Margaret Pfeffer Westfall

 



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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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Friday Faces from the Past: Moorefield

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I am perusing through old photographs from my paternal grandparents side these days. In essence, I have been visiting Kentucky although really only in my mind. Things like this come and go in spurts. I have not looked at the research I have done on these lines in a number of years but every now and them something draws me back. What pulled me this time was an email from a gentleman who saw a photograph on my blog that was taken by Randolph in Cadiz, Kentucky (see the photo here ). This gentleman informed me that he and another local historian were doing research on this photographer who did work in Cadiz from about 1893 to 1913. He wanted to know if I would share an electronic copy of the photograph and also asked if I had anymore photographs taken by Randolph. I hunted around and found one more. This is a photograph identified by my grandfather as "My daddy's first cousin [John Willis Watts], Otis Moorefield." Otis Moorefield (1875-1958) Until I put the two tog...
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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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