Musings of a Genealogy-Nut

More from Dad's Life Book.

2012-01-22T07:31:00.000-08:00

Their first home as a family...1940-1949

The home they owned from 1955 to 1994

More From my Father's "Life Book".

2012-01-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

11. Young Adult Life

12. Courtship

13. Marriage

My First Cemetery Search

2012-01-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

A Memorial Arch among the family plots

In 1963, on our sort-of-honeymoon, we visited my new husband's family in Savannah, Georgia. I had never been further South than Ohio so the live oaks, Spanish moss, wrought iron balconies, fountains and square parks were just fascinating in spite of the August heat.

I made sure my children, who I ended up raising on my own, always knew they had a large family in Savannah. Recently, I started looking for genealogy information about that part of the family and learned that many branches of that family go way back to before the revolution, coming from a place called "Io", apparently an area of Switzerland. The elderly grandmother I met in 1963 was a Bourguin, and they, too, dated back to original Georgia settlers with hefty land grants. I also learned the Bashlors were buried in Bonaventure Cemetery, the gorgeous old burial ground featured in the 1993 movie, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

The overhanging Live Oaks with Spanish Moss form a cathedral ceiling.

There are others, but I will search for those next time.


My children's great-grandparents, James and Mary (Maimie)

James Roberson Bashlor b. Feb 7, 1858 d. Sept23, 1919

Mary Bourquin Bashlor, b. Jan 22, 1871 d. Mar 5, 1969

James Roberson Bashlor b. May 5, 1902 d. May 20, 1976 Dweese Gupton Bashlor b. Nov 20, 1903 d. Nov 22, 1993
I am not sure of the relationship of this couple to my children.

Ralph Burns Bashlor, Apr 26, 1907 - Nov 18, 1916

Lynda Suzanne, Daughter of Nell and Bobby Bashlor, Oct 31, 1948 to Nov 2, 1948

Franklin King, son of Ruth G Krystal King, June 15, 1929 - June 15, 1948

Frank Sloat Bashlor Aug 31, 1890 to Dec 12, 1922

I have no idea at this time how these people are related, but as soon as I can start their family tree, and start searching for clues I will have this put together.

More Pages for Dad's Life Book

2011-12-19T14:52:00.000-08:00

10. Friends


09. Family Homes

08. Family Memories


07. Siblings

06. Grandparents

Finding Lost Great-Grandparents

2011-12-03T09:51:00.000-08:00

I never knew any of my great-grandparents but I felt closer to Anna and Greeley Scarlett than the others. The Scarlett line of first-born sons came down to Greeley since the early 1700s. However, he and Anna had two girls. Minnie was 8 years old when her little sister, Katie, my grandmother, came along. Minnie married first, of course, and had one child, a son, Clair. When Katie married, she had one child, a son, my father, Clifford. Clair never married but Cliff did and had two children, my brother, Charles and me.

Anna and Greeley moved from Alvordton to Hicksville (both in Ohio) next door to their older daughter.

I loose track of them there. Minnie and her husband died. In the early 60s, Clair died and I went to his military funeral. I was sure the cemetery wasn't far from the house.

My friend, Theresa, mentioned in a geneology - scrapbooking chat one night that she lived quite close to Hicksville, Ohio and would check the cemetery there for me.

She sent me photos of the headstones.

Anna Scarlett 1859 - 1931

Horace G. Scarlett 1852 - 1933

The Garver Scarlett Plot

The three close stones are the Garvers, Minnie, Will and their son Clair. The two further ones are the Scarlett stones.

Four more Lifebook Pages

2011-10-08T20:40:00.000-07:00

04. Education

05. Parents

05. Father

05. Mother

Clifford Anderson-Page 4-Education

2011-10-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

I am preparing for tonight's Life Book chat at Victorian Rose Designs at 9:00 PM EST. Tonight's topic is "Education of your subject". So in preparation, I went to my father's baby book. What a blessing to have that book AND thanks to my grandmother for keeping such records. The records told only part of the story. I have graduation photos and diplomas to verify the records. I will add the photos as I scan them. The high school diploma and the college graduation class composite are so large and rolled so tightly for so long I don't even thing I can photograph them.

Clifford S Anderson – School Records

1912 Mar 18, Kindergarten (K-B), McMillan School , Delray, Detroit, MI–

(age 5 years 10 months)-teacher-Mrs Wilson

1912 Sept –Kindergarten (K-A) at Morley School, Detroit

Miss Abby Baxter-teacher age 5 yrs 4 mos

1913 Jun 19-promoted to 1-B age 6 yrs 1 mo

1914 Jan 23-promoted to 1-A age 6 yrs 8 mos

1914 Jun 18-promoted to 3-B (Skipped 1.5 grades) age 7 yrs 1 mos

1915 Jan-promoted to 3-A age 7 yrs 8 mos

1915 Jun-promoted to 4-B age 8 yrs 1 mos

1916 Jan-promoted to 4-A age 8 yrs 8 mos

1916 Jun-promoted to 5-B age 9 yrs 1 mos

1917 Jan-promoted to 5-A age 9 yrs 8 mos

1917 Jun-promoted to 6-B age 10 yrs 1 mos

1918 Jan-promoted to 6-A age 10 yrs 8 mos

1918 Jun-promoted to 7-B age 11 yrs 1 mos

1919 Jan-promoted to 7-A age 11 yrs 8 mos

Summer School at Nordstrom High School, Detroit

1919 Jun-promoted to grade 9 in high school age 12 yrs 1 mos-Detroit Southwestern High School

1923 Feb 1- Graduated from high school - age 15 yrs 9 mos-Detroit Southwestern High School


15 years, 9 months

Entered Detroit College of Pharmacy and Chemistry (Now part of Wayne State University) - Sept 1923-age 16 yrs 4 mos

Graduated from Detroit College of Pharmacy and Chemistry (PhC - Master's Degree in Chemistry)– Jan 1928-age 20 yrs 8 mos


20 years 8 months

The Mysterious Rachel

2011-09-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

This week I received notice from Ancestry.com that someone had sent me a message. What a surprise.

At this point it looks like my great-great-grandmother, Rachel Marker, had a baby out of wedlock while living in Sumerset County, Pennsylvania where she was born in 1834.

There are some discrepancies.

RACHEL JANE MARKER SCARLETT WINEBRENNER
Born 03 Aug 1834 Somerset, Pennsylvania
Emigrated to Noble County, Indiana in 1843 with parents and brothers age 9 (lied in obituary?)
Birth of Henry Swarner in 1848 in Somerset, Pennsylvania (She would be just 14. Did she return to Sumerset from Noble County or was the story in the obit a cover-up?)
Marriage to Horace Greeley Scarlett 19 Jan 1852
Birth of Almon Scarlett 16 Nov 1853
Horace G Scarlett died 25 Mar 1856
Almon renamed Horace Greeley after his father
Marriage to Jacob Winebrenner (next door neighbor) 15 Jan 1857
Births of 6 Winebrenner children 1857 to 1869
Rachel's death 14 Sept 1906 (age 72)

Jacob Winebrenner and Rachel Jane Marker Scarlett Winebrenner

Rachel's obituary. Part lost.

Lifebook Birth Page

2011-09-26T15:16:00.000-07:00


02. Birth

This is the second page for this round of Life Books at www.victorianrose.com.

I am working on my father's lifebook. I will try to submit a page a week until the book is finished. I need this commitment in order to finish and have it printed.

Here are the third and fourth pages of the Life Book of my Father.

03. Childhood


03.5 Childhood

Life Book 4

2011-09-17T21:13:00.000-07:00

This will be the cover of my Life Book about my father. I have both grandmothers' books done during Life Book Class 1 and 2. I skipped 3 and this is class #4 at Victorian Designs. I have been creating random heritage scrapbook pages for years and random is just what they are. This makes so much sense! I discovered doing the grandmothers' books that I didn't know as much about them as I thought I did. Every week I gathered and discovered things I never knew about them. I know most of the facts about my father, but to have those random facts and stories organized all in one book will be just so special.

If you are interested in starting a Life Book, or even if you are just curious, come on over to the above website on Monday night at 9:00 EST, enter the chat room , and join us to see what it is about.

Oh oh! Moving from Rank Amateur to a Little More Serious

2011-09-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I read a message in a forum; a forum of scrapbooking friends...not even about genealogy. This friend was complaining about how she had spent countless hours and a lot of money researching her family's genealogy. A cousin, then published HER tree, and it was full of errors, undocumented links lifted from other trees, and no proofs.

My friend hit a nerve. I go to several sites that archive trees of the members and allow sharing, notifying you when there are matches. It is so easy to just grab those new branches on the trees, and if there is no proofs, oh, well.

Now I have started searching for discrepancies in my lines and found some "impossible" links. My favorite multiple mistakes are women linked as mothers to children born after their death date. In one case a man was over 100 years older than his child.

I am unsure whether to try and clean up my tree, or just start over. Maybe I will do both...a carefully documented tree from scratch, but keep the old tree for reference.

Where I'm From

2011-07-26T07:31:00.001-07:00

WHERE I'M FROM

I am from WWII, from Ration Stamps, and Oleo.
I am from the smell of lake water and wood boats.
I am from the bed of zinnias and marigolds, the pungent scent and sticky, fuzzy leaves.
I am from Family Sunday dinners and tolerance of peculiarities, from Grandma and Grandpa and Scarlett pride.
I am from the orderliness and tradition-keeping.
From old-time Indiana songs and colorful expressions.
I am from Episcopal and Baptist traditions, The Bible and wine communion.
I'm from Germany, Sweden and England. Garlic and sauerkraut.
From the Indiana farm and large families, the Uncle who fought in WWI, and the Uncle who was left behind.
I am from boxes of photos, notebooks of census papers, Lifebooks and heritage scrapbooks; Online family trees and newly found relatives.

(This was a challenge from Gene-Musings)

Restoring damaged, old photos

2011-07-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

My friend, Fran, wrote this tutorial about her awesome restorations of photos that are aged, damaged and discolored. She used Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 5, but it will work with other versions.

Here is the original and restored photo;

So here is my hot tip. Whenever I am working on something that I know is going to have a gazillion layers, every time I get about 100 layers I save my work as Restore 1. Then I merge all my layers, duplicate the background layer, and name the project Restore 2. When restore 2 gets to 100 layers I save --> merge --> duplicate the background layer and name it Restore 3.....is just as important as the tutorial. When you are trying to restore a damaged photo the work becomes very intricate and it is SO much easier if you allow yourself to drown in layers.

When trying to restore a photo the very first thing you have to deal with is the tone, color, and noise. Once you deal with those three things much of the detail that you could see in the original photo will disappear. (Which is quite frustrating). In Essee's photo, decreasing the noise in the photo made the hair on the sides of both ladies heads disappear. It also made the right eyebrows of all three people disappear. I used the smudge tool to recreate those areas.
My next step is to work on the faces. If I cannot make the faces look descent, there is no point in wasting my time on the clothes.

HOW I RESTORE FACES:

I paint the faces (use a very soft brush at a very low setting and layer your color) of the people to get rid of the noise that is left behind after the noise filter(every time you use a new color, make a new layer)-->

then I stamp the image (shift+control+alt+E)-->

I put the original on top, but the stamped layer is active -->

I use the lasso tool and, while looking at the original, I work on the stamped layer. On my active layer I select the areas of skin on the face where there are obvious shadows on the original -->

I use a feather of 7-10 to feather the edges and then I copy and paste the selected areas onto a new layer -->

I do a curves adjustment on the extracted areas so that my painted/stamped layer has the shadows and highlights of the original.

Sometimes I have to do this step several times before I am satisfied with the look.

I stamp again, then duplicate --->

I run the duplicated layer through all the blending modes to see if it will improve the detail ---> I find that soft light is usually the blending mode that works the best --> then I mask that layer and paint on the mask until I get a look that I like.

[I use the Imagnomic noise filter. I love it].

In Essee's photo the clothes were very black, so I had to lift the shadows (image --> adjustments-->shadows and highlights) to bring out the detail in the clothes. Lifting shadows always creates horrific problems with noise. Noise is a scary monster that hides in the shadows of our photos. I handled this by hand painting over the noisy areas just like I did the faces. Then, in order to bring out even more detail to the lines of the clothes, I extracted them and added a small drop shadow to things like lapels, and on the outside edge I add a small black outer glow and changed the blend mode to multiply.

Organizing data / Planning a Lifebook

2011-06-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

These are notes to support the June 29 chat in Ancestorville on Facebook.

I found these great planning pages at Levenger. I believe they no longer produce this exact paper. I bought it at a discount, in 5 colors and white and loose. They now have similar in pads (link above). I didn't know what I wanted the paper for when I bought it but this seems to be the perfect use.

As much as possible I am matching old photos with the decade. I hope to add some historic events in red.

I also use this paper for planning a lifebook. Each section is labeled with the lifebook theme of that week. Instead of photos, I sketch in the design I want for the page and info on the lined portion.

A new chat

2011-05-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 1, I will be hanging out in the Ancestorville chat room on Facebook hoping there are some other Ancesterville residents interested in heritage scrapping. If you are on Facebook, contact me and I will direct you to one of the two chats at 3:00 EST and 8:00 EST.

I was in the chat room at Ancestorville one evening on another topic when I mentioned scrapping heritage, genealogy, ancestors, etc. There were a couple who didn't know what "scrapping" was, let alone heritage scrapping, digital or otherwise. There were a couple more who knew about scrapping but hadn't linked it to the stories of the ancestors. I know at least one who has already jumped into it and keeps me informed. I don't know all the answers, even if the "Mayor" of Ancestorville called me an "expert" but I have links...lots of links.

My suggestion for getting your feet wet is to choose one photo, piece of ephemera, or copy of an important record, scan it, place it loosely on a blank page and tell the story...every detail you know. I usually type mine on a computer but handwritten is even better. THEN go looking for backgrounds and decorations.

If you are ready to jump in with both feet, I would suggest the Lifebook Challenges at Heritage Scrap. A lifebook takes one ancestor (or sometimes a couple) and follows a set pattern of one page a week on particular topics in chronological order. I have done 2 of those with Victorian Rose, and loved the finished books.

Here is the loose schedule for a Lifebook.
Week 1: Cover/Getting started
Week 2: Birth
Week 3: Childhood
Week 4: School Days
Week 5: Parents
Week 6: Grandparents
Week 7: Siblings
Week 8: Family Memories
Week 9: Hometown/Childhood Home
Week 10: Friends
Week 11: Young Adult
Week 12: Dating/Courting
Week 13: Marriage
Week 14: Home
Week 15: In Laws/ Extended Family
Week 16: Kids
Week 17: Kids Cont.
Week 18: Jobs/Careers
Week 19: Hobbies/Sports
Week 20: Transportation
Week 21: Medical/Health
Week 22: Faith
Week 23: Holiday Memories/Traditions
Week 24: The Golden Years
Week 25: Grandchildren
Week 26: What happened in History during subject's lifetime
Week 27: Pedigree Chart

I thought I had all of the facts about my grandmother. I discovered on the first page that I had little or no proof of her birth. That week I concentrated on finding those records and discovered facts I DIDN'T know. The same with her schooling and early childhood. I found Indiana and Ohio have Old Schoolhouse sites with lots of information on the very schoolhouse I THOUGHT I knew.

The book can really open up more research and answers than you can imagine. It is much better, I think, to be working with a group and gathering suggestions and links from others trying the same thing.

Some More New Heritage Scrapbook Pages

2011-05-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

My partner and his sister

Then and Now pages are fun to do if you have the photos. Sometimes it is a bit of serendipity to find a pair of photos like these, and sometimes you have to set up the "Now" photo. There is always Photoshop if you need to do some fancy cutting and pasting. I was lucky to find this "now" shot but it was a group shot so other people had to be removed by the magic of Photoshop.

My mother with her older brother, my oldest uncle.

Special occasions are great for that little push you might need to tell a particular story. My mother often talked about her big brother and the anxious times her family had during WWI when he was away fighting. I am so glad she told me so many stories.

It amazes me how little my own children absorb of things I tell them so getting the stories and photos together on these pages might help the old stories live on. It makes up for not having enough time to talk to my children with their busy lives.

More Frustration

2011-05-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

It never ends, but if it did what would we have to do? I was unable to sleep the other night and decided to find out a bit about my late-ex-husband's grandmother. I had met her in Savannah in a nursing home while we were on our honeymoon. She thought her grandson was her son but on genealogy she was quite clear. She was Mary Mozelle Bourquin. Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com to the rescue. FTM is alsolinked to Genealogy.com and I have a membership so I didn't think a thing of it when her name came up in a Genealogy page in a book The Bourquin Family. I copied it all down by hand, at least what was important at the moment. Her birth date, (she was still alive when this book was done in 1936), dates of all of her children, their spouses, and their dates, and number of children as of 1936. I also had her parents' names and dates.

It was really late by then and I was tired. I skipped to the first page of the book and copied down the first entry, Jean Baptiste Bourquin, his birth date, that he was a physician, and immigration from Switzerland to South Carolina in 1738.

Then I went to bed. Now I cannot get back to that book any way. I may have to call the Gen Center in Salt Lake City. I cannot figure out why it doesn't show up any more.

New Gen Scrapbook Pages

2011-02-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

A Break-through

2011-02-04T10:20:00.000-08:00

Second Cousin Once Removed:

My second-cousin-once-removed, Jennifer and me.

Through matching tree entries in Ancestry.com, Jennifer and I discovered "missing" branches of our families. Her great-grandmother and my grandfather were siblings. The children of the two families were so close they even had their photos taken together.


My Uncle Sid at the top, Uncle Lyman on the right. Their Cousins Hilmar and Naomi are at the left. About 1904 before my aunt and mother were born and younger cousin Doris..

My mother remembered the 7 children being together often...then when Mother was about 7 or 8 they didn't seem to spend any more time together. Why? I had not been able to locate information on the internet and that branch of the family tree was just gone.

The story was this: My grandfather's sister, (Jen's great-grandmother), died in her early 40s leaving her minister husband with 3 young children. Eventually he remarried but the link between the two families was gone and never was restored...until now!!!

Jen had a photo of the old family home where her great-grandmother and my grandfather were raised. How precious THAT was!

I passed on the originals of about 8 photos of her ancestors that belong rightfully to her and her sister. We exchanged information about our respective branches and our current families.

A lovely afternoon!!!

Paired Scrapbook Pages

2011-01-18T09:24:00.000-08:00

Since our break-throughs often change the nature of a whole part of our genealogy, they also often make some heritage scrapbook pages in error, or irrelevant. Rather than destroy those pages, I have made some of them a first part to a two-part double page.

The Meyer Family

JOURNALING - Original Heritage Page: In spite of many hours searching Ancestry web sites, we can find no trace of my grandfather’s sister, Tracy, husband Monty, or children, Hilmar, Doris, and Naomi (not pictured). At the time of these photos they lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan and exchanged many formal photos with my mother’s family. They were dear and close cousins. Where are they?

The Meyer Family-revisited

JOURNALING: Follow-up page created over a year later: One day, while searching on Ancestry.Com, I noticed a “shaking leaf” by mother’s Cousin Monty’s name. When I found the matching information, on someone else’s tree I sent her a message. Monty was her great-grandfather. She was able to fill in family information. Monty’s mother, Tracy, my grandfather’s sister, died young and Monty remarried.. That seemed to separate the two families. I will be meeting this relative in a few weeks and giving her the collection of photos of Monty's family I have saved.

Several sites where you enter your family tree information will alert you when there are matches between your tree and another one on file. If the site allows messages between tree owners you MIGHT find a long lost cousin, pieces of important information,or location information.

In another case, I am still searching for some information. I created a pair of pages and will be submitting them here and there hoping to find someone who recognizes the place or people.

This farm tintype from Grandma Anderson's collection

JOURNALING: This tintype was with my grandmother’s things when she died. It is very large for a tintype and must have been important. It could be either a Scarlett farm or an Anderson farm. Scarlett farms were in Indiana, most in Noble County. The one Anderson farm was in Ohio. The number of people could include in-laws and hired hands. There are 8 children, the husband and wife in the center, an older man and woman (in-laws?), and two older girls who could be servants or relatives. Since there are no possible cousins, second, or third, this beautiful homestead remains a mysterious link to my ancestry. We roughly dated it to the 1890s.


The main people in the photo

JOURNALING:
These appear to be the parents in the photo of the Family Farm. They do not match any other people in photos or tintypes that I have. There are some children, one young lady and, what appears to be, 2 housemaids and an older man: hired hands or some in-laws. I will keep looking to see if any of them match a known ancestor.

More than anything, I would like to know if this beautiful farmhouse still exists and how it fits into my genealogy.

The Smithsonian Says:

2010-11-18T08:36:00.001-08:00

This article was attributed to the Smithsonian Institute about preserving personal collections of photos and documents. I thought it just about covers EVERYthing! The article appeared in The Atlantic. Many thanks to "Nactstern" for sharing it with The Grannies.
Taking Care of your Personal Archives

Struggling to Keep Up

2010-09-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

I finally did it...I bought the new Family Tree Maker, 2011. I can't even think how old the one is that I have been using. Well, it serves me right...what a learning curve! Had I kept upgrading each year the changes, no doubt, would have been spread out and so much easier to handle. Oh, I will get it and I will figure out how to do the things I need to do. The changes are positive, I need to adjust.

Amazing Break #2

2009-12-13T22:29:00.000-08:00

While rummaging through things for my Lifebook for my paternal grandmother, I idly leafed through my father's baby book. I knew about it and knew my grandmother had kept good records of my dad's early life, but did any of it pertain to HER early adulthood. There in the back was something I had never noticed before...the newspaper article about her wedding.

It looks as if she glued the article into the book with mucilage and then covered it with cellophane tape. The tape fell off as soon as I opened the book, taking some of the article with it. I have reconstructed the text the best I can. Every time I study it I work out another word or so.

Amazing Breakthrough #1

2009-12-13T13:56:00.000-08:00

We talk about "Brick Walls" all the time when we have a need for a piece of information that just doesn't seem to exist. My Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather presents one of those Brick Walls for a whole slew of genealogists out there who are among his descendants. He and his children seem to have been very prolific, with families of 12 to 17 children common. I seem to run into these descendants on almost every big genealogy site and all have the same question..."Where did Newman Scarlett come from?" Some of these genealogist-descendants are quite professional and advanced.

Well, I still don't have that answer but I WAS able to add to his story. Years ago I set up several "Google Alerts". I receive an email whenever a particular term shows up in a news story or website. My two home towns, in Michigan and in Florida, and my "brick wall" ancestor's name. What alerts I get usually are entertainment news with the names of actor Paul Newman next to fellow actor, Scarlett Johansson. A couple of weeks ago, however, my ancestor's name was in an article from his town of Tewksbury, Massachusetts. The newly formed historical society was setting about to photograph historic sites in their midst. The first to be photographed was my ancestor's farm. I immediately contacted a distant cousin who seems to be the most involved with the genealogy of our family. Even she was not aware of the existence of the farm. Several of us have now joined the new Historic Society and hope to visit and preserve the farmhouse, presently being considered for demolition. My brother and I hope to visit Tewksbury this spring and look for a few other gems and take our own photos. Of particular interest will be the possible existence of the old city hall and his clerk's office where he died behind his desk. I also would like to locate the old map of the town he helped draw and design, and any old papers in his handwriting.

Lifebooks

2009-11-22T16:09:00.000-08:00

I have been concentrating on my paternal grandmother for over 10 weeks now. Each week we (Lifebook 2 on the Heritage Scrap site) concentrate on a different part of our subject's life. SOme are doing their OWN lifebook, and others doing one particular ancestor with the goal of preserving the details of that person's life. Along the way we have discovered facts missing we need to find, things we need to verify and astounding discoveries.

For some reason I looked up at the bookshelves in my living room and remembered my father's baby book up there. Curious, I pulled it down and began REALLY looking at what was in there. On a page in the back cover was a collection of news articles, most about raising a baby, etc. BUT...there was a newspaper clipping announcing Grandma and Grandpa's wedding(1895). Facts I either didn't know or had misinformation. The clipping must have been glues into the book with mucilage and taped over with an early cellophane tape. A few words are lost to me. I am on another search, now, for the original clipping.

It seems that my grandmother grew up in a different city than I thought. I still can't locate the family on the 1890 census. She was born AFTER the 1880 one and married before the 1900 one. I knew she went to and taught at the Alvordton school but she always referred to Hicksville as her home. I can assume that after Grandmother, their youngest, was married her parents moved to Hicksville to be near the other daughter, who, being older, was well established. Grandpa, also, was a Railroad Inspector so they were set to move frequently. Between the lines...why was there no family attending the wedding? Grandmother was 17. Did they object to the match? I wonder if Grandma wrote the article herself, since it goes on and on about how well established Grandpa was and how well he would be able to care for her...and that they left immediately for Montpelier where he had a house all furnished and waiting for her. Grandma was a strong-willed person. It would be very like her to marry in this fashion but I would love to have a few of those questions answered.

Here are the pages to date. They will be in reverse order since that is the way Blogger wants it.

101 best Genealogy Sites

2009-05-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

Can you resist???

101 Best Genealogy Sites

2009-04-08T15:37:00.000-07:00

This is not a real magazine cover but a fun way I chose to display two photos of my mother's parents' home in Detroit at the turn of the century. Mother remembered much of the furniture, but the only thing I recognize is the Tabourette (little table under the Norfolk Island Pine plant between the couch and the left rocker) because it was mine for a few years until it fell apart. Yes, I am very sorry I didn't repair it and keep it.

2009-04-08T15:33:00.000-07:00

I just love this portrait of my grandmother's sister, Minnie Scarlett Garver. The photographer's last name is the same as the man Great-Aunt Minnie married at about this same time. It makes me really wonder what the relationship was.

2009-04-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

These two pages are also timelines but these are of my Great-great-great-great Grandfather (first-born son of the previous ancestor) personal and historical events during his life.

2009-04-08T15:24:00.000-07:00

These two pages show how history and my Great-great-great-great-great grandfather's personal milestones work together. I think it almost gives me a picture of his life.

2009-04-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

The object behind this layout was to get the story written. I am the only person alive who knows this story and it had to be preserved. Mom told me about these photos many times. When I discovered that Dad still carried one of the pictures in his wallet in the nursing home, it made an impression I want to pass on.

Journaling reads: "All the while my mother was growing up, her family had at least one professional portrait taken of each family member each year. Her high school graduation coincided with the Great Depression, and that photograph was the last taken until Mom and Dad were engaged, years later. For Dad’s birthday in May, the month before their wedding, Mom went to a well-known portrait photographer. He was taken with her look and asked her to pose for him, and he would give her a set of portraits free. This was one of the “head shots”. A large copy hung on a bedroom wall back as far as I can remember. A tattered smaller one was in Dad’s wallet until he died at age 89. This and several other poses came to me and I will preserve it for future generations."

Veteran's Day

2008-11-09T13:34:00.000-08:00

Time to remember the family we know who have served. I already did layouts about my mother's brother Lyman Oehring in WWI infantry Red Arrow(Big Red One) division, and my dad's cousin, Clair Garver in the Navy Band, but I recently came across a big portrait of Mother's cousin Richard Hodges from Mount Pleasant, Michigan. I don't know much about Richard except my mother's telling me he had died in the war. I started trying to locate information about Richard. What I found was an explanation as to why the records are so incomplete and sketchy. The numbers of allied killed and where they were buried is just so muddy. Records were not kept and estimates of numbers vary by thousands and thousands. Many were buried where they died and no marker or record available.

So...I will keep looking in case something about him is available.

For Amber-1972-2008

2008-09-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

Amber was the youngest daughter of my cousin, Larry. He was partially raised by my parents so we were like twins for many years. His children are like nieces and nephew, but we don't stay in touch nearly enough. How sorry I am that we didn't, but I cherish the last time we visited Larry 2 years ago and visited with Amber, too.

2008-09-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

This was scanned as an exercise in cleaning up an old photo. Actually, this is a glass photograph that we think was brought from Sweden by my great grandfather Carl Andersson (Charles Anderson) when he immigrated in 1870.

2008-09-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

Another mystery discovered with a new cache of old photos. Who is this "Miss Hodges"?
I will be sending this link to the photos to my Oehring cousins (6) in the hopes that one of them has an answer to this and other Oehring mysteries.

2008-09-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

Unknown Hodges Lady - Could be Mother, Alice or daughters Laura, Ella, or Carrie.

Fashion in the 1890s

2008-09-21T10:14:00.001-07:00

The original is here with credits.

They were sisters, girls of good Indiana farm stock, but they wanted more. Minnie was married into a successful photographer’s family by age 18 and had son, Clair, exactly a year later. Katie, however, watched as her older sister settled more and more into life in Hicksville and swore it wouldn’t happen to her. She became a teacher in the one room school house, AND postmistress. Her clothes were fancy and she nagged her sister to dress just so. Even her little nephew was pushed into the fashionable mold. By age 17, Katie married a handsome railroad man who wore suits and hats. She fled Hicksville for Chicago, Detroit and finally settled for the quiet life in Gibraltar. Fashion never was far from her heart.

Minnie and Katie were almost different generations with the 8 year difference in their ages. Katie remained devoted to Clair even after his mother died in 1950. Clair never married (maybe it was those outfits). He and my father were close, again inspite of the difference in age. Both were pharmacists and both owned their own stores, Clair’s in Ohio; Dad’s in Michigan. When Clair died in 1966 it was the end of a branch of the family that went back 5 generations. I have had to do some real detective work to turn up a few cousins, but, at last, there have been some connections back to a fine, proud, family dating to the early 1700s. Katie and Minnie would so love what I have learned. I wish I could share it with them.

2008-09-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

The original is here.

Sorting boxes, totes and baskets of stuff into my new scrap room I came across a box of photos I don't remember. So far the oldest one dated is 1906. Many have no identifying marks and I just have to keep trying to identify something in the picture.

I remember my mother talking about her Uncle Charles...her mother's brother. She knew he had some position in the government of the Philippines. I ran across this little group of mailings from Charles to my mother's brother, Sid. He would have been 15 at the time. The pictures are so interesting. The photos and papers are actually in perfect condition. I used a series of aging overlays to get the look I wanted here.

A Find

2008-09-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

I didn't say "A Treasure" because the "Find" is so frustrating. As I unpacked dozens of boxes and totes of craft items, I found a Whitman Samplers box full of old photos. A few have something written on the back but many have only a date. Many have nothing to identify the photo at all. There are interesting formal portraits and they will be scrapped although I don't know who some of the subjects are. Putting my head together (over the computer connection) with my brother we will be doing some detective work like we did on this one. At first I thought it was from my mother's family, however looking more closely I was able to identify my grandmother and her best friend, my dad's Godmother and, probably, her husband. The location may never be known, though.

The Original is here.

2008-08-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

Looking at other photos of my mother, the younger granddaughter looks amazingly like my mother. However here, it is the older granddaughter who looks SO like my mother's older aunt. We have been wondering where the sharp little chin comes from on Gab...now I see that my aunt had the same chin.

This was an amusing layout to create. I really think I need to do more of them to compare generations.

2008-07-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

My mother's paternal grandparents were both German immigrants. They came to America on the same boat at the same sailing, but didn't meet until both had settled in Saginaw, a hub for German Immigrants.

Rheinhold died many years before Johanna and my mother doesn't really remember him. She did tell me stories about the bitterness against Germans during the war. Her grandmother, who lived with them, spoke ONLY German and, with his son in the war, my grandfather would allow NO German to be spoken in his house. My mother said her grandmother didn't speak for the duration of the war. She would, however, listen to the radio (in English) and cry over names of towns she knew and possible relatives and friends in the midst of the war. She had a grandson on one side of the war, and nephews fighting on the German side. How hard it must have been for her.

1900 Home Interior

2008-07-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

This is the inside of my grandparents' home in Detroit around the turn of the century. I do mourn the little "tabourette" (table with a fern on it in the bottom photo) that I had, but my children fell on it and broke it. I can identify some of the dishes on the sideboard in the dining room photo. I consider these professional photos to be treasures!

Some Oehring Scrapbook Pages

2008-07-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

These are some treasured photos of my mother's family. The original photos are all safely tucked away in acid-free envelopes. I use the system from OrganizedPhotos.com. The layouts can be printed in any square size, but the first are usually 8" x 8" for the albums and refills I can occasionally find inexpensively at Big Lots or some dollar stores.

From time-to-time I also print them smaller for little handy gifts for relatives.

Great Grandfather Abraham (Abram) Hodges, my mother's mother's father. I know so little about him but there are some stories in research done by my mother's cousin long ago, and some census statistics. So far I haven't been able to identify his wife in any of the mystery photos I have. I also can't find any statistics about her.

Both of my grandfathers, Anderson and Oehring, were in the Masons, My parents met through youth organizations sponsored by the Masons. I have several Masonic items and only an SURE of the origin of the cufflinks with the O for Oehring on one side. The "coin" was with my grandmother's things so that probably belongs to that side.

THis is a treasured photograph of my mother's whole family. Befor another formal portrait could be taken, the brothers had scattered, college and one to World War I.

Homesick 1916

2008-05-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

My Great-Aunt and my Grandmother traveled to New York State in 1916. Some of the photos seem to have been taken at an army base. I suspect they went to visit my uncle, who was in WWI and might have been stationed there before deployment to Europe. Story has it that my grandmother tried to block my Uncle from lying about his age by a few months to sign up, but that my Grandfather won out and their son joined the Army. He was in Europe for a long time, at least over 2 Christmases, in Holland, France, Germany.

Second Birthday - 1913

2008-05-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

My Mother's 2nd birthday.

Overlay - Moments 2 Remember by Tina Chambers
Background - My Shabby Valentine by Rene Bross
Stacked Papers - Valentine Funk by Irene Alexeeva
Newspaper Rose - Vintage Ephemera by Irene Alexeeva

"Forgotten Memory"

2008-05-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

This page was an answer to a challenge about a forgotten memory.

JOURNALING: There was a funny feeling when I discovered this photo. My parent’s bedroom!!! I remember the bedroom set, especially the dressing table. Now the table has been remodeled into 2 bedside tables. My brother has the furniture. I remember the doll, Janice, but not the buggy. I don’t remember playing dress-up with Mom’s hat and shoes. The pajamas don’t strike a chord, either, but that bedroom! I can picture Mom sitting on the stool with the hem of her dress turned back to protect it from nail dust and filing her nails. The Priscilla-style curtains were all through the house. Why do I know that felt hat was blue? I don’t remember, or do I?
KITS: ButterflyKisses-by Kim Liddiard and FunkyFrameStamps by Rene Bross for Club Digital April 2008

"Our Mock Wedding"

2008-05-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

I am letting my mother's writing on the photo act as the title.
JOURNALING: A summer day and 5 friends...how did they amuse themselves in 1921? My mother and her friends held a Mock Wedding. The preparations took all day. Each girl had her part and had to scour up a costume appropriate for her role. That is my mother playing the part of the minister, wrapped in an army blanket. My aunt was Maid-of-Honor in a bath robe and her mother’s cloche' hat. This was in my grandmother’s garden so I can only guess that they were allowed to pick some of her flowers for the bouquet. The “gentlemen” holding their hats just so during the ceremony is quite elegant, but the knickers on the girls must have been just a bit risque.
KITS USED:
Vanilla Page Kit by Meryl Bartho
Ring Around The Rosies, Deep Tone Page Kit by Meryl Bartho

My goodness...has it been a year since my last post? I haven't given up, in fact, I am contemplating a road trip to Indiana to look in the genealogy department of the Fort Wayne library. It was to be a trip with an online genealogy/ scrapbooking group, but the group seems to have disbanded.

Along the way, I have corresponded with a 5th cousin in Indiana who wrote a book about my grandmother Anderson's roots. Another friend send me scans of the pages that are linked to my search. A wealth of information! I do hope we can go this summer. I want to meet this cousin.

Katie and Gus

2007-05-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

"Ambitious Katie was both teacher at a two-room school and Postmistress of the small town of Alvordton. She was desperate to get away from the small town. Then an handsome railroad "boss" stopped to get his mail whenever he passed through town. Soon the two were an "item" and a short while later, they went to the county seat to be married by a minister they knew. Katie was no longer able to work as a teacher OR a postmistress once she was a married lady. They traveled together and finally settled in the town of Adrian. There my father was born. Grandpa Gus took a job with the railroad in Detroit and they settled there for good."

Mother's Dream

2007-05-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

As a very little girl, my mother had always wanted a lot of children. However, her health had made that all but impossible. She had numerous operations and miscarriages. Then along I came! It would be another 12 years before the second child, my brother, was born.

Laura Ellen

2007-05-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

"Grandma Laura, why did I never get to know you? Only 2 of your 8 grandchildren were ever held by you.You were born and bred a lady, but with a strong mind of your own. You defied your parents to marry the son of immigrants a man who worked to become a successful and wealthy businessman to give you everything. You never saw either of your daughters marry or have children. When you died far too young, your family was never the same. Your husband followed in less than a year “of a broken heart” and your youngest daughter named her first child, me, after you. You are the first person I want to see in the after-life. I want that Grandma hug I never felt."

Alice Jane

2007-05-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

This is my mother's mother's mother...Great Grandmother Alice. I can only identify her because I know for certain that it is my Great Aunt with her and I can rule out any of her sisters as the second woman due to age. As far as I know, this is the only photo of her in my collection. None of my cousins seem to have any old photos so I guess this is it.

I create all scrapbooking pages on Photoshop Creative Suite 2.

Why did I Start?

2007-03-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

Several older family members had explored a line or two of our genealogy for the Daughters of the American Revolution and I guess I thought that was enough. Then a cousin spent hour upon sleepless hour tracing his heritage back to ancient Scotland. Still sounded tedious to me.

Then, one day, I realized I was the last person alive who knew my grandpa well. I could NOT let my loved ones disappear!

I had Family Tree Maker, a gift from one of my daughters. I fired it up and started entering what I knew. I searched the items I knew of and got them pretty much all in one place. That took forever!!! Bits here and pieces there. Some conflicting.

Then I bought the new version of FTM and there was a direct link to Ancestry.Com. from each page. I started checking the facts I had. Then I started finding new pieces of the puzzle. There was a grandmother's date book, my aunt's high school scrapbook, a draft registration of a grandfather that linked me to his place of employment. From them I received a CD of the payroll listing my grandfather. The place still existed and I had made a friend there.