Helen Marie Lafferty, [adopted]

The proof that Helen Bartlett is the correct common link between this Lafferty family and this Bentley family is the fact that descendants of both families have copies of the same group photo of Helen, with a little girl named as "Nan" by the Bartlett family, but probably more accurately as Blanche by the Lafferty family.

But the photo in each case is with different formats, indicating that distinct prints were made separately from the same original negative plate. Then each unique print was handed down to a separate side of each family.

The proof that links Helen to her birth Bartlett parents comes from a journal entry by EA Bentley, which clearly shows that this Bartlett family was known by the Bentleys.

Here is the excerpt from the EA Bentley Journal Oct 31, 1861:

"Started very early in the morning from Detroit to Mt. Clemens (MI) 5:45 to which I arrived at 8 o’clock. The depot of the Grand Trunk Rwy at Mt. Clemons is about ½ mi west of the village. It was very muddy but I went to town. Saw but a few I know. I started for Macomb on foot, thinking no other way to go unless I hired a private conveyance. I was too short of money for that. Got about one mile on my way when I was taken sick very suddenly and went into a house by the graveyard. I went to sleep and slept until nearly 5 o’clock pm when I started for Bartletts, where I arrived at 8 o’clock, vomiting twice on the way. Found Mr. Bartlett all right and stayed there all night., but was very sick. Mrs. Bartlett tending me nearby half the night- I would vomit every few minutes Henry Bartlett Lived out to Le Kousha and is married. Ed is at home. First started from Mr. Bartletts very early and reached Macomb at 8 o’clock. Saw Aunt Mary (Bentley) Aiken who lives in the same place. John Aiken who came home two weeks ago. John Rice, Bill Morton, & John W Davis. Started for Uncle Millers and saw him-sent to Brooklyn after dinner. Uncle Ed and Jim (Bentley) live there. So does Grandmother Sophie James Bentley Davis and Aunt Ann (Wife of Hiram Bentley). Except Zeb Garrett, no one has known me here and thought I was with Grandmother about a half hour yet she could not be made to believe who I was (67 yrs. old)."

Both Helen and her husband James Lafferty died young, while heading out from Iowa somewhere along the Oregon Trail. Heleln's adopted brother-in-law had a brother named Edward 'Lutz' Lucas, who was a wagon train guide along the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. The Lucas line is mentioend in the Lafferty family notes, and Edward may have guided the young Lafferty couple on the journey on which they met their end.

Ironically, the transcontinental railroad opened the same year of Helen's death, thus making the arduous wagon train journeys obsolete.