Sunday Drive: First Time Down in Mexico - Thanksgiving Day, 1924

The people in this photo are Dad (Delbert A. Currey, 1869-1954), Mother (Ethel Viola Plank Currey, 1882-1961), Junior (Harold D. Currey, Jr., 1923-1945), Marguerite (M. H. Currey, 1913-1999), Min (Bernice E. Grenfell Currey, 1902-1980).

[From my personal collection]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive on Monday: Baja California, 1938

During the summer of 1938 the Curreys took their new trailer down south of the border. Here are six photos from their album.*

[From my personal collection]

Somehow I managed to forget what day it was when it came time for yesterday's post so this week my Monday topic was added on Sunday and I'm making up for it now.


Note: I have no idea who Bill is.


*I tried to scan all six pictures are the same time but my scanner screen wasn't large enough to do that.





© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Shipwreck, 1927 - Descanso Point, Baja California

The caption to these two undated photos from the Currey family album, written in barely legible white ink on black paper, turned out to be somewhat accurate, although the name of the freighter was misspelled: "Cincunius on the rocks 50 miles from home* in Mexico[.]"

[From the Currey family album in my personal collection]

Since a search for the ship by name wasn't successful, the next thing was to establish the date of the photos. Fortunately the snapshots weren't glued on the page and when carefully extracted I found this on the back:

[From my personal collection]

Examining the photos it was clear that the freighter's grounding was recent as all the rigging was still in place--in fact, close inspection showed that there was a barge alongside it.

So next I turned to the newspapers and found this in the Albuquerque Journal for September 26, 1927:

[Newspapers.com]

[Baja California. Secretaria de Agricultura y Fomento : Direccion de Estadios Geograficos y Climatologicos ... Mexico. 2a. Edicion, 1922

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

The San Diego Union had more about the Circinus.

[Thursday, September 29, 1927   Paper: San Diego Union (San Diego, California)   Page: 5  

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

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

The Circinus eventually was towed to San Francisco, after a stop in San Pedro where the damage was assessed and bids taken for repairs, which turned out to be more expensive than first thought. Her captain had his license suspended for a while.

[Monday, October 24, 1927   Paper: Evening Tribune (San Diego, California)   Page: 7  

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

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

When her repairs were completed, the Circinus resumed service and, after a sale and name change (SS Vermar) several years later, ended up as the Russian steam ship Karaganda. Built in 1919, she was scrapped in 1967.

You can read her history here.



*Since San Diego wasn't her home port I assume the reference was made to the Currey home in Encanto.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: On the Way to San Felipe - 1951

In 1951* the Curreys and Neals drove down to San Felipe for Christmas. On the way they saw this abandoned Buick and stopped to check it out.

[Jimmy Neal inspecting overturned Buick alongside the road to San Felipe.]

San Felipe was a bit less "developed" in 1951.

[Our red truck and the Neals' woodie make it easy to locate their campsite.]

[Dad, Jessie and Jimmie Neal hanging out at San Felipe.]

[Once again the red/black Dodge truck stands out.]

[In this photo it's the woodie you see.]

This photo is labeled "Andys Cave house - Bought Shrimp, Dec. 1951.

[Andy's Cave House, San Felipe.]

And this was the meat market, flies and all.

[All photos from my personal collection]

I was 4½ that Christmas and so I have some vague memories of this trip.


*A paved road to San Felipe had just been completed which is undoubtedly why we went there this year. I think Mother and Dad may have visited that part of Baja California before World War II but this marked the last time we went to Mexico.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: Historical collections of the state of New York, 1841

The subtitle to this tome explains why I'm posting about it here: containing a general collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c. relating to its history and antiquities, with geographical descriptions of every township in the state. Additionally the book has 230 engravings so there's some chance you might find one that depicts some part of the town where your New York State ancestors were in 1841.

[Historical Collections of the State of New York; John Warner Barber, 1798-1885, Henry Howe 1816-1893, joint authors,

published by S. Tuttle, New York, 1841. Source: Internet Archive]

Here's what it has to say about Brownville in Jefferson County where my maternal fourth great grandfather Isaac Leonard (c. 1780-1862) was living according to the 1840 U.S. Census.*

The authors have less to say about Mexico, located in Oswego County, the home of my paternal third great grandfather William Porter (1792-1868) and his family.**

In contrast the section for the town of Oswego (in the same county) where Lyman Worden (1791-1883), another maternal fourth great grandfather***, was a resident covers 4-1/2 pages of text and includes two engravings. That's too long to insert in this post but if you're interested, it begins here.


*Isaac Leonard

**William Porter

***Lyman Worden

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.