Earliest use of the Schouten surname

Ancestral tracing is at best a hit-or-miss adventure, because one has to rely on postings of information by a variety of people. I do not have the resources to actually go to court houses, cemeteries, other document repositories, or to travel abroad to validate many of the connections I have found. The two main resources I have used, in addition to a 12-day journey through the US undertaken by my wife and me about 30 years ago, include the Find-A-Grave.com web site and the FamilySearch.org database maintained by the Mormon church. I have also used transcriptions of documents found in a variety of state and local GenWeb sites, as well as general Google searches.

Having stated all of that background, here is the earliest use of the Schouten surname that I have found:

Jan Pieterszn Schouten: born in Alblasserdam, Holland, Netherlands in about 1529; died in Alblasserdam, Holland, Netherlands before 6 May 1618. He married Fijken Pieter (b. 1535; d. 6 May 1618; Alblasserdam, Holland, Netherlands)

Jan Pieterszn Schouten would be my 12th great-grandfather.

Jan's father was Pieter Jansz van Ottewael: born in Krimpen aan de Lek, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands in 1496

Finding some great documents, both online and from distant cousins. Shared them on my Schouten genealogy Facebook page.

NEW Facebook group

Facebook changed the way it hosts groups, and my original Facebook group was about to be archived. I have transferred all of the postings and documents to this new group. Enjoy! SCHOUTEN - Ephraim (1758-1807) and Sarah LaDue (1756-1849)

Find-A-Grave

For those of you who are pursuing genealogy, a good resource is Find-A-Grave. I have been entering information for over 8 years. The new version of the site allows you to enter birth and death information, biographical information, photos (of the person, the grave, the cemetery), and link them to parents and spouses. Doing this also finds other siblings and adds them to the parents' memorials. For an example of this you can see my g-g-g-g-grandfather's memorial here --> Ephraim Schouten. Come join the fun, and help to make this resource even richer with your information!

SCHOUTEN, Ephraim

This paver brick was installed during the renovation of the Brookside Historical Museum in Ballston Spa, NY [http://www.brooksidemuseum.org/]. It was purchased by Dr. J. Fred and Debra Schouten during this renovation. The Museum is the home of the Saratoga County Historical Society and is where Fred and Debra found information that led them to the cemeteries where Ephraim and William are buried in upstate New York.

Facebook group

I have created a Facebook group for family members who are interested in the genealogy of the Schoutens dating back to Ephraim (1758-1807) and Sarah LaDue (1756-1849) in New York (New Amsterdam). If you are a Facebook user, please consider joining the group and adding information you may have. If you are not a Facebook member, why not create a profile and join in the fun?

Nauvoo connection

We recently visited Nauvoo, IL, on a business trip, but had a chance to look around some at the Mormon history in town. Debra's g-g-g-grandmother on her father's maternal side (Mary "Polly" Bell Bennett) made the epic trek with the Mormons out to Salt Lake City, UT. She and her first husband, Richard Bennett, moved from Tennessee to Ash Grove, IL, in the central part of the state. Life being hard, he died in the fall of 1835 at age 50. Mary, along with three daughters and a son, converted to the Mormon faith when they came through Shelby County, IL, and moved with them to Nauvoo in early 1841. Both daughters died on the migration from Nauvoo, through Iowa and the Winter Campgrounds in Nebraska. Mary and her son made it to Cedar Fort, UT, just outside Salt Lake City. Her son, Eli, one of the first residents of Cedar Fort, became a Bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon).

While in Nauvoo, we walked through the burial grounds of those Mormons who resided there in the 1840s. We found reference to several deceased people with the surname of Bennett, Bell (Mary's maiden name), and Weeks (her and her daughter's husband). We are anxious to go back and do more research in the Mormon research center just north of the Temple on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Hindsboro, Douglas Co., IL

This is a very good history of Hindsboro Community High School created by David Kent Coy. In it I found my grandmother Schouten's relatives. Her maiden name was Shields, and two of her nieces graduated from this high school, one going on to become a teacher there.

Brick walls

Many times when we research genealogy, we hit proverbial "brick walls," or ancestors that we cannot verify. Two such ancestors include Enoch Canada Morris (b. 15 May 1830 probably in Montgomery Co., IN; d. 11 Oct 1920 in Windsor, Shelby Co., IL). I have yet to establish his parents' names or any other relevant information. The others are the parents of Thomas Swiney (b. 24 Mar 1787 probably in KY; d. 10 Jan 1869 in White River Twp., Johnson Co., IN). His parents' names were John Swiney and Jennet. We found the will of a Jennet Swiney, who died in Bath Co., KY, in 1838, and that is in the close vacinity of Thomas' wife's (Elizabeth Wishard--b. 26 Sep 1783 in Fayette Co., PA; d. 31 Aug 1844 in Johnson Co., IN) parents' graves. Her parents were William Henry Wishart/Wishard (b. 17 Sep 1729 in St. Andrews, Thornhill Parish, Perthshire, Scotland; d. 31 May 1814 in Carlisle, Nicholas Co., KY; buried in Parks Graveyard, Pleasant Valley, Nicholas Co., KY) and Susannah (Susan) Elizabeth Lytle (b. 28 Mar 1753 in County Tyrone, Ireland; d. 16 Jan 1795 in Fleming, KY; buried in Parks Graveyard, Pleasant Valley, Nicholas Co., KY).