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!

My Family Connection to a Hometown Friend

Last Friday afternoon my husband Larry and I drove through our local Lakeside Cemetery to photograph a grave for Find-A-Grave.com.  We were about 20 feet from the grave when I noticed this small headstone for Debra Kay Bortz, Nov 6-Nov 8, 1956. I was fairly sure that I knew the parents of this little infant. My step-mother was Phyllis Jean Jones Margheim and her step-mother  was Laura Casper (Maupin) Evans Jones. Laura's daughter from her first marriage was Helen Marie Evans Bortz, the wife of Lester Bortz. I knew as I grew up in Great Bend, Kansas that Helen and Lester Bortz lived in Canon City, Colorado. By the time I moved to Canon City, Colorado in 1987, Helen and Lester had moved with their large family to Ft. Collins, Colorado. 

As I continued my genealogy research about 8 or 10 years ago I contacted Lester Bortz for added family information I thought he could provide on his mother-in-law's family line. I've had the privilege of visiting with Lester on the phone and in the last few years my father, Ernest Margheim, former Great Bend, Kansas resident and current Canon City, Colorado resident, has had numerous phone visits with the now 100 year old Lester Bortz! Lester and my dad have much in common as each of them are former Kansas residents, members of the same Jones family, and live alone in their advancing years. 

I asked my husband to stop his truck so I could photograph this small gravesite of Debra Bortz. I wanted to verify when I got home that this was indeed a daughter of Lester and Helen Bortz. Then we proceeded to locate and photograph the gravesite to fulfill the Find-a-Grave request. 

I posted this picture of Debra's headstone on Facebook Friday evening. One of the people who commented was Elaine (Amerine) Mull, a friend of mine from my hometown of Great Bend, Kansas. Actually Elaine's older brother Clyde was my classmate from kindergarten through high school. It also happens that my father, Ernie Margheim, was employed in Pawnee Rock, Kansas at Mull Farms by Elaine and her husband Glenn Mull from about 1996-1998. My dad was employed at Great Bend Packing as a Controller for his 54 year career (1940-1994). Upon his retirement from that employment, he found that he wasn't content to stay at home since my mother was still working at Great Bend Packing, so Dad attended classes at Barton County Community College, then continued to work through his employment in the office at Mull Farms. 

My post on facebook caught Elaine's eye as she commented that her grandmother was a Bortz. I knew the name of Elaine's father Loren Amerine because, as a prominent electrical contractor in Great Bend, KS, he was the employer of my first husband at the time of our marriage in 1971. I searched Ancestry.com to find any listing of the ancestry of Loren Amerine, so I could see the detail of Elaine's Bortz connection. I found it and compared the names listed with those in my RootsMagic database that were related to Lester Bortz. This is what I found:

Elaine and the infant Debra Kay Bortz are second cousins! I love discovering connections like this. In fact, it's one of my greatest pleasures as I research my family's history. I've shared this chart now with Elaine and in return, she has shared treasured family stories with me by email. And it all came about because of our efforts to provide photos to those who request them through findagrave.com. Blessings come to those who serve.