Ancestors of Claudia Catherine Reed
 Genealogy, to me, is much more than just names and dates. From the beginning of  my fascination with family history, I have been interested in finding out more  about these people who came before me. They experienced joy and tragedy,  hardships and triumphs. Every one of them has a story to tell.

My great great grandfather Herbert Kenney Randall was shipwrecked when his  barge, the Marshall Butters, sank in Lake Erie. He came home after newspapers  reported his death.

In 1835 Mary Ann and Marshall Jackson Chase traveled from Ohio to Michigan,  traveling by ox team and covered wagon over corduroy roads made of logs laid  down over the swampy ground.

Percy and Mary Reed settled in Beulah, Michigan in 1902, where he opened a shoe  store. He built a fire wall which was credited for saving the building during a  fire in 1935.

Stacy Webb Thompson was a surveyor in northern Michigan in the 1870's and  1880's, and bought land in Benzie County in 1877. He was born in Pennsylvania  in 1819, and in 1867 headed for Michigan. A year or so later his sons Byron,  Edwin and Stacy Clay (ages 15, 14 and 12) joined him, walking most of the way  north.

And my grandfather Arnold Stoelt's father died the day after Christmas when  Arnold was 13. Arnold's wife Bessie died on his birthday, Dec. 21, 1931, and  his mother Caroline died the following December, 1932.

Every one of them has a story to tell.