Family Friends Friday: Paul Taberski

This is me with family friend Paul Edward Taberski (1928-2006):

[Paul holding me, likely late 1971/early 1972; photo from my collection]

Paul was an artist, children's art teacher, and curator of the permanent collection at the La Jolla Museum of Art.  Originally from Michigan, he was in the U. S. Navy from 1951-1955 and then graduated with a Master's degree (with distinction) from the University of Michigan in 1959.  From there he went to live in San Diego.  He lived for a while with my parents before I was born, in what was to be my bedroom.



© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Famous Friday: Owen Porter Churchill, Olympic Gold, Tahitian Islands, and Swim Fins

Owen Porter Churchill is my second cousin, twice removed, through my paternal grandmother Letta Estella Porter's line. The son of a wealthy Los Angeles businessman Owen Humphreys Churchill (1841-1916), his mother Francis (Porter) Churchill gave him a boat because she considered it safer than his interest in flying. Her strategy worked well and after graduating from Stanford University in 1919, Owen began his lifelong love for the sea and sailing.

At the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, his 8-meter boat, the Angelita, easily took the gold medal, outsailing the Canadian boat, the Santa Maria, in all four races. (You can find the entire Official Report of the 1932 Olympics here [large pdf but full of all kinds of great information including photos of the crew and the races].

Source: http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/columns/history/the-first-ever-olympic-village-was-built-in-los-angeles.html

However he was disappointed in his 1936 Olympic bid, so he went to Tahiti and rented an island for two years (!) where he noticed that local swimmers were attaching small tar-stiffened mats to their feet enabling them to move through the water faster.

After returning to the United States he adapted their idea, using rubber. His design was awarded a patent in 1940. Here's some more history of his invention. (And the Smithsonian included Owen Churchill in their exhibit "Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers".)

Photo: Smithsonian Institution

Found moldering away in a Santa Cruz boat yard in 1981, rescued and restored thanks to Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, the Angelita was the official flagship of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. At her helm was the 88-year-old Owen Churchill with the two other surviving members of the crew at his side.

He died in Los Angeles in 1985.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Thrifty Thriller Thursday: Death Certificates online and free

Indexes of death records are everywhere in genealogy resources, but free images of the actual death certificates?  That is thrilling!

Most of these are at FamilySearch.org, and many of the collections require you to sign in (it is free to register).

Statewide unless otherwise indicated.

• Delaware Death Records, 1855-1961

• Georgia, Deaths, 1914-1927

• Georgia, Deaths, 1928-1938

• Idaho, Death Certificates, 1911-1937

• Michigan, Deaths, 1867-1897

• Missouri Death Certificates (1910 – 1963)

• Montana, County Births and Deaths, 1840-2004 (no index)  The collections consist of registers and certificates from Broadwater, Deer Lodge, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, Powell and Silver Bow counties.

• New Hampshire, Death Certificates, 1938-1959

• New Mexico, County Death Records, 1907-1952  Acquired from the county courthouses of Sandoval, Socorro, and Valencia.

• North Carolina, Deaths, 1906-1930

• Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001

• Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953

• Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915

• Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh City Deaths, 1870-1905

• Texas, Deaths, 1890-1976

• Utah Death Certificates, 1904-1956

• West Virginia Deaths, 1804-1999

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Resource Sharing: Nonpopulation Schedules

Until just a few days ago I wasn't aware that there are social statistics schedules that provide an overall view of communities between 1850 to 1880. The National Archives has a useful guide to getting the most out of nonpopulation schedules, including what they are, where to find them and strategies for using them.

As an example, here's the 1860 Nonpopulation Social Schedule for Washington County, Iowa. Some of my ancestors were living in English River Township at that date.

Ancestry.com. Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday:George W. Slater, Prairie Breaker

My maternal great great grandfather George W. Slater was born in Lawrence County, Illinois, in 1832. After his father died in 1847 he lived with his older brother for a time, working as a farm hand. In the 1850 U.S. Census he's to be found living in the household of his sister Mary and her husband William Smith in Montgomery County, Illinois.

Source Citation: Year: 1850; Census Place: Southwest, Montgomery, Illinois; Roll: M432_121; Page: 162A; Image: 326
Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

On the 18th of August, 1851, he and Sarah M. Matthews were married and nine years later G.W. and his young family were living in Shelby County, Illinois. In the 1860 U.S. Census his occupation is listed as "prairie breaker." (For more information about what that entailed, see here and to read more about walking plows in general, here.)

Title: Plowing on the prairie beyond the Mississippi / sketched by Theodore R. Davis, 1868. Notes: Illus. in Harper's weekly, 1868 May 9, p. 292. Source: Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/90712909

In 1863, by his own account he was employed by a railroad company to run a saw mill in Lichfield, Montgomery County, Illinois, and must have still been doing some farming as that's listed as his occupation in his draft registration in July of that year.

In 1870 he had acquired $2,500 worth of land according to the U.S. Census that year, with personal property of $200, and as shown in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedule for Productions of Agriculture, he mostly farmed Indian corn, wheat, and oats. He had 18 pigs, 3 horses and some poultry too.

He and his son Lewis Logan Slater (my great grandfather) practiced as lawyers in Harvel, Montgomery County, Illinois, and G.W. also served as Constable, a Justice of the Peace and had a place on the Town Council there.

Census Year: 1880; Census Place: Harvel, Montgomery, Illinois

Source: Ancestry.com. Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Perhaps he got tired of farming because by the 1885 Kansas State Census, he and his wife and their two youngest children (twins Sarah and James) were living in Elk County, Kansas, and he had become an insurance agent. 

Source: Ancestry.com.. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009. Original Data: 1885 Kansas State Census. Microfilm reels K-1 – K-146. Kansas State Historical Society.

This double portrait of George W. and Sarah M. (Matthews) Slater was probably taken during that period. (I love her dress!)

Photo courtesy of Olive Kennedy

In the 1895 Kansas State Census, he and Sarah are living in Severy in Greenwood County, Kansas,

Source: Ancestry.com.. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009. Original Data: 1895 Kansas State Census. Microfilm reels K-1 – K-169. Kansas State Historical Society.

And that's probably where G.W. died at the age of 67 on October 10, 1899. He's buried in Twin Grove Cemetery in Severy.

Photo courtesy of Olive Kennedy

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday's Child - Alvira Ruth Fister

My grandmother Margaret's sister, Alvira, died in Plano, Illinois on July 9, 1924, from whooping cough.  Before she died she said she was ready to go to Heaven.

[Alvira (lower left) with her sisters "E" (Edith), "M" (Margaret), and "Dori" (Doris), photo likely taken about 1924 in Plano, Kendall, Illinois.  From my private collection, thanks to Tom Cairns]

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Talented Tuesday: Marvel Skeels

Marvel Skeels (1901-1989) was my grandfather's 1st cousin (and my 1st cousin 2x removed).  She was a singer and musician who was born in Oregon but went on to live and work in New York City from the late 1930's to at least the 1950's.  This is a picture of her in the late 1930's:

[Marvel Skeels, likely in New York, from my private collection]

This is her with my grandfather George Hartley and his mother Minnie (Nosler) Hartley, Marvel's aunt, who were on a tour of the East Coast.  Marvel's mother was Minnie's sister, Alberta Evaline "Birdie" (Nosler) Skeels.

[Minnie (Nosler) Hartley, Marvel Skeels, and George Hartley, likely New York in the late 1930's.  Marvel and George are referred to as "two fine lads" which seems an inside joke.]

After she had retired to San Diego she taught me to play piano when I was young.  This is one of those cases where I could just kick myself now for never having asked her anything about her life.  Ah, the selfishness of youth.  She was a great teacher and very nice lady, if a bit of an enigma.  She held class in her immaculate apartment, and in her bedroom she had a large poster of a Hindu spiritual leader or yogi (I don't remember the name).  I have found records of her traveling to Europe in 1936, but now I wonder if she ever made the trip to India?   Her father William Nosler had been a Methodist Episcopal minister among other things, and I don't know if she had rejected that religion or just included the spiritual guru in her life?

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.