Wordless Wednesday: Baby with toys

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.

Another sweet baby with no name.  I hope someone will find my blog and solve the mystery of this cutie patootie with doll and toy dog.  Would you date this photo from the late 1930s or early 40s, perhaps?

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Awards Shmwards: I'm No Jodie Foster

Blog awards serve a noble purpose as a networking tool to help bloggers find readers and readers find bloggers.  When I received the Illuminating Blogger Award some months ago, I was shocked.  After all, I’m just a small blogger with a readership that could fit in my living room.  Still, it really was humbling to think SOMEBODY out there likes me, they really really like me (thank-you, Sally Fields).  

The other half of receiving the award is passing it on to other bloggers.  Frankly, I loved receiving the award.  I just didn’t like finding 5 or 15 others to give it to. Terrible, I know.  So what did I do?  I Googled “opinions on Blog Awards” to find how other bloggers handle such matters.  That’s when I discovered that some people have made a conscious decision to be award-free. 

That’s easy enough.  I’ll be “Award-Free.”  Done.  Of course, such an announcement is rather presumptuous, I suppose, suggesting I’m far too busy to be bothered with all those awards that no doubt would come flooding in.  Nevertheless, I located an “Award-Free Blog” image and slapped it in the right-hand column at the top of the page where everyone who stumbled upon my blog would see it. 

I thought it was working too because it’s been a long time since anyone has tried to pay me a compliment.  But this weekend Debi Austin of Who Knew and Jacqi Stevens of A Family Tapestry, two of my favorite bloggers, awarded me the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award, which is a thank-you to loyal followers who offer thoughtful comments on their blogs. 

Recalling the saying “be careful what you wish for,” now I have to face the harsh truth that my blogging friends weren’t just being respectful of my wishes – they just didn’t see it.  How funny.

But you know what – I’m making an exception by accepting this one because it recognizes my loyalty and kindness as a READER of blogs while not expecting any creativity or ability to inspire.  As the originator of the award said, “As bloggers we are also readers.  That is a part of blogging as listening is a part of speaking.”

So here are the rules:

1. Thank the nominator and link back to their site as well.

I don’t know how anyone can read Who Knew and A Family Tapestry and NOT comment.  Their stories and pictures make me want to be in their family.  So Debi and Jacqi, I humbly accept this virtual “blunt object and will use it as a weapon against self-doubt” (thank-you, Anne Hathaway).

2. Display the award logo on your blog.

Done

3. Nominate no more than fourteen readers of your blog you appreciate and leave a comment on their blogs to let them know about the award.

14??  I’m on my way to let these writers know how much I appreciate their comments:

• Dana of The Daily Dose
• Colleen of Leaves and Branches
• Kathy at Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy: The Online Diary of a Central Oregon Grandmother
• Sally at Sally’s Scribbles
• Sue at CollectIn Texas Gal
• M at QRSTUV

What surprises and gratifies me most is that most of these loyal readers are not family history bloggers, yet they come back time after time to read and comment about the stories of my family.  

4. Finish this sentence:  A great reader is …

one who extends the conversation by connecting to the emotion or the point of the story.

This award also would go to Jana at Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog if she hadn’t already received it and to my sister if she had a blog.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Saturday Night Fun: Meet Robert Zimmerman

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings each week promotes having a little fun with our genealogy research.  While I rarely take part, this week’s challenge really did look like fun.  In fact, I had too much fun and here it is Sunday already.

Step 1:  Find the last person in my database.

Technically, the VERY last person is a child whose name is unknown, so I’ll use the last NAMED person in my database:  Robert Franklin Zimmerman.

Step 2: What do I know about this person based on my research?  (Randy said it’s OK to do more research, and that’s what I did, which is why this post is late.)

Robert is the son of a postal carrier Everett L. ZIMMERMAN (1894 Ohio – 1955 West Virginia) and Nell SAMPSON (1894 West Virginia – 1984 West Virginia).  He was born in Ohio about 1918, but by 1920 the family was living in Huntington, West Virginia, where Robert remained until his later years.  In 1930, the Zimmermans lived on Marshall Avenue, just a few blocks from what is now Marshall University.

from Google Maps
1832 Marshall Avenue, Huntington, WV
(house with stone front)

By 1940 Robert had married Ruth Frances LAMBERT (both of whom had graduated from high school), and the two purchased a house on Bungalow Avenue (now known as McVeigh Avenue) just a couple blocks away from Robert’s childhood home.  At that time, Robert was working as a proofer for a photography studio.

from Google Maps
This white house at 1812 McVeigh Avenue
in Huntington, West Virginia COULD have been
Robert and Ruth's house at 1812 Bungalow Avenue.
It appears the name of the street changed.

City directories indicate that in the late 1940s and 1950s, Robert became a storekeeper.  At some point, he and Ruth moved to Green Bank, West Virginia where they were residing as late as 1999.  But why Green Bank?  Did they ski at nearby Snowshoe Mountain?  Was he working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory?  Was he seeking refuge in this Radio Quiet Zone due to suffering from electromagnetic sensitivity?  Obviously, I’ll need to do more research if I want to answer these burning questions.

From a family tree posted on Ancestry I learned that Robert and Ruth have four children, two boys and two girls.  Robert’s information remains private, so it appears he could still be living, now 94.  His parents and brothers are all buried in Ridgelawn Memorial Park in Barboursville, West Virginia, and his wife is buried in Forest Lawn in Huntington.  Find A Grave has no listing for Robert.  If he were deceased, surely he’d be in one of these two places.

Step 3:  How is this person related to me?

Robert is my fourth cousin once removed.  His mother, Nell SAMPSON, was the great-granddaughter of George SAMPSON and Drada JOLLETT, my third great grand aunt who was sister to my third great grandfather Fielding JOLLETT.

Step 4:  Tell about it in a blogpost.

I did. 

What made this Saturday Night Fun exercise compelling to me is that my “last person” just celebrated his 95th birthday on January 10.  His wife Ruth would be celebrating her 91st birthday on January 17, had she lived.  Without Randy’s nudge, I would have missed the opportunity to learn about this gentleman and to say

Happy Birthday Robert!

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Christine Forever 24

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

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt brought to mind the number of pictures my mother took at Virginia Beach in her young and carefree days. 

Here is Momma with two of her best friends from high school, Betsy Ward and Christine Westbrook. 

Christine Westbrook, Betsy Ward, Mary Eleanor Davis

And here they are on another day.  Judging by Momma’s hairstyles, I’m guessing it was summer 1946 or 1947, maybe as late as 1949 in the second picture.  She and Betsy were smoking (and I don’t mean “smokin’ hot” even though they were).  Tsk Tsk - there's never a Surgeon General around when you need one.

Mary Eleanor Davis, Christine Westbrook, Betsy Ward

Momma was in both of her friends’ weddings.  But for today, I want to write about Christine.  I never knew her, but she was always a presence in a box of photos and two yellowed newspaper clippings. 

Christine married her sweetheart Milton Wisehart in March 1947, just a year after high school graduation.  It was a big wedding, even by today’s standards, with eight attendants all dressed in pastel satin brocade.  Christine’s gown was of slipper satin with an off-the-shoulder neckline.  Her long sleeves ended in points and a long sweeping train added the grandeur to an already grand wedding at the First Presbyterian Church.   Their honeymoon was a boat trip to Baltimore and Washington D.C.

Three children came quickly:  Milton Jr., Kathy, and Billy.  While stationed in Mobile, Alabama, the family celebrated the Fourth of July 1952 with an outing on the Mobile River.

A Marine, Milton borrowed an amphibious tractor without permission to give his wife and three young children a ride in the river.  It should have been a fun day.  It should have been thrilling.  But, tragically, the tractor sank.  Christine tried to save her sons and daughter, diving three times but failing to surface after the third try.  Milton also tried to save his young wife, only 24 years old, but was unsuccessful.  He was left clinging to a tree, waiting to be rescued. 

After being treated at the hospital for shock, Milton made that dreadful phone call to his family back in Virginia.  I can’t even imagine.

Such a bitter irony that the lure of water should mark the beginning and the end of this Wisehart family.

For more bathing beauties and happier endings, please visit Sepia Saturday.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Wordless Wednesday (Almost): Baby Needs a Name

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.

Inspired by Jacqi Stevens at A Family Tapestry who was inspired by Far Side of Fifty at Forgotten Old Photos, I plan to devote several Wordless Wednesdays to some of my photos of unidentified people.  Several “new” cousins have found my blog; maybe more are out there with that same picture in their possession. 

I will start with some babies because seeing orphan photos of babies in thrift shops and antique stores always makes me sad.  While my photos are not really “orphans” since no one in my family threw them out and I do still have them, they might as well be “orphans” because I have absolutely no idea who the people were or who they became.  I’m guessing the pictures are from relatives who shared their new joy with either my great-grandmother Mary Frances Jollett Davis OR Sudie Rucker.  But it is also possible the photos are from the “out-laws” – you know them, the people who married into the family lines you are interested in but whose genealogy has so far failed to engage your time and energy.  

This first one is such a charmer with those ears and that quizzical expression.  Boy?  Girl?  Year?

Maybe someone will stumble upon the photo and provide some words to complete the picture so it will be wordless no more. 

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Happy New Year!

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

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt featuring Scottish troops celebrating the New Year at their billet hut in France during World War I makes me realize how calm my own New Year celebrations have always been.  As the poster child for “Morning People,” I’ve always struggled to stay awake watching television to see the ball drop in Times Square. 

When my sister and I were kids, we looked forward to December 31 for one reason:  sparklers.  Our grandparents bought them and lit them for us.  Holding one sparkler in each hand, we watched them sizzle and pop.  We’d draw designs against the night sky with the little “jet stream” emitted by moving the sparkler really fast.  Before the fire went out, we’d throw the sparklers in the air.  Often they got lost in the grass until the next day or until spring when the lawn mower would find them.

By Krzysztof Maria Różański, (Upior polnocy) (Own work)
[CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

For several years, New Year’s Eve always meant my sister Mary Jollette would have her friend Gail over for the night.  It became a tradition for awhile.   They enjoyed the sparklers too.  Sometimes they played games.

It looks like I was off to a good start buying up
properties around the Monopoly board.
For some reason, I liked the railroads and utilities. 

What is Gail pouring into that beer stein? 

One year they went into the attic and found some of my old clothes.  They had a grand time trying them on. 

I actually remember that polka dot dress Gail is modeling,
but I have no idea what that plaid sailor number is
that Mary Jollette found.  That salute!  Good grief!

Do we know how to bring in the New Year right or what?  I wish you all the happiest of new years!

Please visit Sepia Saturday to see how others are bringing in the New Year.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas 1969

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.

Wendy and Mary Jollette
Christmas 1969

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.