Ina (Iona) Viles Houghton

Ina Viles was the daughter of Jotham S. Viles and his second wife, Sarah D. Frost. She was born about 1866 in Walworth, Wisconsin. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Iowa and settled in Vinton, Benton, Iowa. Ina met her future husband in Vinton, Paul B. Houghton, who was born November 1865 in Iowa. He was the son of Marcus and Louisa Houghton. About 1883, the Houghton family moved to Rosedale, Clark County, South Dakota. Paul and Ina were married on January 4, 1887. According to my records, the marriage took place in Benton County, Iowa. This has not been confirmed. The couple made their residence in Clark County, South Dakota and had at least two sons, Marcus R. Houghton born September 8, 1892 and Albert Houghton born April 10, 1894. According to their birth records, both boys were born in Clark County, South Dakota. Apparently, Ina died prior to 1898 or 1899. Paul married Mina Derscheid in 1899 who had two sons of her own, Albert and Syndey Frederick Wasem. They are found living in Clark County, South Dakota in 1900. They were still there in the 1905 South Dakota census. But by 1910, they had moved to a neighboring county, Le Sueur, Kingbury, South Dakota. Paul was a grain elevator manager. DeSmet, South Dakota is in Kingsbury County and is the place featured in Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, "The Long Winter".

The Value of Google

For the second year in a row, my taxes were filed late in the business day on April 15! This explains my noticable absence from blogging. But now, I jump into preparing for my youngest son's graduation party just weeks away. Scrapbooks to make and a house to ready, more to do than can be humanly accomplished! A priority list will be must be created.

Back to Google. In the past six months, I have found so much online with the assistance of Google. I am certainly no expert on Google so I have been trying to read as much as possible about its searching functions. And the tips have paid off. A great book that I have reading is "Google Your Family Tree" by Daniel M. Lynch. He has great tips for maximizing your google search.

By using the search term "Jotham * Viles", I found an article about his third wife, Laura Scutt. Apparently, her first husband, Silas Smith was not dead when Laura married Jotham Viles in 1879.

But Happy Dance find was found from "Frank * Kennard". My research has a twenty-one year gap in Frank's life. He is found in the 1870 census in Parsonsfield, York, Maine but then not again until his marriage to Sarah Ellen (Sadie) Kennedy in 1891. Frank was in Billings, Montana for some of this time. According to his obit, he was a contractor for the Northern Pacific Railroad. My google search found a 1883 City Directory for Billings with Frank listed AND the Billings Gazette carried some articles about his marriage to Sadie, the birth of Eveleen, and the death of another child.

Read an article or book on how to use Google and find your ancestors!