Cemetery Clean Up

Happy New Year!

This past September my dad and I cleaned up a cemetery. Just the two of us. It was wonderful. We have plenty left to do of course, but seeing as the cemetery is far from where I live... 1200 miles give or take...  I won't be able to get there for a little while.

If anyone gets the opportunity to do so, clean up a cemetery. The dead will thank you.

Here are some before and after pics. There are some on findagrave that predate even my photos. Go take a look.

July 2013

Sept 2013

yes that's the same stone

Before

After. Look at all of that back there!!

There's actually a stone barely sticking out to the right of this one

We found about six stones we didn't see on our first trip.

See anything? There's a tombstone in there.

Next time I would like to uncover the stones. Get rid of more branches and debris. Heck if I could dig up bodies to do an anthropological analysis on them I would. ... ... ... That wouldn't be illegal would it?

Long Time No Blog

Wow I really fail at this lately... hah!

Some updates... I've been to about a bagillion cemeteries and just returned from vacation on Monday. Met my aunt, hung out with my dad and new grandma, and met some kind of cousin... that part was fun. He and his wife were looking at me like ummm why did we not know about you before. But they didn't say anything.

I don't think I've mentioned surnames from my dad's side of the family yet. Maybe I did. I don't know. Those are the cemeteries I visited.

Also... 23andme. Awesome. I took a test, my dad took a test, and my mom's results should be in any day now.

I'm going to try and be motivated to write more... try being the key word.

Oh and WDYTYA is back on! and I'm still the drinking game MC on the twitter!

not that anyone told me I was but hey.

What else what else... That's all I can think of for now. Next up... surnames and cemeteries!

The rest of the story... for now

I've been neglecting my blogging duties. I apologize. I've been busy and distracted and yadda yadda...

So where did I leave off? oh yes the necklace. That was a Friday.

The next day I was feeling very blah. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see my dad again before we left on Sunday. The original plan for that day was for me to go out with my mom, uncle, and little cousin. I was going to take fall pictures with pumpkins and all that kind of stuff. After that there would be a festival, a restaurant, and a Halloween fest with my best friend. Well, the first didn't happen, and I was even more bummed out. Having free time and doing nothing, but knowing that later on would be busy and I couldn't spend more time with my dad.

Later on I got to thinking. I decided to ask my bff if she would mind if I asked him to come with us at the Halloween thing at Knoebels. Of course she had no problem with it. After all, I've kept her up to date on everything. From the minute I found out about him she was googling stuff just like I was. She's the one that called me after midnight to say she found him on facebook.

So I sent him a text and in less than two minutes he replied saying yes. We met up around 8:30 and went on a few rides. It was weird but normal I guess. I mean, most kids take it for granted when they're at a park riding rides with their dad. Me? I was thinking huh... this is different... this is new... It was fun though. And cold. Not used to the whole... cold weather thing.

The park closed around 10, and with the lines and everything we only managed three rides. So we were standing around awkwardly and he said sooo what are you doing after this? (did I mention he said that the other two times we met up?) we had no plans so we decided to go to a bar. Just talked about random things. He said he wished he could see us off at the airport which was just... I dunno what word to use. lol. it meant a lot. When we got ready to leave he gave me a big hug. I got into the car with my friend and she drove back to my grandparents house.

Now I was ready to cry anyway. I was barely holding it together. I got out of my friends car and wasn't even to the door when my phone went "bing!" and it was a text. I read the text and just... lost it. It was very sweet. Actually an understatement. lol. That message (and the others that followed) just meant so much. He said he loved me. I don't know if I wasn't expecting that, or if it was all the emotions or what but... it was an amazing feeling. I can't even describe it. Anyway, I walked into the guest room and my mom saw me and I couldn't even talk I just shoved the phone at her. I cried, and she cried. Lots of female emotions going on lol.

Next day we were getting ready to leave. Emotional again. Between me crying and her crying and trying to hide it from my grandparents... sheesh.

Gonna try to speed up the story. lol. I told my Busia about this whole thing the day after we got back. Surprisingly she was happy about all of it. I dunno why I was so freaked out. She told my grandpa and I guess he's cool with it too. And apparently my Busia told all of Elysburg. Or a few people. and you all know about gossip in a small town. After I told her I told my aunt and had her crying. Everyone we told this story to has cried and compared it to a hallmark or lifetime movie. People at work couldn't wait to hear how everything went.

My dad and I are still talking on twitter and facebook (he requested us!), and text. He has tickets to come down to visit, but I'm not allowed to know when. He and mom are conspiring. Isn't that weird? It's like what normal parents do. Plan a surprise for their kid.

I don't know how everything is going to work out but it has been amazing so far. I'm working on some projects right now. Some super sneaky Christmas gifts. Homemade of course, some similar to last years. I'll post pictures later. Can't give anything away yet.

Ok peeps, that's it for now. I'll try to post again later this week.

The Necklace

Oh man... so much has happened in the past week. Just amazing. So where did I leave off? oh yes, we agreed to meet up with my dad on Friday night for dinner.

We sat down and we talked and ate and laughed. Very fun. After we left the restaurant we headed over to see his mom. I think she felt a little... whats the word... She seemed to be guarded with her emotions? She was very very nice but I'm sure she had to feel awkward and nervous. But she still gave me a hug. We talked a little bit and then moved into the dining room... she had six photo albums on the table. SIX! She was prepared show to the granddaughter she had yet to meet six photo albums. That is just amazing right there. And more proof that this woman interested in genealogy is related to me. I took photos of photos and notes. There was something else that was cool. Apparently my aunt made a family tree poster in college. Helloooo gold mine! Notes can get a little confusing so to have a visual tree... Just amazing. And I asked if I could take a picture of him and his mom. They agreed. I was to nervous/awkward to ask to be in a picture with either/both of them. Next time.

We didn't leave until around 11:30 at night. She hugged me again and stayed inside while the three of us went outside. We talked for a little bit. He asked what we were doing the rest of the weekend and I said we weren't sure... we were leaving Sunday morning and still weren't telling my grandparents at that point. But I said I'd let him know.

Then he said I have to get something out of the truck. I said ok and kept talking to mom. He came back with a box and said I'd like to give you something. I opened it and inside was this beautiful necklace. Two intertwined tear drop shapes, one silver and one gold. With a diamond in the middle. Gorgeous. He gave me a really big hug that lasted a long time. I could tell he was getting emotional. Then mom and I got into the car and started to drive away. He watched us leave.

Up until that point I had held it together pretty well. But five minutes after we left I started to lose it. Everything had been so overwhelming but up until he gave me the necklace it seemed like I could deal with it.  Besides, at that point I didn't know if I'd be able to see him again before we had to leave to go home. I do have an update or two left in the story. Not that it's close to ending. It's just getting started.

After showing people my necklace at work, I heard a few of them call it a father-daughter necklace. I didn't know there was such a thing... but if that is what it's really called it just makes it even more special. It means he put a lot of thought into it. Which apparently is nothing new.

That's all for now! More updates to come and my second bloggerversary is coming up. No idea if that's spelled right. But hey, I'm using Blogger so... Anyway... later peeps!

And it keeps getting better

Yesterday I got a message from bio dad about the next meet up on Friday. We decided to meet up at a fancier restaurant... Well according to my mom it's fancy. I've never been there. But any way we're meeting up around 7pm. So I was like ok sounds good.

- and of course that's not all. It gets better.

- the next thing he said was "would you be ok meeting my mom" .... Lets just say I was in a restaurant when I got that message and I had to control myself. He wants me to meet his mom. Holy cow. My reply back did include multiple exclamation points. Lol. So we're going to dinner and then going to see his mom.

- I still haven't told my grandparents yet. I'm becoming more convinced that they won't take it well... But I'll tell them. Eventually.

- ok that's it for now! More updates to come :)

Countdown and preparation!

Nine days! That's it. Only nine days until the flight leaves for Pennsylvania. I'm half packed of course. And since I'm going back home....I think I'll always call it home... I have to have a genealogy game plan right? And I do. For the most part.

- I'm gonna meet bio dad. That will be a nice chunk of genealogy right there. I dunno if I'll meet his mom. I'd like too. I've decided that. Plus she's the genealogy type person too and I could learn a lot of family stuff from her.

-last year I went to a bunch of cemeteries and posted on every single one. You think I woulda covered them all. Well, learning about the other half of the family tree opened up a whole nother list of cemeteries. So naturally I'm going to take my camera with me and photograph like I did before.  One of the cemeteries I was planning on going to anyway. My friend passed away almost a year ago so I was going to visit her. That's a first for me.

- but of course I will keep you updated on everything. I'm excited about everything especially the meet up. I'm sure when the day comes I'm going to have multiple panic attacks and my intestines will want to send things in multiple directions. I don't know what I'll say or what we'll talk about. Or where we're even going but hey. I'll just... Go with the flow. Which is difficult since I like everything planned out in advance. Lol

That's all for now folks!

It's all in the genes

I finally decided to open up my laptop. So 30 minutes and a million pop up windows later here I am. It was really bugging me that my paragraphs weren't showing up on my iPad. Then again, it also annoys me that I actually have to spell stuff right because apple auto correct won't fix it for me. Le sigh.

So last time I was saying how I contacted my dad and started talking to him. Well a few days ago I sent him some of my questions through a facebook message. And we ended up messaging back and forth for about 4.5 hours. Holy cow. Time seemed to fly by. And I learned a lot.

Did you ever wonder how much of your personality is related to how you were raised and how much is because of genetics? Me too. And now it's looking more like genetics has a lot to do with it.

When I was talking to him, I found out he likes Investigation Discovery, Silence of the Lambs, and even read a book on Charles Manson. His dad was into forensics too apparently.

That alone just kind of surprised me. I mean... SotL is one of my favorite movies. I get so... excited when I see it on tv. I mean I majored in forensics. My mom's even been like ok where do you get this from you are way too into this creepy stuff. Well I guess I know now.

His mom and his grandma are/were into genealogy. No one in my mom's family is. I mean my Busia a little bit but not like what he's described.

Could it be in the genes?

Other similarities:
I listed a bunch of concerts I've been too. He's seen them all. The Styx concert that I went to last summer? He had tickets but gave them to a friend.
He said he has a dark sense of humor, quick wit, and over analyzes things. When I read that I was like whoa... cuz... thats me.

It just seems so weird that we have all that in common and we've never actually met.

Anyway on the topic of genetics and asking questions... I found out a bit of medical history. I wasn't planning on asking right away but it came up. I wasn't considering that an important question to ask, but all the websites I looked at (I had a hard time coming up with questions so I Googled), suggested that one.

Turns out it is important.

Apparently cancer is in the family. Lovely. His dad and his dad's dad died of cancer. His grandfather was in his 50's and his dad was in his 60's when he died. Not freaky at all. His sister had cancer but is a survivor. His mom's sister died of cancer in her 60's. There might have been another one in there. But either way its scary. As far as I knew I only had to worry about heart problems on the Bieda/Lapinski side.

You must be able to tell how excited I am.

On the bright side (I think, my uterus hasn't decided how she feels about it yet) twins run in the family. His mom is a twin (with the sister that died). Identical twin even. I used to think that was so cool. Now I just think holy cow how would I tell them apart? If I had identical twin boys though I would totally name them Fred and George. Haha. Anyway. My grandma's sister had a son that had twins (boy & girl). Then one of her granddaughters had twin girls. I don't know what my chances are, but I'm thinking it's quite possible I'll end up with twins.

I kind of like that idea though. I don't know.


I'm feeling really good about this whole... talking to my bio dad thing. Everything is positive so far. I still have more questions of course but that will come in time.

And then there's the whole I'm going up to Pennsylvania the end of September thing. What will happen then? Will I just stick to the norm and hang out with my Busia & Pap? Or will I meet some new family? I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Until next time genealogy peeps!

Happy Independence Day!

I was so ready for today. I had my old navy flag shirt. I had my red white and blue ponytail ribbon hair thing. I had red white nd blue hair clips. Ready to tackle a flag cake at work with my residents. My body clearly had another idea. Started to betray me on Saturday. Boss gave me the day off today which most people would've like woo! Off on the fourth of July! But I can't enjoy it. Well, I'm sitting on the couch watching a history channel special on the revolutionary war. And I've already tweeted a bunch of my geni revolutionary ancestors, or declaration signers and I'm afraid it will limit my tweets. So here I am on blogger. I'll make this quick note before I forget: watching this show, they portrayed Ben Franklin as having a mullet. Nice. So was he the first one to sport that look or what? Also: any weird unconnected train of thought is related to my meds. Lol. A while back, I mentioned my gazillion my DAR troubles. How on one side of my tree those relatives may not be blood relatives. Then on my "fathers" side, I have so many related by blood, but no way to prove it. So frustrating. I've already mentioned the other revolutionary ancestors, so now I'll focus on my dads side. I can't prove anything, since there is no marriage certificate or other proof to connect me to my fathers line. I wish the DAR would just accept a ancestry.com tree and look at it that way. Anyway... A list of revolutionary ancestors from my father's mother's side: George William Byrd - 7th gg James Hudson/Hutson - 8th gg Adam/ John Addem Foust - 7th gg Frederick Emeret - 6th gg Capt. Andrew Mellick - 5th gg Daniel Weidman - 5th gg Abraham Labar - 6th gg Archibald McMahn Johann Martin Schultz Anthony Cressman - 7th gg Um... Holy cow. Here is some stuff I found on ancestry.com. I'm not citing anything because... Well my head hurts and I'm not in school so there lol. "when cornwallis surrendered (at yorktown)george byrd was a standing right thar and saw it...." Decisive Battle Patriots vs Loyalists; Archibald R McMahan was taken prisoner, escaped, turned himself in. Battle of kings mountain in N.C I hope the links work. I'm starting to get sleepy so I'll end it here. Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July!

New Addiction

I've decided that some people are just too hard to find in the 1940 census. If you don't know where your peeps lived then your pretty much screwed. For example. My philly Biedzinski family. Philadelphia is huge and has about a bagillion ED's. My aunt was able to give me the address she thought I could find them. No dice. Then I found a 1950 city directory with an address. Apparently they weren't living there either. Ps... in that directory it was actually spelled Biedzinski. Apparently its just Shamokin thats messed up.

If you look on familysearch.org on their nifty map to see who all is indexed... Pennsylvania is a lonely 4%. So I've decided to help out even if it's just a few pages of the census. Better than nothing right?

It's actually pretty addicting. As long as your computer doesn't move painfully slow. Like mine. But I'll keep on going.

So if you want to procrastinate from whatever it is you want to avoid, download the software and help out. Its pretty easy. And pick the PA census records! You know you want to! You might even find a page with your ancestors. I haven't yet. But its possible.

What's in a name? (Part 2)

It occurs to me that I should have split the last post into two sections and just stick the Bieda family by itself. And I have to say this again. They are driving me crazy.

Today I started looking in directories again thinking the name changes I found yesterday will make a difference. I even looked in one with Lewis Bieda that I already saved. And then I saw it. Bigenski. Oh but isn't that the same one I found yesterday? Nope. The ole switcheroo with an i and an e. Well that's ok I thought. Not too bad I can deal with one more. So I go to another one. And again. Biegnski. Ok just put the i and e together now and slide the gn together. Sure.

Before today I had no record of my peeps in the 1930 census. After looking in all these directories I think to myself "Self!"... Sorry I had an Emril moment.. if you don't get that don't worry. Anyway I did a search in the 1930 census and found Joseph and his wife, Jakob and Anna, and Alex and his wife. With yet another spelling. So at this point I'm getting kind of ticked off. Not to mention that Alex, who already has several variations to his first name, is spelled Elex in this census. AH! I believe it was at this point where I wanted to crack open a bottle of vodka at 10:30am. But I digress. The last name this time was Bignskie. See it's not major differences but if you try to search for them, even using the soundex or whatever it's called on ancestry.com.... it's just annoying. I also want to add that Alex or whatever the hell his name is eventually moved to Philly with his family. Philly is a whole hell of a lot bigger than Shamokin and with this many name variations, and possibly more... how will I ever find him?

A brief note on the 1930 census, I actually did find some helpful info. For example Joseph's wife Mary (not to be confused with Alex's wife Mary) and her parents were born in Germany. Yet the language in the home was Polish. But go back to thinking about the crazy borders back then. It also said they arrived in 1908. That could be helpful, but then again for the Biedas they said it was 1912 and not 1913. I also saw Alex's children in the 1930 census: Joseph, Eleanor and Angela. Now I called my busia to confirm about Angela and she wasn't sure. She gave me the name Marie before, so I don't know. The last thing I found was that Joseph, Jakob, and Anna couldn't speak English. I can kind of see Jakob and Anna but Joseph? He was only 11 when he came over, and this was 17yrs later so he should have picked up something. Anyway.

Lewis was living in a different ED. So again I had to fiddle around to find it but it wasn't that bad. I had the address which helped me before. And when I got to 1212 Hemlock... dear lord I almost had a fit. Borzinskie.  Its not even a mistake in the indexing. Its clearly a cursive 'or' on the sheet.

So here they are:
Bieda
Biedzinski
Budzinskie
Beginskie
Bigenski
Biegnski
Bignskie
Borzinskie

And I thought the Lapinsky's were bad! I still haven't found Jakob. I know in 1936-37 he was living at 440 s. Pearl and in 1948 he was at 34 s. Franklin. I checked both on the 1940 census. So I don't know where the guy is. Or was I should say. Hopefully I won't have to do a part 3 for this name thing.

That's all for now!

What's in a name?

I hope everyone had a good Easter Sunday and a successful first week of census searching.

After the initial frustration on release day I've been pretty successful so far. Only a handful of relatives missing.

The first batch I was able to view was on my dad's side, the Turner and Melick families in Mount Pleasant Twp, Pa. I found his mother, my grandmother and her six siblings. Yes, six. Holy cow. Elaine Turner is a twin, I don't know if I mentioned that in one of my other posts. Her sister was Eilean Turner and she passed away a few years ago. One of the other Turner sisters is named Della Jane. I kind of like that name and I don't know why. Anyway the parents (Ellis Turner and Minnie Melick) were listed there too and her father's occupation was a farmer. Shocker in Pa woo! Lol. I also found Ellis Turner's parents Harry and Lovina. A few other Melick's as well but I'm not 100% sure on a connection, if any.

I figure that was a good start considering I didn't know anything about those guys and never talked to any of that side of the family. Onto the next one!

I was finally able to get into Ralpho Twp that night YAY! I found Clinton, Ida, and Dora Pitner in one place. Then I found my great great grandfather Marion Hauck with Ruth Pitner and my great grandmother Eleanor and her brother Wilferd. In Shamokin I found Morris Yeager with Florence Persing and their brood including Elizabeth/Betty Yeager who I met last December. I also foun Russel/Rudy Persing with Jessie and someone named Doris. Walter Persing (my great grandfather who married Eleanor) was living with his mother Cora in Shamokin. It said he worked in a dye and paint mill. Next I found E. W Persing who is Earl, confirmed by the fact his occupation is listed as Potato Chip factory.

Those were all pretty easy. The Polish on the other hand. Sheesh. I tweeted that they were harder to find than  Waldo, Carmen Sandiego, and Voldemort's nose.

Well apparently they weren't hiding in Shamokin Borough like I thought (or not all of them anyway)

The borough is apparently inside of Coal Twp. and has completely different ED numbers. Today I finally realized this and looked in 49-11 and 49-12.

I found some type of cousins. Or aunts and uncles. I don't know anymore. Stanley Kozloski married Frances Lapinsky so I found those two and their children WITH Anthony Lapinsky. Oh wait sorry. The census says Lipinski have to be correct here. He would be my great great grandfather (Mildred's father). He was 79, not working (duh) and had 0 education. Cioci Francy (aunt there it is I remembered) had a 3rd grade education.
Next up is Frank Yucha and his wife Charlotte (Frances' daughter I think) with 2 of their children. Charlotte just passed away in March.
Then I found Lawrence Matlock (?) with Louise Lapinsky (also goes by Julie. see these people can't make up their minds!) Their kids are shown along with two daughters (+ on of their husbands) from Louise/ Julie's first marriage (surname Glock/Gloc).  One of the Gloc's was lucky enough to be in the extra questions but only thing I learned was Polish was spoken in the home.
Then we have Stanley Lapinsky (actually spelled Lapinsky) with his wife and 2 children.

Ok so the Lapinsky/Lipinski thing I've seen before. No surprise.

But these damn Bieda's are going to kill me.

I mentioned before there was a name change to Biedzinski but my great grandfather Ludwik/Lewis/Louis changed back to Bieda. Well apparently not until after 1940.

The census lists Budzinskie. Louis, Mildred, and my uncle Emil (my Busia's brother). I found them after remembering I had a directory saved to Ancestry.com from 1930 and 1941. 1212 Hemlock St. Shamokin Pa. I actually passed them by the first time I looked through the 49-12 section.

So then I went back to the Shamokin Borough and the million of pages that section. I had Joseph and Mary in a directory for 1928 saying they were at 442 Pearl St. and Jakob and Anna were at 440 Pearl St. Well I only found Joseph and Mary. I think Anna had passed away by then but I still didn't find Jakob. In 1950 he's listed as living with Jozef in the directory. Anyway, you would think Jozef would be listed under Biedzinski or Budzinskie. Nope. Beginskie. I'm tellin ya they want to drive me mad!

But if you think of it, in Polish the dz combo sounds like a dg sound. I think.

So I still need to find Jakob Bieda... or whatever.... and then Aleksander/ Alex/ Alexandor is somewhere in Philly at this time. But I have no address or anything so I might have to wait until the indexed version is out. And then of course deal with the possible name combinations. But I won't think about that now.

Sorry this was so long! Gotta go, I'm going out tonight. Titanic 3D Yes!!!

Waiting.... Waiting... Still Waiting...

NARA is clearly friends with the FGCU internets people. It's like deja vous. really hope that's spelled right. Anyway. Every semester FGCU students log on to gulfline at 12am hoping to get their pick of classes. The lower down the food chain the less chance you'll get that class. Most of us wouldn't get in until 1am. Freshman year I just said screw it, went to bed, and woke up a few hours later to try again. The 1940 census seems to be going the same way. This time instead of complaining to room mates or people on facebook I can complain with people on twitter. 

Right now Ancestry.com doesn't have the Pennsylvania records up yet. So I sit and wait. And wait.

But it's not like I haven't been through this before. I shouldn't be surprised but all the genealogy peeps on twitter are very mature about it. All you would hear on FB about FGCU was cursing and complaining. On twitter people are giving tips and good luck and congrats for getting in! 

In other news. I went through some photos yesterday. Some of my moms photo albums and pictures when I was little and blah blah blah. Tried to organize some of the stuff (the one album was a mess!) My mom told me to look through and throw out any blurry ones or doubles. Now, as a borderline hoarder/pack rat/photo nerd this was... difficult to say the least. I still have photos on memory cards from a few years ago because I thought "I might need that one!!!" or "oh, its blurry but maybe I can touch it up somehow" Anyway I did get rid of quite a few pictures. 

All this blabbing and still no progress. *sigh* Well, I'm going to pick my mom up from work to go for lunch today so maybe when I get back something will change. 

The Other Half

This is called the Persing & Bieda family history for a reason. Up until about a week ago, I had no idea about the other half of my tree. My dad's side. Never met the guy. It awkwardly came up in conversation last week (how would that conversation not be awkward?) but I'm glad I know now. Besides. Every tree has some interesting tidbits in it. Some good some bad. But it is what it is.

I usually don't include names of living people in my blog, but I think I'll make an exception. Maybe I want him to randomly google something and find out that I exist, or to remind him that I exist. Maybe because they'res a teeny part of me that's angry and hurt and wants other people to know he's a jerk (maybe not 100% jerk. perhaps coward is a better word?)

So who is this man and his family and how much do I know? And how did I get past the little info I was given initially? Sit back and I'll tell you.

His name is Darrin Kay Snyder. He has a sister named Donna. His parents are Donald and Elaine K Snyder. The names of his parents I actually found on mylife.com. You know, that creepy website where you can find terrifying amounts of information. Hah. I have a free account but it didn't really help. I found more by not signing in. Anyway the names were confirmed by my mom so I know I have the right people. Another good tip for finding living relatives? Check the white pages online. If I wanted to I could call Darrin or send him a letter. Doesn't mean I'm going to.

Based on the birth dates of my grandparents, Ancestry.com couldn't help me with what I had. Well, not until the 1940 census comes out anyway. But I was googling here and there. And I found a Gedcom file online. I've never seen one or used one or anything before so the code took some getting used to. I think I could be a pro now.  Here is the link that I found: http://www.colcohist-gensoc.org/gedcoms/melich.ged

It shows all of them. I learned that Donald passed away in 1999 and he was a Korean War vet. It even said an occupation for prison guard. The file shows that Elaine's maiden name was Turner. Her mother's maiden name was Melick. The file has the Melick/Moelich family going back to the 1500s in Germany. So last week I had no idea.... and now I'm in the 1500s? In WDYTYA drinking game talk... thats like 10 shots right there.

Does it end there? Of course not! I plug everything into Ancestry.com... all generations from that page. No hints for Donald, except a ss. death record and military record. I was able to find my great grandparents, Minnie Melick and Ellis Turner. And guess what? THERE WERE PICTURES! You all know how I am with pictures. Heck how all of us are with pictures. There was even a picture for Elaine's sister. Apparently they were twins! I found more twins further back. Anyway long story short I found a crap ton of people back there. Mostly German ancestry. But all of them were in America since the 16-1700s. Another branch I found, now this is exciting, goes to England. I love the UK and Ireland. You have no idea. When I saw England on the ancestry tree I was about as excited as Amy Farrah Fowler on Big Bang Theory when Sheldon gave her a tiara. At this point I'm in the 12-1300s in England. And there's a castle.

I think I'm starting to ramble a little bit so this is where I'll end it. As always leave me comments. Please? Or if you are related to me don't hesitate to let me know :)

Pictures in Boxes- Part 4

It seems like these will never end... then again... what will I write about when I'm done?

Where did I leave off... oh yes... cool FDR photo. Moving on.

Eleanor

Jessie Persing and my uncle. (grandpa's brother)

Eleanor/ Nana. on a horse.

Back says "Ruth Hauck?"

my nana again

Emma McCormick 

Nana

Nana and her friend "Boots"

Nana & her brother

"Hauck reunion 1961"

Marion Hauck, Front row on the left. Those are his parents in between.

Marion on the left.

Guessing its an anniversary party.

Marion Hauck & Carrie

No idea. But I love the lady on the left.

I think Nana is the girl in the middle

On the back it says Persing 1949 49 yrs old. My guess is it *might* be Earl Persing because he was born in 1899

Marion and Carrie

My mom! haha!!

Louis Bieda

Shamokin High School 1925. Walter Persing is the one on the right not in uniform.

I'll either have two more of these or one large picture post. My Polish peeps are coming up (or a more concentrated section of them in the next set of photos)

Ta ta for now!

Pictures in Boxes- Part 3

Happy October! This time (ish.. actually on the 12th...) last year I started my blog! Hard to believe.

Ok time for more pictures. I know I've been skipping around a bit but thats how I came across the pictures. I tried to group some of the potato chip fire pictures together...

before.... obviously.. 

Pretty sad. They made Jalapeno hot chips. I love chips. and Jalapenos.. alas.

Report Card

Aunt Jessie. Married Russel I believe.

Eleanor and her brother

Marion & Carrie

Now this is an interesting one. Clinton Kase is second to the right. Picture was taken in 1870. J.D. Clinton Kase was born in 1827, died in 1906

Harriet & Dora Pitner in Florida. Hmm... wonder what part

Betty Yeager (Florence Persing + Morris Yeager)

Chester Persing. Went out to Illinois. Did some military stuff and edited childrens books.

No idea who she is. but the dress is awesome.

Face cut off in the back. It was stuck to the notebook in the background at some point....

This is exciting... who can tell me who that nifty lookin man in the middle is?

"Our president and the president of Panama at the pier just when he got off the boat."

 If you answered FDR you would be correct! No idea when this was taken. Or where. Who took it. But isn't that cool?