To appreciate our ancestors, one must understand the times and places in which they lived and events and experiences that shaped their lives. We must know about their struggles and recognize how much is owed to the perseverance and sacrifices of generations that came before us. This is an illustrated collection of essays on the ancestors of James H. Wehmer and Hazel M. Snoddy, placed within the context of significant periods of history. Though these ancestors immigrated from different countries, they all ended their journeys in Missouri. Their journeys to get there took them through waves of European immigration, the American Revolutionary War, Indian Wars, the War of 1812, the Louisiana Purchase, America's Civil War, the Great Depression, World War I, World War II and other important historical events.
Land ownership was almost always a primary goal for early westward movement in the United States and the subjects of these essays are no exception. In the 1840s, Manifest Destiny came to represent the inevitability of expansion across the continent. These family lines arriving in Missouri, however, did not follow others to the Pacific Coast. Instead, they remained in Missouri through the 20
th
century and into the 21
st
century. Destiny carried them only so far as the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in what became the State of Missouri in 1821.