Nick Names, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Copyright 2025, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

It's been a while folks.  For the past 2 years, and specifically for the past 3/4 year, I have been cleaning up data base GEDCOM failures, self inflicted, of course.  I have been pushing the project, as Moriah and her laptop companion are both getting a bit long in the tooth (old) and that age has started presenting in unexplained crashes and other weirdness all computer users are all too familiar with; there was the issue of Parallels and Windows 10 vs Mac.  As of this month I finally finished the reviews necessary (to me, they were necessary).  I finally feel and hope that I have found all missing files and can move on with my genie life.  I hope it means I may do a bit more writing.

SOOOOOOO - - - 

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories.  Here are the prompts for 2025 (yes, I am using a link, her links I hope/feel are gonna be around for a bit).  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025.

Her challenges are always good.  Since I have participated before, several times, I find it a bit difficult to write to familiar challenges.  Nicknames.  This immediately brought to mind one particular family, they LOVED nick names.

These nicknames are the children of Charles Stuart (Stewart) and his two wives.  Charles was born around 1814, reportedly in Maine.  He died in 1881. 

His first wife was Jane Perry, who reportedly died about 1846.  

Charles and Jane, according to my research as it stands today, had three children:

Bread Printer, male, per family history stories acquired this moniker "when he was a small boy he sat in a pan of bread."  His real name, Joel Albert.

Lamb, female, again, according to family history stories, acquired her nickname was "Lamb" because she was gentle and innocent.  Her real name, Mary Ann.

Toad, male, was so named, yes, according to family history stories, he was so fat when a baby, that if he got on his back he could not turn over....  His real name James.

After Jane died, Charles married secondly Margaret Ann Sharp.  I have nicknames for 6 of their 11 children.  Margaret was born about 1827, in New Brunswick, Canada and died in 1901.

“Nug”, that same set of family history stories tells us - - 

Nug, Hug, has got a mug

And can't get a drink of water."  

Nug, for the record was male.  I have never researched the "poem", so, no clue as to where it came from, made up by the family or a reference to some phrase, story, song, rumor? of the time.  His real name, Charles.

Next child, also male had a nickname was "Soup", because he liked soup so well.  Real name, William H.

Next child, also male, when a baby and was learning to talk he said "Nick, Nick" so much that he was always called Nick by the family.  The name fit him for he was always full of the old  nick.  He told funny stories in a funny way and could do many tricks. Real name George Edward.

Next child, a male, died young, I have no record of a nickname for this child.

 John was his given name.

The following child was a female, who also died young, and again, I have no record of a nickname. Elizabeth Jane was her given name.

Next up, another female, whose nickname I have found as “Maggie”, yes, for Margaret.  Also reported to have the nickname of “Keaty” by the family history stories.  She was Margaret Althea.

Next child reported in the family histories is a male who died at less than one year of age.  I have no more information on him.  Given name, Frank.

Next child, female, I have no nickname recorded, she lived to a ripe old age of 87.  Name, Sarah Ann.

Next child, male, no information on death, burial or possible nickname.  Given name, Eugene.

Next child, a male, lived a good long life, dying at age 82, his family history stories tell us he went by the name of "Big" because he was such a large boy.  We do find in his adult years a nickname of “Link”.  Given name, Lincoln Ellsworth.

The last of the 11 siblings was known as “Angel”.  No explanation of the name was recorded in my database. Given name, Alice Matilda.

I have many nicknames in my data base, however, these are special, basically, because I have some family history stories as to why.  

* Many MANY thanks to the researchers of this family that preceded me.  Some as long ago as 100 years ago.  Special thanks go to their descendants that continue the research and were very kind to share written works with me.  Much of this information is based upon that research and that sharing.

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Origins, In Brief, Sorta, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Copyright 2024, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

This week's challenge is: Origins.

Right off I remembered this fun chart from 2016:

A bit of the back story on this - - in March of 2016, J Paul Hawthorne posted his chart on Facebook.  It was wildly and delightfully duplicated.  It was such a fun week or so.  He even blogged about it over at his blog, GeneaSpy, see his post of March 26, 2016.  

So, each block represents part of my pedigree chart.  Yes, starting with me.  You will see this goes back as far as my great-great grandparents.  

Yesterday I studied each of these great-greats and traced those lines back as far as I could, did I have any idea where they may have come from before jumping the pond?

Yes, and no.

Now, the disclaimer, for the past couple of years, I have not done any updating, or review of research on these ggggg (however many greats) grandparents, or their origins.  So, this is information collected in prior research.  There is nothing like review and more review of prior research.  By doing so, we may find new ideas, information, hints, and new documentation.  However, for now, this is what prior research has told us about the possible origins of my 16 great-great grandparents.

(By square number, starting at the top right, and working down that entire row.)

1.  Wales

2 thru 6, have no clue

7. England

8. England, or possibly Wales

9. Possibly Alsace France

10. Germany

11.  Germany

12.  Possibly Germany.

13. Switzerland

14.  France

15.  Switzerland

16.  England (possibly French Hugenots prior to England.)

Interestingly enough, these do remind me of the heritage claims of my grandparents when asked.  

And, I will admit, I am now itching to review and see if I can discover more.  Will I??  Stay tuned.

* Remember, links fail.  They change, they morf, they disappear.  That is why for the most part, I no longer use them.  I made and exception in this post. 

** The chart was worked on a spreadsheet, see the blog post by J Paul.

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So Many Descendants, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Copyright 2023, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" for her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

This week's challenge is "So Many Descendants." Sometimes when we're researching, we'll come across a set of ancestors who seem to have a gajillion descendants. Who is that in your family tree?

I took this challenge as an opportunity to learn more about the computer database I am currently using, Reunion.  Let's face it, data bases have a lot of power tucked in under the hood and finding it all can be and is a challenge.  

So, off I went diving into the innards and hidden goodies.  I found something called "Summary".  It gives some fun numbers, like number of spouses, number of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, gg, ggg, etc., to the point of the last generation you have searched and/or recorded.  You can print reports or just study them in amazement.

I decided to look at 4 lines, 2 of mine and 2 of Man's.  My parent's surnames and his parent's surnames.  Follow each surname to the last person I have recorded, noting that a few of the ancestors, I have researched further back, but, for any number of reasons, may not actually added those ancestor's names to the data base.  Some are so far back that I am not comfortable with the amount of sourcing available.  Hey, back before 1700 it can get sketchy in many countries.  Anywhooo - - - - - - 

4 lines, how many descendants.  Let's see - - 

Richard Lashbrook, Man's ancestor via the Stevens/Lashbrook lineage:  1 spouse, 1679 descendants in 8 generations.  14 children (2 of whom we have nothing more than their given names, so, it could very well be 12 children, eh?)

Karl "Carl\Charles" Herman Gehrke, Man's ancestor via the Gehrke lineage:  1 spouse, 454 descendants in 6 generations.  10 children, 6 of whom survived to have families of their own.

Richard Bowen, my ancestor via the Bowen lineage, 2 spouses, 587 descendants in 13 generations.  7 children.  Time to fess up, I have not chased 4 of his children.  It is what it is.  Wink, wink.

H. Jacob Trumbo, my ancestor via the Trumbo lineage, 1 spouse, 533 descendants in 10 generations.  7 children.  More fess up time, his generation and his children, not as well researched as I would like them to be.  Another, it is what it is.  Wink, wink.

The Karl "Carl\Charles" Herman Gehrke line only goes back to mid 1800, where the records end, as best we have ever been able to determine, barring new discoveries.  The Lashbrook, Bowen and Trumbo lineages all go back to around 1700.  

Total descendants currently in my data base from these 4 ancestors = 3253.  Most children in the first generation = 14.  Most generations = 13. 

* Clip art courtesy of Clip Art Library.

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Brick Walls - As I Wrote This Post - The Wall Came Tumbling Down, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Copyright 2023, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" for her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

This week's challenge is: Brick Walls.

Originally I was going to whine, err, write about Valeria.  

Valeria was the second wife, in a very short marriage, of Man's father.

You can see from this screen shot of her on my data base, with a time line to the right side, that from the time she is about 33 until her death, there is a HUGE bunch of missing info.

That said, on review and several hours of additional digging on the internet for new clues, I am ready to say, I have that first half of her life and her death reasonably researched and over all I am pleased with the results.  EXCEPT for the little tidbit of a third marriage??  To one "Walley Vedro".

Despite a number of tries, I just cannot get a lead on Wally.  No marriage record to Valeria (Valerie and other spellings accepted.).  Said marriage, if there was one, would have happened after 1957 when her second hubby John Martin Scherer passed.

I have not been able to locate Wally on census enumerations, I am not sure what locality to search, in the U.S., or, maybe somewhere else.  

I am currently searching for "alternate" given names to research, otherwise, he is truly a brick wall.  

Oh, see the P. S. below that was written about 24 hours after what you have just read.  

P. S.  FOUND HIM!!  He is Raymond Joseph Vedro.  I'm still trying to figure it all out and do the input.  Interesting little genie twist, there are two marriages (that I have found so far) between the Vedro and Butkus clans.  

I found him by going to GenealogyBanks dot com (I pay full price for my subscription) and searched every Social Security Death Index entry for the surname Vedro.  There were less than 50, so the search was not overwhelming. When I found Raymond I stopped short and took a nice long look, because his last benefit was forwarded to the same small community that Valeria's last benefit was forwarded to.  With a name, and some dates, his wall came tumbling down.  

Still no marriage index or record.  Still no burial place for either.  Still no obituary for him.  That can all wait for another day, cause, frankly, I am kinda tired, I stayed up wayyyyy too late last night tossing around all those bricks.

And, I have no idea why he went by "Wally".  But, we all know, there is no rhyme or reason to nicknames.  And, we all know, nicknames were invented to drive the already partially crazy family researcher to the FULL ON WACKADOODLE crazy.  We thank you.

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The Art/Challenges of Translation for Research, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Copyright 2023, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

This week's challenge is: Translation.  She asks:  Would any of your ancestors have needed someone to translate for them? Have you had to work with records in a language other than your own? The answers are Yes, and ohhhhh, yes.

Man’s great-grandmother, Charlotte, never spoke English, even tho I have been told she could understand it.  She left Germany/Poland in 1888, going to Hawaii, California and eventually Michigan.  Enough German was spoken in the household that Man’s mother could understand and remember some German words/phrases till her death, which was 71 years after Charlotte passed.

 Needless to say, I have dealt with numerous records written in German in my research of that family.

 Researching in the 1990’s required many hours of patience, writing letters, waiting weeks for responses.  I used any and all help I could find, other researchers, family, and I learned to read some church records myself.  Note the word, "some".

Above, Charlotte, year unknown, place unknown, 

shared with me by her granddaughter, 

Mildred Gehrke Stevens, now deceased.  

Charlotte died 1939.

It was not easy, nor pretty, but, eventually, I learned to read enough of the old German handwriting to pull the details of some German church records, such as this marriage record of the son of Charlotte, Fred when he married Lilly Gerth in 1910.  

The record mentions that Fred was born in Hammerstein. It took several years of research and letter writing and hours of studying microfilm to discover where this town named Hammerstein was located, ended up it was in Poland.  It was one of at least 5 towns named Hammerstein we found on old Germany maps.  Four were in Germany as we know it now, one is now in Poland.

After we determined that this Gehrke clan most likely was from an area of Germany that now lies in Poland, I had a fellow researcher, who specialized in Polish research, write letters to Poland for me, searching for records.  At that time I was trying to locate town/civil  records and possible church records, alas, many were destroyed by WWI and WWII.  This special friend would translate my English to Polish, we would send off, when he received a response, he would translate it back to English for me.  

I also had my daughter-in-law (who grew up in Germany, with a long heritage in that country) help by writing letters in German for me.  She would contact archives and other researchers.  At one point, she even sent documents written in old German handwriting to her mother, who in turn gave them to some friends and family that could still read the old handwriting.  They translated to the best of their ability, and several translations and letters later, we had a fairly decent translation.  

One such translation was a long and detailed story of the deceased gentleman, Christian Link (d. 1919), which details the date of burial, the pastor’s name who oversaw the funeral, his birth date, birth place in Germany, his age of moving to Canada, date of marriage, date he and his bride moved to Michigan, her death information, and many more details.  If only all obituaries today provided such detail.  For the record, this long obituary/story was found in church records.

Ah, research before the internet was what it is today, when translating records was a slow slow slug for Moi.  Our friends and their knowledge was invaluable.  Frankly, it did take a lot of digging to find the right person to assist and hours of learning to pick apart the records and try to read them myself.  Did it teach me patience?  Maybe - - 

** Note: It gets complicated - Christian’s son Fred married the sister of Lilly Gerth  - Man’s grandmother.

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A Couple of My Outcasts, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Copyright 2023, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

This week's challenge is: Outcasts

I consider ancestors as outcasts when some behavior or action of theirs was deemed unacceptable by their families.  At the time of the behavior, they seemed to cease to exist for the remaining family members, never mentioned in any way, legally or via social media/newspapers. 

I have found several in my years of research.  The most recent was the bigamist I wrote about in the post titled ”Social Media of 130 Years Ago”.

For my bigamist, Isaac Marion Blanton, coming from what appears to be a highly religious family, his trip off the edge, his seemingly crash and burn after the death of his first wife, was more than they could deal with.  His birth mother had died well before 1893, the year that he was arrested in Memphis, Tennessee for bigamy.  

Isaac’s father, died in 1907, at the ripe ole age of 102.  I found a nice obituary, but, the names of children were not included.  His father’s second wife, died in 1920, again again, no names of survivors, even tho she claimed to have given birth to 16 children.  I have yet to trace those children, to see if any of them happened to mention Isaac Marion at any point of their lives or in any obituaries.  

Isaac’s eldest daughter by his first wife, married in 1903, I found three newspaper articles about the wedding/marriage, not one mentioned any of her kin, in fact, they all mentioned it was a “quiet” affair.  Her obituaries name her sister, late husband, children and grandchildren.  Isaac’s youngest daughter by his first wife, married and had several children.  I find no mention of Isaac in any documents or articles about her, except death indexes found online.  

It is as if Isaac ceased to exist to the rest of his family.  As a note in passing, his last wife, my great XX aunt did not record Isaac’s parent’s names on his death certificate.  Was that a matter of being “outcast”?  Hard to tell, we all have found many death certificates with errors.  Lots and lots of errors.  I have yet to discover any obituary for Isaac (who was going by Marion). 

The other outcast would be the great-grandfather of Man’s.  William Franklin Fenton, who lived and died in Nova Scotia Canada.

William’s first marriage, to Fannie, resulted in the birth of 4 children.  His second marriage, to Ida, resulted in the birth or adoption of 6 children.  The issue here is that Ida happened to be of black and other heritages, and William was not.  Back around 1900 this was not thought well of in Nova Scotia.  

Most records for this clan I have found do reflect the parentage of the children, on marriage and death records.  I have some obituaries, but, not enough to please my tenacity.  

In my mind William is considered an outcast due to the fact that when his father died William was the informant on the death certificate. However, William was not counted or named as one of his children/siblings.  All of the other surviving children were named and their place of abode was mentioned.



William had 8 siblings, two of whom died in 1882 in a tragic accident.  Of the remaining 6, two others died before William did.  His brother Robert died in 1914, and I have yet to find if there was ever an obituary.  His sister, Julia died in 1913, and her obituary was found.  It states she was survived by her father (who was named), 2 brothers (again, both named) and 3 sisters (all named).  However, William was not named or counted.  He was outcast.

 

There are family stories that exist till today, passed down by several generations, that William was shunned because of his choice of a second wife.  I have even heard stories that at least one of his brothers would sneak off to visit William on occasion despite the rest of the families objections. Researchers need to be careful with those types of stories, and I report it as just that, a story passed down through the generations.

The Fenton research continues, as it has since 1991.  

In my opinion, these "outcasts" were cast aside by their choices in marriage and life style.  I can affirm from personal experience, that there are ramifications of these family events that are still felt in the 2020's.  

* Image from http://clipart-library.com/

Social Media of 130 Years Ago, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Copyright 2023, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

This week's challenge is: Social Media

Social Media is what we call it now, you know, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc.  But, what about 130 years ago?  Well, there were gossip/social pages and columns from the local newspaper.  Some of the columns were named "Social News" or "Social Happenings".  Quite creative, eh??

This newspaper social media can be a gold mine for family researchers, it really is one of my favorite kinds of research.  I find marriage announcements, short and sweet, or extensive, describing the flowers decorating the place of the marriage and the corsages the ladies carried.  Of course, there are death announcements and obituaries.  They may tell us when and where that ancestor left life, and maybe what he/she accomplished.  Hopefully, it will tell us names and relationship of survivors, place of burial.  Sometimes it will tell us of children that have gone missing, never to be heard of again. 

And, sometimes it will tell a story of bigamy, abuse of drugs and alcohol and some consequences.  Like the story I am still unearthing of Isaac Marion Blanton, who eventually married a distant aunt of mine.  I will add my usual disclaimer, this might not be the hubby of that distant aunt. His death certificate does not state his parents names, which I found a bit odd, as he had been married to my great aunt for close to 30 years.  I have yet to find a published obituary for him either.  But, I do have a small pile of circumstantial evidence.  The search, as they say, continues, with an open mind.

But, I digress, this dude's (whether he turns out to be mine or not) story is something, and social media, errr, the newspapers of his time, were full of stories.  Here are just a couple of short pieces, the in-depth stories are really something!!

Isaac, or Marion as he liked to be called, was married, had a couple of daughters, about 1886 or so, his wife died.  Then - - - 

According to social media/newspaper reporting:

From Our Mountain Home, Talladega, Alabama, published on March 9, 1887:
     “MARRIED - - At Jenifer, Ala., February 23rd, 1887, by Rev. J. B. Stevenson, Rev. J. M. Blanton, of Oxford, to Miss Lula M. Hendrick, daughter of J. H. Hendrick.”

And - -

From the Post Gibson Reveille, Port Gibson, Mississippi, published Friday July 14, 1893:
     “Romantic Marriage
     A special dispatch to the Picayune from Water Valley, Miss., under the date of July 8th, says:
     “Quite a romantic marriage took place here this evening, the contracting parties being Mr. Marion Blandon, a traveling insurance agent of Memphis, and Miss Carrie Hiersch, eldest daughter of Mr. David Hiersch, of this city. The young couple some time ago undertook to have the nuptial knot tied in the city of Memphis, but the parents of the bride forbade it. Being Jews, they were very much opposed and in some way put a stop to the proceedings, but the young couple abided their time and while the father of the bride was off at some springs in pursuit of health and happiness, Mr. Blandon came here and captured his bride. Rev. J. W. Price, of the Methodist Episcopal church, performed the ceremony under the spreading branches of a large oak, while mayor Cock, sheriff Duke, circuit clerk Sherman and Mr. J. A. Mauldin acted as witnesses. Reconciliation was effected between the young folks and the other of the bride and the couple returned to Memphis to-night rejoicing.”

And - -

From the Tuscaloosa Gazette, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, published on August 10, 1893:
     “Isaac Marion Blanton, ex-preacher and insurance agent, was given a good drubbing by his irate father-in-law Hirsh, in Memphis, Tenn. Last spring Blanton ran away with, and married Miss Carrie Hirsh, who was a Jewess living at Water Valley, Miss., Hirsh began to look up the record of his son-in-law and found that he was a married man, having several wives living when he married Miss Hirsh, this exasperated the old man, who looked him up, gave him a thrashing and had him put in jail on a charge of bigamy.
     The most peculiar thing is that Blanton is a small ugly man, a perfect wretch from whiskey and opium.
     They say he has a half dozen wives most of whom are in Alabama.”

The Cliff Notes version - - Lula saw the announcement of his marriage to Miss Carrie Hiersch and wrote to Carrie's father accusing Marion of bigamy. She provided a photo of Marion to Mr. Hiersch.*  There are varying reports of the day Mr. Hiersch confronted Marion, but, they all boil down to a beating and arrest. The case drug on for some months, in the end the judge ordered Marion into a hospital for the insane in Tennessee. At this point the reports cease and I pick up his trail at the time of his marriage to my distant aunt ca 1899. I have yet to find more wives, I did find the indications of records for 4 marriages, first wife, Lula, Carrie and the distant aunt.

Social media 1893 style, viewed from 2023, is a gold mine for this researcher. Love me my newspapers.

* OHHH, to have a copy of that photo.

** In the meantime, his marriage to my distant aunt - - 

 

*** While writing this post, I discovered that second wife Lula Hendrik had a brother, James E.  

James E. married Isaac's daughter, Pernie.  

So, a brother and sister, marry a father and daughter.  You really cannot make this stuff up.

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Ooopps!! 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Copyright 2023, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

This week's challenge is: Oops!

Yes, this was actually last weeks challenge, but, Amy is not a stickler for the schedule, so, I'm just gonna drop this little genie whine/oops post right here, late as it is.  

Oops -  my data base is not perfect.  Imagine that?!?

Oops - Tommy is not spelled Tommmy. Not even with my spelling rule, “spelling don’t count”. 

Oops -  my new software has a flaw, very likely, user caused, and it’s late at night, and I’m cranky about it.

It’s been a techy war kinda weekend. Fun times. Wink. Wink.  Ooopps!!

* The new software - - I am switching out of Legacy/Parallels/Windows to Reunion/Mac/Apple.  Sadly, Legacy does not seem to be coming forth with a Mac/Apple version, as they promised for any number of years.  Oops.  

I'm very sad, but as my late daddy used to say - nothing ever stays the same.  So, I am on a learning curve for software, even beyond Reunion.  And, it is slowing down my research, I am not happy about that.  And, all this said - - it's all first world problems.

And, oops, Tommy is still not spelled Tommmy!

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Geneva Florence Halterman, Education, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Copyright 2023, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

This week's challenge is: Education

Meet Geneva, my great aunt.  I have chatted about her before here on Reflections.

Geneva was a great story teller, we remember how she would recall events in her life, tilt her head back ever so slightly and close her eyes.  It was delightful.

Geneva received her Bachelors of Science in Education in 1925 from the University of Virginia.  She went on to earn a master's degree from the University of Virginia.  She conducted doctoral studies at Columbia University in New York and George Peabody College in Nashville, Tenn.

She taught school in Rockingham, Page and Amherst counties in Virginia and in Hardy County, W. Va., until 1942.

After teaching, she served as a German translator in the Army Memorial Division in Washington, D. C., and Philadelphia.

I have a few of her old text books lying around here somewhere.  Let me tell you, when she got her education, you were educated.  8th grade text books were quite advanced.  

Geneva never married and she hated thistles (I got that thistles hatred from her, I just know it.) 

She also assisted in the gathering of information for several genealogy books that were published.  I may have inherited a bit of that genie interest as well.

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Campfire in the Rain, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Copyright 2023, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

This week's challenge is:  Favorite Photo.

This was in from the mid 1970's, our very very very first camping trip to mid Michigan.  Tent, collie, 2 kiddos, mother and father in loves, borrowed open trailer to haul it all in.  It rained 80% of the time we were there, 2 full weeks.

It was raining when this photo was taken, with a roaring campfire.  If you look at the bench to the far right, you can see the rain drops dripping from it.  No wonder we were not sitting on that bench.

My father in love took this slide photo. I remembered it for years.  I was obsessed with locating it. It took a deep deep dive into all his slides to finally find it.  I scanned it.  If in my genie wanderings I locate it again in the archives (aka, messes) of my office, I might consider trying another scan with more up to date hardware and software.  

It may not be my favorite photo, but, it is one that I wanted to locate, it became a mission.  That's me, by the way, in the green rain coat with hoodie pulled up (and a decided smirk on my face).  Mother in love, to the far left.  Man in pale yellow short sleeved T.  Dude to the far right, who knows??  Some other camper we were chatting with.

Mission accomplished.

To sign up with Amy, go here.  Link functional as of January 2023.

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