Ohio Research trip ~~ Mansfield portion

(~~) symbol means that I’ve left out the Last name for privacy.

               The trip to Ohio began about a year or more ago.  I figured I’d make a trip to Ohio in the Spring of 2012 to deliver the book The Booz In Our Blood to the Muskingum County Public Library or the McIntire Library as it is known.  Rose Ellen (~~) works at the library occasionally and she has been a HUGE help in finding documents relating to the family in Muskingum County.

               With the death of Greg’s mother in November of 2011, Christmas and all the other things that led up to trying to finish the book for Christmas, I fell behind in the editing of the book and the deadline loomed closer and closer.  Finally Greg said I should probably NOT try to finish the book for Christmas 2011, but put it off for closer to Spring.  When I did that, Matt Bogner and Amy Bogner (my 1^st cousins) posted on Facebook that there would be a family reunion at Loudonville at Matt’s campsite the first weekend in August.  Oh, I wanted to go, but couldn’t afford to do the Spring trip and another in August.  Just then the thought came if I put the trip off till August, I could have more time to complete the book and go to Ohio in August instead of the Spring!  And everything began to feel very comfortable!!

               In April of 2011 a “new cousin” contacted me via Ancestry.com (see June 12, 2012 entry for details).  A few weeks later I asked Sharon if she’d like to join me in Ohio for a few days and attend a family reunion and that I’d try to get her to be able to visit as many Bogner’s as I could.  When she agreed, I posted on Facebook that I’d attend and Sharon was invited to come.

               On August 3^rd, 2012 I left Springville to return home to Ohio.  This was to be a 10 day trip with 3 family reunions. 

               I arrived at the airport in Akron/Canton about 3:30… Sharon had flown in from Florida and arrived sometime before noon, poor thing had to wait for me!  I found her, we hugged and felt like we’d known each other for YEARS!!  We got the car from the rental company and began heading south to Mansfield, Ohio.  Boy Ohio sure has changed, I bet Sharon didn’t think I had ever lived there as I could hardly navigate my way through all the new streets and new overpasses!

               The Bogner Family Reunion in Loudonville was hosted by Robin and Matt Bogner on August 4^th.   Matt is my 1st cousin. Sharon (~~) was also there to visit with her cousin Rex (my uncle), this was their first meeting in Sharon's 72 years!  We first went to eat at the Der Dutchman, an Amish run restaurant in the heart of Amish country in Berlin, Ohio.  Oh my gosh, I forgot how beautiful the rolling hills of Ohio are!  From lunch we went to a craft store and Sharon and I fell in love with some Amish artwork by Billy Jacobs.  I purchased “Grandma’s House” http://www.summersnowart.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=56&products_id=2056

and Sharon purchased one as well by Billy, but I can’t remember which one.  We then needed to be on our way to the reunion so we headed towards Uncle Rex’s van, only to realize that he’d locked his keys in the ignition!!  Well I guess we WOULD have time to go to the antique mall next door after all.  While Uncle Rex waited for AAA, Sharon and I walked each row of the antique store.  I found a wonderful oval bowl, but couldn’t bring myself to buy it.  I worried about it breaking on the trip home and also didn’t want to spend too much money in one spot since I was only in my 2^nd day of a 10 day trip.  I was really hoping to find some kind of treasure when I got to Zanesville.

               AAA got there and off we were to Loudonville to visit with all the Bogners, mostly descendants of my grandparents George Bogner Jr. and Jane Elizabeth Wooley-Bogner.  There were friends of cousins there as well and of course Sharon, daughter of Frank Christ Bogner (Brother of George Bogner Jr.).

               After this long day Uncle Rex drove us back to our Bed & Breakfast.

http://theoldestonehousebandb.com/
               Up again early on Sunday the 5^th to attend church in my old LDS home Ward… the building my Grandfather George Bogner Jr. built.  Introduced Sharon all around and attended the Fast & Testimony meeting the first hour. 

 We then took more photos of the building outside and a few more inside.  We left and headed up to the Apostolic Christian Church. 
 

This building was built by my Great Grandfather George Bogner Sr.  He is Sharon’s grandfather.  We got to the building and though there were 2 cars in the parking lot, we could not find anyone inside the building to ask questions of.  The building was unlocked and we went in with the hopes of asking someone if we could take photos.  When no one was found, we did take photos.  Including this one of Sharon and Uncle Rex on the balcony from which their grandfather George Bogner Sr. fell and was killed during the construction of the building.  Aunt Evelyn is on the main floor.

Supposedly he was showing some folks the balcony which was not yet finished and did not have the railing up yet.  When he took a step backwards, and fell over the edge.    This building is just about ½ mile from the LDS building his son George Jr. would build only a few years after his father passed away from the fall.

               We were treated to dinner by Uncle Rex and Aunt Evelyn and then tried to see if we could meet up with more Bogners… it just didn’t work out.  So we took Sharon around a bit and then it was time to visit Aunt Lydia.

               We headed up to the Care Facility that Aunt Lydia now lives in.  Please understand that this meeting with Aunt Lydia (she was my great aunt, but that's what we called her growing up) was wonderful… more wonderful than can be expressed here with words.  Lydia is the SISTER of Sharon's FATHER... the father she never knew! Aunt Lydia is now the only living child left of my Great Grandparents George Bogner Jr. and Theresia Grauer-Bogner.  Our purpose in visiting with Aunt Lydia was to get some answers for Sharon about her father. We were not even sure if Aunt Lydia knew of Sharon's existence since Sharon was a family secret. Even my mother and grandmother knew only that there was a baby born!!   Because this meeting turned into something very sacred and special and due to the fact that Aunt Lydia was a very proper lady and always well kept, photos will not be shared here or on Facebook.  I only wish you all could have been there to witness how special this really was.

               Sharon is 72 (I know she doesn't look it), and Lydia is 92. This was their first meeting in over 72 years!!  Sharon enjoyed her visit as well as Uncle Rex, Aunt Evelyn and myself.  Many of Sharon’s questions were answered… but that only raised more questions.  Some of them might never be answered.  Another of Aunt Lydia’s friend’s showed up to visit with her.  I explained who we were and the importance of this meeting in the hallway with her.  She was so gracious to let us continue our visit with Aunt Lydia.  She promised to send  (and already has), the story of how Aunt Lydia was the first Civilian Patient to receive Pennicillin in the U.S. (Story for another blog).

               From there we rambled around a bit again and then Sharon and I decided that we were extremely tired!  So we thanked Uncle Rex and Aunt Evelyn for their gracious hospitality and told them we just needed to get some rest.  Both of us wanted to get our heads back on and figure out how we wanted to spend the last few hours together and the next day (Monday) since we weren’t going to be together the whole day, but would split up… me to go to Zanesville for the night and she to head to Ada to see a cousin of hers with other genealogy goals to accomplish.

               We got back to the Old Stone House and sat in the family room going over our genealogy when the owners of the home asked if we’d like some homemade ice cream… well certainly!  We gobbled that up and Sharon went for some water out of the fridge.  I decided to open my email and see what I’d missed the last few days.  It was about 8:30 Ohio time and when I opened the inbox, there was an email stating in the subject line:  FRANK CHRIST BOGNER.  I thought that was weird as I was WITH Sharon and didn’t recognize the name of the sender.  I opened it and began reading while Sharon was talking with the B&B owners.  Sourette (~~) says that she is the biological daughter of Sharon’s mother and that she was put up for adoption!  I literally had to read it twice and still felt like crapping my pants!!  Here I am with Sharon on our last night together introducing her to her family, Aunt Lydia and taking her to all kinds of Bogner places …. And now a NEW half-sister is contacting me about wanting to get in touch with Sharon.  HOW did she find me?  Well through my blog, but I was so afraid to say anything to Sharon… but quickly overcame that and practically squealed at her as I caught her by the arm in the kitchen and told her to come and see…. She might just have a heart attack!

               As we spent the next few hours emailing back and forth with Sourette, Sharon came to the absolute knowledge that this was true, that she now had found a half-Sister.  Arrangements were made for us to call Sourette the next morning.  Sleep was hard that night for me, but more especially for Sharon.  We both kept thinking we were in some kind of genealogical vortex!  It was all just so surreal.

The next morning at the arranged time Sharon called Sourette and spent about 45 minutes with her and they agreed to at some future time, meet one another.

               From there we headed out the door after packing up to leave the Old Stone House.  We headed back to Great Grandpa George’s house to see the proximity of where her father lived and the proximity of this Naomi Buell-Karchner, the 2^nd wife of Sharon’s father.  As we passed the house, a lady was sitting on the front steps, (at right in photo) so we rounded the corner and thought about not taking photos while she was there.  Then Sharon said she’d like to talk to the lady.  We parked the car, walked up the driveway and introduced ourselves as “Bogners”!  The lady about jumped out of her skin!  She asked if we knew Lydia Bogner?  Goodness YES!  We’d just seen her yesterday… she’s still living.  The lady said she owned the home and was renovating it.  (Hired contractor is at the corner of the home working on a project)  I asked if we might take Sharon inside as this is where her father and grandfather lived,  and I had been in the home many times visiting my great grandparents and getting Hungarian treats (kipfuls) out of Grandma Theresia’s freezer!  She loved showing us the home.  Got a bunch of photos and she told us that Lydia had a box in the attic (thrown away by the previous owner)… had some tiles in it.  Another box was on the countertop in the kitchen… it was from Sharon’s Uncle Jack (Jacob) and Aunt Aileen Shaffer-Bogner … they lived in Colorado at the time near her father.  The box was on the countertop with a mailing label still on it … probably some 40 years later!  How fortuitous was this?  Certainly NOT an accident.

Fridge at left is where Great Grandma kept her "Kipfuls" a German/Hungarian treat.  If you look closely on the countertop just behind the rolled up blueprint papers is a cardboard box... the one with the label from Colorado from Jack & Aileen.

               I didn't get any photos of Sharon and myself together... honestly, I forgot to do a lot of things, but I don’t view our time together a waste… totally the opposite, I only wish I had taken more!  From there we picked up Sharon’s rental vehicle and we went our separate ways.  More sure than ever that this would not be the last time we’d see one another.  I SO LOVE that girl and her bravery to contact me through Ancestry.com and her bravery to come to Ohio, spend time with family she didn’t even know, ask hard questions of an Aunt she’d never met AND spend the night in a B & B with a virtual stranger!  No wonder she was able to face this new twist in her life of finding a new half-sister with such courage.  Words cannot express how much I love her.  How proud I am to call her “cousin” and friend.  I am so grateful to have been part of this process and part of the unveiling of everything good that happened during my time with her.  Love you Sharon!

 More about the Zanesville phase of the trip in the next blog.

I "Called the Out" The Mom's I know

     So we this week has been full of new things to do.  I've just been called as the Young Women's secretary.  For those of you who are not of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faith, this means I keep the records for the young women 12-18 in our ward congregation.  (Yes, this is a genealogy/family history post... keep reading).  There are about 30 girls.  Not a HUGE job, but for someone who has all boys, who has for the most part served in Primary (president & teacher), Relief Society (counselor and teacher) and in the Scouting organizations in various jobs ... this is a bit scary.  The last time I served in Young Women's, Brian was a toddler!!  Brian will be 27 this month, so it's been well over 20 years since I've served in the YW organization.
     Add to that, the fact that I've NEVER been a Secretary in any organization (kept some scout records), and this figures into a huge learning curve for me!
     A few weeks ago while getting things in order for my mothers' last few days/weeks/months her with us, I recalled her serving as a secretary many times in many organizations.  This remembrance came to me as I was organizing some thoughts to put in her obituary.  I mused on it for awhile and that's when I realized that I'd never served as a secretary in any organization... and then I thought "boy, I bet that would be a fun calling"!!  HA on me!!!  The Bishopric counselor came last week and asked me to serve as the secretary for the YW and I could hardly believe I said "YES" before I knew what was coming out of my mouth.
     With these new thoughts of my mom and with a new set of digital books Greg bought for us to read as "bedtime stories" (yes, most of the time we read bedtime stories together!), (it's called "True Miracles With Genealogy"), I did as one contributor suggested:  TALK with a deceased relative.  Kinda weird I thought, but why not, nothing else has given me the answers I'm looking for.
     I've also told Greg on occasion that I'd like to "slap some dead people"... this is usually when I obtain a record on someone, and the person (usually deceased by this time) who filled out the form or record left a big BLANK in the spot for the part of the record I was looking for an answer to.  So if I feel like slapping a dead person for leaving information off a record, I guess I could also TALK to a dead person!
     So on Thursday morning I left for work with the intention of talking with some dead people!  I first started when I left to go to Salt Lake City (I drive there twice a day from Springville). I had to go to the Orem store, so my plan was to first have a prayer to my Heavenly Father for all my blessings (one of which was that we got Ole Blue running after 9 months).

     That prayer took up the 15 minutes to get to the Orem store.  Then my plan was to TALK (not pray) to my deceased relatives.  That would take the better part of the rest of the trip 30+ minutes.  By this time, I was pretty grateful for a lot of things and covered them in the prayer, so I felt quite brave and bold and decided that this would be a CALL THEM OUT kind of talk.  Yep, I started with my grandmother Jane Elizabeth Wooley who married George Bogner Jr.  I told her how grateful I was for all the things she did while she was in my life.  She was an AWESOME mom, grandma and great grandma.  Grandma Jane raised 4 families!!  Her own kids, her own brother and sister after their mom died, then she raised her daughter's kids (us) and then she raised my brother's kids (her great grandchildren)!  My own mother raised her own 3 children after her divorce and then helped raise my brother's children after he divorced!  They were baby raisin' women.  I told them I'm not quite that good and that I didn't think I could ever take on that kind of task, how you ladies did it ... I'll never know, but I thanked Grandma Jane and then reminded her that she is sealed to her daughter (my mom) and that she is sealed to her mother  Minnie Rhea Adams.
     Then I called out Minnie Rhea Adams, who married Alfred Erwin Wooley.  I told her I knew her life was hard too.  That she raised 3 children after the death of her 40 year old husband when she was not even 38 herself!  She then got in an ugly marriage and divorced, and then a 3rd marriage.  Poor little lady was all worn out at the age of 46.  So I reminded this sweet great grandma that She had her children sealed to her and that she was also sealed to HER mother, Elizabeth Anna Joseph.
     Then I called out Elizabeth Anna Joseph, my great great grandmother who married George Washington Adams.  I told her what I knew about her.   She had 13 children!!  She also died young at the age of 43 shortly after the birth of her 13th child.  I reminded her that her children were sealed to her and that she was also sealed to her mother Elizabeth Henrietta Booz.
     Then I called out Elizabeth Henrietta Booz, my 3rd great grandmother.  She married William McGowen Joseph.  Elizabeth became a mother the instant she married William.  William had 2 children from a previous marriage and Elizabeth raised those boys as her own!  Then she added to her family, 3 children, one child died early and the other two were girls.  Elizabeth worked for a time as a "chambermaid" in the Clarendon Hotel in Zanesville, Ohio.  Times must have been tough for a married woman to work outside the home in 1890 at the age of 40!  I also reminded her that she was sealed to her children, and her mother Mercy Ann VanHorn.
     Then I called out Mercy Ann VanHorn, my 4th great grandmother who married Charles Booz in Pennsylvania about 1837 and traveled to Ohio about 1838-1839 before her 2nd child was born.  I'll bet this wasn't easy.  It also wasn't easy to give birth nearly every other year for 30 years!!!  Yes, she had 15 children spanning a 30 year period. Not only that, but in 1880 one of her children had TB.  Louisa (her daughter) survived and had children of her own, but Mercy Ann was her caregiver in 1880.  In 1892 Amanda Booz (another daughter) died of TB and only months later Amanda's daughter (Mercy's granddaughter) Lillie died of the same dreaded disease... Lillie was living with Mercy Ann when she passed away!  In 1893 John Booz (her son who served in the Civil War) died of TB as well!  3 other children died early as well.  Mercy probably nursed all of them during this time... how in the world, grandma Mercy, did you survive 4 children with TB and still outlive them?  What kind of mother was she???  Well one of her nicknames was LOVE!  Does that give you an idea?  So again I reminded Mercy Ann of the trip to the Salt Lake Temple to seal her to her dear husband Charles Booz and then we spent the next hour sealing all of her 15 children to her.  What a day that was...  But then, for the first time in my "calling out" of my moms I had to pause and with a sad heart reminded her that although she is sealed to all 15 of her children, she is NOT sealed to anyone.  Not because the desire on my part to do the work is not there, it's because I don't know who her mother and father are.  And I called out Charles for the same reason:  I don't know who his parents are either.
     So EVERYONE was asked to help with this mystery.
     My gratitude grew for each of my grandparents in each generation.  As I recalled all I knew about each one, all their joys, sacrifices and heartaches, my appreciation for each of them grew.
     No one has come to "visit" me, and I don't expect them to.  But I know they are there to help me find the sources I'm going to need to finish this puzzle.  Someone needs to step up :}!!  I really don't want to get to the other side of the veil an have to "slap" any of you!

New information revealed with "old" eyes.

   A wonderful thing happened a few months ago.  I was trying to find several things pertaining to the Bogners and especially my grandmother Jane Elizabeth Wooley-Bogner.  Mom and Grandma did loads of genealogy, but for some reason, no name had been attributed as the 2nd husband of Minnie Rhea Adams-Wooley.  Minnie Rhea is my great grandmother and the mother of my grandma Jane Elizabeth Wooley.   The love of Minnie's life, (Alfred Erwin Wooley) died when he was not even 40 years old.  Mom & Grandma put a space for a spouse for her in between Alfred and her 3rd husband, John Walker... but for years that space just remained.  In fact while cleaning up my files, I thought surely there must NOT have even been a middle or 2nd spouse for her because in 10+ years of my research (not counting mom & grandmas time)... nothing turned up.

   More than a year ago I found Grandma Jane's marriage record had been transcribed on NewFamilySearch Labs.  I only had the transcription not the actual image.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with genealogical work, transcriptions are records that are typed by common people like you and I.  Their job is to fill in the blanks on a form.  In the case of marriage records usually it has you fill in the blanks for Grooms name / Brides name / parents of each / possibly their birth date or at least how old they were at the time of marriage and other such information.  I copied the transcription down from the website and walked away from searching again for quite a while.  A few months ago I went back in to NewFamilySearch and now they had digitized records of marriage for West Virginia AND there were IMAGES!!!  Oh my gosh, I thought... I get to download a copy of grandma's marriage record!

   I opened this document below and my mind went reeling!!

   See the little snipit of paper in the upper left area of the document????  It says Minnie Harshfield (mother) gives her consent to Jane Elizabeth's marriage to George Bogner.   OH MY HECK!!  Really?  Harshfield, the name of her 2nd husband!

   Family lore was that her 2nd husband was abusive and it was quite a bad marriage.  Some accounts are that he was looking for some money Minnie might have had due to her husband's accidental death from a fall from a telegraph pole.  

Alfred Erwin Wooley at work

   Whatever the reason.  "Mrs. Minnie Harsfield" was Minnie Rhea Adams-Wooley-Harsfield... my great grandmother.  And this document shows she was still married to Roy Harshfield at the time her daughter Jane married George.  Only 4 months after Minnie's  husband Alfred died she married Roy on 23 Sep 1933 (this record is in my possession), and sometime later divorced him.

   Minnie's third marriage was to John Walker.  They married about 1937 but I haven't found the record of their marriage yet.  Minnie died in New Albany, Floyd County, Indiana while she was still married to John.  I'm not sure what became of John after Minnie's death.

   Another Bogner story began about 1940 and still goes on today.
   George Bogner Jr. (my grandfather) had a brother Frank Christ Bogner.  Frank had been married 3 times, and I didn't have much information on the first two wives.  I had the pleasure to meet his last wife Ann, when I was in Jr. High. Mom & grandma took us kids out west for vacation from Ohio.  We went to Frank & Ann's house in Colorado and I remember only two of their children: Linda and Gary.  Their oldest, Donald I don't remember... he may have been married at the time as I believe Gary was already in High School.
   Though I had 3 wives and not much info, I left it that way for years... until I purchased an Ancestry.com account and began adding information and photos to the site.  One photo was this one:

of Frank in his Military uniform for WWII.

   It was the 2nd week of April, 2011 and I received an email from a lady stating that  I had a photo of her father on my page.  I went to my ancestral file and sure enough, there was NO CHILD listed for the first marriage.  WEIRD, I thought, mom and grandma were super accurate on family history and why isn't Sharon here?  I searched and quickly found her birth certificate and it confirmed her story and the next email she sent me had that birth certificate attached!  She is definitely the child of Frank!

   Since that time we have corresponded back and forth and in only 6 weeks I get to meet her in the flesh!  In the last year while corresponding, we've solved another mystery together.  The name of Frank's 2nd spouse.  I only had "Naomi", but continued to dig.  I was able to obtain Frank's divorce papers from the probate court from Naomi and found that she wanted her name restored to "Karchner" a quick search in the Mansfield News Journal revealed that Naomi Karchner was the widow of Willard N. Karchner who died in Belgium during WWII.  Further research revealed that she was the daughter of Clarence Buell, a prominent photography shop owner in Mansfield.  The name of his business was Buell-Kraft Studios located in Mansfield, Ohio... and is still in business today!

   Oh, and my goodness, look at the photo above of Frank clearly:  It was taken at Buell-Kraft Studios.

   These are only two of the "journeys" I've been on over the last few years.  They've netted loads of secrets, surprises and blessings in my life that I still can hardly fathom!  I'm so grateful for all the doors this work has opened up and for all the help I've received from relatives here on this side of the veil and on the other side of the veil as well.  I know for a fact that those on the other side are "happy" with these finds and that they've actually had a hand in guiding me to the records I need to confirm all the facts.

   Never dismiss anything, never think you have EVERYTHING just because you have one document, and never neglect to go over and over and over those documents again and again and again... you never know what your OLD eyes will see for the first time on a document you've looked at a thousand times!!

Research for THE BOOZ IN OUR BLOOD

        The line I researched for the book would be the descendants of my 4th Great Grandparents: Charles Booz & Mercy Ann VanHorn... thus the title of the book: "The Booz in Our Blood"  
         Charles Booz and Mercy Ann had 15 children... their 6th child: 
Elizabeth Henrietta Booz is my 3rd great grandmother... she married William McGowen Joseph. 
         William and his 1st wife, Susan Martha McDonald had 2 boys together: Austin and Oliver. Susan must have died in childbirth of Oliver, or shortly thereafter. Oliver was born March of 1865. There is no trace of Susan after his birth and on 15 August, 1867 Elizabeth Henrietta Booz married William McGowen Joseph. She was just 17 and now stepmother to 2 boys. She raised Austin and Oliver and and while doing that, had her own 3 children. One died before 1900 and the other 2 were girls. Minnie and Elizabeth Anna. 
        Minnie married Peter Perone and Elizabeth Anna Joseph married George Washington Adams... 
        Elizabeth  Anna Joseph and George Washington Adams are my 2nd Great Grandparents. 
        Elizabeth Anna and George Washington Adams had 12 or 13 children.
        Minnie Rhea Adams was their 4th child. Minnie Rhea married Alfred Erwin Wooley who are my great grandparents. Minnie and Alfred had 6 children total... 3 of whom lived. 

        Their first child Edward, was stillborn 27 March, 1915 in Cleveland Ohio while Alfred was there trying out for the Cleveland Indians team ... he played ball professionally with the Cambridge, Ohio team and was scouted by the Indians, but I guess either wasn't recruited or played for a very short time. Edward is buried in the West Park Cemetery in Cleveland Ohio. 

        Their next child Levina Rhea was born 5 Dec 1915 in Cambridge (showing they had not stayed in Cleveland a long time). She was a stillborn child. 
        My grandma Jane Elizabeth Wooley was their 3rd child born 30 May 1918. 
        Their 4th child Evalyn Marie was born 9 November 1920. 
        Their 5th child was also stillborn on 22 August 1923. 
        Their 6th child was Alfred Erwin Jr. born 23 November 1924. 
        My 4th great grandparents Charles Booz and Mercy Ann VanHorn were from Pennsylvania. I have studied the family for about 7 years DAILY and can still find not PROOF of who their parents are. Absolutely NONE for Charles Booz ... but for Mercy Ann, I believe her parents are Arthur VanHorn and Lydia Featherby. There are 5 strong clues for this reasoning, but no PROOF. I've studied the family all this time to try to discover who they were. All the work that went into the book did not uncover (with proof) who their parents were. 
        I've searched cemetery records, probate records, no will was filed either for Charles Booz or his wife Mercy Ann and Arthur VanHorn never had a land purchase recorded... nor did he leave a will!! He might have, but they lived in Licking County as of the last Census record and the court house burned down, so if there was a will in that county, we'll never know the details. Also contacted were the fraternal organizations to which John Booz and Elmer E. Booz belonged to. Many of those fraternal organizations require a family lineage to join ... in the case of the "Odd Fellows" organization to which John Booz (5th child) belonged... there is no record of him. 
        Elmer belonged to the "Modern Woodsmen", "Fraternal order of the Eagles" and the "Maccabees". None of these organizations have records either old enough for them or do not exist. I really have lost track of how many avenues of research I've tried to verify Charles and Mercy Ann's ancestry... but nothing has worked. There are no others who have even put Charles and Mercy Ann together into a "FAMILY UNIT" until it was done by myself 5 years ago! 
        Many doors seemed to open that might reveal a clue, but then the door was shut again and NO INFORMATION was gained... there is one last chance to find out information and that's in Zanesville in the basement of the old J.C. Penney building where they have some old records. I hope to uncover something there that will let me go farther back on Charles's line and on Mercy Ann's line. 
        Family lore states that Mercy Ann is descended from a Hessian Soldier that served in the Revolutionary war. Also that there was a "Grandpa Featherby" in the family. Lydia's maiden name is Featherby. Charles and Mercy Ann and Arthur and Lydia took both of their families from Pennyslvania about 1838 and moved to Muskingum County, Ohio AND settled 7 houses away from each other!! 
        100 years later there was a family reunion in 1924 for the Booz / VanHorn family. In attendance at this reunion were descendants of Charles Booz and Mercy Ann VanHorn. ALSO in attendance were descendants of Arthur VanHorn and Lydia Featherby... I'm SURE that Arthur and Lydia are the parents of Mercy Ann... why else would their descendants gather together in ONE reunion unless they were? 
        This one of the reasons I'm going back home in August 2012 to do further research. I can't even start in Pennsylvania as I'm not even positive which county in Pennsylvania they came from... though Arthur came from Bucks County for sure. 
        I had originally planned to go back just as a research trip in the Spring of 2012, and then some of my immediate cousins planned a family reunion in Loudonville, Ohio on August 4th & 5th. I wanted to do both, but budget wouldn't allow. So I put off going in the Spring so I could go to their reunion. As I did, the NEED to finish "The Booz in Our Blood" wasn't so imminent. With the death of both Greg's parents in 2011, I found it hard to fit all I had to do to finish the book before Christmas of 2011 so they could be given as Christmas gifts. 
        I planned for going to the Cousins Reunion on August 4th and then started planning all the things I needed to do for the research. I realized that visiting ALL the relatives I've contacted over the years in the Booz research would be nearly impossible to do in the 10 days I had for the whole trip and the 7 days I had in the Zanesville, Ohio area. So I planned a Booz/VanHorn family reunion... the first one in 82 years! How exciting. Then, the major contributor for the Harriet Susan Booz chapter of the book informed me by mail that he had to attend his Deavers Reunion and wouldn't be able to attend MINE!! I was quite devastated, but decided to call him and chat again. Quickly he realized that he was off by a day... My reunion is on Saturday, his Deavers Reunion is on Sunday... so we both get to attend each of the reunions together!! 
        Then I invited a cousin the family didn't know about (this cousin is from another line not related to the Booz or VanHorn family) to the Cousin's reunion on the 4th. She's coming from Florida! I've chatted with her many times over the phone and she decided to come to the reunion in Loudonville. To facilitate her in getting to meet as many BOGNER'S as she can, we set up ANOTHER family reunion on the 5th. She was born into the Bogner family and her parents divorced soon after she was born. We believe that her grandmother (my great grandmother) did not welcome this marriage or birth or maybe she wasn't informed about it at all... but this birth was kind of a family secret. When Sharon contacted me via Ancestry.com about "Frank" being her father... I was STUNNED! I didn't have a child for Frank other than his kids whom I knew and visited in Colorado when I was a kid. How did my own mother and grandmother NOT have Sharon in their files that I inherited and had by this time fully sourced and verified??!! I saw Sharon's birth certificate... yep, she belongs! So I called my mom and asked her what she knew. She said she could never verify anything and couldn't get any information, so she did not include a child in the records! 
        This journey I've been on for the last 6-7 years has been incredible. I've found good people and though I've seen to good and the bad in behavior, mostly the line I come from have had long lasting marriages, strong children and a God loving and serving people! Taken from one obituary in 1908: 
"She was a true believer in God and his power to save." 
        My heart truly has been "turned" as the scripture Malachi 4: 5 & 6 states: "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers...." I have truly felt their guiding hand in my life, and with so many family deaths recently and even the death of 3 close friends last year ... I honestly envy them that they get to meet these people I'm so fond of, on the "other side"! I have no Death Wish, but OH, how I wish I could visit... just for an hour on the other side and ask my million dollar question: 
WHO WERE YOUR PARENTS?

82 years since the last Booz / VanHorn Family reunion

It's time... it's been 82 years and it's time for the Booz and VanHorn families to reunite. I'm still in the process of planning and this means I have to do it from my location in Utah and the event will be in Zanesville, Ohio.

The first Booz/VanHorn family reunion was in 1924 and the last known one in 1930. Below is a copy of the 1924 reunion article with highlighting I did when the research was done about which attendees belonged to the Booz family and which ones belonged to the VanHorn family.

The research on this article and all 85 names took more than a year to complete, with other fragments of knowledge coming later.