, women gained (illegal) access to birth control, which allowed them to plan their families. (It was approved for married couples in 1965. Single women had to fight for this a bit longer.)

Women could get credit cards without their husband's approval in 1974.

In 1975, women were no longer banned from serving on juries.

President Reagan appointed the first woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981.

By 1983, we had our first female astronaut, Sally Ride, in space.

So much changed for women during Granny's lifetime.

It must have been frustrating to have been denied so many things that we take for granted now. 

How many men (and probably women) fought against the rights we enjoy today?

Strong women spoke up.

I like to think that she would have supported the changes that her female descendants enjoy today.

I sure wish I could ask her! 

I hope she would want us to keep up the fight.

Nancy Strader and her Million Children

I have 64 4th great grandparents.

We all do.

I know who most of them are, thanks to years of research. 

One very special ancestor is Nancy Strader.

She is straight up my maternal line.

She is the earliest one in that line whose face I know. I don't see her in my face at all, but I know she's there. She looks a bit sad in her photo, like she's had a hard life.

She probably never even realized that she was creating a strong, thriving, female line.

I have one granddaughter, three daughters, and two sisters. My mom had one sister, and her mom, my grandma, had five sisters. I honestly don't know how many women have descended from Nancy since I haven't researched all the lines of descent, but in my tree there are currently 31 in just my direct line of nuclear families (not counting cousins, etc.). That's certainly a wealth of women!

Here's how this line goes:

Leslie Diane Kienlen (me) b. 1965 in St. Louis County, MO.

Sharon Eileen Aden b. 1942 in Poplar Bluff, MO; d. 2007 in St. Louis, MO.

Norma Lucille Holland b. 1922 in probably Mill Spring, MO; d. 2007 in St. Louis County, MO.

Nelle Naomi Hartman b. 1901 in probably Texas County, MO; d. 1990 in Poplar Bluff, MO.

Mary Naomi Estep b. 1877 in Kilbourne, Mason County, IL; d. 1948 in Ozark, Texas County, MO.

Mary Elizabeth Elmore b. 1848 in Tice Station, Menard County, IL; d. 1922 in Hugoton, KS.

Nancy Strader b. 1822 in Green County, KY; d. 1908 in Tice Station, Menard County, IL.

Nancy came with her parents, John Conrad Strader and Elizabeth Miner, to Menard County, Illinois from Green County, Kentucky. I believe they came with a group of people whose surnames are Strader, Miner/Minor, and Elmore. It has been a difficult task trying to sort out these families, especially the Elmores. But they all came from Green County, Kentucky.

Nancy married James Elmore sometime around 1844. 

They had five children.

Their daughter Mary Elizabeth Elmore was my 3rd great grandma.

James died in December of 1855.

Nancy remarried a few years later, to William K. Million.

Nancy and William had three children: James, George, and Jane Million.

I bet Nancy used to tell people about her "Million children."

I sure would have!

I haven't done any research into the Million children.

I should. We share DNA.

Researching the Million children may give me more information about Nancy. Maybe they have other photos. Maybe they have one where she looks happy. I would like to see that.

Did her daughter, Jane Million, have daughters too? 

How many of us could be out there?

If we count male descendants, are we close to a million yet?

Maybe someday, Nancy will have her million children.

William died before 1870, and by 1880, Nancy was married to John T. Smith from Scotland.

Nancy and John had no children.

The Pennsylvania Cowans

Same Name.

The genealogical problems created because people have the same or similar names are too numerous to count. I have heard that if you find ten online family trees and one of them has a different person, that's the one that may be correct. That person didn't just copy another person's "research."

I recently had to sort through 5 counties in England to determine the correct woman to put into my tree. It's hard work. I even made a spreadsheet, which I avoid as much as I possible. I hate them, but they work well when sorting out people.

This brings me to another example.

In 1971, John Kerr Fleming wrote a book entitled The Cowans from County Down. He states that four brothers, Hugh, David, John, and William Cowan, immigrated to the United States from Ulster around 1720. According to Fleming, they were Ulster Scots, or Scottish people who had settled in Ulster Province in Ireland and had lived there for several generations before immigrating. The four brothers lived near each other in Pennsylvania before their descendants moved around the country.

 Fleming includes transcribed documents in his work, and traces the family history forward to the time of publication. The Cowans from County Down is very often cited in many books about the area around Salisbury, North Carolina, where my Cowan ancestors lived.

Since 1971, our access to information has changed, and we also have the benefit of DNA to guide us in the right direction.

In 2012, Terry Cowan published A Cowan History: The Family of David Cowan (1665c. - 1730 of the Pequea Valley, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, His Antecedents and Descendants. In this book, Mr. Cowan presents another version of the Cowan story using new research and DNA analysis. He argues that Hugh Cowan may have come from Ulster, but David, John, and William were not his brothers (according to Y-DNA analysis) and most likely came from the Chirnside area of Scotland.  Like Mr. Fleming, Mr. Cowan cites many sources and documents to argue his point.

So what's a Cowan researcher to do?

Do your own research, of course!

Just because people have the same surname does not mean they are related.

Just because people with the same surname are living fairly near each other does not mean they are related.

You can always use family histories that you find as clues, but remember, they may not be correct. New documents may come to light. New technologies like DNA become available. 

While I tend to believe the updated research by Mr. Cowan, I plan to fully analyze both books and their sources, plus any additional sources I come across, to develop my own argument. 

It's okay to be different!

John Dunsford and Mary Ann Ware, My Third Great Grandparents

Genealogical research is never set in stone. There are always new things to discover. With that in mind, I decided it's time to update my information about John Dunsford and Mary Ann Ware of Devon, England.

My original post about this couple was way back in 2015. Recently (as in this past week), new information has come to light. But that's the great things about blogs. I can always go back and delete the old and post the new in order to keep my contribution to "fake news" at a minimum.

As I mentioned probably too many times, my daughter and I are going to Devon in July and I'll probably have to update this again, most likely with my own photos. But until that time, I'll have this post to refer to when I'm there.

So, here goes!

French Colonial Kaskaskia Illinois

Imagine the courage it took to leave an established settlement and venture into the wilderness. There was so much risk involved, no guarantee that you would ever make it back home. I have a lot of admiration and respect for all of my ancestors, but especially those who had the courage to travel so very far away from everything and everyone they knew and loved. I also credit these brave men and women for my sense of adventure and curiosity. At least one of my ancestors just disappeared, never to be heard from again. I have found The Jesuit Relations (title shortened by me) to be a great resource in studying this time period  HERE.  There are plenty of genealogical tidbits found no where else buried in the text of this book.

In many cases, money was a motivating factor. People took a chance in order to get rich. I'm thinking specifically of those French fur traders who left home seasonally to seek wealth in the interior of the North American continent. There was a world-wide demand for fur, especially beaver. The pelts were used not only for the fancy top hat everyone thinks of but also for military and tricorn hats as far back as the early 17th century. The trappers and traders would go out to collect pelts and then take them to merchants or the companies they worked for.  They were always at risk of being robbed of their pelts, or killed, and if they took too long in getting them to market, the skins could rot.

Named for an indigenous tribe, the village of Kaskaskia was founded in 1703. Catholic missionaries had been in the area known as Le Pays des Illinois earlier, but this was the first European settlement in what is now Illinois. It was developed by French coureur du bois, or runners of the woods, Catholic missionaries, and members of he Kaskaskia tribe. The French got along well with the Kaskaskia. As a result, some European and indigenous marriages occurred and metis families were established.


European governments profited from the fur trade too, and they took steps to protect the trappers and traders working in the wilderness. One of the first forts established in Illinois was the French Fort de Chartres, very near Kaskaskia, in 1720. It's worth a visit, especially when they are hosting their annual Rendezvous (June 6-7 in 2020).
Of course, settlement sprung up around the fort, and the government sent French women and families to come to the colonies to discourage intermarriage with the Native American tribes the men encountered. Use of products imported from France, like housewares and wine, was strongly encouraged. The government wanted to keep the French people French.

This is a picture I took of the site of Fort Kaskaskia in 2015. 
The village lies under the Mississippi river now.

Kaskaskia and Fort de Chartres, Cahokia, and all of the early French villages couldn't have been farther from home, though.  They were isolated, and help came slowly or not at all, even for those in the military. People had to trust each other, and rely on each other in order to survive. As a result of this isolation, the settlers created a unique American culture of diversity, a blend of European, Native American, and African traditions in what is now Illinois and Missouri. They even developed their own music and language, known today as Missouri or Paw Paw French which was spoken throughout Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. This version of Frenchness remained, even when Spain took over the lands west of the Mississippi.


Being so far from home, and being isolated, was not easy, but the resulting communities that developed are worth remembering. One example is Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Unlike St. Louis, which saw rapid expansion and destruction in an effort to accommodate the rush of Americans moving west after the Louisiana Purchase, Ste. Genevieve was able to preserve much of its French heritage. In fact, it will now become a National Historic Park.
I can't wait to see how the additional funding helps the site, and I hope more Americans are able to learn about this important and overlooked aspect of our
U. S. history. It wasn't all East to West. There were people out here in the middle of the country way earlier than most people realize!

Family History Research in St. Louis, Missouri

I am a proud St. Louisan, born and bred. I love it here, right in the middle of the United States. We have the St. Louis Cardinals, the St. Louis Blues, and most of our tourist attractions are free to visit. Sure, we have our problems like most cities, but the people here are generally friendly and there's plenty to see and do.

My mom's family came from Poplar Bluff, Butler County, Missouri. My grandparents, Chester and Lucille Aden, needed the economic opportunities a bigger town would provide, so they moved here in the early 1960s. My mom got a job at Ralston Purina Company, where she met my dad, Rich Kienlen. His family had been here much longer. In fact, some of his ancestors were here at the city's founding.

I spend a lot of my genealogical research time online and have even taken a few trips to other places. For some strange reason, though, I tend to neglect the great research opportunities I have right here in my own backyard. 

One of my favorite places to go is the Missouri Historical Society 

Library and Research Center. Link

Not only do they have a wonderful archival collection, the facility is absolutely beautiful.  If you happen to have early French ancestors from St. Louis, this is a treasure trove. It's even better if you know French or Spanish, since most of the Colonial St. Louis collection is not in English. The collection is searchable on their website. Some is digital, but most is not. They have some helpful finding aids.

(Auction book from the sale of my ancestor's property in 1801. My photo. His name was Hyacinthe St. Cyr, and was of French descent. His name was either written like this or 

as Jacinto under Spanish rule. If you are researching your early French ancestors in St. Louis, remember to look for Spanish forms of spelling them too.)

St. Louis County Library Headquarters Link is another great place to visit in St. Louis. Not only do they hold the National Genealogical Society Book Collection, the staff in the History and Genealogy Department are amazing. You may try to accuse me of being biased because my daughter is one of them, but honestly the combined wealth of knowledge these men and women have is very valuable to anyone researching not only their Missouri ancestors but also around the country and even the world. The staff members write PastPorts, a free newsletter, just about every month, and you can sign up for it on their website. Be sure to review past issues for lots of great tips. These library employees are not your normal librarians. They truly have a specialized skill set and are happy to share what they know to help you become a better researcher.

There are a lot of other places in and around St. Louis to research. There is a branch of the Missouri State Archives located in the Carnahan Courthouse on Market Street. They have an archival collection I haven't really tapped into yet. Link

The Old Courthouse, now part of the Gateway Arch National Park, has a small library and a microfilm collection that I haven't had the chance to check out. Link 

(Old Courthouse, St. Louis, 2017. My photo.)

The St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri St. Louis is also there waiting for me to visit. Link  I was there many years ago, and I believe they have information specific to the riverboats.

The City of St. Louis and also St. Louis County each have court and land records, although the city court records are pretty inaccessible. You can request them, though, and they'll mail you records. (Note: For those of you who don't know, the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County split in "the great divorce" of 1876.)  The Recorder of Deeds office in the city has an archives with a great collection and helpful staff.  Link

(Inside City Hall, St. Louis, Missouri)

The Central Library, part of  the St. Louis Public Library system (in the city, not the St. Louis County Library I mentioned before - again, "the great divorce") has some unique things too, Link but the book collection in the county is better.  

(My Photo, 2019)

Washington University in St. Louis Wash U  and St. Louis University SLU also have book and archival collections to search.

(Wash U's Olin Library. From their website.)

I guess I need to spend a little more time researching close to home!

The Dunsford Family: A Long Line of "Mediocrity"

The Dunsford family was "remarkable for a long mediocrity of station in the useful employments of life" according to Martin Dunsford (1744-1807). He wrote about the family in his Memoirs of the Family of Dunsford. Like that author, I can trace my Dunsfords back to the small town of Bradninch, in Devon, England, UK.

I have yet to get my hands on a copy of Martin Dunsford's manuscript, but I assume I am a cousin of Martin's. My most direct Dunsford ancestor, my grandmother Margaret Emily Dunsford, was born in St. Louis in 1897. Before she married, she was a forewoman at the Wallace Pencil Company in Maplewood, St. Louis County, Missouri. The building, which bears the company name, is still there, right across from the Maplewood Commons on S. Hanley Road. My grandfather, George Alexander Kienlen, Jr., was a foreman on a different floor of the building. According to my dad, Margaret quit her job once she married.

Margaret's father was James "Harry" Dunsford. He was also born in St. Louis, in 1876. He was a painter, or "whitener." He owned his own business, along with one of his half-brothers. They were poor, but hard-working.  

John Dunsford, the father of Harry, was also a whitener. He was born in Clifton, Bristol, Devon in 1846. He immigrated with his family in 1851. His mother and sisters vanished, which is a mystery I have yet to solve, but his father, John Dunsford, remarried and left a large Dunsford line in St. Louis, Missouri. 

John Dunsford, the father, was baptized in the small town of Cullompton, Devon, around 1820. He was employed as a rope maker in Devon, and also in St. Louis after his arrival. 

John's father, also named John, was a paper maker. This John was born around 1780 and was baptized at Clyst Hydon, Devon. Paper making was a huge industry in Devon. (Note: I found a book a few years ago at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City specifically about paper making in Devon. I recommend reading it if you have any paper making ancestors. I had no idea about the process, and I found it to be very interesting.) 

William Dunsford was the father of John the paper maker. From what I have found so far, he was a carpenter, as were several of his sons. According to my Ancestry.com hints, his father may have been Benjamin Dunsford of Bradninch. This is probably true, but I have yet to prove that definitively. The Bradninch parish records (St. Disens, pictured above - photo from the church website) are not online, except for an index. I'm holding out for the originals. I'm planning to visit Devon this summer, and I can't wait to visit Bradninch and the other towns where my Dunsford and associated ancestors lived.

 It seems our family has continued on with the Dunsford mediocrity, and I'm okay with that. It's people like us who make the world work!

Family Photos and Happiness

Before you ask, I missed Week 1. The theme was "Fresh Start," and somehow it got away from me. I absolutely could not let this week's theme slip by unfinished. 

My dad was a photographer, as I have mentioned before. He provided lots of favorites to our family photo collection. Most of them are pictures of our family.  We traveled a lot, and there are some great ones!

He also took pictures for his job at Ralston Purina Company. After he died, they became part of our family story - some more than others. My favorite example is a picture he took of some piglets. I think they were suckling, but they were all lined up, lying on their sides. There were 7 piglets, and it was a fairly large photo on foam board. 

When my sister and her husband moved into my parents house, my brother-in-law wanted to take down the photo of me and my sisters taken in the 1980s which had been proudly hung over their piano for about 30 years. It was kind of a sad day, because we didn't know what to do with it. We couldn't think of anyone who loved all three of us enough to display it, so we considered sending to our cousin Chris as a joke. In true Kienlen spirit, we turned that sad realization into a fun memory.  We wrote the names of our children (my dad's 7 grandchildren) on the pigs and hung it in its rightful place over the piano.

Somehow it seems appropriate to choose a photo of my dad as my current favorite. He was probably about 3, so I guess this was taken in the summer of 1936 or 1937. They lived either in Maplewood (St. Louis County) or St. Louis City at this point, but they could have been visiting friends.

Dad had a cute little outfit on, and a big smile on his face. It is clearly summer, and there are plants growing behind him. Maybe they were tomatoes or roses, his two favorite things to grow. George and Margaret Kienlen weren't rich, and I'm sure they couldn't give him everything they wanted to, but it looks like he was happy.

Dad once told me a story about a time he and his mom went to the Muny (St. Louis Municipal Opera - an outdoor, summer venue for mostly musicals). They took the streetcar and it started raining. The show was cancelled, and it took them a long time to get home. They were completely drenched by the time they made it. Instead of being wet and miserable, his mom (Margaret Emily Dunsford Kienlen) laughed and laughed about it. He said his mom's reaction made quite an impression on him, and, fortunately for us, he passed that optimism on down the line. His sweet, smiling face in this photo is a great reminder to look for the joy around us.  Maybe that's why he liked taking pictures. People are usually smiling. They are usually happy or doing fun things. What a great job that must have been, even if pigs can't smile.

So, here's a challenge for anyone reading this. You always have a choice. You can be angry or upset, or you can turn it around. I would love to hear comments about a time you did this, because it feels great to read positive things. Here's mine:

Last weekend my 5 year old granddaughter spilled about 1/4 of a bag of chocolate chips. She looked at me and had a complete look of shock and maybe a little fear on her face. I looked at her and said, "Rose! Now you're going to have to eat all of those!" I've never seen a kid so happy! She didn't eat lunch, but neither of us cared.