Dear listers, checking in with a few paragraphs: Researching the Pittelkau family of Cowlitz County. My goal is to discover when they moved there. So far a Property Tax Record Book for the County places them there in 1891. [It appears that they moved to Seattle in 1911, about one year after their home burned during a forest fire] Family Lore indicates that they lived there in 1887. The property tax records prior to 1889 indicate that they lived about 2.5 miles NE of Carrolls on one of two 40 acre parcels. In addition, the 1900 Census indicates that the family lived in the Owl Creek Precinct. Owl Creek runs through the most northern of the two 40 acre parcels and is probably where their home was. The memoirs of Frank L. Bayley indicates that my Grandfather, August Pittelkau, purchased his "homestead" from him in 1900. I have yet to locate this place but intend to. As far as I can ascertain, Frank (Sep 3, 1892), George (Nov 28, 1894), Arthur (Feb 18, 1898) and Esther (Oct 8, 1902) were all born in the ranch house. I still need to take a look at the newspapers for these years and see if there were birth announcements of some kind. I also need to take a look at the 1909 and 1910 papers to see if there is mention of the fire indicated in the 1st paragraph. Family lore has it that they moved to Kelso after the fire and stayed there for a year or two. August Pittelkau became a U.S. Citizen in the Probate Court of Cowlitz County in 1896. In looking at the Cowlitz County Probate Court record for that year I found a tremendous number of people becoming citizens in that court at that time. It appears to me that there must have been some kind of government program or legislation that required all aliens to become citizens during that year. Many, like my grandfather had applied for citizenship in other states. These documents, to include the original Petitions for Citizenship that were completed in other states and places are located in the Washington State Regional Archives in Olympia. In addition, I recently discovered, through the Oregon State Archives, a marriage record for Klickitat County as follows: H H Langmaak of Klickitat County (Washington Territory) and Johanna Pittelkau of Multnomah County, married December 12, 1884 at the house of Mr. Joseph Enginger . Witnesses: J E DeLyones and Anna Loosli. Mr. Joseph Enginger was married to August's sister Anna. Anna and Joseph were married in Portland in September 1882. I need to discover who Johanna Pittelkau was and where she lived after the marriage. I also have a Website at http://www.users.uswest.net/~hpittelkau/ where I post data that I find on the family. Happy hunting, Harlan Pittelkau Lacey, Washington Shirley wrote: > Hello, Friends... Shirley here, your new list hostess. I am very pleased to > take the reins from John's capable hands, and build on the solid foundation he > has begun. I have 12+ lists on Rootsweb, and have been hosting them the past > few years. > > My family has been in Cowlitz County nearly 100 years. They settled at Carrolls, > where my great-great-uncle and his mother ran the hotel on the waterfront (it > burned in 1927). This was many years before Longview was thought up. We > remained at Carrolls until 1965, when my folks and I moved to west Longview. I > was gone from the area 15 years until my return a year ago last June. Oh, it's > sooooo good to be home again!! My roots and my heart are definitely here. > > Some folks don't like roll calls but personally I find them great conversation > starters. An added benefit is the possibility of a family connection being > discovered. Having said that, here are the names I'm researching in Cowlitz > County: MAPLES, SMALLEY, UNGER. > > Please share your surnames with us! > shirley > :) > > John Blair wrote: > > > > The list has already changed hands and will the new owner to identify > > themselves and get things going! Maybe a good time to have a roll > > call? > > ==== WACOWLIT Mailing List ==== > Don't forget to sign your name. Courtesy counts, even on > MAIL LISTS.