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

Download ASTRID: a "To-Do-List" for the iPhone

You may be wondering why I am promoting a To-Do-List on a blog about family history. The answer is simple. Astrid is part of our family's history, and I have been one of the beta testers for severals months. Try it. It's free.

Download it directly onto your iPone: http://bit.ly/astridUS, or go to the App Store.  Search for "To Do" and scroll down until you see Astrid To-Do.

As a beta tester, Astrid has been helping me stay focused on my family history projects. Today, I received these reminders:

Publish 2nd Edition of Mary Fitzgerald's Album
Search Probate Records for Jabez Draper, died October 3 1899

Also, I use Astrid to keep my Shopping List. Thanks to Astrid, I have finally remembered to replenish the rubbing alcohol. I wish my Nick had an iPhone too, and then we could keep a shared Honey-Do-List.

© 2011, Cathy H Paris

Meet Conrad Bals and Augusta Schulze

August and Conrad in 1888 and again, fifty years later, in 1838

My maternal great grandparents, Conrad Bals (1864-1953) and Augusta Schulze (1866-1947), immigrated from Westfalen, Preussen to Brooklyn, New York in 1887 and 1888, respectively. Although my memories of them are faint, I was fortunate that they were still alive when I was born.

Nine years ago, I created a slide show to tell the story of Conrad and Augusta and to share copies of Bals family photographs. I sent a CD with the slide show to each major branch of the family. Recently, my cousin, Michelle, asked for a copy of these photographs. Rather than burn another CD, I decided it was time to include the slideshow on my blog.

To see the slide show I created 9 years ago, just click here:  BALS FAMILY HISTORY

Enjoy.

 © 2011, Cathy H Paris

Postcards from Lavella

For years I was proud of being the first woman in our family who left home before she was married, seeking my independence and destiny in another world. (For me, that other world was California.) How wrong I was! Researching family history, I have discovered a parade of woman in my family, and in my husband's family, who traveled a similar road years before my time.

One of these women was Susanah Lavella Hopkins, and like me, Lavella was destined to become a Californian. Known as Lala to her family, she used Lavella as her given name.

In 1869, Lavella's birth was registered under her mother's name, Fanny Hopkins, in Rathdrum, County Wicklow, Ireland. Her father, Nicholas "David" Hopkins, had been born into a family of means. David had a farm called Lamb Park in Coolbeg, near Wicklow Town. In 1881, when Lavella was only 11 years old, her mother died. Family correspondence suggests her father experienced financial difficulties.

By the time she was 21 years old, Lavella was working as an assistant in her Uncle John's shop in Milverton, England. Uncle John was a Methodist minister and a successful seedsman with businesses in Ireland and England. Lavella continued to work at Uncle John's shop in Milverton for at least a decade. Her sister, Grace Anne, went into service as a lady's companion. Lavella and Grace Anne had at least one brother, but his destiny is still a mystery. In 1901, her father, David, was boarding in a private home in Ireland. David died in 1905.

On June 4, 1903, nine days before her 34th birthday, Lavella boarded a ship in Liverpool and headed to America. Her destination was St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis was preparing to host a major World's Fair. Was Lavella contracted to work in one of the many upcoming exhibits? Was Lavella traveling to a rendezvous with a secret love?

We may never know the answer to these questions. While we know little of Lavella's hopes and dreams, loves and sorrows, we do know that she liked to travel. We are fortunate that 32 postcards which Lavella sent between 1905-1909 to her sister, Grace Anne, have survived for us to enjoy today.

My thanks goes to Alan and Vanessa Hopkins of Tooting Bec, London England for preserving the original postcards and giving me the opportunity to photograph them.

To see the postcards that Lavella sent just click on: POSTCARDS FROM LAVELLA.

Enjoy.




© 2011, Cathy H Paris