Another Remarkable Yearbook Find

I actually discover this a few months back and posted about it on FaceBook but didn't blog about it. It's one of the coolest genealogy finds I've had in recent days. On May 6, 2022, I came across another beautiful yearbook entry in Ancestry's online  yearbook collection. 

It was in my paternal grandmother's high school yearbook. There were many pictures of my grandma, Clare Henry-Earle, in there but here is her portrait. Oh that's not the cool part, though. I had seen this photo before.

She was very active in high school. She was in a sorority, student council, performed in a play, and played the flute in the marching band. You can't see her in the band photo below though.

She is little, under 5'. At her full height I think she hit 4'9". At 93 years old today she has shrunk some since high school; which, if you ask me is criminal. If my 4'9" Nanny has to lose any inches, you 6' folks out there should have to lose a foot, at least, but I digress. As she played the flute, so she's somewhere in the middle of a band photo where flute players assemble. Oh but the band wasn't really the cool part either. This was...

...she signed this yearbook!! 

"Best of luck to a swell kid. Love, Clare"

Which ever classmate's yearbook Ancestry got a hold of and digitized, my grandmother signed it. That is unmistakably my Grandma Clare's handwriting! Very cool.

Cranky at Questions

I'm cranky. Tis the season I suppose. Just through the holidays, still in the depths of the cold and dark winter, illness around me. 

I just haven't felt well for months now. First a battle with an adjustment in meds, just getting that worked out and now I have COVID. Oh, I'm fine. Thank God for vaccines. I'm double boosted which is what I attribute my mild case to. Honestly, I've gone to work much sicker than this back in November when I had, what I think was a sinus infection and that too high dose of medication. I'm a little underwhelmed really. This is COVID? I feel worse with seasonal allergies. You mean everyone doesn't feel like this September through May? I'm lucky.

In any case, I'm finding myself extremely annoyed by some of the genealogy groups I follow on Facebook so much so that I have nearly dropped them all.

With not much else to do in my room, I'm spending a lot of time reading and scrolling through social media. Just bored.

There are some things that novice genealogy researchers are asking that just grate on me. I know they are new and learning. 

I know, I know, I'm a librarian. I'm supposed to be all wide-eyed and bushy tailed waiting with baited breath for your very personal question, all too eager and delighted to direct you to what - the stapler? Like Julie Andrews twirling on some mountain top of information or a bespectacled Snow White with little woodland creatures gathering about me ready to flit off at my startling notice of you. "Oh, why, yes. How can I help you?" 

My New Yorker comes barreling out, "Yeah, over there with the pencil sharpener. Open your eyes, buddy." 

I'm cranky but also despite what your grade school teachers told you, there are dumb questions. 

I know, I know. I'm an educator gearing up for another summer course. And I know that if you're new at something and you don't ask, you'll never learn. That's what you think, right? But actually that's not true. You don't have to ask to learn. You can read. Oh yes you can. You can read to learn. I do it all the time. Day 4 of my quarantine. 9 books into my to-be-read pile. Reading teaches you tons of shit!

Like....

No. You're not going to find your 7th great grandfather's birth certificate from the 1720s. New York State didn't issue certificates until 1881. Look it up.

And No filing a FOIL request won't change that. (Jesus, save them.)

No. You can't edit the way your family's race is recorded in the 1860 census. You're not an enumerator and this is not 1860. Enumerator? Look it up.

No. Your parents aren't related just because you have a single 10 centimorgan match to some random dude in the middle of Great Britain that Ancestry says matches parent 1 and parent 2.

Ugh, God, no. Parent 1 isn't always the farther.

Oh the DNA questions. People, read.

No. You're not adopted just because your ethnicity estimate says you are 24% Welsh and your sister is 2% Welsh. She matches you right? Estimate? Look it up.

And some of these Facebook group admins. I've left a few groups because the admins shut down posts just because the author asked a question barely outside the parameters of the groups intent. But oh..oh...why don't they turn off comments for the post that already has 500,000 replies all saying the exact same thing.

Yeah, I'm cranky.

I’d Like to Meet...

In 2022 I participated in Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge, and I am quite proud to say, I accomplished it! I blogged every week, writing to a majority of the themes she put forth. This year, I commit to writing at least once a month and I may at times use her prompts to stimulate and inspire my blogging. I would however, also like to commit some time to making more discoveries in my personal genealogy research. Writing takes time. Search takes time too.

The 52 Ancestors Challenge theme for this week, though, is "I'd Like to Meet..."

Pondering the past tense of that theme, I would have liked to have met my maternal grandmother, Marilyn Irene Fay-Gardner (August 28, 1930 - June 5, 1972). She passed away so very young, at the age of 41, the year before I was born. I had all three of my other grandparents until my Grandpa Earle died in 2000, shortly after my 26th birthday. Grandpa Gardner passed in 2004. Grandma Earle will be 94 in February. Sadly she no longer recognizes her family due to the ravages of Alzheimer's disease but she's otherwise hangin' in there. So I knew my grandparents. I can tell you a lot about each of them, well, except Grandma Gardner who no one, not my grandpa, not her children, no one spoke about. 

Prompted to want to know more about my Grandma Gardner and having tapped out the resources on Ancestry.com, I went looking in other databases, namely MyHeritage. My subscription runs out there in February so while I have it and the time off from work during this holiday week, I went looking. 

I think I have found my grandma's high school yearbook photo. I'm not sure. I've only seen 2 other images of her. Once a long time ago when I was a kid my mother showed me a photo of her mom. I want to say it was taken at a baby shower. Marilyn, or Lynne, as everyone called her, did have a bunch of babies so I'm not sure when it was taken and I don't have the image to refer back to as, sadly, I am estranged from my mother. The other image I have of Lynne was from about 1950 from an unidentified newspaper announcement of her engagement to my Grandpa. It's terribly unclear, graining like most newspaper photos.

The new image I found is from the 1948 yearbook at Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. The name, year, and location fit. I think it's her.

The day I found the image I sent it to all my siblings as well as the two cousins with whom I have any contact information. Being the eldest grandchild I didn't think any of them would be able to identify the grandmother we never knew but I thought they'd appreciate having it. I showed my father, who knew Lynne. Not only was she hid mother-in-law, he grew up next door to her. He was not confident that it was her though. She died 50 years ago and this high school yearbook photo was taken long before he knew her so I understand his reluctant to confidently identify her. I showed his brother, my Uncle Allen, and he too was unsure. I know my mother would recognize her, but again, I have no contact with her nor do I have contact with either of her sisters. Well, one I could email I guess but she was only 2 when her mother passed. Hmm. Anyway - - -

The following day it dawned on me that I should look in that same school's yearbooks for Lynne's sisters; one of them I knew. When I was in my teens, every summer I would go to Florida and spend a month with my grandfather and he would always make sure I spent a day with his sister-in-law, my Great Aunt Ann. I could probably count on my fingers how many times I saw Ann in my life, however, I am 100% sure this is Aunt Ann's yearbook photo from Newtown High School, 1938. 

The discovering of Ann in the the same school's yearbook at the right time period, I am not confident that this is a picture of my grandma Lynne.

Hi grandma.