And the little address book that could.
Well, not really mine, they belong to my husband, but he doesn't see the point of looking for his "dead people" Somebody had to do it and I elected me. My new "cousin" Pat raised her hand, too.
It all started with an address book I found after my mother-in-law died. I knew it was old; there was a probate notice from the 1930s. Pat and I started digging into the names. We matched addresses to the census and found old newspaper clippings and court records. Most of the names were Benders and Bender descendants. And some we haven't identified yet. So far, we've found Benders in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Who knew? Well ok, I knew there were a lot of Benders, but I always thought they belonged to someone else.
If you think your Benders might connect to our Benders, please let me know. I like collecting dead relatives. Even if they don't become some of my Benders, I'd love to hear from you.
Mary