Sepia Saturday: Like a Dog with a Bone

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

During the month of March, I will be shining the light on my Irish roots.

NOTE: This blog has been edited to remove the photo originally identified incorrectly as HERBERT PARKER. In its place is the REAL Herbert Parker.

Sepia Saturday’s theme of the week is 3.

I’ll give you three guesses as to what I’m blogging about today.

Nope, not that. Try again.

Yep - The same picture from last week.

Several of the HomoSepians who commented suggested that since the boys did not favor one another they might be cousins rather than brothers. That got me thinking.

Herbert Parker and his father
Ephraim parker

This photo that I KNOW is my grandaunt Helen Killeen Parker’s husband Herbert has some resemblance to the little boy on the left. Going on that assumption, I went looking for a cousin who might have been close in age.

 

Herbert’s father Ephraim C. Parker had a number of siblings as did his mother Margaret Williams Parker. One likely candidate is Andrew Sivertson, son of Ephraim’s sister Elvera Parker and her husband Thomas Sivertson. Andrew was born the same year as Herbert, but the boys in the photo do not appear to be the same age.

 

Courtesy Elvera Parker Rogers
Ancestry 

The other MORE likely candidate is son of Ephraim’s younger brother Jesse Loren Parker. Jesse and his wife Bettie had several children, but the oldest, Robert, gets my vote. On Ancestry, I found this photo of Robert as a young man. Does he look like an older version of the boy on the right?

 

Robert is listed in Herbert and Helen’s wedding gift book as having given them a “steak set” – knives, I suppose. He and Herbert must have remained close friends even as adults.

But I admit, the identification of the two boys is still just a guess. (I wonder if I can get a third post out of this picture.)

Why don’t you and a couple friends visit the other bloggers at Sepia Saturday to see what they made of the theme of THREE.

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - WEDDING: The Honor of Your Presence or Presents

My grandaunt Helen Killeen must have had a lovely wedding. The invitation was embossed, not merely printed, on cream-colored card.

 

3 Nov 1927 Thursday morning wedding
Helen Martha Killeen and Herbert Webb Parker

For someone who saved a gazillion pictures of herself and friends at the beach and on camping trips, I am puzzled by the total absence of even one single wedding photo. With no photo of the actual ceremony or reception, I must wonder if Aunt Helen wore a wedding gown or a nice suit, if she carried a bouquet or wore a corsage, if she had a number of bridesmaids or just one witness. Judging by the formality of the invitation and the list of gifts in her wedding gift book, it must have been a beautiful event with many guests.

 

The wedding gift book lists 65 gifts and guests

Some of Helen's wedding crystal
Pattern: Rose by Fry Glass

I have enjoyed researching the names of the guests in search of family connections and stories worth telling. But what I love best, though, is the list of gifts she received. Bedspreads and dresser scarves. Silver. Glassware. Those were the days. I doubt anyone asks for silver these days. Likely no one requests pickle forks, oyster forks, lettuce forks, preserve spoons or tomato servers, no matter what they are made of.

Helen and Herbert received lots of glassware: 3 dozen sherbet glasses, 18 goblets, 18 ice tea glasses, a couple sandwich plates, a couple mayonnaise bowls, some cut glass pickle dishes and sugar bowls, and any number of colored glass bowls. I was the lucky recipient of her water pitcher and matching sherbets, goblets, and ice tea glasses – not all 72 pieces though. I wonder if she exchanged some of the gifts. Who needs 36 sherbet glasses?

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - LOVE: Dearest Darling Sweetheart

As I study my ancestors, I often wonder what drew couples together. Was it LOVE or was it just a matter of convenience? I have very little evidence of fairytale romance in my family tree, not that there was none, just no proof. One exception is my grandaunt Helen Killeen Parker and Uncle Herbert. Three love letters, an anniversary card, a birthday card, and a valentine all attest to their romance that spanned roughly 35 years. Had Herbert not died at the young age of 59, undoubtedly that love affair would have gone on much longer.

Clues in one love letter suggest their courtship began sometime in 1924, but they did not marry until November 3, 1927 at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Portsmouth, Virginia. I wonder if they honeymooned at the Grand Canyon. That fur coat would have come in handy in November.

Herbert and Helen at the Grand Canyon

DEAREST HELEN

As an officer for the railroad, Herbert did some traveling. In January 1926, he wrote to Helen on hotel stationery. The typical greeting “Dearest Helen” is followed with a little humor before expressing how much he missed her.

Dearest Helen,

Have only a few minutes to write this in, and to make matters worse, I left my pen in my bag at the station, and am now trying to write with a pen point that George Washington used to sign the Declaration of Independence with.

. . . . 

Well, darling, tell me what to say - you know, I don’t talk much but am a “boy” of action. It is raining a little here, which together with this “bug” makes a rather dismal sight.

I cannot begin to tell you dear how much I appreciated your coming down to the train with me this A.M. but you know how much don’t you?

Good night Sweetheart

Yours till forever

Herb

Envelope 1926

Herb mailed the letter to the office where Helen worked. I wonder why. So she would get the letter early in the day? Was her mother a snoopy nose?

HERBERT DARLING

One day while at work at Seaboard Supply (plumbing), Helen typed a letter to Herbert on company letterhead.

Herbert darling don’t be peeved with me for writing this on the typewriter. I tried to write it with the pen, but I just can’t. I am too nervous so please forgive me.

There isn’t any news here, and I must get back to work, so will have to sign off. Herbert please take good care, and remember that I love you.

Helen

P.S. I don’t think I could have done any work today if I didn’t get your letter. All day yesterday, I was looking for it, and it was the last thing I thought about went [sic] I went to bed. I knew I would get it today.

“Monk”

Hmm - wonder where that nickname came from and WHY?

I wonder what made her too nervous to use a pen.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Dearest  

Darling  

Sweetheart 

- those terms of endearment and expressions of longing for one another followed Herbert and Helen even after they had been an old married couple for decades. Herbert was traveling as an auditor for the railroad just days before their 27^th anniversary. He did not forget though! An anniversary card was mailed in plenty of time to arrive on November 3^rd.

Herbert dated the card, but had he been thinking, he could have used the same card EVERY year. Numbers 1-50 are printed on a little card that spins into the round opening.

MORE THAN PUPPY LOVE

Since this week’s theme was selected to coincide with Valentine’s Day, I will close with the Valentine Herbert selected for his dearest Helen in 1953. The message builds and builds from the quarter page, to the half page, and finally to the page opened in full.

Wishing you all a love like that!

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Captain Dick

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt shows a man speaking into a large megaphone. Four years ago, I was ahead of myself AND Sepia Saturday when I mistook a megaphone for a telescope. In response to the prompt photo which featured a telescope, I used this photo:

 

Ordnance Office Pig Point

Oops. Anyway, I told the story of how my grandaunt Helen’s husband Herbert Parker had been a clerk at the Pig Point Ordnance Office in Suffolk, Virginia during World War I. Since then I have learned a little more about Uncle Herbert and his family.

Sometime ago, my dad’s sister gave me a suitcase full of pictures, letters, and cards that she saved when she cleaned out our Aunt Helen Killeen Parker’s home. Some of those letters were love letters full of news of the day’s events, always ending tenderly hoping to hear back soon. In one letter, Aunt Helen mentioned “Captain Dick”:

 

Captain Dick said he wanted me to be around real early in the
morning so I could feed the dogs. I told him I would be there.

There is a photo of Captain Dick too in Aunt Helen’s scrapbook.

But who was he?

Helen’s mother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh even knew Captain Dick. In a letter to Helen, she wrote:

 

.... Sonny was to do something at the league and Ebby
was going for him. hope Miss May is feeling well also
Cpt. Dick Herbert & yourself. Tate joins me in
fondest love to all from Mother

When I asked my aunt whether she had ever heard Aunt Helen talk about a “Captain Dick,” she recalled hearing that name but could not remember who he was.

Then the genealogy fairy showed up. A distant relative sent an old photo to my aunt thinking she was the proper person to have it.  

On the back was written “Ephraim Dick Parker and Herbert.” That is when my aunt remembered - Aunt Helen always called her father-in-law “Captain Dick.” Why? We have no idea. Herbert’s father wasn’t even named Richard. He was Ephraim Champion Parker.

Herbert was the only child born to “Captain Dick” and his wife Margaret Williams. They lived at 1616 Atlanta Avenue. That is where Herbert brought his bride in 1927. He and Helen lived downstairs; Herbert’s parents lived upstairs. That arrangement probably worked well for Helen since Herbert traveled frequently in his job with the railroad.

Herbert Parker in his home office

Even though Herbert was living in my lifetime, I have no memory of him. However, I have vivid memories of his office. It was a pine paneled room just off the living room. French doors were always open, but I imagine Herbert might have closed them when he was concentrating on work. 

Econolite train motion lamp
Lamps like this sell on eBay
anywhere from $35-$350.

On a side table stood an Econolite train motion lamp. It always seemed like a toy to me, but knowing Herbert used to work for the railroad makes the lamp make sense to me now.

Having seen the photo identifying Captain Dick and Herbert as a little boy, I believe the identity of this previously unknown boy in this photo is coming through loud and clear. 

It looks like Herbert to me.

To see what others made of this week’s prompt, please follow the links at Sepia Saturday. I SAID PLEASE GO TO SEPIA SATURDAY!

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Wordless Wednesday: Easter Cards #2

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.

Here are just a few of the Easter cards sent to my great-grandmother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh.

from her daughter Helen and husband Herb Parker

from daughter Tate and husband
Jimmy Crewes

from her daughter Margaret and husband Jack Sprott
and son Billy

from granddaughters
Jean and Ebby Holland

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.