What a Tangled Web We Weave :: Part Five - The Kinexxions

If you haven't already done so, you may want to read part one as well as the 2nd part and part three as well as the 4th part.

The obituaries of the children of Ora Joslin Weeks led to those of some of their children. In all I ended up with 45 obituaries or funeral notices! It was really a lot of fun. Especially when I started finding some kinexxions to me. Perhaps stretching the kinexxions just a little...

The First Kinexxion:

Several sons of Ora (Joslin) Weeks lived in the Ormas area, which is in Whitley County and a few miles north of Columbia City. But apparently they lived just inside the Noble County line. What was interesting to me is that the Ormas area is also where Emily Eliza Joslin Long lived. Emily was a sister of my 3rd great grandfather Lysander Joslin. Emily and Lysander were children of James and Abigail Goodrich Joslin. (For ten years I also lived in Noble County, a few miles northwest of Ormas, but that really has nothing to do with this.)

I think it is highly likely that descendants of Emily Long and Ora Weeks knew each other. Emily died in December 1929 – Ora Weeks died in April 1920 so it's even possible that they may have known each other too. One of Emily's granddaughters married a George Fry. He is mentioned as a pallbearer in the obituary of Charles Weeks (one of Ora's sons). Without further research I don't know for certain that they are the same person. However, the George Fry that married Emily's granddaughter is buried in the same cemetery as Charles Weeks and his brother Bert.

A Second Kinexxion:

Rowena (Loe) Weeks was the wife of Phillip Weeks who was a great-great-grandson of Ora Weeks. I met Rowena a few years ago when she was researching the family of her half-sister Clarabelle Foster. Her Foster family connects with mine, a few generations back and I was able to provide her with information that took her line back to our immigrant ancestor, William Foster. Even though Rowena lived in California, she was a member of the Genealogical Society of Whitley County, as am I. Rowena passed away on June 25, 2009 and has one of the nicest obituaries I've ever seen.

Kinexxion Number Three:

Mary (Weeks) Brown was a great-granddaughter of Ora Weeks. When I was a kid growing up in Kosciusko County, Mary Brown – the one and the same - was one of our neighbors! She lived right across the road from my aunt - my Mother's sister - Patricia (Phend) Reiff for many, many years. They were good friends and attended the same church (Morris Chapel United Methodist), which I also attended as a kid. We moved a few miles north of Barbee Lakes when I was 12 years old. Mary and her husband sold their farm in the late 1990s and moved into Warsaw. I had seen her a few times in recent years. The last time was at Aunt Pat's 80th birthday party in June 2006. I was not aware that Mary had passed away on March 4, 2009 – I was recuperating from surgery at the time.

And, finally, a rather convoluted kinexxion between the Joslin and Winebrenner and Phend families:

My grandmother, Hazlette Brubaker Phend Dunn Ferguson, loved to play euchre. In her later years but before cancer took hold and changed her life, she and “the girls” would gather weekly to play cards. One of those ladies was a “cousin” named Gladys. Now, this was back in the day before I was even the least bit interested in genealogy. After grandma passed away and I became obsessed with this little hobby it took me a few years to finally determine their relationship!

As it turns out, Gladys was a daughter of Charles and Cora Long Burnworth who was a daughter of Emily Eliza Joslin Long... therefore, Gladys was a granddaughter of Emily. My grandmother was a great-granddaughter of Lysander Joslin, Emily's brother. That means Gladys and grandma were 2nd cousins once removed. It gets better. Two years after her first husband passed away Gladys married Jesse D. Winebrenner. Jesse was the father of Ty Winebrenner who married Evelyn Phend, my mother's first cousin!

Through several online family trees (no “real” research has been done by me to confirm these relationships) it appears that Ty is a descendant of Andrew Jackson Winebrenner (1818 – 1888) while Matilda Winebrenner who married George W. Joslin is a descendant of John Winebrenner (born 1812). Andrew and John are children of Christian Winebrenner (1764-1832) and his second wife Abigail Chrisman. My cousin Babs (see the first post in this series) is a descendant of Ester Winebrenner (1801 – 1851) who is a daughter of Christian Winebrenner and his first wife Mary Adams.

And that, my friends, is what makes genealogy and family history research so much fun! Don't you just love it!