Roy Longwell Born January 20, 1929

Roy Longwell (my father) was born on January 20, 1929 In Lake Odessa, Michigan. Lake Odessa is a small village 38 miles southeast of Grand Rapids. His parents were Leo Longwell and Naomi nee Olmstead. Roy was their 7th child and the only boy. Roy’s mother Naomi had a prior marriage and had a daughter Eloise. My father was very close in adulthood to Eloise, who was 13 years older than him. I don’t think we knew that Eloise had a different father, because people didn’t talk about those things. Before her marriage to Leo, Naomi was a teacher in a rural one room schoolhouse. She played the piano and was a very devout woman. Roy’s father Leo worked at the Flint Motor Company. Besides Polish DNA from my Mother’s side, I have inherited DNA from England, Germany and small amounts from Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, Norway and Ireland. Other people have worked on the family history on my Dad’s side so I have done very little of it. We had an older cousin who always worked on it so we did have the opportunity to know a little bit about the family background while growing up.