Tombstone Tuesday--The Immigrant Hagens

 My hubby's family has the most recent immigrants of any I have been researching.  My own line traces back to the colonies for the most part, but his family came to the United States 1888.  The   microfilm of "Extractions from DECLARATIONS of INTENTION and/or NATURALIZATION RECORDS states that: "Petitioner renounced allegiance to the King of Prussia of whom he had been a subject."  The Hagen family stones are located in the Holton cemetery, just down the road from where we live. 

 Ludwig and Wilhelmine came to Michigan with their children Anna, Carl, Martha, Paul, Otto, and Frank.  The daughters moved, one to the Upper Peninsula, and one to Muskegon, and Frank to Wisconsin, the other three sons remained in the immediate area.  Their graves are located in the same cemetery, with Otto and Carl buried near the large family stone.  They have the same small but hefty stones, very like their parents individual stones.

 I recently learned that the original homestead of Ludwig and Wilhelmine is the small home and 80 acres located just down the road from where I currently live.  Previously my husband had called the farm of their son Paul the "home place."  That is another 80 acre farm that backed up to his fathers, and together the family farmed the 160 acre half section.

The one thing that made this family hard to research is the short period they lived here in Michigan.  Coming in 1888, they were only here for one federal census, the lamented 1890 census.  However, Ludwig was still alive for the 1894 Michigan state census. 
Sometimes you have to be happy with the small things.