Stupid Idaho

Here I am, ripping on the Potato State again (it has a problem with trans people, and I have a big problem with that). $109 for a damn death certificate! And I'm not even allowed to request the damn thing because my relationship to the deceased isn't on the approved list! Could this stupid state suck more??

::::series of deep breaths::::

In other news... I'm getting ready to join a new heritage organization, which is why I'm hoping to procure all the birth, marriage, and death certs I can get hold of. 

I'm already a member of NSDAR through Alice, but would like to add to my list of patriot ancestors, which will require documentation, starting with mine. Of course there are distant cousins who joined, but as far as I know, none of my direct line female ancestors joined, so I can't use their applications like I used Alice's. It's all a big question mark because I have very little knowledge of my patriot ancestors. 

At any rate, I contacted my local chapter of NSDAR online and expressed my interest in reinstating my membership, and heard back from them about paying a reinstatement fee along with my yearly dues, in September. These groups take summer breaks, so I plan to start attending meetings this fall, if they fit within my schedule.

The Daughters of the Pioneers of Washington and I have been emailing back and forth; they're going to send me an application. My Dysarts and Tinsleys moved to the Washington territory before statehood, which makes me eligible to join.  Fortunately these vital records will be mostly available on Ancestry.

Aside from Adina's mother Lena, who emigrated from Germany in the 1870s, my family has been here in America for quite a long time, some since the early 1600s. If I could document my relationships more completely, there are many genealogy groups I could be part of. It's been fun to look through the list and see which ones I qualify for; some of them are so exclusive that members can only join by invitation. Sounds pretty snooty, and I'm not at all interested in the social aspect - but HOW COOL would it be to find out that an ancestor was a member of the House of Burgesses, or Order of the First Families of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 1636-1647, or some such thing.

Finding the documentation and applying to join the groups and becoming a member of the ones I'm qualified for feels like a fun, rest-of-my-life quest. Puzzles are fun.

CUTE

The Howard Keithlers, about 1927, Montana.

The Mormons in My Family

My parents and uncle joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1973; I consider them my "pioneers." In 1975, my dad and uncle's maternal grandmother Adina Keithler joined; she was followed by my dad and uncle's parents in 1976. For a few years I labored under the delusion that we were the first Church members ever in our family.

This was proven wrong in 1980, by the publication of Steinhilber. From it, we learned that Adina's grandmother, Lena Steinhilber, joined the Church in 1878. Since the author of the book, a distant cousin, wrote rather unfriendly things about the Church, we weren't sure how much of it we could believe. Just a few years ago, I found that Lena's sister, Anna Maria Roller, was also baptized in Germany during her lifetime, which sealed the deal for me.

Last November, I found another family Church member - Almon Bathrick. He and his family were natives of New York state and eventually made their way to Nauvoo, Illinois, the last place we Mormons were kicked out of. On the early records of the Church, he is found as a missionary, called to serve in Illinois. This was particularly exciting to my uncle, who spent two years as a missionary in the Chicago, Illinois mission - again, mistakenly thinking he was the first member of our family ever to do so.

And just now, I found the autobiography of another early family member who belonged to the Church, Franklin Alonzo Robison, a descendant of my Proctor family. Franklin's parents were also natives of New York and eventually came west to Utah; he was the husband of several wives (one named Isabella Eleanor Pratt, daughter of Parley P. Pratt, a prominent figure in LDS history) and the father of 29 children. Wow.

I guess this Mormon stuff must run in my family.

Photo of the Week: 9 March 2008

Grandma Keithler (my great grandmother) and me, in the living room of her little house up on 102nd Avenue in Vancouver. I see this little home quite often while we're driving around town, and while I don't have any memories of being there, it makes my heart go pitter-pat to think that people I loved once lived there. Poppy, Grandma's husband, planted a sequoia tree in their front yard - if I'm not mistaken, that's the same tree in the window - which is still there and now huge. My memories of Grandma are still pretty tender - she died when I was twelve, and I still remember her voice and what she smelled like (pretty).

Some things I've heard about Grandma are that when she was young and lived in Montana, her father owned a livery barn in town. When new people moved into town, it was Grandma's job to drive them to their new property in the old Model T her dad owned. She had to drive backward whenever they went uphill, because if she drove forward, all the gasoline would go to the back of the tank and the engine died. Grandma also played the piano for the silent movies at her local theater.

Grandma's mother Lena died in the influenza epidemic, her father John died five years later, and two of her three brothers died at young ages; as a mother, she lost two of her three children within seven years of each other, also relatively young. She was a tough lady, quite used to having to work hard, and didn't put up with much nonsense. Yet she was sweet. When I was a little girl, about seven years old, we all took a trip to the beach and we kids took our shoes off to play in the sand. Afterward, I had sandy feet I had to wipe off before I could put my shoes back on. My aunt's younger sister, Dena, sat me on the car and wiped my feet off for me. Grandma noticed us, smiled big and said to me, "Spoiled!"

She put butter in her tomato soup and only ate "Hollywood" bread. She owned a little pink plastic Ferris wheel for her spools of thread and a green flocked turtle pincushion with tiny black plastic glasses and a knickknack of small, rainbow-colored birds flying above a plastic base and a paperweight of clear plastic with a red rose inside and a green metal stool with a pull-out step. I loved visiting her home and seeing her little "treasures." We watched Lawrence Welk at her home on Saturday nights. Sometimes she would watch us out her little hallway window, when she lived next door.

I miss her.

Photo of the Week: March 2, 2008

(Click on the image for a better view)

A couple of hotties get married in 1942 (you can read more about that here).

My Neenaw is one of the most beautiful brides I've ever seen. I am lucky to look anything like her. Gran's no slouch, either.

Photo of the Week - January 20, 2008

(Click on the picture to make it bigger - I love all the details.)

The Johnsons and the Keithlers, having a killer time.

From left to right: Cora Clark Johnson, Howard Keithler, Aaron Johnson, Adina Clark Keithler. Cora and Adina are sisters, and Adina and Howard are my great grandparents. Howard and Adina seem to be looking at something - was Lawrence Welk on TV yet?

I love seeing my ancestors in their "natural habitat."

Timeline: John Thomas Clark & Johanna Magdelena Steinhilber

1 January 1893 - John and "Lena" married in Kearney, Buffalo, Nebraska
13 October 1893 - First child Cora May Clark born in Gibbon, Buffalo, Nebraska
30 November 1895 - Second child Bryan Jennings Clark born in Thedford, Thomas, Nebraska
29 November 1897 - Third child John Adam Clark born in Thedford
*1900 Census
13 February 1901 - Fourth child Adina Irene Clark born in Thedford
26 May 1903 - Fifth child Ernest Dilworth Clark born in White Sulphur Springs, Meagher, Montana
7 January 1906 - John Adam Clark died in Forsyth, Rosebud, Montana
29 February 1908 - Sixth child Rozilla Margaret Clark born in Forsyth
*1910 Census
25 February 1910 - Seventh child Lena Helen Pauline Clark born in Forsyth
1912 - Cora and Aaron Johnson married in Billings, Yellowstone, Montana
18 August 1912 - Bryan Jennings Clark died in Sanders, Treasure, Montana
30 December 1913 - Grandson Maynard Aaron Johnson born in Hysham, Treasure, Montana (Cora & Aaron)
21 April 1914 - John's father John Wesley Clark died in Confidence, Wayne, Iowa
10 April 1915 - Granddaughter Wilma Virginia Johnson born in Hysham (Cora & Aaron)
22 July 1916 - Grandson Gilbert Lisle Johnson born in Rancher, Treasure, Montana (Cora & Aaron)
27 October 1918 - Lena died of influenza in Hysham; buried in Forsyth
14 November 1918 - Grandson John Hubert Johnson born in Rancher (Cora & Aaron)
5 September 1919 - Adina & Howard Mitchell Keithler married in Hysham
*1920 Census
5 June 1920 - Grandson John Lawrence Keithler born in Hysham (Adina & Howard)
28 November 1921 - Grandson Ernest Claude Johnson born in Hysham (Cora & Aaron)
8 November 1922 - Granddaughter born (living)
August 1923 - John died in Big Horn, Sheridan, Wyoming; buried in Big Horn
22 September 1928 - Grandson Howard Ernest "Haudy" Keithler born in Crow Agency, Big Horn, Montana (Adina & Howard)
1929 - Rozilla and George Craig married in Great Falls, Cascade, Montana
*1930 Census
2 January 1932 - Grandson Marlin Stewart Craig born in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Rozilla & George)
1934 - Rozilla's husband George Craig died
26 September 1935 - Daughter Lena & Howard L. "Bus" Wolf married
1936 - Rozilla and Earl Burrell Craig married in San Antonio, Bexar, Texas (later divorced)
6 June 1936 - Ernest and Laneta G. Hensler married in Helena, Lewis and Clark, Montana
28 August 1937 - Grandson born (living)

What I've Been Up To Lately

... scanning mass quantities of pictures at Neenaw's.

< My great-great grandmother Elizabeth Ann Zane Fox

> My great grandmother, Adina Irene Clark Keithler

< My great grandfather, Howard Mitchell Keithler (Adina's husband), with granddaughter Sharon Ann Keithler

>My great-great grandmother, Howard's mother, Jennie Lee Dragoo Keithler - the lady who gave me my nose, mouth and chin

< Adina's parents, my great great grandparents, John Thomas Clark and Johanna Magdelena "Lena" Steinhilber, with their three oldest children, Cora, John and Bryan (later came Adina, Ernest, Rozilla and Lena). Mother Lena came with her mother and sisters from Germany to the U.S. on an LDS Church-chartered ship, came west to Utah where Lena's youngest sister was born, then moved to Nebraska. Lena died in the influenza epidemic in 1918, leaving John and their five children (John and Bryan both passed away before her death).

>Uncle Ernie and Aunt Laneta (Ernie is Adina's younger brother)

< Lena Helen Pauline Clark Wolf, Adina and Ernie's youngest sister

>Rozilla "Rose" Margaret Clark (sister of Adina, Ernie and Lena) and her first husband, George Craig

< Aunt Rose

>Zella Daily - a Clark cousin

My Cousin Ernest, World War II Casualty

Click here and scroll down to "Casualties from U.S.S. Neosho."

Ernest Claude Johnson was the youngest son of my great grandaunt, Cora Clark Johnson, and her husband Aaron. He died after the Battle of Coral Sea (east of the coast of Australia in the South Pacific). After his ship, the U.S.S. Neosho, was attacked on May 7, 1942, he and 67 other men climbed aboard life rafts, lashed them together, and set themselves adrift, thinking the Neosho would sink. It didn't.

The men who clung to the remnant of the Neosho would be rescued four days later. The 68 men floating aimlessly on the raft would spend the next nine days suffering from lack of food and fresh water. Some were killed by sharks; others became delirious and drank sea water, and died quickly after.

Of those 68 men, only four survived to be rescued. They were taken back to the States in critical condition, and only two of those four would survive.