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Bannerman Family Mystery

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Among the many old photographs originally in my grandfather's possession, there is one that has haunted me and has remained a mystery all these years. The photograph is of three children with their names and ages typeset at the bottom of the photograph. “William, 10 years, Robert 8, and Maggie Bennerman, 4 Years Old.” Who were they? My grandfather was not able to identify them, though his memory was remarkably sharp and accurate until his death at the age of 96. I first noticed this picture and the others that my grandfather had in 1989 when I embarked on the adventure of genealogy. Since then I have traced all of my father's ancestors at least back to the early 1800s (and a lot beyond). But I never ran into the Bennerman name, anywhere. Not as ancestors of mine, not even as neighbors. I am lucky enough to even have a name to match the faces in the photograph in the first place. Early in my research, I visited the Tampa stake of the LDS church and I mentioned the Bennerman na...
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COG: The Love of Reading

Life is funny sometimes, wouldn’t you agree? I sit here this evening checking out my blogger dashboard and find Jasia’s post about reading for the Carnival Of Genealogy . Ah, reading! One of my absolute favorite pastimes. And Jasia wants to know my family’s history of reading? How ironic that on the third anniversary of my father’s death, I am asked that question, for he was influential in the development of my love of reading. Furthermore, I was in a training at work today and we were asked to discuss characteristics about our fathers that we would like to keep, toss, or add in reference to their values, beliefs, etc. One of the items I listed in the “keep” column was his emphasis on the importance of reading and education. My mother tells the story that my father had heard that reading to your child was a good thing, so he instructed my mother to read to me every night. (Until I was about eight, he was often away because of his Navy service.) He purchased several books for me, ...
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Ellicottville Serendipity

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Old embossed medicine bottle "Glenn N. Alexander, Pharmacist, Ellicottville, NY" Hanover Town Historian Vince Martonis wrote an article in 2022 for the Greater Buffalo Bottle Collectors Association ( GBBCA ) newsletter about a series of events regarding an old whiskey bottle from Ellicottville. These events ended up bringing him full circle to a connection with an old friend who has since passed. Some years prior, Mr. Martonis told me about the bottle which had a label indicating it was filled with rye whiskey from M.E. Dinneen of Ellicottville that I wound up purchasing from a local antique market. I ended up bringing it to Bryan Scharf at Ellicottville Distillery and we hatched a plan to have a reproduction bottled and labeled to commemorate the town’s bicentennial in 2020. In contacting me for further details about how that all came about, I mentioned Bryan’s last name to Mr. Martonis. He wondered if Bryan was related to his friend Don Scharf, a former fellow member ...
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