Coincidence makes new kin

By DONNA MURRAY ALLEN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 14, 2001

When Tampa reader Lynn Nelson spotted the surname Ritenour buried deep in one of my columns, she sprang into action, setting the stage for one of the more unusual encounters I've experienced since this column made its debut a year ago.

This serendipitous event was the culmination of a series of odd coincidences over a number of years. Had any of them not occurred, the chain would have been broken and there would be no story to tell. Given the twists and turns, it's best to start at the very beginning.

Five or six years ago, while conducting research for my book, The Murray Family of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, I came across the poignant story of Elijah and Hannah Minerd Murray, a young couple who died two weeks apart in 1885, leaving seven young orphans. Typhoid took Elijah. Fever and complications from childbirth killed Hannah.

Intrigued, I pursued their story. I learned that the children found homes with relatives and that Elijah's cousin, Richard Murray, and his wife, Mary Jane, formally adopted Ida and Lucy, the two youngest girls. Subsequent research showed that Levi Murray, my great-grandfather, included the children in his will. Levi and Elijah were cousins.

Knowing the adoption could cloud the trail for future researchers, and wanting to be certain the family wasn't forgotten, I decided to devote a chapter of my book to this branch of the Murray family tree. I even obtained from a Minerd researcher a copy of a studio portrait taken of the star-crossed couple. In the introduction to the chapter, I wrote in part: "I feel their story is a vital one to this family history . . . (by including it in this book) it keeps their memories alive and it will help future researchers with their arduous task."

Fast forward to the year 2000. The scene is an old mountaintop cemetery in Pennsylvania where Elijah and Hannah Murray are buried near the graves of my great-grandparents and grandparents. I'm there to take a photo of my great-grandparents' headstone, which I had restored. Nearby stood a stone with a brass plaque mounted on the front. I knew nothing about John Reslar, the man buried there. I shot a photo of the stone merely because it illustrated another restoration method. Both pictures appeared in a column in February 2001.

Enter Lynn Nelson. She isn't related to Reslar either. But it wasn't his name that caught her eye. She zeroed in on the small type at the very bottom of the plaque that read "Son of Daniel Reslar and Elizabeth Ritenour Reslar."

Nelson, a Pennsylvania native, is familiar enough with Fayette County to know that some of her ancestors might be buried in that cemetery. She sent me an e-mail, asking if I knew anything about the Ritenour family, who had been among the area's early settlers.

Her ancestor, Aaron Ritenour, had married a woman named Ida Murray, she said. Perhaps there might even be some connection between her Murray family and mine. "I know it's a long shot," she said. "But you never know."

Indeed. Nelson was astonished to discover that I had memorialized her great-great-grandparents, Elijah and Hannah Murray, in my book, and that we both descend from the same couple five generations back.

I put her in touch with the man who had loaned me the picture. Nelson said no one in her family had ever seen it. Now she has her own copy.

Fate planned another little surprise. One night Nelson began idly thumbing through her mother's high school yearbook. The school is in a neighboring county from where our Murray kin lived. She found her mother's senior picture. Then she did a double-take. There was a picture of my mother. The two women had graduated from high school together.

Fee increase

As of July 1, the federal government is charging $27 for a copy of a person's actual application for a Social Security card. The fee formerly was $7. This affects everyone, including those ordering records from Social Security Death Index Web sites. More details in a future column. Meanwhile, log on to www.ssa.gov/reach/htm for details.

Donna Murray Allen welcomes your questions about genealogy and will respond to those of general interest in future columns. Sorry, she can't take phone calls, but you can write to her c/o Home & Garden, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail her at rootscolumn@aol.com.

You can read Donna Allen's column online at www.sptimes.com. Click on Home & Garden or type "genealogy" in the search box.

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