I am going to start with a 3rd cousin of mine, Ella Belle Olmstead. I became aware of her on a recent trip to meet a new to me 3rd cousin once removed, Esther. Esther's mother was an Olmstead who ended up in a series of foster homes before finally living in a very good foster home where, although not adopted by her foster parents, she was loved and went to court, as an adult, to take their last name. Esther's mother had an old photo in her possession and Esther now has it. It is a photo of Ella Bitely Olmstead Bishop holding two of her granddaughter's in about 1927. Esther's mother is a baby probably 6-9 months old and the other granddaughter is Ella Belle, noted to be born in 1922. I did not have Ella Belle in my family tree.
So, Esther and I tried to place her. I found a news clipping
in the Fulton History newspaper archives. The brief notice, reported in the 26 July 1946 issue of the Jamestown Post Journal. It said "Mrs. Ella Bishop and her son William Olmstead traveled to Newark on Monday to visit his daughter Miss Ella Belle Olmstead." Ella Bitely Olmstead Bishop had a son, William Addison Olmstead so I entered Ella Belle as his daughter. I had two other daughters, Alberta and Carrie, and a son Robert listed as his children with his wife Nora Bell Foster but I never had Ella Belle listed. Thus I entered her and added the newspaper clipping to her name. And then the mystery deepened.
Jamestown Post Journal 26 July 1946:
To be continued.
