I am searching for information about my Grandmother's family. Grandma is still living, is 95 next week. Her memory of the past is good and we visit alot about her family, she has given me lots of clues and I would like to use them to learn more. She remembers visiting her Uncle and family in Nodaway County, Missouri in about 1895. His name was Joseph Lane, wife Ellen and some children were daughters, Merle and Clara and son Earl. Can you find any record of this family?

She tells me that her family lived for about a year in 1894-97? in the town of Defience, Shelby Co., Iowa. Her parents were Edwin Lane and Mary Jane Wells, children Emily, Charlotte, Lucy, Maude, Albert, Agnes, Ellen, Edwin, Retha and Wilfred. Many of the Wells family lived and died in Shelby Co. They were parents - Ephraim P. Wells, born 1831 in Illinois, died May 30, 1912 in Defience, married Jan 24, 1850, probably in Ill to Sarah Crackel, parents unknown. She may have been born in England, in 1824. She died in Defience, Union Twp on Sep 21, 1906, I have her death cert. but it is incomplete, her mother's maiden name was Duffield.

I have not been able to find Ephraim P. Wells death cert. Are they buried in Shelby Co, are there any Crackels or Duffields listed there? Children of Ephraim Wells and Sarah Crackel were Alice, Charlotte, Mary Jane, Levi, Henry, Edward and Mathew. Mary Jane Wells married Edwin Lane in Shelby Co [Iowa] 6 Jan 1865. I also believe that Ephraim's parents Edmund Wells and wife died in Shelby co. Edmund was believed to have died 1 Jan 1867.

Edwin Lane's parents were Joseph Lane and Emily ? (might be Cleary), they were my Great Great Grandparents. I have Edwin's death cert and the maiden name of his mother is smeared and cannot be read. They were probably born in Ill. I wonder if they lived and died in the Shelby, Iowa or Nodaway Co, Mo areas since some of their children lived there.

Their children were

Edwin Lane (my GGrandfather who married Mary Jane Wells,)

Joseph Lane (who lived in Nodaway Co, Mo),

Hiram Lane (married in Shelby Co 28 Feb 1869 to Crandall),

Albert Lane

David Lane (married in Shelby Co 27 Oct 1879 to Agnes Lambert)

Sarah Lane (married 19 Dec 1869 to Benjamin T. Homer or Homes), don't know where Sarah and Ben were married, but Grandma remembers visiting them in Defience.