Friday, October 30, 2009

Do you see the resemblance?

I can hear the gasps of horror as you gaze upon these scary souls. But before you laugh too hard look deep into their faces for something familiar because you do share DNA with this pair--even though their DNA now rests six feet under (in the Dempseytown Cemetery). This husband and wife duo (yes one of them is a woman) are Jacob Baum and Elizabeth Mark Baum.
Jacob and Elizabeth were Pennsylvania Germans who were born and raised in eastern Pennsylvana, Jacob in 1795 and Elizabeth in 1794; They were married in the near where State College is today and moved to Venango County around 1840. Jacob owned about 100 acres at Dempseytown (as you come to Dempseytown from Oil City, you will see a huge junk yard and school bus lot on the right--that is roughly where the farm was). Jacob died in 1865 and Elizabeth died in 1875.
We are all descendants of this pair through Grandma Redmond who was their great-great granddaughter. So for Terry, Bobbie, Todd, Betsy, Roger, Sharyn, and Dale, Jacob and Elizabeth would be your great-great-great-great-grandparents. Add a great for Gregg, Brian, Kipp, Kim, Kory, Tia, Erik; and a total of 6 greats for Perry, Katie, Josie, Amanda, Kyle, Kaylyn and Chase.
Happy Halloween!
P.S. A bit of trivia for Gregg, Brian, and Kim: the person who owned the original photos, Mrs. Sara Williams, passed away last week, as the age of 91. She was married to a descendant of the Baums, and lived in Dempseytown, not far from the original Baum farm. I visited with her about 20 years ago and she let me copy the pictures--along with a lot of others. The trivia part is that Mrs. Williams was the mother of our 4th grade teacher at Steffee Elementary, Mr. Eugene Williams. Remember Mr. Williams--he was a great teacher. So Mr. Williams is our cousin, 3rd cousin, 2 times removed to be exact. He is living in Texas--I don't think he is teaching any more. Small world... smaller all the time.

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