BELDING, Mich. (WOOD) — A Florida man’s discovery shared thousands of times on Facebook is helping reunite a Belding woman with a lost piece of family history.
Michael Rahn found a grave marker while cleaning out a foreclosed home in Florida. He thought it was something a family might want, so he posted it on Facebook.
“Over 13,000 shares, it showed up on my Facebook page,” said Denise Hanses of Belding.
She knew there was something familiar about the name on the marker — Edward C. Johnson. So Hanses looked through some of the genealogical research she’s compiled over the years.
“And sure enough, it was him. So I called my mother, and she confirmed it,” said Hanses.
Johnson was her great, great uncle.
Buried at Belding’s River Ridge Cemetery, he was a member of the Army’s Aero squad, the U.S. military’s first airborne effort formed during World War I.
After the war, Johnson came back to Belding, where he married and raised a family.
“I found that he had worked at Frigidaire. I know the two houses he’d lived in here in Belding, right over on Alderman Street.”
Johnson died in 1969. His grave marker was replaced when his wife died in 1989. His son, also named Edward Johnson, brought the original marker with him when he moved to Florida.
That’s where Rahn comes in. The Jackson, Michigan native cleans out foreclosed homes.
He discovered the marker on a trip to the dump with items from a home where Edward Johnson’s son once lived.
Rahn says his family has a long military background.
“It just hit home. It should go back to the family,” he told 24 Hour News 8.
When he saw Johnson’s military experience on the marker, he knew he had to reach out to find his family.
What better way than social media,” he said.
Hanses never met her great, great uncle, but the old marker has helped her make a connection.
“It’s just mind blowing… that you can find all sorts of family that you never knew you had,” she explained.
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