It started out as a quiet Saturday of research online and the focus was descendants of Michael Gordon Held aka Heald, a brother of Philipp Held, both born in Wisconsin (Philipp is Bonnie's great grandfather). We knew that Michael's only offspring, a son named Gordon Everett, had four sons all from the early 1920's - Edmond, Gordon, Paul, and Mark. We also knew that Edmond and Paul were deceased and that Gordon and Mark lived in Topeka KS in recent years. Today we attempted to telephone the numbers from the online white pages. One was disconnected (Gordon's) and the other was answered but without success. Next on the agenda was a search of the Topeka Capitol Journal archives for any stories of Gordon and Mark. What happened next was almost unbelievable. Right there on the screen was the obituary of Gordon W. Heald from TODAY, 23 Jan 2010! The obituary was very informative as to survivors, his wife, his two daughters and their spouses and where they lived, as well as other historical facts about Gordon's life. There was a place for a guest book and so we took time to extend our sympathy and urge a future contact at an appropriate time. The obituary included a photo as well. Gordon appeared as a handome kindly man, one anyone would want as a relative, albeit a distant one. The bottom line today is, you never know where or when the next connection will come. So keep searching and poking around...you might be surprised as we were.
