De Lores Wanner was the most extraordinary researcher of her era.   She had the uncanny ability to find and get copies of the original sources of the information she was interested in.  She even in January, 1986 purchased 5 rolls of microfilm from the Summit County, Ohio Court House.  She said, “I wrote to them so often they said they had the following:  Original Wills, Estates, Births, Deaths and Marriages from 1800-1905 on microfilm and I could buy them if I wanted.”

De Lores always typed her letters and they were very easy and clear to follow.  She analyzed all of her sources to compare discrepancies and made conclusions that were fully explained in her letters.  Most, if not all, of her conclusions still hold true today.  She wrote to many Sherbondy descendants directly and helped them with many ancestor questions.  In one letter, she identified Ellen Sherbondy (Clan D) as a daughter-in-law of abolitionist John Brown.

De Lores was a descendant of Clan D and was an expert on the Ohio Clans; Clans A, B and D.   She was a daughter of Myrtle Ruth Sherbondy and John Leland Caskey.  She had been “researching the Sherbondys of Ohio and Pennsylvania for some time” before her contact with Jeff Sherbondy and Dorothy Hiatt in 1982.  De Lores and her husband Leonard attended the reunion in Ontario, OR in Sept, 1984.

De Lores was the first to identify two sets of cousin marriages.  Marriages between Sherbondy cousins were not uncommon in the 1800’s.  However, these two (out of 3 known) were unusual because both the groom and the bride were named Sherbondy;   In 1857 Hiram Sherbondy (Clan D), son of Peter S. and Mary Sherbondy married Louisa Sherbondy (Clan A), daughter of Uriah and Elizabeth Sherbondy and in 1840 Malchiah Sherbondy (Clan D), son of Peter S. and Martha Sherbondy married Salina Sherbondy (Clan B), daughter of George and Esther Sherbondy.  Even now, some web sites show the bride’s last name in these marriages as “?” because they assume Sherbondy is only her married name!