Sharing Memories: Time with Grandma

Lorine McGinnis Schulze from Olive Tree Genealogy Blog has this wonderful weekly Sharing Memories blog post.  I'm not sure why I don't catch them every week but you can find all 37 of them on her side bar of her blog.  I'm going to have to review the list and see if there are any more topics I can use. 


Since my blog has multiple purposes of sharing my learning experiences about doing genealogy and sharing the stories of my family so they are not forgotten, this is a perfect topic. 

I remember two trip for sure to my Grandparents home in Nantucket Island.  This were my Mom's (my second mother's) parents.  My Mom did adopt me, when I was 10, so they are my adopted grandparents.  They are the only grandparent I knew, since both the Hartmanns and the Chaplins all died before I was born. 

Nantucket Island October 1949

Here are some pictures from my first trip in October of 1949, my parents had been married about 4 to 5 months.  As you can see I like cats from an early age.  Notice the basket my Mom is holding for the clothespins, is that one of those expensive Nantucket Island Baskets??  Of course I have no recollection of this trip. 

Mary, Donald & George 1956, Nantucket Island

The trip in 1956 I do remember but not all of the details.  We drove from Long Island New York to Cape Cod, Massachusetts and took the ferry to Nantucket Island.  In our new 1956 Chevy. 

Alfred B. Corkish & Mildred E. Swann Corkish 1956

The things I remember about my grandma's house, was we sleep upstairs and there was no bathroom upstairs.  We had to use the chamber pots because kids were not allowed to go downstairs after they had been put to bed.  She had an ice box and the ice man came two times a week with a big block of ice.  I had swordfish cooked for dinner and loved it.  We could have Rice Crispies for breakfast and I don't know why I enjoyed them there so much better than at home but I can remember sitting and listening to the snap, crackle and pop.  Maybe just because it was vacation and we had more time.  I can remember being the only child who was allowed to play the piano because I did not pound it like my brothers.  I remember ship in a bottle on the mantel. 

This is my Nantucket friend Miriam we wrote each other well into high school and maybe even nursing school.  I loved the beach and still do, I'm just too far away from the beach to enjoy it often.  Grandma's house was about a block away from the beach.  We would swing on the swings in Miriam back yard.  We went to pick fresh blueberries and my brother George was bitten by a tick and my Mom had to get it off of him. 

My Nantucket friend Miriam Hull

My parents slept in the front bedroom upstairs which was my mother's bedroom when she was a girl.  The house use to have two families in it one on the second floor and one on the first floor.  I guess eventually my grandparents bought the whole house.  There was one bathroom down stairs.  There was a front parlor where the piano was and the fireplace with the ship in a bottle.  There was a big kitchen and a big dinning room.

Last trip to Nantucket Island August 1958

This picture is from the last visit in 1958, we flew there that year.  This was taken just before we left to fly back to New York.  Noticed how dressed up we were. 

Grandma Corkish was legally blinds and she could just she shadows one of my fondest memories of her are the pictures books she made for us kids.  Oh how I wish I had one of them now.  She took those marble covered composition books and cut pictures out of magazines and pasted them on to the pages of the note books.  Sometimes the pictures would be upside down, but we didn't care.  I would sit for hours looking at each book, I think there were three of them one for each kid. 

My Family in History

Yesterday my cousins in England and I were looking into the immigration of the Chaplin brothers. William Chaplin one of the brothers was my grandfather, Herbert another brother was the grandfather of one of my cousins in England. Cousin Sue, a fourth cousin found a couple of dates. I did some more searching and found the ships they came in on I took screen shots of the ship's passenger list and sent them back to the cousins.  Sue sent back a message about the name of the ship. As I was looking at the passenger list and the name of the ship yesterday, I thought that sounds familiar. Today Sue reminded me why. It was sunk off the coast of Ireland by a Germany U-Boat and was the action that brought the US into WWI.



The Lusitania in NYC Sept. 13, 1907, Maiden Voyage

Yes, my great uncles sailed on the Lusitania, luckily they didn't sail on the last voyage but on the Maiden Voyage into New York City.   You can see their names below, in the red box.  Lines 3 and 4. Herbert & Bertram Chaplin.  If you look to the far right you will see the name of the nearest relative in England.  Walter T. Chaplin who is our Great Grandfather.

Lusitania Passenger List.



Next page of list

I do not know what passenger class they sailed.  Herbert was coming to visit Bertram who already lived in Brooklyn, Kings, New York.  My grand father immigrated in 1906 to live with his brother Bertram.  I haven't found when Bertram first arrived in New York, that will be one of my next searches.  Herbert did go back to England and marriage a gal there, which is how I have a second cousin in England. 

Actually these brothers are four of ten siblings, so I have a lot of  cousins in England.  I just don't know them all yet.

 

Memory Jogger: Lessons and Hobbies

I forgot which blog I found this suggestion, and I started this post back in May and just found it again.  I haven't been doing much on my blogs too busy with work, organizing my Genealogy files, both paper and computer.  What a time consuming activity that is.  So I'm going to finish this now, why waste the potential.

This was a good memory jogger for me, it was about lessons or hobbies we did in our families. I wanted piano lessons as a kid and wasn't able to have them.  My parents didn't have extra money for something they didn't think I would stick to.  When I was in my late 20's I started lessons.  When I told my Dad I was taking lessons he was curious as to why I would do that since I would never be a concert pianist.  Like that is the only reason why someone should learn how to play the piano. The little bit of talent and ability I had came in handy while I was on my mission in Bolivia.  I used my basic piano skills to teach the first book of piano lessons to the kids in my mission and my companions who were more accomplished did the more advance students. It worked very well. I took more lessons when I came home. But when I married a fellow with 3 kids that was the end of my piano time. Some day I would like to pick it up again.

The similar thing happened with sewing I begged my Mom to teach me how to sew but she didn't want to, I really don't remember the reason.  One afternoon Mom and Dad went out and I took a part one of my full skirts and made a pair of culottes out of the skirt.  I cut out the pieces for the culottes by following the pattern and sewed all the seams back up.  I even had the waste band back on.  The only thing it didn't have was the zipper.  My Mom was so surprised she decide I really wanted to sew and she took me to J.C. Penny's for sewing lessons.  I can remember buying fabric on sale for $0.50/yard around 63.  I sewed all my own cloths for many years, I made a lot of my cloths in high school, my formal for the senior prom, all my cloths for my mission and I made cloths into my 30's.  Now I can't stand sewing cloths.  I made some holiday scrub tops about 10 years ago and that was the end of that.  I much rather make quilts. 

Mary 1965 Graduation Day, in a dress I made.

When I made that culottes my Dad said, "Mary must get her sewing talent from her great grandfather."  My great grandfather Joseph Hartmann was a tailor.
 

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today would be my Dad's 98th Birthday if he was still with us.  He is on his wedding day to my Mom, Annette Corkish.  He was 36 in this picture on June 25th 1949, just a couple of weeks until his birthday.

Some of his favorite sayings are:
        There is no such thing as a free lunch.
        If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well.
        If you want something you have to work for it.
        If you can read you can do anything you want in this life.

I'm sure there were more but I can not think of them at this time. 

One of my memories I have of him is he had a money jar in the kitchen cabinet and he knew every penny that was in it and I mean every cent.  It was very difficult to take any money from the jar because he would miss the money and he would point out to you exactly how much was missing.  I only tried once.  He had a thin stack of half sheets of paper and he would divide the paper into eight equal parts.  One square for each day of the week and a total square.  He used both sides of that paper.  That is how he accounted for all his money.  Everyday he would write down what he spent and totaled it on the end of the week.  He had no credit cards until later in life.  He was practical with money.   He believed in work and working hard. 

Well Dad, I hope you are having a good day!
Love me,

Wordless Wednesday

My Great Uncle Walter Victor Chaplin WWI

Picture sent to me by my second cousin in England.

Thanks Cuz!

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. 

More Questions than Answers

While doing some 1881 UK Census research yesterday to write a post about the kind of work my grandparents did I found some interesting information.  In the first imagine we see my great x2 grandfather William John, his wife Elizabeth and two of their children.   I saw this census a couple of weeks ago and didn't notice anything strange.  I never thought about the other kids and where they were. 

So yesterday I went to look at the census of the same year 1881, to see what kind of work my great grandfather did.  It is easier to see the imagine of the census on line then printed out, I searched for him instead of his father.   And this is when I found the imagine below.  You also need to read the line that is crossed out.

William K, Walter T & Herbert H, were on 17 Mealcheaper St, and they all had jobs. It even said the head and the wife were away from the home right on the census record. William John & Elizabeth Jane where on 32 Broad St, with Ernest & Frederick. It looks like the same town when I Google map it, walking directions and it’s only .2 mile from each other.   That is not a very far distance.

This is just page two that list the other two brothers and Walter T is my great grandfather.

I mean I have no real idea of what life was like in 1881 and I'm sure there were very good reasons as to why they lived apart.  I just don't know the reasons and I wish I knew.  It just blew me away but then again I’m coming from my time frame and my life experiences. I can tell you when I was alone at 16 with a sick mother and three younger brothers I was scared a lot and after she died it was even worst. My Dad was a fireman and he worked 24 on and 48 off, so I was the chief cook and bottle washer when he was gone.   I didn't like it but I did what had to be done for our family just as my father did what had to be done for the family.

 He had to work he had four kids at home the oldest 16 and the youngest was 6. 

 I also believe my ancestors did what had to do but it gave me many questions. 

Why??

Where is Agnes? She should be 13. Was she sent to be a servant? I don’t find her when I search for her by name, I don’t see her on the 1871 Census either. I just found an Agnes Jane that died in the 3rd quarter 1868, on the FreeBMD Index on Ancestry. I wonder if it is my Agnes Jane?  I have a birth year of 1868. The FreeBDM Index list her as born in the 2nd quarter of 1868.  So that must be why there is no Agnes on the Census.


William John was the manager of the coffee tavern on this census, maybe he didn’t have room for all the kids, maybe they didn’t want to lose the other apartment?


Leaving 3 boys 17, 16, & 14 alone? It was a different age and I’m sure they were working too hard to survive to have energy for rough housing or other teenage boy mischief.

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.