The Blum Family of Bracken County |
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In keeping with the policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data presented on this website may be used freely for personal research. While copyright may not be claimed on public records, copyright does apply to the compilation and formatting of the materials for presentation. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format. The contributor of materials from private and unpublished sources retains copyright on their submissions. Persons or entities wishing to use such materials for profit or presentation must obtain the written consent of the contributor. When using data found on this website, this copyright notice and an appropriate citation of source should appear with the information. The Blum Family of Bracken County, Kentucky...The Blum Family of Bracken County...has been researched and is like all genealogy projects, ongoing. I am a direct descendant of Michael Blum. There is a lot of information out on the web and a lot of it is wrong, I hope to set the record straight on this subject. I hope that this can be of use to other researchers. I also have a large amount of information on the Earnest/Ernest/Ernst family of Bracken County that I will make available if you wish to have it. I am the great great-grandson of Michael Blum of Waldmohr, Bavaria. My knowledge of this line in my family tree comes from research of family records, United States of America Census, and the Internet. I hope to put to rest some misinformation that is currently in circulation. Michael Blum was born 1830 in Waldmohr, Homburg commissariat, Rhenish Bavaria. At the time of this writing (2003), Waldmohr is now a part of Rhineland-Palatinate section of Germany. At the time of Michael's birth, a revolution began in France and spread throughout Europe. This revolution flared up through out nearly twenty years with a major eruption occurring in 1848-1849. It was about 1848-1849 that Michael left his homeland and immigrated to the United States. I have yet to find his port of entry to this county. He did end up in the Ohio Valley, within the proximity of Cincinnati, Ohio. There is evidence to suggest that he had family members living in this area when he arrived. Michael was married a total of three times. His first wife, whose name has yet to be discovered, bore his first child, a son, Adam. As to when she died, is unknown. Adam was born in Kentucky according to information from the United States Census, Kentucky, Bracken County, Fairview district, 1860. This is the first federal record of Michael Blum. On November 6, 1856 Michael married for a second time. He chose for his wife, Mary Ellinker, of German birth and nine years his senior. By this time, Michael was living in Bracken County, Kentucky. There is no evidence that this marriage produced any children. Mary's surname may have been Ellender or Allender. Mary died before 1859. On January 6, 1859, Michael took his third and last wife, Margaret A. Earnest. Margaret was the daughter of Simon Bolivar Earnest and Melinda Herrington of Bracken County, Kentucky. Their marriage is recorded at the Bracken County, Kentucky Courthouse in Book 1, page 210 and was performed by Reverend Thomas Elrod. Of this marriage, were born eight children. During the first years of their marriage, Michael and Margaret attend local churches, mainly the Methodist Church, as that was the church that the Earnests attended. Michael, though, was baptized in the Protestant Church of Bavaria (Lutheran). When his children were born, he had them baptized Lutheran. By 1863, the nearest Lutheran Church to Bracken County, Kentucky was located at present day Melbourne, Campbell County, Kentucky. By the mid 1860s, a Lutheran Church was built at Chatham, in Bracken County, Kentucky. Chatham is south of Augusta, Kentucky on State Highway 19. Along with other Germans who lived in western Bracken County, Kentucky at that time, Michael and his family would take a boat from the Foster, Bracken County, Kentucky, landing to Melbourne to attend services at St. John's. St John's is now known as St John's Evangelical Lutheran Church and is located on the Tug Fork Road at Melbourne, Campbell County, Kentucky. It was at St. John's where Michael and Margaret's first two children were baptized. The children of Michael and Margaret Blum were: Elizabetha (Elizabeth) Blum, born in October of 1859, Karl (Charles) Blum, born May 11, 1861, Phillip Blum, born January 4, 1865, Henry Herman Blum, born in 1869, George Adam Blum, born in 1873, Jacob Blum, born December 16, 1875, and Charlotte Catherine Blum, born March 5, 1880. Except for Elizabeth and Charles, the other children were baptized at Chatham. Michael and Margaret Blum appear on the United States of America Census, Kentucky, Bracken County, in 1860, 1870, and 1880. The 1890 census was lost to a fire. In the United States Census, Kentucky, Bracken County, for 1900, Michael is found as head of house and the only other residents are his son, George Adam, wife and children. Michael's first son, Adam was raised by his stepmother and did marry but his marriage record has not been found. His wife's name is unknown. They produce two sons. One of which was named Charles. Charles married a Meyers woman. Michael and Margaret's first child, Elizabetha (Elizabeth) married Jacob Clos. Jacob was from Bledesbach, Rheinland-Pfalz, Bavaria. They were married in Bracken County, Kentucky on December2, 1875. They produced nine children and their descendants can still be found in western Bracken County, in the Twenty-first Century. Elizabetha died in January of 1937 at Johnsville, Bracken County, Kentucky. The second Blum child, Michael's second son, was Karl (Charles). Like his elder sister, I have used, for the record, his baptismal name. Karl or Charles, if you like, married Anna P. Carl in Bracken County, Kentucky on October 26, 1882. There were three known children of this marriage. Michael and Margaret's next child was son Phillip. Born in Bracken County on January 4, 1865, Phillip wed Elizabeth (Bettie) Riggs. They had at least three living children. Around the turn of the Twentieth Century, Phillip and Bettie moved to Garrison, Lewis County Kentucky where Bettie died on September 19, 1944 and Phillip died on October 25, 1947. The next child to be born to Michael and Margaret was a boy, Henry Herman. Born in 1869, Henry, or Herman as he preferred to be called in later years, married Ardella York on October 15, 1896 in Bracken County, Kentucky. At the time of his sister Elizabetha's death in 1937, according to her obituary in the Bracken County News, he was living in Cincinnati, Ohio. After Henry Herman Blum's birth, came his brother John Blum. I have no information at present on John except that he was born in 1871, The next child born to Michael and Margaret was their fifth son, George Adam. George Adam was born around 1873 in Bracken County, Kentucky. George Adam has been confused with his half brother, Adam. George Adam married Dora Brown on February 27, 1895. There were at least two children from this marriage. In 1900, George, who by then went by the name of Adam was living along with his wife Dora and their children with his father Michael Blum. When Elizabetha died in 1937, George Adam was listed in the obituary as living in Cincinnati, Ohio. On December 16, 1975, the sixth son of Michael and Margaret was born. He was given the name Jacob. In 1900 Jacob was living with his brother-in-law Ellis Bryant Jones and wife Charlotte Catherine Blum. On May 29, 1902, Jacob married Druzilla Brown, sister of Dora Brown Blum. They had one child, a daughter, Hilda Marie. Hilda Marie married Otis Courtney. Jacob died on February 22, 1933 near Walcott in Bracken County, Kentucky. He was buried at Pleasant Ridge Cemetery in Bracken County, Kentucky. Michael and Margaret's last child, my great grandmother, Charlotte Catherine was born on March 5, 1880. Charlotte Catherine, or Kate as she was now called, married Ellis Bryant Jones in Bracken County, Kentucky on November 4, 1897. Their marriage produced thirteen children. They, too, have descendants living in Bracken County in the Twenty First Century. Charlotte Catherine died on April 7, 1950 near Wellsburg in Bracken County Kentucky. Ellis Bryant Jones died almost four years later on February 16, 1954. They are buried at the Johnsville Cemetery in Bracken County, Kentucky. The descendants of Michael Blum can be found throughout this county. The burial place of Michael and Margaret Blum has yet to be found. It is quite possible that Michael is buried in Cincinnati as he resided with his son who moved there. There are no Kentucky Vital Statistics Death Records for either one, as the state didn't start keeping records until 1911. Dan Hamm February 9, 2003 Passed W3C link-check on January 10, 2023. This site is not responsible for URL changes by managers of external websites. |
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