Diana (Olmsted) Poole (1949 - 2022)

Born 19 Feb 1949 in Candor, Tioga, New York, United States

Ancestors

Died Jan 2022 at age 72 in Auburn, Cayuga, New York, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Walt Steesy [send private message] and Closed Accounts WikiTree [send private message]

Dee (Olmsted) Poole was a wonderful member of our WikiTree community who has passed away. Dee (Olmsted) Poole made many contributions and will be missed.

Biography

Diana Louise Olmsted was born in Tioga County, New York the daughter of "Jack Olmsted and Rose Kenish.

She married Ken Barber and they had two children, Ken and Tammy.

She married Bob Poole; they had no children together.

In her original self-posting of a biography on WikiTree she said:

I raised a family in nearby Tompkins County. In 1999 my husband and I sold everything and went on the road in our RV. In 2014, we settled down in upstate NY in the beautiful Adirondack Mountain Park.

I've had an interest in family history since the early 80's and have self-published several booklets. Family life and grandchildren come first but history is a passion.

Comment from Walt Steesy

I first met "Dee" in the 1970's when she lived in Lansing, Tompkins County, New York and was active in the historical society there. At that time I was active in publishing New York State historical materials in addition to being the genealogist of the Olmste(a)ds world-wide She visited my office in Interlaken.

I had lost contact with her after the death of her husband Ken Barber. It was only when she joined WikiTree in 2015 that we reconnected. She and her second husband, Bob Poole, had settled in the Adirondacks.

Dee had a knack for finding sources to create outstanding biographies for individuals which she had done for many of her Olmsted ancestors, including those who served in the military. We got talking about Olmste(a)d Civil War veterans and at that time I had a list of about 150 on our family website. She took on the task of creating biographies for many of them. And I kept finding more for her to do; the list had now grown to over 400 including those direct descendants (or their spouses).

In 2020 Dee told me that she had a major project underway to digitize all of the newsletters from the Lansing Historical Society (she did finish that in 2021) and was taking a break from working on CW vets. Also that year, due to Bob's declining health conditions that required hour plus trips to Utica for treatment, they decided to move back to Auburn near some of his family. They found a nice apartment just a few blocks from the hospital. Though the were now just an hour from me. They were very cautious and requested because of the Covid-19 virus situation that I not visit them; I honored that request.

It was quite a shock just a few months later when her sister in California emailed me that both Dee and Bob had died in January 2022 of Covid.

I miss her every day as I work on Olmste(a)d records. WikiTree graciously transferred the profiles on her trusted list to me. She had not created many as she was keeping close family members away from the public and I will continue to honor her wishes.

It was only in the very recent years that Dee had learned that her father had a "second family." Her mother had never said anything about that over the years. There were four children from Jack's first marriage and I knew one of them well, having visited him in Connecticut a number of times. When he had provided the information on his family, he also never knew that his father had a second family. Both Richard and Dee would have enjoyed a chance to meet and learn about their father's "other" family.

Sources

• First-hand information entered by Diana in September 2015.