A Widening Circle, June 6, 2012

I looked up my family tree

and found out that I'm the sap.

~Rodney Dangerfield

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from San Diego, where we are settling into our new home at the foot of Cowles Mountain on the outskirts of the city.

Happy Birthday Emma Wilk! Today is the 7th birthday of Emma Beverly Jean Wilk, the daughter of Shannon Wilk of Atchison, Kansas, and the granddaughter of my cousin Beverly Russell Wilk (1939-1974).

Shannon: "Yes Emma will be 7. Still trying to wrap my head around it. Where did my little baby go?? She is doing wonderful. Having a good summer so far. They got out of school a week early. They start back on the 9th of August. I think that is too early, but I don't make the rules....lol. I'm doing well, working and taking care of Emma. Enjoying nice weather, though it was quite hot yesterday. I think we hit 90. Still no rain, and the grass, and trees and fields are sure in need of it. I will admit I'm needing some good summer thunderstorms. They get pretty amazing here in Kansas. We have a new neighbor family and they have a 14 year old girl. Emma has found her a new BFF."

Emma is in the very middle (#7) of the 13 GGgrandchildren of Will and Bura Shepard. These GGgrandkids are a very special group who fills the rest of us with hope for our family's future. It's a group that embraces the youngest family members among us, from Lyndsey Aquiningoc (born 1990) to Dominic Ortiz (born 2012).

The first picture I am including today shows Emma Wilk with her cousin Ciara Ortiz. The second picture shows Emma's grandmother Beverly Russell with her brother Rex Russell. This picture was taken in San Diego sometime in the late 1940s when Bev was about the same age that her granddaughter Emma is today.

The Circle Widens. It is always gratifying when, in the midst of my online family research, I hear from people who are related to me in some way. Just the other day I got a message from a woman who is a GG granddaughter of John Pouty Williams and his wife Sarah, who are my GGG grandparents. I have written a number of times in this blog about John Pouty and Sarah. They are among our progenitors who lived outside Spencer, Indiana and are buried in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery there. They were the Ggrandparents of my grandmother Bura Davis Shepard.

The relative who contacted me is Betty-Jean Girouard, from Montreal, Canada. Betty-Jean's grandmother, Minnie Mary Williams was a first cousin of Callie Spear Davis (my Ggrandmother). Minnie Mary Williams (1900-1992) with her husband Alexander Kembel (see 3rd picture, from 1919), were early 20th century immigrants to Canada, where some of their descendants, including Betty-Jean, live today.

Connecting with people in this way not only gives me the simple joy of corresponding with folks who are related, albeit distantly, it also widens the circle of people who are researching some of the same people I am. And with a widening circle comes the hope of more discoveries and insights about people in our family trees.
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Steve