In August,  Louis Kavanaugh Jr., completed his second family history book and it is now on sale to family members and anyone interested. The first family history book was published in June of 2017 by Kavanaugh and it was on the Kavanaugh family and the McCauley family. This was his father’s and mother’s families. The 450 page book was professionally done and had a second printing later that year. That book is now on Amazon thanks to the efforts of Kavanaugh’s nephew Jeff Kavanaugh.

The latest family history book from Kavanaugh is for the James “Gus” Michaels family and for his wife Josephine (Laux) Michaels.

Gus grew up in the Montgomery area and in his early 20’s moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, to work for the Remington Rand Company, and that is where he met his wife, Josephine Laux. They were married Aug. 21, 1934, and moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, when Gus was transferred there with his job.

In the 1940s Gus and Josephine moved back to Indiana where they raised their family. Gus was the son of Louis and Mary Frances (Matthews) Michaels and Gus was one of 11 children born to Louis and Mary Frances. Gus’ ancestors came to this country from Ireland. Josephine was the daughter to Joseph Adam Laux and Eva Maude (Young) of Havelock, Nebraska, which later was incorporated into Lincoln, Nebraska. Josephine Laux was one of eight children born to Joseph Laux and Eva Maude (Young) Laux. Josephine’s ancestors came to this country from Germany.

Gus and Josephine had four children: James Joseph Michaels, Mary Jo (Michaels) Gaetano of Grays Lake, Illinois, Tom Michaels of Loogootee, and Liz (Michaels) Kavanaugh of Montgomery. Gus and Josephine, along with the oldest son Jim, are now deceased.

When asked why he took on this task of writing another family history book Kavanaugh said that after he completed his family history and with its success, his wife, Liz, asked him to do her family history. He said he hesitated to do so because her family was scattered all across the country and he knew it would be a big job to get all the data he needed.

But after making several contacts with Liz’s cousins in Colorado, Nebraska, and other parts of the country, it went better than he expected. They had done a lot of research and this was a big help to have that done.

The book is just under 400 pages and sales of the first printing are nearly gone. The content of the book was online for family members to view before they purchased it and they must have liked what they saw as the orders are coming in.

Another big help on this book was Pastor Louis Showers of Washington. He was able to lay out the pages and helped with the proofing. He had just finished proofing the final pages and forwarded the book to the printer when he took sick and passed away on Sept. 20.  Kavanaugh said he could not have done this without Showers’ help. Kavanaugh said he was extremely grateful for the help to get this project completed.

When asked if this would be his last book, Kavanaugh said, “I do have other obligations with church, family and the pro-life movement and I want to see that through before I take on anything else. Time will tell.”