66 Years Later, Brothers Reunited

In the McCook Daily Gazette (Nebraska), Lorri Sughroue wrote about a pair of brothers who, with the aid of Holly Kennedy, several genealogy websites, and a little bit of luck, were reunited after being apart 66 years (when they were placed in an adoption home in Denver, CO).

Excerpt from the article:

At his surprise 80th birthday party this year, Brennan still expressed a wish to find his youngest brother Edward, nicknamed “Sonny boy” by his brothers and sisters. Holly Kennedy of Indianola, who was previously married to one of John’s sons, started a search that night, using various genealogy web sites on the internet. Within two days, a contact was made.

“People used to search for their family history for years without luck,” said Kennedy, and were frequently stymied by red tape and sealed records. She recommended a genealogy web site hosted by the the Church of Latter Day Saints as being indispensable, as well as genealogy.com and ancestry.com.

A family friend of the Bounds family had posted a message three months previously, searching for information about Edward Brennan Jr. E-mails quickly bounced back and forth for a day or so between Kennedy and the family friend, verifying information, until all the dates matched up. Kennedy learned that Edward, now 71, had been renamed Joseph Bounds and was living in Eloy, Ariz.

They are still looking for “Elizabeth (Betty) Lou Brennan, born Aug. 28, 1932 in Calhoun County, Iowa, and Lucy Marie Brennan, born June 26, 1936 in Bent County, Colo. It is not known if they were adopted together or separately”.

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