52 Ancestors - Week 34- Member of the Club

52 Ancestors – WEEK 34 – Member of the Club

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

My father Clyde Andrew Keefer was a member of the Atlanta Optimist Club and the year I was born, 1958, was their President. He was given a nice gold watch to commemorate his tenure.

Anytime we talked about when I was born the story was told. Also, he used to say that I was optimistic in my outlook on life because of that. Maybe so.

I interviewed him once for a DAR Patriot of the Month project and he told me he held the office from 1957-1959.

I did find an article in the Atlanta Constitution-Journal about some of his time in the club.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution-dad-in-the-opti/44407121/

I found another article in the Athens Banner-Herald, July 25, 1961, front page:

So, as is with most family lore stories, part of them are true, some hard to prove and almost always partially true. One thing is certain, he was a member of the club.

  

52 Ancestors - Week 33- Favorite Discovery

 52 Ancestors – WEEK 33 – Favorite Discovery

By Cynthia Keefer Patton

When you are a dedicated genealogist it is hard to define your favorite discovery on the journey to uncover and document your ancestors. I do remember the joy I felt when I found that our Walker Mahanna (born c 1823 and died sometime after 1881) was the brother of Cornelius, Richard, Bradley, John and several sisters. 

My distant cousin Gloria Henry (descended from Bradley) knew that the name was unusual enough that almost everyone in this country in the 1800's was somehow related. Not everyone, but many of them.

Traditional research led to the discovery of census with some of the brother's living near each other when they migrated to Ohio. Finally, it was a Y-DNA test that my cousin agreed to take that tied all the brothers and sisters' families together. 

Part of that "DNA doesn't lie" discovery was that there was their father John had a brother named James who changed his surname to "Behanna" and produced a long line of descendants that were hiding in plan site during our research.

He lived in Washington County, Pennsylvania, not far from where the Mahanna crew ended up in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

I would love to plan a Mahanna/Behanna Reunion and need to put that on my Genealogy Bucket List. Happy researching.