This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/TGB.2ACE/144.168.1 Message Board Post: Hello Mr.Van Essen, FYI, my husband and children are direct descendents of Joseph and Delia Grondin. Their daughter Clara married Frederick Britton. Of their children Mayme Britton married Oliver Cook. They had three children - Betty (Anderson), Lois (Laurance) and Thomas Cook. Interestingly enough, per one of your posts from 2000 ("There is no Horseshoe Lake in Minnesota"), Lois Laurance currently lives on Horseshoe Lake, across Hwy. 3 from Pelican Lake in Merrifield MN. My Husband John, having remembered some old maps that his Grandfather (Oliver Cook) showed him many years ago,. and on one of those, this lake was referred to as "Sandbar Lake". Thomas Cook currently owns the older family cabin on the East shore of Pelican Lake. Betty (Cook) married Floyd Anderson and had three children, Dale, John and Karen (Karges). John and I married in 1982 and currently have two kids, Jessica (15) and Samuel (13). We have been working through the family ancestry on John's side via family members, online resources and relatives and have run up against an apparent brick wall.....here goes: The family has stated for many years that Clara Grondin (married Fred Britton) was 1/4 Ojibwe. We've heard this even from my Mother-in-law, Betty Anderson (Cook). Her mother, Delia, would have been 1/2, leading back to Naflete Chouinard (Darby). In other records we have her name as Laflette (an Ojibwe word meaning "Old Woman") also spelled Laflett. We have been unable to trace beyond Naflete (her parents, maiden name, etc.) with Chouinard and Darby being both married names. There is a Joseph Chouinard who received an Indian Land grant in Itasca County, but we've been unable to positively link him to Delia. Native American records seem to be lacking back that far in history. We do have in our possession the original Naturalization papers for Pierre Grondin dated Nov 5th 1883 (Crow Wing County) and believe him to be a brother of Joseph Grondin. We have many other family notes and histories, and Betty Anderson (Cook) also has a Sugar and Creamer set that were a wedding gift to Joseph and Delia when they married in Brainerd on June 12. 1871 (first marriage in Brainerd). She also has several pictures of some of these folks. Any help regarding our tracing down Nafletes Parents/Maiden name would be appreciated. Perhaps we should make a road trip up from White Bear Lake and visit awhile....I'm sure we have information you would also be interested in. Sincerely, Alice Anderson (John)