The Griggs, Pergande and

Related Family Trees

of Monroe County, Wisconsin

     Welcome to the Griggs, Pergande and Related Family Trees of Monroe County, Wisconsin.  We have been researching our family trees for about 22 years and have information on nearly 60,000 direct ancestors, indirect ancestors, and members of our "extended family" through marriages to other families in Monroe County.

     The "Griggs and Pergande Ancestors" report, below, includes all of the known ancestors of James LaVerne "Vern" Griggs and his wife Bernice Gertrude Pergande, who married in Monroe County in 1939.  This report does not contain most of the recent family members.  Rather, it is shaped like a "V" and includes key ancestors on both sides of the family, going back as far as we have been able to trace our ancestry in the various surnames.

    Our Griggs Ancestors

    The direct ancestors on the Griggs side of our family are shown on the "Pedigree Chart--Our Griggs Ancestors."  The earliest-known individuals in the chart's ancestral families are contained in the reports entitled "Descendants of John Griggs," "Descendants of Reverend Samuel Griswold," "Descendants of Josiah Root," and "Descendants of Simeon Dewey."  These families emigrated primarily from The British Isles, and settled in Monroe County in the mid- and late-1800's.  These reports start at the earliest known individual, and move forward in time to include all of their known descendants.

    Our Griggs ancestors have been traced back to John Griggs, who was born in 1436 in Somerton, Suffolk County, England--about 100 miles northeast of London.  His descendants emigrated to Essex County, Massachusetts, in 1639--less than twenty years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.  From Massachusetts, our branch of the Griggs family moved through Connecticut, Vermont, and western Wisconsin, before settling in LaGrange Township, north of Tomah, in 1866.

    Our Root ancestors have been traced back to Josiah Root, who was born in 1756 in, we believe, Connecticut.  The report of his descendants traces our branch of his family's movement to New York and Pennsylvania, before settling in Monroe County in the 1850's.   We are attempting to link Josiah to what is believed to be the earliest-known Root/Roote family, which has been traced to Badby, England, in the 1500's.

    Our branches of the Griggs and Root families came together when Samuel Hiram Griggs married Eva Jane Root in Tomah Township in 1908.

Our Pergande Ancestors

    The direct ancestors on the Pergande side of our family are shown on the "Pedigree Chart--Our Pergande Ancestors."  The earliest-known individuals in the chart's ancestral families are contained in the reports entitled "Descendants of Friedrich August Pergande," "Descendants of Johann Wilde," "Descendants of Gottfried Jaskiewicz" (later changed to Kewit), "Descendants of Martin Achtenberg," and "Descendants of Gottlieb Pergande."  These families emigrated from Germany to the Ridgeville Township area of Monroe County in the late-1800's.

    As you move down through the "Descendants" reports, you will see all of the known children in each family.  The person in each family that is marked with a single asterisk in parentheses is the one that is part of a direct link to our family.  So--whether you are moving up or down the tree, follow the people with the "(*)" after their name to determine which is our direct ancestral link.

    Through the work of other researchers, we have traced one branch of our Griggs ancestral family back to the first century.  The mother of Eva Jane Root was Mary Minerva Dewey.  Genealogists have been able to trace the Dewey ancestry back through 68 generations of Mary's ancestors, and those generations are included in the following reports.  (The genealogy software used to prepare these reports has limit of 31 generations, so several reports must be used to trace the full ancestral line.)  In these reports, follow the people with a "(*+)" following their name.   

• The "Ancestors of Mary Minerva Dewey" report goes back to the eleventh century to Ralph de Gand, who was born about 1022 in Flanders, Belgium. 

• The "Ancestors of Ralph de Gand" report traces back through nobility in the present-day countries of England, France, Belgium, and Germany.  Included are people such as Louis "The Pious," Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (born in 778); his father, Charlemagne, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (born in 742); and several Kings, Dukes, Counts, Bishops and others of royal blood.   This report goes back to Clodius, King of The Franks, who was born before 264 A.D.

• The "Ancestors of Clodius, King of The Franks" report will take you back to Clodius II, the King of the West Franks, who was born before 6 A.D.  He is the furthest back that the Dewey ancestral family tree has been traced.

     If you are related to any of our ancestors and would like more information, or if you have additional information about people in any of these families, please contact me.

   This website is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Bernice (Pergande) Griggs, who--as our family historian--assembled much of our early information and was the inspiration for this on-going research.  She passed away in July 2000 and we miss her dearly.  She would be proud that you are looking at much of her life's work and pleased that you share her interest in our family.