A favorite brother-in-law?

Southard Parker Mayer

My brother and our grandfather share two things. More than two things, but these two are on my mind today. They share a birthday, July 2; they share a middle name, Parker.

Southard Parker Mayer (b. 1886, d. 1966) passed Parker on to my brother. But where had it come from?

Even after I started digging into our family history, Grandfather’ first name and middle name remained a bit of a mystery. No other man in the family tree—no other I had found—shared either of those names with him. This was puzzling in a tree that, like many others, was full of hand-me-down names.

I stumbled on a possible solution to this small mystery in a cemetery in Pennsylvania where many of my grandfather’s family, Mayers and Wilsons, are buried. That is where I found the gravestone of M. Isabella Wilson (b. 1845, d. 1930).

M. ISABELLA WILSON
WIFE OF
E. SOUTHARD PARKER
WIFE OF
SOUTHARD PARKER
BORN APRIL 8, 1845
DIED JUNE 10, 1930

Turns out, Aunt Isabella was my grandfather’s mother’s older sister. Was her husband, E. Southard Parker, a favorite brother-in-law?

Oh, and Happy Birthday to two of my favorites!

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Westminster Presbyterian Cemetery, Juniata County, Pennsylvania