Facebook Family

Asbury and Della Beeler

The note on the back reads

"Aunt Esther's brother".

     Late one evening last winter I was cruising through Facebook when I came across a friend's photo album entitled "Adventures in Genealogy."  Since I had recently started my own adventure in genealogy I took a few minutes to look through her album. What I found was unexpected. She had photos of several Union County cemeteries - cemeteries where I knew I was related to lots of people who are buried there, and apparently, so was she. There was one photo of a gravestone belonging to "Asbury Beeler" and in the comment section she noted that his wife, Della, was buried somewhere in Knoxville.  Asbury and Della Beeler - I knew who they were too (sort of) because I had a photograph of them in my family history file. Could my Facebook friend and I be related? 

Outhouse at Beeler Cemetery
Union County, Tennessee
2008

     As it turns out, Leslie* and I are related, but not through the Asbury and Della Beeler in the photo above.  As hard as it was for me to believe, there was another couple - another Asbury and Della Beeler, who are Leslie's great-something grandparents.  The Asbury and Della Beeler in the photo here are my great-something uncle and aunt.  It seems that Asbury and Della were popular names in the 19th century and it also seems that every Beeler in Union County has a common ancestor in either John Valentine Beeler (1737-1823) or his father, Ulrich Beeler (1705-1788, I think, don't quote me on these dates). 

     Because there are a few branches of my family tree that don't fork quite as much as maybe you'd like them to, I am triple related to Ulrich Beeler and John Valentine Beeler - but the non-forking branches of the family tree really are a topic for another day, several days maybe (no sibling marriages, just some kissin' cousins). Also, the fact that my much cherished Scotch-Irish Appalachian roots are actually kind of Germanic (Beeler was Bulher -oy vey) seems to indicate that I am not as "highland lassy" as I have always believed myself to be.  You really have to be open to new ideas about yourself when you start exploring your family tree - like the fact that you may be your own 4th cousin once removed who now has an explanation for your odd love of saurkraut.

*Leslie and I both attended St. Joseph School and Knoxville Catholic High School.  Her sister Betsy and I were in the same class.