Book Description

This book tells the story of how it was that the authors ancestors, coming from a variety of countries and creeds and at different times, met in the northwest corner of Ohio and how it was that finally this movement across time and space would bring two people from widely differing backgrounds, her parents, together. Before northwest Ohio was officially opened to settlement by non-Indians, the authors paternal ancestors moved onto these lands, which in 1817 had been legally set aside as a reservation in perpetuity for the Shawnee Indian Tribe. As time passed, these settlers worked out satisfactory lives with their Indian neighbors and friends until the Shawnee were forcibly removed to Kansas in 1832. The authors maternal ancestors emigrated into the same area in the 1840s. Northwest Ohio would soon be populated by small towns and villages and cleared landscapes dotted by tidy farms. Slowly and regrettably, memories of the Shawnee and other tribes who had once inhabited this land faded as all thoughts were focused on the future. Maps and photos and a comprehensive Pedigree Chart, which traces the Kunz/Lause ancestry from its earliest known date in America in 1640 to the marriage of Viola Lause and Frederick Kunz in 1929, accompany the books narrative. The books index contains 31 surnames related to this bloodline.