Sanford and Son
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 4 Theme: Someone I'd Love to Meet
Joseph Guyot
Generation 7
My 2nd Great Grandfather
Rigsby - Kienlen - Dunsford - Guyot
I'm sure some of you remember the old tv show Sanford and Son starring Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson. According to Wikipedia, it ran from 1972-1977. I remember watching it, although I was born in 1965 so I was pretty young. For those of you who don't know, Fred Sanford and his son were junk dealers. I don't remember his son's name, but I remember thinking he was handsome. That's about all I remember of the show.
1972 Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson Public Domain Image, Wikimedia Commons
So why am I reminiscing? A few years ago I hit a brick wall with my great grandmother, Josephine Dunsford, nee Guyot. I could not connect her to any of the Guyot families in St. Louis. Where did she come from?
Years ago, my dad mentioned that he had always been told that my sister's Godfather, Robert Appel, was a cousin but he didn't think it was true. Like many things I hear, I filed that away in "the vault", otherwise known as my brain. When I started working a bit harder on my Guyot ancestry, I came across a newspaper clipping:
The McPherson Daily Republican, McPherson, Kansas 10 Dec 1892
My first thought? "I really want to be related to this guy!"
This was published in many different places in the U.S., especially in Kansas. Just a bit of interesting news, I suppose. But what made him miserly? Was he a greedy old guy like the Dickens character Ebenezer Scrooge?
As it turns out, I am related to this Joseph Guyot. He is my
2nd Great Grandfather, and I'd really love to meet him.
The story is a bit convoluted but, thanks to an obituary and some DNA testing, it has been confirmed. I also got to remove something from "the vault". My sister's Godfather was really my dad's half cousin!
Generation 7
My 2nd Great Grandfather
Rigsby - Kienlen - Dunsford - Guyot
So why am I reminiscing? A few years ago I hit a brick wall with my great grandmother, Josephine Dunsford, nee Guyot. I could not connect her to any of the Guyot families in St. Louis. Where did she come from?
Years ago, my dad mentioned that he had always been told that my sister's Godfather, Robert Appel, was a cousin but he didn't think it was true. Like many things I hear, I filed that away in "the vault", otherwise known as my brain. When I started working a bit harder on my Guyot ancestry, I came across a newspaper clipping:
My first thought? "I really want to be related to this guy!"
This was published in many different places in the U.S., especially in Kansas. Just a bit of interesting news, I suppose. But what made him miserly? Was he a greedy old guy like the Dickens character Ebenezer Scrooge?
As it turns out, I am related to this Joseph Guyot. He is my
2nd Great Grandfather, and I'd really love to meet him.
The story is a bit convoluted but, thanks to an obituary and some DNA testing, it has been confirmed. I also got to remove something from "the vault". My sister's Godfather was really my dad's half cousin!
Joseph Guyot, my Great Great Grandfather, was a man of mystery. I may never know what he was really like, but I like to think he was a bit like Fred Sanford - a man who was just trying to get through life in his own way.
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