First off, my apologies for any Leonard Legends spam you may have received earlier today. I was implementing a new “feature” here at Leonard Legends & Legacies and inadvertently added something like 166 “new” posts to the site. What they really were, were a handful of articles from a few of my favorite genealogical-type bloggers.

It’s all a very thinly-veiled attempt to cover up my own inadequacies in my blogological (it is TOO a word) duties. I’ve been neither attentive nor diligent about my family history or this site in recent weeks and I’m not sure it’s going to get any better in the foreseeable future.

Cousins marrying cousins isn’t as unusual as we might like to think. But doing it twice? That’s a little unsettling. Take the case of Nancy Leonard-Leonard-Leonard.

Just when you think it’s hopeless, a letter turns up that not only answers the question, but opens new vistas for exploration. Take the case of “Dr. Shafer.”

Leonard historian Jennie Leonard Hutchinson described her last visit to the family’s old two-story log cabin in a letter dated 1932. In it, she mentioned that “Dr. Shaffer (sic) was overcome with emotion as he looked about. His mother, Lydia Shaffer, was my father’s sister.”

Several of us had the same thought…

Fair warning, ladies and genealogists, that I intend to post a new article every week for the next four weeks. So, if you find auto-notices annoying, this would be the time to unsubscribe.

We begin with this month’s mystery photo, brought to us by our good buddy Sean.
As always, anyone with information on our unsub (unknown subject) is urged to speak up.

You know the drill. If he looks familiar, go scour your photo albums, shoe boxes, and bottom dresser drawers for an identical or similar photograph that might have his name etched on the back.

Every once in a while, the universe and the gods of public records conspire to create an unsolvable mystery. Like the cousin who refuses to attach him/herself to any of the relatives living nearby. In my case, it’s a distant ancestor who couldn’t decide when he was born and eventually declared himself a twin. Sorta.