Wordless Wednesday: The Vamp

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.

I don't know who this is, but my guess is he has dressed up
in a woman's swimdress to be funny.
Helen captioned this one "The Vamp."

Since August is drawing to a close, I may as well stick with these beach photos from my great-aunt Helen Killeen Parker’s photo album.  After all, what else am I going to do with them??

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Mystery Monday: A "Ben" in the road to the DAR

Mystery Monday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks us to share mystery ancestors or mystery records – anything in our family history research which is currently unsolved.  With any luck fellow genealogy bloggers will lend their eyes to what has been found so far and possibly help solve the mystery.

“Ben’s” – that’s the only clue to the identities of these five children.  Are these Ben’s children?  And who is Ben anyway? 

The two photos are glued fast in the photo album belonging to my great-aunt Velma Davis Woodring who amused herself by writing clever captions like “Just us” and “Being lazy” instead of people’s names.  Ordinarily Velma’s album offers lots of inspiration for a family historian; however, these little faces were not familiar to me at all.  My database contained no Ben who might have had children much younger than Velma.  Census records didn’t reveal any neighbor named Ben.  Fiddlesticks.  I give up.  On to other concerns.

One of my other concerns has been gathering pieces of the paper trail back to Leonard Davis for membership into the DAR.  I created a spreadsheet recording names; dates of birth, death, and marriage; where to find that information; a notation for ordering and receiving acceptable proof.  Whenever I need a death date or location, I like to check Findagrave.com.   Just this week I typed “Davis” and selected “Virginia” and “Rockingham County.”  The Elk Run Cemetery in Elkton has lots of Davises, so I started looking at each one. 

One of the helpful features of Findagrave is the link to other family members.  In the Elk Run Cemetery I found Josiah Davis, son of Mitchell Davis, who was the grandson of my patriot ancestor.  Josiah is linked to three children, one of them named BENJAMIN. {I'm starting to hear the "Twilight Zone" tune.} 

I clicked on Benjamin whose page links to a daughter named Sarah Elizabeth Davis Monger.  {The "Twilight Zone" tune is getting louder!}

I clicked on Sarah.  Some nice person had posted her obituary with the names of six sisters and one brother.  BINGO!

Velma had dated enough of the photos for me to conclude most were taken between 1923 and 1928. Looking at the census records for 1920 and 1930, I am confident that these are the daughters of Benjamin Harrison and Fleeta Berry Davis.  In searching for DAR-quality proof for my patriot, I had found the names of the five children in Velma’s album.

Edith (age 2)

Back: Sarah Elizabeth (11),
 Ruby (1), Thelma (7)
Front: Edith (2), Anna (4)

I rather like the little detours on the road to the DAR. 

What discoveries have you made when looking for something else?

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Census Sunday: Margaret Killeen Sprott

Whenever we talk about my dad’s aunts, “the sisters,” we usually mean Lillie, Mae, and Helen.  But there was another sister:  Margaret Mary Killeen Sprott.  I have no memory of her.  I’m sure I must have seen her at some point in my childhood, but if she ever came to a family gathering during my teen or adult years, I don’t know it. The only picture of her that I’m aware of is one in Helen Parker’s scrapbook.

captioned "Miss Margaret"
from Helen Parker's scrapbook

So I was especially glad to find her in the 1940 census.  It wasn’t easy.  I couldn’t find her at all on Ancestry, but found her right away using the FamilySearch index.  I studied the handwriting to try to figure out how some Ancestry indexer might have misinterpreted it. 

The spelling looks obvious to me.  However, after many attempts using weird spellings, I found her listed as SprAtt.  That’s so funny because her husband Otto was known by his nickname Jack, Jack Sprott.  But “Jack Spratt” just slips off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Click to enlarge

In 1940, Jack (42) and Margaret (39) owned their home worth $4000 on Sixth Street in the Kempsville area of Princess Anne County in Virginia.  This is the same house they lived in in 1935. Judging by the 1930 census, they bought the house sometime between 1930 and 1935 because they had been renting a house on Atlans Avenue in Norfolk.  Jack was from South Carolina and had completed one year of college.  He worked as a traffic manager for a trucking firm, earning $2700 in 1939, which equates to roughly $44,575 today.  Margaret completed two years of high school and was busy as a homemaker and mother to two boys.

Their son William J. “Billy” at age 9 had completed three years of school while his younger brother Joseph Barry was in his first year of school at age 6.

When the Sprotts lived in Kempsville, it was an unincorporated town.  It didn't become part of the city of Virginia Beach until 1963.  I don’t know if the Sprotts’ home on Sixth Street is the same street that leads to the oceanfront today, if it goes by some other name, or if it’s a street that no longer exists.  However, Daddy often spoke about summers as a boy, riding the cable car to the beach to visit with his Sprott cousins.  

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: My One and Only

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

The obvious focus of this week’s Sepia Saturday photo prompt is the bicycle.  Next to that first automobile, a first bike generates the most vivid memories. 

I was rather old for a first bike, probably 8 or 9.  No training wheels for me – too big for that.  Helmet?  Oh pish posh – the concern for children’s safety was many years away.  There weren’t enough head injuries and lawsuits yet to warrant such a thing. 

My bike might have been a gift from my Grandma and Granddaddy Davis, but I don’t really remember.  I can remember bike shopping with them though.  We went to a hardware store where there were rows and rows of colorful bikes.  Schwinn was the only name I had heard of.  Yes, I should have a Schwinn. 

But that’s not what I got. 

Me with my patient Granddaddy Davis

My first bike was a 20” Rollfast, green fenders with white pinstripes.  My granddaddy must have drawn the short straw because he is the one who put in the effort to help me learn to ride.  My grandparents’ large grassy yard made a good practice field.  Day after day, Granddaddy held onto that seat and ran alongside as I pedaled and pedaled and struggled to stay balanced.  If he let go, I panicked and promptly toppled over. 

Remnants of the ball field -- the backstop is there
but the snack bar and dugouts are gone.
from Google Maps

Sometimes we went across the street to the Little League ball field where I “rode the bases.”  

My parents and grandparents, 

who all were worn out trying to teach me to ride a bike, thought maybe flat dry dirt would be easier to ride on than on grass.  But no.  It was just harder when I fell, which I did a lot. 

But I remember the moment when I finally “got it.”  Granddaddy was holding the back of the seat, like always, running alongside.  As I made the turn at the corner of the yard and headed back, there was Granddaddy IN FRONT of me back at the starting point.  Look at me go!  I was riding a bike!

Ahhh -- I can still see that little green bike. 

Because it’s in my garage!!  

I can’t part with it.  It’s my first bike.  It’s my only bike.  (By the time I was big enough for a bigger bike, I had lost interest.)  The handle bars are rusted.  The tires are dry-rotted.  The leather seat is chipped. 

I know -- it's silly.  

from Google Images

I had thought about hanging it on a wall as art.  But even I can see that my precious little Rollfast has no artistic merit.  It’s not like it carried me into the medals ceremony at the Olympics. 

from Google Images

I’ve also considered using it as garden art.  My Rollfast might make a pretty good trellis for Morning Glory or Clematis. 

In the meantime it's a home to spiders and memories of my granddaddy running.

For more stories about bikes, pedal over to Sepia Saturday.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Dissed by the DAR

In a recent post I announced my intentions to fulfill my mother’s dream of joining the DAR.  I went to the DAR website and found 8 chapters within 16 miles of here.  The websites for the two closest ones haven’t been updated in over a year.  Since the Constantia chapter is only 9 miles from here and the website looked good, I sent an inquiry to the registrar.

Then DANG!  We were dissed!  Not totally.  But we were strongly encouraged to look elsewhere because of the distance to travel to meetings.

Constantia’s very polite registrar did give some helpful suggestions.  She said we should visit several chapters before submitting our names for membership.  Great!  I didn’t realize that was an option.  Meetings start up in September, so Mary Jollette and I will check out the ladies of Fort Nelson and maybe the ones in Four Flags, maybe even Great Bridge. 

In the meantime, I’m starting the basic footwork of gathering birth, death, and marriage records for my direct line back to Leonard Davis.  

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Wordless Wednesday: Mermaids

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.

captioned "Mermaids"
Helen is 4th from the left

Yet another goodie from my great-aunt Helen Killeen Parker’s photo album from 1918-20.  She must have had quite a summer at Ocean View in Virginia because she has pages dedicated to her friends at the beach.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

To Daddy on his birthday

Today would have been my father Fred Robert Slade, Jr.’s 84^th birthday.  The facts of his life are nothing special.

• Born August 7, 1928 to Fred Robert and Julia Mary Walsh Slade in Portsmouth, Virginia
• Graduated from St. Joseph Academy in 1945  

• Served in the Coast Guard for a little over a year 1946-47 

• Attended St. Bernard Academy in Alabama on a GI-Bill  

• Graduated from University of Virginia 1950 
• Attended law school but quit after two years when he decided he didn’t want to have to lie to people
• Married Mary Eleanor Davis
• Helped keep his father’s taxi business going by working as a driver
• Worked as an insurance salesman, department manager for Sears & Roebuck, realtor, concrete contractor, real estate developer
• Died of lung cancer January 31, 2009

Here are some things you won’t learn by looking at the “facts”:

• Daddy’s favorite songs were “Danny Boy,” “Rhapsody in Blue,” and “Ave Maria.”
• He read all the time.  There wasn’t a subject he couldn’t talk about.
• He took us on week long vacations to all the battlefields in Virginia and Pennsylvania. We knew more about the Civil War than anyone else in class. We always stayed in a nice hotel that had a pool.  He would have chocolate milk delivered to our room.  

Daddy playing with my sister at the pool in Charlottesville, VA

He taught us about beach safety, especially how to get out of a rip tide and deep water. He even beached himself once making sure that the water was safe before we went in. One time Daddy ran toward the ocean and dived in. When the waves receded, there he was face and belly down in a wet-sand skid with arms stretched out in perfect diving form.  Ouch – that had to hurt. But he gave us nearly 50 years of laughs over that.

Daddy could jump rope like Mohammad Ali.  There was very little space between his feet and the floor, just enough for the rope to slip through. 

He was funny.  When I was telling Momma and Daddy about the young man I was bringing home to meet them, Daddy asked what he liked to do.  I said he liked to hunt.  Without skipping a beat, Daddy said, “Great.  We’ll all hide and he can look for us.”

Daddy talking with Coach Bell,
no doubt imparting some advice on strategy

Daddy made sure he was at all the grandchildren's school functions and sports activities. Even while undergoing radiation treatments for prostate cancer, Daddy drove 3.5 hours to Manassas, Virginia several times during the week to see our daughter’s fast pitch softball team win the state championship.

Daddy and "First Child"

He even attended a wedding he wasn’t invited to just to see the most beautiful bridesmaid. 

Yep, that's Daddy.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.