Recently in Family and History Category
We had our new front door delivered and installed today. What a commotion! We've had such wonderful luck with the Pella window installers, and we got our first window guy, Eli, back for this door install, so I had no doubt that the results would be perfect. The man is a perfectionist, and super-nice besides.
(Lots more pictures on flickr here.)
It was kind of fun to be here for this, because the hole in the front wall of the house between doors was Really Big.
I also got to see first-hand that there really isn't a single tiny bit of insulation beneath our floor.
First thing this morning, a big truck rumbled up and two guys dropped off the door. It had to wait in the flowerbed for a while til Eli got the old door out. (He very nicely saved the original lead-glass panels, which are going to a friend of the MO's who dabbles in stained glass.)
The new door (with sidelights) is almost a foot narrower than the original, so there was some intermediate construction, and then Eli and his helper muscled the new door up the steps and into place.
After a lot of futzing with the apparently not-quite-top-notch hardware we bought, we have a gorgeous new front door. It actually seals when it closes! There are no longer breezes in the living room! I think it would take a bazooka to get through this glass, as opposed to being worried whenever a sofa-arm-resting cat would sneeze. And oh boy is it beauuuuuuuuutiful!
I've finally wrapped up a bit of a genealogy project--scanning and transcribing a set of letters that my great-aunt wrote back to her family from Europe while she was with the Red Cross after WWII. I really enjoyed reading them, and I was kind of surprised at just how "long ago" some of the scenes she described sounded to me. My favorite part of the project came near the end of the stack of letters, though. When she was transferred to Schweinfurt, she wrote:
Guess where I'm living at the moment. In an honest to goodness castle. This beautiful castle which is just like a museum with all the armored suits, swords, carvings, figurines, beautiful paintings, etc., belonged to a Nazi named Wm. Saks who is now on trial for having been a War Criminal. He owned a tremendous ball bearing factory.
I thought that all seemed pretty specific, so I spent a few minutes on google and wikipedia and quickly found out that she was in Mainberg Castle. (In her next letter she got the spelling of Sachs corrected--that helped verify things.)
I also found this site, whose author, Don Enderton, writes:
From August 29 to October 2, 1945 my father, a U. S. Army officer, resided in Mainberg castle, near Schweinfurt, Germany.
(Be sure to go look at the pictures.) The internet makes "small world" happenstances even more likely....
(More about Auntie Marge's letters here.)
I've finished scanning cousin Rocky's scrapbook. Full scoop is here.
Penguin Lust Forever!
Originally uploaded by TXMagpie.
Penguin Lust Forever!
More here.
I finished up a set of pages with the Lakewatch photos and put them on flickr. I get kind of irritated with the uploader tool because it seems to just pick any old random order for sending your pictures up, and I'm really quite Virgo enough to want them up there in the right order, thankyouverymuch. But I am also lazy, so I just let it do its thing and bitch about it after the fact. At least I can reorganize them within the set.
Anyhow, there's a link to the flickr set in the DotNest gallery:
http://darcy.txmagpie.com/gallery/lakewatch.php
Start with the 4th picture ;-)
If you have to suffer through a cold, you might as well do it in paradise....
The post-nasal drip started last Sunday night and had progressed to full sinus and ear stoppage by the time we got on the plane to Cancun on Wednesday morning. The, er, nasal effluvium, was quite nasty by Thursday, so off to la farmacia on Friday morning for some sulfa pills which at least helped to the point where I didn't have to take four naps a day to keep going. The improvement seems to have plateaued somewhat short of "healthy" but I still have several days to go on the medication so I'm hoping for the best.
At any rate, through the fog of medicine and pile of tissues, I did notice that Cancun is incredibly beautiful, and I will be spoiled forever as far as ocean swimming goes. Almost 70 people flew in for the wedding, so I got to catch up with lots of family and friends. Rob and Cindy were originally expecting about 40, so the party overflowed to an adjacent resort to accommodate us all. The ceremony itself was by turns beautiful and hysterical, and ultimately, they couldn't have scripted it better.
So here's to my cousin and his lovely bride!
See you in Houston for Christmas :-)
I've been scanning a box of 5x7 black-and-white photos that my great-grandfather, Paul Helzel, shot, developed and printed. At the tail end of the box, I found a little envelope with some mid-60s snapshots, including this one of my Aunt Kaaren, my grandfather, and my mom. The MO insists he's already seen it, but I honestly didn't remember it. Anyhow, I think it's awesome.
My mom is one hot chiquita, and I inherited the genetic blessing of those legs. Thank you, Mom! (I'll be ninety-nine, on my deathbed, talking about my great legs. Grandma's were shaped the same, so it seems to be a maternal-line thing ;-) A daughter of my own, however, given the chance to choose, might want to opt for the paternal skinny-gene instead....)
At the prodding of a fellow WWII veteran's descendant, I purchased "The Sky Men" by Kirk Ross. I received it today and immediately searched for mention of my grandfather, John Deam. Although the book is primarily about F Company, and Grandfather Deam commanded E Company, his actions on the day of his death are indeed included, starting on page 155. The description of the events varies a good bit from what Dick Manning has related to me (Mr. Manning is also included in these pages of the book) but I suppose that is not really surprising.
At any rate, the really surprising thing for me was how viscerally I reacted to seeing quoted words of my grandfather's. They're from the Westover notes, which Mr. Manning has told me are not accurate, but still, we have
Within fifteen minutes, Lieutenant Deam radioed back "that he was on the phase line and the men in enemy fox holes."
and
"Don't worry," replied Deam, "I'll start them off myself." Lieutenant Deam called his Third Platoon commandeer, Lieutenant Manning, and told him to "get his men, fix bayonets, and go on in." As promised, Deam led the attack, but was killed almost immediately by enemy rifle fire. Lieutenant Hall, Manning's assistant was shot in the chest, and another officer, Lieutenant Fagan who had assumed command of E Company, was wounded as well.
This doesn't jive at all with what Mr. Manning has related, especially concerning the circumstances of my grandfather's death, but as I've commented before, I'm amazed that anyone could retain a coherent memory of such a time. For me, it's enough to have another confirmation that he was there, he was doing his job, he was leading his men.
I've posted some more of Auntie Marge's letters, and also fiddled with the settings (on the new server) so that the dates show up correctly. For now I've ditched the calendar view and archives. If I (eventually) figure out how to get them to show the right dates, I'll add them back. The last entry is formatted oddly, so I guess there is a hidden character in there somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. Sigh.
hasn't been "little" for a while now, but just look at this! And he's only thirteen....
I worked on the genealogy database over the weekend. I upgraded to TNG v5 and I really like some of the new features. The tabbed navigation is much easier, and the new Document object is a good idea. I spent a lot of time trying to decide how to organize sources vs. photos vs. documents and I've settled on a scheme that maybe isn't perfect but seems to work so far.
But the best part is that when I wrote to Dick Manning to let him know I'd loaded some of the pictures that he sent (of my grandfather, John Deam) he replied with some more details about what happened at Mande St. Etienne.
I read Company Commander last year and I'm amazed that any man who experienced that remembers anything about it. I'm very grateful to Dick Manning for sharing his memories of my grandfather, sad as they are, with my family. (The book is not long, but it's not a quick read--at least it wasn't for me. It's very matter-of-fact and at times overwhelming, but I'm glad that I read it.)
There has been a lot of talk on our neighborhood email group about researching your house's history. One of the tips was to look at a set of maps that were made for fire insurance reasons. The Houston Public Library has them digitized online (accessible if you have a library card). We had heard that our house was built in 1929, but it shows up on the 1925 map, so it must be a few years older than we had thought. The next earlier map, from 1907 (I think) just has a blank strip two blocks high down the length of our street. The north side of the street has cross streets, but it doesn't show any buildings in the blocks, and the south side is in the empty space. It also shows a rail line just a few blocks away--that certainly isn't there any more!
Check your public library for "Sanborn Maps". At HPL they're part of the Proquest databases and only Texas maps are available online.
Thank you, Grandfather.
Thank you, Uncle Sonny.
And thank you to all the other men and women who protected us then and are protecting us now.
[John Deam served in the 17th Airborne 513th PIR Co E.
Ivan Wellington served in the 30th Infantry 119th IR Co I.]
The Parental Tour is complete and was a fantastic success. Many pix on Flickr.
(Someday I'll have to figure out how to get a badge into a post without screwing up the rest of the page, but that is NOT gonna happen tonight!)
I'm finally getting around to scanning the box of great-grandfather Helzel's photos. The scans are coming out very well! Today I scanned 100 images, and it looks like I'm about halfway through the box. Here are some (much reduced in size) samples:
This morning we had a lovely rainstorm. It was just coming in when I woke, and I stayed in bed for a while to let its arrival wash over me. The light of a morning downpour is an indistinct glow. You can't really identify the point when it ceases to be dark. The brightening haze creeps in, limpid and blue. At first the thunder was unaccompanied by lightning--too far away--and I told the cats to calm down, it was just Mildred bowling up there.
From that, I conjured an image of a Paul Bunyan-sized grandma, striding across the clouds, hurling a ball spitting sparks of static which grew into lightning bursts celebrating strikes and spares. What would she be knocking down? Pins would certainly be too prosaic. Demons perhaps, toppling them back to the devil. Yes, that works. It's a whole new way to enjoy Mother Nature's elemental cannonade!
Happy Anniversary (soon), Sweetheart!
Three more Auntie Marge letters on the Genealoblog:
October 17, 1945
October 23, 1945
October 28, 1945
These are all from Darmstadt, Germany.
I've just posted two more of Auntie Marge's letters on the Genealoblog. These two are from October 3rd and 8th, 1945. The first was written on board a ship, crossing the ocean, and the second is the first one from Europe. (Paris! Ooh-la-la!)
I spent several hours yesterday entering data from research on the LAIDIG family that a cousin (first cousin, twice removed) had done previously, and before I knew it, I ended up with eight generations! I've only entered two or three pages of Jere's research so far--there are many pages to go.
And then I have research on the HELZEL line from an uncle, and research on the WELLINGTON line from another cousin (also a first cousin, twice removed in the same direction--that generation must have been particularly into genealogy!) and as-yet unacted-upon contact information for the DEAM line that should lead to a wealth of data there as well. Whew!
PS - Just in case you're curious, here is a page that explains how to determine cousin-ness. In both of the cases mentioned above, the common ancestor is my great-great-grandparent and the cousin's grandparent. Thus first cousins, twice removed.
Dinner tonight with The Fastest Lawyer in Houston! Here's the story on the marathon: Cousin Kirst and her friend had originally signed up for the full marathon, but decided "on game day" to just do the half. But the computer didn't know that.... So their times went against the full marathon. They finished the half-marathon in 2 1/2 hours, but they had on full-marathon bibs, so when they crossed the finish line, apparently the press went nuts and got all excited about "two local lawyers" with astounding times. (Sadly, the official website has since been updated to show the half-marathon times--her pace was just over 5 minutes/mile yesterday. Why didn't I take a screen shot then???)
Anyhow, Aunt Maureen was in town for the occasion and tonight we had dinner with our California kin, friend Cindy, and Just Joe and Marianne. In virtual attendance was The First Nephew, whose fierce sports-face is completely at odds with his incredibly sweet nature (sorry for telling on you, LG ;-)
As The Man sez, that boy is gonna be a lady-killer....
Last night after dinner--we're playing Quiddler in the dining room. The TV is on VH1 Classics in the living room, so we have a background game of Metal going on as well.
New song. Two notes. "Cars!" from Mark and Geoff at the same time.
One beat later, "Live Cars!" from Mark and Geoff at the same time.
And of course they were right. Now, I ask you, how is a mortal human supposed to compete with that?
Yesterday Mr. Man was off to a MTG tourney, so I had the day to myself. I spent most of my time poring over census records in search of my great-grandfather James Deam. And it was worth it, because I found him! Not only that, I found his parents and their parents. All the way back to 1860!! I guess this is old hat for experienced genealogists, but it's downright amazing to me.
Of course, this census data throws my filing system into disarray, so I have some thinking to do there, but that's okay. It is just incredible to look at a PDF file of an 1860 census and know that the people listed there are my family!
I found more to love at my public library :-)
I'm playing with FotoFusion today and made a FanFest page.
What with a business trip during the week (complete with no computer access and no bar at the hotel!! who ever heard of such a thing??) and the cold that I probably caught on the plane, this has been a low-productivity week for personal projects. (The business trip was hugely successful, however.)
Today is the first day my head has been on straight since I've been sick, and I actually got a lot accomplished. I've been through the several folders and boxes of letters, photos and documents that I've accumulated and separated everything identifiable out into person- or family-specific folders. I made a bunch of new entries into the database as necessary to generate IDs for my folders. Now I have a nice neat shelf of labeled files and two considerably smaller piles of "unknowns." I think this will really help me get geared up to start scanning and uploading some of this GOLDMINE of history that I have. Obviously I'm very proud of myself :-)
We watched a documentary about Jesse Jones last night. It's amazing how much American history I don't know. This guy was simply a powerhouse. Anyhow, at one point in the show a great-niece is visiting some kind of archive-type warehouse to get a look at a conference table that Mr. Jones had built during the Roosevelt administration. And sure enough, it looks just like the warehouse in that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark where they store away the generic-looking crate on a shelf along with jillions of other generic-looking crates. So where is this place, for real? And how much COOL STUFF must be in there?
I'm finding that it's pretty easy to get sucked away into the past, especially if you're a Person Who Likes Stuff. I now have a drawerful of Family Stuff and I'm sure Mr. Man is tired of hearing me call it "treasure" and "pure gold" every time I bring it out. But that's how I feel about it. I can spend hours reading yellowed letters, admiring glamorous black-and-white photographs, deciphering great-somebody-or-other's ahnentafel chart written in pencil on ledger paper.... All of this Stuff is full of stories that belong to me. My family. I always thought of my family as small, but you only have to go back a little ways to suddenly have a stupendous number of relations! And then there's the time I spend surfing WWII websites, cemetery records in Indiana, photo archives of the LOC or NARA, searching for little bits and pieces that make the stories there belong to me, by virtue of having some relevance to an ancestor. Virtual Stuff isn't quite as satisfying as Real Stuff, of course, but it still counts.
Grandma's memorial service was perfect. It was touching and inspiring, beautiful and intense. I don't know how to thank the members of her congregation that organized and participated in the ceremony. "Irresistible grace" indeed.
Mildred Helzel Kuhns of Gainesville died Thursday at Woodlands Care Center after a brief illness. She was 85.Mrs. Kuhns was born in Jeannette, Pa., and moved to Gainesville 59 years ago. She was retired from Custom Care Cleaners.
She was a charter member and elder of Westminster Presbyterian Church, and was an avid bowler and longtime member of Women's International Bowling Congress.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 63 years, Charles William Kuhns.
Survivors include daughters Kaaren L. Kuhns of Lakeland, Nancy J. Deam of Winter Garden and Linda K. Houstoun of Miami; sons Rolf M. Kuhns of Winter Garden and C. Dennis Kuhns of Gainesville; a sister, Dorothy H. Guy of Scottsdale, Ariz.; a brother, Richard P. Helzel of Westlake, Ohio; and four grandchildren.
Arrangements by Forest Meadows Funeral Home.
Like Mom said, this isn't the way it was supposed to be at all. Here's to my grandma who always gave me love and laughter and reminded me how important friends are, especially when they're family. It's just not fair that a heart so big could... malfunction... this way. You keep 'em straight up there, and I'll try to keep myself straight down here. I love you, grandma. From now on, thunder isn't just anonymous angels bowling in heaven.
Sometimes you're just wrong. In this particular case, I've admitted it several times. "I'm sorry, sweetie, you were right. That subwoofer was worth every penny." And I'm sincere. And he knows it. So tonight, after a shared entree at Ibiza and a bottle-an-a-half of good red wine, we used our technology to host our own private techno club in our living room, as we are wont to do now and then. I scored the Central Listening Station and floated off on the buzz and thump, thinking about my grandma. Which is kind of silly, because I sure can't imagine her listening to Dieselboy, but of course, she's on my mind a lot lately. Hang in there, grandma. >boom boom< There is still a lot I need to know. I want to hear your version of pushing the Singer out of a not-ground-floor window. [thump] Why did you never learn to drive? [thumpthumpthump] Tell me about grandpa when he was young. >boom< >boomboom< Is there a story behind that white chenille bedspread that, for me, defines your bedroom? Because maybe it's just some random thing you got on sale one time. [bzzbzz wheeao wheeaaaaao] But mostly Thank you, and I love you, and Don't go yet, okay? I'm not ready.
There were two putty makers from Indiana fighting for the US in the Spanish-American war. One of my great-grandfathers is on this list somewhere. What were all the glass workers doing? And even then, too many attorneys....
Here's a little bit of nostalgia from the Florida Heritage Collection: Jacksonville's Incomparable Beaches. The main collection is here, and thanks to Lileks for pointing it out via a soap wrapper.
