Reading the Family Sheets in the Vig Collection

A lot of information is packed into the Family Sheets (both for the Washington County Family Sheets and the Danes Family Sheets). Much of it is abbreviated. It appears that the primary entries were based on census records to which were added data about parents, children, occupation, life events, death and burial, even court records. Many also have references to articles in the various Washington County newspapers where additional information can be found about one or more of the persons mentioned on the sheet (microfilms available at the Blair Public Library).

These pages serve as an introduction and "rosetta stone" for interpreting Einar Vig's conventions and abbreviations:

Look at this example, an entry for J Constant Cachelin from the Pioneer Families portion of the collection. Click here to open the example image.

The "1855" heading means that Mr. Cachelin's first known appearance in Washington County NE was in that year. He was born on October 13, 1812, in Germagne, France, and he died on February 11, 1896, in De Soto, Nebraska. He is buried in Blair Cemetery, Block 8, Lot 7 ("B 8-7").

He was married ("wed") in September of 1840 in France to M Elizabeth Grosboillot, who was born in 1810 in France and died on August 11, 1879 in De Soto NE. She was buried in "B 8-7" (Blair Cemetery, Block 8, Lot 7).

The Cachelins had 6 children:

  • Urban, age 18, born 11/1/1844 (1842 if census age is correct) in Alabama, died 1/8/1928, buried in Blair Cemetery, Block 72, Lot 8, married Frances Church of De Soto NE.
  • Alfred M, age 16, born in AL
  • Edward, age 14, born in 1846 in AL, died on 11/11/1904 in South Dakota, wed Columbia Dotson of Spearfish, South Dakota.
  • Theodore L, age 12, born in 1847 in AL, died in 1871, buried in Blair Cemetery, Block 8, Lot 7.
  • Josephine (aka Jane), age 10, born in AL, wed 1) William Dunn of Fort Calhoun NE and 2) Charles Perky of Wahoo NE.
  • George Constant, age 8, born 9/10/1851 in MO, died 11/20/1930, buried in Blair Cemetery, Block 8, Lot 7, wed Mary E Petersen of De Soto NE.

Census records show:
- 1860 in De Soto, the family as listed above
- 1870 in De Soto, 3 sons & 1 daughter at home (Urban and Edward are listed separately)

JCC (J Constant Cachelin) came to the US in New York on 6/24/1832, went to Florida and Mobile AL in 1/15/1835, then to France for his bride in 1840. He returned to Mobile, then to St. Louis (Carondel*) MO in 1851. He came to De Soto NE by riverboat in 1855 and brought his family in 1856 to his homestead at De Soto where they have been since. 6 children were born to the couple; 2 sons died. He was survived by 3 sons, Urban, Edward and George.

Census of 1880 in De Soto: Constant (67), farmer born in France and son Alfred M (36), born in AL.

Newspaper articles (see Blair Public Library):
- Pilot (Blair) 2/12/1896; Times-Republican 2/27/1896

[Note: Carondelet (not Carondel) was an independent city incorporated in 1851 and annexed by the city of St. Louis in 1870.]

 Please keep in mind that these images are arranged in the same order in which they are filed physically at the DAAL. This means that they are often not in strictly alphabetical order. So it may be useful to make use of the "Prev" and "Next" buttons below each image to page through the collection or to look at an overview of the entire contents or a folder or box through use of the "breadcrumbs" under the site's menu bar (e.g., Home | Repository | Archive | Collections in the Stacks etc.).