Dear Catherine,

I have been in touch with other Bells and Dunbar's who believe that Rachel was previously married.  It is thought that she was born in 1760 and married James Dunbar info 1784/5 and had 3 children by him, Archibald (oh, crumbs, the other two are in a different file that I can't access while I'm typing this!)...anyway, they were both boys.  There are a couple of snippets of "news" of the time that mention James Dunbar and his wife Rachel in the Randolph Co. area of N. Carolina.

Around 1800 James died and John Bell was the executor of James Dunbar's will.  As women were not allowed control over their own property in those days, they often married the executors.  Not long after James's death, Rachel married John or Thomas Bell.  The information is not clear.  All three of them moved to Indiana with Rachel's 3 Dunbar sons.  These sons are buried around Clark Co. Indiana....close to somewhere that I can't remember, but it is in a file.  Rachel had another baby, Dunbar Bell, which is thought to be a transitional baby.  Perhaps she was pregnant with this child when James died.

She went on to have at least one other child, Elias Bell.  She would have been 46 when he was born.  There is census info that finds Rachel Dunbar Bell living with Elias and his wife Lydia Emmons in 1850.  She was 90.  Elias was the father of Thomas who married Jemima McKinley and had James K, Sanford Bell and others...if you need their names, I have them.

There has been speculation as to whether there were 2 Rachel's, but there is no evidence of this.  There is one Bell relation who says Rachel was the daughter of Captain George Dunbar, but doesn't seem to have any hard evidence to back that up.  The consensus of the rest of the investigators is that Rachel wasn't born a Dunbar.  And, of course, her grandson Thomas told his son James K Bell that she was Black Dutch which could mean that much of her ancestry has been hidden.

Although some sources say that Rachel married Thomas Bell, it may be unlikely as one of her sons married Thomas's daughter Elizabeth.  It depends on whether there would have been a half-brother and sister blood line with these kids if Thomas was her husband.  I'm sure that as more people get involved in investigating this, the more information will come to light and fall into place.

As far as Sanford Bell and Agnes Ditson are concerned, Agnes told my mother that they decided to have a trial marriage.  To my knowledge, nobody else in the family knows that Sanford was already married.  I wonder if Agnes knew!

There's one of their 4 children remaining in Denver, my aunt Ruth who is in her 80s.  I think it might not be a good idea to contact her, because when I have called her lately, she seems a bit confused as to who I am and what I'm saying.

I left Denver when I was 7, but my father stayed behind with my brother and his second wife.  They had 3 children.  Two of those are still in the Denver area.  My aunt Ruth had 4 or 5 kids.  I can't remember how many and I assume some of them are still in the Denver area.   I am in contact with her daughter Josephine.  My aunt Agnes (Vicky) couldn't have children, and adopted 2.  Aunt Mary had one daughter, Anna, who recently died in her mid 40s.

Apparently, Josephine has been investigating Sanford Bell a bit and got some information from Denver University which has upset her.  I don't know what it was, but I do know that he was a terrible womanizer.  That is why he left Indiana U. and Colorado U....also, he got involved in some sort of a land deal and a lot of people lost their money.  I don't know if he was responsible, but my mom told me that he had to leave Denver in a car with curtains drawn.  He was basically run out of town according to her, but my mother has been wrong before.  She also said that he ran off with a Denver debutante, leaving my grandmother Agnes to raise the 4 kids by herself during the depression.

I don't think he has won any "most popular relative contests" out in Denver.   I'm not sure how much of the bad stuff my gran told my English mom was just sour grapes.  I don't think she had much to say about him and when she did, it wasn't good.

Hi:

I hope that you don't mind that Ray Ruff gave me your e-address.  I am also descended from Elias Bell, father of Thomas who was the father of my grandfather Sanford Bell.  Sanford's eldest brother recounted the family history in 1932 and said that his father Thomas said that his grandmother Rachel was Black Dutch.

Nobody knew what that term meant for 60 years.  Apparently, it was a term used to describe European Romany Gipsy.  I have talked to a Dutch friend of mine who has said that both the Dutch and Germans have a term for the Romanians that begins with the word Black.  In the US many people who were of mixed race and darker than actual white, claimed to be Black Dutch or Black German, rather than be labeled Negro or Indian.  More often than not, this claim was made with people with white and Native American blood.

It has always been suspected in my family that there is something other than white in our blood.  I thought it may have come from my grandmother's side of the family, and I am still researching that, but I find this information on Rachel, from my grandfather's side of the family, interesting.  If you have any information on Rachel's origins, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Best wishes, Beth

Dear Catharine,

It is interesting that you live in Denver.  That is where I was born.  Dr.
Sanford Bell went from Indiana to Denver and met my grandmother Dr. Agnes Ditson and had 4 children with her.  They didn't marry, so the children were Ditson rather than Bell.

The person who recounted the ancestry of Rachel Dunbar Bell was James K. Bell, Sanford's eldest brother.  James K. was the eldest of 11 children to Thomas (2)Bell and Lydia Emmons Bell, and Sanford was the youngest.  Thomas's father and mother were Elias Bell and Jemima McKinley Bell.  Elias was the son of Rachel, as far as we can figure out.

It looks as if Rachel's maiden name wasn't Dunbar.  She may have been married to James Dunbar, was then widowed and married either John or Thomas (1) Bell.

Many of James K.'s children were dark (so I've heard) and my dad, myself and my half sister in particular are uncommonly dark for a pure European decadency.  My mother is English and I am darker than her side of the family.  I thought this may have come from Agnes Ditson's side of the family, and I have been looking into it, but came across Rachel's info relating to the Bells.

If I find any more information, I'll let you know.

Best wishes, Beth

Beth's line below:

Rachel and either Thomas or John Bell (my ggggrandparents) parents of:

      Elias (my gggrandfather) married to Lydia Emmons, parents of:

           Thomas (my ggrandfather) married to Jemima McKinley,
             parents of: Dr. Sanford Bell (my grandfather) had children with Dr. Agnes Ditson (my grandmother)

                    1.  Agnes (Vicky) Ditson couldn't have children.
                        Adopted Steven and Bonnie.

                    2.  Mary Ditson had daughter Anna Swanson who died
                        recently

                    3.  Ruth Ditson, married Joe Duffy, had 4 children
                        one of these being Josephine

                    4.  Sanford Christopher Ditson (my dad)

                        One son in Germany...born during the war.  We
                        don't know his name or whereabouts.

                        1st marriage to my mom, Lila Hunter from
                        Liverpool England.  Children:

                        John Christopher Ditson
                        Elizabeth (Beth) Ann Ditson

                        2nd marriage to Marion Geizel. Children:

                        Paul Ditson
                        Cathrine (Kit) Ditson
                        Jesse Ditson