The story on the map
Scroll or select a passage to highlight its people, places, movement evidence and dated events. “Show on map” and “Show on timeline” are native links; each figure mark links back here.
Joan's Door Into the Story
The Fleenor story enters the atlas through Michael Facchinello’s paternal grandmother. The family record places Michael below Rick, and Joan Fleenor Facchinello’s obituary names Rick as her son. Joan was born in Evanston on 15 January 1934. On 30 March 1951 she married Raymond Facchinello in Aurora, joining this line to the Facchinello story. She died in Fort Collins on 28 December 2025. Behind her, the records now extend through Paul into an Iowa line; farther back, the atlas distinguishes indexed facts from supported historical genealogy.
Paul and Emily
Joan’s parents were Paul T. Fleenor and Emily (Symons) Fleenor. Their daughter’s obituary names them together, but the clearest moment comes from the 1950 census: in Englewood, the original schedule calls Emily Paul’s “Wife.” That confirms the household relationship even though no marriage register has been read. Patricia’s birth in February 1933 tells us the marriage came before then, but not where or when. The record keeps Paul’s middle initial and Emily’s maiden name exactly as it finds them: “Paul T.” and Symons.
One Household in 1950
The 1950 census gives this family its clearest room to stand in. On 1 April, in Englewood, the enumerator found Paul, 37, born in Iowa, with Emily, 34, born in Illinois, and their daughters Patricia, 17, and Joan, 16. Two more children were on the same sheet, but they are living and remain private in the public atlas. The street address, road, occupations and hours are left out as well. Four lines in one household are the firmest ground beneath this chapter.
An Uncertain Move West
The family’s move west survives only as a wide horizon. Joan’s obituary places it during her middle-school years. Patricia was born in Evanston in February 1933, Joan there in January 1934, and the 1950 census finds the household in Englewood. The atlas therefore traces a move from Evanston to Englewood sometime between 1934 and 1950. No intermediate stop is known, and the range stays wide because the detail that might narrow it belongs to a living person and is not borrowed into the public record.
What the Records Can Tell Us
The household is clear; the dates of the two adults are more shadowed. Paul was born in Iowa in 1913, a year supplied by his Find a Grave memorial; the census gives only the state and his age, so no day is recorded. Emily was born in Illinois on 17 September 1915, again from a memorial. She died on 17 July 1975 and was buried at Littleton Cemetery, where the interment-ledger extract and memorial meet. Paul died in December 1990: his memorial gives the twelfth, while the Denver Public Library’s obituary index points to a Rocky Mountain News notice on the seventeenth.
Four Children
Paul and Emily had four children. Patricia “Pat” (Fleenor) Deneke is the one whose life the records carry most fully: born in Evanston on 17 February 1933, dead on 3 May 2022, and probably buried at Littleton Cemetery, though the memorial gives a block rather than an interment date. Joan’s brother Jim and sister Paulette are living, so the public tree gives only their labels and relationships. Paul is recorded as the father of all four. Emily’s motherhood is stated for Joan; for the other three it remains a sibling inference, with a Cook County birth certificate named as the next check.
Emily’s Open Line
Emily’s name carries one rejected turn. The family workbook once called Joan’s mother “Emily Roberts,” but Joan’s obituary says Emily (Symons) Fleenor, and no record opened here supports Roberts as a second identity. Paul’s parents are now named by his delayed birth index; Emily’s remain unproved. Contributor links on a public family tree may guide the search, but they cannot stand in for a record that names her parents.
The Records Reopen the Line
Authenticated Iowa indexes now replace the workbook-only bridge with named records. Paul Theodore Fleenor’s delayed birth entry names Otis Fleenor and Anna Smith. Anna Velora Smith’s entry names John Henderson Smith and Dollie Despain. Dollie’s 1887 marriage entry names Milton Despain and Martha Beans. The old route through Isaac Newton DeSpain and Nancy Hanks DeSpain is superseded; it remains only as a dotted research-history association, not parentage.
From Beames to Hanks
Martha’s 1935 Iowa death index names William Beams and Mahala Hall, and the 1850 census places Martha in their household. The evidentiary footing then changes: Wilson and Davis list Mahala among Nancy Hanks Hall and Levi Hall’s children, while Genetic Lincoln’s mtDNA work supports Nancy Hall, Mary Friend and Lucy Hanks in the same Ann Lee Hanks maternal line. Those historical-genealogy steps are strong and mutually consistent, but they are not the same as opening every original image.
A Likely Lincoln Relationship
The two researched paths now meet at Joseph Hanks and Ann Lee. Michael descends through Nancy Hanks Hall; Abraham Lincoln descends through her sister Lucy Hanks and Lucy’s daughter Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Restoring Lucy—the generation FamilySearch’s relationship chart omitted—makes the likely relationship second cousins six times removed, not first cousins seven times removed. The site presents that as strongly supported research, not a fully confirmed pedigree, because the Hall-to-Hanks steps still rely on historical genealogy and mtDNA synthesis.