Favorite Photo

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is a transcription of what was written,

Who Are These People:

Transcription My additional information is in Italics

Couple on Roof

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

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

Year: circa 1919 or 1920

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

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

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

Bird's Eye View of the apartment and Monastery.

Google Map. 

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

Sharing Memories: Grandparent's Work

Lorine at Olive Tree Genealogy suggested a blogging topic of Parents and Grandparents Occupations.

Well it took a little time to research all the different census records and to take notes but I finally came up with a list of occupations for my grandparents.  Since all my grandparents where gone before I was born I do not know them personally. 
I do know my adoptive grandparents and my Grandpa Alfred Corkish was a fisherman.  When I was little I was told he was a whaler and he sailed on ships to do the whaling.  He had a model sailing ship in a bottle on his mantel that I remember admiring when we went to visit when we were little.  He is the only male grandparent that did one career his whole life.  Every census record had his occupation as fisherman, except for when he was a kid.  I don't remember him telling us stories about fishing, but them I only remember seeing him twice, during two different summers. 
 
My other grandpas did several different jobs in their life time. 
George Joseph Hartmann
1930 Clerk
1920 Gas Maker for Presto lights
1910 truck driver
1900 at school

William Thomas Chaplin
1920 motorman for the rail road
1910 haven't found him yet
1901 England a baker
1891 scholar

Joseph Hartmann
1910 Retail merchant liquours
1900 Tailor and Hotel Keeper
1880 Tailor
1870 Tailor
1868 Farmer on passenger list

Walter Thomas Chaplin great grandpa
1901 Piano Dealer
1891 Furniture salesman
1881 shopman
1871 scholar

All my grandmothers and great grandmas were mothers and housewives both very demanding work.  One grandmother Minnie Elizabeth my maternal grandmother did work outside of the home.  The 1930 census list her as a clerk she had been a widow for 5 years at that time and my mother was only 9 when her father died, so she had to work as did the older siblings.  She had graduated from nursing school but I do not know if she ever worked as a nurse.  Maybe she did before she was married.

This has been fun to look at all the occupations and wonder about the work they did.  Or the adjustments needed to be made to be a farmer then a tailor.  I think of a tailor as someone who works in a small shop but maybe he was a tailor in a factory in NYC.  Did my great grandpa play a piano when he sold them?  I guess we are just going to have a lot to talk about when we all meet again. 

Sharing Memories: Mom's Work

Lorine at Olive Tree Genealogy suggested a blogging topic of Parents and Grandparents Occupations.

Here is a previous story I wrote about my Mom's work as a nurse. Lots of memories of this also. We use to meet her at the bus stop in Whitestone when she came home from work. My Mom didn't learn to drive until after we moved to Florida in 1959 at the age of 40. She never needed to drive in New York but she sure needed to in Florida.

When she first became a nurse she couldn't even take Vital Signs only physicians could do that. Nursing sure has come a long way, nurses now do very complex evaluations of patients when they are in ICU.

She use to come home from work, and take her uniform off, sit in the chair and role her stockings off down to the ankles in sit in the arm chair in her slip exhausted. I know the feeling. Her nursing cap was an oval shaped upside down cupcake cup, with a black ribbon. I wish now I had taken that from home when I left home. I don't have her school pin either. I'm not sure what school of nursing she graduated from but it was in Boston.   This picture of a nursing cap is very similar to my Mom's.

Mom was also an army nurse during World War II, again I have no stories about this or pictures.  When I asked questions when I saw some of her pictures when I was 11 she told me, I will tell you about it when you are older.  Well I never heard the stories.  I had her old army footlocker for years, that I used as a coffee talbe when I first left home and had my own appartment.
The only thing I know about my Mother, Edith is she worked as a secretary.  Maybe when the 1940 census comes out I will know more, she was only 13 on the the 1930 census and she was a student at that time.

Sharing Memories: Dad's Work

Lorine at Olive Tree Genealogy suggested a blogging topic of Parents and Grandparents Occupations.


My parents are easy to remember. My Dad was a NYC fireman, his station was in the Bronx. I can remember him going off to work in his fireman's uniform and coming home. I even have a picture of me in his hat when I was a toddler but I don't have a picture of him in his uniform. He use to ride the bus to work over the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge into the Bronx.

When he retired from the NYC Fire Department after 20 years we moved to Florida. Since I was the oldest at 11 and a younger brother was on the way he returned to work. For the first little while when we first lived in Florida he worked at a Farm Store a drive through dairy store. They where great, drive in buy milk, eggs, bread and/or ice cream and drive out. Never leave your car. When my kids were young I missed these stores, they are not here in Arizona.

Anyway back to my Dad's Occupation he did find a job as a Fireman again for Bar Harbor Fire Department. He later told me he lied about his age to get the job, there must have been an age limit. Of course being a fireman in NYC was a lot more dangerous and strenuous than in South Florida. Bar Harbor was almost an hour South of where we lived in Fort Lauderdale, so he drove to work. Later it became part of the Miami-Dade Metro Fire Department.

He actually drove the hook and ladder truck as a fireman.

Today is Dad's Work, tomorrow Mom's work and later this week grandparents.

The Unknown Couple

One of my new found cousins in England sent me this picture today. We do not know the couple, my cousin thinks the young man is a Chaplin. We know 3 Chaplin brothers came to the USA and lived in Brooklyn, New York. We know it was taken in Brooklyn New York. I think her dress is more 1890's in style than 1900's but I'm not a fashion whiz. In other words I have no clue what year the dress is from.

This picture evokes strong emotion in me, she almost looks like she is grieving a lost and he is comforting her. It is very tender and caring.



Here is a picture of my grandmother at about age 36, with my aunt Bea & my mother Edith. Do you think there is any resemblance? Part of me thinks there is, or is it just because I want it to be my grandmother and grandfather?

Almanac Inspired Post

The Family Curator Blog is hosting an Almanac post suggestions with a weekly theme. This weeks theme is gardening. Now I don't really remember my Dad gardening but I do remember we always had a lovely flower garden each summer when we lived in New York. Here he is in July of 1949 working in the front yard. The dogwood tree bloomed each year and we had Lilies of the Valley. If he did work in the garden it had to be on his days off from the firehouse. We had a lot of yard in our home in Whitestone New York, there was a slopping front yard and a two level back yard. The lower level backyard was the well kept grass. The upper level back yard had the swing set and sand box for us kids.

When we moved to Florida he had planted lovely tropical plants around the house.


There are some other pictures of me in the front yard with him on this day but in this picture I'm sitting on the steps up to the upper level back yard. Sitting under the dogwood tree, which would have lovely blooms in spring. In front of the dogwood tree was a 3 foot wide garden area that ran the length of the lower level back yard. This is were all the lovely flowers would be each spring and summer.

These pictures where from a photo album he had made and yes that was my nick name you see across the top of my picture. And if I was in a bad mood I was called "sour puss". And I have to admit it does fit. Luckily I'm not in a bad mood often.

Treasure Thursday

I thought of this post just as I got into bed last night. Knowing me if I had gotten up and completed the post at that time it would be another hour before I went to bed and it was already late. So here I am early this morning.

This handsome couple are my Maternal Grandparents, William Thomas Chaplin and Minnie Elizabeth Spahn Chaplin. The picture was taken in 1919 or 1920. The occasion was a visit from one Grandpa's co-worker who took the picture.

They are on the roof of their apartment building in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. The building in the background is the Convent of the Precious Blood. It ran for a whole block across the street from their home. That is not a pipe in Grandpa's month it is a pen mark.

I like the pose, so different then what we would do today and seems romantic to me.

An interesting tidbit is my grandfather purchased a Catholic prayer book from the convent when my Mother married my Father. She became Catholic to married my Dad.

This information was given to me by my Aunt Bea the oldest of the Chaplin children, my Mother was the youngest.

Look What I found!

While checking out hints on Ancestry.com I found two fun documents. Well I don't know if fun is the right word but when you are into Genealogy it is fun. I found my grandpa George's WW I and WW II draft registration cards. To bad this is so hard to read, but I was able to transcribe some of it. Maybe someday I'll fine a better copy.


This what I was able transcribe. Some of it like the address looked vaguely familiar so I checked my Dad's birth certificate and it is the same address. The birth dates may not match but I'm sure if the card says Apr or Sept. His work address also looks to be the same at the one on his WW II draft registration card. It does also have his physical description on the right side. Yes the stout gene is a very Hartmann trait!



Now this document really made me excited. Notice the address, it is the same address I lived in since I was born and until I moved to Florida in 1959. This is the house my Dad told us he and his Dad built.
I didn't find my Dad's card for WW II, he did not serve in the armed forces because he was a New York City fireman, so he was exempt, or so the story goes.