10-6-2002 Hi Ali: You might want to be in touch with Peggy Karol, who is also in the J. J. Deems line. Her email is karolranch@yahoo.com. She has got GREAT info on this line. There is also a very good tree on the descendants of Mark Deems (which includes Jacob Jennings Deems) in "World Family Tree" on Genealogy.com. The tree is from Marilyn Gilpin Gatto. It's a pay area; if you don't have the subscription, I can send it to you. Cheers! Susan Kundert Susan, Will you please send me the Famliy Tree. Are you related to Jacob Jennings Deems? If so, through who? Thank you, Ali 10-2002 Ali -- I'm related only through the common ancestor, Johannes Adam Diehm. My line apparently is through Lewis, the eldest son, about whose descendants very little is known. One of his apparent sons, Abraham Deem(s), who died in 1836 in Harrison County, Ohio, was my 3rd great-grandfather. Since there is so little known about Lewis' sons (he had nine of them, according to the census), I am learning what I can about the other Deem/Deems lines, so that when I run into "unclaimed" or stray Deem/Deems, I can identify them as possible descendants of Lewis. That's how I got involved in the Jacob Jennings Deem line. I'm sending you this file in .rtf format. It is pretty long. If you want it in GEDCOM, please let me know. This is a tree done by Marilyn Gilpin Gatto, a descendant of Jacob Jennings' brother, Israel. As far as I can tell, it is very, very accurate. Best wishes, Susan Kundert Hi Susan Kundert, Thank you for your letter. Jacob Jennings Deems is my 3rdgreat grandfather I have been working on genealogy for this line for 2 years. I'm trying to add on to what my great aunts and uncles have (the latest information was typed before 1977. I'm looking through my genealogy papers to see if I can find any connections. The Jacob Jennings Deems I'm studying dose has a brother named Israel. I haven't found any of the people you listed, do you have dates or places for Johannes Adam Diehm, or Lewis. I can not open rtf files, Can you please send the gedcom file? Thank you so much, Ali McKenzie CC, Tx 10-8-2002 Hi again Ali: Hey, I used to live in Texas, too! I lived for about eight years in The Woodlands, which is up north of Houston. I also spent about 25 years in California (before and after Texas), then last winter, we took the big plunge and came back to Ohio. I'll try the GEDCOM file. This is a big file, and has what I think is probably the best (i.e. most reliable) information about Jacob Jennings Deems, et al., that I have seen. Lots on his brother Israel, also. I just came across it one day while looking for my own line. I had been writing to Peggy Karol, and knew she was stuck at a certain point, so I downloaded the Jacob Jennings line to send to her. She has some things that aren't in this tree, and also she has transcribed letters from Simeon (one of Israel's sons) to Jacob Jennings that are very valuable to a researcher. In one of the letters, Jacob gives the names of his siblings and his wives. It has actually been helpful to me, too -- there are so many Jacobs and Georges and Johns in this family that you really do need a scorecard to tell the players! Johannes Adam Diehm was the great-grandfather of Jacob Jennings Deems. He came to the US from Germany in about 1750, probably with a brother or cousin. They first settled in PA, then Hagerstown, MD. The brother or cousin seems to have gone to Baltimore, while Johannes Adam went out to Fayette County, PA by about 1780, where he died in March of 1802. In his will, he names sons Ludwig (Lewis), Mark, John Nicholas, Adam, and Jacob, as well as daughters Catherine and Margaret. Lewis (my line), who was born in about 1753, died in June 1802, just a few months after the father. Mark b. 1754 (your line) moved his branch of the family to Washington County, PA -- the next county over. He died in 1814. Nicholas b. 1756 went first to Kentucky, then to Butler County, OH (southwest Ohio on the Indiana border), where he died in about 1833, if I recall correctly. Adam b. 1761 and Jacob b. 1764? both ended up in what is now WVa. They both lived long lives (Jacob was over 100 yrs old when he died), and had huge, enormous families. Your Jacob Jennings and his brother Israel are sons of Jacob Deems and Mary Jennings, his first wife. That Jacob was a son of Mark b. 1754. I do hope you will contact Peggy Karol and get the letters. They are wonderful! OK - let me know if you are successful at downloading the GEDCOM! Susan 10-8-2002 Ali: The name of the person who did this file is either Joseph John Gatto or his wife, Marilyn Gene Gilpin Gatto. I really don't know which one of them did it, but I do know that Marilyn is the Deems descendant (she's in Israel's line). I tried to find an email address for her, but the one I found bounced. I do have a street address and phone -- don't know how current it is. Joseph & Marilyn Gatto 17450 Treetop Way Lake Oswego, OR 97034 Phone: 503-636-8585 I got this just by doing a white pages search on the Internet. I'm pretty sure it is them, because there is reference to the Portland, Oregon, area in the tree, and Lake Oswego is a suburb (a very nice suburb) of Portland. I haven't written to her, but I would love to ask her where she got her info about the names of Lewis Deems' sons -- she is absolutely the ONLY person I have run into who has those names, except for me, and I am mostly guessing. Did you try to contact Peggy? I have another email address for her (I sent you her home email the other day. This one is her work, I think.) MARGARET.A.KAROL@sargentlundy.com Glad the file opened for you! I'll be interested to hear what you think about it. If you have anything to add, I'd love to have it! Susan 10-9-02 Dear Susan, I think I will write the Gattos. Most of the Monroe's descendants through my line live in Oregon. I wrote Peggy a email but, I haven't gotten a reply yet. I'm printing my line of the tree you sent, so I can compare it with what I have. I will make a version of the family line that I to send to you tonight. Sincerely, Ali 10-13-02 Hi Susan, How are you? Here is the family line I have. Sorry Its took so long I've been really busy with school and yesterday I had a swim meet. I still haven't got a reply from Peggy I will try her other email. Ali 10-13-2002 Hi Ali -- Thanks so much for the data on your line! I will get busy and enter in into my tree -- I already have some of it, but some of it I do not have (such as, the name of Catherine Barton's parents), and all of your closer ancestors. I heard from Peggy day before yesterday -- she sent me a file to proofread. I know she is working every minute she can on getting data entered into her tree from that Marilyn Gilpin Gatto tree that I sent you. I first ran into Peggy last winter, when she was not yet sure where her Jacob Jennings Deem (she is in his direct line) fit in with the PA Deem/Deems/Diehm group. We exchanged lots of information, hoping that we were from the same "branch". Then just a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon that Gatto tree, and there it all was, in living color, practically. It may be that she hasn't responded to you just because she is so wrapped up in getting all that data straight. Maybe I'll drop her a line and tell her that you have something to add!! I think I told you that the reason I am following out all the other Deem/Deems lines is because I come from the "lost" branch of the family -- the descendants of Lewis Deem, eldest son of Johannes Adam. For some reason, after Lewis' sudden death in 1802, his widow, Rosina (who was already living in Kentucky -- were they separated?) seems NOT to have retained custody of their younger children, of whom, by census records, there should have been quite a few. 1800 census showed five sons under age 5, plus a couple more in the 5 -10 category. No one seems to know what happened to those children. If standard procedures were followed (and I have no reason to believe they were not -- there is a probate record, etc.) there should have been orphans court proceedings, with separate guardians appointed for each of the boys. But no one seems to have found this record, and thus even the names of the sons are unknown. I do know at this point, by process of elimination, that my 3rd great-grandfather Abraham was one of them. So now my goal is to figure out who my great-great-great uncles were! Hope we can keep in touch! Thanks again, Susan