I Never Tire of Discovering Cousin Connections

It was 9 years ago this week that I created this blog as a place where I could record my thoughts and share my discoveries as I research my family’s history. In observance of that “Blogiversary”, I will display a chart that I created Saturday evening after recognizing some of the connections in my mother’s family. As we research, we gather names and dates and record marriages. But without directly speaking to our ancestors, even parents and grandparents, we often overlook some of the meaningful relationships that they personally knew about. This chart displays some of those relationships that I just discovered two days ago, on the 9th anniversary of my establishing this blog.

I’m the person at the bottom left, M Rebecca Margheim. My maternal grandmother was Nannie Becker who married Milo Flanders, as you can see at left. I colored the Becker family members with blue frames or blue arrows. You can see that Nannie Becker had a sister Esta Becker, who married Elmo Batchman.  And the blue arrows at right show their brother J. Fred Becker, who first married Ethel Stevenson, and second, married Anna M. Steen. Nannie, Esta and Fred were all the children of my great-grandparents, Joe Becker and Emma C. Strait. Elmo and Esta (Becker) Batchman are pictured below.

If you follow to the right of J Fred Becker and Ethel Stevenson, you can see that Anna May Steen was first married to George Rowe. George happens to be the great-grandson of Johann Becker and Anna Maria Martini, who were the parents of my great-grandfather Joe Becker. So Fred Becker and George Rowe were first cousins, once removed. When George passed away,  and Fred’s wife had died, Fred married the widow of George Rowe, his first cousin once removed.

Pictured above are Fred and Ethel (Stevenson) Becker. Fred’s wife, Ethel Stevenson, had a brother named Marshall “Jack” Stevenson, who was married to Dorothy Batchman. Marshall is in the photo below, at far right.

In the chart at the top, you can see that Dorothy was a sister to Elmo Batchman, who married Esta Becker, the sister of Fred Becker and of my grandmother Nannie (Becker) Flanders.  So Fred Becker’s brother-in-law, Marshall Stevenson, was married to his sister Esta (Becker) Batchman’s sister-in-law Dorothy (Batchman) Stevenson.

Then you can see that Dorothy Batchman and Elmo Batchman also had a brother Alfred, who had a daughter Maxine. My cousin Don Haddon married Maxine. Don is the son of Ethel Flanders, my mother’s sister. The Alfred Batchman family is pictured below.

This isn’t really meaningful, I suppose, in the grand scheme of things. But I find it interesting and significant when I learn of family members who married and knew other family members, connected in such a way as these illustrated.

Here’s a chart I worked up a few months ago, featuring many of the same individuals.

Well, this is it for my celebration of my 9th Blogiversary. I’m happy that I started this blog all those years ago and have documented many of my findings and have related some interesting stories to my readers. I’d never have been able to remember them, so I’m glad they’re here where I can go back and enjoy them again.