My first cousin, 4 times removed, Marion Iona Botsford married Francis Deo Seymour 159 years ago on 8 November 1860.  Marion was the daughter of Levi W. and Mary Amanda Park Botsford and was born 8 July 1838 in Michigan and removed to Racine, Wisconsin, with her family soon after.  Levi was the brother of my 3 times great grandmother, Almira Botsford Jenks.

Marion was the eldest of five children and the only daughter.

Marion and Francis had two children, Frederick (1863) and Ada Iona (1870).

Francis passed away on 30 November 1878.  Cousin Marion passed away almost 29 years later on 30 March 1907 in Racine, Wisconsin.

What caused me to pluck these distant relatives for today’s blog entry?  Their middle names of course! Iona and Deo!  The meaning of Iona is purple jewel (had to google it)! And, they must have really liked it since they passed it on to their daughter, Ada.  Deo, on the other hand, means Godlike! (wikipedia came up with that one).  I wonder if future generations will wonder at our choices of names in the same manner 150 – 200 years from now.