Long Lost Siblings Reunite, Adding To A Family Tree
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Jane Clifford always wondered about her youngest brother, named Michael Thomas Walters at birth.
She was six when he was born. He was adopted 10 days later.
Clifford is one of 13 children born to Silas and Gladys Walters of Auburn. The Walters divorced shortly after Michael Thomas' birth in 1945.
Last year, after 60 years apart, Clifford and her brother reunited. He grew up in Warsaw, the adopted son of Basil and Audrey Zent.
"The Zents couldn't have children," Clifford said at her home on Barbee Lake. "They had me for one summer, but I cried so much for my mother they brought me back."
The Zents named their new son Michael Randall Zent. They called him Tom.
"He always knew he was adopted," Clifford said. "He just didn't know who his birth parents were."
Because Audrey Zent always wondered about "Janie," Audrey told Kay Zent, Tom's wife, about her husband's biological parents.
Audrey, 96, lives in a Pensacola Fla., nursing home. Basil died in the early 1990's.
"Audrey didn't want to upset Tom, so she told Kay. Kay found dad's obituary on the Internet and contacted one of my sisters," Clifford said.
Clifford had been tracing her family tree at the time with the help of Beth Smith, the North Webster Library's Indiana Room librarian.
Clifford belongs to a genealogy group that meets at Sandy Mafara's house every week.
"I took the information about my brother to the class and they told me to go for it," Clifford said, "... to meet him."
Jane and her husband, Art, traveled to Florida where Tom and Kay live. The siblings embraced for a tearful reunion on Tom's 60th birthday in March 2005.
Jane visited with Audrey Zent, too.
Tom Zent graduated from Warsaw High School in 1964 or 1963. He joined the U.S. Air Force and then the U.S. Navy, retiring in Florida.
"He's wonderful," Clifford said of her long-lost brother.
"We get so mad," Mafara said jokingly about Clifford's progress. "Most of us are luck to get one additional piece of information about our families and Jane fills page after page."
Clifford has a 3-inch, three-ring binder stuffed with birth, marriage and death certificates detailing the Walters family tree. There are photographs of the extended family, reunion pictures and newspaper clippings about family members.
There is a hand-painted photograph of the "famous" Walters Sisters - Helen, Joan and Pat - who sang for Joe Taylor and the Indiana Red Birds on WOWO in the late 1930's
A copy of a high school yearbook picture shows Jane's sister, "Shirley Stewart," as a senior. Shirley was raised by an aunt and uncle, Melvina and Glen Stewart. Although she wasn't officially adopted, she went by the Stewart surname.
Clifford's sisters and brothers are: Helen Cooper, the late Joan Cutweiler, Pat Leffler, Bill Walters, Jack Walters, Donna Tageson, Shirley Thomas, Gene Walters, Fred Walters, Mary Goble, the late Tom Walters and Tom Zent, and step brothers Gordon Martin and Alan Martin.
"I was six when Tom was born. Mom was in the hospital for 10 days. My oldest sister carried him out and gave him to the Zents.
"There were six of us left at home," Clifford said after her parent's divorce in 1945. "We had some money when dad was there, but when he left we were dirt poor."
Clifford's mother remarried in 1948 and eventually gave birth to two more sons.
Silas Walters, known as Ted, Clifford's father, remarried too. She didn't see her father until she was a grown, married woman with children of her own.
"He was a wonderful, kind man," she said of her late father.
The Cliffords always had a Barbee Lake-area vacation cabin and moved to a year-round home in 1989.
Art bought a computer for Jane a year ago. She took SPEC-sponsored computer classes in the North Webster Community Center. After those lessons she enrolled in the genealogy classes and joined the local genealogy group.
"We meet once a week," Mafara said, "if you meet less often you tend to let things slide. The hours are supposed to be 9 to 11 a.m., but we often go over that time."
Genealogy is an extremely popular hobby. Mafara said it can be as inexpensive or as expensive as the hobbist likes.
Clifford has joined several societies, subscribes to ancestry.com on the Internet and sends away for paperwork. She and Art will travel in search of an elusive document.
Once she feels her Walters research is complete, Clifford plans to research her husband's family, which dates back to 1006 in England.
New genealogy classes start June 1, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., four Tuesdays in a row at SPEC in the North Webster Community Center. Costs are $35 and pre-registration is required. [[In-content Ad]]
Jane Clifford always wondered about her youngest brother, named Michael Thomas Walters at birth.
She was six when he was born. He was adopted 10 days later.
Clifford is one of 13 children born to Silas and Gladys Walters of Auburn. The Walters divorced shortly after Michael Thomas' birth in 1945.
Last year, after 60 years apart, Clifford and her brother reunited. He grew up in Warsaw, the adopted son of Basil and Audrey Zent.
"The Zents couldn't have children," Clifford said at her home on Barbee Lake. "They had me for one summer, but I cried so much for my mother they brought me back."
The Zents named their new son Michael Randall Zent. They called him Tom.
"He always knew he was adopted," Clifford said. "He just didn't know who his birth parents were."
Because Audrey Zent always wondered about "Janie," Audrey told Kay Zent, Tom's wife, about her husband's biological parents.
Audrey, 96, lives in a Pensacola Fla., nursing home. Basil died in the early 1990's.
"Audrey didn't want to upset Tom, so she told Kay. Kay found dad's obituary on the Internet and contacted one of my sisters," Clifford said.
Clifford had been tracing her family tree at the time with the help of Beth Smith, the North Webster Library's Indiana Room librarian.
Clifford belongs to a genealogy group that meets at Sandy Mafara's house every week.
"I took the information about my brother to the class and they told me to go for it," Clifford said, "... to meet him."
Jane and her husband, Art, traveled to Florida where Tom and Kay live. The siblings embraced for a tearful reunion on Tom's 60th birthday in March 2005.
Jane visited with Audrey Zent, too.
Tom Zent graduated from Warsaw High School in 1964 or 1963. He joined the U.S. Air Force and then the U.S. Navy, retiring in Florida.
"He's wonderful," Clifford said of her long-lost brother.
"We get so mad," Mafara said jokingly about Clifford's progress. "Most of us are luck to get one additional piece of information about our families and Jane fills page after page."
Clifford has a 3-inch, three-ring binder stuffed with birth, marriage and death certificates detailing the Walters family tree. There are photographs of the extended family, reunion pictures and newspaper clippings about family members.
There is a hand-painted photograph of the "famous" Walters Sisters - Helen, Joan and Pat - who sang for Joe Taylor and the Indiana Red Birds on WOWO in the late 1930's
A copy of a high school yearbook picture shows Jane's sister, "Shirley Stewart," as a senior. Shirley was raised by an aunt and uncle, Melvina and Glen Stewart. Although she wasn't officially adopted, she went by the Stewart surname.
Clifford's sisters and brothers are: Helen Cooper, the late Joan Cutweiler, Pat Leffler, Bill Walters, Jack Walters, Donna Tageson, Shirley Thomas, Gene Walters, Fred Walters, Mary Goble, the late Tom Walters and Tom Zent, and step brothers Gordon Martin and Alan Martin.
"I was six when Tom was born. Mom was in the hospital for 10 days. My oldest sister carried him out and gave him to the Zents.
"There were six of us left at home," Clifford said after her parent's divorce in 1945. "We had some money when dad was there, but when he left we were dirt poor."
Clifford's mother remarried in 1948 and eventually gave birth to two more sons.
Silas Walters, known as Ted, Clifford's father, remarried too. She didn't see her father until she was a grown, married woman with children of her own.
"He was a wonderful, kind man," she said of her late father.
The Cliffords always had a Barbee Lake-area vacation cabin and moved to a year-round home in 1989.
Art bought a computer for Jane a year ago. She took SPEC-sponsored computer classes in the North Webster Community Center. After those lessons she enrolled in the genealogy classes and joined the local genealogy group.
"We meet once a week," Mafara said, "if you meet less often you tend to let things slide. The hours are supposed to be 9 to 11 a.m., but we often go over that time."
Genealogy is an extremely popular hobby. Mafara said it can be as inexpensive or as expensive as the hobbist likes.
Clifford has joined several societies, subscribes to ancestry.com on the Internet and sends away for paperwork. She and Art will travel in search of an elusive document.
Once she feels her Walters research is complete, Clifford plans to research her husband's family, which dates back to 1006 in England.
New genealogy classes start June 1, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., four Tuesdays in a row at SPEC in the North Webster Community Center. Costs are $35 and pre-registration is required. [[In-content Ad]]