Family History Project

As most of you know, the 2019 2nd edition of  “Ancestors & Descendants of James Shanks Loofbourrow & Mary Catherine Syfert” was available in time for the 2019 holidays.   Many of you helped Margie in this effort by sending in updates and photos and biograhical info.  Those of you that did not get their information in should still do that.   We may see if we can publish an update ro addendum of these later updates that people can printout and keep with the family history book.

If you have updates, photos, or family history stories or bios, please send them in.  There are paper forms that you can ask for that help you provide the information needed. There is also a new website input form, the Family Member History update form, that many will find more convenient. Please enter your family information and also provide updated photos and updated biographical information.  Please Contact Margie or Ron if you have questions or want to provide additional information, photos, and stories.

From Margie:

Recent research has uncovered some fascinating information about some of our ancestors that you will find very interesting. New information is regarding Loofbourrow, Syfert, Agnew and Barker lines. It appears that our Loofbourrows came from Scotland. I will include my findings in the update. The Syferts came from Germany.Recent research has uncovered some fascinating information about some of our ancestors that you will find very interesting. New information is regarding Loofbourrow, Syfert, Agnew and Barker lines. It appears that our Loofbourrows came from Scotland. I will include my findings in the update. The Syferts came from Germany. The Barkers were of Scotch-Irish descent, came to America early on, 1600's. Our James C. Barker, married Jane Agnew, who brings us our Northern Irish roots through Mollie (Barker) Loofbourrow.

Our David Loofbourrow I (1755-1846), was married first to Amy Gaskill; they had several children. After she died, he married Catherine Rittenhouse; they had several children. We are from this line. Research has uncovered some very interesting history about David and Amy's line, and we are in contact with one of their descendants. David Thomas Loofbourrow, age 21, came to California from Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1850, by steamship to St. Joseph, Missouri, from there by wagon train via Salt Lake City, through Nevada to California on the very day it became a state! More information to be included in the updates.

My contact with our Northern Irish cousins and my visit there in 2013, has answered many questions for us. What an awesome moment it was for me when I stepped inside the house in 2013 that our great-grandmother Jane had stepped out of when she left for America in 1870! Cousin Margaret Agnew has also done a lot of research which she has shared with me. Margaret's great-grandmother, Mary Agnew, was our Jane (Agnew) Barker's sister. We now have some interesting answers regarding her immigration to America in 1870. Also, some of her brothers and nephews immigrated at a later date.

Another, historical finding is on the Syfert side. Mary Catherine (Syfert) Loofbourrow's sister, Sarah Ellen Syfert left Iowa in the late 1870's and headed West to Nevada. She married a Scottish miner named Thomas Grieves; they had 2 children. Sarah and her daughter, Sadie, are known as the first ladies who arrived in the town of Tonopah (Butler City), in its beginnings. I am in contact with one line of their descendants.

We are in need of your help to get your family's updates, family stories and biographical information. So many of you contributed to the 2009 edition for which we are very grateful. Now, ten years later, families have continued to change and grow, we need your input.

Thank you ahead of time for your help with this update process; it's much appreciated.

Margie (Hockaday) Kinnaman