Wordless Wednesday NP Trade Mark

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

This picture is labeled NP Trade Mark. The Northern Pacific Railroad marketed Yellowstone as a place to visit after Yellowstone became a National Park, and so I guess they used pictures of the park to help with the marketing.

Fearless Females Mom's Best Friend

I have been rather busy at work so I have not done may of these posts, but I had to do this one. Mom had many friends, but probably the best one was Minnie Ruud. Minnie and her husband Clarence Ruud lived across the alley from us for many years. While Minnie had worked some after she was married, she mainly was a stay at home mom. They had one son Lane and after he left for school, the army and his teaching career, Minnie stayed home. My mom had an office in our home and did bookkeeping there and later income taxes, so when she got busy she asked Minnie to help, and Minnie came over and helped do income taxes for several years. When Clarence started having health problems, mom took Minnie out in our car and taught her how to drive as she had never learned. Minnie was shaking like a leaf when she took the drivers test, but passed and started driving quite a lot. Clarence's health got worse so they moved to Seattle to be close to Lane, and after a few years Clarence passed away. Lane kept an eye on Minnie and took her on a lot of trips, and mom kept in touch through letters and Christmas cards.

Filled out your Census yet??

Like most genealogists I filled in my census forms (I got two of them) and made a copy before sending them in. I have a house for sale so got a second form for that house. Today on another blog was a URL to see how well your state is doing in returning the census forms. My state of Washington as of March 24 was at 10%. Check out the Census Map.

Wordless Wednesday Geyser Basin Bath House

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

Bath House at the Geyser Basin

Wordless Wednesday Yellowstone River

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

Yellowstone River

Fearless Females Religion

I never saw my paternal grandparents ever go to church, and my dad and his younger brother seldom went to church either. My dads oldest sister was a devout Catholic as were her daughters.
My maternal grandparents went to the Hillyard Christian Church as long as they could. I don't remember grandpa going much, but I was pretty young when he died, but he was listed as one of the founders of that church. My grandmother lived 30 years longer and went to church almost every Sunday, served on the sunshine committee, made quilts for sales at the church (she bought several of them so I still have them).

Wordless Wednesday Falls

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

Unnamed Falls at Yellowstone

Fearless Females How did they meet?

I asked my parents several times over the years how they met, and they would just smile and change the subject. My moms parents both went to the same high school in Treton, Missouri so I guess the met there. My dad was born in Minnesota, moved to Montana at age 4 and grew up there, moved to north Idaho and finally into Spokane in the late 1930s. My mom was born in Trenton Missouri and moved to Spokane at age 6. By the late 1930s both my mom and dad were working in the Hillyard neighborhood of Spokane, mom worked making milkshakes, ice cream cones etc at the local confectionary, then later worked as a bookkeeper for a local auto dealer. My dad was a mechanic for that same auto dealer, but they knew each other before working there. I knew my dad liked milkshakes, so maybe at the ice cream counter??

Fearless Females Inherited Heirloom

Well I inherited my grandparents house and all its treasures. My grandparents bought the house in 1924 and lived there till they died. My biggest interests were in the garage as my grandfather was a carpenter and woodworker, so I got a lot of old tools, but the real treasures were in the house as my grandmother was kind of the family historian and collected the Kelly bible, and news paper clippings from hundreds of articles (None with dates or which newspaper it came from) but most pertaining to the family. I just wished I had listened more to her stories, but I guess all of us wish that same thing.

Saturday Night Fun WDYTYA Travels

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your own WDYTYA?
Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!!

Tonight's mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Pretend that you are one of the subjects on the Who Do You Think You Are? show on NBC TV.

2) Which of your ancestors (maximum of two) would be featured on your hour-long show? What stories would be told, and what places would you visit?

Maybe my grandfather and his family? no they have been farmers in Denmark for centuries. Probably my grandmother Anna M. (Dillingham) Hansen, the Dillinghams were Quakers and came to New England in 1632, and were not real popular with the Puritans, so they moved north to Maine, intermarried with several Pilgrims and so I am related to 5 Mayflower people, John Alden, George Soule, Edward Doty, Steven Hopkins and Francis Cooke, so I guess to New England and maybe back to England where the Dillinghams were ministers for a couple of hundred years before coming to New England.
The second ancestor would be Margaret Josephine Forsyth, her father Robert Forsyth was in the War of 1812 under future President William Henry Harrison and the battle of Detroit. When the Civil War started Margaret, her husband Thomas Kelly and kids all packed up and went to California, stayed till the war was over and then down to Panama across the isthmus and back to New York and finally Ursa Illinois. So we go from Detroit to California to Panama and finally back to Illinois and eventually to Trenton Missouri.

Fearless Females Marriage Certificate

This is a copy of my grandparents Marriage Certificate, they were married at Nunda, Illinois February 11, 1896. Although it says Anna M. Dillingham was of Nunda, Illinois, I don't think she was living there before the marriage, but in Austin, Minnesota where Anton Hansen lived. Anna's parents Stanislaus P. and Eliza M. (Hellenbolt) Dillingham were living in Nunda, and Danish law required the marriages to be at the parish of the brides parents, so that is probably why they went to Nunda to get married.
Took me quite a while to find Nunda, as it is called Crystal Lake today. We stopped at the library at Crystal Lake and found the wedding announcement, it told about the prosperous farmer Anton Hansen marring Anna M. Dillingham. My dad laughed at that article, as he knew his dad was never a prosperous farmer, he barely scraped by.

Fearless Females Unusual Names

I was always fascinated by the name of my dads Aunt Fred. Her full name was Abbie Fredelene Dillingham. I guess her dad liked the name Fredelene as he had a sister with a middle name Fredelene. Her name was Hennrietta Fredelene Dillingham and she was a twin of Henry Frederick Dillingham.

Wordless Wednesday Mountain

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

I don't know who "Mae" is, but an interesting picture anyway.

Fearless Females Female Photo

Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did I select this photo?


This photo was of my aunt Frances Hansen, she was the oldest sister of my dad, Claude Hansen. She married Fred Woltermann and had two daughters, Dorothy and Jean Woltermann. I think this picture was taken about 1915. Frances was always interested in my dad and how he was getting along. Pop quit high school early to start working and Frances was always interested in his welfare. I picked this picture because I never got to see Frances, she died of breast cancer just over two years before I was born, a long time before they knew what to look for to catch that cancer early enough to cure.