I remember when I was a kid and we would go visiting with various aunts and uncles or they would come to visit at our house. There was a bit of a division between which ones you entertained in the Living Room on Sunday and which ones grouped around the kitchen table. Either way, I was the annoying kid that wanted to be around the adults listening to the stories and remembering them.

In addition, I was fascinated with my great-grandmother, Viola Mae Beatty Nosler Phillips. She had lost both legs to diabetes and was in a wheelchair. This is a woman who was a true pioneer. She was just a baby when the covered wagon she was riding in tipped over. For years my mother would display the baby bonnet she was wearing at the time of the accident. Great-Grandma married William Edward Nosler and together they had 13 children, not all of which made it to adulthood. If she had lived in modern times they would have known that 13 pound babies mean diabetes and she had quite a few that were 13 pounds or more.

Because of my fascination with Grandma Phillips, I decided to see if there was any information out there about where she came from and did I ever get a shock. I have been working non-stop on the Beatty Family Tree, although I take detours once in awhile.

I have always loved cemeteries and I enjoy walking them. It's especially exciting to find my own relatives, however, I have made it my mission to map Section A of the Prairie Grove Cemetery in Fort Wayne (Waynedale), Indiana. This Section is the oldest in the cemetery. Unfortunately, records from before the 1930's were destroyed in a fire, and some of the headstones are impossible to read. I have been fortunate enough to find some Beatty's in this cemetery, although they aren't necessarily my Beatty's. I am also taking as many pictures in the cemetery as I can...it's not as large as some of the others in Fort Wayne, but I find it interesting, nonetheless.

I am doing all of this for other people who can't get to this cemetery and would like to have a picture of a headstone. I am always excited to find a picture online that wasn't there last week and I hope that happens for other people too.

The family names I am researching are: Prien (my maiden name), Wegner, Selmer, Beatty, Nosler, Osborn(e), Brown, Tate, Baxter, See, McMillan, Kennedy, Schmid, and many, many others too numerous to mention.

Joan R Prien-Gedeon

I remember when I was a kid and we would go visiting with various aunts and uncles or they would come to visit at our house. There was a bit of a division between which ones you entertained in the Living Room on Sunday and which ones grouped around the kitchen table. Either way, I was the annoying kid that wanted to be around the adults listening to the stories and remembering them.

In addition, I was fascinated with my great-grandmother, Viola Mae Beatty Nosler Phillips. She had lost both legs to diabetes and was in a wheelchair. This is a woman who was a true pioneer. She was just a baby when the covered wagon she was riding in tipped over. For years my mother would display the baby bonnet she was wearing at the time of the accident. Great-Grandma married William Edward Nosler and together they had 13 children, not all of which made it to adulthood. If she had lived in modern times they would have known that 13 pound babies mean diabetes and she had quite a few that were 13 pounds or more.

Because of my fascination with Grandma Phillips, I decided to see if there was any information out there about where she came from and did I ever get a shock. I have been working non-stop on the Beatty Family Tree, although I take detours once in awhile.

I have always loved cemeteries and I enjoy walking them. It's especially exciting to find my own relatives, however, I have made it my mission to map Section A of the Prairie Grove Cemetery in Fort Wayne (Waynedale), Indiana. This Section is the oldest in the cemetery. Unfortunately, records from before the 1930's were destroyed in a fire, and some of the headstones are impossible to read. I have been fortunate enough to find some Beatty's in this cemetery, although they aren't necessarily my Beatty's. I am also taking as many pictures in the cemetery as I can...it's not as large as some of the others in Fort Wayne, but I find it interesting, nonetheless.

I am doing all of this for other people who can't get to this cemetery and would like to have a picture of a headstone. I am always excited to find a picture online that wasn't there last week and I hope that happens for other people too.

The family names I am researching are: Prien (my maiden name), Wegner, Selmer, Beatty, Nosler, Osborn(e), Brown, Tate, Baxter, See, McMillan, Kennedy, Schmid, and many, many others too numerous to mention.

Joan R Prien-Gedeon