I wrote recently about placing ancestors on a map. Well, yesterday I got a chance to see one of the locations for this Lynch family. They bought this plot in rural St. Clair County, Michigan, in summer 1867. #familyhistory #genealogy #ancestry #history #puremichigan
![Newspaper clipping from 5 January 1866. Story describes the vicious murder of a woman by her brother in Connor's Creek, an area of Grosse Pointe Township, Wayne County, Michigan.
“APPALLING TRAGEDY … A Brother Butchers His Sister with an Axe,” initial news coverage of the death of “Mrs. William Lynch” at the hands of brother “who calls himself John Hanly, but whose real name is John Cooper,” The [Detroit] Michigan Free Press, vol. XXIX, no. 182, 5 January 1866, p. 1, col. 4; imaged, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com/image/1048531672 : accessed 1 July 2026), search “Hanly” and/or “Lynch” in 1866 in Detroit, Michigan.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dekxpx2uisvl4uqg5gjnyu2q/bafkreibanuo7b5f2svppxfuw7se47w6u5xzvsppiavltv6vlswxzzpbjju)
![News article from April 15, 1912, that wrongly proclaims "Titanic Rams Ice Pact at Sea; 2,000 on Board Are Safe." Citation: “Titanic Rams Ice Pact at Sea; 2,000 on Board Are Safe,” The Saginaw [Michigan] Daily News, 15 April 1912, p. 1, col. 5-7.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dekxpx2uisvl4uqg5gjnyu2q/bafkreiavbakhrk2ycpfmgn4qhwdyqy32hawgv6mwod24jumvil3y7ss56m)
![Clip from an 1879 newspaper in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, area. Transcribed:
Pioneer Matron Gone.—In Paris, on Sun-
day, the 16th inst., Mrs. Orleans Spaulding
died, rather suddenly, though she had been
in poor health for several years. Mrs. S.
was very highly esteemed, and a very large
concourse of the neighbors and friends at-
tended the funeral, at which Rev. Mr. Thom-
as, of Cascade, delivered the discourse. The
family were among the earliest settlers, in
1836, and during the first few years, Mr.
Spaulding was afflicted with blindness, while
they were wholly dependent upon what could
be raised from their farm for subsistence, and
the strong will and heroic fortitude of his
wife carried them through the struggles in-
cidents to that period. They have raised five
sons and two daughters, now of mature age,
some of them with families, with whom a
large circle of neighbors and friends join in
sympathy and appreciation of her virtues,
whose memory they cherish.
Citation: “DIED ... In Paris, Feb. 16, AURILLA ANN, wife of Orleans Spaulding, aged 62 years.,” Grand Rapids [Michigan] Eagle, 21 February 1879, p. 4, col. 1; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1190176353/ : accessed 18 December 2025), search "Spaulding" in Michigan, Feb. 1879. Then, full obit later in the same column: “Pioneer Matron Gone.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dekxpx2uisvl4uqg5gjnyu2q/bafkreifgbp3gz2jtnaxonb5sla5lafl4iq2ixnc4qabymekd4oo537hf4q)
![Microfilmed pages of immigration records from the 1891 in Saginaw, Michigan. Image shows two pages of a county immigration book recording declarations of intention for immigrants seeking to become United States citizens.
Citation: Saginaw County Circuit Court, Naturalization Records, Declaration of Intention, RG 89-77, microfilm roll 8051, vol. 11 (“Vol. I, 1888-1892”), p. 248, declaration of intention for Charles/Carl Stielow, sworn 22 January 1891, attested by Clerk Frank M. [Tatum], deputy clerk; accessed and imaged by researcher Jeremy Verdusco, 15 November 2025, Archives of Michigan, 702 W. Kalamazoo St., Lansing, Michigan.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dekxpx2uisvl4uqg5gjnyu2q/bafkreiaelomtt63buyjqcdmok7mst264e5tgkaht2mjsabqkqnhznyodge)
![Newspaper ad from 1911:
Headline: Do You Feel This Way?
Text: Do you feel all tired out? Do you sometimes think you just can’t work away at your profession or trade any longer? Do you have a poor appetite, and lay awake at nights unable to sleep? Are your nerves all gone, and your stomach too? Has ambition to forge ahead in the world left you? If so, you might as well put a stop to your misery. You can do it if you will. Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery will make you a different individual. It will set your lazy liver to work. It will set things right in your stomach, and your appetite will come back. It will purify your blood. If there is any tendency in your family toward consumption, it will keep that dread destroyer away. Even after consumption has almost gained a foothold in the form of a lingering cough, bronchitis, or bleeding at the lungs, it will bring about a cure in 98 per cent. of all cases. It is a remedy prepared by Dr. R. V. Pierce, of Buffalo, N. Y., whose advice is given free to all who wish to write him. His great success has come from his wide experience and varied practice. Don’t be wheedled by a penny-grabbing dealer into taking inferior substitutes for Dr. Pierce’s medicines, recommended to be “just as good.” Dr. Pierce’s medicines are of KNOWN COMPOSITION. Their every ingredient printed on their wrappers. Made from roots without alcohol. Contain no habit-forming drugs. World’s Dispensary Medical Association, Buffalo, N. Y.
“Do You Feel This Way?,” Laredo [Texas] Times, 16 April 1910, p. 6, cols. 4-5; imaged, Chronicling America (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86089566/1911-04-16/ed-1/?st=gallery : accessed 29 January 2026).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dekxpx2uisvl4uqg5gjnyu2q/bafkreigjzjhxw7nkzhzgdi7rwfmjbj4m2loql7oos2nkh22wgn6qcbcjti)
![News story from 1911 describes a Wisconsin woman's death. She was struck by lightning while in church. The lightning hit the steeple, then traveled through a chandelier to the floor of the church where she sat. The death happened during a funeral service.
“Woman Killed by Lightning,” The Hartford [Wisconsin] Times, 11 August 1911, p. 1, cols. 3-4; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1151339131/ : accessed 23 December 2025).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dekxpx2uisvl4uqg5gjnyu2q/bafkreicycdpdede55lrug7s4kameghwclqe6ntrhhvbftblwvvsnbojdgu)
![Photo with a news story from 1911 that describes a Wisconsin woman's death. She was struck by lightning while in church. Photo shows the church. The lightning hit the steeple, then traveled through a chandelier to the floor of the church where she sat. The death happened during a funeral service. Overlaying the photo of the church at photos of the man whose funeral it was, as well as the woman struck by lightning.
“Woman Killed by Lightning,” The Hartford [Wisconsin] Times, 11 August 1911, p. 1, cols. 3-4; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1151339131/ : accessed 23 December 2025).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dekxpx2uisvl4uqg5gjnyu2q/bafkreihojnkrimezxqkwhz37ckmlc2j43qnvdfvy77sdmk7giy3n3pqtwy)
![Old newspaper clip:
Alleged Seduction.
Ella Annis, a maiden 26 years old, now living in the township of Cascade, accused William Van Amburg of seduction. William went away some five or six weeks ago, and quietly dropped down in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, there to await news of further developments here. Of course letters came from him and went to him, and the officers found out his whereabouts. Ella was anxious that he should be brought back to her, and the proper papers being obtained Deputy Sheriff Steketee started after him Wednesday night, 22d. He was gone about forty-eight hours, traveled about 600 miles, and last night arrived in the city with William. William is in jail awaiting an examination, or his wedding, calamities that do not seem to dampen his spirits at all.
“Alleged Seduction.,” Grand Rapids [Michigan] Eagle, 25 July 1874, p. 1, col. 2; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1189519138/ : accessed 28 November 2025), search "William VanAmburg" in Kent County, Michigan, 1874.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dekxpx2uisvl4uqg5gjnyu2q/bafkreibxk6gnea23dl4oynw5gz7euqpbhpitdkbg4ms6642egf2nkgbrxm)
![“MRS. CHARLTON DEAD,” The Hamilton [Ontario] Spectator, 20 September 1905, p. 10, col. 4; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1005849362 : accessed 10 May 2024), search terms: “Charlton” and “1905”.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dekxpx2uisvl4uqg5gjnyu2q/bafkreibjmdtb7buxlrxjyqwlptscc74ppr4meomy6bgiqyytqdyptn4kza)
