Author: Kathleen

Happy Birthday!

Posted on by Kathleen

Does anyone else always say Happy Birthday in the voice of Frosty the Snowman? Oh that’s just me? Nevermind then.

Today is a special day in our household. Today is the 235th Anniversary of the United States Marine Corps.

In August I posted my father’s Marine Boot Camp class photo. The Marine Corps birthday hasn’t always been big in our household. I know my Dad has always talked about his time as a Marine but until I was older, I just didn’t get how big his love of the Marines was. In fact, my father being in the Marines is the reason that I’m here today. You see, my mother’s brother was also a Marine. It was how my parents met. My father and uncle were both stationed in North Carolina when my mother went to live with her brother. The rest is history.

Not only are my father and uncle Marines (there is no such thing as a former Marine), but my cousin is also. That’s 3 people I wished a Happy Marine Birthday to today on Facebook. If there are any Marines in your life, be sure to tell them Happy Birthday and don’t worry, they’ll know exactly what you’re talking about. They take this day very seriously and I’m sure it would bring a smile to their face. I’d make my Dad a cake but the last cake took us so long to eat it got a little fuzzy. He’ll just have to settle for some leftover Halloween candy!

Technical Problems

Posted on by Kathleen
Error Message

This is what you’ve been seeing when you try to access my websites over the past two days. Luckily, that is no longer the case. There were some server problems over the past week and it’s possible the site might go down again. My webhosting company is on top of things and when they give me the all clear, I’ll give you the same! Thanks for sticking with me and hopefully things stay up!

Thorward Boys

Posted on by Kathleen

Oh gosh, I am sorry sorry for my absence this week! I wasn’t feeling well most of the week and time just flew by. I’m on the mend, so now it’s time to get back to work. I’m still trying to make sense of my Mays ancestors in my new clean family file. It’s going very sloooooooooow. Sorry for all the os. They were necessary! That’s really how slow it’s going! I haven’t even been able to add many of the Mays’ to the website yet, because of the problems I’m having finding and identifying them! Maybe if they weren’t all named the same thing!

So I’m posting a picture today from my Dad’s side of the family. Even though I have his family sorted and sourced in my family file, I’m still going through those pictures I have.

Thorward Boys
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GEA: Prospect Hill Cemetery

Posted on by Kathleen

Two weeks ago, I visited Prospect Hill Cemetery in Caldwell, New Jersey. This cemetery is most likely overflowing with ancestors of mine. Until I research more, I think I’ve hit the limit of my knowledge of them.

Prospect Hill plot layouts

This is the closest I can come to laying out where my family plots are. They could be slightly off though. We weren’t exactly in the cemetery hunting mode. We were in wedding mode!

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Paying Attention to your Surroundings

Posted on by Kathleen

When I was a kid, my Mom used to hate taking us to the store. It was a guarantee that one of us would get caught in the excitement at whatever store we were at, and we’d lose track of her. More than once my Mom has told the story of my sister walking into columns at the store, despite numerous warnings of  “Amanda. Amanda. Watch out Amanda. AMANDA.” BAM. Of course I never did that… I did use to follow the wrong Mom around the store though… Okay so I did that last week.

Never has this handicap of ours become more apparent then it did today. I have a few hours to myself. So I decided to finally add some tombstone photos I took at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Caldwell to Find A Grave. First thing I noticed when reviewing the photos I’d added a few years back was that I missed a few! Somehow when I got all the Thorward photos from my very helpful Photo Volunteer, I forgot to add some of them! He left it to me, and look what happens!

Step 1: Admitting you have a problem
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It Suckered Us All In

Posted on by Kathleen

As I was writing up yesterday’s Mystery Monday post, I was reminded of the single, most consuming mystery I’ve ever had. It started when I first started going through the boxes of treasures/photographs/papers. When I first started scanning the photographs into my computer, I just labeled them UnknownMooreThorward-01 and so on. Funny enough, years after solving this mystery and they’re still named that.

Mystery Photo #1

This is the photo that launched the hours, months, years of frustration. Okay, so I’m exaggerating a tiny bit. It did take me years to solve this though. I would pick it up every few months and try again. I don’t know why I was so struck by this picture. I was just so curious about this building.

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Mystery Monday: Where?

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Where am I?

My Mystery Monday posts usually have to do with the people in my photographs. That isn’t the case today. I’ve been wondering for awhile about where this particular picture is taken. I’ve had numerous inputs, one being around the Jersey Shore and others being another Jersey town. The only thing everyone agrees on is that this is Jersey. My questions about places aren’t usually solved quickly. Remind me to tell you about the Victory Arch photograph… In fact, I’ll write that up sometime this week. It’s a great story!

What I know about this photo:

  • It was most likely taken in New Jersey… somewhere.
  • It is most likely a member of the Thorward family.

What I want to know about this photo:

  • Where this particular house is?
  • Who’s house is this?
  • Who are the people in the photograph?
  • How are they related or connected to my family?
  • Where those awnings green and white? For some reason I feel like they were green and white?
  • Can I have a time machine to walk through these old houses? Pretty please?

Mystery Monday is a weekly series on my blog. It is now a Daily Blogging Theme at GeneaBloggers also! Feel free to post about your own mysteries and link me to them!

The Llewellyn Project

Posted on by Kathleen

On Friday, I hinted about a project that I have coming up. I meant to have the entry ready to go for Sunday, but things got busy during my trip over the weekend and I didn’t get a chance. So I’m here now to give a little info on it.

I often talk about my Great Grandmother’s journal here on the blog. The diary starts on January 1, 1923, or at least from what I can tell. So on January 1, 2011 I will be starting my Llewellyn Project. In a separate section of the blog, I will be doing a daily transcription from her journal. I will slowly work my way through the diary. Adding in pictures of relevant people or places when I can. The diary goes on for close to three years. This isn’t going to be an overnight finish. I hope to finally finish getting through it though. Sometimes it wasn’t more than a few lines, but those few lines are a great glimpse into the past. I hope you will enjoy this as much as I hope to!

January 1st is my deadline for my site re-design. If it’s done earlier, well that would be great!