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.

What a Shock!

I am in the process of obtaining a passport to go to England next year with my cousin. We are going to meet our second cousins on our grandfather's side. 

All Blog Post Need a Picture.

To get a passport you need to have a birth certificate with your parents names on it. My certificate just has my name, date and place of birth. I guess it called a short form. My Dad requested this in the 1961. 

I requested a copy of my birth certificate from New York City by using the third party service that is available and it is fast. 

Last night I received and email with the following information.

evitalsystem@health.nyc.gov	5:19 PM (16 hours ago)
to me

Your order has been voided due to the following reasons: The mother's first and last name you provided is incorrect. Any payments will be refunded. Please do not reply to this email. This email is sent from the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.

I was shocked! What? Why? I know who my mother is, I am even DNA matches to second cousins from the same line. Stung and not thinking clearly and wondering what they are talking about and it being 11 PM; I posted on New York City Genealogy group on Facebook. The next best place to go to get ideas.

I received some very helpful suggestions. 

One gal suggested I send a copy of my parent's marriage certificate and my short form birth certificate. To show that Edith was my mother.

Or Two

One person asked if my step mother adopted me. Yes, she did when I was 10 or 11. I remember going to a lawyers office and signing the papers with my parents. The lawyer thought I was very clever, because of how I signed my name. It didn't fit on the line provide, I had to use my full name, Mary Elizabeth and Surname and I made it fit by continuing under the printed text next to the line. My Dad and Mom wanted me to be adopted as we were moving to Florida from New York City and he didn't want any one to question my step mom's rights. Plus she loved me and this made me her daughter. 

Because I was adopted a new certificate was issued with Annette being my mother. I have two adopted daughters I know this happens. I did not apply this knowledge to myself. I think of Edith as my mother and Annette as my second Mom who raised me. So my birth certificate should have Edith on it. 

As you can see many heads do help us solve a problem. And even though we know all the facts, some times getting the documentation to prove the facts hit a road block. Plus we forget some important details along the way.

Luckily, the state of New York passed a bill that adoptees can get their birth records. The bill is on the governor's desk waiting for his signature. 

I might see if I can get a copy of both birth certificates at the same time. If I can't I am going to order a birth certificate with my step mom's name and when the bill is signed I will get one with my birth mother's name on it.  

The good thing is I didn't have to show my birth certificate to get my passport because I already had one, that proved who I was. It is just 40 years old. I still want a copy of my full birth certificate for genealogical purposes. 

31 Days to Better Genealogy Day 4

I really have been busy working on my special project mentioned in Day 1. So this my Day 4 is way out of sequence from the hints I am following by Amy Johnson Crow but it is the hint that I have been working on. In her book 31 Days to Better Genealogy this is Day 31. So I jumped to the end. Right, it is my project, I can do it anyway I want. This hint is to write something, any thing, even just a page on an ancestor. 

I watched a webinar about using Scivener to help organize your writing. It sounded like a good tool to use to help me with my project of writing about each one of my ancestors for the Chaplin line. I found some more videos on how to use the program and downloaded the free trial. 

What I like about it, I can make sections, or pages and have one main idea on each page. I can move them around to rearrange the order. It lays it out in a way that makes it easier to write than to put it in one long word document. I can add pictures and make side notes, like check for this. I even copied my timeline for Edith from excel and pasted it onto a page. I also can add footnotes.  The program also has the ability to change fonts.

I am writing this more in a story form instead of an official case report. I haven't figured out how to do an official case report. I have some ideas but I will save that for a later day. 

Cork Board

On the cork board it a place to hold your index cards for your project.

Top of First Page

This is the top of the first page that is just the beginning of Edith's life. With an image of her Birth Certificate. 

Bottom of Page 1 with Footnote

This is the bottom of the first page that shows the footnote I added.  Oh my gosh my memory is gone. I forgot how I add this. I am thinking I took it from my genealogy software. 

This is the page where I inserted my timeline from excel. I just copied and pasted. 

I did just print page one to see how it looks and it looks very nice and the foot note is at the bottom. Much easier to add than I think it would be in a word document. 

So I am learning lots and feeling like I have a good start to my project. Once I finish with my first draft of each page, I will have someone else proof it for me. Once I make those corrections it will be on the her father. 

31 Days to Better Genealogy Day 3 or a Rabbit Hole

Well Monday, yesterday, September 9th, I was going to work on Day 3 and do that activity.  Which was to look closer at Census reports. But I had done that on 6th for my person of interest, Edith, my mother. So I began thinking that I really am working on this Big Project for a family reunion, so maybe I should start a new Genealogy file and make sure all my sources are correctly entered. I know they aren't correctly entered in my current file. So I started a new file and. I was adding pictures, since that is easy to complete and I couldn't find my mother's pictures. Not on my computer my hard drive or my cloud backup. I have no idea what cyber hole they fell into, but they are in it. Since I don't have that many pictures of Edith, I decided to scan them again, as TIFs which is another thing I had on my to do list. 

Now do all these steps correctly are important to do so others can follow what work you completed and how to find where you left off, but I still kind of feel like I went down a rabbit hole. 

I did think of two facts I can look for, her Christening as an infant and her Baptism as an adult. To marry my Dad she became Catholic. So now I have add those items to my to do list. So it wasn't wasted time, I learned some things, which is always good. I am also not as well organized as I think I am. 

Here is my favorite picture of Edith. 

Happenstance, Serendipitous Event

Yesterday, September 7th, while reviewing the Timeline on my mother Edith. I found a few things I wanted to check out. I wanted to find her on the New York State Census of 1925, and 1935. I was able to find her on the 1925 Census. There are no more New York State Census records after 1925. 

I also wanted to fine more marriage or divorcee records from her first marriage. I didn't find anything more on the first marriage or the divorcee. 

I was very surprised to find a hint for an obituary. It was a Beta: Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1940-1955. To see the imagine I had to sign into Newspaper.com. Luckily for me I won a year long subscription to the site from my local genealogy society. So I signed in and was able to see and read the obituary. 

I could share the imagine on Facebook from Newspapers.com but the copy I saved to my computer, what the call a clip is copyrighted. So I am not sure how to handle that.  So, I am going to use this imagine with all the information of where it came from. 

Here is the transcription:

HARTMANN - Edith (nee Chaplin), February 5, 1949, beloved wife of George Hartmann; devoted mother of Mary Elizabeth; dear sister of Beatrice Schaub and William Chaplin. Reposing at her late residence, 14-20 131st Street, College Point. Requiem Mass on Wednesday, 10 a.m., St. Fidelis R. C. Church, College Point. Interment St. Mary's Cemetery Flushing. 

It was a very sensitive moment for me. 

So I looked up the address of her last residence and this is the house I found. I have a vague memory of a house like this one. That my Dad's sister lived in when I was little. All I remember is it was in College Point and she had a very old fashion stove in it. Not a gas range like I had in my house. I wonder if this is the same house. 

31 Days to Better Genealogy Day 2

I didn't say I was going to work on them daily, just do the 31 activities.

So Day 2 activity is to create a time line. Can be done in any format but it is to help you find missing details. So since I am working on the Chaplin Project I decided to start with my mother, Edith. I will be needing to do this for each person in my project, but she was the easiest to start with. I am using an Excel spreadsheet.

So I started my timeline.

It was interesting to me that I found a few things that I can look up that will just fill in some blanks, not necessarily add anything new. I noticed I didn't have any New York State Census records. I know she live only in Brooklyn, Manhattan and College Point, but it would be nice to show it in records. Something I can look for. 

There is one detail I can do some research on.  

My Mother was married before she married my Dad. I am not sure for how long. I all I know was that it was when she was young, he was older and the marriage was annulled. I have that information from my parents' marriage license. 

The close up of the marriage license with the previous marriage listed. 

She was also listed on the 1940 US Census as Married, using her maiden name, and no husband listed. Listed with mother as lodgers.

So then I decided to look at every file I have on Edith and look at what I found. Yes, it has been sitting in my folder, 

for I don't know how long. 

It looks like they were married for almost 9 years. I am concluding from the 1940 Census record that they did not live together for all those years. 

I will do some research but it isn't earth shatter if I don't know all the details. It is just an example of someone I thought the research was done for and I found more details I can look for with the help of filling in a timeline. 

So new tools can add new skills. And help you find forgotten items. If I had learned to write summaries as I did my research I might have remembered I had this information. I am already finding more things to improve. 

Upward and On-Ward to better Genealogy!

A Missionary Story: The voice of an Angel

Of course, I want to include some stories from my mission in my series of ME Stories. It was an amazing and hard experience but I love it and learned and grew a lot from my experience.

I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 17 July 1977, at the young age of 29. On 5 July 1979 I entered the MTC (Misionary Training Center) I went to the Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission as a Welfare Sister (Hermaña de Bienestar). 

My companion and I were working with the Young Women and their leader ship, having a training meeting. We had an opening song, and I was conducting. Now you need to know, that I am not the best singer. I enjoy singing and I don't hesitate to sing, I know sometime I sound like a frog croaking but I have the spirit. And I know the power of sacred music.

We were singing the Hymn, Secret Prayer (There is an hour of peace and rest.) (Oracion Secreta). The sisters were just dragging the hymn. And I mean dragging it and it was painful to listen to. I made them stop, I told them to feel the words, read them and bring them into there hearts. This hymn teaches us about the importance of prayer and the peace it can give you. I testifies that hymns are like prayers to the Lord and He hears them. 

We started singing again. Suddenly my voice changes, it wasn't my voice any more. It was sweet and angelic and strong and confident. My companion looked up at me in wonder. She had also noticed the change. The group was singing with more feeling. I don't know which angel it was that helped my voice but I am grateful for the experience. 

It was a special experience for me, and even after all these years it still touches my heart.  Here is the link to the words of the hymn. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/music/text/hymns/secret-prayer?lang=eng

144
Secret Prayer

31243, Hymns, Secret Prayer, no. 144

1. There is an hour of peace and rest,
Unmarred by earthly care;
'Tis when before the Lord I go
And kneel in secret prayer.

[Chorus]
May my heart be turned to pray,
Pray in secret day by day,
That this boon to mortals giv'n
May unite my soul with heav'n.

2. The straight and narrow way to heav'n,
Where angels bright and fair
Are singing to God's praise, is found
Thru constant secret prayer.

3. When sailing on life's stormy sea,
'Mid billows of despair,
'Tis solace to my soul to know
God hears my secret prayer.

4. When thorns are strewn along my path,
And foes my feet ensnare,
My Savior to my aid will come,
If sought in secret prayer.

Text and music: Hans Henry Petersen, 1835-1909

Matthew 6:6

Alma 33:3-11