About This Site:

This site is dedicated to my grandmother Jean Ballantine Cossler and to my mother Virginia Cossler Briggs.

I would also like to acknowledge my wonderful cousins whom I have met "online" and who have graciously shared their family history, which represents many long hours and often years of painstaking research. Without Candace, Denis, Marilyn and Kathy this site would not exist. If you have any questions that are not answered within these pages, please go to the contact page.

The surnames covered in this site are:

Ballantine & Ballentine
Cassler, Cosler, Cossler
Lindsay
McCarty

At this time, only the main branches of my mother's side of our family tree have been explored. Although as research yields more answers, my father's side of the family will be added to this site. To add to the confusion, our family name Ballantine is also spelled Ballentine-with an "e", often within the same family. My grandmother Ballantine insisted that it be spelled with an "a", while her own son spelled it with an "e". Likewise, the Cossler family name was spelled with an "a" prior to 1840 and an additional "s" was added at about the same time. Cossler may also occasionally come up in various records spelled with a "k".

Genealolgy is all about rediscovering our ancestors; the life stories of the men and women with whom we share a common history. The faded photographs and barely legible handwritten cenus records only give us a glimpse at what their lives at that point in history must have been like. They come alive in our imagination and live on in our recorded family histories and hearts. We are here because of them; we are their legacy.

This site is by no means complete; indeed it is a work in progress. There is still much to be rediscovered about our ancestors. We are hopeful that our missing cousins will find our site and add their memories and family stories to those recorded here.

So, to all of our fellow kinsman, if you find your way to our site and take your place amongst the branches of our family tree, we welcome you! It is more than the color of one's eyes or the curl in one's hair that makes one kin, it is our shared history. This site is dedicated not only to the past but to the present and to the future generations that some day will succeed us.

Susan Virginia Briggs