Dear Cousin Beverly (my marriage),

You've hit the jackpot. Your husband and I will be second cousins. My g/grandparents were also (properly named) Ferdinand and Odile. I've tracked the family for over 30 years now, and I and other geneologists in the family are confidant that we have the correct direct Bedore line all the way back to Quebec, Canada (then New France) in the 1660s. Yes, the 1660s. I and others have written about his, and will send you info if you give me an address.

I currently live in Washington, DC, but am visiting several of my sisters in Bay City and Caro, Michigan for an early Christmas. Indeed, today, Ferdinand and Odile's direct decendents (their son Michael) met for our annual get-together with 40-50 cousins, which has been celebrating Christmas in the same family homestead between Unionville and Gagetown, MI, since 1917. There were 44 present today, including two of Phoebe's grandchildren (the oldest of Ferdinand and Odile's clan).

My sisters and I also have now found and visited the graves of FERDINAND's parents (Jacques and Addie Bedore), located near Green Bay, Wisconsin (Jacques was born in 1820 in Loretteville, Quebec). One of his middle sons, Ferdinand (Sometimes spelled Ferdnel, Ferada, and in other ways, due to French/English census mis-spellings), was born in Valcartier, Quebec in 1848.

In any case, of which of Ferdinand and Odile's children is your husband decended?

I look forward to hearing from you. I can tell you and your husband about everything known about his Bedore family, which is a very great deal.

I am 60 years old, and have five sisters alive (one brother and another sister have passed on). There are a large number of Ferdinand/Odile decendents still living within relativelhy short distances of the old family homestead in Michigan. Additionally, I know not only about Ferdinand's parents, but all of his numerous sibllings, who were in Wisconsin/Michigan in the 1870s.

Best wishes. My email is bedorej@aya.yale.edu and my telephone is 202/667-3962. I'll be back in Washington, DC in a couple of days.

Cousin Jim Bedore
1901 Wyoming Ave, NW
#52
Washington, DC 20009