The City of Lake Lotawanna is located on the southeast side of Kansas City – practically due east of where I grew up. According to Lake Lotawanna’s official website, it is the “largest private lake in the Kansas City area”. In 2010, its population boasted not quite 2,000 residents. As my hometown and Lake Lotawanna are next to one another, many of my high school classmates called Lake Lotawanna home. So what does this geography lesson have to do with genealogy?

For starters, I imagine there’s been only one book written about the history of Lake Lotawanna and my distant cousin – a resident of said city – wrote it. Francis Genevieve (Simmons) Stalling, my 6th cousin, 1x removed, penned Lake Lotawanna, the “Promised Land” in 1986. Published by the Blue Springs Examiner newspaper, the City of Lake Lotawanna included its cover in its 2014 budget report. Clearly they are quite proud of their Lotawannese heritage as told by Francis.

Francis, who died in 2003, was also an accomplished artist and a highly-respected art teacher – this according to her obituary. To my knowledge, she and I never met but it could have happened. We likely shopped at the same grocery stores and drove down the same streets. Who knows – I might have even sold her a book or dispensed her favorite frozen yogurt. When I became interested (a.k.a. obsessed) in genealogy and the search for my distant cousins, I hypothesized that we may be rubbing elbows with people who share bits of our DNA but we are none the wiser. Francis, at very least, was close to home.

Kenfolk: Utlauts
Relation: 6th cousin, 1x removed
Common ancestors: Francis’ 6th great grandparents, Isaiah and Frances (Terry) Turner, are my 5th great grandparents

Reference:
https://www.lakelotawana.org/About_Us.html