In the summer of 2016, I clicked on an Ancestry.com link on Facebook to find out the history behind my maiden name. I enjoyed my 2-week Free Trial on the site, mostly because my maiden name “Pfeiffer” had already been traced. A little genealogy research success can be very exciting, as the sites who peddle the information know. In three years, I’ve searched out grandparents on both sides of my dad’s family and both sides of my mom’s as well. The chart is impressive. And it had become overwhelming to me to try to envision having the research organized into an interesting, presentable thing (book? website? blog?).
But, this summer I’ve found time and motivation to start. A few weeks ago, I was talking with my mom on the phone and she asked some questions about her grandfather, thinking I might have answers. Now that someone else was interested, my search became more meaningful. Then some of her 1st cousins came to her with questions about the VENT side of the family. This was happening just weeks before our annual VENT COUSINS REUNION, held on the second Saturday of August. Mom invited me to bring along anything I might have from my genealogy research, thinking a few of the cousins might be interested.
Mom, the first born child of the first born child of Walter and Carrie Vent, has done a nice job of keeping a family history scrapbook and registry of reunion attendees. And some years back, she typed one page biographies of her parents and grandparents and added some poetry she and her mother had written to make a nice little memory book. With that as a starter and a copy of a major genealogy work done by one of Mom’s high school classmates who is a distant cousin, I was off!
My uncle and his two sons behind him are VENTS.
My mom and the four of us behind her are PFEIFFERS.
I decided to write one-page accounts of a few generations that preceded Walter Vent and Carrie (Clinger) Vent. That, of course, became a major project that has been completed today and is ready to take to the reunion tomorrow. During these hours and weeks I have fallen in love with my ancestors and their stories. I am thankful for each of them and have a greater appreciation for the period of time, 1779 – 1977, during which they lived.
I’m pleased and proud to have tackled one fourth of my ancestry. I might take a little break before starting on my maternal grandmother’s side. Then again, I’m hoping to pick up an obituary for my great-great-great grandmother SWARTZ tomorrow while I’m back in Upper Sandusky, Ohio.
After assembling all of the pages into a nice binder yesterday, today I made up an Introduction Page for the book.
Here it is for you to read.
The VENT COUSINS’ Family History
by Lisa (Pfeiffer) Frisch in 2019
This book contains 23 snapshots of the lives of Walter and Carrie Vent, their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. The information reaches back over 200 years, from 1779 – 1977.
Walter and Carrie Vent had four children, Thomas, Josephine, Dale, and Rex. We are their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Within these pages you’ll find:
- Immigrants from Germany and Switzerland
- Some of the first settlers of Pennsylvania and Ohio
- A “49er” who went west to California looking for gold
- Craftsmen – shoemaker, stocking weaver, cabinetmaker, soap maker
- Public figures – mayor, postmaster, innkeeper, tax collector
- Laborers – saw mill worker, carpenter, glove factory worker, barn painter, laundress, hotel worker
- FARMERS
- Housekeepers – mothers, good cooks, gardeners, friends to the needy
- U.S. Military Veterans – Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War
- Marriages – 50 year anniversaries, second marriages, an unmarried mother
- Religious backgrounds – German Lutheran, Moravian, Quaker, Anabaptist, Methodist
- Notable citizens – One had the largest home in his German village. Another was one of the most successful farmers in Wyandot County.
Please take a moment to write your name and any comments, questions, or memories you have on the notebook paper in the back of the book.
If you would like to have a copy of this Family History,
also include your mailing address.
These accounts, dates, memories, and documents have been collected in the past two years from many sources including (Bosse/Beausay family history by Phyllis Beausay Ryerse, Carrol Pfeiffer, Ancestry.com, Familysearch.com, Findagrave,com, Myheritage.com, obituaries from Upper Sandusky Public Library, visits to numerous cemeteries, geni.com, wikitree.com, National Park Service Search for Soldiers – nps.gov/civilwar, and others)
This is my favorite cemetery picture. I took it of the back of the VENT headstone and then noticed that the CLINGER stones are in the upper left corner. These were grandparents and great grandparents of Walter and Carrie (Clinger) VENT.