The Thanksgiving Table

Tomorrow is the big turkey day and the family will be gathering at my daughter’s house for the feast. With few exceptions the Thanksgiving Day gathering has been an annual tradition. Though the location changed from time to time over the years, the tradition held together well.

 I don’t recall how we celebrated as I was growing up and living with my parents. Once we moved to Chicago, I’m sure we just had a quiet family dinner with the five of us – my parents, my two brothers, and me. Later, after my sister was born, my brothers and I were all married and living far from home.

However, by 1963, at least for a short time, we “kids” were all back home with our spouses and children. Once again Mom had a houseful to cook for at Thanksgiving. I guess that's when the tradition really began. Time went on and the two boys with their families moved away again but my husband, Jim, and I stayed on with our two girls. Thanksgiving became a holiday to bring all of our families together. My mother included Jim’s parents and sister in all the gatherings which meant we didn't have to divide our time between sides.

Jim and I and the girls moved from small apartment to small apartment for years – no room for hosting a Thanksgiving dinner. Finally, in 1971, after nearly ten years, we bought our home with room enough for all. Thanksgiving became my holiday! How I loved cooking, decorating the tables, and bringing everyone together!

But, of course, I wasn’t quite satisfied. My vision of Thanksgiving (Norman Rockwell style) included everyone sitting around one large table, – all the adults, at least - not split between numerous small tables and TV trays. Jim, as he so often does, came to the rescue. He built a table long enough for all the grown-ups and wide enough to handle the serving dishes, turkey platter, and place settings. The children still had to sit at a card table, but that still fit my vision.

I loved that table. It served us well for dinner after dinner and not just on Thanksgiving. It’s still around somewhere, I think. I’ve not used it in years and it’s been passed from daughter to daughter through the years. I won’t need it back but I still have the picture in my mind of our families giving thanks around it.

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!! 

Wordless Wednesday - My Girls

Just a sample of the 500 plus photos scanned from the box under the bed!! Project complete!!

A New Toy

I've been saving up for a long time to buy an IPad. The tablet size just seemed like it would be so much easier to read than my IPhone - which by the way I love. I guess that was really my problem; other than the size couldn't see any big advantage to the purchase. After all, I do more writing and taking notes than anything else and I really didn't think the IPad would be too advantageous with my needs.

Even so, I set out Wednesday thinking I'd come home with and IPad. I'd seen a really good price at our Sam's Club but decided to check my options at Best Buy first. While talking to the young man assisting me, I mentioned I do a lot of writing and he directed me to the Asus Tablet ( an Android system) which comes with Polaris - an app which reads and writes to MicroSoft products like Word, Excel, and Power Point; all products I use. In addition, I added the docking station which, when docked, turns the tablet into a net book with a full keyboard, USB slots, SD slot and additional battery power.

I'm giving it a try. I have 14 days to return it if I find I don't like it but, so far, I'm very happy with it. I've added a few apps and am writing this post with it using the keyboard. If I find something I really don't like, I'll let you know.

Never Stop Trying; Try Everything!

For years now, literally, I've been trying to find the death certificate for my husband's grandmother, Alice Augusta Christiansen Davey. She died 31 Dec 1948 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. It should have been easy. Her death notice was published in the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Tribune (Don't be deceived by the Larsen surname - that's her step-father's name and she was never legally adopted), and my mother-in-law confirmed the date; as well as, the inscription on the tombstone in the Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.

But, it wasn't easy. She wasn't listed under Davey or Davis or Davie or any of the spellings I could come up with. But today, because a link to the Cook County Death Index 1908-1988 on Ancestry was posted to the Illinois Genealogy Research Community on Skype by Robin of savingstories, I thought I'd try again.

This time I didn't put in a surname, just the death date; voila!, up came Alice Dayey. I don't think I would ever have tried that spelling but looking at it now it should have been one of my options:)

Now, the next time I'm in Springfield when the Illinois Archives is open, I'll be able to get a copy of the death certificate. Thanks, Robin, for giving me one more push. Never give up; never say can't!

Cook County Archives Comes Through

On September 28th I posted about ordering a divorce file for Julia Rush and Peter Jacobson and yesterday I received the packet in the mail. There are dates flying all over the place but it looks like the final judgment of divorce was 4 Sep 1897.

First of all, this is most definitely our Julia. The two witnesses in the case, other than Julia, were Saloma Siebel (her mother) and Jennie Siegler (her aunt-in-law).

I was hoping this record would finally resolve the issue of Julia's twins and it did and more. According to the testimony Julia and Peter had three children, not just the twins. The children had all died before 23 Dec 1894 when Peter deserted Julia. Since Julia and Peter were married 01 Mar 1892, it gives me a small window to look for the records.

I still don't know the names or sex of the children but maybe I'll be able to find some records. A cursory look at Jacobsen/Jacobson births and deaths for those years has not been fruitful yet. I'll keep on looking though:)

Chase E Stewart Coroner Report

I thought I'd blogged about ordering this film but I must have just tweeted about it. Anyway, I've been trying to find a record of a coroner's report regarding the death of my Dad's brother, Chase, for some time. When I was in Rushville, Indiana on research I'd inquired about such reports but no one at the courthouse seemed to know how I might find them. Huumph!

I knew for a previous research trip the LDS church had been filming Rush County records (just happened to be there when they were there) so I decided to try the LDS catalogue to see if anything new had appeared. Lo and behold, there was a film for Coroner's Inquests from 1893-1932. Perhaps it was new or perhaps I'd missed it before, I don't know. All I know is it's exactly what I was looking for; Chase died in 1918, smack dab in the middle of the records.

I hopped on the phone and called my local Family History Center to make sure they'd be open when I went to place the order. I was told that wouldn't be possible. "We've been told we can't take any more orders for films; beginning tomorrow you'll have to order them on-line at Family Search." She sounded a bit skeptical; I, on the other hand, was thrilled. Anything that saves me a trip to Schaumburg is a good thing!

I waited a day or two before I braved the new procedure but found the ordering quite simple. The biggest problem was finding the right page as it's not accessible from the home page: here's the address. You will need to choose the Family History Center you want the films sent to and, of course, the film numbers. They accept credit cards and paypal.

I placed my order on September 21, 2011. On October 8, I received an email from the Schaumburg Family History Center stating that my film was there. I had to wait until yesterday to go because of the Columbus Day holiday but, at last, I had the film in hand and in a few minutes I was doing the happy dance!!

Most of the information I already knew from the newspaper report and family stories but, as usual, there were a few new tidbits to add. Here's a transcription of the record:

Rush County, Indiana Coroner’s Inquests,  1893-1932
LDS film 1631808, Items 4-5
# 106

STATE OF INDIANA, Rush COUNTY, IND

I, John M Lee M.D. Coroner of said County do hereby certify that on
the 20^th day of November 1918, at Mays, Indiana
I held an inquest on the body of Chase E. Stewart the following being the
report in full of the proceedings of said inquest, except the testimony, which is, with a full and complete report of this inquest

On file in the office of County Clerk

                Said inquest was begun on the 20^th day of November 1918 and concluded

On the 20^th day of November 1918

WITNESSES	UNDERTAKER
Charles S. Stewart	George C. Wyatt Co
Lowell Mansfield
J. Levi Lord M.D.
Vernon Walke
	POST MORTEM
	None

STATE OF INDIANA, Rush COUNTY,
I, John M. Lee Coroner of said County, having examined the body
 of Chase E. Stewart and heard the testimony of the witnesses, do hereby
find that the said deceased came to his death by accidental discharge of one barrel
of double barreled shot gun which he was carrying and occurred when he was in the
act of climbing through a gap in the fence of the S. H. Trabue farm near Mays, Ind.
The wound resulting was complete shattering of left side of face and skull death occurring instantly.

The said deceased being a male of the age of 15 yrs. 2 mos. 8 da.: 5 feet and 8
inches in height, light hair, blue eyes, fair complexion, approximate weight 116 lb., teeth good;
scars, if any None; nativity American and had on his person at the time of his death no valuables except
a watch which was given to his parents at their house.

There is one new name in the witness list: Vernon Walke. Lowell Mansfield (Chase's cousin) had gone hunting with Chase that day but what about Vernon? From the 1910 census, I learned that Vernon (who would have been a neighbor of sorts) would have been 12 years old at the time of the accident. How did it happen he was called as a witness? He must have either been hunting with the boys or come upon the accident quickly. He was never mentioned in the newspaper accounts.

Mostly, for me, this account helps account for some of my Grandmother's (Lizzie Stewart) demeanor. How does one even recover from seeing your son in that condition? I don't think she ever really did.

Documenting Our Immediate Family

Sometimes one just has to put some concentration and effort on the now or, at least, the recent past. For years, I've been researching, reviewing, digitizing, organizing the papers and events of the more distant past. Oh, you might consider my parents and my dear husband's parents to be "recent" but I'm talking about our lives and our children's lives.

Over the years, we've taking tons, and I mean tons, of photos. Some, for me, are rather irrelevant - no people - but even eliminating those, we still have tons. Most of those have been categorized by year and, at least, some in each year have been labeled with names. Some, but not all, of our home movies have been transferred to new media - that's really my husband's job and hopefully he'll get back to it this winter.

So what has me concerned? It's the BOX: the one under the bed, the one that has many of the earliest photos and documents related to our little family. It has been haunting me so I pulled it out yesterday and decided it was time - past time - to do something.

Here's the plan: I'm going to scan everything and categorized by child and/or family group, then, I'm going to give each child her own stuff. These girls are mothers of grown children of their own. It's past time for them to have their childhood memorabilia. The family group items I'll put with the later pics and docs.

So, I started yesterday. I got out my new Flip-Pal and scanned close to 200 photos and a few papers. It's just a start but it felt good to get that far.

Sunday, we'll be having lunch with one of the daughters and I'll be giving her all the report cards I've saved since junior kindergarten and the few papers I kept. There will be more but I'm not going to wait until I get it all. They can have it in bits and pieces as I go along.

I'll have to make time to finish this project while keeping up with my writing projects but I'll do the best I can.