Blessed to have portraits of great, great grandparents

The photo above shows at left that my son is a great grandson of Frank Jefferson Bell and his wife Alma Alice Erhlich. Frank Bell had a brother Charles Owen Bell, indicated at right. In the past couple of weeks I've been very blessed by the son and daughter-in-law of Charles Bell who have sent me these photos of Frank and Alma Ehrlich Bell, as well as photos of the parents of Frank and Charles, John Willis Bell and his wife Emeline Charlotte Crotchett Bell.  

John Willis Bell 1861-1935

Emeline Charlotte Crotchett Bell 1863-1931

Frank Jefferson (1888-1951) and Alma Alice (Ehrlich 1895-1942) Bell

My thoughts as I look at these portraits are of how blessed my granddaughter is to already have photos of her great, great, great grandparents and great, great grandparents. And since I have them now, her grandchildren will know what their 4th and 5th great grandparents looked like. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all could know that. 

Facebook Unites Cousins with Surprising Connections

Sometimes stories unfold so quickly I can barely keep up! This afternoon I stayed home from work as I'm developing a cold. After taking a nap I got onto Facebook and saw a friend request Gwenda Radcliffe, one of my son's cousins, made to me. She suggested that I become a Facebook friend of another one of her cousins named Jennifer. 

I was happy when Jennifer accepted my request quickly after I sent it. I reviewed her timeline to see who my "new friend" was. I saw that she lives in South Carolina, quite near the town where my husband's half-brother Dale lives. That was the first connection that caught my eye. Then I noticed she has a friend with the same surname as Dale. So I'm anxious to see if her friend knows my brother-in-law Dale. 

I also noticed that Jennifer "likes" some of the "Mormon" pages that I like and through our messaging I learned that she is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as I am. Second cool connection!

As we "chatted" I found that Jennifer is my son's fourth cousin, once removed. Jennifer's third great grandfather is my son's fourth great grandfather. Third cool connection! 

Gotta love Facebook when it's used for the good! Thank you, Gwenda, for bringing cousins together who have quite a bit in common, even though we've never met. I think as we get acquainted we're going to find that we have even more in common!

I Discovered Another Surprising Connection

I've said before that I'm easily impressed, amazed, and astounded. It seems, as I research my family and my husband's ancestry, that I make interesting and surprising discoveries weekly.

Pictured above is a young lady named Gwenda, who has posted quite an extensive tree at Ancestry.com, called the "Duff, Crotchett, Maupin Tree". Last year as I was researching the birth family of my adopted son Matt (pictured below), I found that Gwenda and my son are each Crotchett descendants. They are 5th cousins.

Tonight I was looking at Ancestry.com and as I read the words "Duff, Crotchett, Maupin Tree", the name MAUPIN caught my attention. Every time I've looked at Gwenda's work, I was researching the Crotchett family and focused on that name. I knew that my step-grandmother was Laura Casper Maupin Jones, wife of my step-mother's father, Henry James Jones. In reviewing her tree more thoroughly, I found that Gwenda and my step-grandmother Laura Maupin Jones are 5th cousins, 3 times removed.

My step-mother Phyllis Jones Margheim and her step-mother Laura Casper Maupin Jones

I know many people say "We're all related anyway". I don't like hearing that. I'm still wonderfully surprised when I make these discoveries of connections among my family members.