Vanessa (Thoma) Johnson

Vanessa (Thoma) Johnson sent me a neat email that describes her place in the family. Read it below:

Hi Michael,

I'm Vanessa (Thoma) Johnson, Edward W. Thoma (wife Donna Thoma) is my Father and Arthur Thoma My grandfather who passed away Dec.24, 2001. He was Married to Louise Hoffman my grandmother. I also have 2 brothers Paul E. Thoma and Kurt A. Thoma. Four sisters, Schawna M. Thoma, Sheri M. (Thoma) Montoye, Yvonne R. Thoma-Patton, and Elizabeth E. Thoma.

Schawna is the one from Alaska. The rest live in lower michigan and toledo. My parents and myself live in northern Mi between roscommon and gaylord.

I hope this helps you or anyone else idintify with us. I just visited the Eby house on Sunday before we came back home.

If you are ever looking for more info or pictures contact my brother Paul. You should have his e-mail addy.

Thanks for doing so much work with all this.
Vanessa

Thanks, Vanessa, for the info.!

Eby Log Cabin

My wife, Kathy and sister, Michelle, and I went to the Monroe County Fair last night. We stopped in at the Eby log cabin, my great-great-great grandparents' home, and took some pictures. Of course, I ran out of battery power in my camera, so I had to take the outside shots on my lame cell phone camera.

Book Excerpt: Phillip Thoma

I've been looking through some of the family pictures and documents at my dad's house on Bates Lane. I came across a copy of this book excerpt from the Historical Land Atlas, circa 1881. The call number listed on the sheet is R912 Hi. I have no idea where Phillip Thoma fits into the family tree.

The Family Tree Online

I'm not that big into genealogy, but there is a cool site that has much of the family tree online. If you click on the link below and start entering some of the older family names - I typed in Carl Hoffman, the tree goes back five or six generations. It's pretty cool.

http://www.familysearch.org/

A Little Bit of History

Those members of the family who are still in town have a great chance to see some family history at the Monroe County Fair. The log cabin at the fairgrounds is the Eby family cabin. It was built by John Eby and Elisabeth (Domberger) Eby.

John and Elisabeth Eby were the grandparents of Elizabeth (Eby) Hoffman. Joseph and Elizabeth (Eby) Hoffman were the parents of Carl Hoffman, Henry I. Hoffman, Louise Hoffman, Rose Hoffman, Hildegarde Hoffman, Emil Hoffman, Otto Hoffman and Louis Hoffman.

So, the point is that the log cabin at the fairgrounds was built by family ancestors. Whenever I visit, I wonder what little part of my personality was created in that cabin.

That's a mouthful. But what is cool is that the Monroe County Historical Museum compiled a nice little family tree that shows the five generations that descend from the cabin builders. It isn't completely correct, but it does a good job of showing how things fit together. I scanned a page that shows the section of the family that came to the reunion.

Hoffman/Jondro Reunion

Saturday, July 28th was a great day for the combined Hoffman and Jondro families. Everyone gathered at Munson Park in Monroe for fun, food and games.

Descendents of Carl Hoffman and Lizzie Jondro wore cool colored T-shirts. Other family hangers-on, like myself, used our own fashion sense.

Some of the attendees were quite young.

Others were on the more "experienced" side.

Family members came from far and wide. Alaska, Alabama, New York, Montana and Hawaii were all states with representatives at the reunion.

Games were a great part of the fun. And pictures helped tell the family history. But the biggest hit was the food...

And, of course, the simple act of gathering with family.

Mike Ingels