Limited Time Free Webinar: "Texas Genealogy: Online Research in the Lone Star State" by Deena Coutant

I've got loads of Texas research still left to do, starting about 1852.  I'm not a beginner, but I find it helpful sometimes to look at an old subject anew.  In this case, I learned a few new tricks and resources in Deena Coutant's presentation "Texas Genealogy: Online Research in the Lone Star State" (recorded on September 27, 2017, free to non-subscribers through October 4, 2017):

An introductory look at the records and repositories for getting started in Texas Research.

Runs 1 hour 32 minutes, syllabus available to subscribers.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: John Langston - Dawson County, Georgia, 1865

My Monday post about Dorothy Moss (an 8th great grandmother) led me back to my Matthews lineage which I haven't paid much attention to for quite a while. For those of you who share Matthews ancestors in Virginia and North Carolina, I highly recommend a visit to Greg Matthews' excellent website Southern Matthews.*

More information about the extended Matthews clan has surfaced in the intervening years, mostly about collateral relatives, which is the source of today's post regarding the will of John Langston (c.1792-1865), the husband of Clarissa Matthews (1798-after 1880) who is my first cousin 5 times removed.**

["Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L93R-D61J?cc=1999178&wc=9SBS-W3X%3A267648501%2C267702301 : 20 May 2014), Dawson > Wills and bonds 1857-1896 vol B > image 49/50 of 178; county probate courthouses, Georgia.]

                                              Dawson Court of Ordinary
                                                          At Chambers 1865

Georgia             }
Dawson County} In the name of God. Amen.
I, John Langston of said State and County, being of
advanced age,. and knowing that I must shortly depart this
life, deem it right and proper, both as respects my family
and myself, that I should make a disposition of the 
property with which a kind Providence has blessed me, do
therefore, make this my last will and testament, hereby
revoking all others heretofore made by me.
1st. I desire and direct that my body be buried in a
decent and christian-like manner, suitable to my circumstances
and condition in life. my soul, I trust, shall return to rest
with God, who gave it, as I hope, for eternal salvation through
the merits and atonement of the blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ,
whose religion I have professed and as I humbly trust enjoyed,
for thirty-five years or upwards.
2nd. I desire and direct that all my just debts be paid, without
delay, by my executors hereinafter appointed, as I am 
unwilling my creditors should be delayed in their rights,
especially as there is no necessity for delay.
3rd. I give, bequeath and devise to my beloved wife Clarissa
with whom I have lived with in the strictest quiet for forty-two
years, parts of lots of land, numbers 91, 126,125, and all of
92, 160 acres and half of 93, and 155 acres of lot No. 88, the
remaining five acres, I give to Perry W. Grogan where his house
now stands all lying and being in the 5th. district and 2nd.
Section of said county. I also request that my wife keep all
of the negroes, viz: Eliza & Harriet and Bob and Frank and Jane
and Minerva during her natural life, and one certain bay
horse and bay mare and one yoke of oxen and wagon
and five cows, such as she chooses out of the stock and their increase
and five sows and pigs, such as she chooses and ten head of
sheep, such as she chooses, and all of the corn and fodder
here, and to have control of the household furniture and farming
tools.
4th. I, therefore, appoint Jno. M. Langston and William Langstonand
Gilbert L. Langston and Clarissa Langston my executors to
sell or dispose at their pleasure all of the lots and parts of lots lying in
Lumpkin county, a fraction No. 168,  in the 11th. district, originally Hall
now Lumpkin county, and No. 617 and No. 618 in 5th. district and 1st.
Section of Lumpkin county; also to sell and dispose of anything they
choose, this the 11th. of November 1854  
                                                       John Langston {Seal}
                                                               (Over)
Signed & sealed in the
presence of us.
Richard H. Gordon
J.B. Gordon
Cyrus Leay, J.P.

Of course John Langston's 1854 will, which he never amended, did not anticipate the circumstances his state would be in when it was presented for probate early in 1865. Although at the time the Confederate states hadn't surrendered yet it must have been clear that the old way of life was over.

According to the 1870 U.S. Census, Clarissa continued farming the land but by 1880 she was living with one of her daughters and family, still in Dawson County.

I wonder if I can find out what happened to Eliza & Harriet and Bob and Frank and Jane and Minerva after emancipation?


*Naturally we appear to descend from Thomas Charles Matthews about whom there are almost no records. Once again I refer you to Greg Matthews for more information about him.
**Her father Kinchen Matthews, a son of Thomas Matthews, was the brother of my direct ancestor
Claiborne.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Tip: Look Closely When Adding City Directory Records on Ancestry

Crop of the Oakland, CA city directory title page.  Note that other addresses in other nearby cities are also included. R. L. Polk and Co. of California, "Polk's Oakland (California) City Directory, Vol 1930 XL, Including Alameda, Berkeley, Emeryville and Piedmont; Containing an Alphabetical Directory of Business Concerns and Private Citizens, a Street and Avenue Guide and Much Information of a Miscellaneous Character; Also A Buyer's Guide and a Complete Classified Business Directory" (Oakland, CA), 1930; digital image, U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 database (http://www.ancestry.com/ : 29 September 2017).

I highlighted some examples of people who appear in the Oakland city directory but actually live in a nearby city/town.  A = Alameda, B = Berkeley, Pied = Piedmont.  Some people worked in Oakland but resided in other places like Richmond and San Leandro.  If you added one of these highlighted people's indexed record Ancestry would automatically put "Oakland; Alameda; Berkeley; Emeryville; Piedmont, California, USA" as the residence, although they may have actually lived in just Berkeley or Piedmont.  Page 600 of the Oakland City Directory 1930.

Ansgar actually lived in Berkeley.  This particular indexing reflects the major cities/towns represented in this directory; some indexed city directories just add the main city (like Enid, Oklahoma, or Seattle, WA) and it is up to you to know there are other options.

I admit it, I'm guilty of adding records like the above without edit.  Let's just say mapping tools don't like addresses like this!


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: The Curreys' Cement Mixer

It's the same cement mixer in these two photos, taken over 30 years apart. Bernice and Junior are the workers in front of the Encanto house, dated September 1928. The lower photo was taken during construction of the house in the little desert community of Ocotillo in Imperial Valley in the early 1960s.

[From my personal collection]

Dad Currey always painted his tools red (to match his red truck).


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Limited Time Legacy Family Tree Webinar: "When Does Newfound Evidence Overturn a Proved Conclusion" presented by Tom Jones

Yay!  One of my former teachers at Boston University's Genealogy certificate program was Tom Jones.  Great teacher.

Tom Jones presented "When Does Newfound Evidence Overturn a Proved Conclusion?" on September 19, 2017.  The webinar is free for non-subscribers through September 27, 2017:

Even thorough research can miss relevant sources. What are the options when useful information or DNA test results appear after a researcher establishes a conclusion?

Runs for 1 hour 19 minutes

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Dorothy Moss (About 1655 - About 1718)

This far up my maternal family tree it isn't surprising that we know so little about this 8th great grandmother, especially considering that she lived in Virginia where early records can be scarce.

[Ancestry.com. Virginia, Marriages of the Northern Neck of Virginia, 1649-1800 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Headley, Robert K. Married Well and Often: Marriages of the Northern Neck of Virginia, 1649–1800. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2003.]

When her husband Abraham Stapp made his will in 1710 Dorothy was to retain "all property" during her lifetime so she was alive at that point although it's not clear to me that she still was at the time Abraham's will was probated four years later.*

[Section: Essex County, Wills and Deeds, 1711-1714.

Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Vol. II [database on-line]. Ancestry.com]

Essex County is located on the south side of the Rappahannock River, roughly here:

[Detail from "A New Map of New England New York New Iarsey Pensilvania Maryland and Virginia" 1685.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

Here's how I'm related to Dorothy through her son Joshua:

[Ancestry.com]

I wrote about Dorothy's granddaughter Martha Stapp earlier this year.





*It wasn't uncommon for a man's will not to be changed to reflect later deaths in the family.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Seal Rock, Oregon - 1948/9

The only reason we know where this picture was taken is because Dad (Currey) wrote "Redinger's house at Seal Rock" on the slide holder.

[From my personal collection]

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Tip: Use HistoryGeo To Track Changing U. S. County Boundaries

Brighton, Colorado (now in Adams County). Note:  I clicked on a ramdom spot near the center of Brighton.

Mary L. (Burnight) Lytle (1853-1883), my 1st cousin 5x removed, died in Brighton, Arapahoe, Colorado.  By 1910 her daughter Isabel was living in Brighton, Adams, Colorado, same area. 

There are different ways to determine what county a particular place was in, and one that I've found to be very helpful is HistoryGeo, a subscription based website that takes Bureau of Land Management land records and maps them, called the First Landowner's Project:

Here, you will find our ongoing effort to accurately map the original landowners of the 29 U.S. public land states and Texas.

This limits the time period between about 1810 to 1940, and doesn't include the land in the eastern part of the U.S. that was measured by metes and bounds, but if you are trying to determine a place in that time period and in the more western areas you might find this helpful. 

U. S. County Boundary History, from 1810 through 1940.  Note that the info is from IPUMS, which is a sophisticated data tool that I have yet to really figure out lol.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Currey - Seacliff State Park, 1948

Here we are--Dad (Currey) and I cavorting in the surf at Seacliff State Beach.

[From my personal collection]

I was probably a little over a year old at the time, so of course I don't remember this at all.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Throwback Thursday: Huell Howser Visits Old Pasadena

Huell Howser covered Old Pasadena in his "California's Communities" series (image taken from the City of Pasadena).

As I am going through my tree to clean up and standardize locations, I keep finding that many of my cousins, particularly on my 2nd great grandmother Mary Jane (Tibbetts) Hartley's side, lived in Pasadena in the late 1800s/early 1900s.  Beloved California booster Huell Howser visited Old Pasadena, and the video is featured on the City of Pasadena website (you can view the video there):

On January 12, 2010, Huell Howser visited Pasadena on the series California's Communities. Watch as Huell tours the streets around Old Pasadena and Paseo Colorado, where old historic buildings have been preserved and merged with new buildings to create a bustling marketplace.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: George W. Abbott or Francis M. Coker (1844 - 1908), Soldier

Recently an old friend called with a question about someone in the family tree I've done for him and while I was rooting around for the answer I was reminded of one of his maternal great great grandfathers who used at least two different names, as shown on his Civil War Pension Index card.

[National Archives and Records Administration. U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. Original data: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. T288, 546 rolls.]

Here, from the Tacoma Daily News of September 26, 1893, was what the man had to say about the situation to an obviously sympathetic reporter: his true name was George W. Abbott--he had only called himself Francis Coker to keep his wealthy relatives learn that he was serving in the army as a private.

[Date: Tuesday, September 26, 1893 Paper: Tacoma Daily News (Tacoma, Washington) Page: 1 

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

The next day's newspaper informed its readers that George W. Abbot had been arrested in default of bail; however he was released two days later.

[Date: Wednesday, September 27, 1893   Paper: Tacoma Daily News (Tacoma, Washington)   Page: 3  This entire service and/or content portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or its content providers.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

[Date: Friday, September 29, 1893   Paper: Tacoma Daily News (Tacoma, Washington)   Page: 3  

This entire service and/or content portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or its content providers.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

Had he actually earned a pension? As a soldier, there isn't much in the way of records--an 1872 enlistment record for a 25-year-old Francis M. Coker (born in Missouri) who deserted six months after he joined.

[Ancestry.com. U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M233, 81 rolls); Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780’s-1917, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

["United States Index to General Correspondence of the Pension Office, 1889-1904," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-13030-34759-79?cc=1834308 : accessed 5 January 2016), Cod-Cold > image 1379 of 1853; citing NARA microfilm publication M686 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).]

I haven't been able to figure out what the outcome of Mr. Abbott's disagreement with the United States government over that pension but that's not the end of this story because Mr. Abbott continued to use his Coker identity in an 1897 Tacoma city directory, the 1900 U.S. Census and his obituary. In fact, according to cemetery records he was buried as Francis M. Coker.

[Title : Tacoma, Washington, City Directory, 1897. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Original sources vary according to directory. ]

[Year: 1900; Census Place: Tacoma Ward 6, Pierce, Washington; Roll: 1749; Page: 16A; Enumeration District: 0187; FHL microfilm: 1241749. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.]

[Date: Wednesday, October 14, 1908   Paper: Tacoma Daily News (Tacoma, Washington)   Page: 3.  

This entire service and/or content portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or its content providers.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

And since I haven't been able to locate any records for a likely George W. Abbott before the 1880 U.S. Census when he, his wife and their baby daughter were living in St. Louis, Missouri, it wouldn't surprise me if his true name wasn't either of the names we know he used.







© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I was born at this groovy place 46 years ago today.

For a long time I thought I had been born at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, but Mom told me it was at UCSD in Hillcrest.  Apparently they offered this certificate of birth, along with a picture of the building.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Bernice Grenfell Currey - Encanto, Late 1930's

Here's another picture of the cute little calf from yesterday's post.

[From my personal collection]

Note that the light-colored bungalow in the background is the house bought by Grace Thomas Grenfell Stanton around 1920 which had been left to Mother when her grandmother died in 1935.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Another Truck, Another Cow?

I've already shared some snapshots of the barn the Curreys built on their property in Encanto during the late 1930s together with pictures of their cow and wheat field but I didn't include this picture. So it seemed a good choice for today's post.*

[From my personal collection]

At first what was happening appeared to be obvious--the Curreys were moving a cow in their truck, of course. But the more I examined the image, the less that seemed likely because as you can see from this photo the Currey cow wasn't black and white.

[From my personal collection]

So what was going on? The animal in the truck was a bull brought in to "visit" the cow and this later picture provides the proof.

[From my personal collection]

*Following on from this post.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

DNA Doesn't Solve Everything

Murder victims Claire Hough and Barbara Nantais, both found in Torrey Pines.

One of my other interests is following forensic crime investigations (sometimes they aren't that different than genealogy research).

DNA has finally revealed the murderer of these two San Diego girls, both murdered at Torrey Pines beach in the late 1970s/early 1980s--or has it?  Although I have always lived in San Diego I had never even heard of this case before today!

"48 Hours" ran this video "Blood in the Sand" on May 2, 2016 (run time 43:26, there are ads).


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Limited Time Free Webinar: Nicka Smith presents "Finding Isaac Rogers"

I've been waiting a while for this one!  The list of situations and events listed for this webinar touch on almost every genealogical interest I've heard of from Americans with some Southern ancestry.  Nick Smith presented "Finding Isaac Rogers" on September 13, 2017 (free to non-subscribers through September 20, 2017):

Discover how a book, scant clues, crowd sourced research, and limited online records came together to make ancestral ties to the Trail of Tears, US Civil War, a hanging judge, an outlaw, and of slavery in the Cherokee Nation.

Runs 1 hour 32 minutes



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Throwback Thursday: "The Golden Girls" Premiered Today 32 Years Ago

Screen capture image of the cast of "The Golden Girls". By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36043913

The classic sitcom "The Golden Girls" aired for the first time 32 years today!

I think about this show often, not only because it is one of my all-time favorites, but also because I've discovered through my research that many of my distant cousins spent their golden years in in the 1970s and 1980s in Florida after a life in states like Indiana and Ohio.  It is unknown if this represented their experience in retirement in Florida, but it's still fun to wonder.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Looking Backwards: Sunday Drive - September 13, 2015

It seems I will survive the bad cold that stuck me down at the end of last week but I'm still feeling a bit battered and don't have the will to create a new post today. So I'm looking at what I shared exactly two years ago.

[From my personal collection]

Captioned "Bernice and Junior - Idyllwild," this photo was taken in about 1924 and the car is the Chevrolet that's been in other pictures I've posted on Sunday Drives here and here. I love the boots!*


*And I still do!



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Throwback Tuesday: Crista Cowan presents "Geography and Genealogy" (published Nov 25, 2016)

Crista Cowan did this video "Geography and Genealogy" last year for Ancestry, and she provides some great ideas and sources to consult when researching where your ancestors lived.

As I've been cleaning up/standardizing my locations on my tree I've found Wikipedia entries on locations to be easy to find and helpful, especially in getting a reality check on when counties and locations were first settled.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Limekiln State Park, California - 1959

Oh the memories! If I look a bit dazed in this photo taken with Mother on the beach at Limekiln Creek in the summer of 1959, there's a good reason. This was the exact place and time that I experienced my first migraine.

[From my personal collection]

No doubt it was the heat and glare off the rocky beach coupled with the roar of the surf triggered it. (I had no idea what was going on and thought I was dying.)

Did I remember it right? You can check out a recent picture here--the offshore rocks are the same.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: More Middletons - Oregon, 1950

No motor vehicles this time (or cows either)...

[From my personal collection]

Three horses, three humans and a big red barn. Roger Middleton is half-visible on the left and his sister Joelita is holding the horse that I'm perched on.




© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

New (to Me) Database on Ancestry.com: "Iowa, Death Records, 1920-1940"

I only had the death year for my 2nd cousin 3x's removed cousin Mildred Brush's first husband, Allen Leonard Swift (1925).  Now I know the exact date, and more of the story (although there is no second image in the scan, despite the "over" note in the cause of death field).  State of Iowa Department of Vital Statistics, Buchanan county, death certificate no. 10-1049, Leonard Swift (1925); digital image, Iowa, Death Records, 1920-1940 (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=61442 : 9 September 2017).

The date on this database is 2017, and doesn't show up in the "Recently Added and Updated Collections on Ancestry" page (which goes back to June), so this little treasure must have been released in the first part of this year.  While I'm late to the game (probably because I've been concentrating on my locations cleanup), I welcome this.  I have a ton of Iowa cousins whose death certificates might help my research.  The Texas, Missouri, and Indiana death certificates already on Ancestry have certainly proved that.

I think I might treat myself to a break in location cleanup today, and use a technique I posted about already "Fantastic Find: Genea-Musing's Ancestry Hack to Search Hints By Specific Database" to find out who on my tree now has a death certificate waiting for me.




© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: The Conners, the Marks (and Some Curreys) - 1948

Dad Currey had a hard time fitting all the names of the people in this color slide from July, 1948, taken at the Marks residence in Reedsport, Oregon. Actually he only noted their first names but fortunately that was enough for me to be able to supply their surname from my childhood memories.

Left to right we have (in back) Eben Conner, his wife Ada (Couzens), his sister Gwen Marks,* son Monte,** (un-named boy - probably Gwen's son Darrell, and (in front) Mother***and me, Eben's daughter Cecelia and Gwen's daughter LeVonne Marks.

[From my personal collection]

*I wrote about her husband George in this post from last year.
**Full name Eben LaMonte Conner, Jr.
***Though of course Dad calls her "Min"



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Limited Time Free Webinar: Geoff Rasmussen presents "Top Tech Tips for the Technologist and the Genealogist"

There is always something to learn when you are a genealogist in this day and age.  Are you aware of all the fun tools you can use?  Geoff Rasmussen explores some "Top Tech Tips for the Technologist and the Genealogist":

Leave this class armed with a new collection of tools to make your genealogy time on the computer more efficient and fun.

Runs 1 hour 27 minutes, and free for non-subscribers through September 13, 2017.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: History of Agua Caliente Springs and Ague Caliente Regional Park

Growing up in San Diego with parents who had learned to love the desert long before I arrived in their lives, for me the place named Agua Caliente never was the one in Tijuana. Until I was about 12 we spent almost Christmas and Easter vacations in that county park located in the middle of the vast Anza Borrego State Park.*

Over the years I've written several posts about Agua Caliente Regional Park including one about Mary's Store and earlier this year I got an email from Fred Wills who wanted to know if he could use the pictures from our blog in the history he was writing about the park. I'm sure it was a pleasant surprise when I not only agreed but informed him that I had more pictures to share. My only requirement was that I get photo credit and a copy of his finished book.

[Courtesy of Frederick H. Wills]

Well, I met up with Fred and Stephanie at the Mission Valley Library yesterday for the return of my color slides together with my copy of the final product and I'm happy to report that it's a very attractive and informative history of the area that I'm looking forward to reading.**

If you would like your own copy, you can reach the author at:

Frederick H. Wills
Desierto Relampago Books
2918 Naugatuck Avenue
San Diego, CA 92117




*In fact Mother told me that I took my first steps there.
**And there I am on the cover, waving at the camera.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Bremer County, Iowa is a Genealogical Hotspot for Me

Bremer County's location compared to major cities in the Midwest.  Image taken from City-Data.com's entry on Bremer County, Iowa.

This is Waverly (filmed in 1961 for the Chamber of Commerce).

WAVERLY: Bremer Co. Historical Society Museum (from KGAN CBS 2)

As I am straightening out my ancestral locations, I come back over and over again to places in Bremer County, Iowa (including the towns of Waverly and Waterloo), where my Tibbetts and Messingers settled in the early 1850s after leaving the Indianapolis area about 1845.  Although my direct ancestors left the area by the 1870s, I still have distant cousins living there.


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Celebrations: Labor Day

If you have 3-1/2 minutes to spare I highly recommend that you watch this 1904 Labor Day parade in Massachusetts which the Library of Congress describes this way:

Shows a parade through bunting-draped streets, probably in the town of Leominster, Mass. First, a decorated grandstand bearing the banner "Leominster heartily greets its guests" is seen, and then the camera pans to the street where the parade is to be photographed. The sidewalks are crowded with people, including many little girls in white or light-colored dresses. People run back and forth across the street, and then the parade starts. Automobiles decorated with flowers, flags, and ribbons pass in review. Next come horse-drawn fire engines, followed by horse-drawn carts, carriages, and floats of assorted shapes and sizes.

[Labor Day parade, Fitchburg, Mass. Source: Library of Congress]

It looks like everyone in town who owned an automobile participated.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Long Beach, Washington - 1950

As I promised last week, I'm returning to some color slides that include members of the Middleton family, It looks like the Curreys and Middletons took a little trip to Washington's Long Beach Peninsula.

[Left to right: Joeleta Middleton, me, Bernice (Grenfell) Currey, Lloyd Middleton and his wife Florence; from my personal collection]

Lloyd is blocking our view of the side of his shiny new 1950 Ford so I can't tell which model it is but that's probably Joeleta sitting in the back seat. Over Lloyd's shoulder you can catch a glimpse of the Currey's trailer parked farther up the beach.

[From my personal collection]

Sadly at this point Lloyd had only a few more months to live:

[Date: Thursday, December 7, 1950   Paper: Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)   Page: 20  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

And I still don't know how the Curreys came to know the MIddletons.


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Too Hot for a Relevant Genealogy Post

He tried 4 different poses in 4 minutes, and none of them satisfied.

Our 10-year-old cat Boogie (pronounced "Booghee") captured my mood today.  It is so hot and humid that there is no comfortable way to sit.  My brain is melting....

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.