Friday, March 18, 2011

My Nominees for One Lovely Blog

I am so glad it is Friday and my work week is over.  I will be spending time this weekend rearranging my sewing room. 

Quilting Blogs:
Lorene from A Little Bit of Lorene
Kim from Bitty Bits and Pieces
Nancy from Bountiful Heirlooms
Barbara from The Pointless Quilter
Connie fro Quilting by the River
Mickie from Irish Muses
Bonnie from That's Life

Genealogy Blogs:
Marian from Climbing the Family Tree
TennLady from Gene Notes
Joanne from Keeper of the Records
Nancy from My Ancestors and Me
Becky from Grace & Glory
Paula from The Scrappin Genealogist
Alana from A Twig in my Tree

These are not all of my favorite lovely blogs just some of them.  Many of my favorites already have the award.  Enjoy your visits to these blogs, I know I do.  Thanks again to Yvonne for nominating my blog. 

 

Thursday, March 17, 2011

My Lovely Blogs Picks

Well I am a little confused but that is nothing new, it has been know to happen often.  One place it said to pick 15 blogs to give the award to and another place it said to give it to 7 blogs.  So since I had planned to sharing with quilting and genealogy blogs, I have seven of each. 
I was going to send them all notices tonight and write my post about it, but it is late and I need to go to bed tomorrow is a busy day at work, so the announcement will have to wait until tomorrow.  AT least I have my blogs all picked out.  Some of my favorites have been tagged already by some one else.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Fearless Females: Six Word Tribute

Lisa Alzo from The Accidental Genealogist  is repeating her series for Women's History Month.

March 15 — Write a six-word memoir tribute to one of your female ancestors.
  

This is to my Maternal Grandmother Mary Ann Holmes Chaplin


Mary Ann you look so grandmotherly.

I wish I had your stories.

Ten kids, family, widow, sadness, how?
(She buried a husband and three kids before she died.)

Mary Ann Holmes Chaplin in 1948 or 1949 Gorleston Sea, Yarmouth, Norfolk, England

I could not dicide which one I liked better, so here are three. 

Last year I did several of these post and I would like to share the links to those posts here.  Just click on the links to read them.

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?  This post is about my mother and my second mother who both died too young.


March 12 — Working girl: Did your mother or grandmother work outside the home? What did she do? Describe her occupation.

One Lovely Blog Award

Thank You Yvonne from The Mashburn Collection for awarding me with the "One Lovely Blog" Award for my blog . The award was originally created by Sara of the Works of Art by Sara.

The rules for this award are:



•Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who granted the award and their blog link.


•Pass the award on to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered.


•Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.




I will have to wait until I come home form work to find 15 blogs that are doing a lovely job.  I know of many but I want to find some new ones.  I also want to share this with genealogy blogs and quilting blogs.  See you later.


 

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Fearless Females: Document with a Narrative

Lisa Alzo is repeating her series for Women's History Month.


March 9 — Take a family document (baptismal certificate, passenger list, naturalization petition, etc.) and write a brief narrative using the information.



This is the marriage certificate of my Maternal Grandmother Minnie Elizabeth to William Thomas Chaplin. I don't know much about her as a person or her married life.  I think the picture below says it all.


Here are my grandparents on a roof in Brooklyn, Kings, New York.  I really like this picture, they look very comfortable together and in love.  She looks more relaxed her than in other pictures.
That is not a pipe in my grandfather's mouth it is a pen mark.


Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Fearless Females: Letters

Lisa Alzo http://www.theaccidentalgenealogist.com/ is repeating her series for Women's History Month.


March 8 — Did one of your female ancestors leave a diary, journal, or collection of letters? Share an entry or excerpt.



Page one my Mother's sister answered.
I have no journals or diaries, oh how I wish I did.  I do have a couple of letters.  I think I have one from each of my favorite aunts where I asked them questions about family history. 

You can double click to see the pages larger and better.

There were 5 pages of pictures I sent them, and they wrote something on every picture.





Same page my Dad's sister answered.
But what I am so glad I have is something I sent to them.  I copied all the family photos I had and asked each aunt who was who in each picture.  They each wrote back with the information they had on each picture.  Since each aunt was from each side of my family, one was my Mother's sister and one my Dad's sister.  The results were very clearly the Hartmann side or the Chaplin side.  
 

 

Fearless Females: Favorite Recipe

Lisa Alzo is repeating her series for Women's History Month.


March 7 — Share a favorite recipe from your mother or grandmother’s kitchen. Why is this dish your favorite? If you don’t have one that’s been passed down, describe a favorite holiday or other meal you shared with your family.
 
This was my Mom's Annette's favorite cake recipe and she made it for our birthday's each year.  Since my birthday was in February I had whip cream and bananas on mine by brother in the summer has strawberries and whip cream.  Her Mom made it for her also. I haven't had it in years but I might have to make it one of these days. 




Hot Milk Cake

1 Cup of milk
1/4 lb of butter
4 eggs
2 Cups of sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 Cups of floor
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Put milk & butter in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Beat eggs with sugar & vanilla until light & creamy. Slowly add flour that has been sifted 3 times with salt and baking powder. Beat in hot milk & butter. Pour into a greased & floured tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour & 10 minutes.


Fearless Females: Heirlooms

Lisa Alzo is repeating her series for Women's History Month.


March 6 — 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.).

See my original post from last year. 

Fearless Females: Sharing Good Names

Lisa Alzo from http://www.theaccidentalgenealogist.com/ is repeating her series for Women's History Month.

March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree. (A little Late)

See my post from last year were I explain how I was named after my grandmothers.

I also share the name Mary with my Maternal Great Grandmother Mary Ann Holmes Chaplin.  Such a grand old name.  My second Great Grandmother was an Elizabeth.  My third Great grandmother was a Maria, not the same but close to Mary.  And there are two more Mary's the next generation back. 


Radio & Television: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

Hosted by Geneabloggers: http://www.geneabloggers.com/
Created by Amy Coffin http://wetree.blogspot.com/

Week 6: Radio & Television. What was your favorite radio or television show from your childhood? What was the program about and who was in it?



The only time I listened to the radio was when I was sick, I listened to soap operas. I cannot remember the name of the soap. I was more interested in the sound effects than the story. I never followed them on TV either. This was while I was in New York. Just before moving to Florida I learned about Rock and Roll and then only listened to the top twenty on the radio.

Early TV shows I enjoyed were the Long Ranger, Captain Kangaroo, The Micky Mouse Club and Lassie.  Later it was Dick Clark and the American Bandstand.  Walt Disney on Sunday nights.

I can remember begging my parents to let me stay up late to watch Ed Sullivan to see Elvis Presley the first time he was on, September 9, 1956, and they let me. Of course he was the last act and that was very late for me to stay up.  My parents were firm believers in early to bed for the kids.  Anyway, I watched him and I was very disappointed and I thought I stayed up late to watch this.  I never was a big Elvis fan, I like some of his stuff but not a lot.


Food 52 Weeks Personal Genealogy & History

Created by Amy Coffin
Hosted by Geneabloggers

Week 5: Favorite Food. What was your favorite food from childhood? If it was homemade, who made it? What was in this dish, and why was it your favorite? What is your favorite dish now?


This is the one prompt that stumped me. There are many foods I liked but favorite isn’t like jumping out at me. What I remember more is our routine some of our meals were and why I only remember these days is beyond me. Thursdays we had liver and onion or liver and bacon. Fridays we had Spaghetti with butter and garlic sauce or fish sticks but I don’t remember with what. The other was canned salmon with rice & peas but once you have had fresh salmon canned salmon is just plain nasty. Another was homemade Mac and Cheese, I really liked how my Dad made it. I liked all the meals we had. My Dad made great Split Pea soup with a Ham bone as well as Lentil Beans with a Ham bone. My Dad was the chief cook in our house; he was a very good cook and cooked better than my Mom. He was also the cook on his shift at the firehouse.

Not my Dad's Mac & Cheese

One of the strange things we did and I am not sure how we even started doing this. We liked coffee ice cream but if we didn’t have any we would take my Dad’s instant Santa coffee and add it to vanilla ice cream and cream the two together to make our own coffee ice cream. We also liked vanilla ice cream with a glob of peanut butter.


I still can’t stay I have a favorite dish, I just like food.  Especially chocolate & ice cream.



Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Fearless Females: Picture of a Female Ancestor

Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?

This photo was sent to me by my second cousin in England, who I meet last May through Ancestry.com.  Below is the body of her email.  She grew up around the same area but never knew that side of the family.  My comments below are in purple.

In the family picture Ida is the lady in the middle sitting on the ground. Walter (Uncle Victor) sitting on the chair on the left. The lady with specs and spotted dress, sitting is our great grandmother Mary Ann Holmes/Chaplin. Ida is Great Uncle Glynne wife.


The lady standing behind her is I think Lilian Rolfe/Ward and her husband is second from the right standing.

I had not yet been told about the Chaplins. I do remember seeing lots of their faces about in Gorleston.



Julian cannot help as he was not yet born. Is a second cousin once removed the first cousin I meet on Ancestry.com.


I did meet Uncle Victor in the Post Office but did not know who he was at the time. I have a picture of him with my mother in New York. He even dated my Aunt Em my Dad's sister but she said he was too old of her.


I met Uncle Glynne one day and was introduced by my father, but I cannot remember what he looked like.


All I know is this was taken in Gorleston, England.
It was one of the first pictures my cousin in England sent me.  We would love to know who everyone is in the photo.


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

New Document and a New Spelling

Last night just before going to bed I found a 1910 Census with my Grandmother listed as a daughter with her 3 siblings and her mother as head of the house. 



You will notice that the last name is spelled Jirek. I have always seen the spelling as Jirak. Her Mom's name is correct her, sibling names are correct. Her age and her borthers' ages are correct. I have a different age for the sister but my original source might not be reliable on that.

The other interesting facts are Mary's brother Joseph is married but no wife is listed for him and there is a boarder an infant a William Doherty age 1 & 2/12. Where is his mother?


My great grandmother has been a widow since 1902, so for 8 years. According to this census she spoke Bohemian.

My Grandmother worked in a Cigarette factory and her brothers were painters. 

Well I have learned more and need to find out more. 

One small step for me and my ancestors.

Fearless Females 2011: Favorite Female Ancestor

Lisa is repeating her Fearless Females 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month and I am planning to do a few, but hopefully different ones than last year.

March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check.

Last year I wrote about my Aunt Em, who is my favorite female that I know.  This year I am wondering more about my maternal great grandmother Mary Ann Holmes Chaplin.  I wrote my first entry about her here.   I had just seen her picture for the first time.  I think her first name is Mary but to me she is Mary Ann, I don't want to confuse her with the other Mary's in my family.

I would like to know what made her who she was.  How did she deal with the hard things in her life.  She buried a husband, 3 sons and a granddaughter before she died.  She had 10 kids.  She moved a lot from the census records I have looked at and her husband did a variety of jobs.  Was this the norm for the time she lived in or something that had to be done for work.  I wonder how she meet my great grandfather.  I wonder about her faith, her dreams and the kind of things she enjoyed.  The few pictures I have seen of her, I think she enjoyed family. 
She was still alive when I was born so she knew about me, I wonder what she thought when she heard of my birth.  And what she thought when she learned about the death of my mother.
I like her face!