Jennie Banta McDonald and June McDonald Timm

June McDonald Timm’s Connection to Jennie Banta McDonald  

When I started the search for Jennie and James Banta it was the early 1990’s when the internet and email were not what we enjoy today.  “Message Boards” were very popular with family historians to mass communicate with people of similar interest.  I posted a request to collaborate with anyone who had any information on Jennie Brock Banta McDonald and James Banta.   I was thrilled 15 years later when I got a reply from June McDonald Timm letting me know that Jennie McDonald was her grandmother.  June was in her late 80s at that time, very clear, and shared memories of her grandmother.  She recalled sitting at her side as a young girl, listening to stories while learning to sew.  She remembered Grandma Jennie as a strong woman, no-nonsense, with a sense of humor, and a heart of gold.  She told of five husbands one she never bothered marrying (Theodore Bourassa ‘73-‘78), one she divorced (Frank Darling '84-‘91), and three who left her widowed (Stephen Bourassa ’69-’73, James Banta ’78-‘81, and John McDonald ‘92-‘24).  

 

June shared that her father was Jennie’s son, Charlie McDonald.   We confirmed our connection when she told me of her young married cousins, Marvin and Nina Banta coming to visit while Marvin worked at her father’s sugar mill in Lyman, Nebraska.  She had fond memories of Marvin and Nina with their children Jimmy and baby Marian, visiting probably in 1931.  She said Nina played the piano during her visit and she still had the sheet music from that day.  She shared that Grandma Jennie stayed with her family half the time and lived her daughter, Aunt Belle Banta Taylor, the rest of the time in Emporia, Kansas.  That is consistent with the information in Jennie’s obituary.

Nina Banta holding Marian
Lyman, Nebraska  1931

June was delighted to hear that Nina was still living and that we were planning her 100^th birthday party.  June lived in Murietta, California, and wanted to join us for the celebration, but ended up with health issues that prevented the trip.  Instead, she sent a nice card and note wishing her a happy birthday which generated a warm smile when I read it to her.  

 

How amazing is that?  To find someone who knew my 2^nd Great-Grandmother (great-great-grandmother).  To find a cousin!  June and I are half-first cousins twice removed.  Let me explain that.  We are first cousins because we share grandparents.  We are “twice removed” because there are two generations difference between us (she is Grandpa Marvin’s first cousin, she is Mom’s first cousin once removed, and my cousin twice removed, and Jeremy’s cousin three times removed, etc.)   We are “half” cousins because we share only one grandparent (June’s grandparents were Jennie and John McDonald, mine were Jennie and James Banta).   Complicated I know, but amazing nonetheless.  It had been 79 years since she had seen or communicated with her Banta cousins. 

Marvin Banta and Marian
Lyman, Nebraska  1931

  

John and Jennie McDonald, with sons Charles (L) and John (R).  Loveland, Colorado 1915
Jennie is our Great-Great-Grandmother, the widow of James Banta (1833-1881)