Rosie and Flossie, two Beautiful Cousins in Fashionable Hats!

One of the treasured photos I received recently from my cousin's collection is this photo of my cousins Rose Ann "Rosie" Rowe and her sister Flora Mable "Flossie" Rowe, daughters of August and Matilda Mayer Rowe. 

These charts show how I'm related to these beautiful girls.

We can see that Rosie was born in 1894, while Flossie was born just a year later, in 1895.

I love the fashion these young women display and am most amused by the hats they're proudly wearing. What beautiful style!

An interesting side note is that, while I haven't known anything about either of these women, my research revealed the identity of Rosie's granddaughter. It happens that I was acquainted with her while I lived in Kansas in the late 1970s. My husband at that time was an electrical contractor engaged in wiring a log home for this granddaughter and her husband. It was a difficult project that caused a lot of discussion in our household. My research also revealed that this granddaughter was later married to a man who was my neighbor in the 1970s and 80s and who served as our attorney at that time. I usually cringe when people reply to me "It's a small world". But in this case, I have to say it myself. What a small world. I had no idea at that time that this granddaughter was a cousin of mine. 

PS: I wrote a companion post to this last year that can be found here: http://www.beckyjamison.com/blog-grace--glory-plus/one-facebook-post-reveals-surprising-connections.

My 3rd Cousin is my Husband's 5th Cousin

I wish I could have met Owen B. Rowe. He was born in 1922 in Dighton, Kansas and passed away in 1974 in Scott City, Kansas. He and I share one set of great, great grandparents: Johann Becker and Ana Maria Martini. Their daughter Anna Maria Becker married Johann Mayer, and they had a daughter Matilda, wife of August Rowe. Matilda and August had a son Clarence who married Elizabeth Yost. Clarence and Elizabeth were the parents of Owen B. Rowe. There's nothing astounding about discovering that. But I was researching MY HUSBAND'S family when I found Owen.

During the past month I've spent countless hours researching members of my husband's extended family who migrated from West Virginia in the early 1880s to Stafford and Barton County, Kansas. I'm from Great Bend, which is the county seat of Barton County, so I've been drawn to these relatives of my husband who were early settlers of MY home territory. It's funny how we get "territorial" about our homeland. My husband was born and raised in Pennsylvania and had grandparents who resided in neighboring West Virginia. So I've wondered "What were a few of HIS relatives doing in MY county in Kansas in the 1880s?"

I recently met my friend Jill through our Ancestry.com trees and she is from St. John, Stafford County, Kansas. When she shared her ancestry with me, I discovered a distant cousin of my husband (Dr. Stephen M. Haught) who was married to a cousin of hers (Blanch Dixon). Last night I was exploring that family line more thoroughly. In tracking Stephen Haught's sister Jemima, I discovered that she married a Yost and I knew my husband had a great grandmother who was a Yost. I found that Jemima Haught Yost had a daughter Elizabeth who married Clarence A. Rowe. Their son was Owen B. Rowe! Do you remember Owen from my opening paragraph?

My RootsMagic software is so valuable in showing relationships, so I was able to determine that Owen's 3rd great grandparents, John and Catherine Snuiche Youst are also my husband Larry's 5th great grandparents. And Larry's 5th great grandparents Jacob and Elizabeth Funk Showalter are also Owen's 3rd great grandparents.  Owen is Larry's 5th cousin and also my 3rd cousin.

It would have been interesting to have known an individual who shared a bloodline with both me and my husband Larry Jamison!