me and my ancestors

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy

2012-02-02T05:00:00.005-07:00

Challenge 3: Assess yourself! You’re great at researching everyone else’s history, but how much of your own have you recorded? Do an assessment of your personal records and timeline events to ensure your own life is as well-documented as that of your ancestors. If you have a genealogy blog, write about the status of your own research and steps you may take to fill gaps and document your own life.

So I pulled out my timeline I made in 2008 and checked it out. I updated it with a few events that took place over the last couple of years.

For each event I wrote down and asked myself do I have the documentation and where it is stored. Like my birth certificate & diplomas are in the safe, other documents are in the file cabinet and others with my genealogy binder. So some I need to move to the same place, except for that birth certificate, that stays in the safe.

The interesting things I noticed was that my birth certificate is not suitable for genealogy, it doesn't list my parents on it, just my name, place & date of birth. It is official with the state seal on it. It seems I need to request another one. My Dad purchased this certificate in 1961 so I would have a copy.

Floor Plan of my first home and
announcement of my new address

This is a copy of the floor plan of my first home I purchased in 1989. I made many copies of this and wrote a note to all my friends and family announcing my new address. This is a scan of my original copy. It says:

August 30, 1989

Dear Friends & Family,
Just a special announcement, to let you know my new address~

2455 E. Broadway Rd # 66

Mesa, AZ 85204

phone # ( not listing it here as it is current)

And since I am now also an official home owner I guess that means you can write my address in ink in your books. But than again who knows with me.
Take Care & Be Happy
Love Mary

I did move again in 1993 after Richard & I had been married a year, 950 square feet isn't big enough for a family of 5, but we are still in the same home.

This was a beneficial exercise in updating your own documentation. Thanks to Amy at We Tree for thinking up these ideas and Thomas at Geneabloggers for running this great series.

Wordless Wednesday

2012-02-01T05:00:00.002-07:00

Elsie Louise Chaplin

My great aunt one of the pictures of cousin sent me.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Richard & Me

2012-01-31T20:07:00.001-07:00

Richard and I meet on Saturday July 20th of 1991 at a church dance. I knew right off the bat he was younger than myself. We danced and talked and he even laughed at a story I told. I thought well at least he has a sense of humor and I will have someone to speak with at the dances. He walked me out to my car and said good night and that was that. Most of the guys I meet told me I wasn’t there type, I was too strong, too intelligent, too independent, too intimidating and too everything else. So it was nice to have a down to earth guy to speak with.

A month later, August 17th, I went back to the same dance. I saw him standing by himself so I went over to say hi. He said, “I have looked for you at every Friday & Saturday night dance and every Sunday night Fireside.” Well I wasn’t accustomed to guys looking for me most of them went the other way when I came by. So I stood there in shock and thought to myself OK, just let it in Mary. So we danced some more and talked.

He invited me out to eat after the dance; and we planned to meet at Denny’s on Southern and Country Club. I arrived first and I was waiting, about 15 minutes went by and no Richard yet. I thought if he isn’t he in 5 more minutes I will leave. He made it before his time was up. He ran out of gas across the street from a gas station. He had to push his car to fill up the tank. I had met my share of strange guys and I decided I was going to lay it all out. I told him over breakfast that, “There wasn’t a man who walks on the face of the earth worth taking crap from.” I can’t remember if I said it or just thought, “And I define crap.” That did not scare him off. He made sure he had my last name and phone number this time. He was upset with himself for not asking for it when we meet in July.
He called on Wednesday evening while on break from his classes. After the first couple of weeks we were dating every Friday & Saturday night after that. He was working, managing apartments and going to school to be an airplane mechanic. So we didn’t see each other every day, which I think was a good thing and allowed us some down time.

I didn’t meet the kids until October though he wanted me to meet them sooner. They were cute and liked me right off the bat. Of course that changed a little after we had been married for awhile and they came to live with us.

Our Engagement Picture

He proposed in January after we had attended a relationship workshop, Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. We both learned a lot about relationships and the differences between men and women. After the workshop he had taken me home and said he had to go run an errand and he would be right back. He came back with fresh flowers and red I love you balloon. He got all serious, nervous and asked me to marry him.

Since we knew it was the right thing to do we set the date for March 13th a Friday. He wanted the 17th so he could remember the date of our first date but that was a Tuesday and I didn’t want to get married on a Tuesday.

He tells people the Lord put me right in his lap. I had sat down by someone I knew and Richard was on the other side of me, so when I finished speaking to my friend, I turned to Richard and said, "Hi, what's your name?" It was his first singles dance and I was only going once a month because there were boring and painful. I tell him I had to moved to Arizona for him to find me.

It was twenty years ago in January that he proposed and I am glad he did and I am glad I said yes!

My Ancestors Sailed on Some Interesting Ships

2012-01-27T05:00:00.021-07:00

My grandfather William T. Chaplin sailed to America on this ship in 1906

Picture from http://www.searlecanada.org/volturno/volturno56.html

This is the ship my Grandfather sail on, according to the passenger list, his brother Bertram paid his fare, he was 23 years and had $10 in his wallet. He was listed as a steerage passengers. This links gives a lot of good drawings and pictures of steerage.

Here is some history on the ship.

R.M.S. Carmania (I)

Like many of Cunard's liners, Carmania was built by John Brown & Co., of Glasgow. She was launched on 21 February, 1905 and made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 2 December of the same year.

In October 1913, Carmania distinguished herself by being one of nine ships to rescue a total of 521 (out of 654) people onboard the burning Canadian Northern ship Volturno.

In August 1914, Carmania was requisitioned as an armed merchant cruiser; in that capacity, she sank Hamburg Sud Amerika's Cap Trafalgar (disguised as Carmania herself) off Trinidad in September 1914. Carmania was returned to Cunard's Liverpool-New York service on November 1916 and remained on that route until 1923, except for a few months' service out of Southampton in 1921-22.

After a 1923 refitting that included conversion to oil, Carmania remained in Cunard's service until 1931, used at various times on the Liverpool-Canada, Liverpool-New York and London-New York routes, as well as for winter cruising between New York and Havana. Her final sailing was from London to New York in July 1931. She was then laid up off Sheerness and went to the shipbreakers in 1932.

http://www.searlecanada.org/volturno/volturno56.html This site give more history on the ship.

My great uncles sailed on the Lusitania, here is an earlier post I wrote about them. It is really interesting to read about these old ships.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Books

2012-01-26T05:00:00.006-07:00

Books. What was your favorite book, or who was your favorite author from your childhood? What do you like to read now? Books or other formats?

Books seem like they have always been in my life. As much as I struggled with school work I did enjoy reading. The first book that I remember being my very own book was a book given to me my Aunt Bea. I felt like it was a big girl book. I was only ten or eleven when she gave it to me.

This is the cover on my first big girl book

She was working as a Librarian. On the cover was a gold seal for the Newbery Medal it had received. The book was TheWitch of Blackbird Pond. If I remember right it also had a plastic cover on it like library books have to protect the jacket. It is probably why I enjoy historical novels now.

I became more involved in reading after I moved to Florida. It was too hot and humid to play outside in the summer and I would stay inside and read. My Mom would get upset with me for spending so much time reading she would yell at me, “Go outside and get the cob webs dusted off”. I read a lot of classic novels like Jane Eyre and books by Charles Dickens.

I still enjoy reading but I seldom send hours reading like when I was a pre-teen and teen. I have too many other fun things to do like quilting, genealogy and blogging. Now I read things like Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice, The Millennial Glory Series by Wendie L Edwards and Genealogy books. I also like audio books and listen to them when I am driving or sewing. I usually listen to Science Fiction, or mysteries as well as the classical books.

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-25T05:00:00.013-07:00

William T Chaplin

This is a picture my cousin recently sent me of our grandfather. I like it! Year taken unknown. Place Brooklyn, New York.

Happy Blogiversary to Me

2012-01-24T07:36:00.001-07:00

Today my blog is two years old. I had remembered last week but after being so busy with the Expo over the weekend and trying out some of the new things I learned I almost forgot what today was. Thanks to Thomas MacEntee's Facebook announcement I had a friendly reminder. That is what happens when you don't check your editorial calendar.

I started after the Family History Expo in January of 2010 after being encouraged by Thomas and Lisa Louise Cooke to start a blog. I am so glad I lisitened. It started off very humble but with enthusiasm. I didn't really think I would have a lot of topics to post about but I decided nothing ventured nothing gained. First Blog post here.

Because of other blogs and becoming a follower of other blogs I have found topics to use as ways to record my memories and to help me share my family stories. I have meet other people some near and some far. I have made friends. Most importantly I have grown and I have started writing the stories of my life to share with my family. As my tag line suggests:

It started as a place to share family stories

but it has turned into something bigger.

I haven't found any long lost cousins, Hartmann, Spahn, Jirak, so if you are out there please look for me. My Chaplin cousins have enjoyed what I have shared and that is fun and I am very glad for that and my relationship with them.

Thanks to all my followers and all your encouragement!

You helped me along the way!

Arizona Family History Expo Report on Saturday

2012-01-23T05:00:00.015-07:00

On Saturday I attended four classes and again I learned a lot. Well that is the purpose of attending these expos!

So here is something I learned for myself. I had looked at each handout for every class. Yes it took a lot of time but it was worth it. First I found a class that turned out to be very worth while that I might not had attended because of the title but I saw something in the handout that said to me go attend this class. The other thing was because I looked at the handouts, I didn't attend a class I had attended last year and it was the exact same handout from last year and on an out dated version of the software. In both cases that was a win - win for me. I gain something of value and I missed something I didn't need. It might not always be so clear cut as this was but to me it is worth it to take the time up front to find the best classes for me.

So the first class at 10 AM, (thanks Holly for starting a little later). was Ruth Ellen Maness, the one presenter I went to twice. The topic was Searching Scandinavian Church Records and Interpreting Feast Days: Analysis and Evidence. OK I don't have any Scandinavian ancestors so why would I go to this class? Well my ancestors from Germany are probably in church records and I would need to know Feast Day, plus in her handout she mentioned that "the Lutheran Church was the official record keeping body....". And what church was in Germany, yup the Lutheran church. So I went and I am very glad I did. Learned a lot about how births and other life events were recorded. Dates weren't used but Feast Days were used. Now I had some knowledge of this since I was raised Catholic. But Ruth really went into a more lot of depth.

As an interesting side note I mentioned this to one of my friends at church today and her father was a pastor, I forget what domination but she said her father recorded events by the feast days also in the records he kept.

So Easter is a Feast day and if you were born the day after Easter it would be written 2nd Easter day instead of the day and month like we think of it now. So you would have to have your thinking caps on to figure out the date, especially since Easter is one of those movable feast days.

If you ever have the opportunity to hear her speak, I would highly recommend her class.

The second class for the day was Top 10 Data issues in the New Family Search & how to Avoid Them, by Amanda Terry & Samantha Sulser both staff from Family Search. This was very specific for LDS researchers and I learned a few pointers. I am luck as I am a convert to the church and as far as I know the only person submitting names for Temple work. So I have no competition in adding info to records. I do have some clean up work to do.

You sNEWS you Lose: Using Newspapers in Research by Bret Petersen. Fun title and a lively presenter, a good thing to have after lunch. He had good examples and fun stories with some good tips on researching newspapers. I jotted down three topics I can try and look up in the newspaper myself for my own family. So not only did I learn things I thought of things I can do for my own research.

My last class was Organization and Presentation is Everything, Phillipp Mayer was the presenter. Who doesn't need tips on being better organized and having a better way to present the material you have. This was his first Arizona Expo he has been to, since I have been to all four of them, I kind of know who has been here before and who is new. So it is good to see a new face with new ideas. I liked his idea of giving every one a unique ID number, different then a RIN. The problem with RINs are they are developed by when you enter the name in your program. His numbers also include 5 letters from the last name. So for example if I started with my Dad he would be Hartm - 0100, his Dad would be Hartm - 0099, his son would be Hartm - 0102, since I was the first child I would be Hartm - 0101. But I pick the three men because they are all Georges. So the ancestors numbers go down and descendants could go up, so you would always know which direction you are going on the family tree. And you would have an idea of which George you are speaking about. The unique number is always used with the person. There is also a pointer number you use on the charts to find the next part of the tree.

His charts were very attractive that he had with pictures and sections of the tree (pedigree chart) that was for that part of the family. I will need to do more studying on his technique, It speakers to my over organized self that I keep locked in side of me. His technique extends to computer files and paper files.

That was the last class and I skipped the closing exercises because my living family wanted to take the light rail or the Metro into Phoenix to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory. So I went home to be with part of my family, who I love. I love the other part also they just weren't fortunate enough to be with Richard & I.

A New Fun Toy

2012-01-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

How is this toy related to Genealogy...Well a picture is worth a thousand words.

Randy made the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge. Jenny made her sample, which I immediately imitated when I saw it today.

I just throw in some pictures, some of them aren't even fixed on photo shop. I just wanted to try it and do it fast. I like it. It is a free down load from Shape Collage and it is easy peasy. I will play with this again.

Arizona Family History Expo Report on Friday

2012-01-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

On Friday I attended the Opening Exercises with the Keynote speaker and 5 classes all of them good and I learned something from all of them. Or so I thought at the time, let's see if I can remember what that was I learned.

Arlene H. Eakle started us off with enthusiasm and passion for doing good research. She talked about using every kind of documents even those we don't think apply. She told a wonderful story of how she found out more about an ancestor by looking at military records when she was sure he would never be in the military. Guess what he had been.

How the Genealogist Can remember Everything with Evernote! by Lisa Louise Cooke was next. Now I have been using Evernote and wanted to learn more and to learn how to use it better. She pointed me in the right direction to use more tools than I knew about such as the clipping tool, using the search function within Evernote. I learned I need to increase my use of tagging.

How to Plan & Organize a Family History Book with Nancy & Biff Barnes. It is nice to know I am on the right track as far as adding stories to the lives of my ancestors. No I don't want a formal book but I want my scrapbook of My Family History to be interesting and also contain good information that my audience will want to know. So the two big things I can away with was find out the top 10 things my audience wants to know and write about that. Second dramatize the story, add your thoughts and feelings to the story to make it more interesting.

Colleen McHugh did a dinner presentation which I am sad to say I missed some of it, because I was busy getting my dinner. Her topic was designed for beginners but was given with a clever title. What Do Skeletons & Family History Have in Common. I am not sure now of the correct wording she had the answer but my take on it was: Skeletons need tissue to be held together and Family history needs facts and stories to be held together. She did a good review of the steps to get started with a good remind to do those citations.

The next presenter was so good I went to two of her classes. Ruth Ellen Maness. Friday's class was Much More than Passenger Lists! Putting your Ancestors Back in the Homeland. I learned about records that were made in the old country that I never knew existed. Records at the church taking the person off of the church roles in Germany and would be used to add them to the roles in America. The American record f found would take you back to his/her home church. What a find that would be. Your ancestor also has to speak to a civil official on the local area he/she was leaving as well as at the port he/she was leaving from. I have more reading to do as she had a 9 page handout.

The last class for the day was a panel discussion of Social Media - How New Technologies Increase Success. Holly had invited me to join the panel earlier in the day but I can in late, because I went to the wrong classroom so I didn't bust in as they had already started. Thanks for the invite Holly. I have to admit I haven't meet any lost cousins with my blog, but it has helped keep me in touch with the cousins I know. The panel spoke about Blogs, Facebook, Google + and Twitter. I had everything but Twitter and my Google + is very neglected. One of the presenters brought up a good tib bit that Google + can be geared more to the circles and reading only what you want such as Genealogy. So I came home and Friday night I beefed up the people in my Genealogy circles on Google + and opened a Twitter account.

So that is the account of my first say at the Arizona Family History Expo. I did remember the things I learned, now to use them.

Arizona Family History Expo #2

2012-01-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

Well I had a good time yesterday, learned lot and saw lots of my genie friends. I didn't have the energy to post last night and I don't have the time now. So you will have to wait to hear about the classes I attended. My head is spinning. Tonight it will be exploding!

Arizona Family History Expo

2012-01-20T08:02:00.001-07:00

Starts today at 1 PM. I am looking forward to going and see my friends. I have half my classes picked out but I still have a little time to think about which classes I will attend.

If I have more than one class I want to attend at the same time I print the class outline for each class off and decide just before class which one I want to attend. I have several hours like that. I have to decide between speakers I like, topics I want to learn about and topics I like.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!!!

I try to have a theme of focus but I usually lose that. I am all over the place today. It doesn't matter I will learn something and I will be excited again. So it is all worth it!

So far I like a class by Lisa Louise Cooke, Ruth Ellen Manness & Phillip Mayer, Collen McHugh, and Geoff Rasmussen.
I hope to see you there!

Happy Birthday Aunt Em

2012-01-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Aunt Em

Aunt Em

This is my Aunt Em, one of my favorite aunts. She took me to plays, the zoo, and many other fun attactives when I was a kid. We stayed closed all my life. She would have been 93 today but she has gone Home. She is missed and boy do I have questions to ask her now. She did tell me a lot of family stories but I have more questions now. Hey Aunt Em, give my Dad a hug for me.

Here are two previous posts I wrote. Post

Contact your Elected Officials

2012-01-18T07:35:00.003-07:00

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Water

2012-01-16T05:00:00.032-07:00

Water Week 29: Water. Do you have any memories of the sea or another body of water? Did you live there or just visit? What did you do there? You can also describe a body of water by which you live or visit in the present day.

Mary & Mom 1949

Do I have memories of water! Until I moved to Arizona I called myself a water baby! I still am but somehow living in the middle of the desert makes me forget. I keep waiting for California to fall in the ocean so it would be closer to me. (Just Kidding)

My earliest memories of the beach were going to Jones Beach in Long Island. I loved going to the beach it was really a special occasion for us as a family. I like playing in the waves on the ocean side but I like swimming in the bay side which was has calmer water. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones_Beach_State_Park
http://nysparks.com/parks/10/details.aspx

Here is a quote from their web site. “Jones Beach State Park is a world-class swimming destination. The park offers surf bathing along its 6.5 miles of ocean beach, one-half mile of bay beach for still water bathing, and two swimming pools.” It seemed to take us forever to get there but any travel in a car takes a long time for a kid. I just Google the map and direction and the drive time is 40 minutes for a 29 mile drive. Not really that long.

Mary in Nantucket 1958

Another fond memory of the beach was in Nantucket Island when we went to visit our Grandparents. Here is a picture of my friend Miriam Hull when I was ten. We were pen pals for a lot of years; I think she also went to nursing school. I thought it was wonderful to live only two blocks from the beach.

Mom and my brothers Don & George 1959 Fort Lauderdale

The best time of all was when we moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and my Dad for awhile was off work at 3 PM so every afternoon we all piled into the car and drove to the beach. I think the second summer we were in Fort Lauderdale my Dad signed us up for a membership at the Beach Club. It was a hotel on the beach with a pool and cabanas. We had that membership until I was junior in high school. I am sure it was a way for the hotel to do some business during the summer months when all the snow birds were gone. I am sure they don’t need to do it anymore. I am not even sure it is still there.

Anyway I learned to dive off the high dive at the Beach Club. I remember the first year I wasn’t a very strong swimmer yet. I had decided to swim to the shallow end to the deep end but not the diving end. I ran out of strength when I got to the six foot end. My Dad noticed I was in trouble and he ran all the way from the cabana to the pool to help me get out. Makes me wonder were the life guard was and why he didn’t notice. I am pretty sure they had them.

My love affair with the beach continued into my teens and young adult years. During spring break one of my friends and I would drive down 1A or Atlantic Blvd and look at all the crazy college kids. I think lucky for us we couldn't find a parking spot.

When I worked in Miami as a visiting nurse I loved it when I had patients in South Beach as I could drive down Ocean Drive, park and take a short break to look at the ocean. On weekends I would ride my bike to Key Biscayne Park and go to the beach there. Fond memories.

Of course my love of the ocean lead me to learn how to scuba dived. I did most of mu diving off the Florida Keys and you can read about that in these posts listed below. http://meandmyancestors.blogspot.com/search/label/Scuba%20Diving
http://meandmyancestors.blogspot.com/2011/06/52-weeks-of-personal-genealogy-history_7128.html

I have seen the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and Sea of Cortez also known as the Gulf of California. I love them all. I miss the water and my husband is not a beach fan so I don't see it a lot any more.

What's Coming Down the Pike?

2012-01-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

Tonia over at Tonia’s Roots post a series last year of 31 weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog, I wanted to join in last year but work was crazy and time didn’t permit. Things have settled down and so I am giving it a go now. Here is my second week’s entry. This week’s challenge was to write a List Post, she explains the purpose of that here.http://www.toniasroots.net/2011/07/10/31wbgb-make-list-posts-work-for-your-genealogy-blog/

I actually did a list post yesterday, when I listed the things I learned during my public library trip. Of course I had been thinking about the topic during the week and it just seemed like a logical place to try it out. The topic I have plan for my official activity is to preview some of the post I have planned on my Editorial Calendar for January.

I am still working on last years series of 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History, I have a total of 9 more post I want to do from that series, I have 5 more planed for January.

Books
~~My Wedding~~ save for March for my 20th Anniversary
Secrets
Dad in the Newspaper
Punishments
Childhood smells

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy Local Library

2012-01-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

Week 2: Go to your local public library branch again. Examine the local history, archives and/or special collections section. Ask a librarian if you don’t know if your library has special collections or where they are located. Be sure to check the reference section, too, as many of the newer and more valuable books are held in that area. If you have a genealogy blog, write about what you find in your library’s local history and special collections.

Thursday evening I returned to the Mesa Public Library and spoke with the reference librarian. She answered the questions I asked but I wasn't able to draw her out and she didn't offer an other information. In her defence she was working on a project on the computer. I just offer this as an observation, I probably needed to think of more questions but I didn't have any at the ready.

So what did I learn.

There is a good size section of Arizona history and that the numbers for the reference section match the numbers in the history section.
Mesa does have a special collection but it is only available on Tuesdays from 10 to 12 and Wednesdays 10 to 12 and 3 to 5. There are no evening hours because the collection is in the basement and they can only afford one librarian to work there and it is "too creepy" for only one person to work there. So until they can afford two people to work in the special collection, there are no evening hours. My thought was in these economical times, that is not going to happen.
There is no genealogy section because the Family History Center is 3 blocks away and they did not want to duplicate services.

I asked a question of how do certain books become reference and some not. The answer is the librarians decide.

The factors include:

cost of the book,
type of book,
used for a quick look up of information or studied
A series of books, such as World Books, or Encyclopedias.
Some books are duplicated and are in reference section and circulation.

I did check out two books that caught my eye, Trail of Hope, The Story of the Mormon Trail and The London Bridge in Pictures.

My catalog search came up with 291 books on Arizona History alone and 10 more pages of Arizona topics. Below is a screen shot of something I thought was very interesting.

Happy Birthday Kinsen

2012-01-12T05:00:00.012-07:00

Happy Birthday Kinsen!

Last year's Birthday Dinner

Kinsen is our son, see I do have living relatives! This is when we took him out to dinner for his Birthday last year. He looks so much like his Dad that our co-workers call him Mini Richard. He is a really nice young man. Polite, kind, thoughtful, can see when things that need to be done and does them without being asked. We enjoy his company. We wish him the best in all he does. Love you!

Happy Birthday Bill

2012-01-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Bill!

It is a busy week for Birthdays. This is my husband's father, Bill. He was a very kind, loving and generous man. He was a man of faith. He is missed by many but we all know he is watching over us from above.

This picture is from before I meet my husband. It does have his name on the back but not a date. Richard thinks it was taken in 1975 or 1976 when he was an officer at Mission Bank. It was taken while Richard was on his mission.

52 Weeks of Personal History Fame

2012-01-10T06:28:00.001-07:00

Week #20 – Fame: Tell us about any local brushes with fame. Were you ever in the newspaper? Why? You may also describe any press mentions of your family members.

I have been in the newspaper 4 times for myself and mentioned in an article about my Dad. I will do a separate post about my Dad's article.

East Valley Tribune

You can see the previous post I wrote about three other times I have been in the paper. The fourth time was in 2000 when I received an excellence in Oncology Nursing Award. This was a national award and I was chosen from many other worthy candidates. It was an honor to be nominated my the local chapter in Phoenix of the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS). I still have a copy of the questionnaire I filled out to receive the award. I was very surprised when I was notified that I would be the recipient. It is truly an honor as there are many wonderful oncology nurses out there. Even some of the other nurses I worked with would be worth of this award.

Arizona Republic

On a personal level it was a very healing time for me. As I wrote my acceptance speech and reviewed my feelings about being an Oncology nurse I was able to thank the Heavenly Father for the experience of loosing two mothers to cancer before the age of 17. Not a pleasant experience at all but definitely a character defining experiences. Just remembering that time brings tears to my eyes it was so meaningful to me.

Program cover

I have a picture of me speaking at the award lunch in front of 600 or so Oncology nurses someplace and of course because I want it I cannot find it. I will post it when I find it.

The Advocate

This article was in the Advocate a quarterly newsletter from US Oncology, which is networks of community-based oncology physicians. The practice I worked with was a member of this organization.

In case you are wondering I purchased a new bedroom set of furniture with the award money.

Happy Birthday Annette

2012-01-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

Funny how your brain works, I was think a lot about my Mom Annette yesterday. This is the Mom who rasied me after my Mother died. I was thinking it is her birthday week, and maybe I should post something about a person on their birthday on my blog. But since I thought I had already missed her Birthday I would wait until Sunday to do it, when life wasn't so busy.

So this morning I cranked up the old Genealogy software to check which day was offically her Birthday and it was the 7th, not the 6th. See I was thinking about her on the correct day.

Our Family 1951, Whitestone NY

Mom, Happy Belated Birthday, I haven't forgotten you and all you did for me.

Mom with all four kids 1960, Fort Lauderdale FL

Other posts about Mom are here, here & here.

31 Weeks to a Better Blog - Elevator Pitch

2012-01-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

Tonia over at Tonia’s Roots post a series last year of 31 weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog, I wanted to join in last year but work was crazy and time didn’t permit. Things have settled down and so I am giving it a go now. Here is my first week’s entry. This week’s challenge was to write an Elevator Pitch, she explains the purpose of that here.

This ismy pitch & tag line. I also added my tag line to my email signature andmade a new business card just in time to hand out at the Family History Expo inleast then two weeks.

Elevator Pitch:

I amlearning about Genealogy and one of the tools I am using is my blog, Me and MyAncestors. I write about my experiencesdoing research as well as the family stories I know of my ancestors. This way the stories are save and the peoplenot forgotten. Just for giggles I throwin a few of my own life stories. I originallystarted my blog so my children would have a place to fine the family storiesbut it has turned into something bigger. I have shared things I have learned, made new friends and learned fromothers.

Tag Line:

Itstarted as a place to share family stories but it has turned into something bigger.

I have been thinking about this all week and couldn't find the right words this morning the words just flowed. I like it!

52 Weeks Personal Genealogy & History Dinner Time

2012-01-06T19:17:00.000-07:00

Picture from pjvanoverschot.wordpress.com

We usually ate together as a family every night. Some nights my Dad would be missing becausehe was a New York City Fireman or a Bar Harbor Florida and worked 24 hours onand 48 hours off. We had a very setroutine to our dinners, we always ate by 5:30 for some days of the week we hada set menu. We had liver on Thursdays,with either bacon or grilled onions. Friday’s we had spaghetti with butter and garlic or fish sticks orsalmon with rice & peas. My Dad wasan excellent cook, so our meals were always tasty. My Dad had some strange favorite food itemsthat he would eat every once in awhile. Like a Cannibal sandwich and bone marrow (cooked) on rye bread. I had made myself bone marrow once when I wasin my 30’s and I was surprised how grease it was. I still liked the favor but it wasn’tsomething I was going to cook for myself. I sure loved it as a kid. TheCannibal sandwich was raw chopped steak, on rye bread with slices ofonion. I didn’t mind a bite or two orthe raw meat but I am not a big fan of large amounts of raw onion. I won’t recommend eating a Cannibal sandwichnow.

One of the things we did at dinner was word games. Since I am not the best speller in the worldyou can imagine how much I loved doing these games, NOT! Mom or Dad would give us a word family likethe “at” family and we had to take turns naming all the words that ended in at,bat, cat, etc.

Our dinner time was so set that when I became a teenagerI learned real fast to be home in time for dinner or my teenage brothers wouldeat all the food and I would have to eat a sandwich or something else. Nothing was saved for me.

Unfortunately after my Mom died dinner time was not ahappy experience. My Dad did the best hecould but when you bury two wives in 16 short years you aren’t the same personyou use to be. Alcohol became hiscompanion and these were hard years. Itis also the reason why I got a job as a senior in high school, I worked 3 to11:30 pm and left home at 18 as soon as I was an LPN and could work and supportmyself.

52 Weeks of Personal Genalogy & History High School

2012-01-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

High School: Describeyour middle and/or high school. Was it a large or small student body? Is theschool still in existence today? How has it changed since you went there?

I had theunique experience of going to a brand new school. The school was so new the day it opened theroofs were still not on the two buildings present on campus. I just noticed on the website that it iscelebrating 50 years. 1961 – 2011. Quote from the website: “CGHS opened itsdoors to 176 freshmen and sophomores on a sand-strewn campus with two partiallycompleted buildings.” I was a freshman,and the first graduating class to attend all four years at Cardinal Gibbons butthe second class to graduate. The areawas so underdeveloped that there was a rattlesnake on campus one day. Luckily no one was bitten and I think animalcontrol was called. Such are theadventures of attending a new school. New buildings were added while I attended.

The school was co-institutional when I attended. The boys were in one building and the girlsin another building. The girls weretaught by the nuns and the boys by priest except some of the priest taughtchemistry and physic to both the girls & boys. We could mingle during lunch and we calledthe area were me mingled, “Check Point Charlie”.

My path was college prep but the principle was veryconcerned that I would never graduate from high school. She called my parents in for a conference.She is the one who told me I was too stupid to be a nurse. So at my 10 year reunion I mentioned to her Iwas a semester away from having my BSN and had been a licensed RN for manyyears. She stood there in front of meand said, “I knew you could do it you just had to do it your way.” Well I who have never hit a person in my lifefelt my right arm and fist curl back for a swing. I was so furious, not anencouraging word the whole time I was in high school, but now that I had foughtand slaved to make it, it was like yeah I knew it all long. Lucky for both of us I just walkedaway. Now I think of it this experiencehas made me who I am today and so it was worthwhile.

Mary on campus 1965 a Senior

I didn’t like high school; I didn’t like the girl - boysstuff, the competition, and the clicks. The only years I felt like I was successful were the years they splitthe class by grades. So the excellingstudents were in one group and they who had to study very hard students were inthe other group. I became the top ofclass in my group, the ones who had to study hard and that felt good not tohave to compete with the brainiacs.

It was also a difficult time at home as during those fouryears of high school my Mom was fighting cancer and finally lost the battlewhen I was a senior. I wanted to go tothe public high school but my Mom was a firm believer that a Parochial schooleducation was better. I did get a very good education.

My high school is still there and now boasts 10 buildingson campus. I attended Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

http://www.cghsfl.org/

52 Week to Better Genealogy Public Library

2012-01-04T20:12:00.000-07:00

Two years ago Amy from We Tree did a 52 weeks to better Genealogy. I had just started my blog and had just started researching so I didn't feel I was ready to participate. But this year I am ready and I am doing the activities this year! Better late than never!

Go to your local public library branch. Make a note of thegenealogy books in the collection that may help you gain research knowledge.Don’t forget to check the shelves in both the non-fiction section and thereference section. If you do not already have a library card, take the time toget one. If you have a genealogy blog, write about what you find in yourlibrary’s genealogy collection.

So today after work I went to the Mesa Public Library about3 miles from my home and did a search. Ihad planned to search the catalogue before going but forgot to do it beforegoing to the library.
I started by doing a catalog search for the subjectGenealogy. There are 345 books with thesubject of genealogy. About the 3rd book down I checked for availability and itwas in another branch so I requested it: Planning your trip to the FamilyHistory Center. You never know when Iwill make a trip but it won't hurt to have ideas.

There were books on how to do, for Dummies and Idiots aswell as on line research. There wereyour traditional Genealogy books like The Source and Un-puzzling your Past.Books on how to: journal, write your life story and write your family history,knowing your medical and behavioral family history. That last topic sounds very interesting. How to use maps and even in house referencesmaterial on Using Civilian Records for Genealogical Research from the NationalArchives. I didn't look at all 345 booksbut I now know they have a good variety. There are also many novels that I will look into on another day.

I took down some Dewey numbers and went looking in the stacks. I found books on culture, DNA & genetics,Scrapbooking your family history, and the books listed above.

I even checked out three books.

Checked out books

Discovering Your German Ancestors, Scrapbooking your Family History & Going to Salt Lake City to do Family History Research. I must want to make that trip real bad to check out one and request another book on the same topic.

So my little trip was well worth the time and I am going to revisit my local library more often.

One small step for me and my ancestors!

Exciting News

2012-01-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

Well it is exciting for me any way!! I am going to be a Blogger of Honor at the Arizona Family History Expo in Mesa! Which is in just 16 more days! I better print off the schedule of speakers and try and decide what classes to take so I can report some good stuff!!

See you all there on January 20th & 21st.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Elementry School

2012-01-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

Describe your grammar/elementary school (or schools). Were they big or small? Are any of these schools still in existence today? If so, how have they changed since you went there?

I went to three different elementary schools. I went to PS 79 in Whitestone, Queens New York for Kindergarten and first grade. I walked to school I don’t remember how long my Mom or Dad walked with me until I learned the way but I do know I did walk myself to school for first grade.

St. Luke’s was also the church we went to while I was growing up. This was a little further from home and I was allowed to ride the school bus and I did for a short time but I liked walking better. I think even back then I like the time to myself. I usually walked by myself until I was about half way there and then I would pick up my best friend Laura Valle. When I was in the fifth and sixth grade I had a boyfriend John. He was a cute boy with freckles. He would walk me home and carry my book bag. He even climbed a fence to pick me an apple off of someone’s tree.

When I went to check out the school website, it is celebrating it’s 100^th Anniversary.

When I was a student there they had the old fashion desks with the ink wells. I don’t remember a lot about elementary school other than I hated doing homework and I would drag it out. How silly we are as kids, if I had done it quickly it would have been less painful. I also remember each year when the report cards came out at the end of the year I would be promoted on probation, meaning if I did well the first part of the new school year I could stay in the new grade. I always managed to do well the first part of the year.

The girl's uniform was a navy blue jumper, with a white blouse with a peter pan collar, and a blue clip on bow tie with tales.

Maps to schools from my home in Whitestone, NY

The third school I went to was St. Clements in Fort Lauderdale Florida. I did much better here and was promoted each year. If I remember right the reason why was that to be promoted you had to have 70 instead of 75 to be promoted.

All three schools are still in existence. PS 79 was the largest school I went to, since it is a Public School that makes sense. As a matter of fact PS = Public School. It currently has 773 students. St Luke’s was the second largest and now has 387 students and St. Clements is the smallest and currently enrolls 112 students. I am sure that hasn’t changed much over the years.

8th Grade Graduation June 4, 1961

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Nicknames

2012-01-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

What was your childhood nickname, and what was the meaning behind it? You can also discuss the nicknames of other family members, both past and present.

My Dad called me Mary Puss, I am not sure how this came to be my nickname and he usually was the only person who called me by that nickname. And when I was in a bad mood, it was Sour Puss. Now that I understand how I earned that nick name because I would just get the longest sourest face a kid could contort their face into if I was not in a good mood or not getting my way.

I did a dictionary search of the word puss, just because it is a fun thing to do. One of the definitions is: Informal . a girl or woman: often used as a form of affectionate address. It's origins are Dutch and Low German. My Dad was raised in a German community. So this now makes more sense to me. Fun the things you learn as you get older.

My brothers called me Mar, and frequently sang the song the old gray mare just ain’t what she used to be. Not my favorite song.

When I was a young adult some of my friends called me Duck, because they said I walked like a duck. Rather embarrassing.

When the very popular satire on soap operas, Mary Hartman Mary Hartman was on TV everyone called me by my full name twice. It eventually was shortened to Mary Mary.

I once worked in an Oncologist office and there were three Mary's, Mary A, Mary O and myself. I didn't want to be Mary H, and I was the only nurse so I suggested I should be called Chemo Mary because I gave the patients their chemotherapy and so another nickname was created. And boy did it stick. To help break the ice with the patients I would introduce myself as Mary Mary quite contrary but I only had one lousy petunia in my garden.

My brother George was Georgie Porgie, not very original. Donald & Edward were just Don & Eddie.
My sons call each other “Ace” and I call my husband Ace sometimes, I think it started with the movie Ace Ventura. Doesn't everyone want to be an "Ace"?

There is one Nick Name I am glad I never had and that is Typhoid Mary, but I am sure some people want to call me that when I have my bronchitis with that terrible cough.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

May the New Year be good to you!

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Favorite School Subject

2011-12-31T05:00:00.003-07:00

Favorite School Subject: What was your favorite subject in school and why? Was it also your best subject?

I did not find my favorite subject until I was a sophomore in high school, and that subject was biology. I loved learning about the structure, function, and growth of living things. It was the first subject I ever “aced” in school. I felt smart for the first time in my school career. I also enjoyed Anatomy and Physiology when I made it to college. I guess it is a good thing I liked these subject since I wanted to be a nurse. I was not disturbed by the dissenting like some of the girls in my class. I don’t remember being a whiz at it; I think did better at the drawings of a dissection and labeling the parts in a frog. I think the real thing just looked too much like mush. I will admit my memory is a little fuzzy on that.

Picture from azuna.deviantart.com

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Hosted by Geneabloggers: http://www.geneabloggers.com/Created by Amy Coffin http://wetree.blogspot.com/

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Worst School Subject

2011-12-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

Worst School Subject: What was your worst or least favorite subject in school and why?

My worst subject was spelling and it still is. I thank Heaven everyday for spell check. I am not a good speller, I have to stop and think many times how a word is spelled. I use my dictionary a lot because I can make up such wonderful spelling of words than spell check can’t even figure out how it should be spelled. I would write with a higher vocabulary if I could remember how the words are spelled. It really is annoying some times.

To make matters worse I have been scarred for life by a couple of my teachers. The first one was in second grade. I did the unthinkable, well I guess it isn’t unthinkable as I did it so I must have thought it. I cheated on a spelling test, first and last time. I didn’t cheat off of someone else I just had the spelling words under my paper. Like that is any less wrong. I mixed up the words horse and house, so my teacher drags me from the back of the room to the front by my ear and made an example of me. She guessed I cheated because no one who could really know how to spell those words would mix up horse and house. Of course as soon as I was asked, “Did you cheat?” I confessed.

The second incident was in 8^th grade. Another spelling test this time I did spell every word correctly but I received a zero for the grade, because, are you ready for this?? Because I made my i’s incorrectly, yes each word started with the letter i. I made the small letter i without the initial curve into the letter, so each word was marked wrong. It still upsets me to this day; I mean what difference does it make in the world or to life if I have the initial curve or not in a letter. Absolutely none!! But according that that teacher it was improper penmanship. Granted I did leave 11 years of Catholic school with good penmanship but wasn’t the importance lesson there to know if I could spell those words or not. I can still see those red circles on each word in my mind.

Improper penmanship

I am still a bit of a rebel with my penmanship and make many letters different than the Palmer method I learned.

My Dad also was very upset with me one day for making the ends of my y’s on Mary different, I wasn’t making the full loop, I was doing a half curl like end. He equated that with being allowed to eat only whip cream, that is how wrong it was to not make a full loop on your y. Seriously, that is wrong.

No silly "y" allowed

So now you won't be surprised if you see some creative spelling.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History First Job

2011-12-29T05:00:00.041-07:00

Describe your first job. What did you do? Were you saving for something in particular, or just trying to make a living? Did that first job provide skills and make an impact on your life today?

My first job was as a "soda jerk" on a food counter in a Rexall Drug Store. I worked after school and I closed. The evening wasn't as busy as lunch time but I had my regular customers. A lot of the dinner customers where ambulance drivers since the store was real close to Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Picture from best-norman-rockwell-art.com

I made hamburgers, French fries, milkshakes, and of course the ice cream soda. This was in the age of the real vanilla, cherry and chocolate coke, plus those milkshakes were made from milk, ice cream and favoring, no pre made stuff. I also had to balance my cash register every night, so I do know how to count out change. The other nightly chore was to clean the grill, what a nasty job that is. Duties also include washing, drying or the dishes used during my shift, stocking and cleaning up. I wore a white uniform and a black apron.

My hourly wage was 0.27¢ and tips. I took home about $2 a night in tips. I saved my tips and used my earnings as spending money. I was saving my money so I would have spending money when I went to nursing school.

I started the job in December of 1964 when I was a senior in high school. I wanted a job because it was too hard to go home and be with my Mom who was failing. She died in early February. The job did provide me with skills that helped me during my nursing career. I learned to how to talk with people and to be comfortable with people from all walks of life.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History
Hosted by Geneabloggers: http://www.geneabloggers.com/
Created by Amy Coffin http://wetree.blogspot.com/

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Grandma's House

2011-12-28T12:57:00.013-07:00

I have three sets of grandparents but only one set was still alive when I was born. These were my Mom's (my Second Mom) parents, Alfred & Mildred Corkish. They lived on Nantucket Island. We went there about 3 or 4 times until we moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I really only remember the trip I made when I was 10. I have pictures from earlier trips but no memories.What do remember from when I was 10.
There was a piano in the front pallor but I was the only child that could play on the piano because I didn't pound on it like my brothers did I played softly. I didn't know how to play I just liked to pretend I could play.

On top of the piano was a ship in a bottle, that I really admired and wanted. Not that I was ever going to get it but a kid can dream. I don't remember the story about the ship in a bottle, if Grandpa built it himself or one of his sons.

My grandma still had an ice box in the kitchen and the ice man came twice a week with a big block of ice. Here is a picture of an old ice box I don't know how old Grandma's was but it looked a lot like this one.

Picture from macombhistory.us

There was only one bathroom on the first floor and after we had gone to bed we were not allowed back down stairs. So we used a chamber pot upstairs. Here is a picture of a chamber pot.

Picture from collectiblesbypj.com

There was a short dirt road to the house. It was close to the beach about 2 blocks or so I think. It was a wood frame house and the wood was that grey weather beaten look that is typical of New England.

It was originally a two family house with one family downstairs and one family upstairs. When my Mom was a kid they lived upstairs and later the purchased the whole house. I remember it seemed long and narrow.

Grandparents Corkish & my family 1958

I enjoyed my time I spent there and would love to go back and see the house.

Here is an earlier post with a picture of me and Grandma, I was about 6.
Here is an earlier post about Grandma's house.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Songs

2011-12-27T21:02:00.002-07:00

Since I have a little extra time I want to catch up on some of the Personal History posts. They are fun topics.
Today's topic is Songs. What was the #1 song during the week of your birth? Enter your birth date at This Day in Music (http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/birthdayno1) and find out. If you were born before 1946, you can enter the year of your marriage, the birth dates of your children or some other significant event.

When I read the title of the song I thought I don't know that song, and I really expect to but when I went to You Tube I found the song and I do remember it.

So here it is for your listening pleasure. The title is Ballerina. Just for a little more personal info I did take some dance lessons in elementary school, we mostly did tap but we did learn the basic moves of ballet. In junior college I took modern dance as on of my PE classes. My instructor told me I had really improved since the beginning of class and I would have been a good dancer. I think she was dreaming and I wasn't interested.

You may have to go to You Tube to watch.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

I just want to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas. May your day be fulled with love, family and friends. Be safe and take a moment to remember the precious gift we were given on this day.

Thank you for being faithful followers.

Something Fun, Just for Giggles

2011-12-19T08:03:00.001-07:00

This morning I was looking at My Heritage just to see what was there. Of course the first thing I see is something that is fun. So since I am on vacation I decided to do the fun thing first. So I try the look alike meter. When I was growing up my Mother who died when I was age 1, so all I ever heard was you look like your Dad. Which is fine. When I hit 40 and I was given a large photo of my Mother on her wedding day I thought I look more like her, I have her eyes.

So here is my first meter with my baby photo.

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

And here is my second with a photo of me taken about three years ago. Needless to say I am way older than my parents at the time of the photos. Yup I am a good blend of both parents.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Roots - Old photographs

Blog Caroling

2011-12-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Do you hear what I hear? Yes, it is that time of year again – time for Footnote Maven’s Blog Caroling extravaganza.
This is my second year to join in the fun.

This year I have chosen another carol from the Forgotten Carols. What can I say the words to the songs in that play are just so meaningful. I highlighted the words that mean the most to me.

I wish you a Merry & Blessed Christmas

Let Him In

I am the man who got you,
No one recalls my name,
Thousands of years will fade too,
Fully erase my shame,

But I turned a profit nicely that day,
But I turned a couple away,
I turned them away,
I didn't sleep that evening,

Though I'd sold out my place,
Somehow I've felt uneasy,
Something about her face,
Why did I wish that I'd let them stay,

I don't think they could have paid,
Or could they have paid,
Restless I left my bedroom,
I walked the streets all night,

Lost in the world I lived in,
Bound by a Heavenly Light,
Sparing of one's rights,
Are in the sky,

I heard a baby cry,
And I knew where that cry had come from,
Cause I told them where they could go,
But I didn't think I could face them,

So I walked slowly home,
Missing my chance to share in their joy,
I never saw the boy,
He never would condemn me,

I did that all on my own,
He offered His forgiveness,
And ever since then I've known,
He let's us choose each hour of each day,

If we'll let Him in to stay,
Let Him in, Let Him in,
Let the joy and the hope begin,
Let Him in, Let Him in,

Let the peace on earth begin,
And whether be in your world today,
Or a crowded Bethlehem Inn,
Find a way, make Him room,

Let Him in, Let Him in,
Let the peace on earth begin,
Let Him in, Let Him in,
Let the joy and hope begin,

Let Him in, Let Him in,
Let Him in, Let Him in.

52 Weeks of Peraonal Genealogy & History My Career

2011-11-25T05:00:00.001-07:00

While writing a Series of Grateful post on Facebook I had one day were I was grateful for my career in nursing. I realized this one was one worth of a post on my blog. I am placing it in Personal Genealogy and History.

I am grateful for my career choice and the path that I travel to get where I am today. Nursing has been good to me. The doors in my life opened just right for me to be a nurse with a degree. It was a long road but well worth it.

I have always wanted to be a nurse. Of course I played nurse when I was a young girl. After I watched the movie, The Nun Story I wanted to be a Nun Nurse in Africa. My mother didn’t want me to be a nurse. She would tell me it is hard work that I would not like it and not to do it. I even thought of enlisting to be an Army Nurse, my Mom really didn’t like that idea at all. She was an Army Nurse during WWII. I did listen to her on that but I followed my heart and became a nurse. She never saw me graduate because she died before I graduated from high school. She was right it is hard work but it is honest and satisfying.

My high school principle told me I was and I quote, “too stupid to be a nurse, compassionate enough but too stupid.” Well I guess you can’t say that to me.

After high school I went to a vocational school and received my LPN. I went there because two different, three year hospital schools of nursing turned me down because my high school grades weren’t high enough. It looks like a closed door doesn’t it, but waits and watch it was just a detour to a better path. I graduated top of my class and as the Student of the Year for my class. I even went to the national nursing convention as the Student of the Year. Not stupid just a late bloomer.

Mary 1966 As LPN Student of the Year

I worked for a couple years as a LPN. I was able to get an apartment with a friend and live my own life. I worked hard and even had an RN say to me once when are you going to become a Real Nurse. So I decided to attend the Community College to earn my ASN (Associated Degree in Nursing). During my interview with the Dean of Nursing when I applied to the School of Nursing, she was very dismissive. She didn’t think I had the high school grades to enter the program. I mentioned that I had done well in LPN school and her reply was, “That doesn’t count, vocational schools are only equivalent to a 11 grade education you have to give us a semester of college level work with a grade average of C.” Back in the days of A, B, C, D & F grades not grade point average. I guess she shouldn’t have said that to me either.

So I started with my pre-requisite classes and handed her straight A’s. Now here is the door marked entered. The year I went back they changed the sciences for nurses and respiratory therapist to Integrated Sciences. The same sciences classes but at a more practical level and user friendly level. Just perfect for me, I like science but those higher levels would have been very hard for me to complete. These more practical levels of classes allowed me to graduate with all A’s. So two and a half years after entering Broward Community College I passed my Florida State Board of Nursing Exam and became an RN. I had accomplished this while working as an LPN to support myself. Mostly I worked part time but I also worked as a private duty nurse taking care of one patient for eight hours and finishing my homework.

Mary Feb 1971 RN Student

After working as an RN for a while several of my co-workers decided to go on and get their BSNs (Bachelors of Science in Nursing) I started with them but I was the only one who finished. A new University had just opened and they were accepting all Community College credits across the board. The other university I thought of attending wanted me to retake all the nursing 101 courses over again. That was not a hard decision to make on which university I was going to go to. Two and a half years later I graduated with my BSN, and I had worked 24 to 32 hours a week during those years.

1979 Nursing Instructor

Many a day I felt like I was eating, drinking, sleeping and working nursing 24 hours a day. Between work, schoolwork and homework there was little time for anything else. But it was worth it.

Chemo Nurse

September of this year I celebrated my 45 anniversary as a nurse. That is a lot of years of nursing. I won’t say I loved every day of being a nurse, I didn’t. There were many hard days of feeling there wasn’t enough time to do all that needed to be done for patients. But on a whole I loved my life as a nurse. He best part is nursing is versatile enough I did a lot of different things.

Chemo Nurse

·        Med/Surg nurse that means I worked on Medical or Surgical patient floors for both adults and children
·        NICU
·        PICU = Pediatrics Intensive Care
·        Clinical Instructor at a Community College for an LPN transitional program to RN (part time because I didn’t have a Master’s Degree)
·        Home Health Care Nurse or Visiting Nurse, I went from home to home to visit patients after they are discharged from the hospital (this was a real fun job, I was the only American who spoke Spanish and I saw many Spanish speaking patients.)
·        Oncology floor nurse
·        Home Health IV team, I started and maintained IV’s at home to give antibiotics and chemotherapy
·        Outpatient Chemotherapy nurse at private office groups, giving chemotherapy, supporting, educating and symptom management of chemo patients, I did this the longest, over twenty years
·        Case Manager helped instruct patients over the phone on how to manage their chronic disease such as diabetes, Congestive Heart Failure for an insurance company
·        Clinical Informatics train and support physicians and nurses on the Electronic Medical Record, my current job

Happy Thanksgiving & Memories of Thanksgiving Past

2011-11-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

This morning while I was making my stuffing I remembered how my Dad would buy day old bread, cut it into cubes and lay it out on the kitchen table for it to dry out even more. I don't remember him placing it on cookie sheets to dry it in the oven but he might have dried the bread that way. He would add his own spices to it and of course saute the onions and celery to add to the stuffing. I have never made mine from scratch. I think he started using the bag stuffing after we moved to Florida, it was probably too humid there to dry out the bread.

Wishing all of you and yours a wonderful safe day. This little video really says all I think of during this special season of Thanksgiving. May we have an attitude of gratitude all year long.

1940 Census

2011-11-08T06:23:00.002-07:00

Family Search Indexing of the 1940 Federal Census, here is where you can volunteer to index the census.
I volunteered to do New York, my home state.

132 million people were living in the 48 Continental United States in 1940.

Picture from http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk/assets/thumbnails/39/3/5486ee4548054c849a8326f9729c06de.jpg

Arizona Family History Expo

2011-11-05T06:05:00.002-07:00

The 4th annual Family History Expo is coming and will be here in 76 days. And I just did my Early Bird registration!
I am so looking forward to the expo and all I will learn. I'll be able to see new and old friends. The best part is getting excited about learning new tricks and going home and trying them out to break down some brick walls. I am excited!

I know two animated countdown clocks might push the look of m blog over the top, but ask me if I care. I at least separated them so you don't go dizzy.

MySpace-Countdowns

Census Idea

2011-11-04T21:54:00.000-07:00

I was thinking the other day about what year I would find myself on the census and what year it would be released. And it gave me an idea if any of my future generations wanted to find me on census would they know where to look? I am a transplant to two different areas of the country from my home state where I was born. So I thought I would make a list of census years and where I lived so I could at least get them pointed in the right direction. I was a little surprised when I started working on this that I will be on only one census in my home state of New York. Then I realized that I missed one whole census because I was out of the country severing a church mission. So instead of leaving everyone wondering I thought I would leave a record of this with my genealogy. I will probably place more detail on that record then the list I have year.

Mary’s Census Years:

1950: New York, with parents

1960: Florida, with parents & 3 siblings

1970: Florida, single

1980: In Bolivia on Mission

1990: Arizona, single

2000: Arizona with spouse & children

2010: Arizona with spouse children & daughter in law

I have to admit I don't remember doing the census in 1970 & 1990.

Some interesting links: 1940 Census & Here

MySpace-Countdowns

My Three Family Trees

2011-09-25T16:44:00.001-07:00

My Scrapbook Family Tree pages.

My Three Trees

You might be wondering when you look at my page in my scrapbook why I have three trees to represent my Family Tree. Well the answer is easy for me, I had three parents and so I think the three trees are very appropriate.

One tree represents the Hartmann’s, my Dad’s family, good peasant stock from Germany and Bohemia. The left hand side. The second tree is for the Chaplin tree or my Mother’s family, also good stock from England and Germany. The right hand side. The third tree is for the Mom who raised me. Some more fine people from England and New England. The Corkish’s where the only Grandparents I knew. They are the ones who created memories for me.

These three sets of ancestors contributed to the person I am today. I am grateful for all of them.

The story and my Mom's line

One small step for me and my ancestors.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Hobbies

2011-09-18T15:48:00.057-07:00

Week 38: Hobbies. Did you have any hobbies as a child? Which ones?

When I first went read this week's topic about childhood hobbies, I thought I didn't have any hobbies as the kid; all I like to do was read. Matter of fact my mother thought I read too much and she would yell at me to," go outside and dust the off cobwebs".

My Stamp Album

A little later I remember I did have a hobby, I had a stamp collection. I believe I started collecting stamps after we moved to Florida when I was 11. If I remember correctly the stamp album was a Christmas gift. I had an interest in stamp collecting well until my late 20s.

The scary thing was this morning when I remembered about my stamp collection I knew exactly where to look for my stamp album as well as my shoebox full of stamps.

My Collection Today

In reality I still have an interest in stamps as I still tear off every new or interesting stamp that comes to my house in the mail. Once I tear them off of the envelopes they go into my desk drawer. I have envelopes full of stamps that need to be soaked off of the paper and sorted.

Index Dividers

I must have been pretty organized at one time because I have stamps that are in little envelopes by country and they are in alphabetical order and divided by dividers in my stamp collection shoebox. You will notice in the picture that Poland has jumped the fence.I must have shared this interest with other people as I have the envelope with a note on it; to Ms. Hartmann 30 stamps no duplicates. Then each country and the numbers stamps for that country are listed on the front of the envelope.
It is sad to realize how much I have forgotten about my own life. And shows me how import it is to journal to remember these things.

Refill pages $1.25

Check out the cost of those refill pages only a dollar 25. In the second picture you will notice that the mounting sleeves were only $.49 per package.

Here is a picture of one of my USA stamp pages.

Thanks to Amy for these weekly prompts they have really helped me to write the stories of my life.

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

Almost Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-14T05:00:00.007-07:00

Grandma & Grandpa Hartmann

Last week when I found those pictures my brother's mother in law returned to me. This was one of the pictures. These are my paternal grandparents. When I look at this photo of my Grandpa, I thought, "Boy my Dad looks like Grandpa". I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

I did not know these Grandparents, they were gone before I was born. I would have like to have known them. I hear Grandma Mary was very jovial.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-07T23:30:00.002-07:00

Grandma Corkish and me

I was about to get ready for bed when I had to do one more thing. I found this old letter from my brother's mother in law. She had borrowed a couple of pictures from my Dad and had sent them back to me. This is one of those pictures. I am thinking I am about 6 in this picture, so that would be about 1956. The stance is just cracking me up. I still like to stand with my hands in my pockets.

I can't do math at 11:30 at night this would have been 1954.

More Life Story Pages

2011-08-28T17:08:00.002-07:00

School Picture 1924

Some of my work friends get together once a month to scrapbook at a friend's house. So I did some more work on my parent's life stories. Mostly my Dad's at this time. This one is a school picture. I do not know which boy he is.

First Holy Communion 1925

This is his First Holy Communion in 1925. In this picture he looks so much like my brother, or my brother looks so much like him. You think you where looking at the same person. The apple didn't fall far from the tree. I really like this package of blue and brown paper I found for his pictures. I thought my Dad looks a little old for First Holy Communion, I thought I made mine at age 8. I wonder why the delay, or was this really confirmation? I made mine at 11. But in his own handwriting on the picture he wrote Holy Communion. I guess maybe things change between 1925 and 1959.

Graduation 1926

Dad's graduation from St. Fidelis Catholic elementary school. My dad told the story that he was the last graduating class from St. Fidelis. So all these years I thought the school was closed. I was surprised after a Google search to find that it is still open. When I study the class picture of 1924 I noticed that it is a wood frame building now the school is a brick building I am guessing he was the last graduating class from the wood building that was replaced with the brick building. That is my dad for you his stories have an interesting twist to them.

Christmas at the Hartmann's 1940

This picture I am going to place in the place in the album I am making for the Grandparents. What I know about these pictures was that everyone liked to go to the Hartmann's. My aunt Em told me that there was good food and good company and happy times for holiday dinners. This is the house my grandfather and Dad built and the same house I lived in until I was 11. My dad took over the tradition of having holiday dinners at our home. My memory is more of chaos too many people, too much cooking, too much cleaning up. Also as a kid I had to sit at the kids table and since I was the oldest cousin, I didn't think this was very much fun. The kids sat in the kitchen.

My Maternal Grandmother

On this page I have a picture of my maternal grandmother this is Minnie Elizabeth Spahn in 1905 in her graduation from nursing school picture. Isn't she beautiful.

The start of my life story

Earlier this week I was still very excited about the Here's What Happened pages that I just had to use the page for 1948 the year I was born. Though this is the first page of my life story that I've started. I'm not planning to do a lot on this right now but I couldn't resist doing this one-page.

This has been a lot of fun working on these pages I'm getting kind of excited about sharing these with my brothers when they're finished hopefully they will enjoy them.

A Duh Moment

2011-08-22T19:39:00.000-07:00

This morning while at work I had a Duh moment and I had to wait until this evening to post it.

I know that the family story is my grandparents, my Dad's parents did not like my mother because she had been previously married and that marriage was annulled. (According to my parent's marriage license.) They considered her the "Gay Divorcee" and not good enough for their son. So the story continues they waited until my grandparents were gone to get married.

After I started doing my Genealogy and paying attention to dates I realized that my grandmother has been gone three years and my grandfather two years. So why the wait? This morning while at working and showing one of my co-workers my lovely pages. I was reading the area on Politics and look what I notice!

Is it because they waited for WWII to be over! It sure looks like it. The war ended in September and they were married October 9, 1945.

My Dad was exempted from going into the service during WWII because he was a New York City Fireman. I would think it was still a very busy time for firemen. Plus an unstable time in the country.

I'll never know for sure but it sounds reasonable to be.

One small step for me and my ancestors.

Two More New Fun Pages

2011-08-21T10:08:00.003-07:00

This is how I did the page for the year my Mother, Edith was born. I printed a scan copy of the youngest picture photo I have of her. I used colored card stock and added a couple of cute things in the plain corners. I did a punch design on the top and bottom borders and placed some color paper behind it.

I like it!

For my parent's wedding day I used

paper with a design. Again I printed a copy of a scan photo I had. I had a hard time deciding what color paper to use.

I did these two pages this way since I didn't want to totally rearrange the completed pages .

How I Used My Fun Page

2011-08-21T08:20:00.001-07:00

On the first page I just added them in spots so the Birth certificate was not covered.

On the second page I moved the picture up and moved the one journal entry down. Luckily I had only used a little bit of stickem.

I finished a front and back of another page. This page I just framed the front & back of a hard card stock page my Dad had made. I wanted to keep that intact since it had his writing on it.

Double click on pictures to see a larger version.

Here is my Dad with his Mother and Father in 1913, Queens New York. Mary Jirak Hartmann and George Joseph Hartmann. In the first picture on the left you can see part of a car right next to my Grandfather. I don't now who it belonged to.

One small step for me and my ancestors.

This is Fun

2011-08-20T11:28:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday when I stopped in the Scrapbook Barn to to look around for a few minutes and I found this fun page. Here's What Happened! This is the year my Dad was born and I thought I would add it to his Life Story pages I am making.

1912 Happenings

It is fun to see names of people I knew from TV who were born the same year as my Dad. As well as my too favorite cookies made their first appearances, Oreo and Lorna Doone. I haven't decided yet if I want to cut each area up and place them on different pages or if I want to add a picture to the middle. I wanted a couple of other years like 1916 when my Mother was born and 1945 when my parents were married but the shop didn't have them.

I Googled the name of the company and found their website, KCK Creations and was able to order more pages. I'll keep you posted on how I use them.

Sorting Saturday: George Joseph Hartmann

2011-08-06T05:00:00.029-07:00

A while back I did a post about sorting old pictures and making scrapbook pages of those pictures and a bit of a life story for my mother. Recently I began doing the same thing for my dad's pictures.

Baby Picture about 3 months old

My dad didn't speak a lot about his early life so it's kind of hard to fill in some of the details to his life. I will definitely write the ones that I know.

First Holy Communion

So here the first three pages I made for your viewing pleasure. In this picture my Dad and brother look so much alike at the same age. The apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Funeral Card Friday: Edith Hartmann

2011-08-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

While looking through a folder of old photos I found my mother's funeral card. It was really a surprise to me to find this card. Of course after I found the card I thought "I remember that."

I also found a second copy of the funeral card from my mom Annette. I previously posted about her funeral card here. I am now going to place both of these cards in the memory books I am making for my mother's.

Tech Tuesday

2011-08-02T05:00:00.001-07:00

Today on tech Tuesday I would like to review Dragon Naturally Speaking. This is a speech recognition software that types what you speak. I only received my software on Friday so I've only had a couple of days to work with it.

The first thing I used Dragon for was to write a blog post, I did that particular post in a Word document. Today's post I am doing right on the blogger new post page. I found working in the word document a little easier than working on the blogger page.

I also use Dragon for writing an e-mail right in my e-mail program without any problems. The activity I enjoy using Dragon the most for was transcribing a letter. I was able to read the letter and have Dragon type it a lot faster than I would've been able to type the letter.

There is a CD that comes with the program that teaches you how to use the program I have not completed viewing the CD but I strongly advise it. I particularly like this program since I'm not a good speller and this improves the spelling in my documents without using spell check. The hardest part I found is keeping my thoughts organized in my head and dictating them. I have noticed as I'm using the program more that my dictation is flowing better.

It will take you some time to learn all the new commands. Do I think this program is for everyone? No, but I enjoy it and I'm glad I have it. I just reviewed this post for spelling errors and there was only one where two words ran together, I usually have multiple spelling errors. Spell check is my favorite invention.

The other little tricks that I've notices you must be sure your microphone is off because as you reread something out loud it will start to type it. I'm also noticing that the accuracy of the word recognition has improved since my first use of the program.

If you are a slow typist I would highly recommend this program. Is it a must have? No. Is a nice to have? Yes.

I would have some time limitations on when I can use this as the location of my computer is by the TV room it would be difficult to use the Dragon Naturally Speaking with the TV on in the background plus you'd be interrupting the TV watcher as you're speaking.

I purchased the home edition and I am including a link here. I did not pay the price that they are presenting here on their website I paid a lot less on QVC. So shop around for a deal.

Sports

2011-07-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

In June I wrote a post about sports and in it I mentioned that I scuba dived.
http://meandmyancestors.blogspot.com/2011/06/52-weeks-of-personal-genealogy-history_7128.html

Today while looking for pictures of my childhood bedrooms, I found these pictures of me getting ready to do a dive. I thought you would enjoy seeing them.

1976 off the Florida Keys

The gal beside me is Linda one of my co-workers and my dive buddy.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Bedrooms

2011-07-30T10:28:00.001-07:00

Describe your childhood bedroom. What furniture did it contain? Were there curtains, wallpaper or paint? Was it messy or clean? Did you share a room with your sip siblings?

I had a total of three childhood bedrooms the first one I remember was in our home and Whitestone, New York. The first bedroom was in the back of the house on the second floor. It was also the room that my mother hung laundry out on the clothesline. There were two twin beds in this room and I shared this room with my brother George. Sometimes I had the that was on the left and sometimes I had the bed that was on the right I don't remember exactly how we decided who slept in what bed.

Some of the memories of this bedroom include having the chickenpox, mumps and a very vile stomach flu, it took me a long time to drink apricot nectar after that stomach flu. Of course the other memory of this room was watching my mother hang the laundry out on a clothesline. The clothesline when a cross our whole double decker backyard and attached to a wall behind our house. She would wheel the laundry out to let it dry and then wheeled it back in when it was dry. There was a pulley at each end of the clothesline. This was a second-story window so she had to carry the laundry up from the basement through the main floor and up to the second floor.

Our House 1949 Whitestone, New York

When I was older like nine or ten, I was given my own bedroom in the front of the house. In this room there was just a double bed. I also have a little desk, dresser and a chair. There was wallpaper on the wall there were there were curtains and on the windows. One time when we had company my mom came to sleep with me in my room. I wasn't accustomed to anybody sleeping in with me and so I kicked her out of bed. She was not very happy with me. I remember her very clearly telling me to stop it.

In the picture above, the window over the front door was my bedroom window.

Mary in 1968 in my Florida bedroom

When we moved to Florida I had my own bedroom again, well of course, I was the only girl! This bedroom is also in the front of the house it was painted pink and had rose curtains in the windows the interesting thing is I don't think I really like pink it's an okay color but it's definitely not my favorite, this is the room I that I slept in until I left home. This room has memories of my own portable radio. Before then the radio was only in your room if you were sick. My own radio was pink with grey nobs. I spent many hours laying on my bed and listening to rock and roll. I had a twin bed in this room.

I also spent a lot of time reading in my bedroom. I spent so much time reading my Mom would yell at me, "Go outside and dust those cobwebs off." She wanted me to be active and balanced.

This is a later picture of me when I was 20, me in all my glory in orange baby doll pajamas.

My brother Eddie in my room 1968

One of the sad memories of this room was when my Mom was very sick with cancer and she was in a hospital bed in my parent’s room, her twin bed was in my room. I had a nightmare one night and I remember I ran around that extra bed to get to her room. There was a night nurse since my Dad was working and she just told me to go back to bed.

Mary 1968 packing to go to New York

One of the happier memories was backing for a trip to New York when I was 20. I had left home for a while and at this time I was back at home. I was to meet a pen pal Ken in New York, he lived in Ohio. He gave me the American Airline poster I have over my bed, in the other picture. Unfortunately he forgot my Aunt's phone number and we never meet up with each other.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

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

Georgie???

2011-07-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I was making some scrapbook pages about my Dad. I decided to scan the back of the picture and show it on the page. It was labeled "Georgie" Hartmann. Now my Dad was not a Georgie to me, he was a George. Well he was mostly Dad or Pop but never a Georgie. I do not remember my Dad telling me any of stories about his childhood. I am glad he was a Georgie to someone.

Back of Baby Picture

That address on the back of the picture is the same address on his Dad's draft notice for WWII.

Baby Picture

The only story I remember is that when he graduated from St. Fidelis his class was the last graduating class from that school in 1926, I don't remember he telling me about playing games, or things he enjoyed.

I just Googled St. Fidelis in College Point and I guess it is a school again. I also found this link about a book.

St. Fidelis Parish in College Point, NY - The First 75 Years 1856-1931

by James E. Haas

The story of one Queens, New York, parish--its priests and people--as a microcosm of the German-American Catholic experience from the mid 1850s through the early part of the 20th century.

Yes he grandfather was from Germany.

Back of Communion Picture

Communion Picture

As a parent he was strict, didn't like fooling around or teenage girl drama, and I was mild with the drama. I wonder why? He taught me there was no free lunch and if it was worth doing, it was worth doing well. There was a place for all things and all things needed to be in their place. His favorite quote was, "There is the Army way, the Navy way and my way or the highway."

I would have liked to know more about his childhood and his parents. He just didn't talk about those kinds of things.

Remembering Dad

2011-07-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today would have been my Dad's 99th birthday.

Dad as an infant in 1913

Happy Birthday Dad!

love from me

On This Day in my Personal History

2011-07-05T09:40:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend I was thinking about special 4th of Julys and of course the day after the 4th one year was very special to me. So I also reflected on that over that day over the weekend.

On July 5th of 1979 I entered the MTC or the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah. I had joined the LDS church on June 17, 1977 at the age of 29. A mission was the furthest thing from my mind. I wanted to get married but the Lord had other things in store for me. I was raised Catholic and telling my Dad I had joined the LDS church was hard enough but to tell him I was going on a mission are even harder. My Dad didn’t understand anything about any religion except being Catholic. It was also shortly after Jonestown, that I decided to go on a mission.

So my Dad was worried I was going to go to South America and would drink poison. And where did I go, Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission. He knew he couldn’t stop me and he never understood about my conversion or the desire to serve a mission. But he did promise to write and he kept his promise.

Cover of my Mission Scrapbook

Actually I think he got off easy because when I was ten I wanted to be a Nun Nurse in Africa after seeing the movie the “The Nun Story” at least I would be home in eighteen months.

Above is the cover I made for my mission scrapbook. The little card in the center is what we wore on our name tags while in the MTC. While in the MTC you were to speak only Spanish to anyone going on a Spanish speaking mission. The Bolivian Flag is red, yellow and green and the national flower is the Kantuta. After eight weeks of being submersed in Spanish, I thought I could really speak it until I landed in Santa Cruz. What a rude awaking.

Mission Name Tag

I bet every missionary who ever stayed at the MTC has a picture of themselves in front of the world map pointing to their little spot in the world and I am no exception.

Me in front of the MTC World Map

I loved my mission and I loved the people I severed in Bolivia. It was a great growing experience and I have many cherished memories of my mission. The memory of entering the MTC and officially starting my mission is indeed a very found memory.

The 4th of July

2011-07-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

One of my all-time favorite 4th of July was in 1979. I celebrated this on in Provo Utah. I had been in Utah since June 25th. I spent several days in Salt Lake City with one of the Sister Missionaries, Joy Lyn Deppe that taught me the discussions in Miami Florida. The rest of the time I spent with Trudy Adair in Provo, she was one of my other Sister Missionaries.

Here are my scrapbook pages from that special day.

The Parade

Sundance

B-Que & Fireworks

Some of my other favorite 4ths of July were in Taylor Arizona. Small towns do the 4th in a big way. One of Taylor’s traditions is to shoot of an anvil. I can’t find any pictures of it and I thought I had some so I didn’t take any when I was there this pass Saturday. They start at 4 AM shooting off the anvil. It was so loud on Saturday I jump so high in bed I almost fell out of bed. The light gun power under the anvil and up it goes. They do this around town and parade down the streets honking horns and all.

I found a YouTube video of how it is done for your viewing pleasure.

There are also Cowboy Poetry & Singing presentations. We went to one on Saturday July 2nd. I enjoyed it but I didn’t hear any of my old favorite Cowboy songs like Ghost Riders in the Sky and They Call the Wind Mariah. There were only three songs I knew, the Orange Blossom Special, God Bless the USA and I forgot the third song.

The Desert Sons

These guys were good, The Desert Sons.

This couple are from Texas, Jean & Gary Prescott and they did a good job also. I love her boots and I am not a boot gal.

However we celebrate I want to remember what it really means to be an American and the birth of our great nation.

52 Weeks Of Personal History: Cloths

2011-06-29T14:08:00.001-07:00

Playing catch up again.

Week 24. Clothes. What types of clothes did you wear as a child? What was “in fashion” and did your style compare?. What types of clothes did you wear as a child? What was “in fashion” and did your style compare?

When I think of my life and cloths I think of uniforms. I went to Catholic school and nursing school and worked as a nurse. I wore uniforms. When I was a out playing I wore pants or shorts with shirts. And lots of dresses for Sundays and special events. I was in my twenties when I purchased my first pair of blue jeans.

I don't have a picture in the uniform I wore at St. Luke's Elementary school. It was a blue jumper with a white blouse with a peter pan collar. Topped off with a clip on navy blue bow tie with tales.

When we moved to Florida and I went to St. Clements Elementary school we had a light green and white stripped jumper with white a blouse, no tie. No pictures of those either.

And because I like pictures in my posts here comes the fashion show.

Mary in Cardinal Gibbons HS uniform on campus

Same uniform in front of my home

LPN Graduation 1966

Mary in Scrubs giving chemo 1992

Mary 2008

Here I am in my last uniform that I wore as a Clinical Informatics Coordinator. My current job, this picture was taken in 2008. Now we don't wear these any more. I miss them. Only because it was easy to pick out and put on, no decision of what should I wear today.

Do I follow cloths trends, no, I just wear what makes me feel comfortable. At home I wear my old scrubs, they are comfy. When I am out and about I am in jeans when it is cool, slacks or Capri's when it is hot with a blouse or polo shirt. Of course on Sunday it is a dress.

Not my Journey

2011-06-27T10:33:00.002-07:00

This is not my journey but another person's journey. I meet this person for a few minutes but I want to wish him luck on his journey. Maybe if all my genealogy friends reads this story they will wish him luck also.

I was traveling for work and while site seeing, you can read more about my trip on my quilting blog.

Plaque Outside Fort Laramie

We stopped so I could get out of the car and take a picture of this plaque. Here I meet a Welshman who was following one of his ancestor's. His ancestor had "joined the Mormons and he was following the trail all the way from Omaha, Nebraska to Salt Lake City, Utah". We were having a hard time getting the picture. He ended up standing on the fence rail in front of the monument and he offered to take one for me. I noticed his accent and asked where he was from, he said Wales. I mentioned I have a second cousin in Wales but of course I don't know the area he where lives. My other second cousin told me but I forgot. This was all the conversation we had. But the exchange left an impression on me. I wished we had exchanged names or something. He seemed to be on a hurry or was it a sense of determination I felt.

I have thought of him often and wonder how his trip is going. What did he hope to accomplish and has he accomplished his goal? I wish him well on his journey! I hope he finds all the answers he came in search of.

Google News Timelines

2011-06-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

I found this video about Google News Timelines thanks Lisa Louise Cooke. I checked it out and found it very interesting to see some of the top news items of the year my Great Grandfather Joseph Hartmann immigrated to New York City from Germany in 1868.
I remember thinking when I learned the year of his immigration that things had to be pretty bad in Germany to come to the United States only three years after our Civil War.

I saved my search closed out of the news timelines and went back in and it opened to my search. I will have to see what happens when I do several searches.

Here are some of the top news items I saw that were interesting to me. Unfortunately the links didn't work, but maybe that is a good thing or I would have spent a lot of time reading about them all.

The last one is my favorite as a kid I loved to go to the Museum of Natural History. When I went back to New York when I was 20, I also sent a couple of days there.

One small step for me and my family.

This Is The Face of Genealogy

2011-06-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

Without Genealogy and the connections I have made I would have never seen the gentle face of my Maternal Great Grandmother (center sitting) Mary Ann Holmes Chaplin.

A Shout Out to one of my Followers

2011-06-05T06:00:00.072-07:00

On Saturday I was adding photos to my memorials on Find A Grave. When I notice a little flower by my Mom's name.

Flower in the red circle

So I went and checked it out and this is what I found.

Flower and Note left on my Mom's Memorial

Words can not express the appreciation I felt to see those kind words there. It touched me very deeply and I was a little surprised by the depth of those feelings. It made me think of my mother in a different light. What I remember of my Mom as a nurse was a women who came home tired from work. Believe me I have had those days myself. I felt that Mary who left those kind words represented to me all the people who if they could have said those words of thanks to my Mom would have. I know how that feels to have someone come to you and thank you for the good care you gave to their family member. I also know how it feels to take care of others and do the best you can for them especially in difficult situations.

Mom died when I was 16 and a Senior in High School so she never saw me become a nurse. She didn't want me to be a nurse because it is such hard work. I am glad I didn't listen to her nursing has been a good to me.

I sent Mary an email of appreciation and asked how she came to leave a comment on my Mom's memorial. She replied she follows my blog on Google Reader and saw my Memorial Day post and I quote, "I liked that she was a nurse during WWII and the sacrifice she endured there and she was prompted to put the flowers on the memorial."

Thanks Mary for following my blog and for the flowers!

Fun as a Find A Grave Volunteer

2011-06-04T19:50:00.001-07:00

Today I was able to go the Mesa City Cemetery and take some pictures I had claimed on Find a Grave. I really do enjoy the opportunity it gives me to help someone else. This was only my second time to take pictures for someone else. I had 6 requests, 5 from the site and one sent to me privately. I wish I could say I found them all but I can't. I even went back to the area it was suppose to be a second time and still didn't find it.

The graves with the flags is the one I was looking for

So bright and early this morning after my work out at the gym I went to the cemetery armed with my camera, my copy of the cemetery map of block numbers and my list of request. Before I went I checked out the cemetery website to gain some insight on how to find graves. It was helpful information and did made things easier. I also highlighted the blocks I was looking for and numbered my requests in the order I had plan to search them out.

The fun thing was how closed I parked to the area I needed. On two of the stones I was looking for the number marked of the area and I looked down and there was the grave stone I needed. Above is a picture of my car and one of the graves I was looking for was this close, it is the one with the two flags. I guessed right on to the area I needed to look. This is an older part of the cemetery so there are a lot of trees. I was also very lucky that the area I was working at was not being watered while I was there. I was suddenly surprised when I heard the sprinklers come on right across from where I was.

After I was home again I was looking at the pictures I took and noticed dirt on the grave stones, today's were all flat. So the next time I am going to take a little dust broom with me to clean the stones off before I take a picture. Today I had to take them all looking at the stones upside down because the sun was to my back and would have casted a shadow over the stones. Aren't computers wonderful where we can rotate pictures so they are right side up? The other thing I have decide is during the summer I need to go right at 7 AM when the gates open because it was getting very hot when I was there between 9 & 10 AM.

I would recommend to any one who hasn't volunteered to do so, it is very satisfying and much appreciated.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Restaurants

2011-06-03T06:00:00.002-07:00

Restaurants. What was your favorite local restaurant as a child? Where was it located, and what was your favorite meal? Did you know the staff personally? What is your favorite restaurant now?

I don’t remember going out to eat until after we moved to Florida and we found this good pizza restaurant and we went for pizza many Friday nights. I have no idea what the name was. My favorite restaurants now are Mi Amigos, Serrano’s, Matta’s, Nando’s, Outback Steak House, and Texas Road House. Do you notice a trend? If we go up to Pine Top Arizona my all time favorite restaurant is Charlie Clark’s.
I always order the filet with butter blue cheese sauce. The first time I saw this I thought meat has enough fat without adding more, but I love blue cheese, so I tried it and of course love it. Well if it tastes good it has to be bad for you!

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

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Sports

2011-06-02T20:19:00.001-07:00

Sports. Did you have a favorite sports team as a child? If so, which one and why. Did your parents follow the same teams? Do you still support the same teams?

I had no interest in sports as a kid neither did my parents, but I think they were Yankee fans or my Dad was. I still have no interest in sports, I have been to games, and they are fun in persons but I don’t follow them. My Mom made me take tennis lessons so I would be well rounded when I was a teen. I hated to run and I hated to sweat. I only work out because it is good for me, not because I like it.

The only sport I really enjoyed doing was scuba diving. I loved being on the ocean in a boat, I loved being in the water. I had a dive journal and made a total of 19 of dives. I did most of my dives in the Atlantic Ocean around the Florida Keys. I can still remember to this day the pains in my arms I had after I passed the swimming test to take the class. I do not remember how many laps I had to swim, but it was a lot and I didn’t swim daily. The instructors need to know we could swim, of course that makes sense. We also had to tread water for 10 minutes or more, first with our arms over our heads then down. When I finally was finished and I went home to shower and shampoo my hair my arms where so sore I could not lift them higher than my shoulders to wash my hair. So I bent my head down to reach my hand, first one side then the other.

I wasn’t crazy about the classes in a pool and my first open water dive was in a narrow Florida canal and that was no fun either, lots of murky water and nothing to see. But after my second open water dive off the Florida Keys I was hooked and in love with it. The openness of the ocean was wonderful, the coral reefs and the fish were wonderful. I was never attached by a barracuda or a shark. Though my dive instructor came up and pinched me on the leg once when I had just swam by a school of barracuda and I almost sprouted wings and flew right out of that water.

The most interesting dive I ever took was a night dive. In our diving manual we had this night dive cartoon of a scuba diver in a totally black picture except for his eyes in his dive mask and his flash light beam. Doing a night dive feels just like that, you can see what is only in front of you in your flash light beam. There are lights on the bow and the back of the boat, and one flashes and one is a steady beam so you know which end of the boat to come up at, otherwise it is dark. On my first dive of the night I was so nervous I sucked my air tank dry in no time. I was more relaxed for my second dive. We dived the Benwood wreck in the Keys and saw fish sleeping in between the ribs of the ship and night shrimp moving around with their bright bands of red and white.

http://www.shipwreckexpo.com/fkbenwood.htm

This link tells you about the ship and how it sank of the coast of Florida, a Germany U Boat was involved.

Inside of Log book with the first of my two night dives.

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

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Commercial Jingles

2011-06-02T06:00:00.038-07:00

Commercials. Do you remember any commercial jingles from your childhood? Share them here.

Oh do I remember those jingles!

My favorite was probably the Alka Seltzer one,
Pop, pop, fizz, fizz
Oh what a relief it is!
Pop, pop, fizz, fizz

Oh what a relief it is!

See the USA today in your Chevrolet that was a good one also.

And what about Snap, Crackle & Pop for Rice Crispis

Oh and how about Brylcreem a little dab will do ya.

Here is a fun link to a lot of these jingles from the early 60's, enjoy!
http://the60sofficialsite.com/Great_TV_Commercial_Jingles.html

And here is a TV commercial just to bring back the memories.

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

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Illness & Injury

2011-06-01T21:23:00.001-07:00

Illness and Injury. Describe your childhood illnesses or injuries. Who took care of you? Did you recuperate in your own bed, on the couch in front of the television, or somewhere else?

Most of my childhood illness I sent in my bedroom listening to Soap Operas on the radio. I use to enjoy the sound effects, like doors opening and whatever. I don’t think I care much for the stories themselves because I never watched Soap Operas on TV. Unless I was home sick.

There was one time when I was able to lie on the couch in front of the TV. It was after a car accident and luckily no one was seriously hurt but I had a shoulder injury. It was the one time my Dad let me sit in the front seat of the car and believe me it was the last time until I was a lot older. This was before the age of seat belts. What I remember watching was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth.

I was only 5 but what I remember was her walking down the long aisle of the Abbey and the long train that was carried for her. It was really fun to watch this You Tube clip of the coronation.

A strange coincidence, I was home sick from work and watched the wedding of her grandson this year.
Hosted by Geneabloggers: http://www.geneabloggers.com/
Created by Amy Coffin http://wetree.blogspot.com/

Memorial Day: My Mom Was an Army Nurse During WWII

2011-05-29T11:15:00.001-07:00

It is Memorial Day weekend a time to remember the fallen soldiers of our country. I remember when we would get the red poppy flowers and wear them.

My mother survived WWII but I thought I would write about her today. She was an Army Nurse during the war, she was stationed in the Philippines, and that is all she told me when I was at age 11. I can remember it well we were standing in her bedroom and we were packing to move to Florida. She was packing her old army foot locker. She promised to tell me when I was older, only that talk never came. She had some photos but she would not share them with me. I do not know what happened to the photos. I was the oldest and left home first. I have no idea what my Dad did with them when he moved out of the house we lived in.

I do not know if she was one of the nurses that was captured while in the Philippines but I hope to find the answer to that question.

I used her old Army foot locker for years as my coffee table and when ever I moved from one apartment to another. I no longer have the foot locker, but it did made it to Arizona. I had her American flag that was present to the family and draped her coffin when she was buried. It was stolen from me when it was hanging outside for a holiday.

I cannot find any records on her service yet, but I will keep looking. So far all I have to document her service is her gravestone. And the only reason I have this is from a Find a Grave volunteer.

One small step for me and my ancestors.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Disasters

2011-05-29T08:53:00.001-07:00

Week 10: Disasters. Did you experience any natural disasters in your lifetime? Tell us about them. If not, then discuss these events that happened to parents, grandparents or others in your family.

After we moved to Florida and purchased our brand new home for a $12,500. One of the first purchases my Dad made for the house was aluminium hurricane awnings. When the weather was fine they shaded the windows like canvas awnings but when a storm came they were lowered over the window and hatched down to the house. The windows under the front porch had aluminium panels that where screwed over the windows to protect them from flying objects.

The first year we were there in 1959 there were a couple of storms but the one I really remember was Hurricane Donna the next year. We missed school, always a fun thing for a kid. We heated our food over Sterno cans. Ate all the ice cream before it melted. For a kid it was an adventure. We had Jalousie windows on the house and we had to listen to the news on our battery operated radios to know which side of the house to open the windows. They were opened on the lee side of the storm. There was enough room in the awnings to open the windows.

I just did a search about opening the windows and this is the new info I learned.

When a hurricane passes through, is it true I should have the windows open on the side of my house that faces the wind?

No. Hurricane winds swirl from all directions and exert both pressure and suction. If wind gets into your home, it will seek a way out, blowing out a roof or ceiling, collapsing a gable end or a garage door. Your goal is to keep the wind out, period.

I have to say I don't miss hurricanes now that I am in Arizona.

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

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Movies

2011-05-26T19:44:00.001-07:00

Movies. Did (or do you still) see many movies? Describe your favorites. Where did you see these films? Is the theater still there, or is there something else in its place?

I can remember seeing only a few movies when I was a kid. The most remarkable time at the movies was at the Radio City Music Hall. I have no clue what we saw but I remember seeing the Rockettes on stage and how well they danced in a line and kicked so high. My Aunt Em took me and we had good seats in the lower section close to the front. For a girl less then eleven it was amazing.

One movie I remember was the Bridge Over the River Kwai. That came out in 1957, so I was nine, why did my parent take me to see a war movie? I do remember that bridge being blown up and some of the music was catchy.

The next big movie I remember is Gone With The Wind, it was the first movie I remember seeing in Fort Lauderdale Florida. It must have been a re-release of the movie because we moved down to Florida in 1959. Of course that one I have seen several times and I even have it on viedo. It is a classic. I have also read the book more than once.

My husband & I still enjoy a good movie and I enjoy renting them with Netflixs. No more running to the viedo store to rent them and try to get them back in time. My husband hates some of the choices I made, I rent a lot of chick flicks because I seldom get to see them in the theather with my hubby. We tend to see lots of Sci-fi and action movies together.

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

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Pets

2011-05-25T06:00:00.013-07:00

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

Week 17. Pets. Did you have any pets as a child? If so, what types and what were their names. Do you have pets now? Describe them as well.

The first pet I remembered hearing stories about was "Boy".

Mom, Mary & Boy the dog 1949.

The story my Dad told was my parents could leave me out on the front yard and Boy would pull me back into the yard if I wondered to far away. Knowing my parents they weren't too far away. I don't remember Boy so he must have died when I was still very young.

The next dog we had was Beaver the Beagle, I was about 10, he slept outside under the back stairs, there was a little shelter for him. I thought it was mean for him to sleep outside but my parents said he couldn't live in the house. We gave him away when we went to Florida.

As an adult I had two dogs, both of them a cockapoo type of dog and both a ginger color. Now I only have cats, they don't bark, don't need to be walked, don't need to be in a kennel or with a friend when you go on trips.

Rosie sitting on the arm of my black recliner.

My current cat is Rosie. She is all black except for a few white whiskers. She is a bit of a scary cat and doesn't like people, just me and Richard. Sometimes we look for her and can't find her it is because she is on the back of one of our black recliners, she blends right in.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Week 13 Sweets

2011-05-24T06:00:00.069-07:00

Hosted by Geneabloggers: http://www.geneabloggers.com/

Created by Amy Coffin http://wetree.blogspot.com/

I have been busy and have not kept up with the weekly theme, but today I have time to write one.
What was your favorite childhood candy or dessert? Have your tastes changed since then? What satisfies your sweet tooth today?

I love sweets! It is all my Mom's fault. I take no credit for my sweet tooth. A meal is not complete without desert especially after lunch and dinner.
My Mom packed a candy bar in each lunch bag on school days. It was usually a Snickers or a Milky Way. I sure did enjoy them.

For dinner desert we usually had ice cream. We didn't eat it right after dinner we usually ate it a little later. We liked any favor. If we only had vanilla ice cream some times we would mix Sanka instant coffee into to it or added a spoonful of peanut butter on the side. Of course Hersey's chocolate syrup was always a good add on.

Sometimes for snacks my Mom would give us a sugar sandwich, you got it white bread, butter and sugar. I never gave my kids one of these and we sure liked them but I won't eat all those empty calories now. If we couldn't sleep she made us hot milk with vanilla and sugar. Sometimes she even made us a little egg nog, on the spot, milk, egg, vanilla and sugar, but this was cold milk.

My Dad worked in a Farm Store when we first moved to Florida. They were a little drive up store that sold milk, eggs, bread, ice cream, cottage cheese. He use to bring ice cream home from the farm store, it was a good quality of ice cream. I won't tell you how many times when I had kids at home and need milk or bread on the way home from work, that I wished there was a drive through Farm Store to go to.

Now a days I like dark chocolate, milk chocolate is bland. Since I was a young adult I would rather eat the Nestle's Semi-Sweet chips out of the bag then eat the cookies. I have a bag of these in my draw at work, but don't tell anyone.

I still want a small piece after lunch, the bite size or a couple of kisses instead of a full bar. I still love ice cream after dinner but don't eat it. Well at least not every day. I settle for a dark chocolate kiss instead. My husband & I love to stop at Dairy Queen on the weekends.

And it is all my Mom's fault that I have a sweet tooth.

Notice my New Background

2011-05-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

While checking out some of my favorite blogs, I notice a nice background on Yvonne's blog. I email her and asked how did you do that? She graciously told me how she added her own picture as a background.
Last night I had a picture of my grandparents as a background but I couldn't see my grandfather, though my grandmother was stunning. I tried to make the center where the post are transparent but it was too hard to read the posts.

UK 1911 Census

This morning I looked through my pictures again and found a copy of the UK 1911 Census with my great grandfather as the head of house. I thought this might work, I did the computer magic and now it is my background. I really like how it looks.

Yvonne also grave me permission to use her cute graphic she make of this quote,

Yvonne's Graphic.

"If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance." -- George Bernard Shaw
It just tickles my funny bone. Sometimes I think we are afraid of what others will think of our skeletons, but the reality is no one cares about them, they care about us and who we are. That is what makes family history so interesting to see what we have become in spite of who our ancestors were.

Yvonne thanks for sharing!

Happy Researching and Sharing of the Stories.

A Volunteer Went the Extra Mile

2011-05-23T08:33:00.002-07:00

When I entered my request for my Mom’s grave stone, I did not request my Dad’s I am not sure why but I did not request it. Christine the volunteer did take a picture of my Dad’s gravestone. I did not realize it until a couple of days after the original post on my Mom’s stone. I did send her a thank you note when I noticed the gravestone. Here is the link to the picture.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=hartmann&GSiman=1&GScid=72494&GRid=68940907

A Rosary Case like my Dad's

My first reaction when I saw the rosaries on my Dad’s gravestone was, “How appropriate.” I am not sure if my brothers chose this or my Dad. I was not involved with the funeral arrangements. One of the memories I have of my Dad was he always had his rosaries in his pockets. He carried them in a little black case and every time he placed them in his pocket he would cross himself with the rosaries (in the case) in his right hand and them kiss the case and place them in his right pocket of his pants. There were many an evening during Lent that we would sit or kneel and say the rosaries. I can remember him saying the rosaries for Mom when she was so sick with cancer or before one of her surgeries. He was a man of faith and prayed frequently.

Only One Left

2011-05-16T06:00:00.001-07:00

Yes there is only one more grave request to be completed. This is for my Great Grandfather. He immigrated from Germany to New York City. He was a tailor by trade but he also owned a beer saloon in Astoria, Long Island City.

This is part of a letter from my great uncle Fred telling me a little about my Great Grandpa Joseph. I hope to see his grave stone soon if he has one.

Find A Grave Update

2011-05-15T06:00:00.032-07:00

Oh this is too exciting, another email!

Great News!

Find A Grave contributor, Christine has fulfilled your photo request for Annette Hartmann. To see the new photo(s), visit Annette Hartmann's online memorial by clicking on the link below:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=68941016

This is my second Mom's grave stone. I knew she had been an Army Nurse during WWII but now I know her rank. I also thought she signed up in Massachusetts where she is from but maybe she signed up in New York. It is a lead since I have never found any records of her in Massachusetts.

I had her veteran's flag that was on her coffin and I had it hanging outside of my townhouse back in the 90's. I went out one evening and came home and some one had stolen it. I was not a happy camper, I still get mad about it when I think of it. I guess if I had been smart maybe I should have place the flag in one of those triangle boxes. Oh well too late now. I was just proud to hang her flag.

My attempts to be a contributor have not been too successful. I found one open request and took the picture and submitted it. But every other time I have searched to find an open request they were claimed the day before I went in to check. I am set up to be notified by email when a request is placed but I have not received such an email, and yes my email is correct.

I was showing the pictures of the grave stones to my husband, who isn't really into genealogy and he said, "This is so cool that people are willing to take these pictures. What a great idea."

One small step for me and my ancestors.