Fearless Females: Document with a Narrative

Lisa Alzo is repeating her series for Women's History Month.


March 9 — Take a family document (baptismal certificate, passenger list, naturalization petition, etc.) and write a brief narrative using the information.

This is the marriage certificate of my Maternal Grandmother Minnie Elizabeth to William Thomas Chaplin. I don't know much about her as a person or her married life.  I think the picture below says it all.

Here are my grandparents on a roof in Brooklyn, Kings, New York.  I really like this picture, they look very comfortable together and in love.  She looks more relaxed her than in other pictures.

That is not a pipe in my grandfather's mouth it is a pen mark.

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.