Farmer Album

JP and Emma (Bartley) Farmer, photo courtesy of Carol Cooper

Just a fun story I want to share -

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a man on Ancestry because of a photo I had linked on my tree (a 1st cousin 4x removed). This man thanked me for sharing the photo and said he had a similar photo from a slightly different angle and that my identification of the photo helped with the identification of his photo. Long story short...when this man was 7 or 8 years old his family moved into a new home. They were cleaning things out of the home that belonged to the previous owner and he rescued a photo album that otherwise would have been burned with other garbage. For 52 years he has saved that album, moved it with him through his various moves over the years. He has no connection to this family but after holding onto this family for so many years he feels as though he does. He started a tree on Ancestry hoping to find relatives. And he found me!!I hope he will find some Farmer descendants as well...

My 1st cousin 4x removed actually married into the family. Her name was Sarah Emmeline Bartley and she married Junius P Farmer in 1891. Emma and JP had four children together. Emma died shortly before the first birthday of her youngest daughter.

The photo album that was saved was that of JP's younger sister, Melissa Farmer. What an amazing find. How wonderful that a 7 or 8 year old boy cared enough to save these photos from the very late 1800s/early 1900s. And even more wonderful that he has cared for them all these years and is now sharing.

This story made me so happy I just wanted to share it. Searching my family history has been a real joy and it's stories like this that stress the importance to me...