About Me

Hi, I’m Kevin Mittge, the blogger responsible for the Robbins family stories in this blog.  I have been interested in the Robbins family since I was a child and first heard stories about my line of the family coming west across the Oregon Trail in 1852 (they did) and how we were related to Abraham Lincoln (part of our family is, my part is not!).  I also learned that someone in the family kept a “family tree” which I imagined as a picture of a big tree, with everyone’s name on it, but which turned out to be a wonderful notebook kept for decades by a preceding genealogist and which I intend to share here.  With those stories, I was off and running, and have been researching ever since (many decades now).

I research regularly.  In the course of that research I’ve come across a wide variety of stories that I would like to share with the rest of the family.  Some of the stories may be well known to some, but mostly I’m bringing to light little known events, about, sadly, little known members of our family.  I hope to excite you with these stories, educate you about relatives who should be better known, and give you an appreciation for our family’s experiences and their place in the world.

In my professional life, I am a public librarian in a wonderful library district on the Oregon coast.

I encourage you to subscribe to my blog so you will notified of updates as they occur.  Thanks for reading and I appreciate feedback!

About the Blog

The mission of this blog is to share research and stories about descendants of Jacob and Mary Robbins of southern Indiana, and their descendants throughout the United States and the world.  The children of  Jacob and Mary Robbins (William, Absalom, Jacob II, James, Martha (Chastain), Mary (Chastain), and Margaret (Robbins) Robbins)  settled in southern Indiana in the early 1800’s.  The Chastain family is represented already by a large family association, so this blog will focus mainly on the sons and Margaret.  All descendants – regardless of surname – will be represented.  I will jump around geographically – an Indiana post followed by an Oregon one -and chronologically, but all posts will deal with members of our common family.  As with all research, there will be errors, but I’ll try to catch and correct them as soon as possible.  If any reader has additional information please let me know.

All photos are from my own collection of family photos unless otherwise noted.