Hello, Louise Burnah

Emma Louise (Burnah) Durant, dated 1909

I wrote a post in 2012 called Looking for Emma Louise Burnah, about my search for my great-grandmother's mother's family. My great-grandma Elsie was the bee's knees and I am desperate to learn more of her family line, but not so much so that I want to jump to inaccurate conclusions. After months of fruitless research I landed on a few possibilities.

I figured that if Elsie didn't talk about her history much then maybe her children misheard names and places and the few breadcrumbs I was working with might not be accurate. (Which cued some deep sighing now that everyone else in the family is gone.)

Another possibility was that there was not much extended family to be found and there were no missing cousins waiting to be discovered. You get so used to finding families numbering a dozen kids, that you forget sometimes only a few survived to adulthood. I've seen it happen.

At the time, I was looking for the surname Burmah, which was what was passed down. And I had found her birthplace listed as Redfield on a child's marriage license. But I was holding out hope that we were of some relation to the slew of Burnahs I found in Redford, NY. It seemed a wishful jump but I tucked it in my notes anyway.

I started to accept the fact that we just might not ever know for sure. But one of the additions to the Ancestry DNA kit includes a tag to other people you may genetically be related to (who have taken the kit), and what ancestor it is you may have in common.

Amazingly, I got a few hits showing that I am genetically related to one of the Burnahs of Redford, NY! Now I know that Emma Louise's parents were Samuel & Mary Burnah. I know that Emma Louise's mother Mary died two years after she was born. I don't know more than that yet. I might never have more than that but it's more than I thought I would find.

I never discount a breadcrumb until I have proven it to be untrue.

And then a trip home this summer led to even more good news for me. Actual photos of Louise, and then a photo of Louise and George Durant, together with some of their children, including my beloved Elsie. It is a true treasure to find faces to put to names. What a good looking crew.

L-R, Durants and some of their children: Edward, Elsie, Mary, Louise & George, Bill, Rose