Our Cousin

From: hlcounts [mailto:hlcounts@me.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2015 7:25 PM
To: Martha Ritter
Cc: McClure Henry
Subject: Re: Bantleon

Hello Jim,

My name is Harvey Counts, age 71, Indio, CA.  I am a retired engineer from Pacific Bell Telephone Company and one of my hobbies is Genealogy.  I’ve been researching my family genealogy for about 20 years. Recently, I started back to work on the Bantleon line and managed to find Henry McClure of Topeka, KS and other related families.  Currently, I have nearly 15,000 family records in my genealogy database.

Your wife, Martha Nell Hoover-Ritter, is my 5th cousin.  Her 3rd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Hammer-Kent was a 4th great aunt of mine.  She was married to James Pierce Kent.  Elizabeth’s father was Joel Hammer (1758-1834) who was my 4th great-grandfather.  He was also a 4th great-grandfather of your wife, Martha Nell.

Elizabeth Hammer-Kent (1787-1865) was married to James Pierce Kent (1785-1869).  Their daughter, Elizabeth Kent (1828-1901) was married to Graham P. McNally (1818-1864) on 15 May 1854.  Their daughter, Mary McNally, married Henry Augustus Bantleon on 30 Dec 1880).  Their son, Clifford Augustus Bantleon, in 1922 applied for membership in the SAR (Copy of application attached).

In summary, Martha is descended from Joel Hammer’s daughter, Elizabeth, and I am descended from his daughter Rutha Hammer (1793-1867) who married Aaron Counts 23 Sep 1817 in Grainger County, Tennessee.  Aaron and Rutha were my 3rd great-grandparents.

I’ll be happy to share whatever family info I have if you are interested.

Best Regards to you and yours,

Harvey

hlcounts@me.com

40849 Calle Santa Cruz

Indio, CA 92203

Phone: 760-200-5038