LaVonne Lee's  paternal  grandmother  was a KNOOP.  From 1988 to 1996 we traveled from county to county throughout the Western States doing research on a number of family names, KNOOP among them.  Someone told us that the KNOOP name was derived   from  a   Dutch name,  KNOPF,  so  we also  gathered  data  on  that  name  as  well.   Another  likely  related  name is KNOPP, but the occurrence of this name in the records is so frequent that we chose not to include it in their research.  The end result has been a great deal of information gathered on the KNOOP and KNOPF surnames.  Wishing to share this information with others who are interested in the history of KNOPFs and/or KNOOPs we have prepared three books detailing our findings.  KNOOP and KNOPF in the Pacific Northwest  was completed in 1989 and includes the results of our research in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.  KNOOP and KNOPF in the WEST is in process, to be completed soon, and will include our findings in Arizona, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, and parts of California, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.  These books can be found in many libraries and may be purchased directly from us at our website, http://www.baseballundertaker.com/knoop.html.

KNOOP and KNOPF in Missouri and parts of Iowa, Indiana and Ohio, contains selected articles of interest on the KNOOP and KNOPF names from the states indicated in the book title, and abstracts of county records, described below.  We searched the indices of county courthouse records in every Missouri county.  If a Missouri county is missing from the book, it is because we did not find any indexed records for the subject names in the missing county.  Our Indiana research included only the counties of Brown, Carroll, Dubois, Elkhart, Fountain, Henry, Huntington, Kosciusko, Lake, Noble, Parke, Vermillion, Wabash, Warren, Wayne and Whitley.  Once again, if one of those counties is missing in the book, it is because we found nothing of interest on our  names there.  There are fragmentary pieces of information from a few other Indiana counties, but we picked that up from various publications we found in libraries.  The research in Iowa is even more limited, including only Hamilton, Harrison, Mills and Webster counties.  Again, if one of those counties is missing, you know why.

The only Ohio county that we searched was Preble, and we found no KNOOP or KNOPF recordings there.  However, Miami County, Ohio, is just a short distance up the road from Preble County, and we didn’t get there.  There is a wealth of KNOOP history to be found in Miami County and the surrounding area.  The KNOOPs were among the first white settlers in that part of Ohio in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.  This is revealed in a good many local history articles we have discovered and, because of the historical content about the KNOOP family, and a direct connection to LaVonne’s family, we have included them in this book.  Some contain repetitious material, but something different can be discovered in each article.  

The county records we concentrated on most were marriages, civil and criminal court cases, probates, births, deaths and military discharge recordings.  Conspicuously absent from this list are land records.  Even though we recognize the genealogical value of these records, we did not  include land records in our search because of the volume of this type record.  We also did not include court records from any of the lower courts.  Only cases from the Circuit Court  are reported.  Records in city courts and lower county courts are too voluminous and contain such things as minor (and some not so minor) traffic violations.  Not only does searching these records take an inordinate amount of time and book space, the maintenance of these records is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another, and often is not even available.  However, the presence of KNOOPs and/or KNOPFs  in a particular area can be determined from the records we have included in the book, and further research in a specific area may be performed if one desires.

The book is divided into three main sections.  The first section contains selected articles from local histories and newspapers (mostly obituaries).  These are copied verbatim, except in a few instances where we felt compelled to correct atrocious grammar (ours isn’t all that great either, but occasionally we had to interfere) on obvious errors in content.  These articles are presented chronologically by date of publication.  A good many family connections and a great deal of family and local history can be found in these articles.

The second section contains abstracts of county records from each county where we did research.  The counties included in this book are shown above.  As mentioned above, if a county from the group indicated is missing it is because we did not find any KNOOP or KNOPF recordings in that county.  Within each county we have presented marriage records first, Circuit Court records (both civil and criminal) next, then probate records, followed by birth records, death records and military discharge recordings.  Each group is in chronological order by date of occurrence or date of recording.  On occasion you will discover the same person married two or more times in the marriage records, then later in the book the person’s divorce in the court records.  Then, still later in the book his or her birth record.  Obviously, the birth occurred first, and the divorce actually happened between the two marriages that appeared earlier, but appears afterward because of our chosen grouping of the records.

The last section in the book is the full-name index.  Our index is, literally, an every-name index, and then some.  Every person in the book is indexed, including both the married name and pre-married name for brides.  That is, making the assumption that the time-honored custom of the bride taking the husband’s surname is adhered to.  We have also indexed the maiden and married names of women when both names are obvious.  Some examples:  On page 27 you will find that Gene Arthur KNOPF married Mary Ann SKOOG.  We have indexed Mary Ann under both SKOOG and KNOPF.  Mary Ann’s mother, whose maiden name was Anna PEARSON, is indexed under both PEARSON and SKOOG.  On page 31 you will see that Donna Belle KNOOP married Melvin Leroy GALL.  We have indexed Donna Belle under both GALL and KNOOP.

A few words need to be said about research at county courthouses.  First, the quality and content of county records vary widely from one jurisdiction to another, and also over time.  The early records are usually very brief – for example, early marriages might only show a bride, a groom and who married them.  Later marriages would list more genealogical data such as date and place of birth, etc.  On jurisdictional differences, in general, later Indiana marriage records contained a great deal more data at an early date than Missouri records did. 

Secondly, on the subject of doing research in county courthouses, a researcher is totally at the mercy of the personnel working in the various courthouses.  Some counties have personnel who are both knowledgeable and helpful, while other counties have clerks who are neither.  Thankfully, the norm is usually the former.  We have been in courthouses that were so enjoyable that we hated to leave, and others where we were sorry we ever went.  We encountered one Missouri county where public probate records were only available to the public on a certain day of the week, and then only for a fee.  On a few instances we were denied access to records,  sometimes for valid legal reasons, other times because of a misinterpretation of a law or clerk indifference, and occasionally because the record in question could not be found.  These are indicated in the book.  The bottom line is that research in county courthouses is an adventure, and this adventure is reflected in the contents of this book.

While on the subject of researching county records, or research of any kind for that matter, quite often the records are handwritten, and not always easy to decipher.  We have tried to translate these various attempts at penmanship the best that we can, but can assure you that we have been far from 100% accurate in this undertaking.  It is also worth mentioning that the same name will quite often appear differently on the same document – both on handwritten and printed documents for that matter.  At all times we have done the best we could in deciphering and reporting what we have seen.

The source material in courthouse records is sometimes in error, and other times difficult to interpret.  There is also the case where we have introduced errors in the transcription of the data, though we have made every attempt to minimize this type error.  Some of the records list a great deal of useful information, others hardly any.  We have attempted to report all the information contained in the original records.  Some of the court records are subject to individual interpretation.  We are not attorneys, and have attempted to only summarize the content of the court cases.  Any person interested in more detail on these cases may find the case files available to the public at the indicated county by requesting the indicated case number.

LaVonne Lee's  paternal  grandmother  was a KNOOP.  From 1988 to 1996 we traveled from county to county throughout the Western States doing research on a number of family names, KNOOP among them.  Someone told us that the KNOOP name was derived   from  a   Dutch name,  KNOPF,  so  we also  gathered  data  on  that  name  as  well.   Another  likely  related  name is KNOPP, but the occurrence of this name in the records is so frequent that we chose not to include it in their research.  The end result has been a great deal of information gathered on the KNOOP and KNOPF surnames.  Wishing to share this information with others who are interested in the history of KNOPFs and/or KNOOPs we have prepared three books detailing our findings.  KNOOP and KNOPF in the Pacific Northwest  was completed in 1989 and includes the results of our research in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.  KNOOP and KNOPF in Missouri and Parts of Iowa, Indiana and Ohio was completed last month.  KNOOP and KNOPF in the West  is the last of our KNOOP/KNOPF series and includes our findings in Arizona, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, and parts of California, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.  These books can be found in many libraries and may be purchased directly from us at our website, http://www.baseballundertaker.com/knoop.html.

KNOOP and KNOPF in the West, contains selected articles of interest on the KNOOP and KNOPF names from the states indicated above, and abstracts of county records, described below.  We searched the indices of county courthouse records in every county in the states of Arizona, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.  If a  county from one of those states is missing in the book it is because we did not find any indexed records for the subject names in the missing county.  Our Oklahoma research covered only the  counties along the northern border including Alfalfa, Beaver, Cimarron, Craig, Delaware, Grant, Harper, Kay, Mayes, Nowata, Osage, Ottawa, Rogers, Texas, Washington and Woods counties.  Once again, if one of those counties is missing in the book, it is because we found nothing of  interest on our  names there.

Sorry to say, the county records gathered in Kansas are fragmentary, at best.  We did find some KNOOP/KNOPF information in Kansas, but that was early in our research experience, and our record keeping at that time was a work-in-process.  Regardless, we have included what information we picked up in Kansas, but rest assured that it is our feeling that a great deal more can be found there.

With the exception of California’s Fresno County, our California information was found either in libraries or on the internet.  We did do a thorough search of birth, marriage and death records (not civil, criminal or probate court records) in Fresno County.  The remainder of the California marriage records were taken from microfiche furnished by the California Department of Health and cover only the years of 1960 to 1985.  With the exception of Fresno County, the California death records also came from the California Department of Health, were found at Rootsweb.com and cover the years 1940 to 1997.  These were supplemented by information found on the Social Security Death Index.  As a matter of interest, Bill, working as a consultant for the California Department of Health in the late 1960’s, was involved in setting up California’s first Marriage and Death Index System that this information came from, and that system was still being used until the late 1990’s.

The marriage and divorce information for Texas came from Texas State indices found on the internet at WorldVitalRecords.com.  The marriages cover the years 1968 to 2003, and the divorces  1968 to 2001.  The Texas deaths were found on the internet at Rootsweb.com and cover the years 1964 to 1998.

It must be mentioned that the information shown in the book that was derived from the internet is skeletal in nature compared to that taken on site from the actual county records shown in the remainder of the book.  We have taken a great deal of pride in presenting as much information as can possibly be garnered from the actual records – not just information found in the indices, which is quite often what one finds on the internet.

Back to the records from counties where we looked at the actual records:  The county records we concentrated on most were marriages, civil and criminal court cases, probates, births, deaths and military discharge recordings.  Conspicuously absent from this list are land records.  Even though we recognize the genealogical value of these records, we did not  include land records in our search because of the volume of this type record.  We also did not include court records from any of the lower courts.  Only cases from the Circuit Court  are reported.  Records in city courts and lower county courts are too voluminous and contain such things as minor (and some not so minor) traffic violations.  Not only does searching these records take an inordinate amount of time and book space, the maintenance of these records is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another, and often is not even available.  However, the presence of KNOOPs and/or KNOPFs  in a particular area can be determined from the records we have included in the book, and further research in a specific area may be performed if one desires.

The book is divided into three main sections.  The first section contains selected articles from local histories and newspapers (mostly obituaries).  These are copied verbatim, except in a few instances where we felt compelled to correct atrocious grammar (ours isn’t all that great either, but occasionally we had to interfere) or obvious errors in content.  These articles are presented chronologically by date of publication.  A good many family connections and a great deal of family and local history can be found in these articles.

The second section contains abstracts of county records from each county where we did research.  The counties included in this book are shown above.  As mentioned above, if a county from the group indicated is missing it is because we did not find any KNOOP or KNOPF recordings in that county.  Within each county we have presented marriage records first, Circuit Court records (both civil and criminal) next, then probate records, followed by birth records, death records and military discharge recordings.  Each group is in chronological order by date of occurrence or date of recording.  On occasion you will discover the same person married two or more times in the marriage records, then later in the book the person’s divorce in the court records.  Then, still later in the book his or her birth record.  Obviously, the birth occurred first, and the divorce actually happened between the two marriages that appeared earlier, but appears afterward because of our chosen grouping of the records.

The last section in the book is the full-name index.  Our index is, literally, an every-name index, and then some.  Every person in the book is indexed, including both the married name and pre-married name for brides.  That is, making the assumption that the time-honored custom of the bride taking the husband’s surname is adhered to.  We have also indexed the maiden and married names of women when both names are obvious.  Some examples:  On page 48 you will find that Richard KNOOP married Pat HECKATHORN.  We have indexed Pat under both HECKATHORN and KNOOP.  Pat’s mother, whose maiden name was Helen DENTON,  is indexed under both DENTON and HECKATHORN.  On page 55 you will see that Emma Lou KNOPF married Ollie Edward WARNER.  We have indexed Emma Lou under both WARNER and KNOPF.

A few words need to be said about research at county courthouses.  First, the quality and content of county records vary widely from one jurisdiction to another, and also over time.  The early records are usually very brief – for example, early marriages might only show a bride, a groom and who married them.  Later marriages would list more genealogical data such as date and place of birth, etc.  An example of jurisdictional differences is a comparison of marriage records of Nebraska and Arizona.  In general, Nebraska marriage records contained a great deal more data at an early date than Arizona records did.

Secondly, on the subject of doing research in county courthouses, a researcher is totally at the mercy of the personnel working in the various courthouses.  Some counties have personnel who are both knowledgeable and helpful, while other counties have clerks who are neither.  Thankfully, the norm is usually the former.  We have been in courthouses that were so enjoyable that we hated to leave, and others where we were sorry we ever went.  We encountered one Arizona county where we were not allowed to even look at indices to what are supposed to be public records.  On a few instances we were denied access to records,  sometimes for valid legal reasons, other times because of a misinterpretation of a law or clerk indifference, and occasionally because the record in question could not be found.  These are indicated in the book.  The bottom line is that research in county courthouses is an adventure, and this adventure is reflected in the contents of this book.

While on the subject of researching county records, or research of any kind for that matter, quite often the records are handwritten, and not always easy to decipher.  We have tried to translate these various attempts at penmanship the best that we can, but can assure you that we have been far from 100% accurate in this undertaking.  It is also worth mentioning that the same name will quite often appear differently on the same document – both on handwritten and printed documents for that matter.  At all times we have done the best we could in deciphering and reporting what we have seen.

The source material in courthouse records is sometimes in error, and other times difficult to interpret.  There is also the case where we have introduced errors in the transcription of the data, though we have made every attempt to minimize this type error.  Some of the records list a great deal of useful information, others hardly any.  We have attempted to report all the information contained in the original records.  Some of the court records are subject to individual interpretation.  We are not attorneys, and have attempted to only summarize the content of the court cases.  Any person interested in more detail on these cases may find the case files available to the public at the indicated county by requesting the indicated case number.