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.