Just want to share a little family story with you to celebrate the finding of another branch. It illustrates how legend and fact get twisted up. My dear aunt, now 92, always told us, "Uncle John Clark quit speaking to the family," and this happened about the time her father contracted TB and died in Nashville, TN, (they had relocated from RCI). According to Aunt Eleanor, John was never heard from again, and she always added "He may have gone to Chicago." She knew he was married to Sarah Gantz, and said they had no children. About five years ago, I received an obit from Monisa that said John was living in Muncie when his mother died. Of course he had a farm at one time in Farmland, so this lent credience to the story that John moved away from the family. Years passed and all my searches yielded many a John Clark in Munci and Chicago, but never the one I wanted. Then, the Gantz family book came out, and contact was made with a descendant of John living out West. And what did I learn from my "long lost cousin" about why John stopped speaking to the family? He died the year before my grandfather. No wonder he stopped speaking! And when he died, he left behind a wife and daughter. So much for having no children. In fact, his daughter was 14 years old when my dear aunt was born. Keep Digging; the Truth is Out There! Lorene

Congratulations, Lorene ! It's a great feeling to finally hit genealogy paydirt. Shirley ----- Original Message ----- From: Lorene Lambert To: INRANDOL-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 12:51 PM Subject: [INRANDOL] Those Darn Family Stories Just want to share a little family story with you to celebrate the finding of another branch. It illustrates how legend and fact get twisted up. My dear aunt, now 92, always told us, "Uncle John Clark quit speaking to the family," and this happened about the time her father contracted TB and died in Nashville, TN, (they had relocated from RCI). According to Aunt Eleanor, John was never heard from again, and she always added "He may have gone to Chicago." She knew he was married to Sarah Gantz, and said they had no children. About five years ago, I received an obit from Monisa that said John was living in Muncie when his mother died. Of course he had a farm at one time in Farmland, so this lent credience to the story that John moved away from the family. Years passed and all my searches yielded many a John Clark in Munci and Chicago, but never the one I wanted. Then, the Gantz family book came out, and contact was made with a descendant of John living out West. And what did I learn from my "long lost cousin" about why John stopped speaking to the family? He died the year before my grandfather. No wonder he stopped speaking! And when he died, he left behind a wife and daughter. So much for having no children. In fact, his daughter was 14 years old when my dear aunt was born. Keep Digging; the Truth is Out There! Lorene ==== INRANDOL Mailing List ==== How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were? --Sachel Paige Contributed By: Billy J. Baker ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237