Friday Fun

Deciding what a blog entry topic is going to be can be challenging or easy. It is easy if one is writing about an event which takes place over several days. For example, it was easy writing from my aunt's journal in 1988. It was also easy and fun to discover and visit the Grisso mansion which needed several sessions to get the whole story told. I loved writing about my 3rd great grandmother, Sarah Jane Swartzel Withrow. There is still so much to share about the Wrights, Grissos, Tolsdorfs, Augustus and other various branches.
      Sometimes when the publish button is pushed on a post my first thought is "now what?" This was the case today. Sometimes as soon as the "now what" thought bubble forms in my mind, I am given the answer unexpectedly. Such is the case this week. The same day I published the last Wordless Wendesday, the mail came. In the mail was the local Scranton Jounal. And in the newspaper was a picture from the past of some very cute little boys. They were called the Sox and the picture was from 1956.  Even though the picture is not as clear as one would hope, those little faces are still recognizable. Read the names carefully and you will see how it belongs in my blog, a blog which I hope one day will be read by my grandchildren and their children too.

Memorial Day 2016

I just finished re-reading the post I made for Memorial Day 2015.  Personally, I think it is worth the re-read. I had done some research, learned a few things I didn't know about Memorial Day and related the differences between the Memorial Days of my childhood to the Memorial Day of today.

Memorial Day 2015 (Either link will take you there.)

So, here is Memorial Day again, but with a few changes. For one, on Saturday, we will attend the interment of the ashes of my aunt who passed away last fall. Her three children will be arriving from Oregon, California, and Nevada. I am honored to be able to attend and looking forward to visiting with my cousins whom I rarely see.

This is also be the first Memorial Day that our family will be putting flowers on the grave of my husband's mother.  She had a very consistent ritual of obtaining live flower plants from a nursery,
planting them in containers, taking them to the cemetery to adorn several graves, and most specifically that of her husband who has been gone since 1960.  After a week or so, we would gather those containers and repot them in containers for her to enjoy the rest of the summer. Another of life's rituals is gone.  This year we adorn her grave and remember a life which was full for 97.5 years.

March 5, 2016- Blogiversary

I have learned while surfing around in the Blogsphere that bloggers often make mention of their blogiversary - which is the day their blog started.

Thus, I would like to announce that today is my 1st blogiversary. My first published post was on March 5, 2015 and is titled Getting Started.  Recently, Blogger added a new feature called Featured Blog. It can be found on the right hand side of the screen. Readers can go there to re-read this first post if interested. Those who receive email posts may not be able to see this feature. I hope you will take some time to check out the blog itself (www.margietolsdorf.blogspot.com)  and view this feature along with the others I will be mentioning. This first feature blog is the very first writing I posted one year ago. I will be changing this feature blog from time to time, but I will alert you when that happens. 

After a year, I have created a jumble of posts about my dad's family, my mom's family, my husband's family, my travels, my treasures, my photos, my mom's calendar, etc., etc. The jumble just keeps twisting and turning. Of course, one can go to the blog archive on the right hand side of the screen and find any one of the past year's 170 posts. Too much work for most casual readers. Some future family genealogist might dig through it all, but most readers are not going to do that.

I have tried to find a way to help readers find a particular reading that has to do with their surname or other interest. I thought I had found it when I created the Index Page. Have you ever tried it? The Index Page is a tab at the top of the blog. The tabs are Home, Photo Album, About Me, and Index Page. The Photo Album has been neglected, but the Index Page is full of information. It is a stationary page that just sits there unlike regular posts which pile up one on top of another somewhat like placing one piece of paper on top of another.

The second feature on the right of the screen is called Search Cousins.

Again, I believe these can only be seen from the actual blog. The right hand column is cut off when reading a post in email.

Call me a slow learner, but as I am goofing around, I realize what a great feature this is. Suppose you are a cousin on my husband's mother's side of the family. A post about the Bordens, my father's maternal side, is not of much interest to you. But by using the Search Blog window, one can insert Reeder and the posts with that name will come up.  This along with the index should get you to your surname of choice whether it be Augustus, Wright, Tolsdorf, Grisso, DeHart, Phillips, etc. Information on these surnames is not equal at this time. Genealogy is a slow process.

The next features show:

Geneabloggers- This takes the reader to an online community created by Thomas MacEntee. My Cousins blog is listed in this community under Genealogy Blog Roll.

Translate - I am happy that I included this feature since I have had responses from places like Spain, Poland, Ukraine, etc.

Follow by Email - I believe this is a feature used by several of my regular readers. It makes my ramblings easily accessible and readers don't have to remember to go to the site.

Between the featured posts, search blog window, and blog archives, you should be able to consolidate the posts that feature your particular branch of your particular tree.

Blog Archive This is where my almost 170 blog entries are stacked one on top of the other like a pile of papers. The last dated entry is always the one on top.

(Click on colored words to go directly to the example)

I continue to learn new features on the Blogger Platform and to try different ways to present our families' stories to whomever might be interested. Often I share part of my mother's diary calendars on Mondays With Mary. Wednesday is a good day for a short post featuring a photo like this one from last week. And even though this is a genealogy blog, it is my blog to post items of interest to share  and also leave a little of myself on these pages for my grandchildren to know me better.

Thank you to all my readers on this -  my first blogiversary.  I hope you will stick around for another year.  Thanks for reading.

Too Many Good-byes

So far, this has not been such a great year. In January, we lost my Uncle John and his first cousin, Jean Stevens Johnson. This blog was actually dedicated to them. The post is called Dedication.  In the spring, we lost my aunt and a dear family friend. Several more posts were written. See In Loving Memory, Twice Glad, and Tribute.                                

A few days ago, I wrote about my aunt who was only three years older than I am and who died July 13, 2015.  And now, we have lost a member of my husband's family.

I mentioned in my Aunt Evie's post titled December, 7, 1941, that it was the first entry for the Wright, Borden, DeHart side of the family. Today it is the first for another branch of the family tree. Today I write about the Tolsdorf side, my husband's paternal family.

Roger Tolsdorf passed way July 18, 2015. This was the day we were interring the ashes of  my uncle and his wife. I am stating 'and his wife' to clarify that she was not my blood relative. Because, she was my husband's blood relative. She was his first cousin, as was Roger. And there were and are many more cousins all descended from a German grandfather that immigrated from the Ukraine in 1892. The  family has an interesting history which I look forward to sharing in the future.

Today, our thoughts are of Roger. He was a jokester and was loved by all who knew him.  Rest In Peace, Roger. You can't imagine how many family and friends are going to miss you.

Willow #3

I am having a problem. I am not getting anything done. I have years worth of boxes from my parent's home that still haven't been completely sorted, stored, given away or thrown out. Oh, I know, I get all sorts of suggestions on this subject. Just leave me alone about it.

I could use my time to work in my flower gardens. It is my therapy. However, after so much rain in Iowa, the mosquitoes are out. I can honestly say I have never seen mosquitoes this bad in my entire life (and it is a long one). Where in the past, one might see a mosquito, they now swarm. Even the sound is daunting. There are soooooooo many. Of course, we live in the country near the timber and the river. It is mosquito heaven.  There are no smogging trucks here to help like there is in cities and small towns. So, I just stay inside.

If you are wondering what all of this has to do with genealogy, I am getting to it. In fact, I am just trying to legitimize the amount of
time I have been spending in my recliner with my iPad reading blogs.

The more genealogy blogs I read, the more I want to read. After I check out some of my favorites, I start seeking out ones I haven't read. Recently, I have been working on setting up searching capability on my blog. This has lead me to trying out some 
searching of my own on other sites.

http://www.geneabloggers.com has search capability. Since my blog is listed on this site, I was sure I would find myself. Sure 
enough. However, I found a big, big surprise. A HUGE surprise. A well known blogger (Dr. William Smith) in the blogosphere had a post with my last name in it.  I should say my married last name. He had posted this at least a year before I even knew what a genealogy blog was.

I keep reading about bloggers hoping to find distance cousins with
their sites. Some bloggers talk about cousin bait. I have been hoping I might trip over some distant cousin or two one of these days. Instead, I tripped over a post about Willow #3 in Willow Township, Greene County, Iowa, the one room school my husband and two older siblings attended.  This Wordless Wednesday post for January 15, 2014 was added at http://www.drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com


 It consisted of a photo outside the school building with the kids and their teacher. Dr. Bill identified most of the kids including my brother-in-law and my husband. My 97 year old mother-in-law identified the others. The photo is from about 1946 so my husband was a baby. An older girl with dark hair is  holding him. We have no idea why he was at school. It is also a picture that neither of us had ever seen or even knew existed.





Left to right: Mildred Peversdorf (teacher), Shirley Wood, Dick Hunter, Judy Tolsdorf, Charlotte Shirbroun holding baby Tom, Robert Hunter, Jim Tolsdorf, Ruth Ann Christinsen.
 
In the front on the right wearing suspenders is Bill Smith and his little brother, Jimmie about 2, sitting on the ground looking down.
 

Can the world get any smaller?

Aunt Fanny (1873-1956)

Just as I knew my great aunts and uncles that lived in Greene County when I was growing up, my husband and his siblings knew theirs. Families stayed around the same areas for generations, and we have been able to savor wonderful memories of those relationships.

As I mentioned in Another Limb? I want to start climbing around in the Augustus, Reeder, Tolsdorf trees as well as my own family trees since I have a phenomenal resource in my mother-in-law.  I just learned about Aunt Fanny. Like I said, my husband and siblings knew their great-great Aunt Fanny, but my kids, their kids, some of the other grandchildren have likely never heard of Aunt Fanny. She was the younger sister of my grandchildren's great-great-great grandmother, Minerva Jane Marsh Reeder (1860-1953).

According to my mother-in-law, Aunt Fanny was an especially loved aunt by her niece, Ina Reeder Augustus, mother of my living source. I think I would have really liked Aunt Fanny too. She wrote a couple of documents that I think should be shared.  It appears that Aunt Fanny shared my interest in preserving family information. The following is one of  her documents. Fanny is discussing her parents, Richard and Celestia Marsh. Our decendancy would look like this:
Celestia Phillips and Richard Marsh/ Minerva Jane Marsh and Edward Reeder/Ina Marie Reeder and Hallie Augustus.

We have all read similar writing about the olden days. There is really nothing too new here except that these are our people.  Our Aunt Fanny wrote this in 1941.  What a precious souvenir to have her words.

Tom Sawyer

People love to find out they are related to famous people.  So, what is my claim to fame?

I married Tom Sawyer.

Well, maybe I better make a few clarifications.  Remember, I have written about the Scranton Journal (my hometown newspaper) and the A Glance Into the Past section.  Here is the article of 60 Years ago, April 1955.

     "A capacity crowed [sic] was treated to a fine performance of the operetta Tom Sawyer Monday evening at the regular PTA meeting in the school auditorium.  The operetta, under the direction of Mrs. Garreth McDonald, was performed by members of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.  Miss Beatrice Gordon, Miss Delores Beck, and Mrs. LaVern Felding served as stage managers.
     The cast of characters included: Tom Sawyer, Tommy Tolsdorf; Huckleberry Finn, Larry Miller; Joe Harper, Joe Smith; Ben Rogers, Bobby Dillavou; Sidney, Martin Peterson; Pudd'n head Wilson, Billy Smits; Steamboat Sam, Darwin Wright; Jim, Billy Eason; Aunt Polly, Carol Hanna; Mary, Pam Pound; Mrs. Sereny Harper, Jane Paup; Suzy Harper, Arlene Monthei; Becky Thatcher, Pam Reinhart; Widow Douglas, Karol Hoover; Miss Watson, Becky Mosier; Mrs. Sally Phelps, Nicki Eason, Ella Mae Phelps, Pam Buckner."

My husband, Tom, (not the fictional character) remembers having to learn 26 songs for the operetta. The only way to recall such events of long ago is with one's own memory.  How wonderful it would be if there had been cell phones with video capability like we have today. I love seeing the antics of my grandchildren on today's videos, but what I wouldn't give to be able to see my own special Tom Sawyer from back then.