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

Tuesday Tips

Have any farmers as ancestors? Did they use machinery for the harvest? Do you have pictures of them using the farm machinery? The Washington State Digital Archives has the A.M. Kendrick Collection of photos. Mr. Kendrick was a photographer in the Ritzville Washington area and took a lot of photos of farm machinery actually working on the farm. I clicked on "tractor" and 54 thumbnails came up, combine got 143 pictures, you can click on the thumbnails to make them larger.

This is an early cat tractor

 

Wolsborn Tractor drawn combine

 

Crist Schultz's Horse/Mule drawn combine at Harrington Washington

 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Most Satisfying Genealogy Event. Leland Meitzler posted his list of top ten "Most Satisfying Genealogical Events"
I am not going to try to list ten events, but maybe a couple.
Years ago I found my great, great grandparents in the 1870 Minnesota census, Richard and Rhoda Hellenbolt. It listed Richard as being born in New York about 1815 and Rhoda being born in Canada, and soon I found that two of their children had been born in Rock County Wisconsin, Eliza Minerva Hellenbolt (my ancestor) and her brother Dexter, but still nothing on Rhoda's maiden name. I have a picture of Rhoda and several people in the family have commented that Rhoda looks like a native American. Hellenbolt is not a common name so whenever I find one I am probably related. A friend was going to the library in Ft. Wayne and asked if I had any requests, I said yes to see if she could find something on Richard and Rhoda. A couple of days later I got an E-Mail that she had found an index of Marriages for Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and Richard and Rhoda were there. I was heading for the Family History center so I checked the catalog and they had filmed marriages for Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, so I ordered the film. When it came in I rushed to the Family History Center, and found the marriage. It listed the maiden name for Rhoda,"Preston", but nothing else I did not already know. On the way home from the Family History Center all I could think of was I am related to Sargent Preston of the Yukon!

Recently I was playing in Google Books and typed in Enos Chandler and Betsy. While it listed several pages of hits one was the Fifth and Sixth Generation book on George Soule of the Mayflower. Enos Chandler had married Elizabeth Soule a fifth generation descendant of George Soule and had a daughter Betsy. I had that from the earlier Fifth Generation Book on George Soule. My grandmother was Anna Dillingham, and going back several Generations you find Melatiah Dillingham married Betsy Chandler, but the dates in the Dillingham information did not match the dates in the Soule information. Melatiah and Betsy did name one child Enos Chandler Dillingham, so I was pretty sure I had the correct Betsy. I ordered the new Fifth and Sixth Generation Book on George Soule and was wondering what took the mailman so long to get the book delivered, so the day it arrived I checked and sure enough they list a husband for Betsy Chandler; Melatiah Dillingham. So now I have two more Mayflower ancestors, George Soule and John Alden, and also I got a Patriot from the Revolutionary War. Kind of interesting for the Quaker Dillinghams. Enos Chandler was a Lt. in the Revolution according to the DAR.

Wordless Wednesday Wylie Tents

This is more of the Wylie Tents 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. In 1905 he sold out to Arthur Miles and A.L. Smith. They continued the Wiley Tours till 1916 when the Park Service was founded and then the Park Service contracted with one tour group.

 

 

Saturday Night Fun

This weeks Saturday night fun Randy asks what is your most vivid childhood memories?

Mine is catching fish off the front porch. Now let me tell about it. My grandfather Charles Kelly (I was named for him), was a railroad switchman here in Spokane from 1918 to 1947 when he went off on sick leave, about a year before I was born, so I never got to see him working. He loved to fish, but was not able to much since he was not real well by the time I knew him and he died a couple of months before I was six, but he caught a lot of fish on his front porch right in Spokane. His house was miles from any river or lake, yet every so often he would have a fish fry of fresh caught fish. I like fish also so when I went to his house we would have fish. He also had me set on his front porch with a fishing pole and a worm or corn over the railing so I to could catch a fish on his front porch.

It took me years to figure out that his friends from work would bring him fish when they went fishing and my grandfather would catch them on the front porch.

Wordless Wednesday Wylie Tents Continued

This is a continuation of the Wordless Wednesday post I did September 30, 2009.

Several weeks ago I posted a Wylie Coach picture taken by my Aunt Latisha Vanderpool on her trip through Yellowstone Park July 21-28, 1915. Here is pictures of the interiors of the "Wylie Tents" they stayed in on that trip.

 

 

Wow, even heat and a place to wash up.