Sorting Saturday: Tackling the Eckman File

Yesterday I received an email from a relative of my husband's. While I did not immediately place the person (last name is Burton), I have actually connected the two lines! So today I decided to tackle my Eckman file. In organizing my information, I started a long time ago to put "extra" family members in a Surname Folder. By extra I simply mean family members who I have simply not confirmed their placement in the family yet. Needless to say, the Eckman Folder is quite large!

Mr. Burton is also descended from Jerome Hieronimus Eckman & Anna Barbara Slaymaker. The two had 12 children. One of those children was John Martin Eckman who married Elizabeth Sides. They had nine children. My husband is descended from their daughter Elizabeth. Mr. Burton is descended from Elizabeth's brother Henry!

As I was sorting through the information in the folder, I focused on that particular line. I found a letter/package I received back in 2000 from a gentleman in Arizona. In it was the section of The History of the Slaymaker Family that pertained to Anna Barbara Slaymaker and her descendants.

Reading through it I cam across an interesting (albeit distant) story.

Mary Catharine Aston was born in 1869 to Issac Aston and Kezia Eckman Shank. Mary Catharine married Calvin M. Denlinger in 1887. They had one child, Lilly May (1887-1889). According to "The History of the Slaymaker Family", Mary Catharine died on 4 October 1888, after being murdered by her husband by the Little Conestoga Creek near Lancaster.

There is so much information in that file that I will have to come back to it later today. Incidentally, Kezia Eckman Shank is the daughter of Joseph C Shank and Anna Margaret Eckman. Anna Margaret is the daughter of Martin Eckman and Catharine Kunkle. Martin is one of the sons of John Martin Eckman and Elizabeth Sides! That's right - Martin is a brother of my husband's Elizabeth and Mr. Burton's Henry!

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