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Archiver > MIANTRIM > 2006-07 > 1152310167


From: Carolyn Obertein <>
Subject: Re: Treasure Hunt-Thank you Jackie, Brenda, Eldon, Jolene, & Jay!
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 15:09:27 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <563.d0d506.31ddbef1@aol.com>


WOW! Antrim County people sure are helpful. I am amazed at the response, kindness and eagerness to help Enoch and I find David and Mary Gagnon’s graves. But I believe you are all like Enoch and I, you love the hunt for the past. You get to put all your research and investigation skills to work. Of course there is that happy dance you do when you find the ultimate treasure. I know when I help someone I don’t know to find some info I get just as excited as if they were my own ancestor. But, then I love solving puzzles with only the clues from a time before I was born. It is like our ancestors left clues and are playing a game of hide and seek with us. It connects us to them. Sometimes, they are just better than I, because they hide so well I can’t find them. A couple of years ago when my grandson Enoch started doing research with me and I took him to his first cemetery looking for an ancestor, I opened the car door and yelled out “Nancy if you’re here raise your
hand”. Needless to say Enoch was a little spooked. He yelled out “Please don’t raise your hand and scare me”. We had such a good laugh that now when we go to a cemetery we always yell out before our search, “Make it easy for us and raise your hand”. Then we get a case of the chuckles. You guessed it; no one has ever raised their hand and made our job easier. (Thank goodness!!!)

Just a small piece of info: David Gagnon’s name has also been found to be spelled Gonyea and Gorner.

Thank you Jackie Weber for the headstone info you found in Grand Traverse County, I will look and see if they are connected to my Gagnon family somehow.

Thank you Brenda for checking the cemetery extraction done in 1942 by the DAR and Liber 1 of deaths or marriages. I have a subscription to ancestry.com and have gleaned it dry looking for David and Mary Gagnon’s headstones and Wills. I have found all of the census that they are in.

Eldon, Thank you for searching the Gaylord Fact Finder publication on headstones. Were there any other newspapers in the area around 1926 and 1936 besides “The Bellaire Record and Central Lake Torch? Could someone check these publications around their death dates for their obits for me??? David Gagnon d. June 20, 1936 and Mary Gagnon d. April 8, 1926. Where is the Central Lake District Library??? Eldon I love your website. I can see I will be spending some time there.

Thank you Jay Ingalls. It sounds like our ancestors may have been neighbors. The Gagnon family was French Catholic!!!! Can some one look at the Catholic Cemetery to see if they are there? Mary died in Echo Twp. And David died in Forest Home. I see there is a cemetery in or close to Bellaire. Could someone check it for me?? David married Mary late in life and from what I can tell they never had children that I can find. I also poked around a little on their homestead and didn’t see any signs of headstones but I didn’t want to search all the property just what was close to the road. I didn’t feel comfortable on someone else’s property with out permission. Does anyone have a Platt map that would show who owns the land now??? Then I can contact them! (This is another way I have gotten a door off my grandparents old farmhouse that was being torn down that is now used as a table in my home. The land owner gave me their door!!! This is another long story).

Thank you Jolene Pillars. I really appreciate your offer to look at newspapers at NMC in Traverse City and the index in your office. David Gagnon b. May 19, 1854 Canada d. June 20, 1936 Forest Home Twp., Antrim Co. and Mary (McGinnus) Gagnon b. abt 1860 d. April 8, 1926 Echo Twp., Antrim Co. Marriage info unknown.




Census, Bios, Obits, Cemetery, Church, & Vet Photos, Platt & Cemetery Maps, Citizens, Vets, and Poll List - Visit the Saginaw County Photograph Website: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~evansandobertein/saginaw.htm


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