123rd Carnival of Genealogy :: Gonna Have a Birthday Party

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Our great hostess of the Carnival of Genealogy, Jasia, of Creative Gene, is having a birthday in November.  Her challenge for this Carnival is:

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: A Birthday Party! Yep, we're having a birthday party here at the COG and you're all invited! Whose birthday is it? Mine. :-) November is the month of my birthday and in honor of me I'd like to invite you to share a birthday story.

Your story can be about a birthday party you hosted or was held for you. It can be a tribute to someone on your family tree who has a November birthday. Or, it can be a fantasy about your dream birthday! 

I went checking, not a lot of birthday party photos on the computer. Well, hmmmpphhh.  I had just a few parties, well, I can only remember a few.  I found a few photos of birthdays from my kids.  A few of Man, his first and second birthday photos were pretty cute.  Yes, I blogged them, birthday number one is here, and that second birthday is here.  Alas, nothing struck me as blog worthy, or I had used it already, so, I decided, that since Jasia was having a birthday, I would  gather a few items and just throw her a party.

So, Jasia, Let's Parteeeeeee!!

Here are some balloons to decorate with:

Later in the evening we will have some fireworks:

MUST have a hat!  (Thank you to our lovely model, Son # 3.)

And, of course, a cake (actually I borrowed this from Son # 2's fourth birthday party).  We all love a carousel  right?  I'll fight ya for the giraffe looking creature, I have never ridden a giraffe before!  Or maybe that is a funny looking long necked horse?

Here is your present, sure hope you like it:

And, last, but, NOT least, a little bubbly to wash it all down:

Happy Birthday Jasia!

* Graphic of the present, source long lost, apologies to the original artist.  Graphic of the bubbly, fireworks and the balloons courtesy of Dan's Clipart.  (Note, his web site may be numbered in days?  His domain may be for sale?) . Link removed in October 2018 as it shows as a bad link.
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121st Carnival Of Genealogy, Great Discoveries: The Lashbrook Book

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Jasia at Creative Genes for hosting the 121st COG.  Her challenge:

The topic for the next edition of the COG will be: Great Discoveries. ...It's time to once again share your latest discoveries, the ones that put a smile on your face, brought a tear to your eye, or for whatever reason made you say, "wow"!

Possibly the greatest discovery I made in my 20 some years of research was when I ordered a microtext copy of a surname book,  "Lashbrooke, Lashbrooks, and Lashbrook (of the United States)", (Utica, Kentucky: McDowell Publications, 1986), complied by Mary K. Gritt Lashbrook.

This was very early on in my research, maybe the first year, surely in the first two.  I had ordered a few other surname books and they had all been gold mines.  When I ordered the Lashbrook work, however, I was fishing, pure and simple.

The catalog description at FamilySearch.org says:  "Ten generations of Lashbrook families, most of whom are descended from William Lashbrooke, who was living in Prince William County, Virginia at the time of his death in 1760."

Heavens, at this point I had NO idea who I was chasing, so, I took a chance that someone I could connect to would show up in Mary's work.  And, boy did it ever!

I have mentioned this a few times before, Mary did an outstanding job of the one name study of Lashbrook in the USA.  She ended up with a few lone wolf lines.  Instead of ditching the research she tucked the rough outlines in at the end of her work.  And, there it was that I found Archie, in all his glory, with his siblings and parents, and extended ancestry.  Mary had filled 12 pages with what she had collected.  12 wonderful pages.

(Below, the first of the 12 pages of Richard and Ann's descendants.)

I currently have 239 people in my data base with the surname Lashbrook.  There are 6 brides married to Lashbrook dudes for whom I have been unable to determine maiden names.  There is also one lone Lashbrooke (sad story that, filled with abandonment and resentments, and yes, it surrounds Archie, dear ole Archie, the starting point of most of the next 20 years of research).

I ran a descendancy chart with just names, including spouses, it is 75 pages long and includes approximately 2,250 names.  I have been reluctant to find out how many pages it would take to print this compiled data for some time, last time I tried, it was well over 850 pages.  But, I held my breath and tried again the other day, and it was around 1040 pages, including the index and one photo per person (where I have some graphic of some kind).   Sans graphics the report and index are about 940 pages.  That is pretty interesting to me, 100 pages of graphics and not everyone has a graphic attached to them.

Mary's work has been the foundation for all the research I have done since then, well over 20 years of research.

Several years after the searching began I was gifted with a copy of May's book, that alone is a story I should probably share sometime.

(Below, my gifted copy of the Lashbrook book, a treasured and valued possession.)

My greatest discovery, no doubt about it, was Mary's book on microtext and the 12 pages she tucked in at the end, for a family she could not even link to.  I cannot thank her enough times.

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120th Carnival of Genealogy :: Business and Commerce :: Donald E Bowen the Entrepreneur

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Jasia of Creative Gene is once again sponsoring the Carnival of Genealogy, the 120th! This month's them is Business and Commerce, the challenge is:

Did someone in your family own a small business? Was there a favorite clothing store, ice cream shop, shoe store, restaurant, gas station, etc. that your family frequented? Did you operate a lemonade stand when you were a child? This time around we are going to be researching small businesses and recording family memories of such.

I have decided to use this month's Carnival to put the spotlight on one of my father's entrepreneurial escapades.  He owned several business over his lifetime, he even dabbled a bit in real estate.  One of his dabbles resulted in a woodworking company he called, Carolina Woodworks Company.  He called his company a producer of "Heirloom Wood Desirables".  Now, he did not personally make any of these delightful little pieces, he had a very talented man hired for that.  I do remember he loved the equipment, the process, the smell of the wood.

So, without further ado, these are most of the pieces that I have found tucked in around my home, the inventory, as it were:

Paper Towel Holder

Left and below:  A child's toy, the game is to get the teddy to climb from the bottom to the top by pulling on the strings on each side.

Hanging candle stick holders

Baby pull toy, every child needs a green frog!

Wooden pill boxes, or trinket holders with painted lids.

The race car drivers.

The rest of the fleet of vehicles.

Train and camping trailer.

Whale

Family of ducks. VERY yellow ducks!

Gotta have a lot of whales, just cause.

The Angel

I value these delightful wooden pieces, toys and decorative items my father's little business produced.  Yes, to me they are heirlooms and desirable, just like my father, the entrepreneur, said.

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The 119th Carnival of Genealogy, The 5th Annual Swimsuit Edition!

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Thanks to Jasia of Creative Gene for hosting this 119th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.

The challenge:

It's time to think of summer and lazy days spent at the pool or beach. Dig out those wonderful swimsuit pictures of days gone by and share them with us!

OK, I was going to let this one quietly slide by, and I have no idea why I changed my mind.  I have some cute photos of my first two sons at the beach at Nags Head North Carolina in 1973.  However, I decided to go with this one of them several years before, taken in Kenitra Morocco in 1971.  

Now ya all know, I just HATE my photo being taken, and this is about the last one you will find of me in a swim suit.  EWWWW.  I am going to close my eyes as I post this "wonderful"  ????  photo.  But, hey, the kiddos are cute!  

If you look real close, you can see me scowling, and, tee hee, I don't believe it is from the bright sun.

*OK, there may be other photos of me in a swimsuit, but they are not linked to my data base, and that should tell you about all that we need to know, cause who links horrible icky looking photos of yourself to your family history data base??  Well, duhhh, not I!  LOL
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Lorena Estelle Eley Norsworthy Dews Harlow Lenahan Collins::116th COG

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

It is time for the 116th Carnival of Genealogy, graciously hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene. The challenge this month:

Picture/Story for Women's History Month. March is Women's History Month and we will once again honor a woman from our family tree by featuring her in the COG. This time we will do so by starting with a photograph and telling either the story of the photo and/or a biography of the woman pictured.

So, here is my photo:

This is Lorena Estelle Eley Norsworthy Dews Harlow Lenahan Collins, this photo reportedly was taken about 1918.  It is believed she is standing on the steps of her home/boarding home which was located at Money Point, in the Norfolk Virginia area.

Lorena was my great-grandmother via my dad's side of the family.   Lorena was born July 4, 1866 near Zuni, Isle of Wight County, Virginia.  Her parents were Solomon B. Eley and Sarah Anne Darden (who always seemed to go by Sallie).

By the time this photo was taken she had been married at least 3 times, and possibly was a honeymooning bride, on marriage # 4. In total she married 5 men, she outlived 3 of the 5, she divorced one and we just are not certain what happened to the fifth.  My dad always said, in a joking manner, that she fed them all poisoned mushrooms.

Lorena has been the subject of several posts here on Reflections, one such post is 4th of July Wishes of a Different Sort, which features a photo of Lorena holding me in her lap just months before she died.

Lorena married Mills L. Norsworthy Apr 1, 1883 in Nansemond County, Virginia.  Sometime before December of 1888 Mills had died and Lorena was a young widow with one child (there may have been other children by this union, but only one survived).

On Oct 27, 1887, in Norfolk County, Virginia, Lorena married hubby # 2, my direct ancestor, William Henry Dews.  Lorena and William had 6 children, 2 of whom died as infants.  William himself would die a tragic death around the 1st of January 1907 in Kempsville, Princess Anne County, Virginia after a falling off a wagon cart just before Christmas.  No death certificate or record for William has been found, however a very short news article was found mentioning the accident.  No burial record has been found either, as the church where he reportedly was buried lost all records to a fire.  William's death in early 1907 left Lorena with 1 son and 3 daughters from that union, the youngest being my grandmother, Florence, who was barely 3 years of age.

Lorena needed to find a way to support herself and her children.  She chose to run a boarding house and was doing so by the time the 1910 US census was enumerated.

Lorena next married Apr 4, 1911 in Norfolk County, Virginia to a James Harlow.  She divorced him in 1915.

Her next hubby is our MIA, according to an old index I found years ago, she married Robert Lenahan/Linehan on Aug 20, 1918 in Norfolk County Virginia.  While writing this post I discovered indexing  at FamilySearch.org, that Lorena and Robert married on the same day (August 20, 1918) in Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County, North Carolina. Robert appears on the 1920 census with Lorena, she was still running her boarding house.  No further record of Robert has been found after the 1920 census.  Family tradition has is that Lorena had him declared dead after 7 years.  No records have been found to support or deny that tradition.

And, last, at the young age of 70 years 9 months and 6 days (give or take), Lorena took as her 5th and last hubby, one John/Jehu/Gehew C. Collins.  John died in October of 1944 and is buried in the Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia.

Lorena eventually moved to 815 Freeman Avenue, in Norfolk (now Chesapeake) Virginia.  This address is quite close to Money Point, she did not move far.  She died in late February of 1949 and was laid to rest at the Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia.  Several of her children are buried nearby.

The boarding house provided a home and an income for Lorena allowing her to support her children.  Two of her daughters would meet their husbands in that boarding home.  One of those couples were my grandparents.  In the 1930 census my grandparents and their young son, my father, are living with Lorena in that boarding house at Money Point.

I have been very lucky to have a few of Lorena's possessions from her boarding house, one is the boudoir chair found on this Reflection's post,  Treasure Chest Thursday, Lorena's Boarding House Boudoir Chair.

By looking at Google Maps, it becomes quite evident that few homes are still standing in the area known as Money Point.  We have no exact address for the boarding home, the 1920 census seems to indicate it might have been 19 Money Point, and the 1930 census has no addresses shown at all.  The boarding house is most likely long gone, as are so many of its boarders and occupants.  We have several poor photos of what we believe to be the boarding house, and stories shared with us by those who remember it.  All in all, that is rather sad, considering the huge role that boarding house played in the lives of 3 generations of my ancestors.

Lorena standing on her boarding house stairs, a bride 5 times, a widow 3 times, a woman who raised children who, according to all stories that I heard, loved her and each other.  A woman that did what she had to do to survive and provide.  Thank you Lorena for your strength.

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