Are we crazy or what?

Maybe we're crazy, but it was fun! We decided to rent a little cabin for the night. That doesn't sound so crazy until you understand that the cabin was in the same town where we live. Even the cabin's owner smiled when she saw the address I listed on the registration card. But this little log cabin was so cozy and comfortable. We had a wonderful time. Our friends are chuckling over our little vacation, but it was a fun memory.

Try, try again...

For several years we believed that James A. Blay had only one wife, Mattie Morris. However, recently we found that he actually had three wives. After Mattie's death he married Emma Lintges in 1906. The marriage lasted only 6 years. James (31 years her senior) filed for a divorce in 1912 citing "extreme and repeated acts of cruelty" on the part of Emma.

In 1913 James married Minnie Zuendt. Minnie (24 years younger than James) was a German immigrant; having arrived in this country in 1907. Their marriage lasted until his death in 1929.

In the following photo, James is sitting next to Emma. I calculate the photo was taken about 1909 or 1910. Melvina (standing on the chair) looks to be about 2 or 3 years old (she was born in 1907). I believe the older woman in the photo is James' mother, Cynthia Derrick, who died in October of 1910.

Goodbye sweet child...

The second child of Robert William Johns and Margretta (Blay) Johns was Martha Etta. When she was just a little over two and a half years old she contracted scarlet fever. Sadly she never recovered. Here is the article from the Herald Democrat newspaper, 24 Feb 1907 issue, titled "Death of a Little Child."

They held the funeral in their home at 1409 Poplar street and little Martha was then buried in Leadville cemetery (Leadville, Colorado). Her parents paid $6 for a wire basket to be placed around her headstone. Although it's hard to see in this picture, the basket looks like a wire cradle.

Truly inspirational...

We watched a video today - "Only A Stonecutter." A film by TC Christensen, the true story about mormon pioneer John Rowe Moyle. If you ever get a chance to watch this short film you won't be sorry - it's truly inspirational.

Was my grandfather a heron?

My grandfather, David Windsor Davis Sr. was born 5 Jul 1893 at 41 Garn Cross Street in Nantyglo, Wales. At the time of his birth, his father was a grocer and the family lived above the store. Below is a picture we took of the building when we were in Wales.

His birth certificate lists his name as "David Windsor Cranog Davies." I don't know the significance of the name Cranog. Only one other brother, John Ivor, had an additional name, "John Ivor Crynant Davies." Cranog is a Welsh boy's name and means heron; a wading bird with grey and white plumage.

Twenty-three was a bad age...

Twenty-three was a bad age to be if you were the wife of Jenkin Morgan. Both of his wives died at that age.

Hannah (Williams) Morgan died 31 Mar 1872 at age 23 years, 4 months

Catherine (Lewis) Morgan died 5 Sep 1879 at age 23 years, 21 days


Jenkin Morgan died 15 Aug 1900

This is what is left of Jenkin's home in Cherokee, Calif.

Can you hear me now?

Dave Davis was driving over Berthoud Pass in Colorado with his father-in-law, Robert Johns, who was in the passenger seat. They came up to a slow moving vehicle and "tooted" their horn to have him move over. The slow driver didn't move, so Robert told Dave to pull up behind the vehicle. He then got out through the passenger door, climbed onto the fender of the slow moving vehicle and moved along the running board to the driver's door. He asked the driver of the slow moving vehicle; "Didn't you hear us back there?"

I bet after that the driver moved out of the way whenever someone wanted to get by.

Who is that woman?

This photo is from a tintype found in Margretta (Blay) Johns' photo album. There was no identifying information. I believe this is Alexander Blay and his wife Cynthia Derrick. Below is an enlarged copy of the woman's face.

The following photo is an enlargement of the woman's face from a group shot I posted earlier. I believe this elderly woman is James Blay's mother, Cynthia (Derrick) Blay. I calculated (based on the apparent ages of the two young girls in the group) that the photo was taken about 1909 or 1910. Cynthia died in October of 1910. She's living with her son, James Blay, in Denver, Colorado and is listed as his mother in the 1910 census (taken 18 and 19 Apr 1910). It seems reasonable that this is Cynthia pictured at the family gathering.

Now compare the faces of the two women. Is it just me or do they look similar? The deep set eyes, general shape of the face, hair style, etc. I really think they are the same woman, just decades apart. If they are the same woman, then the man with her in the tintype is, most likely, Alexander. Plus it makes sense that Margretta would have a photo of her grandparents in her photo album. What do you think?

Thank you for the honor...

Teri at The Ties That Bind nominated my humble little blog for the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thank you Teri, and thanks for your kind words. I hope everyone will take a moment to visit Teri's wonderful blog at http://terri-thetiesthatbind.blogspot.com/.

Now comes the job of nominating 7 blogs for the awards. I think all the ones I read have already received the award. I'm off to do some blog hunting.

I nominate the following blogs:

A light that shines again - http://tierneyhistory.blogspot.com/

Apple's Tree - http://appledoesntfallfar2.blogspot.com/

Before My Time - http://krentz.blogspot.com/

Colorado Reflections - http://coloradoreflections.blogspot.com/

Desktop Genealogist Unplugged - http://desktopgenealogistunplugged.blogspot.com/

Texas? Why Texas????

My great-great grandfather, Horace Y. Fitch, was born in New York and died in Stillwater, Payne county, Oklahoma. Based on census records, he lived in New York, California, Kansas and Oklahoma. My mother found something surprising the other day...an obituary for Horace in a Dallas, Texas newspaper. Why Texas? To our knowledge he never lived in Texas, and none of his children lived in Texas. I searched Ancestry's Dallas City Directories (1889 to 1894)...no Fitch. The obituary is printed beneath the title "Special to the news." It remains a mystery. Why would his death be newsworthy in Dallas? Any ideas?

Enjoying a sunny day...

We had a wonderful break from the snow and decided to go for a drive. We ended up at Mark Twain's cabin. It's a "replica" of his cabin, but has the original chimney and fireplace. Maybe the wild flowers growing near by mean that spring isn't far off.

From there we stopped for a wonderful lunch at Talulah's. After lunch we went to the Veteran's Military Museum and received a warm welcome and tour. Our excersion ended with a stop at Cover's Apple Ranch to pick up an apple pie (yum!). All-in-all...a wonderful time.

What a find...

On a research trip to Machias, ME, we visited the Machias Historical Society. When we told the volunteer our ancestor's name, she said she had something we might be interested to see. She took us to a room upstairs and showed us a trunk. T here's a plate on top identifying it as belonging to William Albee (our ancestor). The docent said this trunk came on the ship with him.

Here's a close-up of the plate

I found his obituary recently in the Eastern Argus Newspaper (ME), 12 Jul 1836 issue - pg. 1, col. 6. The obit talks about him being a surgeon.

Flying high...

Talk about a wild ride! How would you like a ride on this swing?

Robert William Johns (on the right in the picture below) built this swing on his homestead in Routt county, Colorado. He named his homestead "Kozy Korner Ranch."

He went that way...

In honor of Lincoln's birthday I share a story about my husband's 2nd great-granduncle, Col. Pren Metham. He was at Ford's Theater when President Lincoln was shot. Several newspaper articles tell the story of Col. Metham giving chase. Performers back stage indicated the direction Booth took, and Col. Metham might have caught him...except that the path that had been indicated took him into the ladies' lounge. Oops! I hate it when that happens.

They didn't make it easy...

This is a good reminder that we need to be very creative when looking for our ancestors - the census takers didn't make it easy. I couldn't find my great-great grandfather, John Johns, in Dakota county, NE in the 1870 census. I tried his wife, Cynthia Johns and his children James and Josephine Johns - nothing. I tried a search for all the men with a first name of John living in Dakota county, NE - 142 possibles. I finally did a search for all the men with first name of John, who were born in Ohio in 1842 (plus or minus 2 years). Two possibles - John Martin and John Johnson. Immediately I clicked John Johnson and up pops him with a wife Synthia and children James and Josephine. Yeah! Be creative...you just might get lucky.

Snow Day...

We woke up this morning to snow. Unfortunately we can't enjoy it because we're still battling colds :-( This is taken looking out our front door.

"the kindest of women..."

Ella (Fitch) Myers was the mother of 3 small children when she passed away. While making their breakfast her dress caught fire, and she was badly burned. She never recovered. Her obituary testifies to the sweet, loving person she was and how much she would be missed. I love the quote from her obituary..."sympathy is no balm to their wounded hearts."

Will the real Cornelia please stand up...

We have received pictures from 2 different sources. Each sender contends the picture they sent was of Cornelia Reynolds (who married Horace Fitch). I don't think they look like the same person or even appear to be from the same era. I'm no expert, but the hair style and manner of dress in the second photo appear to be from an earlier time period. Also, I don't think women changed their hair style so drastically back then. What do you think?

Technology...it's a wonderful thing!

I don't know if I've mentioned it...but I love technology. I love how I can use it for the benefit of my family history. Case in point...photo restoration. Repairing and restoring old photos has never been so easy or fun. This photo took me a couple of hours to fix. Doesn't Uncle Joe look better? Like I said...technology is a wonderful thing. Now all I need is more RAM, a bigger hard driver, a more powerful processor, two 24" monitors, Adobe CS4 and unlimited $$ for all this :-)

Don't go near the water...

Poor Minnie...she didn't have much luck with husbands. She divorced her first husband, her second died in the influenza epdemic of 1918 and her third husband had a fatal heart attack at 30.

She probably thought she was safe when she married a man 26 years younger...but alas...it was not to be.

She fought the scoundrel and won...

A while back I was doing a google search for "Colorado historical newspapers," but what my fingers typed was "California historical newspapers." I didn't realize my mistake until I clicked on the first hit. When I found I was at a California site I decided to run my standard list of research names. Little did I know that I would hit upon information I not only wasn't expecting to find, but it was information I knew nothing about. The first thing I learned was that my great-great grandmother, Minnie Prehn, didn't have an easy life (I'll write more on her life later).

One of the newspaper articles showed she was a woman with a lot of fight in her.

Don't underestimate the value of newspapers in family history research. You can find information there that you won't find anywhere else. Sites such as GenealogyBank, Newspaper Archive and Ancestry have put newspapers at our fingertips (but for a usage price).

Today I had lunch with some friends at a cute little tea shop.

At the end of our meal the check came with a small individually wrapped Dove chocolate for each of us. Inside the wrapper is something called a "Promises Message." I thought mine could be referring to genealogy:

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."

I will repeat this to myself every time I hit another brick wall.

A woman of substance...

Quite by accident (a random google search) I found that the Arizona Historical Society in Tempe had 2 boxes of items belonging to Reamy Fitch and his wife, Helen Klingler. Although Reamy is not my direct line, I was intrigued and we arranged to make a stop on one of our trips.

Among the items were copies of Christmas letters Helen sent out every year. Helen was quite an accomplished woman. Every Christmas letter included a poem she wrote. Here is one of her poems:

She was also a painter

I feel so blessed to have "happened" on these little pieces of Helen and Reamy's life. I would have enjoyed knowing them. I believe we were guided to finding this information. When I later checked to see if their work had been done, I found all had been done except their sealing to each other. Reading their letters, I could feel their love for each other, and know they would want to be sealed together for eternity.

Home sweet home...

I'm not sure if this is "home sweet home" or the "Bates Motel." This is the home on Tennessee St., in San Francisco, California where David Windsor Davis and Melvina (Johns) Davis lived for a time. The backyard was solid rock and dirt had to be hauled up there so they could have a vegetable garden.

It looks Bates motelish to me...it has everything but granny at the window in a rocking chair.

The strength of a woman...

The following is from "History of Butte County" (California) by George C. Mansfield, page 216, and is based on an article published in The Union Record newspaper, 11 Jun 1864.

Indian Troubles
"During the absence of Thomas Morgan from his residence in Mesilla Valley , about a mile from Pence's, on Saturday last, June 4th, his wife, going out after wood, noticed the cattle rising and staring in the direction of a little flat; and looking to discover the cause she saw the head of a man visible beyond some fruit trees. Returning to the house and going upstairs, so that she could see over the intervening trees, she beheld seven Indians creeping towards the house, the foremost one leaning upon a gun. Terror stricken at the fate which seemed about to overtake herself and her three little children, but with prayerful resolution to save her little ones, if possible, she immediately took them and, going out through the back door and keeping the trees between them and the red fiends, started for Mr. Merithew's house about a mile off, carrying her youngest child, two years old. Finding no one at home, she went to Mr. Knox's, a half mile further, and found protection. A party of men was soon raised, who hurried to Mr. Morgan's; but the Indians had fled. After knocking four or five windows to atoms, taking all the clothing and nearly all the bedding, and destroying the furniture, etc. Several stones were found in the house, which had been thrown through the windows. There is no doubt but the Indians would have butchered the family, if they had found them in the house. The carelessness of the authorities with regard to these treacherous red devils will yet, we fear, result in the butchery of more of our citizens. Cannot some way be devised to rid Butte county of these pests?"

I am awed by the bravery of my great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Williams Morgan (pictured above), in the face of such terror. After reading accounts of other incidents in the county, Elizabeth had reason to fear for their lives.

Coming home...

Daniel Clifford Davies served in WWI. He registered for the draft on 5 Jun 1917, and entered the army 28 May 1918 as a private in company F 47th Infantry 4th Division. He was overseas from 13 Oct 1918 to 4 Apr 1919. Below is a copy of his draft registration:

He mustered out 7 Apr 1919. Below is the telegram her wrote to his mother on 12 Apr 1919 letting her know he was coming home. She must have been overjoyed to have her boy home safe and sound.

Some gave all...

James A. Blay sent 3 sons to war - only 1 came home. Harry was killed; 4 days later his brother Will was killed, then Frank was injured a few days later. I wonder how our ancestors survived such heartache.