Interesting Details

While writing the post about inviting my mother to dinner. I decided to add all her sources to my genealogy program. 

I was also transcribing each document. 

Except the marriage license which was hard to read. 

Let me tell you transcribing each document makes you read things closer and you learn things you didn't notice before. I have had these documents for a while, I mean like more than 30 years, from way back when I first started genealogy. 

I have many years of not working on genealogy. 

So I started with her Birth Certificate. 

It might take you a moment or two to noticed that the address where she was born is the same as her father's and mother's address. I never noticed that before, She was born at home. I sure it was a common practice back in 1916 but not common to my generation. Just something to look for. 

She did age by 10 years on each of the three census records she was found on. 1920 age 3, 1930 age 13, 1940 age 23. 

The 1940 US Census presented two interesting facts. 

I picked up that Edith's highest level of education was 3 years of high school. The other more interesting fact was Edith was listed as married but listed under her maiden name.

My first reaction was no she wasn't. She had married someone at age 18 but I thought she was annulled from him by this time. 

So I went back to the marriage license and found that the annulment wasn't final until 1944. 

This is from her marriage license to my Dad, George Joseph Hartmann in 1945.

So back to check on what info I had on the first marriage. 

Here is what I have. It looks like I have to add two more events to her individual information in my genealogy program. A marriage and an annulment. 

All I know about this marriage is he was a bit older than Edith and he wasn't an honest man. I guess with a reason for the divorce as fraud that supports the family lore of not being an honest man,

 I search for Einer and found a couple of census records for him, 

he was from Denmark and in 1940 he was 33 so he was 

about 10 years older than Edith.

Now, I know that she was married to him for almost 9 years. 

I don't know how long they were separated. 

I don't know when she meet my Dad. 

My Dad and Edith married a year after the annulment.

I do know my Dad said his parents didn't like Edith because she was divorced. All my Dad would say was, 

"All you need to know is I loved both of your mothers and I would have stayed married to them." 

If I asked him any questions about his parents or grandparents 

he would say, "They are dead, leave them alone, 

you don't need to know them."

The other thing I noticed is that 1940 is the year Edith's mother died. So it makes you wonder if Minnie was showing signs of her illness yet. Minnie died in Oct of 1940, the enumeration date was in April. They both died of breast cancer 9 years apart. 

Well, some of this information wasn't new but I can see it in a new light with some more details to make her story more interesting. I will continue to transcribe my documents because it helps to reveal hidden nuggets of information even though they are in plane sight.

Even though it is labor intensive it is worth it. 

 She is still the first person I want to meet when I get to the other side and believe me I am in no hurry to get there.

Week 4 Invite to Dinner

From Amy Johnson Crow's email. This week is "Invite to Dinner." Which ancestor would you most want to invite to dinner? Do you have a story of a memorable dinner with an ancestor? Is there a special recipe that's been handed down? 

I wonder if you could guess who I would invite to dinner? 

I have questions for all my Ancestors but the one I want to meet the most and first is my Mother, Edith Inez Chaplin. 

Here is one of my favorite pictures of my mother.

Edith's Individual Information from my Genealogy Program.

As you can see she had a very short life. She died at age 32. You don't even have to scroll to see all her life events in my program.

I have written other posts on her, this one probably has the most information on her and pictures of her at different ages of her life.

What would we talk about over dinner? Everything!! 

About her life, are the stories I heard true, like giving a guy the police station phone number if she didn't want to hear from him. First I would have to find out what kind of food she wants to eat and likes to eat. I have no idea and my Dad never told me. I might not have asked since he wasn't a real talker. 

And would not talk about the past. 

I would have to ask what Dad was like as a young man.

 I would also ask about what her family taught her and what she would have wanted to teach me. 

Was she glad she became a Catholic? Did she miss her old religion? How did her Mom react to that? What did her Mom think of my Dad? Just realized that her Mom died in 1940 and my parents didn't marry until 1945. And I don't know when they meet. 

Her Dad was already gone, he died when she was 9.

I am sure I would think of a ton more questions while we talked.

I learned a lot of things about my Mother while reviewing and transcribing her documents. I will save that for another post. 

Blogiversary 8

Yes today is my Blogiversary! 

Yes I have been working on this blog for 8 years. 

Some years have been productive and others not so much. 

I will continue to plug away at my blog, 

because it is a place to share my family stories.

Thanks to all those who stop by and check my blog out. 

The GeneaBloggers Tribe posted this cute greeting on Facebook.

Happy Searching!!

Longevity week 3

Longevity is defined as the length or duration of life. 

As a person who mother died a week before her first birthday and having lost my Mom who raised a week before my 17th birthday. I know all to well how fragile life can be. Both my Moms die of cancer. Which probably influenced my decision to work as an Oncology nurse for almost 30 years of my 47 year nursing career. 

Note to self: Write a blog post about my nursing career. 

As a young person I thought my Mother gave up too soon, didn't want to live or didn't love me. Kids get crazy ideas. As I watched my Mom die, I know she fought and did all she could to stay alive. As a nurse I learned that in-spite of our best efforts the disease is bigger than the will to live and the treatments available. 

That knowledge does not make the loss any easier. 

A couple of years ago there was flood of colorful pedigrees. A fellow genealogist J Paul Hawthorne came up with a clever idea to show the place of birth of your ancestors. He used an Excel spreadsheet. I had extended the idea to also do a couple of other colorful pedigrees. You can see my original post here.  One of them was the Cause of Death and Age At Death Pedigree. 

I updated my Pedigree, because after all I did add a couple of years to my age. 

The colors are significant also. The dull red is for cardiac disease and the pink is for breast cancer. As you can see my gene pool sucks. So far so good, I have been blessed with good health. My Dad had his first heart attack in his 40s. I was ten so it was when he was 46. I remember he went to the hospital and was there for a few days but that is all I remember. 

I can remember the frustration my Dad felt when my Mom in 1964 was given the same chemotherapy that my Mother had in 1948.  Mom had Colon Cancer and my Mother had Breast Cancer. They both received 5FU or Fluoruracil. I even gave this medication and it is still used in the treatment of Breast and Colon Cancers in combination with other chemotherapy agents.

Today while working on my Cause of Death and Age Pedigree I also paid more attention to the ages on my chart. Here is my little chart I made. There are 17 people on my chart and I have four full generations and two people from the 5 generation. 

The youngest goes to my Mother, Edith Inez Chaplin born in 1916 and died in 1949. The oldest goes to my Maternal Great Grandmother Mary Ann Holmes Chaplin born in 1865 and died in 1950. Interesting that the oldest and youngest are on the same side of the family. 

My Dad's side with all the heart disease I noticed my Dad out lived his Dad by 19 years. I hope to out live by Dad by 20 years. I would love to live long enough to see my two little girls into their 30s.  They are currently 14 and 12. 

Even those four who died in their 40s were way too young. My Grandfather William Thomas Chaplin died when my Mother Edith was 9. She was too young to not have a Dad. She was 24 when her mother my Maternal Grandmother Minnie Elizabeth died.

And let's face it even dying in your 50s and 60s is young.  

I have lived longer than 13 people in my direct line. The next ages to beat are 71, 72 and 85. My plan is to beat you 85. 

My aunts and uncles have better longevity then my direct line, and I hope I follow their pattern. 

The button above I wear on my birthday. I had a magnet but can't find it, that said.

Aged to Perfection and Polished like a fine Gem.

So no matter what age you are enjoy it.

Here is the link to Paul's blog post and 

he has a link to the Excel spreadsheet in that post. 

If you want to do one of your own.

Favorite Photo

This weeks prompt from Amy Johnson Crow: The prompt is "Favorite Photo." Tell the story of the people, place, and event in a favorite photo. Where did the photo come from? Who has the original now? How did you get a copy of it?

This is my favorite photo of my maternal grandparents. To me the pose is one of a very comfortable couple, who love and care for each other. That line that looks like a pipe is really a pen mark. The corner ripped when I took the picture out of one of those disgusting magnet photo albums. 

The picture is in my possession and was given to me by either my father or my Mother's sister Aunt Bea. 

This is the same William Thomas I introduced on Sunday. Who was the first immigrant on this line.

I don't remember what year it was but it was about 1980, I copied the few family photos I had of my ancestors and sent them to my two Aunts, Bea my mother's sister and Emma my Dad's sister. They told me about the pictures and who was who. 

Here is the copy of the page with this picture. The black is my writing the blue is my Aunt Bea's. 

Here is a transcription of what was written,

Who Are These People:

Transcription My additional information is in Italics

Couple on Roof

Who: Grandpa & Grandma Chaplin: William Thomas Chaplin b1884, wife Minnie Elizabeth Spahn b1885.

Where: Borough Park, Brooklyn on the roof of Apt. building we lived.

Year: circa 1919 or 1920

Occasion: Visit by co-worker of Grandpas’ who took the picture.

Anything Else: The building in the background is the Convent of the Precious Blood. Building and grounds ran for a whole block across the street from our house, Believe Uncle Bill gave your Mother a prayer book? From there when she married your Father. My Mother converted to Catholicism when she married my Dad.

Here is a street view of the apartments and the now called Monastery of the Precious Blood.

Bird's Eye View of the apartment and Monastery.

Google Map. 

My Mother died a week before my first birthday so there are very few photos of her. My Dad saved a few, but I have none of her holding me as a baby. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 6 months old. The only stories of know of her and her family were from her brother and sister. 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Start

Sounds a bit ambitious if you ask me. I have tried other challenges 52 Stories and Birthday remembrances and I failed at them all. Well maybe fail is a bit harsh, because something started and written is better than nothing started and nothing written. And the glory of a new day and a new year is the chance to try again.

So I am trying again. 

This challenge is hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. She provided the weekly challenge topic and I have the opportunity to write about the topic. How ever my little heart desires.

This week topic is start. Here are some of her suggestions from her email: Some ideas include starting with yourself or whoever the "home person" is on one of your family trees. Maybe you focus on the person who got you started in genealogy or the ancestor you wanted to find first. You could talk about a relative who started a business. 

Of course I can go anyway I want. Yesterday when I was thinking about this it almost became a non-start. I was thinking of all the thinks I don't know about writing up stories on my ancestors or how to come to a conclusion on my research. I became overwhelmed and was ready to give up before I even started. 

This morning I decided to look around other blogs that have participated in previous challenges. I was able to gleam some ideas and even a layout of information I liked. Armed with ideas I decided I can start. Keeping it going might be a bit of a challenge, since I have those two lovely, active, adopted daughters that keep me busy and need a lot of attention. And I am not as young as I once was. I will be 70 next month. I promise to do my best to keep up. And that is all anyone can do. 

So for my start I am going to introduce you to my ancestors who started the Hartmann (paternal) line and the Chaplin (maternal) line here in the United States.

Joseph Hartmann born in Germany and immigrated to New York City in 1868. He is my Great Grandfather.

Relationship Chart

William Thomas Chaplin born in England and immigrated to New York City in 1907. He is my Grandfather.

Relationship Chart

There you have an introduction. Well, you didn't expect me to spill their whole story in my first post now? Did you?

I have to save more details on them as it is time to write up their stories. Something to look forward to. 

Good Luck to all you participate in this challenge.

The Second 30 X 30

I was so excited after I finished my first round of 

30 Minutes X 30 Days I did a second round.

I started the next day after I finished the first round on November 16th. I finished on  December 20th, just in time for a break at Christmas. I did have 5 Oops I Missed a Day. 

When I missed a day I added on to the end. I didn't want to do less than 30 Days. 

I also accomplished some different tasks in this challenge.  I did some Transcription of some notes my daughter took when she interviewed her grandfather, my Father in Law. That was a challenge reading her handwriting. Basically it is just bullet points and now I have to fill in the story and more details but I will have to have my husband's cousins and sister help me with since they are more familiar with the details.

Here is a picture of her notes. 

I also worked on fixing some problems in my genealogy software. Double checking on f the problem OK or if it was really a problem. So I had to double check records. I just didn't want to clear the list I wanted to make sure I had accurate information. I still have a lot of pages on the problem list to fix. 

I did work on organizing folders on other lines. 

 I will be doing it again, I am just going to take a little break and send some times sorting through too many years of pictures to count and get rid of duplicates and put them into decade sections. To begin scanning them. I will scrapbook some but not all. Always some thing to do. 

My Father-in-Law on his wedding day in 1947, William Francis Bowden Jr, and Martha Putz.