Margaret McDonald "Bonnie" Benkelman

Notes:

The Striffler-Benkelman Broadcast, Volume 10, September 1, 1947, reported that Bonnie Benkelman was a student at Kansas University.

Volume 23 of the Striffler-Benkelman Broadcast, dated September 7, 1963, noted that Dr. Albert Benkelman's daughter, Barbara, husband and four children moved back to Denver from Seattle during the summer. The other daughter, Bonnie, husband and two children moved from Denver to Chicago where he was employed in Montgomery Ward's office.

After her death, her daughters authored a website as a place for her family and friends to share their memories of BonnieMargaret:

http://rememberingbonniemargaret.wordpress.com/

Her listing on the SSDI:

MARGARET M JACOBS 18 Feb 1928 10 Jan 2009 (V) 35401 (Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa, AL ) (none specified) 515-22-5894 Kansas

Bonnie also noted on page 5 of her manuscript that although she "may have been Dad's bonnie lass" he never legally changed her name at the time of her adoption, and in the process of trying to get a passport to visit her Aunts in Scotland and the homeland of the Benkelman's in Germany, she decided the most practical course was to begin to use her given legal name, Margaret McDonald.

To her Benkelman relatives who had know her as Bonnie growing up, she suggested they call her BonnieMargaret, or whatever they were most comfortable with.

Bonnie extensively researched the origins of the Benkelman and allied families, beginning her quest after the death of her father when her cousin Bill asked: "Bonnie, what can you tell me about the family?"

She began digging through old family letters and newspaper clippings, visiting relatives in various cities, and even hiring professional genealogists in Germany (Dr. Paul Edel of Aalen and Friedrich Wollmershauser of Stuttgart), and ultimately making a trip to German to view rhe records and the family homes in person. In the preface to her manuscript she said that producing a family history "is remarkably like getting your foot caught in a bear trap. You never intend to find yourself in either mess. It happens accidentally. But once you are committed to it, there is no quick and painless way out of it." Her goal was to publish in 1980, the year her Aunt Lottie would have been 100, and her father 90. She wrote several drafts of the manuscript, before the days of personal computers being widely available, so the long manuscripts were retyped each time. What appears to have been her final draft was completed around 1981. However, as BonnieMargaret was ever the perfectionist she never published or widely circulated her manuscript. Some copies were shared with various relatives, but under strict orders to not copy of disseminate information. Select chapters and drafts of chapters were shared with the family members those chapters pertained to, but the complete draft of the book remained in her possession. After her death, her daughters bequesthed the drafts of her book, along with the voluminous notes and documents used to support her research to the Kansas branch of the Benkelman family. Her history, she said was not a final version, it is a family version. She limited the history to following the Benkelman name, though added there was no Benkelman history without Strifflers, Rommels, Schweglers, Buehrlys, Kolbs, Krapfs, etc etc, and those peopel do pass across the stage, not always remaining.

Barney Benkelman of Helena, Montana was kind enough share a copy of the final draft with me (Melinda McLemore Strong) in 2012.

Family/Spouse: Bruce Hemming Jacobs. Bruce was born on 9 Jul 1926 in Denver, Denver County, Colorado; died on 16 Mar 1998 in Casselberry, Seminole County, Florida. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Living married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]