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.

A New Year a New Start

Here is hoping I do better than I did last year. 

Life is busy with two girls in the house, one a teen and the other a pre-teen and it is never boring.

One day on social media I saw a link to an interesting list of question about your life and memories so I decided to use that as a jumping off place to start doing my genealogy blog again. What caught my eye was the first question was so easy.  

Here is the link to the questions: 

First Question: What is your full name? 

Explain why your parents gave you that name.

My full name is Mary Elizabeth Hartmann-Bowden

I was named after both my grandmothers, Mary Jirak Hartmann and Minnie Elizabeth Spahn Chaplin.

This is my Dad's Mom Mary Jirak I have heard from a great uncle in a letter she was very jovial and a great cook of Bohemian and German dishes. My Dad did not speak about her a lot, he was not jovial. A good guy but had a lot of hard times in his life.

This is my Mother's Mom, Minnie Elizabeth Spahn, she didn't like her name Minnie, so I always think of her as Minnie Elizabeth. My aunt, her sister told me this was her graduation from nursing school photo. She was a suffragette and was very upset when she went to vote and wasn't able to because she was married to and alien, an English man. I have an image of when she applied for citizenship after her husband died. 

Hartmann is my family name and when I married Richard I didn't want to change my last name, so we compromised and I hyphenated my last name.

I never meet my grandmothers as they had all died before I was born. I wish I new more about them.

I hope they are proud of how I have lived my life and honored their names. One of my most sacred memories I have is when I did the temple work for Minnie Elizabeth. We are an eternal family.

Happy Blogiversary to Me

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!

How I Used My Fun Page

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.

New Document and a New Spelling

Last night just before going to bed I found a 1910 Census with my Grandmother listed as a daughter with her 3 siblings and her mother as head of the house. 

You will notice that the last name is spelled Jirek. I have always seen the spelling as Jirak. Her Mom's name is correct her, sibling names are correct. Her age and her borthers' ages are correct. I have a different age for the sister but my original source might not be reliable on that.

The other interesting facts are Mary's brother Joseph is married but no wife is listed for him and there is a boarder an infant a William Doherty age 1 & 2/12. Where is his mother?


My great grandmother has been a widow since 1902, so for 8 years. According to this census she spoke Bohemian.

My Grandmother worked in a Cigarette factory and her brothers were painters. 

Well I have learned more and need to find out more. 

One small step for me and my ancestors.

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. 

Treasure found

While organizing by Main Genealogy Binder yesterday I found these interesting sheets. I had mailed these off to a great uncle and he sent them back to me filled out!! This pedigree sheets and his family group sheet. This was probably in the late 70's early 80. I had forgotten I had them. There is also a six page stationary size letter. It has been fun re-reading it.

In his letter Ed states that as a kid he aways liked going to my Grandmother's Mary house because she was so jovial. She was also a hard work and worked in factories so my dad could go to college. You might remember in March I wrote a post about Grandmother's smile and twinkle in her eye. Here is another post where I wonder about her smile it kind of makes you wonder what she is thinking. Of course that hat is best.



This is a family group sheet with all my great uncle's kids listed. Some of them are my age, that is why I covered there birthdays and place of births up. So I'm going to try to find them. Ed's grand father is my Great Grandfather Joseph Jirak.

My one regret is that I didn't take advantage of this relative years ago. I just became too busy with my life. Now to play catch up. But better late than never.

One small step for me and my ancestors.