Goodnight Mom

This has been a very hard and strange week with the passing of my Mom. My heart is broken, and my brain has turned to mush. If we live long enough, each of us goes through this passage, but that doesn't make it any easier when it is our turn.

Below is a video with photographs of my Mom taken throughout her life.

 

Goodnight Mom. I love you.

© 2012, Cathy H Paris

Vandelism at Green-Wood Cemetery

The Parkinsons' Plot, photograph furnished by Green-Wood

If you have ancestors who lived in Manhattan or Brooklyn, New York, a must-place to look for their burial site is in beautiful and historic Green-Wood Cemetery. I found the burial location of my Great Great Grandfather, Henry Parkinson (1828 - 1870), and other family members.

This morning I was saddened to read about vandalism at Green-Wood. In 2003, my husband and I visited Green-Wood, along with my cousin's daughter, Wendy Marinaccio. We went there in search of Henry's gravesite and in search of the gravesite of my Great Grandparents, Andrew Nimmo (1864-1912) and Kate Parkinson (1865-1915).

We never did find Henry's resting place, but afterwards Green-Wood sent me the above photograph of the Parkinson's plot.

Here I am in 2003, happy to be looking for the Parkinsons.

Here is Wendy. We didn't find the Parkinsons.
Little did we know that we were just on the wrong side of the path.

We did find the locations of Andrew and Kate's resting place,
but were disappointed to learn afterwards
that we didn't find the gravestone,
because they were buried in an unmarked grave.

Nick is sitting in the air-conditioned car while we hunt.
He couldn't stand the heat.

© 2012, Cathy H Paris

Carroll / Merrill Mystery House

Mystery Photo

A few years ago, I met a second cousin, and we shared old photos. We both had a copy of the same photograph of an elegant, old New England home. His photograph was inherited from his mother. Mine came from my grandparents' album which had been passed to my aunt and then to me. Naturally neither photograph is labelled, and the significance of this old house to our family history remains a mystery.

My cousins grandfather, Harry Merrill, and my grandfather, Fred Merrill, were brothers. The brothers were both born and raised in Franklin, New Hampshire. Their mother's maiden name was Carroll.

 If you recognize the house in this photograph, please contact me.

Thanks goes to the Franklin Historical Society for posting a copy of this mystery photo on their website.

© 2012, Cathy H Paris

Where is it?

I haven't written an article for my blog in months, and how shocked I was to find nothing on the front page! Thank goodness articles may still be reached through the dynamic keyword link in the left margin. It is time to get busy and to start writing about family history again. Hopefully by writing this post, I will return IsMeetsWas to life. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could rejuvenate ourselves so easily?

The absence of articles is not a reflection of my inactivity. Most recently, I am lost in tons of busy work, massaging the over 9000 names of places in my database on Family Tree Maker. 

I have reduced the number of place names to under 6000, but I still have more place names demanding my attention. I am concerned about the loss of the historical integrity of the names of places as I strive for consistency and update the place names to make them recognizable to online maps. Often as I make changes, I have included the old name of the place in the descriptive field. Regrettably, I have not been consistent.

For closer relatives, I sometimes have included the street address in the place name. On the one hand, I hate doing this because it clutters the field and makes it harder to maintain consistency in naming places. Nonetheless, it is so nice to have this information for locating places in Google Earth and for finding the ancestral home in the real world. As a compromise, I have sometimes included the street address in the description field. At other times, I have left the street address as part of the place name.

Where has the time gone? I am hoping that creating this post will do something to return IsMeetsWas to the here and now. Hello world. Here I am, hectically thinking and as inconsistent as ever.

© 2012, Cathy H Paris

Remembering Grandparents on Christmas

Merry Christmas. For me, Christmas is a nostalgic time as well as a joyous time. It is a time in which I remember the people who have touched my life. One such person is my paternal grandmother, Mary (Fitzgerald) Merrill. My life was touched by her absence.

Mary holding Gil, Lib and Dot,
and Fred Merrill, 1913

Christmas Tree, 1913

In December 1913, my grandparents celebrated Christmas with a tree and a new camera. Fred and Mary were living in Franklin, New Hampshire with their three children: Dorothy Margaret (age 6), Elizabeth Mary (age 2), and Gilbert James Merrill (6 months). I wonder: "Were there presents under the tree for the children to open on Christmas morning? Did Santa stuff special treats in stockings hung by the chimney?" I do know that there was plenty of snow to enjoy that winter. 

Uncle Dan Fitzgerald c. 1913

Mary, Lib, Gil, and Dot, Winter 1913

Above is the only photograph I have of Uncle Dan. Two years later, at the age of 18, Uncle Dan fell through the ice and drowned in Bradley Pond in Andover, New Hampshire. 

Mary, my grandmother and Dan's sister, is shown in the next photograph with her three children. Mary's fourth and final child, Fred, will arrive in 1915. Three months before the Christmas of 1918, Mary died from the Spanish influenza. I miss the stories she would have told if she had lived to see her children grown and married with children of their own.

© 2011, Cathy H Paris

Meet Eulie Hopkins

Olive, Eulie, and Cedric Hopkins
October 1897

I am pleased to introduce you to Winifred Eulalie Hopkins. Everyone called her Eulie. She was born on September 3, 1894 in Milverton, England. 


Eulie's father, George, was the son of an Irish merchant and minister from Wicklow, Ireland. 


Eulie's mother, Emily Ruth Draper, was the daughter of a coach smith and livery stable keeper of Hackney, London, England. 

Eulie, December 1901

Eulie was the 8th of 10 children.

Garry, Edith, Harold, Lance, Maz, Cedric, Eulie, Olive, and John c. 1918

While Eulie passed into adulthood, the Great War, now known as World War I, was raging in Europe. It began on 28 July 1914, when Eulie was approaching her 20th birthday and lasted until 11 November 1918, when Eulie was 24 years old. More than 9 million people who fought in the war, mostly men, were killed. Possibly the vaste carnage is the reason that Eulie and two of her sisters never married. 

Mildred (sister-in-law), Olive, and Eulie

The family had businesses in Milverton and in Wicklow, Ireland. At one time or another, Eulie's parents, grandparents, and brothers and sisters worked in the family's shops. I was told by one of her nieces, that Eulie was the secretary for the firm and also worked as a cashier.

In 2008, on a visit with family in England and Ireland, I was fortunate to be able to photograph many old family photos, including Eulie's Album. (Thank you Uncle John and Aunt Vanessa.) From the album I learned that in addition to working in the family businesses, Eulie traveled, golfed, played field hockey, and kept photographs of all her brothers and sisters.

Maz and Eulie c. 1960

Eulie died 44 years ago in Dublin, Ireland on November 5, 1967.

© 2011, Cathy H Paris

One Lovely Blog Award

Thank you to Nancy at My Ancestors and Me for honoring me with the One Lovely Blog Award. I am passing the award onto the following blogs:

• Wendy for Shanghai Wen Wen, 
• Susie for Little Susie Homemaker
• Sarah at Unshoveling the Past
• Ms.Genealogist at Who Does She Think She Is?

Wendy's blog and Susie's blog provide delightful insights into the lives of two contemporary young women who have chosen such different paths. For a whimsical look at Wendy's reality, recently uprooted and transplanted from San Francisco to China, visit Shanghai Wen Wen. To discover how to live and laugh while raising and homeschooling six children on a very moderate income, take a gander at Little Susie Homemaker's stories. 

Unshoveling the Past  and Who Does She Think She Is? are both blogs that explore the author's family histories, one from a very personal perspective and the other from a more academic viewpoint.


For the recipients of One Lovely Blog Award, these are the expectations that go along with receipt of the award:

• Accept the award and post it on your blog together with the name of the person who granted the award and their blog link.
• Pass the award on to 10 other blogs that you've newly discovered.
• Remember to contact the award recipients to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

 © 2011, Cathy H Paris