At the Cemetery

             I’ve visited a lot of cemeteries during my genealogy research career.  A lot of walking and photo taking and on one of the trips, I recorded information as well as taking photos.

Mtn View Cemetery:
 William & Susan Kludt

So, what cemeteries have I visited?  Several in Washington State where my relatives are buried.  These include Rainy
Valley outside of Glenoma, Sticklin Greenwood Memorial in Centralia, and Mountain View Cemetery, also in Centralia.  Rainy Valley has my Mom’s family – the Keesees.  Greenwood also has mom’s family – both the Keesees and the Reynoldsons.  Mountain View has

Fern Hill Cemetery:
William & Julia Belles

my dad’s family – the Kludts, including my brother.  OH, also visited a cemetery in Spokane and in Lind where some of my dad’s relatives are buried.  We’ve also checked out Fern Hill Cemetery in Aberdeen where my husband’s family is buried.

1982 saw me in Pike County, Kentucky doing research and visiting several cemeteries for the Keesee family. Some had tall grass to walk through, and you had to

Chestnut Point:
Ruth E Bevins

have a stick to beat the area to scare away the snakes.  Most of them were up on hillsides.  The one that was the most interesting was Apple Orchard near the church that family attended.  Without having old-timers with me, I would not have known which plot belonged to my ancestors as the only marking was a cross.  Other cemeteries included Bent Branch, Chestnut Point, and Scott Family to name just a few.

1984 saw my aunt and I in Fayette County, Iowa doing research on the Kludt/Reisner family.  Family members took us to several cemeteries where our early relatives are buried – West Union, Hawkeye, and Eldorado were the main ones.  Besides cemeteries, we visited churches to find various records.

Mennonite Cemetery:
Aaron & Elizabeth Shontz

2016 saw my husband and I in Harmony, Butler County, Pennsylvania at the Mennonite Cemetery for the Belles/Shontz/Zeigler families.  We also visited another cemetery that was real interesting – no tombstones nor markings of any kind; just a fenced in patch of grass.

Harmony Society Cemetery

The cemetery I really want to go to is in the Barton/Grafton/Cedarburg area in Wisconsin.  I want to see what Kludts/Fromms are buried there.  I know that at least two children from my immigrant ancestor, John Kludt, are buried there.  Whether there’s a marker or not remains to be seen.

Favorite Photo - 2026

 

Nathan, Marcy & David
at the Liberty Bell

Our most recent picture of us as a family.  This was taken last Spring (May 2025) when we visited downtown Philadelphia.

This photo was taken while we were visiting the Liberty Bell.  In the background you can see Independence Hall.

My husband & I took a long road trip from our home in Centralia, Washington to Sacramento, California.  In Sacramento, we got onto the Historic Lincoln Highway.  Sometimes, we ended up on current interstates and highways but tried to follow the original route as much as possible.  When we got just outside of Philadelphia, we left the highway and headed to our son’s place in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.  We spent several days with him.  On one of those days, we took the train to Philly so we could visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t very cooperative – it rained.  And there was a lot of construction going on around the area.  So, we caught the train back to Conshy.  We also visited Valley Forge while in the area.

Wedding Bells

           First, I’ll take a look at what I’ve written about previously.  Last year there was a topic entitled “Love & Marriage” where I talked about siblings marrying siblings and descending from two siblings.

   

    Wedding photos in my collection include mine.  This is both families.  We were married 31 August 1985 in Olympia, Thurston County, Washington. I also have a faded photo of my parents, who were married 30 August 1957 in Rochester,

Thurston County, Washington.  Mom gave me a bad time for not getting married on their anniversary.  Funny thing is, if you look up it up in the state/county records, you will see that our pastor goofed and used the 30^th of August as the date.

        Other photos include Henry Carl Kludt and Alma Nelson from 1907 and Oiver Wendell Belles and Henrietta Louise Niehaus from 1919.

I thought I had more . . . oh well.

2024 Week 17 - War

         There are lots of wars in our history – some family members fought in, others they lived through, and others I really don’t know anything about.

       I’ve written previous blog posts about family veterans.  One looked at ancestors serving or providing service during the American Revolution.  Another looked at those who served during the Civil War.

       The Belles family knew how to serve their country.  Let’s start with the current generation.  My son, Nathan, served in
the US Navy from May 2010 to December 2017.  This would include Operation New Dawn in Iraq, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom’s Sentinal in Afghanistan.  He was in the Persian Gulf in 2016 serving aboard the USS Ramage that was part of an escort for an aircraft carrier. 

My husband, David, served in Vietnam in 1970 in the US Army.  I’ll have to ask him to write about his time.  He’s talked about it some but I don’t have all the details.

        My father-in-law, Jack, served in the US Navy during WWII.  He enlisted in September 1942 and was discharged in December 1945.  In May 1943 he started serving aboard the USS SC746 (a sub-chaser) as an F1c on temporary duty to the 7^th Fleet.  He advanced to MoMM2c in December 1943.  In 1945 he had training at the Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Training Base.  In December 1945, he was transferred from LSM500 (a medium landing ship) to San Diego Staging Center for discharge.  Interesting thing, two of his brothers also served during WWII.  Frank was also in the Navy (S2) and was on the USS Amesbury (APD46) in June 1945.  The ship was also in the Pacific.  Fred served in the Army Air Corp as a mechanic.

2024 Week 9 Changing Names

 Ok . . . let’s see if there were any name changes in my family history.  Not all have been totally researched or proven.

·      Keesee – maybe.  People do have a hard time spelling (as well as pronouncing).  Not proven but it was possible it was originally spelled Keesey.  Prior to that La Cozee.

·      Swinehart – sometimes it is spelled as Swineheart.  Appears to not be changed from the Old Country.

·      Reisner – also spelled as Reissner

·      Ahrendt – various spellings like Ahrent, Ahrendts, Ahrends, Ahrend

·      Secore – Secor

·      Maynard – Mainor

·      Sparr – Spawr

·      Lowe – It could be Low.  However, there is a story that one of the ancestors (not my direct line) changed it to Noe.

·      Caines – Cains, Cain

Of course, there’s always my maiden name (Kludt).  People can’t spell it (or pronounce).  However, the actual spelling never changed from the Old Country (Mecklenburg-Schwerin).

And there’s my husband’s surname – Belles.  Somewhere between 1744 and 1777 it got shortened from Bellesfeld.  Also spelled Bellesfelt, Bellowsfelt, Bellows,  and Bellasfeldt.

Surnames A-Z: B Names

Continuing the blog list of surnames for both mine and my husband's family that I'm doing genealogical research.  Maybe we connect, maybe not.  If some of the names look like royalty, they are.

Here are the B's:

Bailiffe - 
Barclay - 
Barge - England, New Jersey
Barnes - 
Bartlett - 
Bathurst - England
Belcher - England, Virginia, Kentucky
Belles, Bellesfelt, Bellowsfelt - Washington, Kansas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Germany
Belson - 
Bender -
Benett - 
Bertrand - 
Beuford - Virginia
Bevins - Kentucky, Virginia, Ireland
Blair - Maryland
Blevins - Virginia, Kentucky
Boleyn - England
Borders - Virginia
Boteler, Butler - Ireland, England
Brereton - Pennsylvania
Brooke - 
Brown - Illinois, New Jersey, England, Indiana
Burton - Virginia