Internationally recognized authority on characteristics of municipal government; co-editor of the Municipal Yearbookseries. Author of Six German-Swiss Family detailing the histories of six immigrant families that settled near Liberty in Clay County, Missouri in the 1840's. Unz repository

Band conductor, music instructor and composer and arranger of piano music; founded the Weber Brothers music publishing house in Kansas City, Kansas, along with his brother Rudolph, who handled the business end. Subject of a master's thesis by Terry L. Baldridge, Louis Weber (1851-1931), Kansas City Composer and Publisher which is available by interlibrary loan from the Truman State University in Missouri and the Unversity of Kansas library.

Director of the National Presbyterian Center in Washington, DC and author of fourteen books, per his New York Times obituary. Described as "tall, dark and handsome," "one of the best dancers in Washington," "and a wonderful preacher" in the memoirs of his widow Eleanor Davies Tydings.

Signer of the Declaration of Independence, senator from Maryland

Major-General under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans; six-term governor of Tennessee.

E.g., John Carroll, member of the Constitutional Convention, and his brother John Carroll, first Archbishop of the Catholic Church in America. Carroll family lore says they were distant cousins of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, but they must have been extremely distant, since they don't share any tree I've seen.

Master of the largest sternwheel steam towboat ever to ply the inland waterways, hauling coal from Pittsburgh down to the gulf. Ran aground from time to time, leaving large deposits of coal on the riverbottom. article

Holy Roman Emperor. The Carrolls trace their line to Adam through him (although he's not in our direct line; he's merely our cousin, which we could have guessed already.)

related only by marriage
Eleanor Davies Tydings Ditzen (1910 - 2006)

"One of Washington DC society's grandest grande dames"; daughter of a U. S. Ambassador to Russia, stepdaughter of Marjorie Werriweather Post, widow of Senator Millard Tydings, mother of Senator Joseph Tydings, wife of Presbyterian minister and author Lowell Russell Ditzen.

Principal architect of the built environment in the National Parks system in the 1920's (here and here). Married a daughter of Julius Kammeyer and Josephine Weber. The name is given as "Kammeger" in Hull biographies, but clearly she is the Emma Dorthy Kammeyer Hull in the Sunset Cemetery in Manhattan, Kansas, where her parents are also buried.

people I'd like to investigate, on speculation that they're kin:
McKnight/Alexander families

Associated with the convention that produced the Mecklenburg Resolves or Declaration, which, at least in popular legend, was the original Declaration of Independence, predating the better-known document by more than a year. It had little effect, because (by one account) the emissary charged with delivering the document chickened out, having visions of the noose, apparently. But, as I discover from the wikipedia articles here and here, it's a highly vexed question what actually happened. The McKnight and Alexander families migrated to Meckenburg Co., North Carolina from Cecil County, Maryland. At least some of the McKnights in Washington County, Pa. are from Cecil County, Md., and hence are likely kin to the Mecklenburg County branch. The Mecklenburg McKnights are intermarried with the Alexander family. The obvious explanation why Mary (McKnight) Thompson gave her son John the middle name of Alexander is, to commemorate her husband's (supposed) brother Alexander, or maybe his nephew Alexander Thompson, but there's an off-chance it's a surname within her own family.
Whoops, I'm misremembering this badly, according to Wikipedia here and here. Abraham Alexander was the moderator, and there was no McKnight present, athough John McKnitt Alexander was the clerk recording the proceeding. (alternative spelling of McKnight). The whole subject is wrapped in obscurity. There's a big thick book of McKnight genealogy covering the Cecil Co./Mecklenburg Co. branch in the DAR library in Washington DC. I remember reading a sentence about a brother who went west and was not heard from again. Maybe the one I want.

Moderator of the Presbyterian convention

Somewhere, I can't find it now, I read that his Swiss ancestors on the Brynner side came from the town of Menziken in Canton Aargau, which happens to be the origin of our Bruner ancestors (check this! I may be talking through my hat!) according to Orin F. Nolting's history of the six Swiss immigrant families. Is there anything to that similarity of names? If I stare at side-by-side images of Yul Brynner and the young Louis Weber, am I able to convince myself there's a family resemblance? Sort of.

people that I know are kin, that I'm trying to track down
Sarah McKnight

The 1850 census shows a Sarah McKnight, 15, in the household of John and Mary Thompson in Patton Twp., Allegheny Pa. She is probably Mary's sister, which would be consistent with the 18__ census entry for the household of Joseph McKnight of Upper St. Clair Twp. in Allegheny Co., who I suspect is Mary's father. That entry (which does not give names or precise ages of wife or children) shows _____. I can't find her in any subsequent census or marriage record or grave index. If she left descendants, they might be a source of McKnight family lore.

The one born in 1807 was found in the Thompson history generated by Paul Damon of the Monroeville Historical Society (by the way, post a link to it, if I haven't already), based primarily, I think, on cemetery records. The more I studied census and other records, the more I became convinced that the one born in 1820 was more likely to be the one I want, for various reasons. For instance, the 1870 census shows two daughters Agnes of nearly the same age. . . I'm garbling this. And, James and young William apparently married sisters. And young William's son Robert found a bride among the Marshall daughters of Hancock Co. Ohio. Why would he be there, except to visit relatives? Young William's middle initial of "Mc." stands for "McClelland," by the way, not "McMullen" as might have been expected. There are McClellands buried near Thompsons in the Cross Roads Cemetery. Family friends, maybe, even if not related. John Alexander Thompson's son Rodney bore the middle name of McClelland. Surprising for a name to persist across generations like that, if there's no kinship basis. There could be something badly wrong in that Warner's sketch. Also make note of the fact that John the Immigrant had a much younger wife, and probabiliity suggests he may have had a previous one who died. There were lot of Thompsons thronging that area, even before the Immigrant's arrival date of 1815, and one may wonder if John the Immigrant was responsible for any of them by a prior marriage and prior residence in the area. Although, it should be noted, the assertion that he died in his 102nd year is doubtful, since he died in 1855, and the 1850 census records his age as __. So, I conclude from his corrected age, in regard to the probability of an earlier brood . . . hmm, beats me. Should give thought to joining a DNA study.
Several reflections relating to the older William: I found a William, with wife Margaret, that I suspect to be he, while tramping though the Delmont cemetery. And, if I recall from the Ambrose Carroll-Moorman's history (p. __), there was a Margaret Carroll who married a William Thompson. And, in the Hoey narratives, it's mentioned that ___ Hoey married _____ in the home of William Thompson in Westmoreland County. There are so many extraneous Thompsons roaming the woods that I haven't given that much thougt, but maybe I should. And, I've never bothered to trace the further descent of the elder William. That could be fruitful, or the opposite.

The Warner's History article says that John the Immigrant had four sons, James, John, Alexander, and William (check the sequence). If they are listed in sequence of birth, he was born between 1811 and 1820, (check the dates of the Thompsons who d. in infancy), probably in Pa., since the family arrived in 1812. There's a lot of Alexander Thompsons in the area, but none who, for one reason or another, appear to be good candidates. I'm beginning to wonder if he ever existed. He's not to be confused with James' oldest son Alexander, born in 18__; he's probably the one listed on the war memorial in New Texas cemetery.

After 1870, I can't find him until the 1930 census, living in the household of Frank Hitchman in Clackamas Heights. His name is indexed as "Lindu" and I would not have known to look for him there if I hadn't found his obit. Haven't looked for him in the Lunsford household in the 1920 census; maybe I should.

Living in Texas, according to his father's obituary. I found entries for Philip in the 1870 and 1930 census only, so I have no indication of the son's name or age from that source. If Vina Keelin was his mother, then he would have been born between the marriage in 18__ and divorce in __. I may have found Vina in the ___ census in ____, but didn't find her anywhere else. Presumably if she retained the name Lindau, I would have. he would have been born between __ and __.

Perhaps Philip Lindau's son? I believe he married Etta Sherlock in ____, and was divorced from her in ____. The 1920 census, Maple Lane Precinct, Clackamas Co. shows him age 25, b. Washington, both his parents b. Dakota, wife Etta, 21, b. Minnesota, her sisters Josephine 19, and Florence, 14, b. Montana. Could Philip have been b. Dakota? Both 1870 and 1930 census show Illinois. Frank Hitchman, 46, by the way was b. Minnesota and his son Francis, 16, b. Washington. Obviously there's a Washington nexus. and mother, _____.

The 1870 census shows a female child, looks like "Berta," age 5. This may be a mistake for son Benjm or Benja, or then again, since Caroline was only 32 at the time, Ben may have been born later. I think the 1900 census shows 6 born, 6 surviving, so the former seems more probable. I never find him in the census again, although the 189_ Albany (Ore.) city directory shows a ____, employee of _____, living at ______. He survived his sister Margaret, according to her obit, but apparently predeceased his mother. According to a series of emails with ___ in ____, some of the boys tried farming in Cuba, and in the state of Washington. I have no access to Cuban records, and maybe that's why Philip and Benjamin are so elusive.

John lived with wife and daughter Margaret in Dundee, Kane Co., Illinois in 1860; with his family in Liberty, Mo. in 1870; in 1880 his wife was remarried to L. H. White and living in Albany, in Linn Co., Oregon, with a boarder named Fred Grimmer in the household. Young John was back in Clay Co., Mo., apparently recorded twice in the census, living on the farm of Henry Irminger in Fishing Creek Twp. under the name "Larkin Lindow" (indexed as "Larken") and living in Liberty (p.18 City of Liberty (1870)). Hey, I'm getting 1870 and 1880 confused - real addled here. According to his mother's obituary, _____. Hmmm, ____ I say. What happened to him, and where, between 1870 and 1880? The story I got from one of his descendants is that the kids were put in an orphanage (the same orphanage that had a Schaarschmidt kid in it), but I can't seem to find that orphanage (or orphanages in general) in the census. Any chance he was alive and had the kids with him in 1880? He was illiterate, according to the 18__ census. That could place an obstacle to making the proper spelling of his name known, although his kids would know, if they were with him.

Her year of immigration was ___, based on _____. I don't know if she was married at the time, and I haven't found what I was looking for in ship's passenger records (under the name Lindau). And what part, if any, did Fred Grimmer play, apart from marrying her? Grimmer was born in Baden, like Caroline but immigrated 12 years later, according to the 1920 census (1868 vs. 1856). In 1870 he was living in John and Caroline's household in Liberty; in 1880, he lived with L. H. White and Caroline in Albany, Oregon. In 1900, ___; in 1910, ___; in 1920, it looks like he has a wife Anna, born in ___, and I don't see Caroline. Where the heck is she? Nursing her injured son Philip, maybe, who knows. In 1922, he's listed as Caroline's husband in her obit. In 1930; _____. Seems to me I should get his d. cert. I'd guess Fred and Caroline knew each other in Baden. Up to the point where he married her, I'd guess they were close relatives; since his name isn't Hoffman or Walter, maybe first cousins. Unless it was a cousin marriage, maybe they were in-laws, but that wouldn't make them stick together like that, would it? I'm grasping for leads, obviously . . .