Wordless Wednesday

Isn't this a great picture???
Emma Maria Hartmann
This is my Aunt Em at her First Holy Communion June of 1927.

Fearless Females Favorite Female

Today I'm posting about my favorite female in my family tree. I'm getting my ideas from Lisa's blog

This is my Aunt Em, my Dad's sister. This picture was taken at my Dad's & Mom's wedding day in 1949. I feel like I have known her forever, of course I have. She was one of the aunts I sent my time with in-between mothers, while Dad was at work. When I was older and before we moved to Florida she also took me to the Zoo, the movies, Radio City Music Hall in NYC to see the Rockettes and the Museum of Natural History. I'm sure we did lots of other fun things but I have forgotten them.

When I was 15 my parents sent me to New York to visit my aunts, I spent a week with each one. Aunt Em lived in Long Island City, Astoria, Queens and my Aunt Bea in Massapequa, Long Island, New York.

I flew to New York to see Aunt Em when I was 20. That was a great trip for me. We wrote to each many times a year. When she moved to Florida I went to visit her up in Cocoa Beach.



Here she is celebrating her 80th Birthday with two of her sons, Joseph & Thomas. She was working in a medical office still at this age. She finally quit when they went to a computer system to make appointments a year or so later.


This is the note she wrote on the back of her picture, her handwriting at 80 was the same as when she was younger. My husband gets a kick out of her, because shortly after we were married she sent me a letter and she was always very formal and addressed the envelope Mrs. Richard B. instead of Mary B. He still teases me about that. My husband is very traditional, me I'm a little more modern, after all I do have a hyphenated last name.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

A Family Story!

Today in 1959 was the day my Dad proposed to my Mom or so the story goes. The details that are missing are where did he ask? Did they go to dinner first? Did he have the ring on that day? Did he have flowers? How did Mom feel? I mean here was a man who was a widower with a 13 month old. How did Dad feel? He said he would love both of his wives forever. How did all the family feel? I think everyone was happy and pleased with the match. My aunts told they they loved my Mom as if she was a sister.

It was a very short dating time five weeks at the longest. I don't know how long Mom cared for my Mother in the hospital but they probably became friends there. I not sure if friends is the right word. In the late 40's patients went to the hospital to die. Even Mom was in the hospital for almost 4 weeks before she died and that was in the mid 60's.

I know from my past dating experiences I would not have felt I knew a man well enough to marry after 5 weeks of knowing him, They married in June of 1959. I guess when you know it's right you do it.

All I remember is Dad would say, "Oh it's St. Patrick's Day this is the day I proposed to your Mom." I wish I knew more.

Mom never said much about it either.

I guess the lesson here for me is to tell my kids more about my courtship with their Dad.

Fearless Females 6 Word Tributes

Lisa at The Accidental Genealogist is running a series of prompts for Women's History Month. Today's prompt is a 6 word tribute to a female ancestor.

Edith, My Mother: Looking forward to meeting you, someday.

Annette My Second Mother: Thanks for all you did for me.

Mary Paternal Grandmother: Has a smile and a twinkle? Pictured here about 1912, about age 24.

Minnie Elizabeth Maternal Grandmother: Widowed, worked to support her family.

Fearless Females Working Women

This is the picture of my grandmother Minnie Elizabeth Spahn in May 1905. This was her nursing school graduation from New York Metropolitan Hospital on Blackwells Island, New York. She was not quite 20 yrs old, she would be 20 on Oct. 6th. I never heard stories of her working as a nurse, but she must have because later in life she was a widow and still had children at home.
Nursing sure has changed in 105 years.



My Mom (second-mom) worked as a nurse also. She was an army nurse during World War II and she was the nurse who took care of my mother when she died of breast cancer. I can remember her working in a hospital in Flushing, Booth Memorial Hospital. This is a picture of the charm bracket her co-workers gave her in 3-6-59 from the OBS staff. This is just before we moved to Florida. She obviously was well liked by her co-workers. She also worked at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale Florida when we moved there. I do not have a picture of her in her uniform, just the ones in my mind of her coming home and sitting like a rag doll in a chair.


This is me on graduation day from LPN school, Sept of 1966 age 18.
I was also a nurse at the same hospital while I was an LPN and going to school to earn my RN. Big mistake to work were your mother had worked. Plus Mom was a very nice person. If there was a nice way to say something she had a nicer way. I on the other hand have a tendency to say it like I see it. I frequently have hoof and mouth disease. I do have to admit I have learned to calm it down a lot since I was in my late teens. I have been a nurse since I was 18, enter nursing school at 17.


This is a picture of me as a RN student, Feb of 1971 I was 23. Mom never wanted me to be a nurse, she said it was hard work. Boy was she right. I have never regretted my decision to be a nurse.

I think this counts as three generations of nurses! Spanning 105 years.

Fearless Female: Females Who Died Young

Lisa suggestion for yesterday.
March 11 — Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family.

I had two mothers both who died early in their own lives and early in mine. My Mother was 32, my Mom or second mother (I don't like step mother for her) was 45. I was one week before my first birthday and my 17th birthdays.

I will probably never know the full effect of these events. I do know they shaped me to be the person I am today. Since I like being who I am even with my imperfections. I accept these events as bad as they were as worth it. Since I sincerely believe nothing happens in our lives that isn't meant to happen and make us the people we are needed to be. I accept these events as the life experience they are meant to be.

I came to this realization when I received an excellence in Oncology Nurse award in 2000. I needed to write a talk about being an Oncology Nurse. Since both of my mothers died of cancer, I am sure that was an influenced on my nursing career. I explained the impact of their illness on our family and the care they received compared to the care given today. I encouraged the nurses to be advocates for their patients, to be the life lines for the patients.



The stories go that after my mother died I spent each day that my Dad worked with a different Aunt. When my Dad was home he was Mr. Mom. He worked 24 hours on and 48 off as a NYC fireman. I am sure he kept a clean and orderly home. He was one of those people, everything had it's place and everything was to be in it's place.

After my Mom died I was angry and use to tell people I was tough on mothers, like it was my fault that they had died. As I grew in my nursing career I learned that sometimes in spite of what we do the disease is bigger than everything we do to irradiate it. As I grew as a person I learned that we must experience the special trails of our lives to learn of God and to learn to have faith in His Plan.

These event left my father a nearly destroyed man, he felt that the only thing that kept him going was his children, I have 3 younger half brothers. My youngest brother was 6 when Mom died and he has little to no recollection of her. My other brothers do not share any feelings on losing their mother.

Losing your mother at any age is hard. It is harder when you are young.

Wordless Wednesday

Some where in this picture is my Dad when he was a boy. I think I found him, top row second from the left. When I looked at the picture tonight I thought his face looked like my brother George when he was young. I looked with my magnifying glass and I still think I'm right. See what you think compare this picture with the one from Wednesday February the 24th.

Fearless Females: Heirlooms

Lisa is helping us all celebrate Women's History Month by suggesting daily prompts to recognize the women of our Family Tree. The prompt for the 6th was to describe an heirloom you may have inherited from a female ancestor: wedding ring or other jewelry, china, clothing, etc.
I'm a firm believe that a picture is worth a thousand words.


This is my maternal grandmother Minnie Elizabeth Chaplin cameo ring. It is very tight on my little finger,either she had small fingers or I have big ones. I have worn it on very special occasions but never for daily use. Being a nurse rings have to be practical, this is beautiful but not practical. This ring was given to my mother's older sister Beatrice but she had three boys and when I was born she gave it to my mother. The setting sits up almost 1/2". I have never seen this worn by anyone family member. It was saved for me. My Aunt Bea was a lot of fun and made be feel like part of the family.


This Cameo pin belongs to my Mom's mother or grandma Mildred Corkish. (My second Mom) I do remember my Mom wearing this pin. Again since I was the only girl I was given this pin also. I think maybe I worn it once. Mostly it lives in the safe. I'm not a fancy dresser so I have no idea what I would wear it on. It sure is a beautiful cameo. I might just have to find something to wear this on!!

When I was looking for my treasures and after I saw them again I realized I had forgotten how many I really have. Finding all these things made me feel very blessed. Something I think I tend to forget. My family tried hard to make traditions to have and to pass down. I trying to survive after the lost of two mothers before age 17, I felt the pain and lost but forgot the good stuff. This has helped me to remember.

Thanks Lisa for these prompts!

I'll be breaking this into a couple of post because I have some other treasures. And I'm sorry to say they are all returning to the safe.

Fearless Females: Grandma Corish

To help celebrate Women's History Month Lisa at The Accidental Genealogist has posted Fearless Females 31 Prompts to Celebrate Women's History Month.

Today I'm going to post a picture of the only grandmother I know. I think I only visited her 2 or 3 times in my early years. She was my Mom's mother, remember my Mom was my second mom, I don't really think of her as a step-mother.

Grandma Mildred lived in Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. As a kid I like her house, it was like an adventure. She had an ice box and the ice man came twice a week. One small bathroom downstairs and none upstairs. We sleep in one big room upstairs on mattresses on the floor and had to use a chamber pot during the night. She had a piano and I was the only kid who could play it because I didn't pound on it like my brothers. It was the first time I had swordfish to eat and I liked it.

The thing I remember the most about her is she made these wonderful picture books for us kids for Christmas a couple of years in a row. She used those marble notebooks and she cut colored pictures out of magazine and glued them to the pages. OK you say what is so great about that. She was legally blind. I can remember spending hours looking at the pictures. They meant a lot to me as a 10 & 11 year old kid. To me they were something wonderful my grandmother made for me.



She had also made my mom two hand appliqued quilts with 30's or 40's fabrics on them. One had butterflies on a muslin background. The other one was similar but a different applique pattern but I can't remember what. The last time I saw them was when I was 11 in New York before we moved to Florida. My Mom gave them away.

The picture of Mildred above was taken in Aug of 1958. That was the last time my Mom saw her parents, after we moved to Florida there was no way for her to return and see her parents. That had to be hard on my Mom. My grandparents had other children who lived on Nantucket. My Mom was the youngest.

The apron is one my grandmother made, the butterflies are the same as the quilt. The apron was machine stitched by the butterflies were hand appliqued. The second from the right one still has the basting stitches in it.

Wordless Wednesday

OK I couldn't resist posting this picture today. Here is my Dad as a baby in 1913 with his parents. George Joseph Hartmann Sr. & Mary Jirak Hartmann. Isn't that hat great!

Fearless Females: Share a Name

This is my Paternal Grandmother Mary Jirak Hartmann, I just love the expression on her face in this photo. Doesn't it make you wonder what she is thinking?
To help celebrate Women's History Month Lisa at The Accidental Genealogist has posted Fearless Females 31 Prompts to Celebrate Women's History Month. I can't do all of the them, but I will do those I can. Today's prompt was: Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? I do share a first name of my grandmother Mary Hartmann my Dad's mother. I also share the same middle name as my Mother's mother, Minnie Elizabeth Chaplin. So I was named after both my grandmothers. My Aunt Bea, my Mother's sister told me they picked Elizabeth because my grandmother didn't like Minnie. So when ever I think of my maternal grandmother I think of her as Minnie Elizabeth. I never meet either of my grandmothers they were gone before I came along or shortly after. My parents always told me to respect my grandmothers and their names by being a good person. Not bad advice.


This picture is of my Mother Edith and my grandmother Minnie Elizabeth at Edith's 8th grade graduation. Minnie Elizabeth had been a widow for a few years by this photo. Her husband died when Edith was 9.

I should sign this post Mary Elizabeth.