I am descended from Peter Staub, who was born in Bavaria (possibly near the city of Ulm) on 12 May 1808. He married Eva Mary Swope (Schwab), probably in Germany. Although Peter has not been located yet on any passenger list, family lore has it that he was a cabinetmaker and built a cabinet with a false bottom in which to hide his gun when he emigrated. Family lore also is that Peter's father-in-law Peter Swope (Schwab) had wanted to migrate a year earlier, but that Peter Staub had resisted the idea. He changed his mind when he was arrested in the forest for cutting wood for fuel. Assuming the oral history is correct, Peter would have probably been at least 21 or so at the time he emigrated, making the earliest year 1829 and the early 1830's even more likely

We first find Peter Staub in Franklin County, Ohio in 1838 where on March 11 he appeared in court in the City of Columbus and took an oath declaring his intention to become a citizen of the United States and renouncing all allegience to the King of Bavaria. His first two daughters were born in Ohio, Margaret about 1838 and Mary about 1839. He lieved in Ohio for several years and was a cabinetmaker.

In 1840, Peter Staub and his family left Ohio with Peter's mother (a widow), Peter Swope and his family, Conrad Sans and his wife, and Lawrence Forbeck and his family. They traveled by covered wagon from Dayton to Cincinnati to Louisville, Kentucky to Evansville, Indiana to Terre Haute, Indiana, settling in Clark County, Illinois a few miles south of Marshall. There he farmed, and had at least 6 more children. He died in Clark County, Illinois on 7 Mar 1893 and is buried in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery.

In these pages, you will learn more about the descendants of Peter Staub, as well as other Staub families I have come across. Or, you can even read a little about me.

Genealogy and Wikis

Recently I have been thinking about using a wiki in my genealogy. So far, I have not decided whether, or how, to use a wiki but you can see my thoughts on my Genealogy and Wikis page,

Famous relatives

Part of the fun of genealogy is discovering the links that connect you to a specific person you may know or know of - whether from the history books, from yesterday's newspaper or from your neighborhood. Some of my "notable" relatives include Mayflower passengers Francis Cooke, John Cooke and Richard Warren; Presidents George Bush (and, of course, "W"), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce; actor/director Orson Welles; and author Laura Ingalls Wilder (of Little House on the Prairie).

Other Surname Pages

After more than 30 years with this hobby, putting everything from my files on the Internet at once would be a huge undertaking (probably impossible and certainly it would mean spending all my spare time creating web pages rather than doing more research). Instead, I plan to add other surname pages one at a time, beginning with my mother's four grandparents' surnames (Hammond, Massey, Spoor, and Coldren) in no particular order. I have started with the Coldren family because I found very little that had been previously pulled together in one place; therefore, most of the research is a result of my own discoveries. I added the Spoor family genealogy, primarily because I am seeking to find the ancestry of Thomas D. Spoor. Recently, I added a site on Samuel Handley of Edgar County, Illinois and his descendants. That addition broke my pattern somewhat because it is not one of the four primary surnames (John B. Massey married first Ellen Handley and, on Ellen's death, her younger sister Emma C. Handley - my great-great-grandmother).

In many of my family lines, someone else has previously done much of the work and my contribution has been relatively limited. I prefer to launch websites where I think that my contributions to the genealogy will be more than simply reporting the efforts of other researchers.

The list below includes some of my ancestral surnames. Only the surnames which listed as active links (in blue-underlined text in most browsers) lead to additional web pages. However, all is not lost! If one of the other surnames interests you, please visit my database on WorldConnect and see my information on that surname. Although the information on my WorldConnect pages is similarly constrained by my lack of time to enter all my information into my genealogy database, it will generally be the most up-to-date information I have available.

Note: The information on this web site has been obtained from a variety of sources,
including information from persons who did not identify their sources. Even where the
original source is cited, transcription errors are common. All information should always be
independently verified by the researcher, from primary source materials where possible.

Please feel free to suggest any changes, additions, or corrections.
Please send e-mail to:

d k s t a u b *AT* g m a i l . c o m

Other Web Pages

In addition to these genealogy pages, you may want to visit some other web pages I have made:

Hammond, Massey, Spoor and Coldren Families and more (including Handley and Loring)

This is the group of websites I created for my my maternal ancestral lines.

My Family Tree - David K. Staub

This is a version of my genealogy database on GenCircles, which allows you to discover "Smartmatches" with names in the datebase.

Illinios Business Attorney

I am a Chicago attorney and this is a site I created to post various articles I have written about Illinois legal topics (starting with my biography, of course ...). A recent addition is a copy of the Illinois Business Corporation Act of 1983 in PDF format which I prepared from the text copy of the web site of the Illinois Legislature.

Harvard Law School Class of 1977

This is the site I created for my Harvard Law School graduating class. I have not been keeping it up to date but most of the links to classmates still appear to be valid.

Limited Liability Company Center

This is my best site. This site offers useful information about the advantages and disadvantages of an LLC, and compares LLCs to other entities such as corporations and partnerships. It provides state-by-state information on how to form an LLC, including filing addresses, filing fees and links to forms.