Travel Tuesday - Check Out Grandma's New Ride

               After Bill Murphy, my great grandma Lydia's second husband, passed away in 1973, she and my Grandma Annette started traveling across the country, visiting family members through many different states. My Grandma was in her early 40's and Lydia was in her mid-70's, but they were having the best time together, traveling everywhere, collecting mementos along the way, while traveling in their new cars (Lydia would say instead of going in a car that may break down, they'd trade their car in for a new one for each new trip and Annette would carry her shot gun in the back of the car - you didn't want to mess with these two ladies! Thelma and Louise were on the loose!).

Lydia would often refer back to this time as some of the best times in her life, even though when most of their travel halted in the early 1980's, Lydia still had a zest for life.

Some of the photos don't show all of the places they went to, but they also went as far as New York City and Hawaii. Lydia was well into her '80s by the time they slowed down their traveling, but wow, she was quite the go-getter. People only had good things to say about her. She lived a life of staying out of people's business, as her motto used to be, "MYOB" Mind your own business.

In a few months, I will devote some time on her life, as without Lydia in our lives, our family would be very different.

Here are some photos of the cars they drove and some places they visited on their travels.

Lydia (age 79) at the ranch, ready to take off in their new 1975 Oldsmobile Regency

Visiting friends up in Farmington, WA, circa 1981

Annette at Teddy Roosevelt Park, South Dakota, circa 1977-78

Visiting Annette's cousin Jeannette Werre Hellund, in Minnesota, circa 1970's

At a casino in Las Vegas, NV, circa 1976-77

Annette and Lydia at Annette's home, circa 1975-76, a break between their travels.

Lydia with Annette's son, visiting in Virginia, circa 1972-1973

Lydia at a possible grave marker, circa mid-1970s, Illinois

Annette's son, Terry (age 21-22) in Virginia, circa 1972-73

Lydia visiting her first husband's sister, Ida Roehm, in Wyoming, 1981.

Lydia (age 85) has the Texas Blue Bonnet in her hands, making a stop while driving through Texas, circa 1981.

Lydia and Annette, with Annette's grandchildren, Virginia Beach, VA, circa 1981

Lydia (age 85), Terry (Annette's son - age 30) and Annette, (age 52) circa 1981, Virginia Beach, VA.

Lydia (age 78) and Annette (age 45) with Lydia's niece's children (Annette's 2nd cousins), in Severna Park, Maryland, circa 1974

Lydia (age 81) & her daughters Izetta (age 59) and Annette (age 48) in Hawaii, 1977

(Genealogy) New Year's Resolutions

So, a new year is here. 2014 seemed to come and go so much faster than years before. I have a feeling 2015 will not be any less forgiving - darn, we're already going into our 2nd week of the year.

With that, I do have some genealogy related New Year's resolutions - ones that I hope I can stick to. Also, I feel having an itemized list will be beneficial for me - i.e. if I feel like I am running dry on blogging ideas or just need a little inspiration, I can always come back to this post to see what my hopes were for genealogical reasons (and blogging reasons, too)!

So, here's a go at it  -

1) My Irish Ancestors - I feel I am really neglecting this side of my roots, and I have quite a few tales to tell. Fact of the matter is, I need to hunker down and get more research done on my Irish ancestors. Things can often run dry in that area since many Irish records are still becoming digitized, but I will make it an aim to delve in this area a little more throughout the year!

2) My Father's Side - Recently, my Dad's sister has been writing me beautifully written accounts of her childhood (with memories of my Dad and the other siblings) and what she remembers of our grandparents and her parents and so on. These are priceless and I am protecting them like gold. They are all hand written, which to me, makes them even more special. I need to firstly digitize them so if they ever do get lost, I will always have a digital copy. Then, I would like to transcribe them into a word document. As for my blog, I would like to share more of my father's side. There is much to be revealed.

3) Use more Writing Prompts - I'd like to use more writing prompts to spice things up on here a bit more. I see quite a few websites that do a very good job of this and share their prompts with you. I aim to try some out and see what I can unearth in the process!

4) Network - I want to do a little more blog networking. I aim to give more comments on people's blogs or write a note of thanks for their knowledge. I'd like to see my blog in the future as a resource, in some ways, on certain genres of genealogy, especially the Black Sea Germans, which I feel my most comfortable with and have the most background in (which is why you see many related articles on them on here now and sure to see more in the future) - I am hoping my blog will bring in more Black Sea German researchers who are looking to share their memories or thoughts on the topic.

5) Noticing Interesting Patterns Interweave - Sometimes I find some interesting patterns during the migration of my ancestor's.  I'd like to focus more on these patterns and similarities as it's fun to point them out and make interesting connections. Some that I will focus on are two different waves of German colonization my ancestors were involved in - The Black Sea Germans to North Dakota and the Germanna Colonization in Virginia.

This is all for now - but maybe a year from now, I will be glad to have seen I met all of these goals.

Happy New Year to you all!

Living in the Now

Sometimes it is so easy to get caught up in our past as fervent genealogists, that we can lose a sense of living in the now.

 Sometimes I know genealogy is taking me over when I find I am having dreams of my dead ancestors. In some ways, hey, that's pretty cool and in other ways, it can be waaaaay creepy!

 So, sometimes it's good for me to take a step back and just live in the now - as John Lennon once sang, "Life is what is happening while we're busy making other plans."

 I used to be a professional photographer, but gave it up to focus more on my drawing and painting skills and to work full time in Commercial Insurance. I still photograph like a crazy person, but now it's more on my terms, and that makes me a happy camper. When photography became work, it was no longer a passion for me. It lost a lot of it's allure for me, especially the editing process.

 In a way, I don't want my genealogy to become a job. I love to just "stumble" across things at a leisurely pace. I love to help others I know also discover their family trees, but not have to sell them on something. Again, taking a step back for a bit allows me to love genealogy as it should be - a fun hobby.

 However, my obsession with old photos - that will probably never subside! And my dreams of dead people, well, they may just continue whether I want them to or not. And, you know what, that's okay. Some of my passed on family and friends are alive for a brief moment and that's a great comfort :)

Cold Days Ahead

The coldness of North Dakota, I heard from my Grandma, was at times unbearable. She used to have to share her bed with her sisters and one of the sisters would always take the sheet away from my Grandma. Then there was the outhouse. During the cold months, I can only imagine how difficult it was for her to have to go out in sub-zero weather and attempt to use the rest room. I am sure she tried to not do it.

These were still the pioneering days in the 1920's and 1930's and also the Great Depression. Living out in the middle of nowhere meant modern day conveniences for even that time were not readily available.

Here are a few photos showing some of the cold winter months in North Dakota from our family collection.

I have a better photo of this picture somewhere, but this was the only copy I could locate. This is my Aunt Doris, sometime around 1925, playing in the snow.

This is my Grandma (second from left) with her Babitzke cousins and their dog, Swifty (the cutest dog name and dog ever!!)

My great Aunt Martha (aka Mart) and cousin Donald Herr on a very simple looking boat on what could be Red Lake, near Wishek, ND.

Another photo of Mart and Donald (cousins)

A closer up, studio shot of Martha and what looks like a very warm coat and cute hat, circa 1915

Great Aunt Mart, George Roehm and Lydia with their newborn and first born, Doris, in 1915. These are my great grandparents. My grandma would come many years later.

Great Aunt Mart attempts to shoot something in the great plains of ND, circa 1915.

George Roehm Jr., Izetta Roehm, one of the Herr children, Doris and Joyce Roehm and possibly Babtizke cousin, circa 1927-28

Genealogy Bias

Okay, so maybe I am using this post to have an excuse to share another cute photo, especially of kids on sleighs, but ah well.

To get back on topic, the title of this post is to explain a little of the rhyme and reason behind most of my posts.

It may at times seem that I tend to post with a bias. What I mean by bias is that I will tend to post about certain particular family members or sides of family. Generally there are a few reasons behind this:

1) Access - I may post more about certain people because I have more access to their artifacts, especially concrete information, which at times can come in droves and at other times, can be a complete dry spell for many months or years. For example, I have ample access to my grandmother's family history due to her countless photo collection (and I mean countless!!), letters, family heirlooms, and hearing stories directly from her in person. She's my last oldest living family member on her side of the family.

2) Records - Due to knowing certain members information due to having initial access to them, allows me to find better and more accurate info about them online. The less I know is when I tend to hit roadblocks in my research and sometimes have to look up other family members to even get names or birth dates - sort of going through the back door to get info. So, access is really related to getting good records. Without the two, it can become very difficult.

3) Interest - Part of bias can also be blamed on a level of interest you have on certain family members. I think part of this is based on the two above factors - Having a personal connection really helps this. I will write more proficiently about those who I feel more of a connection with than those I still know little to nothing about. I can make assumptions at best with my findings, but generally, that's all they'll ever be. It's an ongoing frustration of any genealogist who cannot get to know their ancestors a little better. But, records, even the very factoid filled census records, can offer us some kind of idea of who they were.

So, if it seems I am a little biased about what I blog about, it's really about all of the factors above. However, I do aim to blog more about some journeys/roadblocks I have, too, in case someone runs across this blog and can possibly help me solve my problems.

A Baby on the Way in 1979

My mother (in center, with her sister on left, and mother, on right) was expecting my brother in 1979. They had a baby shower for her sometime in July of 1979 at her mother's house. At the time, my parents did not know if they were having a boy or girl, but then on August 18, 1979, my brother was born. 

Excuse the bad quality of the color of the photos. So many photos from the 1970's and early 1980's all have this bad discoloration due to cheap inks used when printing. It's too bad. 

Travel Tuesday

In what appears to be December 1918, my Great Grandmother, Lydia, received this post card from her aunt, Katie Herr, who lived in Los Angeles, CA.

The transcription reads:

Dear Niece Lydia, 

Was glad to hear from you, also glad to know that Geo [Lydia's husband] recovered from the flu. It was too bad that Stoney [Geo's brother] had to go so soon where I read it in the news I thought I was dreaming such a straight person he was. But it seems it took the fat people - always the first - Am feeling fine and wish you are very same with [unknown word] all am so ever. 

Your Aunt Katie

It appears Stoney, Geo's brother, passed on from the flu epidemic of 1918. I have a record that he had registered for the World War I draft. I am unsure if he died while on duty, as he registered in Septemeber of 1918 and he appears to have died sometime in November. Very sad, as I wondered what came of him and now I am just realizing what his fate was by re-reading this postcard.

It's amazing that a tiny artifact such as a postcard can give us so much information. This nice little postcard also tells us George also had the flu, but he survived it. Just imagine the pain the family must have felt, knowing his brother had died from it and that they could very well lose the breadwinner and patriarch of the family, too. Thank goodness George survived.

If George had not survived, my Grandma would have never been born, nor would have her brothers George, Alwin and James.

Sometimes it's easy to overlook these minor details in little things such as postcards, telegrams, or other small pieces of information. Like any skilled researcher knows, there's fantastic information in even the smallest of details. Just imagine how archaeologists have been able to unearth amazing artifacts due to their amazing efforts of perseverance.

*Also, I have no idea what Katie Herr meant about "fat people", but that was not very nice of her to say! Maybe she meant it in a different way. At least I hope so! Don't shoot me, I am just the messenger - haha!