I am grateful for the Ancestors that Immigrated to America

This week's prompt for the weekly themes to write up something about was Immigration. This is my post about Immigration and my ancestors.

This is a Scrapbooking page I made for my Ancestors book. It lists the years they arrived here in America. I made this about 10 years ago. Now when I looked at it I think I should add the countries 

they came from. So let me list that now. 

Joseph Hartmann is from Germany, 1868.

Susanne Naef is from Germany, unknown.

Joseph Jirak is from Bohemia before 1884.

Katerina Holounova is from Chrtníč, 3 Havlička Brod, Vzsočna Kraj, Czechia. I just found her hometown 

last summer in July of 2023.

Fredrick and Anna Spahn  came as a couple with several children from Germany, before 1885. 

My grandmother was the only child born in America.

William Chaplin came from England and is the only Ancestor that came in through Ellis Island. 

Below their names are the many question I would like to ask them about their experience of coming to America.

Family Lore

One of the prompts for #52 Ancestors for 2024 is Family Lore. 

What is  family lore?

I guess the simplest explanation of family lore are the stories told in the home about the family. Usually from the parents 

or older generations to the younger generation. 

 My Dad was quite the story teller. Some of his stories were hard to believe and some you know, are just not impossible. 

This story I was able to disprove and verify. That might sound strange to you but wait, you will see what I mean.

Dad always told us we were as American 

as those who came over on the Mayflower. 

As a kid I didn't think much about it, I knew I was American and that was all that was important to me. 

When I started doing Family History at 30, 

I realized he was not correct. 

His grandfather came from Germany in 1868 and my grandfather on my mother's side came from England in 1906. So, I am still American but not a decedent of the Mayflower. 

I though he told this story because he was of German decent and had lived through both World Wars and had maybe faced some discriminations. He lived in a German area and went to a school for the German community and had a German last name of Hartmann.

Later in my life and after doing more family research on Annette Corkish, who is my Bonus Mother and my dad's second wife and the mother of my three brothers. And after meeting cousins on Social Media and Ancestry.

One of those cousins showed me how her line goes 

back to Henry Samson from the Mayflower. 

Henry Samson, was a 16 year old on the Mayflower.

Annette my Bonus Mom

Thus, the story is disproved and verify at the same time. 

Right for my three brothers but not me. I think my dad just included me in the group as a decedent because he wanted us four kids to feel like one family and not draw attention to my mother who had died when I was an infant. 

So, sorry Dad that I didn't believe you. 

All I can claim is that I was raised by a descendent of the Mayflower. Annette was a good Mom so that is all that really matters.

Standing Dad George, Mary, brother George, sitting Annette and brother Don.

This picture was taken in Whitestone, NY, before we moved to Florida and my youngest brother was born.

For clarification my mother Edith died a week before my first birthday and Annette my bonus mom died a week before my 17th birthday. Annette was the only mom I knew. 

Favorite Photo

This week's prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, 

is a favorite photo. Of course, there are many and I probably have one for each ancestor. But when I read the prompt this is the photo that comes to mind.

These are my maternal grandparents, William Thomas Chaplin and Minnie Elizabeth Spahn. It was taken on the roof of the apartment building they lived in, Brooklyn, Kings, New York.  

It is a very relaxed and intimate pose. The fingers intertwined. His hand was on her waist. The leaning. 

The dark mark by his mouth is from a pen. 

I asked my Aunt Bea, my mother's sister about this picture, and below is the information she shared with me. 

Click on the image to enlarge

Here is the same picture colorized by My Heritage. 

I'd Like to Meet...

I am looking forward to meeting my mother Edith Inez Chaplin. 

Yes, you read that right. My mother died a week before my first birthday from Breast Cancer. 

She was 32 years old. 

Feb 5, 1949, my mother Edith died from the complications of Breast Cancer. It was one week before my first birthday. 

I have wondered what she was like and what she saw in my father. Remember all kids have a funny view of their parents. What things did she enjoy, her favorite color you know those normal kinds of things. Dad didn't tell me much about her maybe because he had a new wife and maybe because it was too painful for him to remember.

I can remember when they told me I had a different mother than my brothers. I think I was six. It was the second time, they told me about my mother. They had told me the year before but I didn't remember that. They gave me a compact with an "E" engraved on it and her picture. I, unfortunately, lost the compact.

I also wonder what she worried about as she lost her battle with cancer and what things she would have liked to tell me if she could. She was diagnosed in August and was gone by February, after spending 25 years of my life as an Oncology nurse, I know she had a very aggressive kind of cancer.

What I do know about her I know from my Aunt Bea & Uncle Bill her siblings. Her nickname was "The Swede" because she was so blond when she was little, as her picture above shows. As a little kid, she had an active imagination and was frequently caught talking to her boys, her imaginary friends. As a young girl of 9, her Dad passed away and she had to fend for herself after school as everyone else in the household had to go to work.

When I went to New York that summer I was 15, and the first I did when I walked into Aunt Bea's house was kick my shoes off. My Aunt tells me, "That is exactly what your mother always did as soon as she walked in the house the shoes came off." It made me feel very good to know I had a habit of my mother's even without knowing it. She liked to sing and would sing harmony with Uncle Bob, Aunt Bea's husband.

As a teenager, if she didn't want to go out with a guy again, or didn't want to give a guy her phone number she would give them the phone number to the police station. Now that sounds like something I would do. Come to think of it I have. 

I used to think I got all my sass from my Dad maybe not.

She worked as a waitress and had office jobs. She eloped at 18 to a guy about 10 years older but that ended in divorce. I was told my Dad's parents didn't like this fact and they waited until his parents died to marry.  But they died in 1943, I think the delay also had something to do with WWII, as the war ended in September of 1945 and they married in October of 1945.

My Aunt Em, my Dad's sister liked both of my mothers and enjoyed them both as much as if they had been sisters. I don't know when or how she & my dad meet. She became a Catholic to marry him. And that is about all I know. I like this last picture of my mother, she looks like a really classy gal. I also think some of the fashions from the forty's had a really classic style and made women look great.

I just remembered one more story. My Mom use to tell me that my Mother and Dad wanted to have children really bad, and they had been married for 3 years before I came along. The story goes that once the doctor told Edith she couldn't have any children she got pregnant. That was really cool of my second mom to share such a story with me.

As I re-read the letter from my uncle and aunts everyone expressed a lot of love for both of my mothers and that I was always to respect and honor both of them. I think I have.

Week 8: Heirlooms

A couple of weeks ago the prompt for the 52 weeks 52 Ancestors was: "Is there a special item that's been passed down in your family? I wanted to share the three special pieces I have. 

This is my maternal grandmother Minnie Elizabeth Chaplin cameo ring. It is very tight on my little finger,either she had small fingers or I have big ones. I have worn it on very special occasions but never for daily use. Being a nurse rings have to be practical, this is beautiful but not practical. This ring was given to my mother's older sister Beatrice but she had three boys and when I was born she gave it to my mother. The setting sits up almost 1/2". I have never seen this worn by any family member, not even in pictures. It was saved for me. My Aunt Bea was a lot of fun and made be feel like part of the family.


This Cameo pin belongs to my Mom's mother or grandma Mildred Corkish. (My second Mom) I do remember my Mom wearing this pin. Again since I was the only girl I was given this pin also. I think maybe I worn it once. Mostly it lives in the safe. I'm not a fancy dresser so I have no idea what I would wear it on. It sure is a beautiful cameo. I might just have to find something to wear this on!!



My Mom (second-mom) Annette Carolyna Corkish worked as a nurse. She was an army nurse during World War II and she was the nurse who took care of my mother Edith Inez Chaplin, when she died of breast cancer. I can remember her working at Booth Memorial Hospital in Flushing. This is a picture of the charm bracket her co-workers gave her in 3-6-1959 from the OBS staff. This is just before we moved to Florida. She obviously was well liked by her co-workers. And yes she is the reason I became a nurse. She never wanted me to be one, she said the work was hard. I never regretted my decision to be a nurse.

When I was looking for my treasures and after I saw them again I realized I had forgotten how many I really have. Finding all these things made me feel very blessed. Something I think I tend to forget. My family tried hard to make traditions to have and to pass down. I trying to survive after the lost of two mothers before age 17, I felt the pain and lost but forgot the good stuff. This has helped me to remember.

52 Ancestors: Week 7 Valentine

From Amy's email: Week 7: Valentine

Is there a love story in your family tree? Maybe a couple was married on Valentine's Day or you have a valentine that one ancestor gave to another. Maybe you have an ancestor named Valentine.

Since I don't know any love stories of my ancestors, heck I don't even know how my parents meet. I decided I needed to write about how my husband and I meet. So here you go.

Richard and I meet on Saturday July 20th of 1991 at a 

LDS Singles church dance. I knew right off the bat that he was younger than myself. He is 8 years young. 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. I was impressed with the fact that he wasn’t crazy about his job as a bank teller but he was doing something to change that situation. He was going to school to learn a new trade. 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 their type, I was too strong, too intelligent, too independent, too intimidating and too everything else. I am not sure what is wrong with being intelligent, independent, or strong. 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 and 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. We dance some more and talked. 

He invited me out to eat after the dance. 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. I thought if he isn’t here in 5 more minutes I will leave. He made it before his time was up. I was actually getting up to walk out. He had run out of gas across the street from a gas station. He had to push his car to the gas station to fill up his tank. 

Where we meet for breakfast

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 it, “And I define crap.” That did not scare him off. He made sure he had my last name and my 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 and 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 from each other. I didn’t meet his children 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 a while and they came to live with us in my 950 Square foot 2 bedroom two bath town home. 

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 difference between men and women. After the workshop he has 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 a 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 to marry on 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. 

Our wedding day

We were married in the Mesa Arizona Temple. It was warm that day and I was very hot in that dress taking pictures.

He tells people the Lord put me right in his lap. I had sat down by someone I knew and Richard was on my other side. When I finished speaking to my friend, I turned to Richard and said, “Hi, what’s your name?” It was his first singles dance after his divorce that was 2 years earlier. I was only going to one dance a month because they were boring and painful. There is only so much rejection a person can take. I tell him I had to move to Arizona for him to find me. 

Our Wedding day with our kids

This March, 2018 will be our 26th Wedding anniversary. It hasn’t always been easy with blended families and all, his parents dying and two sisters, taking in and raising our great nieces and all that life brings but it has been worth it. 

Last year on our 25th Anniversary trip.

Favorite Name Week 6

From Amy Johnson Crow's email this week. 

Favorite name could be a name of an ancestor that makes you smile. Perhaps it's an unusual name.

Minnie Elizabeth 

My Favorite name is Minnie Elizabeth from my ancestors. She is my maternal grandmother. The family lore is she didn't like her name Minnie. I don't know why she didn't like it. Maybe she didn't like it because there was an older sister who reportedly died at sea as the family came to America, who was also named Minnie. I have not been able to prove or disprove that story yet. I know a lot of countries used the same name over and over. I am glad we no longer do that. 

So because I learned she did not like Minnie I always refer to her as Minnie Elizabeth. I was named after both my grandmothers, so I am Mary Elizabeth. So our middle name is a common link. 

There are several posts about her on my side bar, just look for Minnie Elizabeth. She sounds like a bit of a dynamite person. She was a suffragette for the right of women to vote. She was a widow at a young age. 

She died too young. 

Week 5 Census

The Week 5 prompt is "In the Census." What intriguing find have you made in a census? What has a series of census records shown you? Do you have an ancestor who constantly ages only 7 years between censuses? (Those are fun!)

I was thinking of using my extra post that I did last week for this topic. Since I found so many interesting details about my mother on the 1940 Census. But that felt a little bit like cheating. You can read about it here if you want.

I also thought about sharing the first census I ever worked on, where I found my Grandfather as a son. It was an exciting moment for me. A first find after being away from Genealogy for a very long time. 

I have decided to go in a completely different direction.
On Tuesday I took a class at the Mesa Arizona 

Family Search Library. 

It was on Irfanview, the ultimate image viewer. 

This little free download is very slick. 

I can't wait to use it more. 

If you do decide to use it and download it, it was recommended to the class to download it from CNET. 

I did do that. One of the other students was confused because it comes in as iview.  That is the correct file name. 

So what is so great about this little software. 

Let me show you.

In the 1920 US Census my grandparents are on the bottom of one page and my mother is on the top if the next page. 

I am sure this happens to a lot of people. 

Above are my grandparents and Aunt and Uncle. 

Here is my mother.

And just to get a better idea, here is the top of the Census, with the column names. 

Now with a simple click of a couple of buttons I can make this. All three sections into one imagine. So much nicer for a digital scrapbook or even a paper family history scrapbook. Or even for your digital files or genealogy software.

This was new to me and I feel it is a handy tool and worth sharing. 

Happy Searching!

Interesting Details

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

I was also transcribing each document. 

Except the marriage license which was hard to read. 

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

I have many years of not working on genealogy. 

So I started with her Birth Certificate. 

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

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

The 1940 US Census presented two interesting facts. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

about 10 years older than Edith.

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

I don't know how long they were separated. 

I don't know when she meet my Dad. 

My Dad and Edith married a year after the annulment.

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

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

If I asked him any questions about his parents or grandparents 

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

you don't need to know them."

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

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

Even though it is labor intensive it is worth it. 

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

Week 4 Invite to Dinner

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

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

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

Here is one of my favorite pictures of my mother.

Edith's Individual Information from my Genealogy Program.

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

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

What would we talk about over dinner? Everything!! 

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

And would not talk about the past. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Longevity week 3

Longevity is defined as the length or duration of life. 

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

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

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

That knowledge does not make the loss any easier. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aged to Perfection and Polished like a fine Gem.

So no matter what age you are enjoy it.

Here is the link to Paul's blog post and 

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

If you want to do one of your own.

Favorite Photo

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is a transcription of what was written,

Who Are These People:

Transcription My additional information is in Italics

Couple on Roof

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

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

Year: circa 1919 or 1920

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

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

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

Bird's Eye View of the apartment and Monastery.

Google Map. 

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