On This Day in Family History - March 7

 Elvin Reed died 07 March 1985

 

The Reed family is another example of one family having several different connections to another family. Elvin Reed was the husband of Wilma Arnold.

Photo: Elvin Reed and Wilma Arnold

Wilma Arnold was a daughter of George Ned Arnold - brother of my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks.

Elvin and Wilma had one child - a daughter - Stella Marqueta Reed 

Elvin had a brother, Elmer

Photo: Elmer and Elvin Reed

Elmer married Ruby Foust

I've joked about how my grandmother met her husband at a family reunion -- but it's true. After my grandfather died, and after Elmer's wife Ruby died, Grandma (Cleffie) met up with Elmer at the annual Arnold/Carter family reunion. He was 'family' in that his brother had been married to Cleffie's cousin Wilma. Of course, they had known each other since they were teenagers. 

A photo of Elvin Reed's brother Elmer with Wilma Arnold's sister Opie (Cleffie's cousin).

Well sir, Elmer and Cleffie hauled off and got married in 1999 -- when they were both in their 80s.

They were married 5 years, until Cleffie's death in 2004.

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Now, here's another little connection -- After Wilma Arnold Reed died, Elvin married Imogene Qualls.

Imogene was the twin sister of Maxine Qualls Green, who married Ned Jackson Carter. 

Ned was a cousin of Wilma's father George Ned Arnold.

So, now you can begin to see why, when my mother was tracing the family genealogy, she finally combined the Arnold and Carter branches of the family, on the basis that they were just too much intwined in too many ways to get them untangled from each other!