Granny Pam's Genealogical Trials and Triumphs
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Treasure Chest Thursday — Aunt Jane’s Treasures

June 3rd, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors - (1 Comments)
This entry is part 9 of 9 in the series Treasures and Curiosities

When you wish to know or understand someone, it is helpful to consider what they think is important. When my Aunt Jane passed to a better place on 5 February 2002, I was called upon to clean out her apartment. There were other things I did, but cleaning out the apartment was the most difficult. We had visited her there for nearly twelve years, holiday after holiday, so the place was familiar. I had also stayed in the apartment for a couple of nights when Aunt Jane was in the nursing portion of the facility.

Margaret Jane Yearnd was born on 29 January 1910 in Cadillac, Michigan. Her parents were William H. Yearnd, Sr., and Winnie Alice Kaiser. Aunt Jane graduated from Cadillac High School, and received a AB degree in social work from the University of Michigan in 1931.  She married Leo Edward Joseph Devereaux on 25 December 1931. Concern for others was the hallmark of Aunt Jane’s life.

When Jane  was eventually forced to relocate to a small retirement apartment, she did not save too much. What I did find tells a lot about the who Jane was.

Hidden away in the place I keep all my most important things, a top bureau drawer was Jane’s master’s degree from the University of Michigan. She earned the degree in 1943, I can only imagine the difficulty of study and full time work, while worrying about her soldier husband.

yearnd devereaux jane masters degree

yearnd devereaux jane masters

Next, I found some remnants of Aunt Jane’s volunteer efforts at a sheltered workshop in Paris, Michigan. I know she drove there from her Evart, Michigan retirement home each week, but had not been aware how important that activity was to her. As soon as I saw it, it remembered; one of Aunt Jane’s jobs was slaving over a hot grill on cook-out days.  She had saved a remodeled fast food crown to remember her time there.

yearnd devereaux jane hdq

The organization had honored her, also. There is an inside joke here, we will never know the whole story. I do the staff at MOARC treasured and cared for Jane.
yearnd jane devereaux moarc

Old habits live on, and Aunt Jane was a person who lived a life of service to others. Even with her sight problems, she found ways to help during her time at the retirement home. We usually visited Jane on Sunday, but if we made a Saturday trip, we were cautioned to arrive after 11:30. During the morning, Aunt Jane was busy helping with bingo and other games in the facilities health center.
yearnd devereaux jane fv vol

Jane Devereaux
Friendship Village Heath Center
May, 1994

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Treasure Chest Thursday – Aunt Bertha’s Tray

May 27th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors - (0 Comments)
This entry is part 8 of 9 in the series Treasures and Curiosities

I have had this hammered aluminum tray for a number of years. Aunt Jane, my Dad’s sister gave it to me, along with a story.

aunt berthas tray

Aunt Jane said that Bertha went to some classes and made the tray. That is an interesting story, I wish I knew if it was true. There is no mark or emblem of any kind on the tray, which is just over twenty-one inches in diameter.

. Bertha Elizabeth Kaiser was born 21 February 1893 in Cadillac, Wexford, Michigan and died there on 11 June 1981. She was my grandmother’s half sister, the daughter of William Kaiser and his second wife, Delia Conway. Bertha married Henry Cornwell Ballou on 10 August 1916 and the couple lived in Cadillac and Detroit.

When I knew Aunt Bertha she was a widow, and in my child’s eye, a typical older lady. When Papa and I decided to marry, she had us to lunch one day. At that time, she would have been seventy-six years old. No wonder I can’t imagine her taking a class and hammering out an aluminum tray!

I wonder if the B stood for Ballou, or for Bertha?

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A Little About Mable Dickinson

May 25th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors | Organize! | What's going On - (0 Comments)
This entry is part 8 of 8 in the series Winnie Kaiser Yearnd Funeral Register

I arrived home with big plans to get things done. You all know about that, I think. I wanted to enter all my data, transcribe all I found, enter correct sources, and see if I could reach any conclusions.

By the time Papa and I had emptied the car, I collapsed and fell asleep. Sunday, I did the wash, and we mowed the lawn. Now it is Monday. So much for getting everything done quickly.

Today, I am looking at the information I have for Mable Dickinson, of Brooklyn, New York. My mother said Mable was a lady that took in children. OK, so why am I interested a lady that did foster care in 1930′s in New York? My mother was raised in foster care, and had very little memory of her family. Mable Dickinson was the only name Mom ever gave me when I asked about care givers or foster parents.

A while back, I investigated the address Mom gave me, using an old photo and Google Maps Street View.

Last week, one resource I had looked forward to was the Brooklyn, New York City Directories and phone books. It did not take me too long to find Miss Mable B. Dickinson, residing at 256 Decatur, Brooklyn. She appeared in the phone books for the years 1939-1946, always at 256 Decatur, and always with a phone number of JE fferson 3-7551. Miss Dickinson was not listed in 1938, nor in 1947, 1948 or 1949.

dickinson mable 1943-4 brooklyn ny phone book

Some people have noted that using a camera to capture something on a microfilm machine is tricky. When I find an item of interest, I take a picture of the page number, then one of the actual listing. In many cases, I also take a photo of the source information, in this case, it was a microfilm. It took me just a minute to crop, copy and paste, fatten the image and save it with a new name. I have one of these for each year I found Mable B. Dickinson in Brooklyn, this on is from the 1943-44 directory. If a microfilm contains a will or deed that I need to transcribe, I photograph the entire page, if possible. Even if that is possible, I also start at the top of each page and take a series of photos from top to bottom. I never use a flash to photograph a microfilm, and rarely use one to photograph a book.

There is not much in the way of a conclusion to draw from all this. I have resolved the information I have about Mom and Miss Dickinson as follows:

  1. There is a photo of Mom and a young man standing outside of a house with the number 256.
  2. Mom told me the address of her Brooklyn home was 256 Decatur and said the name of her care giver was Mable Dickinson.
  3. It is possible to find the house at 256 Decatur today, and it looks similar.
  4. Mable B. Dickinson lived at that address at least from 1939 to 1946.
  5. Mother was in the care of non-related adults after 1931.
  6. Mom filled out a Social Security card application on 22 April 1943, she home address was given as: 256 Decatur, Brooklyn, New York.

My conclusion is that Mom was correct in her memory of living with Miss Mable Dickinson in Brooklyn, NY

Mom lied about her birth year on the Social Security application, saying 1924, although she was born in 1926. She said she was working for “Northeast Waite Tower Sys. Inc”, located at 418 W 42 St, New York, NY. She gave her home address as: 256 Decatur St, Brooklyn, New York.

I sure wish I could call that phone number and find out a little more about Mom’s childhood. Like a lot of us, she kept much to herself, and didn’t share very much about her childhood.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom

May 9th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors - (0 Comments)

Mom5-25-2006

I still miss you every day.

Treasure Chest Thursday – The Tulip Platter

May 6th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors - (0 Comments)
This entry is part 5 of 9 in the series Treasures and Curiosities

In keeping with the spring season, here is a platter which I am lucky to have. I remember it on the evening dinner tables of my childhood days. For some reason, I see ham when I see this plate, and believe I should have ham.

tulip

I have always thought of this as the Tulip plate, but I also see other things, like the Lilly of the valley.

There is no mark of any kind on the back of the plate, and I have no idea of its origin or if anyone owned it before my parents. I have vague memories of a teapot, but I believe it just had the red flower, so it was probably not part of a set.

This platter is a great reminder of simple days, and a good ham dinner!

This post was written following the “Treasure Chest Thursday” theme over at Geneabloggers.

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Treasure Chest Thursday – Dad’s Shoe Shine Kit

April 29th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors - (3 Comments)
This entry is part 4 of 9 in the series Treasures and Curiosities

The other day I got side tracked from a little job making a couple of pairs of PJ pants for GD1, and cleaned off the shelves in the back storage room. In the process I also sorted patterns, but that is another story. A few things surfaced, which I photographed for Treasure Chest posts.

shine1

I remember this shoe shine kit well. I have no idea how I ended up with it, but it contains enough sentimental value to almost bring tears to my eyes. Dad was an undertaker, I guess I have mentioned that enough times. In the good old days undertakers and really all businessmen, wore suits, hats, overcoats, gloves, and leather shoes. There were rubbers or zip front rubber overshoes for winter. Does anyone else remember the rubbers? they were very flexible, like rubber gloves, and fit tightly over shoes. I can close my eyes and see every adult in my childhood life leaning on the wall near the door, either putting the rubbers on, or peeling them off.

Dad polished his shoes with regularity, but I do not remember if it was a certain day of the week, or just when they needed it. Dad’s extra shoes (the ones that were not on his feet) lived on shoe trees, which looked like this:

shine2

They adjust from longer to shorter by putting the handle on using the correct holes. First he wiped the shoes off, then he put on the polish. For the uninitiated, the polish came in a glass bottle, with a fleecy dabber attached to the underside of the lid with a wire stick type thing. I can see him carefully spreading the polish on the shoes, holding not the shoes, but the handle of the shoe tree on which they were installed. He was meticulous, there was never any polish on the soles of the shoes, or on the floor, or his hands. The shoes were set aside on a piece of newspaper to dry, then shined with the brush.

If you look at the handle, you can see it serves a dual purpose. It is ribbed, therefore not slippery. You can sit in a chair, put your foot up on the handle, and brush your shoes off, or shine them with a rag. I think only the shoe trees, the brush and the box are original. The polish is all newer, and I have stored it in the kit.

This post was written following the “Treasure Chest Thursday” theme over at Geneabloggers.

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DNA, Another Step in the Search

March 29th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors - (4 Comments)
This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series DNA in Genealogy Research

If you haven’t read about my search for my great-grandfather’s surname, you can find out more here, here, and here. After I found my grandfather’s family, I was thrilled, and did quite a few happy dances, visited the cemetery, got his will and every record available about him and his family in his hometown of Howell, Michigan. Then the struggle began. 1870 census? Nothing close. Passenger lists? Nothing. I have searched passenger lists and Castle Garden records every way imaginable. I have a list of possible surname spellings that covers two pages, all carefully recorded from soundex and “sounds like” searches of various sources. I have visited the locations where he lived, read the newspaper microfilms, copied his real estate transactions, obtained death records for him and his family, searched for birth records and other records. But I still have a dead end. Boo!

When I realized I was pretty much at a dead end on that branch of the family, I did what my brain and experience told me to do. I searched more, expanding into neighboring counties and my grandfather’s siblings. I found a divorced Baptist minister, and a descendant of the divorced wife’s second husband. I wrote letters to 26 gentleman who were listed in the phone book and have a name which may be connected with another branch, carefully outlining the relationship and asking specific questions. I included a self-addressed stamped envelope in each letter, and my phone number, along with e-mail and postal addresses. I received only replies that were negative, not one from the person I was seeking. Still nothing useful or helpful in identifying the family’s actual origin, or the original spelling of their name. Boo-hoo.

Now, the new “Family Finder” DNA test has become available, and I am taking the plunge. A close male relative of mine is also taking the family finder test, and a YDNA test. It will be interesting to see what the results are, and if it will help me in my search. I have no illusions here, I know this is not a magic bullet. Today I will list the reasons why I have considered the test, and why I am taking it, and in later parts of this series, I will keep you abreast with the process as it unfolds. If my experience helps someone, then I will have a good result, even if it does not help me.

  1. The YDNA test that my relative is taking will provide me with a tool to find other members of my great-grandfather’s family. Since research is stalled at the point where my ancestor arrived in Howell, Michigan, with only a few clues to his origin and no substantial real evidence, I am hoping that there really may be a magic bullet. The best possible result would tell me his actual origin, Germany, or elsewhere, and what the “more German” spelling of his name was. What I am hoping for, a lucky match to a family who is also actively researching, which may point me to the correct location in Germany, or elsewhere.
  2. The Herrington mystery is another reason. My mother was raised in foster care. Her paternal line originates with a man named “Herrington” who lived near an area where members of the better documented Harrington family lived; however, he does not seem to be closely connected to that family. Since that ancestor came from a large family, I am hoping that some other researchers also take the “Family Finder” test and I may become aware of them and their research.
  3. The Orlando Palmer adoption mystery. My mother’s maternal grandfather was the adopted son of Platt B. Palmer and Angeline Carpenter. His original name was Askey, or Ascha, or similar. The evidence I have found fits the story, but the details are lost in history. Maybe I will connect with a descendant of the family. I have found some, among them a super researcher who is generous and caring. I just want one more…

Since much of this is a shot-in-the dark kind of thing, I thought my readers might be interested in the results. Fishing trips can be fun and challenging, but so are roller coaster rides. Ride along with me as I explore DNA testing, what to expect, and how the process works. Better still, watch me sweat and sit on the edge of my chair while wait to for the results. Best of all, see if the results help me in any way.

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Surname Saturday, Herrington/Harrington

March 27th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors - (4 Comments)

How this one is spelled among my ancestors depends on the person, the time and the place.

You can see posts in which I mention this line by clicking this link. My mother searched for many years and never found out why her mother had left, or where her mother had gone, and I still do not have the entire story. Mom would have been happy to know that her mother had a nice burial place in a National cemetery with her husband. I just wish I had found this information a few years sooner.

So, without further delay, my known Herrington ancestors are:

Martin L. Herrington, born May 1853, New York. Married about 1881, Kate Knapp, the family lived in Easton and Greenwich, and probably sometimes in Vermont where at least one daughter was born. Ten or 11 children, I do not know all the names.

David Henry Herrington b. 21 Mar 1891, Easton, NY, married ca 1924, Helen Lois Palmer, d. 13 Mar 1931, Bennington, Bennington, VT.

Marjorie Helen Herrington, my mother, b. 20 Nov 1926, Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, and d. 6 June 2007, Rochester Hills, Oakland, Michigan.

Fearless Females: Blogging Prompt for March 11

March 11th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors - (0 Comments)

Lisa Alzo, the Accidental Genealogist, has posted some marvelous blogging prompts for Woman’s History Month. The March 11 prompt: Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family?

I have previously posted information about my great-grandmother, Jane “Jennie” Johnston. I wrote a biography of sorts, a post about her locket, and a post about her burial place and the record of her burial that I found. Jennie died at the age of 21 on or just before 29 January 1888. Although I have never found Jane’s death record, I am confident of her date of death. Why? I kept looking, and finally found a record of Jane’s burial in the original city cemetery logs.

The circumstances related to the many early deaths in the family of John Johnston are mind-numbing, at least for me. When you read about my great-grandmother, you read the tragic story of the orphans Jane and her brother James, traveling to Cadillac, Michigan within a few years of the death of everyone else in their family. Just a few years after the two arrived in Cadillac, Jane died, leaving a daughter only two years old. That daughter was Winnie Alice Kaiser, my grandmother.

James Johnston’s wife was Elizabeth Kaiser, a sibling of William Kaiser. James and Elizabeth’s first two children died young. One, a premature birth or still born is listed in the cemetery logs as: Johnston, James, infant of, born and died 3 August 1888. No sex is given. The Johnston’s daughter Katie, born in 1890, died in 1894. Their only child who survived was Rae E. Johnston, 1892-1978.

Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-nine, James Johnston experienced the deaths of his parents, his four sisters, a niece or nephew, and two of his three children. This much loss is hard for me to imagine, even more than 100 years later.

Several years ago, I got together with my cousins, James’ granddaughter and two great-grandchildren. We poured over photos, tried to figure out who they were, and I shared my research about the Johnstons. James’ granddaughter, Kay, said that Winnie Kaiser, my grandmother, spent a lot of her time with James Johnston and his wife after Jane, her mother, died. It makes sense that the young widower, William Kaiser would require help with his daughter so he could work. Families enjoyed the benefit of living in proximity, something I miss today.

Since I visited the graves of the John Johnston family in Ontario, and realized the enormity of the occurrences, I have thought about this often.

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Fearless Females: Blogging Prompt for March 6

March 6th, 2010 | Posted by Granny Pam in Granny's Ancestors - (0 Comments)

Lisa Alzo, the Accidental Genealogist, has posted some marvelous blogging prompts for Woman’s History Month. For March sixth, I see: Describe an heirloom you may have inherited from a female ancestor (wedding ring or other jewelry, china, clothing, etc.) If you don’t have any, then write about a specific object you remember from your mother or grandmother, or aunt (a scarf, a hat, cooking utensil, furniture, etc).

I am lucky enough to have some nice items I inherited from my female ancestors, but today I am describing one that I do not have, and sure wish I did.

I remember a little mesh purse, with a little chain for a handle. It was a brass color, and it resided in my mother’s jewelry box. The chain that served as a handle could be put through a larger chain and worn around the neck. The cute little purse was just large enough to hold a dime, and Mom said that it was for a subway ride home. I do not have a photo of it, but it was similar to this little item, but not so fancy.

As a small town girl from northern Michigan, riding a subway seemed so romantic to me, even at my advanced age the only subway I have ridden was in London (yes England) a few years ago.

When my mother died, I looked high and low, through everything in the house, trying to find the little purse, and I never did find it. I can not help but wonder what happened to it, and also wishing I had asked when my Mom was still well. But I did not want to appear to be asking for something.