The Beales and The Bealses

One of my wish list items is to build a documented family tree, and this week my curiosity brought me back to genealogy to do just that. One of my sisters and I were watching clips of Little Edie Beale in Grey Gardens and my sister said “daddy always said that if you meet someone with the last name Beale or Beals, that we’re probably related because it’s a rare name.” Beals was my maiden name, and while I’m not married now, I kept my married last name to have the same name as my daughter so I don’t go by Beals now, but it is our family name. My sister’s comment made me want to follow the Beals and Beales ancestry lines up to see if I can get to a match. It’s an interesting project in itself because the Beales family has so many intriguing and “staunch” characters, including perhaps the most famous person in their family, Little Edie’s cousin, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. This also means that getting started on their family tree will be very easy because there’s a lot of historical information published online about them. Whether I find a connection or not, either way it will be an entertaining project, but if there is a link, I would love to find out that I was related to this wonderful lady!