Working on Wednesday: Hay Day

On our way to Oregon one summer in the early 1950s, Mother and Dad's' growing interest in rock hounding led us to stop along U.S. 101 just north of Nipomo in San Luis Obipso County to see if we could find some of the sagenite agate* for which the area is renowned. 

[Road Map of the State of California, 1955. Publisher: California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS).

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

After looking across the barbed wire fence to check out the ground between the rows of beans drying in the sun, we went to the nearby farm house where Dad asked if we could enter their field to look for rocks, promising that we would disturb nothing. Permission was granted and after we had found some beautiful specimens we went back to the house to show them what we'd found. It was the start of a long friendship between the Curreys and the Mehlschaus and within a few years we were spending several weeks there every summer in our trailer which we parked in their farmyard.

Dad felt it was only right that he should help out with work on the farm while we were staying there.** Here are some photos taken in the summer of 1958.

Sitting on top of the load of hay bales are, left to right, Richie Mehlschau (1944-1975), a neighbor kid whose name I don't recall, me, and Charley Mehlschau (1942-2014). Standing in front of the truck are the younger brother of the neighbor kid whose name I don't recall either, and Andrew Mehlschau (1900-1970).

[From my personal collection]

Only Richie is visible on the truck while Dad is waiting for the signal to back the tractor up to raise the next bale of hay to the top of the pile. (You can just barely see the cable lying on the ground between the tractor and the barn.)

[From my personal collection]

*You can see some Nipomo sagenite agate cabochons here.
**Also his electrician's skills were useful on occasion.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Finally Found It! Marriage License for Carrie Avery and Tracy D Porter in 1895

Shelby County, Tennessee, “Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKH9-9LH8 : accessed 15 March 2016), entry for marriage licence, Recorded Marriage Rec Book Q, page 560, T. D. Porter and Miss Carrie Avery, issued 13 July 1895.

Back of the same marriage license.

Closeup of the entry in the marriage book.  Shelby County, Tennessee, “Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKH9-2S39 : accessed 15 March 2016), entry for marriage licence, Recorded Marriage Rec Book Q, page 560, T. D. Porter and Miss Carrie Avery, issued 13 July 1895.

All this time I thought Carrie Avery (1871-1855) and Tracy D. Porter (1863-1945) (parents of yesterday's subject, Letta Estella Porter) were married somewhere in Mississippi about 1895, but was unable to find a record for it, which is perplexing as Mississippi records are pretty thorough.

It turns out they traveled up north to Shelby County, Tennessee to get married!  Something about this tells me the marriage was not approved by her parents, otherwise they probably would have been married in Mississippi.  I believe that Carrie's parents (Celestine Herrod and John Warren Avery) were likely in Lyons, Coahoma, Mississippi at this time.

Shelby County, Tennessee is about a 1 1/2 hour drive by today's standards from Lyons (which is just east of Clarksdale, Mississippi), according to Google Maps.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Letta Estella Porter (1901 - 1974)

I have three pictures of my paternal grandmother, all courtesy of a descendant of her youngest son James Edward Turnbull.

The oldest one, probably taken in Gulfport, Mississippi, in about 1909, shows Letta Estella in the middle surrounded by her mother and siblings. Her brother Herbert's holding a cute dog but no one is looking very happy.

[Orville Porter - upper left, Chester Porter - lower left, Herbert Porter - upper center, Estella Porter - lower center, Caroline Celestine Porter - upper right, and Violet Porter - lower right. Mother Caroline "Carrie" Celestine Avery has Violet on her lap.

Courtesy of J.E. Turnbull, III.]

In the next picture Letta Estella and her third husband James Edward Turnbull look like they're really enjoying themselves. I've included the back of the photo which someone has dated August 18, 1929, in Dallas, Texas.

[Courtesy of James E. Turnbull III]

[Courtesy of James E. Turnbull III]

The final image of my grandmother is a formal portrait which looks like it might have been taken in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

[Courtesy of James E. Turnbull III]

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Tow Truck, Tide Coming In

The Curreys bought their first trailer in 1938 when finding a place to park for the night was more of an individual endeavor and over the years that attitude (coupled with their ingrained reluctance to spend money) led them to have a number of unconventional camp sites on our way to and from Oregon.*

That's how we came to stay in a field surrounded by old beached fishing boats just south of Crescent City, California, in the summer of 1958.** Dad loved boats and whenever we were near a harbor, he and I would always visit the docks while Mother cooked dinner.

On this occasion, it was late in the day and the tide was coming in when we came upon this sight. If I recall correctly, everybody involved was waiting for the appearance of a second tow truck. Dad snapped this photo and we went on our way so there's no picture of the ultimate rescue.

[From my personal collection]

I found a vintage postcard from the approximate era.

[Source: CardCow.com]

*If there was any form of officialdom around the site, Dad would always ask permission first, explaining that we were self-contained and would leave no trace of our stay. I don't remember that he was ever refused.
**I was 11 that year.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Tip: Age Calculator on Ancestry's Search Form

I'm trying to get smarter and faster with my searches, so that I have more time for analysis.  The following is an example of one of the many time-saving tools that are right there that I have not been using, or even acknowledging.

How have I missed this for the past 5 years??

You'd think I would have clicked on that little calculator icon at least once this whole time, but no.

Whenever I have to figure out someone's birth year in relation to another year, I always open a new tab, type in the date minus the age, and Google shows figures it out.  Talk about an unnecessary step!  Ancestry can do it all for me right there on the search page.

Duh!






© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Turnbull/Warren/Williams

Here they are: my grandmother Letta Estella Porter Warren Williams Turnbull's three sons, James Edward Turnbull, my father Tracy Stuart Warren and Clifton Porter Williams.

[Left to right, clockwise: Ed, Tracy, Clifton.

Courtesy of James Turnbull]

This photo was almost certainly taken in Dallas, Texas, in the late 1930s.*


*Estimate based on the Ed's birth year of 1931.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Diary of James Milo Nosler: Introduction, part I

As a birthday present in 2014 my mother purchased for me the full transcript of my 3rd great uncle James Milo Nosler's diary from the University of Washington.  I believe the transcript was originally typed out by a direct descendant, a girl in her teens [!], but I will have to find out where I originally read that.

Not cheap, but that is how much 453 pages of copying costs (someone probably spent the better part of a day or so just photocopying this diary for me!).

If you want a copy from UW then this is the info you'll need.

This is James Milo Nosler's introduction to his diary:

Weston College Iowa*
May the 24th, 1870 

As near as I can ascertain, over a century ago a man, his wife and little boy, by the name of Nosler began their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, and on the way the man and wife both died and the boy (about seven years old) was brought on to America, and he is the only Nosler that I know of having ever crossed the Ocean.  From him I think all the rest of the name now in America are descended.  I think he was my grandfather and his four brothers' father [NOTE: this immigrant boy is Sebastian "Boston" Nosler, c. 1738 - 1813].  

Irv Blabon has speculated the Sebastian Nosler might possibly be a corruption of Sebastian Hassler.  Since I can find no Nosler in the immigration records whatsoever, and do find Hasslers, including a Sebastian Hassler man immigrating to Philadelphia in 1749, around the time Sebastian Nosler would be coming over, I think Blabon might be on to something.  I do find one possible Hassler DNA match to my dad (through a search for Hasler), and that match indicates the Hasslers were originally from Walkringen, Bern, Switzerland and traveled on through the Rhine before coming to America.

As you can see his ancestry beyond his parents is very much a work in progress.  James' older brother William "Will" Nosler (not shown) is my direct ancestor.

More from the diary:

My grandfather's name was John Nosler and he lived in Virginia [most likely Montgomery County, Virginia] at the time of my father's birth, but when my father had arrived at the age of twelve years his parents moved with him to Tennessee, where he remained with the rest of the family on Duck River, ten miles from Knoxville, undergoing all the hardships and privations of a backwoods farmer of those days.

I suspect that James had the river wrong (the Duck River is in the west part of Tennessee and Knoxville is in the east part of Tennessee).  I think he meant the CLINCH River, which was about ten miles out from Knoxville and ran between the border of Knox and Anderson Counties, where James' mother Nancy Hibbs' people were (around Clinton).

He received a meager education at the district school, and when twenty-one years of age was married to my mother Nancy Hibbs, and in the course of a year or so they, with nearly all the rest of their relations on both sides, moved to Indiana.

They were poor and were compelled to live hard; fell the mighty forests and clearing up the land for future cultivation.  They made their own clothing, and in fact depended on but very little save what their own hands, and yet I have heard my father say that those were the happiest days of his life; he was a very robust, strong man and being energetic withall he soon placed himself in the front rank of farmers, and when I, your humble servant, first saw the light--(of a tallow candle) my parents were in circumstances beyond the reach of want. 

They were then the proprietors of a well-cultivated farm with good buildings, orchard, and also a good gristmill and saw mill which sufficed all the country around with the necessities of life.  My father was of German descent, although he never learned to speak the language to any great extent and forgot all he did know by the time he was grown up, my mother purely English as far as I know. 

I was born in Putnam county, Indiana, on the 30th day of April, 1843, and being the youngest of eight children, I, of course, was the baby and when anything turned up that I marked my displeasure, I, as a matter of course, would set up a howl that never failed to touch the sympathies of the old folks and bring down vengeance on the head of my offender. 

Well, I was born in a brick house on the banks of Dur (?) Creek [likely Deer Creek] on a road heading from Little Cat to Green Castle, seven miles south of the latter.  My mother was there at the time I was born and I, being somewhat short in stature, it was pretty generally conceded to call me Milo with James preferred, making it plainly James Milo--the James part being after James Nosler and Webb's two uncles and now I have been waiting twenty-seven years for my  ? ?, alas I wait in vain.  There was Wieth, Caroline, Mary, JOhn, Emily, and Will, but I rather think, as near as I can remember, that "I was monarch of all I survey". None dared dispute my right.

Nosler, Hibbs (note John Nosler's father-in-law, Mahlon Hibbs, down in the lower left), and related names all reflected in in land ownership map from HistoryGeo, in Putnam County, Indiana.

* likely Western College, Linn, Iowa (about midway between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City), which became Leander Clark College.  From what I could figure out from the diary entries, James and his family had been trying to make a life out in Montgomery County, Kansas, but were tiring of the lifestyle and James had been discussing heading out to Oregon with other family members.  At her request James had sent his wife Sallie and their daughter Flora (2 1/2 years old) on the train from Hamilton (Greenwood County??), Kansas to Western back on March 19, 1870, likely to stay with her family there (I should try to see if I can figure out which train that would be at that time).  I don't find her or Flora, or James for that matter, in the 1870 Federal Census (which was supposed to be taken on June 1, 1870) but since they were moving around so much it is no wonder!

NOTE: A nice summary of James's time in Montgomery is given in a query by long-time Nosler genealogist and cousin Irv Blabon back in 1998:

"I am looking for information on the communities of Independence, Verdigris City, and Liberty. James Milo NOSLER was one of the founders of Liberty and Montgomery . In his Journal he mentions a trading post near Montgomery ( a city he and others founded) . Later it was agreed to make a community between Montgomery and Vergigris City, which they named Liberty. James Milo carried the mail and was made Justice of the Peace in 1869. He did not remain in Kansas long." 

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.