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.

Mr. and Mrs. Keen

Oh, what the heck

While I'm here, I may as well post something.

My cousin Candace is putting together a cookbook/memory book with our Grandma D's recipes and the grandchildren's memories of her and Grandpa. It's got me thinking about personal histories. I visited my great Grandma Keen's and my Gran's autobiographies here on the blog and reread them. What a magical gift it is to be able to read their words and feel them close by again.

Sometime last December, I decided to ditch Facebook, but I wanted to capture all the family memories I've logged there over the years. So I've been slowly dismantling my account (the "On This Day" feature has been instrumental in that effort). I've been blogging on the family blog every day since then, and adding our Facebook memories and pictures in chronological order. I hope to eventually print it in a book format and make copies to give to my family members.

It feels incredibly good to know that someday in the future, my grandchildren and descendants will be able to read about us and know a little bit about me and my family.

What are you trying to say??

It's been 18 months since I last posted? Well, I've gone longer.

This morning I learned that a distant cousin of my great grandmother Alice Johnson Keen was killed at Iwo Jima on 27 February 1945. A sergeant in the Marine Corps, he died of his wounds aboard the USS Barrow. That makes the event much more personal to me than it ever had been before. May God bless these brave young men who faced horrific fighting, bloodshed and loss. Freedom isn't free. Though most of them are gone now, their sacrifice will live on forever.

23 February 1945, Iwo Jima
Photo credit: Joe Rosenthal

On a much, much lighter note: on the blog sidebar, I have placed a countdown clock for the release of the 1950 census. Only six and a half more years! I'm excited to see my parents as little children with their families, and also for all the changes in this census - information that will or won't be included, as well as the changes in technology that will make its viewing possible. How much changed between the 1930 and 1940 census releases! This little thing called "The Internet" has improved things vastly (she said understatedly).

If anyone is still reading this, awesome, thanks. May your genealogy endeavors bear sweet and plentiful fruit. 

Really Awesome Cousin Sooze

As much as I would like to think of myself as a genealogist extraordinaire (ha!), I am truly humbled when I read my cousin Susan's genealogy blog.

She is a master researcher. Not only does she find great, obscure, weird information about our ancestors, she reviews it deftly, creatively and charitably. In short, I love reading her stuff, and when she finds something terrible and upsetting, she frames it in the best possible way, always giving our ancestors the benefit of the doubt. Made of gold, this woman.

Her husband is my third cousin; our common ancestors are Thomas Merrill Johnson and Hattie Ellen Duggan. I haven't met her yet, but will be giving her a big squeeze when I do. I seriously can't thank her enough for all the great research she has done.

Here's to you, Sooze :)

Awesome Cousin Sooze

... found this, cemetery records from Washington county, Nebraska, which contain a record belonging to my great-great grandfather's first wife: SARAH C. "KATE" DOLAN.

I added Kate to Findagrave, then peeked around in Findagrave records for that cemetery and found some Hetricks buried there too. After Kate died in 1883, my great-great grandfather Thomas married Hattie Ellen Duggan. Hattie's mother is a Hetrick.

Sooze has mad research skills. I love it when she throws great records my way! Thanks!! :)

"That's a nice nose! Did you pick it?"

...one of my dad's old corny jokes I still enjoy throwing at my children.

My whole life, everyone has told me I look like my mom. I do look like her - our coloring is very similar, but as I grew older, I noticed our features aren't quite exactly the same... my nose and chin were different, my eyes crinkly-er, my eyebrows arch-ier or something. Our skin is different, too - she tans easily, while I burn and freckle like my father.

This observation led to much mirror-perusing. If I wasn't a carbon copy of my mother, the way everyone seemed to think, then who DID I look like?

And of course, being the genealogy geek that I am, I had to trace the features I saw on my face back to their original source - at least, as far back as the family photograph collection would allow.

I've split my face into four people. I know you were wondering.

From the nose up, I look like Ruby Fox; from the nose down, Jennie Dragoo; my dimples came from my grandfather, Carl Dysart; and my dark haired, dark-eyed coloring (and that of my mother, grandmother, great grandmother, great-great grandfather) came from Lorette Proctor.

And of course, being the genealogy geek that I am, I wonder endlessly about the three ladies and where THEIR features came from. Who does Lorette resemble with her brown eyes? When did this very distinct Dragoo nose and chin first make its appearance, and with whom? Was it a Zane or a Bathrick that Ruby inherited her eyebrows from?

And those pesky dimples! I have exactly one picture of Carl's parents, Carl Sr. and Ruth, smiling. I can't tell for sure but it looks like Carl Sr. is the dimpled grandparent. His son, my grandpa Carl, had them, my mom has them, I have them, and my middle son, who (out of our five children) looks the least like me and the most like his dad, was also somehow born with them.

Adam and Eve's first invention should have been a camera. And film that lasts millennia.

Transition

So live that when thy summons to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the draperies of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

~ William Cullen Bryant

Going through some old papers and pictures today, I found my great grandmother's funeral book. This poem was printed on the first page.

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.

They'll Live Forever As Long As Someone Knows Their Names

Mom called last night and we chatted about - guess what! - dead people. She loves sharing her memories, and I love writing them down. Here’s a sampling:

~ Even with the hard life Grandma Keen led, she was always kind and sweet. She would tell my mom (her granddaughter), “Kindness is free. It doesn’t cost anything to be kind.” She was an excellent seamstress and sewed wedding dresses for the local girls. With the money she earned, Mom said, Grandma and Grandpa helped put Uncle Ralph, their son-in-law, through medical school. Here are Grandma and Mom with a doll Grandma made for Christmas. Mom looks politely excited - she was a tomboy and didn't play with dolls, but she loved her Grandma.

~ During summers, Mom used to visit Aunt Marguerite and Uncle Ralph in Portland. They were quite "comfortable," and Mom observed Marguerite's shopping habit of calling up local department stores like Nordstrom or Meier & Frank and having clothes delivered to her home. She’d pay for the ones she liked and send the rest back. If Aunt Marguerite found a blouse or dress she liked, she bought one in every color. She had huge drawers full of nylons, etc. She always wore sunglasses and beautiful jewelry and kept her eyebrows immaculately plucked. Mom said Uncle Ralph must have visited China during some part of his World War II service, because their home was decorated like a Chinese restaurant, down to the red-fringed lamps. Here's Aunt Marguerite in 1962.

~ Uncle Ralph could be really funny. My grandparents were fighting one day, and Uncle Ralph (Grandma’s brother-in-law) turned on a tape recorder and set it behind the couch and recorded their quite lengthy argument. Uncle Ralph played it back for them later. Grandma was ready to kill him, Mom said. He bought Mom a parakeet when she was six, whom she named “Trixie,” and Mom had the bird until she was about sixteen. Here we have Uncle Ralph with his daughters, Patricia and Chickie, and Grandma Dot.

~ Here are Grandma Dot and her sister Kathleen in the 1930s, outside the family home in Walla Walla, getting ready to go somewhere. Kathleen, it turns out, was something of a backseat driver. Mom remembers driving to Wallowa Lake with Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Mel one summer, and it was "Melvin! Melvin! Turn here! Melvin!" all the way there. To her credit, Kathleen did have a Ph.D. and an important job and was pretty darn smart, so I imagine she was someone worth listening to. You can read more about her here.

With these pictures and stories in mind, I hope we're all working on two things:

1) Take time to write down something about your life. Someone will be interested in hearing about you someday - wouldn't it be nice if they could hear it in your own words? (Instead of hearing, "She was a backseat driver" - or worse - from someone else?)

2) If you can, interview older family members who remember a generation or two farther back than you do, and write down what they say about these loved ones who have left us. Though they may be scanty or imperfect, these records are precious.

Photo of the Week: 24 February 2008

(Click on the picture for better detail)

From left to right: Grandma Alice Johnson Keen, her sister-in-law Maude Leah Keen Torvanger, and Maude's husband Bert Martin Torvanger.

I never met Uncle Bert, but we used to visit "Aunt Maudie" sometimes at her apartment in Walla Walla. I LOVED the smell of that place - old, musty, creepy - and the funky old elevators with a window in the door so you could watch yourself move between floors. It was dark and dusty in the hallways, but Maude's apartment was sweet, small and cheerful. She had funny old mauve couches that we kids would smile to each other over, and she would give us money as gifts. Mom said she boiled the coins and washed and ironed the bills before she gave them to us, and we always thought that was funny. Now I think it's absolutely adorable of her. Awww... she wanted our money to be clean.

Aunt Maude never had any children, so Grandma Dot and her sisters were Aunt Maude's heirs. Grandma Dot gave Mom some of Aunt Maude's things, and I remember old nightgowns and pillowcases and sheet sets floating around our home, all marked with the name "Torvanger."

Aunt Maude and Uncle Bert apparently bought some interest in an oil well in Oklahoma. Years later, about 2002, I was contacted about my family tree on Ancestry.com. Someone from the oil well share company was trying to find Aunt Maude's heirs because we were owed some money, and Mom and I got all excited. Wooo hooo, here comes the cash!

Reality sank in when we learned how much Mom and her three siblings would be receiving. So far, with long distance phone calls, gas money, and legal copies of Aunt Maude's and Grandma Dot's wills, it's cost Mom more than she would have earned from the oil well, just to get this thing hooked up. We're not quite as "in the money" as we once hoped - but that 25 cents a month sustains our Bazooka bubble gum habit, and really, that's all we can ask for.

Photo of the Week: 13 January 2008

(Click on the picture to make it bigger)

My grandmother Alice "Dorothea" Keen Dysart and me, shortly after my birth. After I was born, she came to our apartment in Seattle and visited us (notice my parents' fun cement-block bookcase behind us). I was born two days after her birthday.

"Grandma Dot" always had a beautiful yard and garden. My brother B.C. and I visited her and Grandpa for a week one summer, and since we lived on the Oregon coast and were used to milder weather, their town (Walla Walla, Washington) seemed incredibly hot. The sun would heat up their boxwood hedge by the front porch and make it smell so wonderful - the scent still reminds me of Grandma's house.

She was a funny, feisty, peppery little lady. She loved chocolates, and would buy herself a box, eat a few chocolates, hide the box, forget where she hid it, and buy herself a new box. After she died, almost-full boxes of chocolates were discovered here and there all over the house. Other than that, her house was immaculate. She played the organ and kept a notebook of the songs she practiced or played. Sometimes we'd go to her house and her organ would be turned up so loud, she couldn't hear the doorbell, but we could hear her outside. Judging from her 8-track tape collection, she loved Elvis Presley and Tom Jones. One funny discovery was a tape called "Music to Strip By."

Grandma loved keeping up with the local law enforcement, fire department, and ambulance activity, and always had at least one police scanner turned on and making noise on her hutch. She liked keeping track of the numbered codes of each department and would type up lists of the codes to post near her scanner, so she could see who was doing what. When she died, I inherited her manual typewriter and one of her half-finished scanner code lists was still in the typewriter case.

Her memorial is here.

Photo of the Week - January 6, 2008

(Click on the picture to make it bigger)

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN?

Don't you love the ripped edges? Many of the photos I inherited from this side of the family (the Johnsons) are ripped like this - apparently it was "the thing" back then, as was gluing the pictures to the black scrapbook pages, rendering whatever was written on the back impossible to read. Other than that, it's kind of a cute idea.

It's my hunch that this beautiful lady is my great grandma Alice Johnson Keen's youngest sister, Hattie Quintilla Johnson Biersner. Sadly, Hattie died of pneumonia in the influenza epidemic, and family rumor says that she was expecting her first baby when she passed away. How heartbreaking this must have been for her husband.

Of course, they're all together now. I love happy endings.

DAR, Here I Come

Alice's application for membership in National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution arrived yesterday! That was so fast! It only took two or three weeks. I called my local chapter registrar this morning and she's all excited to fill out my application for me. I have to make copies of all my paperwork and send it to her, then when my application is finished, we'll meet and I'll sign my application and pay the fee. My family members who are thinking of joining it with me, can also use Alice's paperwork.

I notice there's also a Huguenot Society affiliated with DAR. The Dragoos were Huguenots, so I could probably join that too, if I wanted to take the time to prove my relationship to Pierre Dragaud. (Jennie Lee Dragoo is my great grandfather Howard Mitchell Keithler's mother.) It definitely wouldn't be as simple as proving my relationship to my great grandmother. A Mayflower Descendant group is also available to join, but I haven't decided if I'm one of those or not yet. I should probably not go nuts on joining groups I won't have time for or want to pay yearly dues for. But it's still fun.

A Biography of Mrs. W. H. Keen

[Written by Alice Muriel Johnson Keen, my great grandmother]

I was born May 4, 1892 in Madison, Nebraska. My father was Thomas Merril Johnson, my mother was Hattie Ellen Duggan [pictured below]. My father had lost his first wife, Kate, who had borne his first four children, namely William, Frank, Nettie and Charles.

He married my mother who was a tall girl for her 14 1/2 years of age and they lived in Madison, Nebraska. They had four small daughters when they decided to come west to Blaine, Washington. They came west in Spring of 1890 but didn't like the rainy weather - real coastal rains - every day. He was a carpenter by trade but stayed for the summer.

An epidemic of scarlet fever broke out and my father and mother packed up and took the train for the east - with their four little girls - the two youngest took sick on the train and they all had to get off the train at Wyoming where Julia died - then they boarded the train again and went on their way back to Nebraska, settling in Madison this time - Nellie having died in the fall with scarlet fever some three or four weeks after Julia had died.

They built a new home in Madison and lived in Madison where another little girl was born and named for my father's mother Lorette on December 7, 1890. Relatives who had taken my father's four children by Kate didn't want to give them up so it was easier for Mother to care for her four but how they missed Julia and Nellie. Then on May 4, 1892 I was born, being the sixth daughter in the family.

When I was two years old we moved to Rock Falls, Illinois where my only brother Napoleon Bonaparte was born May 31, 1894. There they bought two lots and built another home and Daddie was a contractor. We lived two blocks from my father's sister, Aunt Gay and Uncle Thome. He later was the Mayor of the town, a wonderful fellow. My sister Annie Marie was born April 12, 1896; my sister Hattie Quintilla was born April 13, 1898.

Father and Mother had trouble over his drinking and separated that summer. In November we sold the home and left Illinois for Washington.

What an adventure! My oldest sister Myra had a good job and stayed in Illinois but Mother took the other six of us and left to visit my great grandfather [Adam Hetrick] who had left the family farm in Nebraska and had gone to Kalispell, Montana and established himself on a 320-acre fruit farm. It had a huge irrigation system. Grandpa had invited Mother to bring her family to come and make her home with him but he had married again after his first wife died and the new grandma had grandchildren of her own and we weren't exactly welcome. How distressing it must have been for Mother.

The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Archives at Ancestry.com

... have been my latest online haunt.

I found them several years ago, when our family history centers were still affiliated with Ancestry.com. Mom and I spent a fun evening looking at old pictures and reading detailed descriptions of family weddings, Uncle Denton's speeding tickets, and Uncle Charlie saving a boy from a wild deer in Pioneer Park. At that time, the online archives included the years 1945-1954.

Yesterday, while writing a timeline, I stumbled upon them again. While some years are still missing, more recent archives are available now. Last night I found the wedding announcement for Aunt Nancy's marriage to Uncle Steve in 1973, and read about the day in 1971 when my grandparents received a phone call from my parents to say my brother was born; ten hours later, another call came from my uncle and aunt to say that my cousin Candace was born. Our great-grandmother Alice Keen called the newspaper to report it, and they were kind enough to print the story.

While I feel a little sorry for the must-have-been-bored-out-of-their-minds newspaper reporters, who were on hand to capture such events as Uncle Doug earning Gold and Silver Arrow Points at his Cub Scout pack meeting and great-grandfather Carl Dysart winning a free Christmas turkey, I'm grateful to them for doing such a great job in capturing these fun little life moments. I'm also glad my family spent so much time in Walla Walla, where no detail went unnoticed.

Timeline: Thomas Merrill Johnson & Hattie Ellen Duggan

28 November 1883 - Thomas and Hattie married in Fremont, Dodge, Nebraska (later divorced)
9 September 1884 - first child Myra Lucy Johnson born in Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska
21 September 1885 - Thomas' mother Lorette Proctor Johnson died in Rock Falls, Whiteside, Illinois; buried in Rock Falls
31 January 1886 - second child Eugenia Pearl "Jean" Johnson born in Lincoln
17 June 1887 - third child Julia Amelia Johnson born in Lincoln
12 November 1888 - fourth child Ruby Ellen Johnson born in Lincoln
Summer 1890 - Family moved to Washington state
September 1890 - Julia Amelia Johnson died enroute home from Washington in Green River, Sweetwater, Wyoming
October 1890 - Ruby Ellen Johnson died in Arlington, Washington, Nebraska
7 December 1890 - fifth child Lorette P. "Laura " Johnson born in Arlington
4 May 1892 - sixth child Alice Muriel Johnson born in Arlington
** Family moved to Rock Falls, Whiteside, Illinois **
31 May 1894 - seventh child Napoleon Bonaparte Johnson born in Rock Falls
12 April 1896 - eighth child Anna "Marie" Johnson born in Rock Falls
13 April 1898 - ninth child Hattie Quintilla Johnson born in Rock Falls
*1900 Census - Family living in Rock Falls
October 1901 - Hattie left and took the children (Laura, Alice, Napoleon, Marie & Hattie) to Montana
1902 - Hattie and Frederick Newell Golden married in Kalispell, Flathead, Montana
17 February 1903 - Thomas' father William Johnson died in Rock Falls
15 March 1904 - Myra and Albert Nicholas Bloomster married in Las Animas, Bent, Colorado
1 September 1904 - Jean and John J. Mullennax married in Kalispell (later divorced)
24 October 1904 - Granddaughter Helen Louise Bloomster born in Las Animas (Myra & Albert)
June 1905 - Laura and Otto Antone Johnson married in Rathdrum, Kootenai, Idaho (later divorced)
29 July 1905 - Granddaughter Nellie Louise Mullennax born in Somers, Flathead, Montana (Jean & John)
20 September 1906 - Grandson Oren Olof Bloomster born in Las Animas (Myra & Albert)
26 April 1907 - Granddaughter Florence Ellen "Frances" Mullennax born in Del Norte, Rio Grande, Colorado (Jean & John)
18 February 1908 - Granddaughter Ruth Hilda Bloomster born in Las Animas (Myra & Albert)
About 1909 - Thomas and Mrs. Jennie Miller were married
5 July 1909 - Grandson Oliver August Bloomster born in Dalton Gardens, Kootenai, Idaho (Myra & Albert)
*1910 Census
1911 - Laura and Thomas B. O'Reilly married in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California (later divorced)
14 April 1911 - Granddaughter Thora Elna Bloomster born in Coeur d'Alene, Kootenai, Idaho (Myra & Albert)
1912 - Marie and Noah Blaine Ferguson married in Ritzville, Adams, Washington
25 June 1912 - Alice and Wildie Herbert "Bill" Keen married in Coeur d'Alene
8 May 1913 - Granddaughter Thelma May Bloomster born in Coeur d'Alene (Myra & Albert)
16 May 1913 - Granddaughter Elsie "Marguerite" Keen born in Walla Walla, Walla Walla, Washington (Alice & Bill)
January 1915 - Grandson Joseph Warren Ferguson born in Ione, Pend Oreille, Washington (Marie & Noah)
24 June 1915 - Grandson Paul Albert Bloomster born in Coeur d'Alene (Myra & Albert)
30 November 1915 - Jean and Robey Harrison Tolliver married in Walla Walla (later divorced)
21 April 1916 - Hattie died at Four Lakes, Spokane, Washington; buried in Spokane, Spokane, Washington
9 December 1916 - Granddaughter Esther "Kathleen" Keen born in Walla Walla (Alice & Bill)
20 March 1917 - Granddaughter Alice Catherine Ferguson born in Ione (Marie & Noah)
29 March 1917 - Granddaughter Laura May Tolliver born in Walla Walla (Jean & Robey)
10 June 1917 - Grandson David Otto Bloomster born in Coeur d'Alene (Myra & Albert)
August 1917 - Daughter Hattie and Joseph L. Biersner married in Walla Walla
17 May 1918 - Granddaughter Elsie Lavonne Ferguson born in Ione (Marie & Noah)
22 December 1918 - Daughter Hattie Quintilla Johnson Biersner died of influenza in Walla Walla
19 January 1919 - Napoleon and Lydia Alice McGaughey married in Puyallup, Pierce, Washington (later divorced)
23 January 1919 - Granddaughter Alice "Dorothea" Keen born in Walla Walla (Alice & Bill)
9 March 1919 - Granddaughter Mary "Myrl" Ena born in Coeur d'Alene (Myra & Albert)
10 November 1919 - Granddaughter Doris Jean Johnson born in Washington (Napoleon & Lydia)
21 November 1919 - Granddaughter Lois Marie Tolliver born in Tolliver, Ashe, North Carolina (Jean & Robey)
*1920 Census
20 February 1920 - David Otto Bloomster died; buried in Coeur d'Alene
6 June 1921 - Grandson Roy Albert Bloomster born in Coeur d'Alene (Myra & Albert)
4 July 1921 - Laura and Thomas John "Tom" Carter married in Vancouver, British Columbia
3 March 1923 - Thomas died in Sterling, Whiteside, Illinois; buried in I.O.O.F. cemetery in Rock Falls
1 November 1923 - Helen Louise Bloomster died in Dalton Gardens; buried in Coeur d'Alene
23 January 1924 - Granddaughter Martha Virginia Bloomster born in Coeur d'Alene (Myra & Albert)
16 January 1925 - Grandson Thomas "Willard" Carter born in Washington (Laura & Tom)
12 July 1927 - Grandson Daniel Blaine Ferguson born in Ione (Marie & Noah)
30 June 1929 - Grandson James Joseph Johnson born in Puyallup, Pierce, Washington (Napoleon & Lydia)

More DAR Stuff

I received a form from my local DAR lady last week, a form for getting a copy of Grandma Keen's DAR membership application. With it, I'll be able to send in my paperwork and become a member of DAR. I filled it out and sent it a few days ago.

Last night I found more DAR patriots in the Patriot Index, which is fun and exciting. (No, really. It is.) I'm up to "McDaniel" now in the book.

Also, my grandmother Abigail may finally have a maiden name: Dougall. Ever since I've known of her, she's been Mrs. Abigail Kettle Bathrick - her first husband Mansir Kettle died in 1773, and her second husband, Tillabee Bathrick, is my grandfather. I found her maiden name on New England Families, a website I LOVE for its rich notes, sources, and interesting information. Apparently I had an LDS uncle (Almon Bathrick) from back in the Joseph Smith days, who performed temple work on behalf of his ancestors in the first Nauvoo temple, including Tillabee and Abigail, in 1844. Now THAT is nifty. I'm waiting to hear back from New England Families guy.

I also looked up the females without last names, the Q and the R surnames last night in PAF Insight and found a few more things.

Elvis and DAR

So I'm chatting via email with bloggy sister Corrie, and she tells me about this nifty function Ancestry.com (formerly known as The Devil) provides. You upload your family tree, you click on a family member's name, and then click on "famous people" and it'll show all the people you MIGHT be related to through that person. So far, Elvis Presley, Judy Garland, Princess Grace, Helen Keller, James Dean, Marlon Brando, a Mayflower passenger, Signers of the Declaration of Independence, and numerous U.S. Presidents and First Ladies have popped up as possible relatives.

Of course, the accuracy of these links is iffy - the information is only as correct as the genealogists who contributed to OneWorldTree have made it. So, you know, we can take most of it with a grain of salt (I've already seen one blaring mistake, where the child was born before the mother). But it's still fun, and has spurred me on to check these connections out. I'd love to have a Mayflower ancestor, and Elvis being my cousin is actually looking pretty possible.

As most of these family ties involve colonial families, I spent some quality time this evening messing around with my "older" names - the names I've had forever but haven't done much with. Shock of all shocks, I have grandparents, aunts and uncles with only a BIRTH DATE. Neglectful me! I tried remedying that situation a little tonight. My aunt Daphne Proctor now has a husband and children.

Daphne got me started on my long-forgotten quest to become a member of NSDAR (National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution). My great grandmother, Alice Muriel Johnson Keen, a.k.a. "Alice Brown Eyes" at my house, was a member. Grandma Dot, her daughter, was most anxious for me to become a member. I was 24 at the time and not all that excited to join up with a bunch of blue-hairs who, I figured, would take one look at my youthful visage and say to each other, "New blood - GET HER!" Plus - this creeped me out - they all had to sign their names "Mrs. William Edgar Jones" (or whatever their husbands' names were) and at formal functions, they actually wore sequinned evening gowns and WHITE GLOVES. The horror!

Now that I'm considerably older, I figure, who cares? It would still be cool to be a member. All I'd have to do is order a copy of Alice's paperwork and prove my relationship to her, and I'm in like Flynn. (Who is Flynn?) I messed around on the DAR website for a while and filled out an online form to get on their call list.

Which prompted me to look up my patriot ancestors in the DAR Patriot Index. You only need one to join, but genealogically overachieving me - I think it would be fun to prove my relationship to ALL of them. Maybe by the time I'm 85, it'll be possible. Here's the list so far:

ARNDT: Abraham (1751-1825); Jacob (1725-1805); Jacob (1758-1831); John (1748-1814)
BATHRICK: Tillabee (1751-1831)
BURRUS: Thomas (1724-1788)
DANIEL: John (1751-1802)
DIMMICK: Timothy (1745-1807) - my possible Mayflower connection
DRAGOO: William (1747-1824)
DYER: Charles (1753-1845)
DYSART: James (1727-1781); James (1744-1818); John (1749-1842)
FOX: Abraham (1748-1777); Elijah (1758-1838); Joel (1754-1837)
GORTON: William (1750-1826)
JOLLIFFE: John (1751-1777)
LOCKE: James (1728-1808)
MCDANIEL: George (1722-1821); John (1751-1839)
MILLS: Nathaniel (1750-1815)
MORRISON: John (1729-1799)
PATTON: Robert (1747-1813)
PETTIGREW: George (1746-1818); James (1713-1784)
PHILLIPS: Caleb (1761-1829); Spencer (1755-1840), Thomas Jr. (1747-1829)
PROCTOR: James (1720-1790); Moses (1747-1805); Nathaniel Sr. (1723-1806); Nathaniel Jr. (1762-1855); Oliver (1745-1815); Peter (1735-1822)
REED: Jacob Sr. (1730-1820); Jacob Jr. (1762-1846)
RUCKER: Ambrose (1735-1807); Reuben (1755-1782)
SAYE: Richard (1740-1779)
SHOEMAKER: Jacob (1744-1810)
STRAIGHT: Jacob (1741-1796)

The great thing about finding them in the Index is all the missing information I scored in the process - a birth or death date here, a new marriage there. I probably have more, but I was only looking for grandfathers and uncles. Can you have an uncle or aunt as a patriot ancestor, or does it have to be a grandparent?

At any rate, the FHC was very fun this time - a most fruitful evening.

Aunt Jean

One day, I'll meet my great grandaunt Jean.

Eugenia Pearl Johnson - Jean - is my great Grandma Keen's older sister and she lived an interesting (sometimes unfortunate) life. She was married three times and had two daughters each with her first and second husbands, John J. Mullennax and Robey Harrison Tolliver. Tonight, I found missing information I'd been hoping to find for a long time about Robey and Jean's marriage.

As I've said before, for the most part I've given up trying to find really important, missing pieces of information. Now I just get to work and let it come. Tonight I took the extra step of praying before I started working on it. I plugged my PAF file into PAF Insight as usual, decided to work on the 3,000s, which happened to contain Aunt Jean's family, and thought, since it was slow and I was bored, "I should look up each person in Ancestry.com while PAF Insight is looking for them in the IGI and see if I find anything" and lo and behold, that's when I found them. I also had the Washington state digital archives page open and happened to type in the name "Tolliver," which led me right to Jean and her daughters.

Robey was one elusive man to find, but tonight I have information I found in his World War I and II draft registration cards. I found out he and Jean divorced and he moved to California, where he died. I found Jean's third husband and his first wife living in Salem, Oregon. I found out that Jean's daughter Florence Ellen "Frances" Mullennax had been married not once, but twice, and that her son is the product of her first marriage.

A good night. I definitely feel closer to Jean and her family.