I’m sure you’re all familiar with what we genealogists go through to find our family history. I was putting together a blog about a Duggar-sized family in my family tree, then I realized that it was going to take me longer than this afternoon to finish. So maybe by Monday, I’ll have my facts and funny repertoire together enough to actually finish that post. Now I’m going to talk to you about another favorite thing of mine. It just happens to be books.
The next time, maybe I won’t speak, but this is my father’s little brother who was killed in an accident at the tender age of 6. We don’t talk much about Stevie when the family gets together. It’s still hard. He is dearly missed and loved no matter the day or the year.
Wordless Wednesday is a Daily Blogging Topic that I got from GeneaBloggers. To participate in Wordless Wednesday simply create a post with the main focus being a photograph or image. Some people also include attribute information as to the source of the image (date, location, owner, etc.). Some have begun doing a “Not So Wordless Wednesday” with the main focus still being an image but there is a backstory to the image.
Okay, so I told you before that when I was in eighth grade, my grandmother gave me a copy of her family tree. Well a few years after that, she also sent me a whole mess of recipes. They were in a big box and also in that box was a cookie press. I wish I still had that cookie press, but we probably lost it in the Great House Migration. Remind me to chronicle that sometime! This month the weather has been particularly nice on the weekends. I guess getting 2+ feet of snow dropped on you really clears the air so to speak. We’ve taken advantage of this weather and we’re rehabbing one of our old sheds. We’ve lived in this house for at least 20 years now (since I was 5 or so!), so we’ve collected some clutter.
I was a little sentimental this weekend. I’ve been cleaning out my external hard drive and I’ve found files I haven’t looked at in years. Not to mention 2 weeks ago we cleaned out a shed we haven’t been in for 3 years at least! So I’m just a big ball of sentimentality here.
One of my treasures is the photocopies I made of my Grandmother’s family tree. She kept the original but we went to the drug store and we made photocopies of the whole shebang. I have such a vivid memory of the original binder. It’s probably sitting at my Aunt’s house right now. She’s got a whole box of stuff she says she’s keeping for me, I’m sure that’s in there.
There are many things that I love. Some of those things have nothing to do with genealogy. However, many of them have everything to do with genealogy! I was going through some of my picture files today and I decided to post some of my favorite Thorward Family photos.
As I’m sure you’re all familiar with, it’s a big triumph to find pictures of your ancestors. I’m very rich indeed with priceless photographs. I have hundreds and hundreds… and hundreds of photographs to scan and identify. I’m not complaining, really I’m not. I can’t tell you how privileged I feel. I love finding photos like this:
Photos like this just make me want to dig in and figure out who is who! I see Lewis and Jennie (holding my Grandpa Moore!), William and Llewellyn… Then there are those other pleasant folks. Now who the heck are they! I don’t know. I do recognize that couple. They are in my hundreds upon hundreds of photos. Not all of them of course, but they are in a great deal more than a lot of other people. So they have to be important, right? Then it struck me. Mr. Mystery there has a resemblance to Lewis Thorward. So I start thinking to myself, Lewis had a brother! That’s right! It’s got to be him. Let me check my file and see.
Alright, so maybe it’s not Lewis Thorward’s brother, Frank, after all. Frank didn’t have a daughter and I’m almost sure that’s why the girl is in the photo. Wait a second… Lewis had a sister who had one daughter! Maybe it’s his sister and her family!
Gosh darn it! Another negative identification. Vivian Plume would be into her 30’s by the time this picture was taken.
Not only did they take the photo once, there are more than one of the same people. To you this means nothing but they wanted to do another one, just in case. To me, this is finding this photo again a few months after I scanned the first one. Which once again has distracted me from my Great Scanning Project. Which has been underway for well over 2 years now, if not more. I can’t just put them in the ‘Scanned’ box and leave it this time. I have to have SOME resolution. Even if I’ll never be 100% sure. Then it struck me that in Llewellyn’s journal, she mentions her Aunt Agnes an awful lot.
So I check out Agnes Love’s family. Sure enough, she had a daughter who seems to be about the right age. I can’t be sure because I am never good at judging children ages. She’s close though! Not to mention the boys are old enough to have their own families or maybe stayed behind during a family trip. Agnes and her husband were living in Suffern, New York around the time of these pictures. To me, this is the conclusion that will allow me to go back to scanning. Even if I have taken an hour out of my time, not only to research but to type this blog post too. I’m nothing if not easily distracted folks.
There is good news though. Eventually someone, and I’m not saying who (Great Grandma Llewellyn)..
Someone started labeling the back of the photos. Now for the other 764.75 pictures that aren’t labeled? I should figure those out by the time my Great Grandchildren are moaning the fact that I never take any pictures.
Since the last post was about Dad’s side of the family, this one will be about Moms. A few years back, my Mom was getting cookbooks from one of those mail order book clubs. This one was exclusively for cookbooks. This gem came in the mail at some point. I didn’t think anything of it at first. Then a light bulb went off in my head. Hey, the family name of Rowe!
When I first started to dig into my father’s side of the family, my first stop was my Grandfather. He’s a wealth of knowledge! Not only does he have a great memory, but he also had a wealth of documents and photos in his Columbus, Ohio basement! It took me a few years, but I finally got him to dig them out and let me pour through them… Okay, so I waited until I had not only my older brother, but also my father to do the grunt work.
What is so great about my father’s family is that while everyone had a small idea of who was who, no one really had any historical knowledge of the family. So I was starting with a blank slate! That may sound daunting to many, but to me that was a blessing! My Grandmother on my mother’s side gave me a copy of her family tree and starting with that actually left me very frustrated! Trying to verify that information is a task I’m still working on! So Grandpa Moore’s basement of goodies was a great starting point! He even found his birth certificate. 😉
The first thing that really started to get me involved in my Dad’s side of the family is that they picked a town, and they stayed there! These guys may have been immigrants, but they were by no means nomads. So Caldwell, New Jersey is a great place that I can go to, where I know there is probably a million different things that I can find. One of the things that immediately make me think of the Thorward family is the Thorward Meat Market. This was one of the first things my Grandpa Moore shared with me.
The market was originally opened in 1856 by Frank Dobbins. He then sold it to George H Vanderhoof (a maybe relative of mine). Mr. Vanderhoof then sold it to my ancestor George Lewis Thorward and his partner Mr. Van Duyne. The market operated as Thorward and Van Duyne’s Market for many years. Among many other great things, it also owned the first telephone in Caldwell! Here are some pictures I have of the market then and now to share with you.
