You'll find the full backstory to this post on a post from April, 2018. Here's a short summary.
Back in the 1980s, I'd found three people with my mother's maiden name, Flexner, on a 1910 fundraiser quilt at the museum in Kalona, Iowa. They were not included in the genealogy that my mom knew, so we went exploring. And after a circuitous and long route, I finally unearthed the answer:
My great-great-grandmother and the mother of the man named on the quilt were cousins. They both had married men from the Flexner family. So this quilt had led us to a branch of the family that we had never known about! Unfortunately, by the time the internet came along to help the search, my mom had passed and never got to hear the conclusion.
Then last summer, in August, 2019, I was contacted by a woman who had found my blog while doing research on her Flexner ancestors. She was wondering if the Jacob Flexner in her family was the same person as the Jacob Flexner in my family. Turns out, they are not. They were born about 6 years apart and have different middle initials and different parents.
But here's where it gets really cool. The two cousins named Mrs. Flexner both had many children, and amongst them, both had sons named Jacob. One Jacob is brother of the man named on the quilt, and the other Jacob is brother of my great-grandfather.
And now, thanks to another cousin in that line, I have received photographs from their family archive!
What an exciting moment!
