This past week or so has been especially rewarding for me – as I’ve had a cluster of activity around my Koonce surname.
In these past several days I’ve spoken to the daughter of my great-aunt that recently passed away, spoken to two Koonce descendants who also have ties to Lenoir & Craven counties in NC; and gotten permission from a third Koonce researcher to post the issues of the Koonce to Koonce newsletter online.
To top it off, today after doing some searching at Newspaper Archive.com, my mother found mention of my grandfather’s (William Koonce Sr.) fatal car accident in a story that was picked up by the Associated Press on New Year’s fatalities from the new year of 1976. I’ve blogged before about my experience reading court records involving his accident, and to read his name in the newspaper brought those same feelings back again- it truly feels like going back in time. It is just one sentence, but it is a powerful sentence for me. I’ve not yet found a newspaper obituary for my grandfather, so this is the closest I’ve come yet.
In the Syracuse Herald-Journal newspaper of Syracuse, New York, there is an article that was published January 2, 1976, titled “Hoodlums, Accidents, Fire Mar Holiday Spirit” and here is my grandfather listed among the fatalities
