Papers of Lola Bonnell at the Cincinnati Museum Center

Some of you may remember Lola Bonnell, who collected much material about the Bonnell family and worked with many people to compile it. My great-aunt Margaret Watson Cooke was one of them.

Lola was daughter of William Jones Bonnell & Florence Buckingham, granddaughter of Aaron Bonnell & Margaret Dackey, great-granddaughter of Moses Bonnell & Hannah Buckingham.

Lola donated her papers to the Cincinnati Historical Society and they are now archived at the Cincinnati Museum Center. According to Christine Engels, Archives Manager, they are extensive and not all genealogical.

Ms Engels was kind enough to send me information on the collection, as follows. There is not a more detailed inventory.

Mss VF 1377 = William Bonnell’s receipts and financial information – 1 file

Mss VF 1378 – Information on the Bonnell family and their home in Indian Hill – 1 file

Mss VF 1379 – Genealogical Bonnell information – I file

Mss VF 3442 - Genealogical Bonnell information – I file

Mss VF 3443 – Information on Indian Hill – 1 file

Mss VF 3444 – Genealogical information on the Bonnell and Weller families – 1 file

Mss VF 3709 – Information on the Christian Waldschmidt house – 1 file

Mss fB716t RFM – William Bonnell volume as Treasurer in Special School District in Hamilton County and some household accounts, 1891-1903 – 1 volume, very fragile and oversized, not able to copy (Note: this William Bonnell is probably Lola's father.)

Mss qB716 – Bonnell family deeds, mortgages, letters, 1832-1962 – 1 box

Ms Engels invited me to go through the boxes myself, but as I live on the west coast this isn't feasible. She had an intern go through them and make copies of letters she found, and I did purchase copies of them. The Museum Center has given us permission to post them on this blog and I'll be doing that in not-too-distant future.

Maybe someone who lives in the Cincinnati area and part of her line can make a more detailed inventory for us.

This Bunnell-Bonnell Family Blog was created to share information on the many branches of the Bunnell/Bonnell family tree. It is the child of the Bunnell/Bonnell Newsletter, which was in continuous publication from January 1987 until November 2014–28 continuous years!

Mr. William Austin of Lacyville, PA started the Newsletter in order to share some of the material he had collected during 25 years of research and correspondence. That first issue was 8 pages long. Over the years Bill grew the Newsletter both in content and in subscribers, and he became one of the foremost experts on the Bunnell/Bonnell genealogy.

After 10 years of publishing the newsletter, Bill turned it over to Carole Bonnell and her sister-in-law Teri Bonnell. Their first publication was in January 1997. Like Bill, they published an outstanding Newsletter and provided a much needed forum for Bunnell and Bonnell researchers to share information and ask questions.

Finally, in January 2003, in answer to Carole's and Teri's calls for new editors, Charlie and Pat Bunnell decided to give it a try. Charlie had just retired and was looking for something new to "obsess" over. 

The newsletter ceased publication with the November 2014 issue because no one volunteered to take over for Charlie after he decided to take a well-deserved break.

Every issue of the newsletter is available on Charlie's website at 

http://www.bunnellfamily.com

The creators of this blog and all Bunnell/Bonnell family researchers owe enormous debts of gratitude to these editors and all who contributed to the newsletter. Thank you for all the information you preserved and shared.

The newsletter had always been an informal, information sharing publication with all of the subscribers recognizing and treating each other as family. We hope this blog will be the same.