Annie Clark Collins' Birthday--She lived to be 99.

My first cousin twice removed, Annie Clark, was born on March 8, 1875, probably in Linn County, Oregon. Her mother, Lydia (Bond) Clark, was the oldest sister of my great-grandfather, John Howard Bond. Annie lived to be 99 years old, lacking about 9 months of reaching her 100th birthday, dying on July 17, 1974.
It is probable that Annie lived with her parents, Oren and Lydia Clark, until the time of her marriage to William D Collins November 10, 1897. She was listed with them on the 1880 census in Elk Precinct, Benton County, Oregon. She and William were married at Seal Rock, Lincoln County, Oregon. By the 1900 census the William Collins family, including their 1 year old son Wilbur, was living in the Alsea Precinct, Lincoln County. In 1910 they had moved to Newport, Lincoln County. Annie reported that 4 children had been born, but only 2 were living: Wilbur age 11 and Esther age 6 months. The family had moved into the Willamette Valley by the 1920 census and were living in East Gaston Precinct in Washington County. Their two children Wilbur now age 21 and daughter Velma age 7 were living with them. It appears that Esther had passed away during those ten years betwen 1910 and 1920. Annie had at least one more child, because Rachel Grace was born in 1922 and was living with her parents along with Velma in 1930 when they were living in the Silk Creek Precinct (near Cottage Grove) Lane County, Oregon. William and Annie moved back to the coast between 1935 and 1940 and were in the Glenada Precinct (near Florence) Lane County, Oregon on the 1940 Census.
The year 1942 would have been sad for Annie, since her husband William of over 40 years died in June and her son Wilbur died in September from a logging accident. At the time of William's death, they were living in North Bend, Coos County, Oregon. By the time Annie herself died in 1974, she was living in Blachly, Lane county, Oregon and was survived by her two daughters, Velma Redmer and Rachel Starr.

Ancestors' Wedding Days 150 years apart

Two sets of ancestors were married on March 2nd, 150 years apart. My 3rd great-grandparents, William England and Mary Walker were married in 1827 in Gibson County, Tennessee. My 8th great-grandparents, Joseph Jewett and Rebecca Law were married in 1677 in Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts.

Ruth A. Reed, a 2nd Cousin

Researching a 2nd Cousin, Ruth A. Reed

My second cousin, Ruth A. Reed, was born on 28 December 1920. I have only her name posted on her mother's page on my website, since I am unsure if she is living. See this page
http://www.joanneskelton.com/p625.htm
So I decided I need to see what more I could find out about Ruth.
I began by doing a general search on Ancestry.com. I found her on the 1940 and 1930 census living with her parents, Earl and Ellen (Ward) Reed. Then I realized that I already had that information while researching her mother, although it is not yet entered into my software so doesn't yet show on my website.
While checking some of the compiled family trees I discovered that someone had entered Ruth's sister, Faith, and showed who Faith had married, George Eden. Then I found that both George and Faith were deceased and were both listed on the Minnesota Death Index. So here is more information to enter. Doing a followup on that information led me to Find A Grave and the double stone for George and Faith is in Harrison Township Cemetery, Swea City, Iowa. It appears they had lived in both Iowa and Minnesota.
Since I believed Ruth was born in Iowa I found that FamilySearch.org has a database of Iowa County Births from 1880-1935. I did a search for just their surname Reed for Kossuth County, Iowa and 4 of Earl and Ellen's children were listed including their middle names.
But I really wanted to determine if Ruth was still alive. Since I didn't know if or who she had married I was at a standstill. I used the Death Records website by Joe Beine and checked for Minnesota obituaries and found that Southern Minnesota Historical Center in Mankato, Minnesota had an obituary index online which covered Blue Earth County. Ruth's mother is listed in this index for 1971, so now I must send a copy request with the appropriate fee to them and hopefully it will list Ruth as a survivor and I can learn her married name and then do further research.
In the meantime I have information from the census, death records and birth records to enter.

Christmas Memories

24 Dec 2012

Some Christmas Memories.

As I remember Christmas time, it consisted of at least five events:

• Christmas program at school
• Christmas program at church
• Christmas Eve celebration with the Julius Falk family usually Harrisburg area
• Christmas morning opening presents at home near Halsey
• Christmas Day celebration with the O.J. Albertson family usually Eugene, but sometimes Florence

I can remember one school program when I was to have the narrator part telling about the first Christmas. But that year there was a big flood and our school program was cancelled, so I missed out on my big acting opportunity.

It seems like at both school and church programs each child present would received a paper sack with an orange, chocolate drops and hard Christmas candy.

Christmas time was also the time when my Dad would bring home a sack of chocolate drops. They had assorted flavors and he seemed to really like the chocolate centers. So my brother and I would take a tiny bite from the bottom edge of the chocolates and if it was a chocolate center, we would put that back to save for my Dad.

GIFT GIVING

We exchanged gifts with the Paul Quimby family at Halsey and Roy & Grace Bond from Glide. As I remember it, very often Uncle Roy & Aunt Grace would send us a box of chocolate covered cherries. I did like to see their package come in the mail.

For the Falk family at least in the later years, we drew names, adults with adults and children with children. As I was the oldest grandchild, there came a time where I needed to decide if I would draw with the adults or with the children. For the Albertson family, we tended to give gifts by families. However we grandchildren usually received a gift for ourselves also. My Dad took some home movies of the Christmas celebrations in the late 1940's, so it is fun to look at them.

One year my Dad bought my Mom a stainless steel garbage can, with a removable pail inside and a step-on opener. Then he let her try to guess what it was. He would give a number of hints, but she was never able to guess before she opened it. She laughed when she saw what it was.

Some of the gifts I received over the years that I remember were: a Toni doll, an electric alarm clock, subscriptions to magazines. (such as Movie Story Magazine, Photoplay, Gene Autry comic book, American Girl)

Starting new year

It is now 2012. I just updated my genealogy website www.joanneskelton.com. I added a photo to the main page showing an England family reunion in 1929. I found this photo in some pictures which had belonged to my Grandmother Falk.  Her grandmother was an England.

In December of 2011, two relatives died, a 2nd cousin, Phyllis Falk Hart (http://www.joanneskelton.com/p1931.htm) and my aunt, Violet Falk Moorehead (http://www.joanneskelton.com/p48.htm )
I was able to make some new acquaintances of my family members and also renew some old ones.

Now I'm looking forward to a new year of more genealogy research.

Attending Genealogical Seminars

Why attending genealogical seminars, workshops & conferences is the

IN thing:

You get:

• INformation on genealogical subjects 
• INterconnections with other genealogists 
• INspiration to work on your genealogy

Lucinda Hall and her connection to Cottage Grove

Lucinda Hall is found on my website,
http://www.joanneskelton.com/p755.htm
because she was married to my 2nd great-granduncle, Ebenezer Hayes. Lucinda was born on the 14th of October 1846. She was the daughter of Thomas Hall and Lucinda Robinett.
Recently I have been doing research on some of the families of the donation land claim settlers in the Cottage Grove area. One of these families I was working on was the Shields family. One of the Shields children was Jemima Shields, who married James Robinett. James was a brother to Lucinda Robinett, Lucinda Hall's mother, so James was Lucinda's uncle. So through marriages I am connected to one of Cottage Grove's early settlers and it just so happens that my home is located on a part of the Shields Donation Land Claim.