Take a Walk on the Wild Side!

What do you write about on Halloween, when the country you live in has no tradition on celebrating Halloween and nothing you can think of qualifies as spooky? Write about something wild and crazy! And what is better than writing about the Berlin directories! About the wild and crazy Berlin directories!

Some of you might have worked with the Berlin directories before and got a bit confused by the way of sorting. For those who haven’t, I have good news. The Berlin directories sort the names in alphabetical order. So if you know the German alphabet there should be no problem.

Should. Because while other directories sort by surname and then first name, the Berlin directory sorts by surname and then occupation and then first name. Oh, and the first name is mostly abbreviated. And before I forget, first come the gentlemen and then the ladies. No, I’d better say first come the men, then the married ladies and then the Fräuleins. Each group of women is sorted by their occupation as well. If the widow had an occupation of her own (like seamstress, midwife or sales women), she is listed by her profession. If she has no occupation, she is listed by her late husband’s profession. But what if the husband’s profession is unknown? Then she is listed by her status as a widow (Ww. (Witwe)).

This can be a rather disappointing experience when you are looking for a rather common name and don’t know the occupation. You have to go through many pages and in the end will not be any wiser. And if you need to search a period of time of 20 yearsit will leave you rather frustrated. Of course you can save a lot of time if you know the occupation and are looking for a baker (Bäcker) or a pharmacist (Apotheker). 

But sometimes it gets really tricky. We’ll just take a look at the name Krause in the directory of 1880. We have 4 pages of Krause, none of them related to me (I think). 

You are looking for Heinrich Krause, an honorable importer of good Cuban cigars? Try your luck with looking for importers (Importeur). Nope, not there. Next try – merchant (Kaufmann) maybe? Looks like you’re running out of luck! Why not check cigar, and there he is – Cigarren- und Tabak-Importeur – listed under the letter C, right where it belongs (or not).

Let’s look for Wilhelm Krause, a Schuldiener (school servant). Of course you have learned from your first experience and look at school (Schule). Wrong again! He is listed under servants (Diener).

Good thing is that from 1925 on, things are handled normally. First surnames, then first names.

Now this little story about the Berlin directories is of course nothing compared to a state of the art Halloween party, but then, it’s not too bad for a country that is known to be incredibly well organized. Except for the wild and crazy Berlin directories.

Homebodies: Benjamin, Edith and Thomas Herbert Victor of Mousehole

Mousehole Harbour, Cornwall, England

On my own blog starryblackness I’ve recently written about the Victor branch of the Rowe family.

Born in the small fishing port of Mousehole, Cornwall, England, sister and brother Mary and John moved at different times to Devonport (Plymouth) for work and their brother Edwin ended up in Glamorganshire, South Wales. However their brother Benjamin happily stayed behind in Mousehole, which is just 6 miles from Land’s End in the western tip of Cornwall.

Benjamin was the son of a fisherman called Bernard Victor and his wife Alice (nee Rowe). He was born around Christmas 1860/New year 1861 as he was 3 months old by the 7 April 1861 census.  He was baptised on 28 April that year, one of eight babies baptised that day – Paul Parish Church must have been so noisy!  However, scrolling down the list of baptisms that year in Paul Church, 13 October 1861 must have been wilder as an astounding 17 babies were baptised.

Looking down Fore Street, Mousehole

The family were living on Quay Street at that time, but by 1871 they had moved to 2 Mill Place – this picture of Fore Street is the view Benjamin would have got as he came out the house and turned down to head to the harbour.  He was still at school at that point.

By 1881 he was working as a boot and shoe maker, living on Church Street in Mousehole with his parents and two of his brothers, widowed Gamaliel and younger brother Edwin.

His father Bernard died in summer 1891. His father had been a quiet man, interested in the Cornish language and history, and perhaps the love he had for his home village was passed on to Benjamin.

St Mary's Church, Penzance, Cornwall

Although there was hostility between neighbouring Newlyn and Penzance (the latter was the far side of Newlyn from Mousehole), Benjamin met and fell for a Penzance girl called Edith Wilkins. They married in her parish, Penzance St Mary’s, on 3 November 1890. Her father was an engineer called Thomas Wilkins and witnessed the wedding; by that time Benjamin had become a boot maker like his grandfather William Rowe.

They settled down in Mousehole, where their son Thomas Herbert was born on 6 September 1894. Their daughter Annie Olive was born on 5 August 1898.  I know they also had a third child who’d been born and died young before 1911, according to that census.

Benjamin continued to work as a boot and shoe maker and they lived in Mousehole at various addresses over the years.

Benjamin’s mother Alice Victor (nee Rowe) died in 1903.

Penzance Public Library (L) and School of Art (R)

In 1911 Benjamin and Edith were living at home in Mousehole with Thomas and Annie. They also had a widowed aunt staying, a lady called Ann Curnow who had been senile for two years. At this time Thomas was an art student, which I found intriguing as this is the time when the Newlyn School of Art was flourishing and there was an art college in Penzance next to the Library, built in 1880.

So I googled Thomas Herbert Victor and – yes! A ‘famous ancestor’ at last! I found him on the Cornwall Artists Index and he indeed did go to to the Penzance School of Art where he had a scholarship from the start.  He was offered a scholarship at the Slade School of Fine Art in London but chose not to leave Mousehole and indeed lived there all his life, never travelling further than Truro, 32 miles away.

Bernard died in 1914 and was buried in Paul Cemetery.  Edith outlived him and the first world war by many years, dying on 15 January 1941 in Mousehole; her son was her executor.

Their children lived into their 80s, Thomas dying on 10 March 1980 in Mousehole, and Annie two years later, also close by in the same registration area.

© Lynne Black, 21 October 2015

Reminiscing About Blogging

The reason I started my internet genealogy journey, was to blog my sweetheart's stories so my children would have them. I blogged Sentimental Sunday stories which I also called my Hero stories. I looked forward to that date with my blog every Sunday. Then I branched out in my posts as I found the group "GeneaBloggers" started by Thomas MacEntee, and a few special bloggers like Carol Stevens who has the blog Reflections From the Fence, FootnoteMaven, who at the time was doing themes of Carnival Of Genealogy, until her health became a challenge. Lisa of Smallest Leaf was also one who gave me encouragement. I loved the memes they had and the comradery. As with all things, many branched to another area, health issues, we lost a few, and I became involved deeper into my mission with FamilySearch, which I love, and soon, I found it hard to make that blog post more and more.

yes, I felt like I was running away. 

Today, I revisited my blog going back to the beginning and saw why I had loved it.  I wasn't trying to meet a standard or show I had an understanding of writing, genealogy, etc. I was just sharing and having fun.  Which unless you are a business and trying to show your professional side, that I believe is what it should be.  I am going to start making an effort to go back to my personal blogging and sharing with my family again.  I am not a professional and would hope that the blog would not be judged by such standards.
There are memes by Thomas...the Geneablogger Daily Prompts, Amy Crow has a 31 Days of Genealogy, Olive Tree still has a prompt Sharing Memories, Aine of BlueRaspberrySundays posts a prompt on Sundays. You can even find Family History Writing Prompts on Pinterest which is helpful for blogging if you think you are having a challenge with subject matter.
If you are like me, and see your posts have dwindled down over time, go back and see why you started, why you were excited.  It is almost like a marriage, you have to work at the relationship to keep it alive.  I have seen some move to a different server to perk up their blog; this I am not going to do as I have seen their pain as they went through that process.  I am looking to renew my blog relationship not start a new one. I digress. Use the memes again, post fun things as well as great finds.

This has been my thoughts and I am sorry to use your time to help myself find what I have been missing. Hope it helps you.  

October in the USA, Halloween and Family History Month

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October is Family History Month in the USA

Family history month.  Not genealogy month.

What does that mean to you?

To me, it means adding to my genealogy with "history" and other "fun things" I find along the way.

Like Maps.  Here are two Sanborn Fire Maps, of the same street, same addresses in Minneapolis, Minnesota, one from 1912, the second from 1942.  These two maps answered many questions we had on Man's great-grandparents.  Their address changed, but, so did the street addresses on the homes during this time period.  See 3114 and 3118.

1912:  

And, in 1942:  

Bibles.  Family bibles, sometimes the only record we can find for birth, marriage and death dates, if our ancestors lived in a locale that did not require civil registrations.  Sometimes those Bibles differ from the civil registrations.  No matter.  What great family history.

There are always newspaper articles to be found, obituaries and other wise.  

In 1940 Joseph and Minnie made a trip back to Georgia to visit relatives they had not seen in over 25 years.  A news article was found in the effects of Donald Eugene Bowen (Joseph and Minnie's only grandson) after his death in 1991 stating that Joseph and Minnie were celebrating their 50th. wedding anniversary.  The newspaper is not known:

     "Wed 50 Years

     Mr. and Mrs. Bowen Celebrating Here Today

     Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Bowen, who are visiting Mrs. Lela Akins at 342 Whitaker street, are celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary in Savannah today.

     Residents of Berkeley, Va., they are visiting Mrs. Akins, who is the sister of Mr. Bowen.   Mr. Bowen lived in this city several years before 1900 and has many relatives in Wayne County.

     Today Mr. and Mrs. Bowen went to Savannah Beach, stopping on the way at Fort Screven where Mr. Bowen's nephew, Rufus. L. Bowen, is stationed as a sergeant in the artillery.  They were driven to Tybee by Mrs. C. L. Dean, a niece.

     Mr. and Mrs. Bowen are renewing old friendships among Savannahians and are seeing relatives they have not seen in 25 years, they said today.  Mrs. Bowen is 68 and Mr. Bowen is 70."

Sometimes even the obituaries can be a bit controversial and maybe even a wee bit humorous.  We submit two obituaries for Joseph:

The first obituary was found in the Tuesday, August 31, 1948 issue of the Savannah Morning News, Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia:

    "Joseph Eugene Bowen

     Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon in Darien for Joseph Eugene Bowen, 81, who died in a local hospital Sunday after a long illness.

     Services will be conducted at 2 o'clock at the Darien Baptist Church by the Rev. William G. Studer.   Burial will be in St. Francis Cemetery, near Darien.  The body will be at Fox and Weeks Funeral Home until leaving for the service.

      Mr. Bowen is survived by one son, Hayden E. Bowen, Norfolk, Va.; a brother, Ashley Bowen, Jacksonville, Fla.; a grandson, Donald Bowen, Norfolk; and a great-grandson, Carol Bowen, Norfolk."

     

From the Norfolk Virginia-Pilot, published on August 31, 1948:

     "Joseph E. Bowen, 81, father of Hayden E. Bowen, of Norfolk, died Sunday in a hospital at Savannah, Ga., after a long illness.

     In addition to his son, he is survived by a brother, Ashley Bowen, of Jacksonville; a grandson, Donald Bowen, of Norfolk, and a great-granddaughter, Carol Bowen, of Norfolk.

     Funeral services will be conducted Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the Darien Baptist Church, Darien, Ga., by the Rev. William G. Studer.  Burial will be in St. Francis Cemetery.

     The body is at the Fox and Weeks Funeral Home, Savannah."

That Carol Bowen, once a great grandson and once a great granddaughter just happens to be yours truly.

How about artwork, a child's hand or your grandmother's last art project?

Notes on the history of towns, counties, even cemeteries can provide some interesting fodder for your family history:

For example, Great Bridge, Norfolk County, Virginia is now known as Chesapeake Virginia.  Just a small but mighty important fact in my research.  With the help of Uncle Google, I found the Wikipedia page on Great Bridge, which page led me to information on the Great Bridge High School, which my father attended.

One frustrating search ended up with me making the following notes:

Grindstone City was near Port Austin, Huron County, Michigan.  It is no longer found on many map programs.

Sometimes the "history" is a photo of a historical marker on the side of the road:

Your pets are part of your family history story too, for example this photo of our Bimbo, taken in Morocco, shows the kitty, but, it also shows so much about our living conditions while we lived there for about 16 months, courtesy of our Uncle Sam.  I wrote this caption to accompany the photo:

1971. Stove is Navy issue.  See bottom right of photo:  2 water jugs were filled at base for cooking and drinking. Kerosene was used for heating. Behind the bag of garbage, between the stove and cabinets is the propane bottle for the stove.  Why no garbage can?  Have no idea!

Then, we have 2 yorkie clowns and a kitten.  The kitten ended up being a "treat" for a very sweet little girl that Halloween. Yes, we adopted out the kitten.(This is my reference to Halloween in the title.  I know, I really stretched it this time!  LOL  Apologies for the quality of the image, if I ever find that photo again, I will re-scan it.  Another part of family history, learning new skills, adapting to newer technology, scanning photos.)

I have been known to include boats, cars, trucks, rv's in my family history. They are an important part of our family history.  

Yes, there is a story, and yes, Man survived, with not even one scratch.  It could have been much worse:

Houses and how they relate to our family history is another favorite of mine.  

One of our homes when we lived in Kenitra Morocoo.  There were glass shards on the top of that wall surrounding the yard.  To discourage "visitors".

This house, may be, maybe not, the home of Man's g-g-g grandfather in McHenry County Illinois.  It was in the same place as the home was shown on old plat maps.  I felt the foundation in the middle section looked kept up, but, old.  This story still could unfold:

The foundation of what I felt was the oldest part of the home.  Even though I was able to track down the current owner of the property, they were uncertain of the history of the home.  Boy, wouldn't I have loved to get into the house.  No such luck.

I also love to add unusual documents or resources to my family history, one such document was the Certificate of Special Rights of Citizenship I wrote about recently over at Reflections.  

October, a great month to expand and expound on your family history.  It's not just the census anymore.

*  All the images above will be found in my data base attached to the appropriate family or individual.  I currently have over 10.000 such images attached in my data base.  It's all about telling the story, the family history.

**  Happy Halloween, take photos, they are part of your family history as well.  Yes, even the pumpkins no matter how you decorate them.

BOO!

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Grandparenthood – a family historian’s perspective

Family History is all about relationships but how often do we consider what those relationships actually mean. When my grandson was born last year, I reassessed my outlook on grandparenthood. Edward Leo does have a direct male line of course but that is for his other grandmother (also a family historian) to pursue. I therefore concentrated on grandparents on my side of his family.

So how has the grandparent-grandchild relationship changed? On this side of the family, Edward has one living grandparent – me. I am younger now than any of my grandparents were when I was born. I have (so far) two grandchildren and they live 300 miles away. In the past this might have meant that I saw them rarely, if ever and unless I was comfortably literate, even the occasional letter would have been unlikely. It is too soon to say what aspects of my appearance or personality will be reflected in my grandchildren but I can see echoes of my own grandparents in me.
 
My mother’s parents lived within walking distance and we saw them weekly. They were able to provide regular support for my mother. Equally she was on hand to help my grandmother when my grandfather was ill and then when she was widowed. When my grandmother herself became unwell she came to live with us.

‘Granny’, Ivy Gertrude Woolgar, was 63 when I was born and died a month after my seventh birthday. She was a wonderful lady and the archetypal granny in everything except build. We played together regularly, she taught me to knit, recited nursery rhymes and did all the things grannies are meant to do. My first family holidays were on the Isle of Wight and Granny came too. My memories of Granny are a role model for my own grandparenting. Although I lack her dainty size, physically I have inherited most from this grandparent. In fact I wonder why, when I look in the mirror, she looks back.

My maternal grandfather and youngest grandparent, was Frederick Herbert Smith; he was 61 when I was born and he died the following year. Despite this I do remember sitting in the sunshine on his desk in the back bedroom that was his office. According to other relatives he was happiest with his own company. A Chartered Accountant by profession, his main hobbies were stamp collecting and train spotting. I suspect that in today’s world a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome might have been applied. He did everything he could to avoid family gatherings but nonetheless played with me and taught me to count his keys. There were thirteen but somewhere someone must have suggested that thirteen was not to be mentioned so I always counted ‘eleven, twelve, fourteen.’ What then has come to me from this grandparent? Physically, my short-sightedness but some aspects of my personality, such as the attention to detail and my self-sufficiency are his too. I wish I could have had the chance to get to know him better; I think we would have got on rather well.



My paternal grandparents were much more aloof. We visited, perhaps monthly and occasionally went to Battersea Park, together with my parents. I was certainly never alone with them and have no recollection of anything that could constitute play. Albany Braund, ‘Grandpops’, a railway porter, became a grandparent at the age of 67 and died when I was six. He was also the only one of my grandparents to grow up in the countryside and I now live closest to his birthplace. I was always a little wary of his gruff manner. Although I didn’t realise it at the time it is likely that my maverick tendencies and my willingness to challenge authority come from this grandparent.





My fourth grandparent, ‘Grandmums’ Elizabeth Ann Hogg, was 69 was I was born, the eldest of my grandparents, yet she lived the longest, dying when I was ten. My relationship with her was a distant one and memories are shaped by her diabetes. We always had to shop for PLJ for her to drink and diabetic chocolate, neither of which were easy to obtain. I can’t identify how Elizabeth Ann has contributed to my genetic mix. I clearly remember the journeys to their house and the house itself but the personalities of my paternal grandparents elude me. Perhaps that in itself suggests that they were not child orientated. When one considers their background this is perhaps not surprising. Albany was only five when his widowed mother married again and left him to be brought up by his grandmother and then an older aunt, who had children of her own. He had contact with his three surviving grandparents, all of whom lived close by. In contrast, although three of Elizabeth Ann’s grandparents lived until she was a young adult they lived many miles away in Northumberland and Buckinghamshire, whilst Elizabeth’s parents had brought her up in London. Elizabeth’s mother died when she was twelve and family stories relate that her Northumberland grandmother came to look after her.

Unusually for their generation, three of my grandparents grew up as only children, the exception was Ivy; this probably had an impact on their ability to form other family relationships, certainly Ivy was the most family orientated of the four.

So young Edward, what will come down to you from all these ancestors and of course from your equally significant ancestors on your paternal line and the forebears of your maternal grandfather, whom I have not celebrated here? You will of course just grow up to be your own very special person but maybe sometimes echoes of your genetic forbears will travel down the generations and show themselves in you.

We often race back through the generations of our family tree but sometimes we need to stop and reflect on our more recent forebears. I challenge you to consider your own grandparents, their personalities and what they have contributed, through nurture or nature, to you.

Janet Few

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

      Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, fires, floods and many other natural disasters can suddenly impact your home. Some with no warning.
  These last few days in SC have brought record breaking rain and floods. We are used to preparing for hurricanes on the coast but rain of this magnitude was not imagined.

My Neighborhood

    Property has been damaged, homes flooded and families evacuated. Watching the scenes play out in my neighborhood and throughout the state the question kept coming to me. What if it was me? What if the water in the road comes up any higher?
   What have I done to prepare?
   What do I need to take with me?

My Daughter's Street

 Of course, my priority would be my family, pets and fireproof box along with food and water.
  My genealogy road has been a long one with thousands of pictures, documents, ephemera and heirlooms collected over the years.  What about all of those treasures? Could I get them all out?
 The answer is probably no. There are too many and in most disasters, time is of the essence.

   Thankfully, the rain has subsided, and the sun is out. There are rivers still to crest, but my home should remain safe. Today is a day to think about preparing for a time when it might not be.

  Computer- My data is saved in the cloud, on a portable hard drive and on flash drives.  Continually backing up and keeping copies of computer files in various places will protect many years of work.

 File Cabinets- My family files are slowly being scanned.There are many years of email communication, documents and notes on my family lines. These files would be too heavy to take in an evacuation. Scanning will preserve the information held in each.  These cabinets are kept on the second floor of my home to keep them away from high rising water.

Pictures-Pictures from many generations are in a to -do box for scanning and then filing. Work on it has been slow. Although in an upstairs room, water coming in through windows or other places would have destroyed them. Completing the scanning process needs to be a priority as well as finding a safe, waterproof container to keep them in.
 The pictures that I have already scanned need to be protected. They are placed in archival sheets, but this may not be enough.

Heirlooms-Jewelry, furniture, clothing, toys and other items have been given to me over the years. A collection of family bibles is very precious to me. The majority have been photographed. Most are in glass cases. All would not survive a natural disaster.

Ephemera-Those precious collectable items like ticket stubs, and scrapbooks. The extra things found along the way that give rich detail to our ancestor's lives.  Again, scanning is a good way to make sure they are preserved for future generations.


Does your emergency planning include your genealogy and family history? How are you preserving your treasures?


Thanks so much for stopping by!
Cheri

Autumn - Time to Reflect

Autumn Park - by Graeme Weatherston
image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net ID-1003803

Back in May, I blogged about the books on my Spring/Summer reading list. In June I blogged about all the events (graduations, weddings, and a family reunion) that were on our family's horizon. And then for the next 3 months I went quiet. It was a busy summer and I don't know where the time went. How was your summer?

After much discussion over the past few years, my parents in early June decided to put their home on the market - and it sold that first weekend. The scramble to find a new place, make decisions about what was going to their new home, what would be given to family or friends, and what would be given away was compounded by the fact that this was a tremendous downsize in house. Not only do you move out of your home, but you also have to move into a new home and get comfortably settled. That is where the children come in - to help clean, sort, pack, move, unpack and help arrange things in the new place. Taking on a project like that is easier when you are in college and/or moving into your first or second place (and have lots less "stuff").

One of the books on my May reading list came in handy and really made me think. In the life-changing magic of tidying up, Marie Kondo suggests that we only keep the items in our house that "spark joy."  She considers that organizing before you decide what to have in your home is a never-ending process of putting stuff away. Getting rid of the clutter and simplifying our lives are the keys to having more time to spend with family and friends, more time to spend on the activities that we enjoy, and more time to spend on the projects that bring us happiness and purpose. After finishing our parents' move I certainly have a new appreciation for this mindset and I am determined to simplify things at my own home.

Our family reunion weekend (scheduled for Eastern Washington in August) collided with the wildfires that devastated the area - serious firefighting and recovery efforts took precedence over our family trip. The end of summer and beginning of the school year and back to work schedule is always a bit of a scramble. Added to that this year was the first Guild of One-Name Studies' USA Seminar. My hat is off to those volunteers who work on seminar planning (and follow-through) - oftentimes they work in the background over many months to make sure that an event or seminar comes off without a hitch (and that is no small feat). I am happy to say that our seminar was a success and huge thanks goes to the New England Historic and Genealogical Society, our partner in the seminar.

And that brings me to another book on my May reading list - The Road to Character by David Brooks. Many times during the past few months I have seen, heard or read about people in the genealogy world and in the bigger world who are doing or saying things to make themselves the Big Me - emphasizing external success. David Brooks writes about the necessity to re-balance the scales "between our resume virtues - achieving wealth, fame and status - and our eulogy virtues, those that exist at the core of our being: kindness, bravery, honesty" focusing on inner character, being part of a larger cause, taking care with the relationships we form and the actions we take.

I appreciated that two of his inspiring leaders were Frances Perkins and Dorothy Day, as they are two women whom I have always admired. What they accomplished with their lives and how they thought of and worked on behalf of others continues to inspire me. I was thrilled that Pope Francis gave the life work of Dorothy Day a shout out on his recent visit to the United States. I learned something about leadership and sacrifice from the chapters about George Marshall and A. Phillip Randolph. The lesson from each chapter is that living according to a moral code is about "quieting the self", humility, modesty and maturity. We see too little of that today. Of course it is not easy and requires constant self-examination. Would that all of us work on re-balancing our lives to avoid the Big Me.

And now we are on to Autumn (here in the northern hemisphere). I have changed the background theme on my computer monitor to reflect the bounty and crispness that is Autumn - pumpkins, apples, cranberries, nuts and leaves. And I keep The Road to Character on my nightstand (still working through the chapter on Augustine - that is a tough one) and think about the eulogy virtues - and what I can do each day to be more kind, brave, honest and caring.