On the Frontier

Pioneer and patriarch Jefferson Toulouse passed away in 1890 and, by 1900, his nine surviving children, "the Civil War Generation," were in their fifties and sixties. It was their children, Jefferson's seventy-three grandchildren, that would experience the wonders of a new century.
The first grandchild arrived in 1850 and the last was born in 1903. In the interim years, their families grew. They migrated westward from Wisconsin, assisted by the Homestead Act, to pioneer new communities as far north as Montana and south as New Mexico. They were among the earliest settlers in Sonoma County, California and helped build Spokane.
Some would fight in Mexico and against Spain in Cuba and the Philippines. Their sons would experience the horrors of World War I. Five family members would die as a result of "the Great Influenza." Some would endure the Dust Bowl years and all would experience the sacrifices brought on by the 1930s Depression.
On the Frontier: Jefferson's Grandchildren is a epic story of challenge and change, progress and peril, lived by everyday heros struggling to make a better life for their children.

Over thirty years of genealogy and family history research has provided a strong foundation for relating the impact of national and global events on families.
Frank's family histories provide a unique blend of biographical information and the timeline of history. The stories tell how everyday heroes react to extraordinary events.
We hope you find them interesting:
Puritans, Patriots and Pioneers explores Colonial and Revolutionary War families and their children and grandchildren's westward migration.
Sons of Ardore traces life in a small Italian village, their response to an epidemic and one man's immigration to America.
Children of the Mirna Valley tells the story of a ethnic group's resistance to assimilation; and, for one family, eight of eleven children traveling to America in search of a new life.
Most recently, the two volumes of On the Frontier tells the founding of New France and conflicts between settlers and the Iroquois as well as one family's evolution through ten generations.