20 June 2010

Daddy 1913-1982


World War II  --  circa 1943








1968  --  Receiving Driver of the Year award from Daniel Bryant, President of Bekins Van Lines

By then, Daddy had been with Bekins for about 32 years.  He quit driving later that year, after 3 million accident-free miles.  But, he continued in other capacities for a total over 40 years.

He had known the Bekins' and also had genuine respect for Mr. Bryant.




 

1948  --  the two of us,

a personal treasure, for obvious reasons
I miss you, Daddy.

16 June 2010

Mabel York: No Longer Unknown!

One of my blog posts from a few months ago included a photo of Lila Hegwer and Mabel York (and I've copied it again towards the end of this post).  I didn't discuss Mabel at all in the earlier post, assuming she was simply a friend of Lila's and no relation to my family at all.  But, in preparing photos to take to the Southern California Genealogy Society's Jamboree [2] last week, I came across a photo I didn't know I had:


 As you can see, this photo is clearly annotated that Mabel is a cousin to Ben Hegwer, my grandfather.  That was a big surprise!  So, just now, I went to my database to be sure that I have no YORKs, and found that I cannot count on my memory for much of anything anymore!  Yes, I have Mabel York and a fair amount of info on her!  And, I've had that information since at least January 2008.

Actually, Mabel and Ben are first cousins, once removed.  Mabel was one of at least 3 children of Clara Hegwer and a Mr. York.  Clara was one of the children of Henry Hegwer and his first wife, Katherenah Hornberger.  Mabel was born January 1892 in Colorado [1].

If my conclusions are correct for both girls, Lila would be Mabel's aunt, but is only about 4 months older than Mabel.  If we look at both photos side-by-side, do you agree that Mabel is the young lady on the right of the duo?

Lila Hegwer & Mabel York
Mabel York

I have no record of Mabel after the 1910 census.  Again, as you can see, the undated annotation says that she was deceased at the time of the annotation.  I hope there is a descendent of Henry Hegwer who can supply more info.

CONCLUSIONS
It's nice to know who the people in the photos are and how they fit in.  I hope that someone more closely related to Lila and Mabel than I will see and enjoy these photos!

Who knows what else I have in my files?  I must get better organized....

It's a real blow to, yet again, see that my memory is not what it once was....  I am going to have to make it a rule to ALWAYS check the database, no matter what my first impulse may be on whether or not I have a name on file. 

SOURCE and a Disclaimer/Comment
[1]  1910 US Census: Dist 96, Ward 8, Denver, Denver, Colorado

[2]  The featured photo of Mabel was scanned for me last weekend at Jamboree by ancestry.com during their  "free high-speed scanning" event.  Conference attendees (no ancestry subscription required) could make an online reservation before the conference, and then at the conference, select a specific time during the day of their reservation.  Images would be scanned into a complimentary USB drive carrying the ancestry.com logo.  The early info had included how to prepare and organize images for scanning and had said that they usually can do about 25 images in a person's time slot.  Hoping that most people would not take up ancestry.com's offer and there would be additonal time slots available, I took 87 images with me.  I was wrong about there being any extra time slots available, but it still turned out well that I had taken the extra images along!

What fun!  There were 3 scanning stations going.  The young man who did mine was very charming and very efficient.  Other than one newspaper page, my images were all simple photos organized just the way they had instructed.  He was able to do all 87 images in my 15-minute slot!  You will be seeing lots more of them here!  Thank you for this service and the USB drive, ancestry.com!  I do appreciate it.

I am an ancestry subscriber.  I do not receive any other special consideration from them.  I have never posted any photos at ancestry.com and do not have any intentions of doing so.

09 June 2010

Treasure from the TO-FILE Pile: Western Antique Power Associates

Yesterday, working my way down, I hit 3 copies of the 2009 newsletter of the  Western Antique Power Associates.  I had received them last October when we attended a local community fair and WAPA was one of the exhibitors.  I took these two photos of some of the equipment they had on exhibit.  The blur in the photo above shows that the engine was working with the wheel spinning!   When they set up working machines, they sell corn meal that was ground by an antique right there in front of you!

Their homepage has a link to the newsletter and the April 2008 newsletter is online.  My copies of the 2009 newsletters are either a 4- or 6-page, glossy, heavy stock publication.  Each of my issues included lovely color photos of their working antiques and older black & white historic photos.  Some of the machines included a fully restored John Deere model E tractor, Desjarden's engine, Bouris' Caterpillar, and an M. Lytle & Son cylinder (circa 1900) on a Gibbs, Russel & Company bed (circa 1860s) from the oilfields of Western Pennsylvania.

I'm not a totally dedicated power fan and don't know specifically what I've photographed, but I loved re-reading these 3 issues yesterday and I loved looking at these working antiques on display.  I know my dad would have absolutely loved them, too.  I bet he would have joined their group!  I've decided I don't have the room to archive the newsletter, but at least I've published this blog about them!

04 June 2010

First Friday Folder: Catlin, Baldwin, & the 1704 Deerfield Raid

 I took this photo of the Old Deerfield Cemetery in 2004.  I only wish I had been more careful and had taken far more photos.  I just remember that so many of the stones were seemingly impossible to read.  There are many good shots with transcriptions at other websites; here's an especially good one by "Cyndy."

This month's First Friday Folder was selected because I found TCasteel's  Tangled Trees blog.  I have already forgotten how I recently stumbled on it (probably something from a Geneablogger), but it gave me new info to add to this folder, so here we are!

8th Great-Grandparents John Catlin and Mary Baldwin
John Catlin was born 1643, possibly in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, the son of John Catlin and Isabella Ward [1].  He was killed 29 February 1704 [2] during the Deerfield, Hampshire (now Franklin county), Massachusetts raid.

Mary Baldwin was probably baptized 23 June 1644 in Milford, Hartford, Connecticut, daughter of Joseph Baldwin and his wife Hannah (Whitlocke) [3].  Mary died 9 April 1704 [2], at least in part from the trauma and stress of the death and abduction of so many of her family in the raid.

They were married 23 September 1662 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut [1].  Their children were John, Mary, Elizabeth, Hannah, Esther, Sarah, Joseph, and possibly 3 others.

What the Folder Needed
The most fun was adding printouts of a blog post from TCasteel on Mary and another about John, and adding the info to my database.   I knew there was a monument honoring John Catlin's status as the first school teacher in Newark, New Jersey, but I had never seen it.  TCasteel posted a photo and transcription!  It's so nice to finally have a photo of the monument!  Thank you, Tangled Trees!

The database family group sheet was from 2004 and my old software, so I printed out a new one.  There were about 6 things in the folder to discard: old undocumented website printouts, a 26 Nov 2004 Los Angeles Times article (p. A33) about George Catlin (not my line), old handwritten family group sheets from before I had a computer database, and so on.  I am forcing myself to be less compulsive and not hoard everything: I am NOT responsible for archiving the world!  I also made a new folder and family group sheet for John's parents.

Of course, reviewing the folder led to a bit of new research.  TCasteel had slightly different info than I do for some of the details and, as new genealogy cousins, we are in the process of analyzing it all.  It's so exciting!  I did find an article from New England Historical and Genealogical Register (NEHGR), today, that is new to me [4].  It fits well with a comment Gary Boyd Roberts made to me that 'John Whitlock' is not the father of the Hannah who married Joseph Baldwin.  So, I have just removed 'John Whitlock' as Hannah's father in my database. 

I see that, yet again, my sources for some of the BMD data are not what they should be: mostly compiled genealogies.  I also see that I have only 7 children listed for John and Mary and it appears that there may be 10.  I will definitely look at that issue first!

Great Resources on the 1704 Deerfield Raid
I admit that I had never heard of the "Deerfield Massacre" before I learned of my relationship to the Catlin family.  I remember asking myself why had all these people died on the same day....  This post is not the place to go into details, but the following book, magazine, and website are filled with info about the 1704 raid on Deerfield:

Evan Haefeli & Kevin Sweeney, Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield.  Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003.  This book is very thorough and well written while remaining enjoyable reading. The endnotes, appendices and bibliography are excellent.

Historic Deerfield.  A nice website and a great place to visit.  There is a general newsletter and a group for descendants. 

Historic Deerfield Magazine.  Vol 4 (1), Spring 2004  .  The magazine is published by Historic Deerfield, Inc., and this issue is still available through their online museum store.  The description there says 64pp, but my copy is only 40pp.  The whole issue was dedicated to the raid, given that it was the 300th anniversary.  I especially like the article by Philip Zea, which includes a map and photos by Allison Williams Bell from along the trail the captives were forced along north into Canada.  Since the photos were taken about the same time of the year, it gives a much better idea of what the captives faced than when I was there in late summer.

Conclusions
I feel a good bit of closure now having seen at least a photo of the Catlin monument in New Jersey.  And, I have a new cousin!

This was my third First Friday Folder, and I think that's a good thing.  But, I am now 3 for 3 at finding family group sheets with sources that are far less than what they should be.  Yuck!  These three folders are now in better shape than they were, but I shudder at the thought of what else is lurking in that file cabinet!

Sources & Disclaimer
I receive no special consideration from any of the companys or groups mentioned here.  I purchased my copies of the Deerfield book and magazine.  I am a member of NEHGS.  Photo by MHD.

[1] George Sheldon, George.  History of Deerfield, Massachusetts (2 volumes).  Greenfield, Massachusetts: Press of EA Hal & Co.,1895. (available at Heritage Quest Online)

[2]Thomas W. Baldwin (comp.). Vital Records of Deerfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. Boston: 1920.  p. 271. (available at both HeritageQuest & Ancestry.com)

[3] Eugenie Fellows, "How One Descendant of Baldwin, Catlin and Ward Became a Canadian." Connecticut Nutmegger, 30:370.  [May 2014 update: better sources are a) "Ancestry of the Children of Robert Croll Stevens and Jane Eleanor (Knauss) Stevens," vols. 4 &6, by Robert Croll Stevens; and 2) Connecticut VR to 1870 {Barbour Collection} at NEHGS--Milford p. 12]...year only for Mary's baptism.

[4] David Kendall Martin, "Joseph2 Baldwin, Jr. of Milford, Connecticut, and Hadley, Massachusetts." NEHGR, 156:103-111.  Joseph of the title is a brother of my Mary Baldwin.  A good deal of info and some exciting leads on other sources to pursue about his parents is included!