#197--Cousins

This week’s theme is cousins.  While doing genealogy, I have met several new cousins.    I am going to blog about the two I have worked with the most.  I met Anna when we were both working on our Hannah lines.  One of the first things we did was figure out how we were related.  As it turned out, we were both descended from John Wesley Hannah and his wife, Jennie Sophia Willey.  He was my great grandfather, and Anna’s great great grandfather.  But there was more.  Her  grandfather’s family was in the military and was often stationed overseas.  When that happened, her grandfather stayed with my father’s family. 

The real fun began when Anna and I started to post Hannah family pictures and we tried to figure out who the people were.  Some we knew right off the bat--others were a puzzle--Like the picture to the left.  We know that the man is John Wesley Hannah , we think the woman in the back on the right is his daughter, Marinda--the other two are a mystery, perhaps friends of Marinda.  We sent pictures  back and forth, comparing the faces with those we knew were correct or until we decided we just did not know.  Eventually Anna and I met when I went to Washington D. C. on a New England Historic and Genealogy Tour.

Harry and Perry Willey

Then along came Pam.  Pam is a granddaughter of Jennie Willey and was able to fill in a great deal of information about that branch of our tree.  Jennie had  8 brothers and sisters.  The one that was most confusing was James Willey, whose name was once in a while written as James "Sig Montanio "Willey.  Then one day, Anna was looking at a census of the Willeys and founds a Sig Montanio.  The age, birth location etc. all matched James Willey.  So the three of us started in to figure out this little puzzle.   We were able to figure out the genealogy and why the name change.  It turned out that James joined a circus as an acrobat, wire walker and later running a traveling circus.  We found pictures of his two sons, who worked as clowns and acrobats, information about the circuses he ran and numerous newspaper  articles about the performances.

I love to work with others on a family line and am happy to share what I know.   I know only certain information and often they know different information.