Three months ago I wrote an article about my cousin Flake Flanders and her tragic death. You can find it here. Exactly two months later, I received an email notifying me of a comment left on that blog post. This is what I found:
Comment: I would like to talk to you about the Flanders, as my father was married to Flake Flanders.
I replied to this email explaining that I was very excited to hear from this person and asked for more "first-hand" information.
In my blog post I had written that I knew nothing about this cousin Flake Flanders, but learned about her untimely death as a result of a fire by researching her name on Ancestry.com. And within 2 months, I'm in touch with the son of Flake's husband at the time of her death! What a testimony to the power of making connections by blogging about our family and our research. The comment was made by Duane Batchman, who later explained that it was his daughter who found my blog post by doing a search on Google.com. It pays to get our name out to the public if we're serious about our research and are desirous of connecting with cousins. The rewards are tremendous!
Flake was born in 1905 in Barton County, Kansas and in 1923, at age 17 was married to Frank Batchman. A year later they were blessed with a son, Bernard Robert Batchman. My previous post explains the cause of the deaths of both Flake and her son Bernard.
I was blessed two weeks ago when Duane sent me these two photos of Bernard when he was still a baby.
Comment: I would like to talk to you about the Flanders, as my father was married to Flake Flanders.
I replied to this email explaining that I was very excited to hear from this person and asked for more "first-hand" information.
In my blog post I had written that I knew nothing about this cousin Flake Flanders, but learned about her untimely death as a result of a fire by researching her name on Ancestry.com. And within 2 months, I'm in touch with the son of Flake's husband at the time of her death! What a testimony to the power of making connections by blogging about our family and our research. The comment was made by Duane Batchman, who later explained that it was his daughter who found my blog post by doing a search on Google.com. It pays to get our name out to the public if we're serious about our research and are desirous of connecting with cousins. The rewards are tremendous!
Flake was born in 1905 in Barton County, Kansas and in 1923, at age 17 was married to Frank Batchman. A year later they were blessed with a son, Bernard Robert Batchman. My previous post explains the cause of the deaths of both Flake and her son Bernard.
I was blessed two weeks ago when Duane sent me these two photos of Bernard when he was still a baby.
Isn't he one of the cutest little boys you've ever seen? Such beautiful blue eyes. Duane tells me he also owns a picture of Bernard's mother Flake. I look forward to seeing it someday.
It's wonderful how we can be blessed in our family history research simply by making our research public and being willing to connect with other family members. Four months ago I knew nothing about my cousin Flake Flanders, who was the daughter of my grandfather Milo Flanders' brother Merritt. And today I know about her family, her death, and even have some photos of her family.
It's wonderful how we can be blessed in our family history research simply by making our research public and being willing to connect with other family members. Four months ago I knew nothing about my cousin Flake Flanders, who was the daughter of my grandfather Milo Flanders' brother Merritt. And today I know about her family, her death, and even have some photos of her family.
