Wordless Wednesday Cliff Geyser

One more picture from my great Aunt Latisha Vanderpool's trip through Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915

Cliff Geyser on Fire Hole River.

Saturday Night Fun Genealogy Gifts

1) What gift that you received for Christmas is your favorite for genealogy purposes? Book, magazine, hardware, software, website subscription, research time - what was it, and how will it affect your genealogy research?

I had already written the paragraph below when a last minute gift just arrived by E-Mail. A little over a week ago I found out the husband of my cousin Patricia Taylor Milligan, Donald Milligan had passed away in August. My sister and I had helped clean out my uncle Leigh Hansen's house after he died and in the basement was a footlocker with the name Duane Taylor (Patricia's brother) stenciled on the front. On the bottom stenciled was Personal Effects from APO address to Kansas City, MO. Duane had died in an auto wreck in Paris after WWII was over in 1945. Since Duane had no family we asked who to send the footlocker to, and while at the UPS store we needed an phone number to send the footlocker to Australia, so called Don Milligan, phone disconnected, so called his daughter Janet. She said JoAnn was in the USA now as they are arguing over the proceeds of the estate, so sent the footlocker to Janet and she is to forward it to JoAnn. Thanks Randy

I don't think I received any genealogical gifts, I did receive a few pictures and updates on the family. I did give my sister a new computer, her old one was having out of memory problems, and the battery that keeps the time when the computer is off died a couple of years ago. I did not get a new screamer for her but a nice desktop computer to replace the old one. I also copied picasa and all the pictures from her digital camera on it. I had been copying here on this computer, so now there is a backup about 3 miles apart for all her pictures.

Advent Calendar Christmas Eve

How did you, your family or your ancestors spend Christmas Eve?

My moms family always opened their presents on Christmas Eve, so since we lived close we went there to open the presents we received and gave to our grandmother and grandfather Kelly. Later on we were also able to bring one present from home also. Pops family always opened presents on Christmas morning, and since we did not live close to pops family we usually exchanged gifts early in December and then on Christmas morning we opened all the rest of the presents.

Wordless Wednesday Twin Cubs

Two more pictures from my great Aunt Latisha Vanderpool's trip through Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915

Advent Calendar Christmas & Deceased Relatives

Did your family visit the cemetery at Christmas? How did your family honor deceased family members at Christmas?

My mom Margaret (Kelly) Hansen died rather suddenly November 30, 1994. Her diabetes had started to take is toll, and they were talking about amputating her feet because of poor circulation due to the diabetes. She was in the hospital and heading for an X-Ray when she died. That Christmas was a fog for me, and since then weather permitting we usually visit her grave between Thanksgiving and Christmas to put flowers in the little vase on the front of their niche.
Saturday the 19th we went to Priest River to deliver a Christmas present, and were going to stop by the grave of my uncle Leigh Hansen. He died December 2007 and is buried in the cemetery at Priest River, but they have several inches of snow there and his stone is a flat one so we did not stop, will go back on Memorial Day.

Advent Calendar Christmas Music

What songs did your family listen to during Christmas?
Well I like most all the Christmas songs, we have albums ranging from Alvin and The

Chipmunks Christmas Songs, to Perry Como Christmas, Andy Williams, Mitch Miller, Lawrence Welk, and the Mormon Tabernacle Chior.

Did you ever go caroling?

No, never, tooo cold around here at Christmas time, we did sing carols at church and at school, and I even got to lead the band in high school on the last day before Christmas vacation in a carol.

Did you have a favorite song?
No, like most all the Christmas songs.

Perhaps there is a particular Christmas song that drives you wild?
Yes, on the December 1 post on our Christmas Tree I told about the silver tree with a revolving stand. Well the stand had a music box that plays "Silent Night" over and over as the tree revolves, so after a few hours of Silent Night we would shut off the music box.

Advent Calendar Religious Services

Did your family attend religious services during the Christmas season?

While my grandmother Kelly was alive we went to Sunday School at the Hillyard Christian Church on Queen and Altamont. I remember being in a few of the Christmas pageants, and the minister or his son would dress up as Santa and pass out candy and cookies to all the children that the church ladies had made. If my sister or I was in the pageant my parents would come, but otherwise my parents seldom went to church. I learned after the Hillyard Christian Church closed that my grandfather Kelly had been one of the founders of that church. I was real young when he died so I don't ever remember grandpa Kelly going to church.

Saturday Night Fun A Genealogy-Oriented Gift

1) Pick out a genealogy-oriented gift for someone you know, admire, appreciate or love. It could be for a family member, someone in the genealogy community, or a friend or colleague. What would be your genealogy gift to them? [Note: you don't have to actually gift them, although it would be a nice thing to do!]

Well Friday my sister and I tried to send a genealogy-oriented gift to a first cousin once removed in Australia, but lets start at the beginning. I am the youngest of nine first cousins, and since my cousin Duane Taylor died in Paris after WWII, I am the last male cousin. Duane was killed in an auto accident in Paris late in 1945. Fast forward to December 2007, and my uncle died in Priest River, Idaho, and in his basement is an army footlocker that is stenciled on the front Lt. Duane Taylor. Inside is some of my uncles old uniforms from when he was in the Army Air Corps, so my sister got the footlocker and uniforms. Early this year she called Donald Milligan in Coronado, California, brother in law of Duane, to see if he or any of his four daughters would like the footlocker since Duane was the brother of their mother. Don said his daughter JoAnn who lives in Australia would love to get it. My sister was rather slow getting it sent, but Friday we took it to the UPS store and paid a small fortune to send the 19 pound foot locker to Australia, and they needed the phone number for JoAnn. We phoned Donald Milligan, and his phone was disconnected, he had passed away in August and we did not know. We found a phone number for one of the daughters, Janet, and called her to get JoAnn's phone number. JoAnn was in Coronado and will be leaving for Australia on Monday, but they want the footlocker sent to Coronado as they have some more stuff to go to Australia for JoAnn and will put it all together in one shipment. We went back to the UPS store since they were holding the box till they got JoAnn's phone number, to get the address changed and hopefully a big refund, but the girl there did not know how to do that so we need to come back Monday.

Advent Calendar Christmas Shopping

How did your family handle Christmas shopping? Did anyone finish early or did anyone start on Christmas Eve?

My mom started in February for the next Christmas, and was usually done before Thanksgiving. My dad started in November and was usually done a couple of days before Christmas. I usually shopped like my dad, but as I get older I am switching more to be like mom and start real early.
Mom always shopped the after Christmas sales for wrapping paper, bows, name tags, etc.

Festival of Postcards Mammoth Hot Springs

This is a postcard my dad received in 1921. It does not say who sent it. The White part of Mammoth Hot Springs is from the calcium carbonate in the hot water that flows over Mammoth Hot Springs daily.

 

Postcard was mailed at Yellowstone post office June 27, 1921. Too bad it was not signed. It may be from Duane & Carrie Taylor, my dad's older sister and brother in law. They got married a week before this and were honeymooning in Yellowstone after the marriage.

 

The Festival of Postcards can be found here.

Advent Calendar Christmas Stockings

Did you have one? Where did you hang it? What did you get in it?

We did put up stockings a few times when I was young, but most years not. We did not have a fireplace so no mantle to hang the stockings from. When I was pretty young mom bought a cardboard fireplace, and when unfolded it was supposed to look like a fireplace. It had a light inside with a little fan above the light. When the light was on the heat from the light made the fan turn so it was suppose to be like a flickering fire. Since there was no chimney connected I asked how could Santa get in? And would the light burn him? I think we got some nuts and cookies in the stockings.

Advent Calendar Christmas Memories

Last night on TV I got to see White Christmas and Holiday Inn both with Bing Crosby and co stars Fred Astaire and Danny Kaye. I have always loved Bing Crosby and his singing of White Christmas.
Bing grew up here in Spokane and went to Gonzaga High School and started studying law at Gonzaga University, but dropped out to go to Hollywood and the rest of that is history.
Legend has it that the nickname Bing came from reading the Bingville Bugle an extra section to our Spokesman Review newspaper.
Spokane usually has a white Christmas, and as a boy we got to sled down the hill at the end of our block. If we took a good run we could go a block and a half before stopping. Back then that street was not paved and had very little traffic, today it is paved and even though a residential street the cars fly by that hill today.

Advent Calendar Christmas at School

What did your ancestors do to celebrate Christmas at school? Well my mom was in the school orchestra so I assume they had a Christmas concert. I was in the band in Junior High and High School and we had a Christmas concert each year.
Were you ever in a Christmas Pageant? About fourth or fifth grade I was in the Christmas Pageant at school. I was in a group of 5 boys and we sang a couple of Christmas songs. I had a good soprano voice till my voice changed and we sang kind of like the Vienna Boys Choir. After my voice changed I was glad I was in the band as I did not sing good anymore.

Advent Calendar Holiday Happenings

Well all my close relatives were born well away from Christmas, the closest being my sister, and she was born March 31, so a long way from the Christmas holidays.


This is a picture of my parents wedding in my grandmothers house January 14, 1942. My dad Claude Hansen was 35 then and obviously single, but since it was so soon after Pearl Harbor was bombed they were drafting single men to age 36. Pop had been to a CMTC (Civilian Military Training Camp)camp in the 1920s, and he said about all they did was march, and he had bad feet and did not fit well in the Army issued boots, so he went out to Geiger Air Force Base and enlisted hoping that in the Army Air Corps they might fly somewhere instead of marching everywhere. He received his orders to report to Geiger and wanted to get married before he shipped off to war. My mom Margaret Kelly and pop went down to the auditors office to get a license, and they waved the three day waiting period so they could get married before he left. They got married and after the marriage they had the marriage certificate recorded at the auditors office because that was the law. Pop went off to serve in the 354th Service Squadron, first to Ephrata, Washington, then England, Africa and eventually Italy. Because he was older than most of the men in the service by then he got rotated home, so he was at Ft. Dix, on VE day and back here in Spokane by VJ day. Most of the members of our local genealogical society (EWGS) know I do research for others that send queries to EWGS for local look ups. A few years ago I was in the courthouse looking up a marriage for a query and the index listed two marriage certificate numbers. I had done a lot of marriage certificate look ups by then so I was really surprised by two numbers. A little note here, the auditors office files all the marriage certificates by number, so did they get married twice? When I got to the actual record I found out the problem. Each file during this time had two documents, one was the application they filled out when they applied for the license and the second document was the marriage certificate signed by the bride, groom, witnesses and the minister and was recorded after the marriage and both usually had the same recording number. Well for the couple I was looking for they had a different number on the application and the certificate because another couple also had different numbers on their certificate and application. Both had just switched recording numbers. Turns out the second couple that had their numbers mixed up was my parents. I did not check the index for them to see if they were listed with two certificate numbers but I bet the index also shows two numbers for my parents also. Today all the certificates are online for Spokane county, but none of the applications have made it online yet.
Since their anniversary was after Christmas we always had a nice celebration for them and never mixed in with Christmas or Christmas gifts.

Advent Calendar Fruitcake Friend or Foe?

Did you like fruitcake?
Yes
Did your family receive fruitcakes?
Seldom, I do remember receiving one once where all the fruit had been soaked in brandy, that one I did not like, it burned all the way down at each bite.
Have you eve re-gifted fruitcake?
Never lasted long enough around here to be re-gifted.

Advent Calendar Holiday Travel

I don't ever remember traveling anywhere for Christmas. My grandfather had worked for the Great Northern Railroad so every year they would get a pass to travel somewhere. Grandma used those passes to go see her sister in Denver, but seldom stayed for Christmas, usually went earlier in the month. We did go to see pops parents at their farm about 35 miles north east of Spokane at Blanchard, Idaho and usually spent Christmas Eve at moms parents house, but more on that later.

Saturday Night Fun, Missing Databases

1) Define one or more genealogy or family history databases, that are not currently online, that would really help you in your research. Where does this database currently reside?
While it really would not help me much personally (see my December 15th Advent Post) it would help many genealogists searching for their parents or grandparents marriages. The database I am talking about is the marriage applications that the couples filled out to get a marriage license here in Spokane County sometime after 1930. Before 1930 those applications are online at the Washington State Digital Archives.

2) Tell us about it/them in a blog post on your own blog or GenealogyWise or Facebook, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment to this post on Facebook.
Currently they have the Marriage Certificates after 1930 online, but the real genealogical information is on the applications, like place of birth of bride and groom, parents names (including maiden name of mother) and birthplaces of the parents, and occupations of bride and groom. The actual paper records are housed in the Eastern Washington State Archives in Cheney, Washington. The same records are also on microfilm at the county auditors office.

Advent Calendar Charitable/Volunteer Work

While I have been a volunteer at our local library since 1993, it really is not the type of Charitable-Volunteer work that should be with the advent calendar. Back in the Holiday Parties post on December 7th I told about the PTA providing cupcakes for the Christmas party at school, well my mom was the treasurer of the Whitman PTA and the neighbor across the street was the President, so guess who supplied cupcakes?
My grandma was the person that did most for others near Christmas. She was part of the church quilting circle they called it. My grandfather had made a quilt frame that they set on 4 chair backs and the ladies would hand stitch the squares together, put on a back and usually a wool blanket in the middle and then tie the two sides together with yarn about every foot. When done they donated the quilts to the church to sell to support the church. She actually bought several of the quilts back, so I have a whole chest of quilts she made.
Grandma was also part of the "Sunshine Circle" at the church. The minister would gather up a group of ladies from the "Sunshine Circle", and they visited the church members that for what ever reason could not get out, maybe in the hospital, a nursing home or just sick at home. They would take flowers and cards and just sit an visit.

Advent Calendar Other Traditions

Did your family or friends celebrate other traditions during the holidays like Hanukkah or Kwanzaa?
No. The neighborhood I grew up in here in Spokane was predominately white, and about 50% Catholic and 50% other like Baptist or Christian, or Congregational, or Lutheran or Mormon. Don't remember any Jewish kids in the neighborhood. I had never heard of Kwanzaa until a couple of years ago, so I know we never celebrated it.

Did your immigrant ancestors have holiday traditions from their native country which they retained or perhaps abandoned?
Most of my ancestors came very early to this country so long ago adopted American traditions. Only my grandfather Anton Hansen who came in 1887 was a fairly recent immigrant, and when he got here he did not want to speak Danish nor remember any Danish customs, he was an American now and wanted to celebrate like an American.

Advent Calendar Christmas Gifts

This is a real hard one for me, I don't think I have given any memorable gifts over the years and I don't remember receiving any memorable gifts. My mom was always in to crafts, so we have quilts with pictures we did with tri chem pens, macrame plant holders some made with yarn and some with beads, ceramics of all types to dust, and my moms collection of Jim Beam bottles. I remember making pin cushions out of pine cones, small amounts of cotton and a little squares of cloth. Got poked a lot by the pine cones as we stuffed cotton covered with cloth between the pine cone limbs.

I don't remember how old I was when I got a Lionel train, it was an old one when I got it but it worked well, and each year after that I got more cars, or track or engines or scenery. At one time I had two 4x8 sheets of plywood covered with track and trains. I learned later that pop had worked on weekends on a car for someone and he got the train in trade for his work. He was a mechanic then.

Advent Calendar Grab Bag

When I was young before Christmas we used to like to go window shopping. Many of the downtown stores like the Crescent, The Bon, Pennys, Newberries, Grants, Pay Less, Sears and Wards had big Christmas displays in their windows and it was fun to just go and look at what they had displayed.
The Crescent closed years ago, The Bon was bought out by Macys, Pennys moved to Northtown Mall and their building is now part businesses and part downtown apartments. Newberries and Grants have both closed. Pay Less is now Rite Aid. Wards closed and the City of Spokane bought the building for the City Hall. Sears moved out of downtown to Northtown Mall, and gave the city the old building which became the Spokane Public Library. After a few years the city tore down the old Sears building and built the present library building.

Advent Calendar Christmas Cookies

My maternal grandmother baked a lot of cookies starting in November and going through the new year. I liked the date roll up cookies she made and the raisin cookies were great also. She made sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies (I never liked those), chocolate chip cookies, raisin cookies, date roll ups, and thumbprint cookies with jelly in the middle. I helped by licking the bowl and sampling the cookies to make sure they were good enough to give away.

After she died and I inherited her house I learned why she started baking in November, that kitchen was cold most of the winter, so the oven baking cookies kept it nice and warm.

Today my sister starts baking about December 1st and bakes most of the month so she has a lot of cookies for gifts. I like to make fudge, and have tried several kinds, looking for a different kind of fudge almost every year.

Advent Calendar Holiday Parties

We never had a party at home, but each year in grade school we had a party, the PTA would provide cupcakes and punch and we nearly always had a tree with ornaments made of paper by the students.
At home each year a few weeks before Christmas my mom would make "Tom and Jerrys" they were actually home made eggnog and sherry, and it always amazed me as soon as mom made the eggnog neighbors and friends showed up to have a "Tom and Jerry". While I was too young for the sherry, she always let my sister and I have some eggnog with a little cinnamon on top. After she died I bought a quart of eggnog at the store and was soo disappointed in the taste. Mom used a lot of eggs in her eggnog, it was so thick it barely poured and I don't think the store eggnog had any eggs in it and it was so thin and runny.

Advent Calendar Santa Claus

I don't ever remember sending a letter to Santa Claus, by the time I could write I had figured out Santa Claus was my parents. I do remember going to the Crescent Department Store and sitting on Santa's lap to tell him what I wanted for Christmas. The fire department had an old truck they decorated and put a sled, reindeer and Santa on the back and went up and down each street in the city throwing candy at the kids. They still do that.

Carnival of Genealogy #86, Genea Santa

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission: Impossible music), is to write a nice letter to Genea-Santa

Here are the directions:

1) Write a letter to Genea-Santa and ask for only ONE thing. It could be hardware, software, a missing family Bible, a record that you desperately want, etc.

Genea Santa I wish to find the parents of John "Jackie" Vanderpool. He was born about 1805 in North Carolina. Some say he is the son of Anthony Vanderpool, but other than he fits in between other babies born to Anthony I have seen no proof. There are also 3 or 4 other Vanderpool families in the same area with similar blank spaces in their births, so he fits there also. While its been a while, I did index 30 or 31 volumes of the Vanderpool newsletters and still have that index.

2) Tell Genea-Santa what a good genea-girl or genea-boy you've been this past year and give examples.

I have been a good boy this year, got my 6th Certificate of Appreciation from Sam Reed, the Secretary of State for Washington and head of the State Library for helping index records for the Washington State Digital Archives. I also asked Maggie Rail "the Cemetery Lady" to submit her cemetery records to the state library. At last count she had recorded about 400 cemeteries in Washington plus some in Idaho, Montana, and California. She also was an editor for Internment.net. I continue to do research for Eastern Washington Genealogical Society queries and the income from research continues to be the second largest amount of money collected for EWGS. (Dues are still #1). In September the Washington State Genealogical Society held their annual meeting here in Spokane, and I was a volunteer in the planning and getting the packets ready. I also did the name tags for everyone that attended. Since next year is the 75 Anniversary for EWGS, I started a series of articles on the Presidents of EWGS on the EWGS blog. So I guess I have been a good boy this year.

Advent Calendar Outdoor Decorations

My mom said my grandfather used to string blue lights along the front of his house for Christmas. I never found the cords and sockets, but my grandmother had a box of 25 watt blue lights.
We strung lights across the front of our house and around the front porch. I made a star out of laths and strung lights on it and hung it in the peak of the house. We liked blinking lights so I put as many blinking lights as I could find and so the whole front of the house blinked. The neighbors across the street strung lights around their big picture window and along the peak of their house also. Very few other neighbors did much decorating, most just put their tree in a front window and left the curtains open. We used to have a lot of vandals that tore up the displays, stole the bulbs, so a lot of neighbors did not want to keep ahead of the vandals. This year a couple of houses down the block are decorated and even in their front yards.

Advent Calendar Christmas Cards

From as early as I can remember mom sent Christmas cards every year, and most had a Christmas letter on what we did during the year. We also got a lot of cards and mom would scotch tape them to the woodwork around the doors. You can see some cards in the pictures of the Christmas Tree from the December 1st post and the Ceramic Nativity Set from December 3. I found this card in my fathers postcard collection, most of the cards are from 1912-1914, but this one is not dated.

 

Back of the card; Aunt Fred was Fredeline Dillingham sister of pops mother. She never married.

 

Advent Calendar Christmas Ornaments

We do have a lot of very old ornaments for the Christmas Tree, and when my mom was into ceramics she made several ornaments, and displays for the TV top or sideboard. Probably the most interesting is the several ornaments we have made from Mt. St. Helens ash. Our area of Spokane got about a half an inch of ash when Mt. St. Helens blew in 1980, and I still have a 5 gallon can of the ash.

Ceramic Christmas Tree, Santa, sled and reinder and a snowman.

 

Ceramic Nativity Set

 

Advent Calendar Holiday Foods

When I was young we always went to my maternal grandmothers for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Both were always turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetable of some kind, rolls fruit salad and cranberry sauce. For desert usually pumpkin pie, but I did not like pumpkin pie so my grandmother would ask me what kind of pie I wanted. Most times I said apple, but sometimes mince meat pie. Grandma made mince meat pie with ground deer meat as one ingredient, but one year she was in a hurry and did not get the deer meat ground so she cooked it a little and forked it up, but it was still long and stringy and very hard to cut and chew, so for years after that we always asked if she used forked up deer meat in the mince meat pies. I am not real sure when we started making TV dinners from the left overs, but we continue that to today. They are soo good a few months later when you are in a hurry. Just pop in the oven and heat one or more up for a quick meal.
After I started genealogy I found out the traditional Christmas dinner for Danish people was a goose, so I asked my mom why no goose, and she said she tried a goose one year and it was a disaster, horribly greasy and not good taste, so we never had goose again.

Wordless Wednesday Daisy Geyser

Two more pictures from my great Aunt Latisha Vanderpool's trip through Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915

Daisy Geyser

 

Fire Hole Spring

 

Advent Calendar - The Christmas Tree

When I was real young my dad, my sister and I would go see my grandparents at Blanchard, Idaho before Christmas. They lived in a farm there and on the way back we would stop by the woods and go in and cut a Christmas Tree. Pop would tie it on the Model A and we headed home. At home pop would cut off the bottom and put it in the Christmas tree stand. Trees from the forest usually had weak limbs so they were barely able to hold up the lights and ornaments. Pop would get out the lights and test them to see if they would light up. (If one went out the whole string went out). Pop strung the lights on the tree and mom put the ornaments and tinsel on the tree. Mom got tired of the needles in the carpet and bought an aluminum tree. (Picture below) It came with a color wheel so the tree sparkled green, red, yellow and blue. It also had a revolving tree stand with a music box. I will comment on the music for the December 21st day.

 

Orphans for the Carnival of Genealogy # 85

I guess I could call myself an Orphan, as I have no descendants, but I think I have left a few marks to remember me. Monday November 30th I will for the fifth time be recorded in court records as a prospective juror (I have been on four juries already, I think I have impartial juror tatooed on my forehead), but I really want to tell about my great uncle Laurits Hansen.
In 1990 we had a Hansen reunion and we had descendants of 3 of the 5 Hansen brothers that came to the USA to Austin, Minnesota. They were descendants of Anton (my grandfather), John and Lawrence Hansen. See the article I did on that reunion here. Lorraine Erickson a daughter of Lawrence was a volunteer at a Family History Center and sent us group sheets on the five brothers and some addresses so we had a good reunion and found out a lot on the Hansen's we did not know before, but we wanted to learn more. In 1993 I signed up for the Christmas Tour of the Family History Library with Leland Meitzler and Donna Phillips and several other professional genealogists from Salt Lake City. I wanted to find Danish records and one of the professionals (Wade Hone) was a Scandinavian expert. He helped me find about 6 generations of records for my family in Denmark and one of the people I found was Laurits Hansen a twin brother of John Hansen. John and Laurits were twins and four days after birth they were christened in their home, which Wade said was rather odd. I later found out there was a flood in Denmark and they took the mother Karen Jorgensen and the two babies John and Laurits out the second story window in a row boat just after birth and neither John nor Laurits were expected to live, so that is why the priest came to thier home to christen them. John of course did live, but his twin Laurits died at 5 days old. Now I was wondering what happened? Remember we had descendants of Lawrence Hansen (Laurits in Denmark) at our reunion and Lawrence had 11 children so there are a lot of descendants, and the Danish records says he died at 5 days? John's family was wondering who was the twin in his ancestors as they had a bunch of twins in the grand kids of John. So this confirmed John was a twin. Wade suggested for me to keep looking in the records and sure enough after Martin Hansen was born that microfilm ended, so I went and got the next one and found two more boys born to Hans Mikkelsen and Karen Jorgensen, the first was Laurits Theodore and the second was Claudius. Although Laurits was a common name in the Danish records, I never found another Theodore anywhere. This was the Lawrence that came to the USA and had 11 kids! Claudius kind of intrigued me also as my dad was Claude Hansen, maybe named for his uncle?

To submit your own entry into the Carnival of Genealogy #85 on Orphans.

Wordless Wednesday Emerald Pool

Two more pictures from my great Aunt Latisha Vanderpool's trip through Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915

"Mr. Todd" our guide over geyser formation "Emerald Pool"

 

Sponge Geyser

 

November 22, 1963 Memories

I was reminded by the article on my home page about the death of President John Kennedy. I did not think I would ever forget that day, I was a sophomore at Rogers High School, and the president was shot when I was in PE class. My next class was World History and I was surprised when I arrived that the teacher had the TV on and was setting solemnly at his desk. He filled us in on what had happened, and we sat glued to the TV for the rest of the class without a word being spoken. I don't remember what happened at classes the rest of the day, but when I got home they were still covering the death of the President on all three channels. Later I watched as the casket was paraded in Washington DC and the funeral of our President. The new president Lyndon Johnson was a lot different from John Kennedy, but he did try to finish some of the things John Kennedy had started.

Wordless Wednesday Grotto

Two more pictures from my grand Aunt Latisha Vanderpool's trip through Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915

"Grotto"

 

Excelsior Geyser

 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- A Nice Thing

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- A Nice Thing

Well I am a little late as I was away from my computer for 4 days, but back now for a while.
Here is your genealogy writing mission, if you decide to accept it (cue the Mission: Impossible music...):

1. What is the Nicest Thing another genealogist did for you, or to you, in the last week or so? (If you have no examples for this past week, go back in time - surely someone has done a nice thing for you in recent years!).
Well lets pick Vicky Dalton the Spokane County Auditor. She is not really a genealogist, but her office holds a lot of records important to genealogists, the most important is marriage records, but she also has some early birth and death records and all the land records for Spokane County. A little over five years ago the county had a budget problem and each county office was supposed to cut their budget about 30% due to a new city being formed in the county. While a lot of county offices lost about 30% of the work they had previously done that was not real hard, but the Auditors office did not lose any work. Soon after the new city was formed I received a note in my in box at the library asking for a genealogist to help other genealogists get copies of records from the Auditors office. Vicky was a little reluctant to let me do those look ups, but she did. So now the nice things she has done for me. A couple of years ago at a candidate forum at our local community center, her opponent did not show up so she gave her opening speech and near the end she pointed out a very special person in the audience (it was me) that had helped the Auditors office when they were very short of money. While I know a lot of people at the Community Center, I never told any of them I was volunteering at the Auditors office, so they were somewhat surprised. A few weeks ago the Washington State Digital Archives celebrated its fifth birthday and the Auditors of Washington were one of the driving forces in getting it built, so Vicky was one of the speakers and once again I was pointed out to the crowd as a help in the Auditors office and also to the Digital Archives.

What The Carnival of Genealogy Means to Me

The 84th Carnival of Genealogy subject is the title above, and Jasia has some questions for us to answer:

Q: What was your favorite topic to write about?
A: How I spend My Summer Vacation

Q: Have you guest hosted the COG?
A: Nope...

Q: Is there an article you've read in the COG that stands out in your mind?
A: None that I can think of now, I started reading the COG in 2009 so I have a lot to read yet.

Q: What have you learned from reading or writing for the COG?
A: I started online on Prodigy in 1991 and read articles each day from very experienced genealogists, and the COG is very similar. I still am not a good writer, guess I should have paid more attention in English classes in school.

Q: Have you ever recommended the COG to anyone?
A: Yes I wrote an article on the COG for the monthly Branching Out Newsletter I have been writing.

Q: If you haven't participated in the COG thus far, why not?
A: Well this will be the 10th COG article I have submitted since I started my blog.

Q: How has the COG helped your family history research?
A: Gives me a chance to practice writing.

Q: Has it impacted your life in any way?
A: I have received some interesting comments, but so far not much impact.

A Tribute to a Veteran

My dad Claude Hansen was 35 and single when WWII started, (they were drafting men to age 36), he had been to a CMTC camp and he said about all they did was march, so when Pearl Harbor was attacked he went to Geiger Air Force Base and enlisted in the Army Air Corps hoping he could fly and not have to march a lot. He never once flew anywhere during the war. He was part of the 354th Service Squadron, they serviced and fueled the B-17s and B-24s. The Squadron went to England, and spent most of the war in Africa and towards the end they were in Italy. My dad had been a truck driver and a mechanic before the war started so he ran the motor pool, to keep the jeeps, trucks, wrecker and tankers running. He was overseas for 39 months, and got rotated home early because of his age, so he was back in Spokane on VJ day. The Squadron had packed up after VE day and was heading for Japan. They were in the Panama Canal when the A-Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and they sent them to San Francisco to await orders, but Japan had surrendered before they got there, so most everyone was mustered out of the Army.

I don't ever remember seeing this photo when he was alive, but found it in his old photos.

 

Transportation Carnival of Genealogy

Here are a couple of pictures of my dad Claude Hansen's transportation. The first picture was taken near Columbus Montana with his bicycle (I still have that bike, but he replaced the tires and wheels years ago as the old sized tires he had were no longer available). He rode this bike to Salt Lake City for a CMTC camp and later to Kansas City to Sweeney's Auto school.
The truck was his early Ford truck he bought to haul logs from the stump farm in Blanchard Idaho. They would roll the logs up smaller logs to the bunk on the truck, chain the logs down and then hall to the lumber mill or to the railroad. He hauled logs first with a Model T truck, then later a Model A truck, and finally a Ford V8 truck

 

Wordless Wednesday Old Faithful

Two more pictures from my great Aunt Latisha Vanderpool's trip through Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915

Old Faithful in distance

 

Bee Hive Geyser

 

Name Profiler for Saturday Nigh Fun

Well I went to the World Names Profiler and typed in my surname Hansen, and it was no big surprise Denmark led the world in Hansen's, followed by Norway, Sweden, and then a couple of surprises for me, New Zealand and Australia and next the USA, Germany, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands.
I clicked on North America and most of the map was in light green, so just below average for most of North America including Canada. The northern tier states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Idaho and Washington are in light blue so just a little more Hansen's there. Also the Northern Territories of Canada in the light blue.

Now that I have done that I will say I am NOT related to about 98 or 99% of those Hansen's, so those types of maps mean very little to me. Why? My grandfather and his 7 brothers and two sisters were the first Hansen's in our families. They were all children of Hans Mikkelsen, and he was the son of Mikkel Madsen and so on back each generation. So now my name distribution. Five Hansen brothers came to Minnesota from Denmark and four never left the state except for vacations, number 5 my grandfather moved to Montana and eventually to Idaho. I think one sister moved to Iowa, and the two surviving children in Denmark stayed there. Two died young and no issue. So today most of the children of the five brothers still live in Minnesota or close by states of Wisconsin and North and South Dakota or Nebraska. Out west several in Washington, some in Montana and Colorado, and quite a few in California and Florida.

Wordless Wednesday Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Two more pictures from my great Aunt Latisha Vanderpool's trip through Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

 

Mammouth Hot Springs

 

Musical Instruments for COG

As soon as I could remember my parents had an upright piano in the dining room. I guess I was about 6 or 7 when my sister and I started taking piano lessons. I was not very good for a couple of reasons, one was because I was so small I could not reach several keys for chords, and I really did not like practicing, or memorizing anything. About the time I started junior high my parents traded the piano for a chord organ, and it came with free lessons, so once again my sister and I took lessons, but I still did not practice much.
In junior high I joined the band and played the clarinet, but I still was not very good. We did get to march in the Junior Lilac Parade, and my mom shot a movie of the band as it marched by on Riverside. In high school they had two bands, the concert band and the marching band. The marching band played at all the football and home basketball games. We wore our uniforms on game day to school. The uniforms were all wool, black pants, bright gold jacket and then we wore a white shirt and a purple tie. (school colors were purple and gold). We marched on the football field for the home games, and in the Lilac Parade in the spring. The concert band had a recital once a year and the senior year featured the seniors doing special music. Ours was the Lawrence Welk Theme song with just the seniors playing. For the last day before Christmas the seniors each got a chance to direct the band as we played Christmas songs, but I don't remember what song I picked, and I was sure glad when that was over, I am positive I would never be a music director.

Saturday Night Fun Best Halloween

I am not real sure which one was the best, but I always looked forward to Halloween and especially the popcorn balls from Mrs. Evans. Back then we got a lot of candy, but also apples and oranges, but my favorite was popcorn balls. When I was born our next door neighbors were the Evans', and they were both about the same age as my grandparents, so it was like having a third set of grandparents. When I was about a year and a half old my parents moved 6 houses west on the same street, so now we were 7 houses away from the Evans', but they still kept close tabs on us, and every Halloween Mrs. Evans made the most wonderful popcorn balls, and I looked forward to them each year. As I was growing up I had trouble saying Mrs. Evans, so I called her Mrs. Heavens. After Mr. Evans passed away, Mrs. Evans stayed for a while, and then moved to Soap Lake to be close to her family. We continued to get Christmas cards till she died, but I really missed the popcorn balls.

New URL for Washington State Library Blog

NEW ADDRESS FOR WSL BLOG

The Washington State Library blog is changing its address from old address to new address . This is the first visible part of a larger address change for the Office of the Secretary of State, of which the Washington State Library is a division. All of the agency web site and e-mail addresses will eventually be changed as well. The changes will be phased in between now and the end of the calendar year.

Further announcements will follow as various address changes are implemented. In the meantime, the old address will remain active for as long as necessary to ensure all subscribers and visitors have become accustomed to the new address.

Wordless Wednesday Keppler Cascades

Two more pictures from my great Aunt Latisha Vanderpool's trip through Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915

Keppler Cascades

 

Upper Falls

 

Saturday Night Fun

it's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun!

In honor of Surname Saturday (the new, official genealogy blogging prompt for Saturdays), let's consider this, assuming you accept the challenge to play along (is it Mission Impossible?):

1) What is the most unique, strangest or funniest combination of given name and last name in your ancestry? Not in your database - in your ancestry.

Stanislaus Potoski Dillingham he was my great grandfather, and the Dillingham's came to New England in 1630 from England, and while most of the names were Thomas, James, Edward, John and William, so Stanislaus Potoski is a real departure from common English family names.

2) Tell us about this person in a blog post.

Stanislaus Potoski Dillingham, son of Enos and Clara Dillingham, was born at Dixfield, Maine., August 8, 1835, and died McHenry County, Illinois June 25, 1919.
While he was the right age to be in the Civil War, he did not serve and for a long time I could not figure out why. He had older and younger brothers that did serve, so when I found out he had bad legs and could not stand or march for more than 15 minutes, so I guess he got a medical exemption.
He was a cabinet maker when not farming, from a long line of ship builders in Maine.
He came west in 1855, stopping for a short time at Woodstock before passing on to St. Ansgar, Iowa., where he resided about eight years. He then removed to southern Minnesota, where he took up a homestead and lived for twenty-seven years, a pioneer of that western state, with all the sturdy virtues of the pioneer. In March, 1893 he returned to McHenry county and resided here until death claimed him.
He was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Minerva Hellenbolt at Rochester, Minnesota, Dec. 1, 1870. To this happy union were born two children, both daughters, Anna Dillingham, and Miss Fredalene Dillingham.

Washington State Digital Archives is Five Years Old

Wow has it been five years already, I was at the opening of the Washington State Digital Archives five years ago and so a few weeks ago I got an invitation to the Open House Thursday evening. You can find out more on the celebration on the From Our Corner Blog. I arrived about five minutes before it was to start and found a parking spot right by the front door, went inside and picked up my name tag and then stood around talking to the others there, while waiting for the ceremony to start.

 

Jerry Handfield the Washington State Archivist started out introducing people in the crowd that were elected officials or workers at the digital archives. Then Sam Reed the Secretary of State talked. Not long after he became Secretary of State the Eastern Region Archivist invited Sam to see the archives at Eastern Washington University, at that time the archives for the seven eastern Washington counties was housed under the basketball court floor, in a dark poorly lit and damp area filled with insects. So his next task was to get a new archives building and he had the idea to have it also hold digital records. Steve Excell the Assistant Secretary of State was put in charge and he said they looked on the internet for someplace that had a digital archives and found none. So with the help of Microsoft and another company that specialized in digital storage they built the worlds first digital archives. Since then people from all over the world have come to see how a digital archives works.

 

Other speakers were Siri Woods, the Chelan County Clerk, hers is the first county to have all their county clerks records online at the digital archives. Jerry Pettit, Archives Oversight Committee Chair. Vicky Dalton, the Spokane County Auditor, and I was mentioned in her speech as a person that has helped both her department and the digital archives. Brian Peterson, from Ancestry was there as Ancestry and the Digital Archives are partnering to help get more records online. The Last Speaker was Tara Larson Mahoney from Microsoft. She talked a little on the new software from Microsoft that allows people to search digital recordings. The example is that our legislature has taped debates and hearings for years, but to find a single hearing on a bill would take a lot of work, this software will search the digital version of the tapes and find the correct one, all while you are sitting at home on your own computer. We then adjourned to the next room for a meal and then you had a chance to tour the archives, I had that tour last month so I skipped it this month.

Wordless Wednesday Entrance Gate

Two more pictures from my great Aunt Latisha Vanderpool's trip through Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915

Entrance Gate

 

Entrance Gate with loaded coach

 

Carnival of Postcards Feeding the Bears

This is one of my dads collection of post cards and fits with the old photos of Yellowstone I have been posting on Wednesdays. There is nothing on the back but the standard Postcard and place one cent stamp here. Notice in lower right corner Printed in Germany.

 

Saturday Night Fun

Hey, genealogy fans, it's Saturday Night! Time for some Genealogy Fun!

Your task, if you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music), is to:

1) Pick one of your four great-grandparents - if possible, the one with the most descendants.

Hans Kristin Mikkelsen 1837-1892 and Karen Jorgensen 1840-1891

2) Create a descendants list for those great-grandparents either by hand or in your software program.
Well it is 16 pages long and contains 657 people (226 are spouses), so 431 descendants

3) Tell us how many descendants, living or dead, are in each generation from those great-grandparents.

4) How many are still living? Of those, how many have you met and exchanged family information with? Are there any that you should make contact with ASAP? Please don't use last names of living people for this - respect their privacy.

1. 10 all dead
2. 25 24 dead Helen is 101 and will be 102 next June passing my dad who died at 101 and 9 months. Went to her 100th birthday just after my dad passed away.
3. 64 I think about 10 are dead
4. 151 All alive
5. 169 All alive
6. 12 All alive

I probably met about 20 from #2 above, and about half of #3 and even several from #4 and #5 at one of several Hansen reunions.

Blog Action Day 2009 Climate Changes

Most of my ancestors came to this country very early, and while the climate they came from differed little from what they left weather wise that is. The political climate changed a lot from the old world to the new world.
When my grandfather came from Denmark, he settled in Minnesota, actually colder than where he lived in Denmark, but once again the political climate was a big help in his decision to leave Denmark. My grandfathers oldest brother disappears about the time Denmark lost the Schelsvig Holstein region to Prussia, and Denmark was threatening to go to war again to get that area back, so 5 Hansen brothers left Denmark a few months before they were to be drafted, and I think there is some evidence one sister also left. The other reason was probably the fact that the Hus that my great grand father owned was probably not large enough to support the 5 brothers and their families so they emigrated to the USA. According to my research a Hus was usually about 5 acres, and probably not enough for one family, but my great grandfather was also a tailor, so his ten children probably did not go hungry. Actually only 8 survived to adulthood, 6 boys and 2 girls.
Once in Minnesota 4 brothers never left Minnesota, four did move further north from where they settled after coming to the USA.
Of the five that settled in Minnesota only my grandfather left Minnesota, and I really never got an answer to why he left Minnesota. I asked my dad why they left Minnesota, but he was only three when they moved to Montana and did not know why. My dad's older brother wrote an autobiography for his kids and grand kids and he said they left Minnesota for Montana because it was warmer in Montana. It may have been a little warmer from where they were living in the northern part of Minnesota near Sebeka to the southern part of Montana at Columbus, but I really think it was because my grandmothers aunt lived in Columbus and had a job lined up for my grandfather. He ran the creamery, delivered milk and cream and butter door to door. In the 1920s they moved to Blanchard, Idaho and that was much warmer than Montana or Minnesota. My father said my grandfather had a wonder lust, the grass was always greener somewhere else, so that probably played a more important role in the moves that made than the change of climate.

My Favorite Genealogical Society for the COG

I belong to five genealogical societies, one Scottish Clan, and one Mayflower surname group. Years ago after a Hansen reunion, my sister and I decide we needed to know more on out family, and the community college was having a beginning genealogy class, so we signed up. The instructor suggested for us to join the local society, and societies where we were researching. The local society met the first Saturday of each month so we went to a meeting and joined Eastern Washington Genealogical Society in January of 1991. Soon after that I joined the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, The Great River Genealogical Society (Quincy, Illinois), and the Grundy County Genealogical Society (Trenton, Missouri). My mother and grandfather were born in Trenton, Missouri and my grandmother was born just north of Grundy county in Mercer county so I found a lot of family in that area. Before my grandfathers family moved to Missouri they lived in Ursa, Illinois a small town close to Quincy, Illinois, and I still have a brick wall there looking for the parents of Thomas Kelly. On my father's side his dad came from Denmark, but his mothers family came to New England in 1630 so that is why I belong to the NEHGS. I also belong to the Washington State Genealogical Society. So which is my favorite? Naturally the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society, my local society. I have been a member there longer, and worked on more volunteer activities from indexing to fund raising. I have been a gene helper, and since 1998 have been doing the research for others for EWGS. Over the years research has really changed, at first I did a lot of census look ups, today nearly everyone has already found their ancestor in an online census somewhere. I also spent a lot of time researching at the courthouse, but today I seldom get a query for courthouse research, partly because a lot of the courthouse records are online also, but a lot of records are still in the courthouse. I am an assistant blogger on the EWGS Blog. EWGS also has a spring and fall seminar, monthly meetings with a short program and internet genealogy classes each month. So education is a very important part of EWGS, and the Bulletin the quarterly newsletter is always interesting enough to sit down and read it from cover to cover when the mailman delivers it.

Wordless Wednesday Wylie Coaches & Hotel

This is more of the Wylie Coaches at Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915. William Wallace Wylie was the Bozeman Montana school superintendent. In 1880 he started tours of Yellowstone for the working class, a seven day tour was $35.00. This is the tour my great aunt Latisha Vanderpool took in 1915.

 

"Our" Coach and party through the park

 

Line up of tourists

 

"Wylie Hotel" Gardiner, Montana