It’s a Small World!
A couple of months after we moved to Monticello, Lori’s Uncle Bill stopped in for a visit at our new home in Monticello, Illinois. He told Lori that her Grandfather was from a town called Deland, which is the next town north of us, and he gave us a copy of an article of where her Great-Grandfather had been killed working on the railroad near Springfield. Here is a link to the story of her Great-Grandfather’s death – Louis Franklin Hassinger – Death.
As you may or may not know Jeff has done quite a bit of the family’s genealogy over the years. By doing some quick searches Jeff found quite a bit of information about Lori’s family and surprisingly we found many relatives that were from the area where we now live. These are all descendants of her Grandfather – William Darrell Hassinger. His father was Louis Franklin Hassinger and both of his parents Samuel Adam Hassinger and Emma Pitts Hassinger are buried in Goose Creek Township Cemetery in Deland. This is only about a 10 minute drive from our home in Monticello. We went up there and the Sexton helped us locate the grave and cleaned up the top of the stone.
Even more surprising, we found that her Great-Grandmother’s Parents and Grandparents are buried in Monticello Township Cemetery, which only about a mile from our new house. William E. Kesler, Ella Troxell Kesler, Salem Kesler and Malinda Stebleton Kesler are all buried in the same plot. Salem Kesler is Lori’s 3rd Great-Grandfather and he lived from 1830 to 1924. Here is a picture of him that I found during the search. The Sexton for the Monticello Cemetery was also very helpful and pointed us in the direction of the plot where all 4 are buried. All of their names are on the grave stone but they also each have an individual headstone. Below are pictures of the family plot.
It is quite a coincidence that we moved to this area and have uncovered this about Lori’s family history. Please leave a comment and if you come across this page and have additional information or are a relative please reach out to us. If you are interested more in these relationships and to see the family tree click on this link: William Darrel Hassinger Pedigree
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This is so interesting. How neat!