It all started with this photo of Mrs. Sloan

Mrs. Sloan, Ethel and Nannie Flanders, Marie Keeler at home, 1937

In the photo collection I recently gained access to from my cousins Edna and Duane was the photo I'm sharing above. Identified on the back of the photos are Mrs. Sloan, Ethel and her mother Nannie Flanders, and Marie Keeler. The year given is 1937. 

Nannie Flanders was my grandmother and my mother was a sister to Ethel. I believe Mrs. Keeler and Mrs. Sloan were friends of my grandmother. As I grew up I remember my father telling me about a friend he and my mother had named Becky Sloan. He told me I was named after her. 

Today I thought about that as I viewed this photo and wondered if this might be the same Mrs. Sloan who was named Becky. I looked at censuses on Ancestry.com and found that James Reuben Sloan and his wife Rachel Rebecca (Dale) lived near my Flanders grandparents in 1930 in Great Bend, Barton, Kansas. R. Rebecca Sloan was born in 1871 so would have been 66 in this photo dated 1937.

As I studied the Sloan family today, I started seeing many familiar names connected to it. I developed this chart when I finished tracking everyone through their marriages and descendants.

This chart above shows James R and Rebecca Sloan in the gray shaded box. They had a daughter Goldie who married Louis Burhenn. Louis's brother was John Burhenn, married to Thena Smith. This is a nice family photo of John and Thena that came from my mother's photo album.

As we move left through the pedigree chart above we see that John Burhenn had a sister Emma whose grandson Earl Hildebrand married Crystal Gere. I've shown also how Crystal Gere is a first cousin of Bernice Kent, wife of Mervin Flanders. Since Mervin is my mother's brother, Bernice Kent Flanders was my aunt. So I've established a connection from Becky Sloan to my Aunt Bernice!

This chart above continues with the Sloan family, as Jacob Sloan and Catherine Wood at the top left are the parents of James Reuben Sloan. We can see that James R. Sloan had a brother Levi who married Alice Bortz. It's not easy to follow, but I've shown that Alice Bortz, daughter of Aaron Bortz and Margaret Beye, has a brother Walter Bortz, who married Hettie Kauffman. Walter and Hettie had son Lester Bortz, who married Helen Evans. Helen's parents are to the left of her box, namely Howard Evans and Laura Maupin. I know Laura Maupin as her 2nd husband was H. J. Jones, father of my step-mother Phyllis Jones! 

Laura Maupin Evans Jones at left, with her daughter Helen Evans Bortz at right.

My step-mother Phyllis Jones Margheim at left, with Laura Evans Jones, center and her daughter Betty Evans Thomas at right. 

The chart shows us that Levi and Alice Bortz Sloan had a son named Delbert who had a daughter Dell Marie, wife of Jim Hayden. I knew Dell Marie and Jim, as they attended the same church I attended in my hometown of Great Bend, KS. Dell and Jim Hayden have a son named Randy who is married to Tammy Becker. Tammy is my cousin! Her great, great grandparents, Joe and Emma Strait Becker, are my great grandparents. I'm listed on the chart as M. Rebecca Margheim at the bottom right. And you can see my mother Ruby Flanders on the right side, and her brother Mervin Flanders at the left side of the chart, as husband of Bernice Kent. 

I found out what I set out to learn this afternoon, and more! I know that Becky Sloan was not only a friend and neighbor of my Grandma Flanders, but happens to be connected to my mother's family as well as my step-mother's family! Who knew? Several hours of research and the development of the detailed charts shown in this post all started with that one simple photo of Mrs. Sloan with my Aunt Ethel and my Grandma Flanders. 

Now I need to learn more about Marie Keeler!