S McCormick
08 August 2008, 03:12 PM
I have a letter written in the late 1930s to my great-uncle by his (at that time) oldest living first cousin. He transcribed this letter and sent a carbon of that transcription to my sister, who has given me a "Xerox" of those papers. The typescript on our carbons was frequently unclear and the copier version may be even less so; some names do not come through all this transcription.
But my main problem comes from trying to untangle the relationships between the people she mentions. Here are two sentences from these papers: "Mary Lautzenhizer told me the German Bible she had was her mother’s and of course it is then the sister of our Grandmother Susan ***mel, and Sarah (we called her Sally) **rmon’s mother was a sister too. Her name was Catherine, my mother’s Aunt Catherine. Mary Eli told me my mother took Hannah and visited their Aunt Catherine Seitner, and Hannah cried and my mother cried. I visited them too at about the age of seventeen with Elis’ on their visits to Miami county visiting Mary’s sisters and brothers." The asterisks in the names indicate unclear transcriptions.
As you can see, I am understandably confused here; who ARE these people? Who is Mary Lautzenhiser (I know of several)? Who is Sally **rmon (it might be Harmon), whose mother was a sister to "Aunt Catherine Seitner," aunt to Barbara Shafer Hoover, and therefore an aunt to my great grandfather.
Is there a public forum with a message board where I could post the letter (or parts of the letter) and see if other searchers can help identify the people? Most of the people in the letter lived in Wabash County, Indiana. I know that Roots Web has a message board for Wabash County, but this information seems to me to be too long to post there.
Does anyone know of any other place where I could reach people who might be able to contribute bits and pieces that would clear up this puzzle?
Sue
But my main problem comes from trying to untangle the relationships between the people she mentions. Here are two sentences from these papers: "Mary Lautzenhizer told me the German Bible she had was her mother’s and of course it is then the sister of our Grandmother Susan ***mel, and Sarah (we called her Sally) **rmon’s mother was a sister too. Her name was Catherine, my mother’s Aunt Catherine. Mary Eli told me my mother took Hannah and visited their Aunt Catherine Seitner, and Hannah cried and my mother cried. I visited them too at about the age of seventeen with Elis’ on their visits to Miami county visiting Mary’s sisters and brothers." The asterisks in the names indicate unclear transcriptions.
As you can see, I am understandably confused here; who ARE these people? Who is Mary Lautzenhiser (I know of several)? Who is Sally **rmon (it might be Harmon), whose mother was a sister to "Aunt Catherine Seitner," aunt to Barbara Shafer Hoover, and therefore an aunt to my great grandfather.
Is there a public forum with a message board where I could post the letter (or parts of the letter) and see if other searchers can help identify the people? Most of the people in the letter lived in Wabash County, Indiana. I know that Roots Web has a message board for Wabash County, but this information seems to me to be too long to post there.
Does anyone know of any other place where I could reach people who might be able to contribute bits and pieces that would clear up this puzzle?
Sue