Aunt Fannie was adamant....But was she correct?
Great Aunt Fannie always maintained that our Trout family had its roots in English soil and had always spelled the name "Trout." She also said that all the Trouts in the United States were related if you went back far enough and, since even a fairly novice researcher of the "Trout" surname will discount that statement, you will understand why I was reluctant to accept her belief that "our Trouts" were English without seeing some proof. Of course, she was no longer available to interview when we decided to research the Trout family history so I had no way to discover the basis for her beliefs. Though we had no living relatives to help us out, my husband had grown up in the house his grandfather had built for his family over 100 years ago and, as we were readying it to sell following his mother's death, we discovered a genealogical treasure. Two metal boxes had been tucked away beneath some built-in drawers in the dining room. These two containers held all the funeral cards for Arthur and Lillian Trout nee Brown, visitation lists and a most interesting deed to their burial plots. Without that deed we would have never known that they were buried in Hillside, IL and the biggest surprise of all was that the owner listed was one "George W. Trout", a man we'd never heard of!
A visit to the cemetery showed the connection immediately. It appeared that at the death of his wife, Elizabeth, George had bought adjoining plots for himself and for two of his offspring along with their spouses. There before us were the graves of my husband's grandparents, Arthur and Lillian Trout nee Brown, and Arthur's sister, Fannie Poetzl and her husband, buried adjacent to their parents, George W. Trout and his wife, Elizabeth. A visit to the cemetery office provided the information that George had indeed purchased all six burial plots at the death of his wife. Seemingly, we had found evidence supporting another long held belief -- that Arthur and Fannie were the only surviving children born to that family, though the disparity in their ages led me to suspect that there had been other children who did not survive.
Our next surprise was that, not only was "Trout" a far cry from being a fairly rare surname, it seemed that the name "George W. Trout" was nearly as common as "John Smith." How were we ever going to discover which one was "our" G. W. Trout?
The next summer a visit with another of Elizabeth and George's great-great-grandchildren provided us with Elizabeth's surname. Before this visit, we knew only what had been engraved on her headstone. The fact that her maiden name was "Ratfield" came from a family Bible which this cousin had received at his mother's death. Armed with this invaluable piece of information, we were able to search the wonderful site provided by the state of Illinois listing of marriages by bride and/or groom. We found a marriage for George W. Trout and Elizabeth "Ralfird/Ratfield" which in turn led me to search the Internet for family connections to Elizabeth. Research of the Ratfield family provided one basis for Great Aunt Fannie's assertion that the Trouts were English. Elizabeth's father had indeed emigrated from England just prior to his marriage to her mother. With the anti-German sentiment running strong in the US during Fannie's lifetime, I suspect she waved that English flag proudly.
The research would have stalled indefinitely at this point, however, had I not noticed a posting at Rootsweb.com regarding Elizabeth's parents and siblings. In asking for clarification on the name shown for one of Elizabeth's sisters, I shared our family connection to the Ratfields, explaining that Elizabeth had married George W. Trout and providing the burial information we'd so recently discovered. Imagine my shock when I received an excited reply from another distant cousin saying that she too was a descendant from the Ratfield/Trout/Milledge family and was extremely interested in sharing the research effort on this family. Wonderful! But who on Earth were the Milledges?
This cousin's connection to the Trout family is through a sister of Jacob's wife, Elizabeth Milledge....... She wrote, "Elizabeth 'Betsy' Milledge who married Jacob Trout in IN is the older sister to my 2nd great grandmother, Susannah Milledge Bennett." She had obtained the Civil War service records for Jacob and her direct ancestor, who had served together, both enlisting from Iowa County, Wisconsin. This gave the names, dates and locations of birth for Jacob and Betsy's children.
Among her family's treasures is also a copy of the same photo we found in the collection of unlabeled photos tucked away in the attic of the house we inherited, showing George W Trout and his wife Elizabeth nee Ratfield, and their children, who were then young adults. Her picture, however, bears an inscription on the back identifying the family as "cousin Elizabeth" with her family. How interesting! Arthur and Fannie had two brothers who lived at least to be young adults! Why was this the FIRST we'd heard of them?
In the years since, through diligent searching of census records, perusing family records kept by my mother-in-law, who corresponded for years with distant relatives of her husband's family without knowing that they were actually kin, my own correspondence with contemporary researchers of the extended Trout, Ratfield and Milledge families, and one week-long visit to the Newberry Library in Chicago, I have managed to fill in at least a few of the gaps in our Trout family history, though several mysteries do remain.
Jacob's daughters were both fine examples of the pioneer spirit that settled western United States. Martha followed her sweetheart west where they married in Buffalo County, Nebraska in 1881 and eventually settled in Sheridan County, Wyoming. She lived there until 1935 though at least some of her children had long since called California their home. Sarah stayed in Illinois to marry and, widowed at 28, she raised not only her own family of four but she also took her half sister's boy to raise when he was orphaned in 1896 at five months of age.
The $64,000 question is still "How does our Jacob P. Trout fit in with the rest of the Trouts in the US in 1850? Is he related to Andrew Jackson Trout, who was living next door to him in 1850?" I began my research with the strong suspicion that they were brothers, both sons of the Jacob Trout who was living in the same county in 1840 with his family. Though we have recently discovered that Andrew's death certificate gives his mother's maiden name as Elizabeth Platter and a Platter family researcher confirms that Elizabeth was indeed Jacob Trout's wife, only circumstantial evidence links their son, Andrew, to his neighbor, "our" Jacob P. Trout. No documentation has been found to prove kinship.
In recent years more and more researchers are turning to Y-DNA testing to supplement traditional genealogy research when documentary evidence no longer exists (or has not yet been located) to prove a family tie between individuals or where that avenue fails to provide conclusive evidence regarding relationship. This research tool has its own difficulties, however, and for a time it appeared that our Jacob P Trout and the elder Jacob Trout were very UNlikely to be closely related, despite my previous expectations to the contrary.
The Jacob Trout living in Maumee Twp., Allen Co., IN in 1840 was the firstborn son of George W. Trout who served for a time as an Associate Judge in Perry Co., OH and whose ancestry has been well researched and documented back to Hans Michol Traut. Hans Michol Traut (age 8), arrived in Philadelphia with his widower father, Johann Wendel Georg Traut ("Wintel Draut"), who took the oath of allegiance at Philadelphia after having sailed on the Winter Gally (Hope Shipping Company), commanded by Edward Painter. Y-DNA testing from descendants of this line, which had previously been proven via traditional means, indicated for a time that our Jacob P and his neighbor in 1850, Andrew Jackson Trout, were NOT from the same line of Trouts. In fact, further testing of additional descendants of this same line has since shown that our Jacob P Trout IS a member of the genetic stream that flows from Johann Wendel George Trout. Our son's Y-DNA is an almost perfect match with 7 other proven direct descendants of this same emigrant from Deutschland.*
Of course, we still don't know for certain HOW Jacob and Andrew were related. We do know now though that we are at least examining the correct TREE! If you would like to learn more about this exciting new genealogy tool, click here to be taken to the Trout DNA Research website in a new window.
FINAL NOTE — It's been fun doing this research. If you can add/correct anything you find here and drop me a line so I can update my records, I'd be grateful for your input. If you share this with anyone (in any form) please be kind enough to mention the source and give credit to those who have contributed their efforts toward this work (source listings will be provided upon request). And, perhaps most importantly, remember that this is a work in progress and may contain errors.....it is not to be taken as the final word on any of these people.
Feel free to contact me with questions that may arise as you look through these pages. I have much that you might find of interest which has not been included here.
Thank you for your interest. You may reach me at
Sheri Trout
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*It now appears likely that the original individual used as the reference test for this Trout line, whose DNA is from a totally different population group, may have been the child of a wife's prior marriage or perhaps an undocumented adoption into the family at an early generation. Though the research was carefully done, and has been meticulously reviewed, the preponderance of evidence indicates that the gene pool indicated by the 7 matching individuals, whose research is also soundly documented, is the true DNA reference line for direct descendants of Johann Wendel Georg Traut 1689-1761.