Genealogy Jottings

My great-grandmother, Laura Riddle, grew up on a farm in Mendon, St. Joseph County, Michigan. Her parents, John Riddle and Olive Dunbar, moved there in the late 1840’s, and Laura was born in 1853.

I do not know why the Riddles migrated from Ohio to Michigan. I have never found any members of the Riddle/Dunbar circle who beckoned Olive and John Riddle to that place at that time. Their motive for relocation and their reason for choosing Michigan as their destination remain a mystery. They appear to have been true pioneers.

This week I learned that even though the Riddles did not seem to follow anyone else when they moved to Michigan, others in Olive’s family later followed them. Her older sister Susan H. Dunbar Cutting’s family went to live in the same township during the Civil War. I had not suspected this because Susan Cutting later returned to Ohio and was buried there. I had no reason to believe she ever lived anywhere else.

This information came to light when I received obituaries for Susan and her daughter-in-law Amanda from the Akron, Ohio public library. After reviewing the obituaries, I went to Find A Grave (www.findagrave.com) seeking more information on the Cutting family. It was sketchy.

I decided to help fill it in by submitting an Edit suggestion for Susan’s memorial to connect her to her parents, Rhoda Hall and Benjamin E. Dunbar. The memorial manager responded immediately, not only by posting the connections, but also by adding a tremendous amount of biographical information for Susan and her family. Thus, I learned that they had spent time in Michigan. Both of Susan’s daughters, Mary and Clara, had died young in St. Joseph County, Michigan. Mary Edna Cutting Ulum had wed and died in childbirth during the family’s Michigan stint. Unmarried Clara Cutting died about the same time.

My great-grandmother Laura had had first cousins on her mother’s side of the family living nearby only to lose them to untimely deaths.

Susan’s Find A Grave memorial had information about Susan’s son, DeWitt Clinton Cutting, too. He had served in the 128^th Ohio Infantry during the Civil War.

These people seem more real to me now that I know a bit more about their lives. The Riddles, instead of being isolated in Michigan, had close connections with at least some of their relatives on the Dunbar side. They did not simply move north and lose all contact with family.

Olive had numerous other siblings in addition to Susan Cutting. Perhaps I can use some of the same strategies to find out more about some of them, too.