Welcome

Trying to write one's family history can be rather daunting, to say the least. Even more so when you're dyslexic and have poor gramar skills. It can be quite exasperating trying to put some simblance of order to the tons of information I've accumulated since I began this journey while living in England in 2004. Should I write a book, use Facebook, use a genealogy website or write a blog? There are so many options, but no matter which avenue(s) I choose there will always be a family member who will not be able to access portions of my collection and research. What to do, what to do? Do I do more than one? Yes. This blog will be my avenue of sharing information, and feelings, as I progress through a mirad of projects such as writing a book and updating my tree on Ancestry.com. This, I believe, will also allow for sharing of information quicker. Though they are all different in how they share information, the end goal is to be the story teller for my family. To tell the stories of generations that came before me, who still walk with me and for the generations yet to be. I welcome your comments, questions and inputs.

19 June 2011

Lloyd George Mallette (1914-1961)



After many years of looking for my grandfather, a cousin that I found through Ancestry.com sent me the above picture of him the end of last month. Her grandmother, Lenora, was Lloyd's sister. The date is not know, but it is assumed that it is between 1935 and 1940.  I also received his baby foot print from when he was born. I felt a rush of excitement to see him for the first time, some would call it being giddy.  But then I felt, and still do, an extreme amount of sadness because my mother never knew what he looked like. My grandmother, Viola Louise Mays Mallette Timm (1924-2007), never talked about him and never had any photos of him. To my mom he was just a name on her birth certificate.  I've spent six years researching and looking for him. Before my mom died, I was able to tell her he was in the Army Air Force.  He met and married my grandmother when he was station in Biloxi, Ms. They had two children, my mother and her brother George Mallette (1944-2002).  And, that he died the month after my parents were married in Hawaii. I was able to tell her where he was buried (link included with this post), that he died with only three years of high school education and he was working as a gas and oil man that never remarried. When I looked at him for the first time the first person I saw was my mother and I'm amazed at how much my brothers look like him. I think my brother Steve more so.  I take more after my dad's mother's side of the family..short round Russian/German heritage...but now I know where we kids got the pointy chin from.  I can only pray that she has met up with him in heaven at that they are making up for lost time.

09 June 2011

What are the Odds?

What are the odds of there being “two” sets of twins out there named Mearl and Pearl? The set I’m interested in were born in 1895. I keep coming across a pair born in 1924.  Pearl Fay only lived 10 days before she passed. She is buried in an unmarked grave with my great great grandparents and her uncle Charlie.  I found Pearl’s burial location through court records, but have not yet found Mearl May…or is it Merl May?  I’ve seen both spellings.  Their father, Arthur is buried in California.   I’ve not yet looked for their mother.

 

01 June 2011

Chicago City Cemetery and William Cullimore

It appears that one of the possible burial places of my great (x4) grandfather, William Cullimore, will prove to be the ultimate challenge. More so than I originally thought. One of the possible locations of burial was Chicago City Cemetery. As a widower, he moved west via the newly opened turnpike from Maryland to Chicago where his younger brother, Thomas, and his wife were living at the time. William’s obit does not list where he was buried but the cemetery that his brother is buried at does not reflect his being buried there. The puzzle has just begun and I look forward to challenge.

 

“Chicago City Cemetery was located in at the south end of what is now Lincoln Park. The first burials were in 1843, and at its peak, had 20,000 burials. City residents did not like the cemetery location, which was on low land, close to the lake, thinking it contaminated water supply and aided the spread of diseases such as cholera.

In 1859, the city stopped selling lots at the cemetery and reinterments began in the newly-opened Rosehill Cemetery. The last burials at City were in 1866. Other cemeteries that have reinterred remains are Graceland, Wunders, and Calvary. Jewish Cemetery landowners handled reinterments, for which there are no public records. The remains of about 6,000 confederate prisoners from the federal prison, Camp Douglas, were moved from a potters field to Oak Woods Cemetery. The conditions at Camp Douglas were notoriously awful, and most of the rebels died of hunger and disease, between 1862 and 1865.

Disinterments were completed by 1870, and the City Cemetery was officially empty of all graves except the Ira Couch tomb, which still stands in the park (it was deemed too expensive to move--and may be empty--records indicate he is in Rosehill's Couch family tomb) and 116-year-old Boston Tea Party's David Kennison. However, various digs in the park over the years, one as recently as 1998, have yielded human remains.”

 

Also Ref: http://hiddentruths.northwestern.edu/home.html