VISITORS AND QUERIES
BY KAREN HANSEN
Everyone in the nation knows what a record setting cold and snowy winter we are having in the Midwest, so it should be no surprise that there has been very little activity in the genealogy room lately.
Jim BRINDLEY and friend from Minnesota visited and received considerable information on the Brindleys and related families. Recently, he asked for information on Chris and Hazel (McCuen) Lund, parents of Tiny Lund.
Walnut visitors were Virginia Dennis, who got some BURKEY obituaries and found where the tombstones are for the BURGINS, and Jim Brown, who got printed copies of some BEASLEY census records.
I am including stories about discoveries by two people for whom I have done queries. On a very frigid day, we took photos of the GAFFEY graves at the Atlantic cemetery for Myra Hewitt.
“Shortly after returning from Walnut, Iowa where I had discovered my great-great-grandfather Thomas GAFFEY is buried, a cousin forwarded a note that she had received from a stranger in Phoenix, Arizona. He had discovered an old photo of one Jane Murphy Gaffey in an antique store there in Phoenix. Her name was very plainly written on the front of the photo and a list of some of her children was on the back. Using Ancestry the stranger found our Gaffey Family Tree and contacted my cousin. He then sent the picture to her. Jane Murphy Gaffey lived and died in South Dakota. She was my great-great-grandfather’s daughter. I never underestimate the places to find my ancestors.” Myra Hewitt
“Maud SANKEY, the daughter of John and Arabella Ward Sankey, was born at Walnut and lived with her parents until about 1894. On December 1 of that year, she married Glenn HARDESTY, son of Sylvester and Jennie Hardesty. On December 25, 1898, when Glenn gave the Bible to Maud, they were in Farragut, Fremont County, Iowa. It seems probable that the Bible traveled with Maud throughout her life, the last entry having been made in 1955. By 1900, Glen & Maud had moved to Custer County, Montana. In 1920, they wereinSchool District 14, Carter County, Montana. In 1930, the family was in Rapid City, Pennington County, South Dakota. In 1946, when Glenn died, they were living in or near Joliet, Carbon County, Montana. In 1955, Maud was in a retirement home in Joliet and she died in 1967 in Belle Fourche, Butte County, South Dakota. In 2006, the Bible was found by a lady in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She tracked down my brother, Terry, in Deadwood, Lawrence County, South Dakota, who in turn, sent it to me in Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin in 2009. I have now sent it on to Ken Hardesty, grandson of Maud and Glen, who lives in Sundance, Wyoming. He plans to give it to his daughter, so the Bible has traveled many miles.” Wayne Keith Sankey
KH
Found in the Sankey Bible
