January 31, 2009

Weekly Genealogy Blogging Prompt #4, The House on Stafford Street


The House On Stafford Street, Ravenna Michigan

Well, I didn’t take a day trip so to speak. I did take the day to learn who the owners of my house were. My husband found glass negatives some time ago in the attic. Photos were taken of the house pre 1907 and possibly as old as the 1880's. We were told the house was built around 1880, but we didn’t know who the original owners were. Venturing into the frigid out of doors, I drove into the city of Muskegon to the county courthouse and the library. I did run out of time on that venture. Today I walked across the street to the local museum for more digging. I need to do more digging, but here is what I found-

Well yours truly and hubby are the current owners, we have lived and raised our three boys here for some 20 years. We moved into the house in January during a blizzard. We bought the house from “Mr & Mrs Johnson” who raised their family here for about 15 years.

The Johnson’s bought the house c 1973 from Bernadine Nutt, who inherited the home from her mother Ida Nutt. Ida and her husband Frank were married in 1915 and bought the home shortly after. They are first listed on the tax rolls in 1916. Frank bought the house from Carl A. Stauffer and additional lots from others to total 20 acres. They raised four children in the house, Bernadine, Donald, Jean and Larry. In 1920 they started a grocery & meat market business in Ravenna. They also bought and sold work horses. Frank’s father August and his sister Anna are living next door per the 1920 census. Frank was a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, as well as the Ravenna Village Council and the Ravenna school board. Son Don interested in cattle, had the help of his father to build a barn in the yard and start a dairy farm. They bottled, sold and delivered milk to the area. Don later moved his dairy to a larger farm in Ravenna and continued the business from there.

Carl A. Stauffer at about age 32 bought the house and 3 lots in 1905 from Mahlon B. Averill. He married Florence Lymburner on June 20, 1900 in Sparta Michigan. Carl ran his barber business out of the Stauffer and Haas Building built in 1902, also on Stafford Street. He and Florence had a daughter Pauline born about 1905. In 1907 Carl replaced the wood porch with a larger block porch. It was told to me that Carl drowned in the flood of 1905 ferrying people across Crockery Creek. It was actually Charles Stauffer who was this unfortunate soul. Carl later moved his family to the city of Muskegon.

Mahlon Bruce Averill may have been the original owner. The deed books that far back do not have dates. On the 1877 plat map of the village, there was no owner indicated. The earliest tax roll available listed Mahlon on the property with additional property totaling 40 acres was in 1888. The 1880 census for Ravenna lists Mahlon age 46 and wife Margaret Shimmel with 3 children Flora 14, Wesley 4, and Guy age 2. One daughter Mary b 1859 was not living with them at the time. Two of their children died, Nettie in 1876 and Sammy in 1873 and are buried in the Ravenna Cemetery. Margaret died in 1881 and is also buried in the Ravenna Cemetery. Where Mahlon went after he sold the house is unclear, but there is a Bruce M Averill age 86 b NY listed on the 1920 census at the Traverse City State Hospital in Traverse City, Michigan. This Bruce Maylord Averill died in Traverse City on April 25, 1920.

Right photo: The "downtown" view of Stafford Street is looking west toward my house which is beyond the horizon line by 2 blocks.
Bottom photo: Don Nutt with dairy cow, unknown date.
Left photo: I believe now that the house pictures are of Carl A.Stauffer holding daughter Pauline in about 1905-1906. The man in the picture looks to be younger than what Mahlon Averill would have been when living there- Mahlon was in his 40's. However I could be wrong........do you see any indications of an earlier time?




January 25, 2009

Are We Cousins?

Imagine a Raeburn family moving from Monaghan Ireland into Quebec , through Ontario into Sault Saint Marie, Michigan and at last settling into Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan. The Wm Raeburn family.

Now imagine another Reburn family moving from Monaghan Ireland to New York, USA, and later settling in Sparta, Kent County, Michigan. The Edward Reburn family.

We never met. My line is from Ontario...when my family moved to Grand Rapids my new friends asked me “Are you related to the Sparta Reyburns? “ NO, I said, besides they spell their name different. I was 14 years old. They were only 12 miles away. Some [untold] years later the ancestor hunt begins. I met Edward Reburn’s descendant Rick Reyburn through this hunt only to find out the Sparta Reyburns may indeed be related.

John Reburn b abt 1805 Corvacken, Monaghan, Ireland m Margaret Weir.
Edward Reburn b 1838 their son [8 total siblings]

William Raeburn b abt 1810 Monaghan, Ireland m Margaret McCormack
William Raeburn b 1853 their son [7 total siblings]


ARE THEY COUSINS?
Edward Reburn William Raeburn Jr


Thank you Rick Reyburn for Edward Reburn photo

January 17, 2009

Rambling

Today I think I need to hop around the blogs and really find out more about blogging & genealogy. I have been researching ancestors for a few years now but am brand new to blogging. I am not sure what to post next. So I am learning here. My direct line of the Raeburn family has been almost a complete mystery in terms of where in Ireland they came from. I only found out by researching the lateral lines...boy am I glad I did alot of connect the dots when I was a kid! I do not have much in terms of photos and memorabilia to put on the blog, perhaps in time. I have alot of theory in connecting the Raeburns of Monaghan, perhaps I will blog about that. What does one want to read about. I hope someone out there can help connect the Raeburns.
Today I read.....

January 12, 2009

William Raeburn & family

William RAEBURN b.1810-Ireland;d.1897-Nottawasaga Twp.,Simcoe Co,Ontario
sp: Margaret MCCORMICK b.1810 Ireland;d.1891-Nottawasaga Twp.,Simcoe Co,Ontario
2. Eliza RAEBURN b.Abt 1834-Ireland;1900-Nottawasaga Twp.,Simcoe Co.,Ontario
sp: James CREIGHTON b.1832-Cobourg Ontario;m.1857;d.1916 Creemore,Ontario
2. James RAEBURN b.Abt 1839-Ireland;d.1881-Nottawasaga Twp,Simcoe Co,Ontario Canada
2. Jane RAEBURN b.1840-Ireland;d.1915-Grantham Twp,Lincoln Co,Ontario
sp: John SCOTT b.1841-Quebec;m.1866;d.1927-Grantham Twp,LC,Ontario
2. Mary RAEBURN b.1844-Montreal area,Quebec;d.1925-Maple Valley,Grey Co.,Ontario
sp: Richard STEWART b.1840-County Monaghan Ireland;m.1871;d.1935-Osprey Twp.Grey Co,Ontario
2. Margaret Ann RAEBURN b.1846-Quebec;d.1914-St. Catherines,GT,Lincoln Co,Ontario
2. Susannah RAEBURN b.1848-Northumberland Co.,Ontario;d.1937-St.Catharines,L,Ontario
sp: Albert SINCLAIR b.1850-Haldimand Twp.,NCO;m.1876;d.1929-St.Catherines,LC,Ontario
2. William RAEBURN jr b.1853-Northumberland Co.,Ontario;d.1935-Sault Saint Marie,Michigan
sp: Melissa Jane LILLIE b.1855-Harrison Twp. Potter Co,Penn;m.1880;d.1927-Collingwood,SC,Ontario

January 11, 2009

Who are William Raeburn's siblings?


Is John Reburn b c1805 of Corvacken townland - Williams brother?
Is Mary Rayburn b c1803 m John Fleming and lived in Derrygooney townland - Williams sister?
Is William Reaburn listed in the Monaghan Tithe of 1824 Drumcunnion townland related?
George Reburn is listed in the 1848-64 Griffith's Valuation in Drumcunnion - are they also related?

Corvacken, Derrygooney, and Drumcunnion townlands are neighboring townlands in Aughnamullen Parish, Co Monaghan.

The Raeburn Story

Here is the story of the Raeburn's as I have learned and researched through the years. My goal here is to reach out to others in the hunt for our ancestors, and hoping that someone may be able to add family information to the quest.

William Raeburn was born c 1810 in Ireland, as was his wife Margaret McCormack b c 1810.

They have connections to Reburns of Aughnamullen Parish, County Monaghan. Three townlands there in particular are of interest to me; Corvacken, Derrygooney and Drumcunnion. I will never rule out other locations! There are many Reburns concentrated in three parishes of Monaghan; Aughnamullen, Magheross, and Magheracloone. The surname Reburn is recorded in Monaghan as early as the early 1700's. The name is spelled in various ways.

William and Margaret had three children in Ireland- Eliza, Jane and James. The family emigrated to Quebec by 1844 at the latest, when another daughter Mary was born. Another daughter, Margaret was born in Quebec in 1846.

The family moved on to Northumberland Co. in Ontario by 1848 and lived next door to Edward Weir the brother in law of John Reburn of Corvacken, Monaghan. Daughter Eliza married James Creighton and lived in the neighboorhood near her parents in Northumberland County. Son James worked as a harness maker, Jane, Mary and Margaret were schoolgirls. Two more children were born in Northumberland; Susannah and William. By 1863 the family had moved to Nottawasaga Twp of Simcoe County Ontario, again near a Monaghan family of interest- the William Stewart family in Badjeros, Osprey, Grey County.

Daughter Jane married John Scott and lived in Simcoe, later moving to the St.Catherines area, Margaret never married and later moved in with the Scott's. James never married as far as we know and lived with his parents and farmed and worked as a harness maker. Mary married Richart Stewart son of William Stewart & Susan McCormack (formerly of Co Monaghan), and lived in Osprey Twp, Grey County. Susannah married Albert Sinclair, and they later moved to the St. Catherines area also. William married Melissa Jane Lillie and remained on the Raeburn farm in Nottawasaga of Simcoe County until c 1899 when the family moved to Sault Saint Marie, Michigan.