Strangers with Some Gems

On October 9, 2023, a post appeared on the Facebook page of the Freeport Historical Society of Freeport, New York, an area settled by my 10th great-great grandfather, Edward Raynor, in the 1640s. The post shows a map from 1896, which is part of the Historical Society's museum collection. It includes a highlighted area that appears to delineate the boundaries of the town. Just above the northern perimeter is the name of my great-great grandfather, John M. Losee Jr. (March 25,1870 - May 24, 1940), written as "J. Losea" on the map. I commented that I was descended from him. 

Months later on July 24, 2024, a man, who I have never connected with before, replied with an image of my third great grandparents' marriage certificate; John's parents, John M. Losee (Sr.) (August 17, 1841 - February 10, 1918) and Susan Amelia Combs-Losee (October,1843 - January 8, 1904).

I had never seen the document before, I had no date for their marriage until that point, and we are unsure how his great grandmother came into possession of the document. But it is lovely.

You never know where, or who, might possess a piece of your family's history. I am delighted that it has been so well cared for and cherished for such a long time by its stewards, however they may or may not be related to me. Thank you, Russell!

October - Way Beyond Life Expectancy

According to data found on Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data, life expectancy in the United States has doubled since the 1860s. In 1860, life expectancy was 39.4 years, by 2020 it had risen to 78.9 years. In Canada, where my Walker ancestors lived, life expectancy in 1860 was slightly higher than in the U.S., 41.4 years. By 2020, Canadian life expectancy has also nearly doubled to 82.2 years. Canadians generally live longer. Nowadays we might notch that up to better healthcare, better diet, better food-safety standards, lower pollution, less stressful life-styles, who knows for sure. What we do know is Canadians generally live longer. 

My 5th great grandmother, Elizabeth Thompson-Walker, who lived in Barnston, Stanstead, Quebec, Canada for her adult life, lived well beyond even today's life expectancy. She was born in Scotland or Ireland in about 1761. She died on August 27, 1864. I'll give you a minute to do the math.

Yeah, 1864-1761 = 103 years old at the time of her death. 

Since I cannot find documentation of her birth I suppose her age at death is disputable. However, the documentation of her death in the Drouin Collection, the most notable collection of Canadian Vital and Church Records for Eastern Canada from 1621 to 1968, shows her age as 103; so I'm going with it.

Another Relative at Creedmoor

I am not shy about admitting to my struggles with depression and anxiety. There was a time when I would have said my depression was far more severe than my anxiety, although, I think I have lived with anxiety far longer. The two conditions often go hand-in-hand. My anxiety, for most of my life, was a daily battle. Nervousness and panic would overcome me in debilitating physical symptoms; nausea and vomiting were the most prevalent of them. This was true on a daily basis for most of my youth and through my mid-20s. Now it only hits me a couple times a year.

I am also not shy about admitting to my family members struggles with mental illnesses either. Now of course that is not fair of me but it is not that I point and call them each out publicly. Your health, your business; but trust me, it's in there and it is certainly among my dead.

I don't really get the persistent stigma about mental health issues. I mean, people have other fucked up organs. "Oh poor asthma people with your f-ed up lungs. Here, take this drug and you'll get better." The brain is just another organ in the body. But in any case...

I just found another relative who died while a patient at Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital in Queens, New York. 

Psychiatric institutions, in my opinion, really did begin as benevolent institutions. Some might argue that they were created to hide away the shamefully mentally ill people in our society, but I really think the medical community did want to understand these peoples' conditions and I think they have made great stride in addressing mental health maladies although we are indeed far from what is needed. It was only much later, after these institutions were establishment, when we started to see their state of disrepair and the medical community's indifference toward patients, if not outright cruelty and neglect.

I am currently reading Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York by Stacy Horn about Blackwell's Island, now known as Roosevelt Island. It was once the City's location for an asylum, a prison, hospital, workhouse, and almshouse. So far it's a great read that sheds a light on the deplorable conditions our mentally ill existed in. Anyway...

Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital was founded in 1912 as a farm colony for the Brooklyn State Hospital. It was thought that patients would benefit from fresh air and clean living in what was the farmland of Queens County, as opposed to disease ridden, urban hospitals of neighboring Brooklyn. To a modern day resident of New York it's kind of hard to imagine Queens as farmland; it is the second highest populated county in New York State, just after Brooklyn. Back at its inception though, patients at Creedmoor tended gardens and raised livestock on the hospital’s grounds. They also had access to the hospital gymnasium, swimming pool, theater, and were put to work in the hospital's laundries and kitchens. By mid-century, though, it housed about 7,000 patients. I found one statistic that by 1948 approximately 95,000 patients lived in 27 mental institutions across New York State; that is close to when my great grandfather was a resident of Creedmoor. He died there of a heart attack in 1946. 

By the 1960s-1980s the state pushed for deinstitutionalization, turning to more out-patient services and focusing on re-integrating the mentally ill into society. Laws governing the commitment of the mentally ill to such institutions became much more strict and therefor it was harder to involuntarily hospitalize people with mental illness. Now Creedmoor has only a few hundred patients. I don't know if we need more or less institutionalization of the mentally ill but we're not getting mentally healthier as a society, that is for sure.

In any case, my great-great grandmother's sister, Gertrude M. Joyce-Sheridan, appears to have been committed to Creedmoor. Her death certificate calls it the Creedmoor Division of Brooklyn State Hospital. Her primary cause of death is listed as chronic myocarditis; inflammation of the heart. It also includes general arteriosclerosis and psychosis. Without access to her medical records, which is rarely if ever possible as they are only ever released to the patient themselves, I speculate that she was a resident there because of dementia. It says psychosis but that is merely a disconnection from reality. It can be associated with a whole array of mental illnesses. Psychosis can develop from anything as benign as a lack of sleep or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar); to a serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression; or from a brain tumor, lupus, multiple sclerosis, syphilis, malaria, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, the list goes on and on. In short many conditions can lead to a break with reality.

The certificate states she was admitted to Creedmoor on May 3, 1932 and died there on April 21, 1934. Thus she was 2 weeks shy of having been a resident there for 2 years. It documents her age as 70 but according to my research she was born on February 7, 1863 making her a little over 71 at the time of her death and 69 at the time of her admittance to the facility. 

Gertrude's remains are interred at Calvary Cemetery in the Woodside/Long Island City area of Queens; in Cemetery #3, Section #17, Range #22, Plot EE, Grave #12.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 51: "Perseverance" - Great-great Grandma Annette Hinch-Henry Survives Strife and Helped Others to do the Same

The word "perseverance" brings to mind my great-great grandmother, Annette "Anne" Hinch-Henry (February 22, 1868 - March 2, 1952). In fact, I feel like Anne's life would make for a good movie and I know exactly who I would have play her... Can you guess who?

...Julia Roberts! I think she looks a lot like her. I didn't get those genes.

Anne was born in Barnamelia, by Knockanna, Co. Wicklow, Ireland in 1868. As far as I can tell her mother, Jane Kavanaugh-Hinch died in about 1875 leaving 6 children ranging in age from about 10 to 2. I have not been able to find a death record for Jane in any Irish registers. In fact, many of the details I have about the Hinch family are vague at best. 

For instance, I don't know when Anne came to the U.S. from Ireland. Various census records note her arrival in 1886, 1887, and possibly 1890. I did find a record for a Jas Hinch or Hench arriving on June 6, 1885 aboard the H.M.S. City of Chester with 2 daughters, Anne 22 and Sarah age 20. Now her father James Hinch did have 2 daughters, Anne and her younger sister, Sarah, but the ages are off a bit, not that that ever matters. I do think that 1885 arrival date is correct though. It is said she came to NY from Ireland with her widowed father after the death of her younger brother; that could be them. As if the loss of her mother and a younger sibling weren't enough tragedy, her father James dies in the City of New York on January 29, 1886, not long after their arrival in the U.S. I can only assume that her paternal uncle, Charles Hinch, assumed a role of father figure to Anne.

Nine years later, though, her uncle Charles Hinch dies on January 24, 1895. That same year Anne married to Victor Henry on June 18, 1895, maybe with the hope of finally having some security and a family of her own. The following year she gives birth to their first child, my great grandfather, Charles Aloysius Henry. The couple has six children in all. Only 3 of which survive to adulthood. The 10 years between the birth of her first child and the death of her 6th child, again, seem to me wrought with tragedy:

• March 26, 1896 - Child #1, Charles Aloysius Henry is born
• December 8, 1897 - Child #2, Mary Anne Henry is born
• April 6, 1899 - Mary Anne dies before her 2nd birthday
• November 14, 1899 - Child #3, Jane Veronica Henry is born
• July 10, 1902 - Child #4, Victory Henry is born
• June 24, 1904 - Child #5, James Henry is born
• July 16, 1905 - James dies shortly after his first birthday.
• February 7, 1906 - Child #6, Robert Henry is born
• February 10, 1906 - Robert only lives 3 days.

Oh but it gets worse. 

On June 23, 1907 her husband, Victor Henry, committed a murder-suicide. Being widowed with 3 small children (Charles 11, Jane 7, and Victor 4) would be hard enough but add to that the shame of losing a husband to suicide in a very public display must have been a horrendous weight to bear. To make matters even worse, Victor's victim was Anne's first cousin, her Uncle Charles Hinch's daughter, Mary Ann Hinch-Cassidy. Scandalous articles appear in local papers speculating that Victor was enamored with the Widow Cassidy if not outright having an affair with her. Mary Ann's death also left 3 orphaned children.

Anne had to find someway to financially support herself and her three children. A story shared by my grandmother's cousins was that initially she put her children into an orphanage. Where ever this home for children was, it was located near a beach. Charles, being the oldest child, saw that his siblings weren't being properly fed at this facility, so he would hide food from his lunch in his pockets, take it out to the beach, and bury it. Later, his siblings would retrieve the food so they would have something to eat. Anna learned of this and immediately brought her children home. She took on odd jobs, mostly cleaning for people. At one point she worked at Aquaduct Raceway in Queens cleaning at what is a pretty well know horse racing track. She also took in foster children which I am sure came with some money from the state as it still does today. In several census records I saw children other than her own living with Anne.

In the 1915 NY State Census, Anne had 6 children living with her; the three that we know are her biological children and Joseph (age 3), Frank (age 1), and Antonio (age 1) all listed as with the surname Henry. In the 1920 U.S. Census she had three "foundlings" in her care; George Hula age 4, and twin girls age 2, Marah and Mary Gericie. In 1930, Victor is the only one of Anna's children still living with her but they also had an 8 year-old "boarder" named Edward Reed.

My Great Uncle Bobby told me Edward died of appendicitis while in Anna's care. He recalled that his grandma, Anne, took Eddie to the doctor's office with terrible stomach pain and the doctor dismissed his ailment as an act; that Eddie's was just trying to get out of going to school. Apparently though, he was treated for appendicitis because according to his death certificate, Edward Reed died on December 7, 1937 at the age of 16 at Jamaica Hospital of gangrene following an appendectomy conducted on November 19, 1937. He is buried with Anne at St. John's Cemetery in Queens, NY. Anna signed his death certificate as his guardian and Uncle Bobby recalled Anne was devastated with grief at Eddie's death.

Edward, George, Marah, Mary, Joseph, Frank, and Antonio are just the 7 foster children I know of; I imagine there were many others.

Now burying one child is horrific enough, Anne buried 3 of her own babies and a foster child and goes on to outlive 2 of her own adult children. Both my great grandfather, Charles, and his younger brother Victor predecease their mother. On September 30, 1940, Victor drown at the age of 38, overcome in a storm while fishing with his brother-in-law Clarence Edsall (July 26, 1890 - March 30, 1955). My grandmother recalled the day her Uncle Victor died. She was just 11 when the police arrived at their door in East Hempstead, Long Island, now Uniondale, to inform her father, Charles, that Victor had died. 

My great grandpa, Charles, died on June 14, 1949 at the age of 53 from a rare form of cancer; cancer of the peritoneum. The peritoneum is a thin layer of tissue that lines the abdomen. It is believed he may have developed the cancer because of chemicals he was exposed to while carrying out his profession as a paint manufacturer.

Although I did not know my Great-great Grandmother, I know Anne must have been a strong woman with a gentle heart. She seems to have showered great kindness on the unfortunate, even though she herself was likely viewed as unfortunate. That's a nice legacy to leave behind; to survive strife and help others to do the same.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 35: "Free Space" - 3rd Great Grandma, Sabina "Lean" Krantzel-Prinz's Death

Hmm, I am interpreting this week's theme to mean I can write about anything I want.

I am always especially intrigued by pieces of the puzzle that don't quite fit together. What I mean by that is when you find documentation that you are sure is associated with one of your ancestors but it doesn't quite fit. For me, this often happens with my family members who Anglicized their surnames but sometimes, like in this case, there is some typos going on. Ah, human error. I love it.

My great-great grandmother, Sabina Krantzel-Prinz, was killed by an automobile on the streets of Manhattan on April 24, 1926. She died on April 25, but she was struck by a car the day before. I learned that from her New York City issued death certificate. 

This very sad discovery prompted me to look for a newspaper article. Newspaper articles are juicy bits. They add so much detail to ones family history. They tell the story.

So what the death certificate says is that Sabina died at 6:45 a.m. on April 25, 1926 at Flowers Hospital in Manhattan due to a "fractured skull, laceration of brain, struck by auto at 76th St. & First Ave. April 24, 1926."

Now I know my family lived at 1465 1st Ave from the 1920 census record which you can see below but you will note that she is listed as Lena Prince, living there with her husband John (or Johann) and grandchildren, Albert Kamm (age 10) and Margaret Kamm (age 9). I have other records in which she is recorded at Lena.

I am sure that the death certificate and 1920 census record are for the same woman.

I went off to look for newspaper articles that may have appeared in any New York City based newspaper on or shortly after April 24, 1926. I used Newspapers.com and all sorts of search terms but nothing came up for Sabina Prince or Sabina Prinz or Lena Prince/Prinz. Intent on finding something I did the Hail Mary search and just looked for articles that contained the word "car" and were published on a specific date. I did one day at a time starting with April 25. Crazy intense work but I was confident some newspaper would mention this fatal car accident.

And then I found this in the Daily News (New York) from Tuesday, April 27, 1926 page 6 under the title "Unlicensed Driver Speeds to 15-Day Sentence in Jail."

It reads, "John Lunnie, 35, of 348 East 118th st., a chauffeur, charged with having run down and killed Mrs. Lena Pringle, 65, of 1465 1st ave. when driving an automobile at 7th st. and 1st ave. on April 24; held in $2,500 for a hearing on May 4."

Pringle? At 7th street? I searched for New York City death records from the same date with the name Pringle and could not find one. I'm confident that this messed up little mention in the Daily News is about my 3rd great grandma, Sabina "Lena" Prinz/Prince. I'm sure of it.

With all the errors about Lena though, I can't say I am confident the man who killed her was really named John Lunnie. I can't find a John Lunnie in the 1920 or 1930 census in NYC. And I have tried looking for some mention of the hearing on May 4th but you know how the news is, you rarely hear about the aftermath. 

When you come across supportive evidence that seems really far off the mark though, hold on to it. Trust your gut a bit but also write yourself a solid justification for why the tidbit seems to make sense to you in your research. When something or someone comes along to prove otherwise, be willing to let your conviction be overturned. Until then, I think if he was unlicensed, I sure hope he got more than a 15-day sentence.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 26: "Identity" - Great Grandpa Almond Desjardins or Albert Gardner

In general my family lines possess rather short surnames, easily pronounceable by those of English extraction. Hell, most of them are English in origin. I don't see a lot of Anglicizing in my family tree. 

Looking at my great-great grandparents and their surnames, most of them don't even have more than 6 letters to them. There is Earle, Samms, Losee, Henry, Hinch, Sauer, Gray, Smith, Sharp, McLean, Fay, Joyce, Prince. Oh, ok, there is Krantzel! 8 letters in that one. Through generations Krantzel was cut down from Krantzlein. I guess that is Anglicized but then there is Desjardins. 

Desjardins became Gardner. Yeah, not even close in spelling but rather its Anglicization was based on its meaning. If you have taken high school French you can probably tell Desjardins means "from the gardens." Likely that means that somewhere back in time I descend from some Frenchman with a green thumb. 

Any of you reading this who are Canadian will probably associate the name Desjardins with different green stuff - - money! Although, Canadian money comes in an array of colors really. The Desjardins Group is a Canadian federation of financial services and credit unions, the largest in North America. It was founded in 1900 in Lévis, Quebec by a man named Alphonse Desjardins. I have Alphonse Desjardins in my family tree. That was my great grandfather's brother's name. Likely no relation to bank founder though. I mean not close enough a relation to think they are just going to give me money without expecting it to be paid back with interest.

My great-great grandfather, Damas Desjardins, came to the United States from Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the early 1880s. I don't have any information about his immigration but according to my great-great grandmother's naturalization papers, the couple married on May 14, 1884 in New York City, so Damas was in New York before then.

In Damas's obituary from the Patchogue Advance in October of 1911 it states that "Mr. Desjardins was known to his friends here by the name of Gardiner, an Anglicization of his French family name."

His son, my great grandfather, also used Gardner as his surname. However, I do believe my great grandfather used his names to play with his identity. 

Great grandpa was born Almond Desjardins in Long Island City, Queens County, New York on September 21, 1891. He died on February 11, 1946 in the same county but known as Albert Gardner. 

There seems to be no official documentation of a legal name change for him which, based on the time period is not surprising. Names could be pretty fluid back then before Social Security. Lack of official documentation of the name change has also resulted in lots of confusion including a fellow genealogist who handing me a photocopy stating, "This article is about you great grandfather." Well sure the subject of the article, dragged into court for abandonment of his wife and children, had the same name as my great grandfather but my great grandfather died 2 years before that newspaper article was printed.  She whipped that paper out of my hand and tore it up with a besmirched look on her face. Sorry, not my Al.

The first record I have for great grandpa is the 1900 U.S. Federal Census in which he is recorded as Almod Desjirdins living at 332 Hopkins Avenue in Queens, NY. The street no longer exists by that name but I believe it was in the Astoria section of Queens.

I discovered several newspaper articles from 1906 & 1907 in which great-grandpa's early brushes with the law are described in detail. Here he is identified as A. Gardner, Almond Gardener, and Almond Gardner.

December 19, 1906

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Astoria Pastor Robbed

Sneak Thieves Raided the Parsonage and Stole All the Children's Christmas Gifts

With the rounding up of gangs of hoodlums in the Astoria section of Long Island City comes the news of the robbery on Sunday night of the home of the Rev. W. L. Darby, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, in that place. It was while Pastor Darby was conducting services in his church, a short distance from his home, at Franklin street and the Boulevard, that the culprits got into the house through a kitchen window. All the family were at church and the intruders were free to ransack the house.

Among the articles carried off was a bundle of Christmas presents which the pastor and his wife had purchased for their children, relatives and friends. In their search, however, they overlooked $20 in cash which was in a bureau drawer which they rifled.

More than a dozen robberies have occurred throughout that section within the past month, and they all bear the impress of the sneak thief. In consequence sundry gangs that loiter around the village with no visible means of support are gradually being placed out of the way of temptation for the winter, and five more suspects were added to the bunch yesterday when police rounded up and captured A. Gardner, 16 years old, of 92 Sanford street; James Kidney, 16 years old, of 50 Mills street; Frank Donnelly, 15 years old, of 140 Broadway; James Sullivan, 20 years old, of 137 Ridge street, and Nicholas Donato, 15 year old, of Ridge street. This crowd had quit their homes and were living in an old building owned by the Joseph Wild Rug Company. They were charged with trespassing ad were held until their recent prowlings can be investigated.

November 8, 1907

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Patchogue Lad in Trouble

He is Charged with Stealing Brass from Vacant Houses in L.I. City

Almond Gardener, 16 years old of Patchogue L.I. was arrested by the Long Island City police last night, and back of his arrest is an interesting story.

Young Gardener comes of a good family. He has an industrious brother living in Long Island City, and when he left Patchogue several days ago, he took up his residence with that brother. On Wednesday night two unoccupied frame houses, 86 and 88 Main street, Long Island City were broken into and damage done to the extent of $200. The damage was due to the desire of the marauders to get possession of certain pieces of brass in the plumbing work.

Unfortunately for the guilty parties, their first visit to the buildings resulted so successfully that they returned last night, and one of them was caught. The prisoner described himself as Almond Gardener of Patchogue. As Detectives Hufman and Ebbers of the Astoria Precinct have discovered where the brass pieces were sold for 55 cents, they expect to arrest Gardener's companion.

The police say that about a year ago Gardener and another boy names James Kidney were found sleeping in buildings near the rug works in Astoria. They were arrested and committed to the Catholic Protectory. Mrs. Gardener finally got her boy out of the institution and also succeeded in having his companion released. The Gardener family had resided in Astoria but moved to Patchogue before the boys were let out. They were taken to Patchogue from the Protectory, but after behaving themselves for about four months, the pair cut loose. Kidney was the first one to incur the displeasure of Mrs. Gardener and he was sent away. In three weeks young Gardener packed up his grip and started out to find a place with more life and go in it, and now he awaits the action of the courts.

November 8, 1907

Brooklyn Daily Star

Gardner Fell From Grace

Patchogue was too Slow so he came back to L.I. City

And got into trouble again - charged with burglary in Astoria

Tale of a big-Hearted Mother who tried to reform two bad boys and what came of her efforts

 

About thirty cents in cash and the prospect of a term in some penal institution is the reward Almond Gardner gets for taking the leading part in a burglary in Astoria on Wednesday night that resulted in theft of over $35 worth of lead pipe and plumbing fixtures and damage to the building which $100 will not pay for.

 

Gardner is the lad who was sent away to the Catholic Protectory in Manhattan about a year ago because he and another boy, James Kidney, persisted in sleeping out night in the stables and outhouses, rather than stay in the soft, warm beds that their homes provided

 

Gardner comes ...illegible... the good influence of a comfortable home, and seems to prefer the excitement of the under-world to obeying his parents.

After he had been in the Protectory for a few months, his folks moved from Astoria to Patchogue, and his mother, thinking that life in a country village would offer fewer temptations to evil doing, managed to ensure his release from the institution.

 

Took Both Boys Home

 

When she went over to Manhattan to get her boy, her attention was attracted to young Kidney, who looked pale and emaciated as the result of his confinement. Her mother heart was touched and she begged to be allowed to take Kidney home with her too. Kidney has no mother having been living with an aunt.

 

She took both boys with her to Patchogue and set to work to reform them. Kidney lasted about four months before he fell from grace. He could not stain the strain any longer, so he stole from his benefactor and fled out into the alluring world.

 

Gardner Lasted Longer

 

Gardner clung to the paths of rectitude with commendable tenacity up to about three weeks ago. Then he begged to be allowed to come to Long Island City to visit his brother who lives on Eighth street. Once here he became fascinated with the old life again, and began to consort with evil companions.

 

The climax came when he and another boy, wo has not yet been arrested, tore boards off one of the rear windows of the houses at 86 and 88 Main street and forced an entrance. They tipped out all the lead pipe they could carry and took away six sewer traps. This stuff they sold to a junk dealer for fifty-five cents, It cost new about $25. A plumber will probably charge over $100 to repair the damage.

 

Not content with this escapade, the boys came back later on to get more loot but they were frightened away. Detectives Hufman and Ebers were put on their trail with the result that Gardner was caught Thursday evening.

 

He readily confessed to the part he played in the burglary and said that it was no use for him to try to be good, anyway. He was arraigned in the Fifth street police court this Friday and held for the Grand Jury at $1000 bail.

 

December 21, 1907
Brooklyn Daily Star

 

Sing Sing for John Miller
Long Island City Man who Swindled Magnus Larsen sent up on Suspended Sentence - Five Other Given a Chance to Reform

 

County Judge Burt Jay Humphrey was very lenient with all but one of the six men who were brought before him this Saturday for sentence. Suspended sentences were handed out as Christmas presents to Henry Purse, Frank Schowsky, Almond Gardner, Joseph Daley and Joseph Casenza, and it may be safely said that few Christmas remembrances found in stockings of Santa Claus' large array of friends will be appreciated more than these tokens of judicial leniency.

...

Almond Gardner, a former Astoria boy whose folks now live at Patchogue took a quantity of lead pipe and brass sewer traps from a house belonging to George B. Ruthman on Main street last November. He is only seventeen years old and promised to behave.

... 

 

As mentioned in the above articles, by the 1910 census, the family has moved out of the city to Patchogue, Long Island in Suffolk County, New York. Here with the household, great grandpa is listed as Elman DesGardin.

On June 5, 1917, great grandpa registered for the WWI draft out in Kansas City, Missouri where he is registered as Albert Gardner. I know it is him because the birthdate matches, it states he was born in New York, and he was known to be a painter. Also by 1917, his father, Damas, was deceased and thus he would have likely been financially supporting just his mother.

After finding his WWI Draft Registration, I went looking for other military documents and I came across one that is out of sync with this timeline I am building but perhaps significant to understanding of his character and development of identity.

This record is from the U.S., Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 on Ancestry.com. It shows an Albert Gardner who enlisted in the U.S. Army on November 19, 1910 who was from New York and was 21 years and 1 month old at the time of his enlistment. My Albert would have been 19 years and 1 month on November 19, 1910 but I still think it may be him in this record because it indicates he was in the 3rd Calvary which is what I think it says on his WWI Draft Registration Card above. However, this record shows he was dishonorably discharged from Ft. Sam Houston in Texas on July 17, 1911. I don't know what all the notations below mean but maybe someone reading this does.

During the enumeration of the1920 census, I think he may have been residing in Oklahoma City, OK as I have found an Albert Gardner of the appropriate age listed as a printer at an office. The penmanship is rough and perhaps he was still actually working as a painter.

By September 1922 he is back in New York where he marries my great grandmother, Mary Elizabeth "Mayme" Sharp on September 5.

If you examine the above image closely, great grandpa reports his name to be Albert Gardner. His father was recorded as Thomas, not Damas Desjardins. Damas sounds like Thomas. Albert's mother is listed as Mary Desjardine although her real first name was Malvina and her maiden name was Ethier. I wonder if these errors are a result of the clerk's confusion or was it that Albert/Almond was reporting what he thought would be easiest for the clerk to record. I mean really, what did the clerk need to know. The couple did not have to produce documentation to verify these details. So it says Mary. Whateve...

From that point forward, including the 1925 New York State Census, and 1930 & 1940 U.S. Federal Census records, I only see him recorded as Albert Gardner. In all those records he is, married with children, living in Queens County, New York.

I discovered that at the time of his death on February 11, 1946 he was a resident of Creedmore Hospital, an institution for the mentally ill, in Queens, New York. He died of a heart attack but according to his New York City Death Certificate he was a resident of the hospital due to a diagnosis of schizophrenia. 

Schizophrenia is a very serious disease that involves far more than just hallucinations and talking to people that aren't there, which is so often how it is depicted on television and in movies. However, I wonder if the fluidity of his name throughout his lifetime was really just a result of the family's interest in Anglicizing their names to sound more American or if the name changes had something to do with his brush with the law or his general mental well-being. 

Often with the fluidity of name comes the question of how to record someone, by their birth name or by the name they went by. Personally, I believe a person should be recorded by the name they chose to go by with the researcher's awareness that their subject may appear with different names in their records.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 23: "Mistake" - 3rd great grandparents, Lawrence & Bridget Fay

For awhile I had a cousin who lived in Saugeries, New York. Around the same time she lived there, I discovered that my maternal grandmother's family lived in Saugerties from the mid-to-late 1800s. It was a bit of surprise to me really. My maternal grandmother died before I was born. Thus, I have little family lore regarding this branch of my family. I think of them as my Irish immigrants who settled in New York City, though. But oh contraire mon frère. 

My 3rd great grandfather, Lawrence Fay (About 1829 - December 23, 1879), settled in Saugerties, Ulster County, New York, probably in the 1840s. He may have been a pre-famine Irish immigrant. I'm not sure as I have not been able to confirm his immigration date or where in Ireland he was born. 

The Great Famine occurred in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. During that time more than 1 million Irish died of starvation caused by phytophthora infestans, the fungus that invaded the potato plant; a staple of the Irish diet.

Lawrence was absolutely living in Saugerties at the time of the 1850 U.S. Federal Census. Pre-children, here Lawrence is listed with his wife, Bridget, living with a group of people that I don't know as being related.

The couple had 7 children. The oldest of which was my great great grandfather, Michael Fay (October 1852 - January 13, 1915).

I can't find much about Lawrence and Bridget's lives in Saugerties but I did find Lawrence listed in the 1880 Mortality Census, meaning he died before May 31, 1880.

If you find a relative in a Mortality Schedule you get so much information.

I have underlined my Lawrence in red but will transcribe the information as well below.

Fay, Lawrence. 
Age: 60. 
Sex: Male. 
Race: White. 

Marital Status: Married. 

Birthplace: Ireland. 

Father's birthplace: Ireland. 

Mother's birthplace: Ireland. 

Occupation: Blacksmith

Month in which the person died: December. 
Cause of Death: Chronic Bright's. 
How long a resident of the county?: 1
Place of Death: 445 W 40
Attending Physician: H.D. Joy

This information led me to a death certificate for Lawrence in the City of New York, not in Saugerties. However, his Manhattan death certificate indicates he is buried in Saugerties. In the red circle below I think it says Saugerties Ulster Co. He died on December 23, 1879 and was buried on Christmas Day. I didn't think Catholics buried on Christmas Day but the certificate says buried 25 Dec.

This find prompted me to look for his wife's, Bridget's, death certificate in the City of New York. She too is buried in Saugerties. She died on March 3, 1892.

Okay so we got this right? 

Lawrence Fay, age 60, died December 23, 1879.

Bridget Fay, age 60, died March 3, 1892.

Lookie here though. Their headstone at St. Mary of the Snows Roman Catholic Church in Saugerties, New York. That says Lawrence Fay Died 1880 aged 65 yrs Bridget Fay Died 1890 aged 60 yrs.

Mistakes were made people. Mistakes were made.

How these mistake were made I am not sure. I figure someone loved them enough to put up a stone long after this couple died and just gave the stone carver whatever information they thought they knew. Still...its a gesture of love and I am grateful there is a marker there, even if it isn't accurate.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 22: "Conflict" - 3rd great grandpa, Daniel Krantzel's elusive date of death.

For this theme of "Conflict" I'm writing about unresolved conflicting information for in records.

A lot of my genealogy students and clients get all bent about "misspelled" names. I try to explain spelling is a modern convention and that there are many reasons a name might not be spelled the way you expect it to be. You kind of have to let it go already and accept that spelling never counted.

Frequently I am then asked, "Well, how do you know it is the right person then if the name is not spelled correctly?" The answer to which is you corroborate the record with other details.

And then there are times when the records just leave you stumped. Welcome 3rd great grandpa, Heinrich Daniel Krantzel...or Daniel Heinrich...or is it just Daniel..oh, wait, occasionally you went by Henry. Oh but your birth registration says Johann Heinrich Daniel Kraenzel. Ah, were you a secret agent? Forget the spelling of the last name, when did you died exactly? I don't know. I'm not sure anyone knew. And burial location? Forget that. Look at this mess...

This is his German birth registration:

What? Can't read it? Yeah, me neither. Thus I am relying upon the index which states:

Name: Johann Daniel Heinrich Kraenzel
Event Type: Geburt (Birth)
Birth Date: 21. Mai 1825 (21 May 1825)
Birth Place: Worms, Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate), Deutschland (Germany)
Father: Heinrich Kraenzel
Mother: Anna Catharina Kraenzel

How do I know this is my guy? Well, I have multiple other documents that state he was born in Worms, Germany in 1825 including his U.S. Civil War Muster Roll Abstract which corroborates his place of birth and, with a little math, places his birth in 1825.

Other records, such as the one below, the U.S. Civil War Pension Index, led me to request his Civil War pension file.

Filed beginning in October 1889 by his widow, Elizabeth Goetz-Krantzel (February 12, 1833 - August 25, 1896), it tells me Ole Danny Boy - or whatever you want to call him - had died before October 1889. Can't have a widow without a dead husband, right? Maybe.

The pension file is thick. I see pages stamped by the government ranging in date from 1889 to 1897. Among them I see two potential dates of death for Daniel. On the Application for Widow's Pension form Elizabeth reports that she is "the widow of  Daniel Krantzel, who belonged to Company B, 8th Regiment, N.Y. Volunteers...died at Cincinnati, Ohio on the 8th day of April A.D. 1877..." "...of disease..."

Also among the documents is a death certificate from the City of New York prefaced by a letter written by E. Krantzel, son of Henry D. Krantzel. E. would have to be Ernest Krantzel (October 12, 1863 - October 7, 1921), the youngest son, #4 of the couple's 5 children.

Ernest writes:

Health Department,

Sanitary Bureau

No. 301 Mott Street

Division of Vital Statistics,

New York, ________189_

To the Hon. Board of Health:

I respectfully request that the accompanying "Corrected Certificate" of the death of Henry D. Krantzel, 59 years old, who died opposite 168 Front St., on Nov 2, 1884, be filed with the original Certificate of the death of an "Unknown Man", about 55 years old, who died opposite 168 Front St., on Nov 2, 1884, said unknown man being since identified as Henry D. Krantzel.

Yours respectfully,

E. Krantzel,

Son of Henry D. Krantzel

7 St. Mark's Place

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 17: "Document" - NYC Vital Records Free Online

Recently, on March 15, 2022, New York City's Municipal Archives finally made their vital records accessible online for free. For years and years and years I was either traipsing to Chambers Street in Manhattan or a Family History Center (FHC) in Plainview, Long Island to view these records. In either place you could view the image for free but very often I would order the certificate online rather than making the visit. It would cost about $20 online but if I knew I wanted a physical copy and I had a certificate number from one of the many databases that indexed the NYC Vital records, it was not worth the cost of a train ticket and/or parking and the price of gas to make the trek. In-person though, you could view the record for free or purchase it at a reduced cost. At the Archives I think it was $11 in-person and the FHC charged the cost of a photocopy, if their machine was working.

I can't even estimate how much money I have given to the New York City Municipal Archives over time, easily hundreds of dollars. So many of my ancestors were born, married, and/or died in the City of New York. Now to get these images online for free in the convenience of my living room. Woo-freakin'-hoo!

I am actively trying to download as many of them as I can now before, God forbid, the City decides that charging for access was making them revenue they need. Thus far I have converted 3 marriage records for all 3 sets of my great grandparents who were married in the City of New York to jpegs and uploaded them as images to Ancestry. 

Now, you ought to be aware that images uploaded to Ancestry become accessible to all Ancestry users. That means if you have an image you don't want someone to copy into their own tree, don't put it up. 

I am struggling to find some of the records that the City indicates should have already been digitized. Even with a certificate number, though, they don't come up. Hmm. Anyway...

Very often the cost of purchasing a document is prohibitive to the researcher. For example, my students in my summer genealogy course through St. John's University's Division of Library & Information Science often only have the resources to finance access to Ancestry.com for the month duration of the course. They come to rely on the index of these NYC vital records. I always explain to them, though, that the index is really no substitute for the document itself. You might not even have the right record if you don't look to see the other information on the record. Betcha there is more than one John Smith who died in the City of NY in the year and month that your John Smith did. How do you know it's your John Smith if the index doesn't show you his parents names and/or the burial location? Huh? Things like that.

In short, genealogists want the document.

There are all sorts of juicy tidbits that may appear in the margins on the document. Marginalia does not get indexed. For example, my favorite New York City Death Record is for my third great grandmother Mary Carillion-Henry. I know, only a genealogist would have a favorite death record. Kind of creepy, April. It is my favorite death record because of this little note, though. It was the gateway to discovering Mary's parents, siblings, and more accurate spelling of their surname. Look at this:

That is the signature of Mary's son, August Henry, the informant at the time of her death. It states that he "Could not ascertain  Mother's maiden name." 

Gorgeous! Because that tells me not to trust any instance of August recording his mother's maiden name. He doesn't know!

And that doesn't show up in any index. You have to see the document to see that. 

So go look for them, especially now if you have family members who passed through NYC! Stop looking at me. Go look! https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/ 

Genealogical Excitement Afoot

The last few days have genealogically very significant. Aside from the release of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census and New York City Municipal Archives making their vital records freely accessible online, several of my recent DNA clients had milestones.

Yeah, in my free time (Haha - like I have any free time), I have been picking up DNA projects hear and there for the last few years. I've been really quite successful with my work on unpuzzling DNA matches to find biological parents. There is something very gratifying about helping others to learn the truth.

• On Wednesday, March 30, a man I was helping to figure out who was his maternal grandfather was, received confirmation in the form of a DNA match to a half-aunt.

 

• Yesterday, April 2, the client I had to tell he was adopted, spoke with his bio mother for the first time in a video call.

 

• Today, April 3, I attended a local event with the woman for whom I found her bio father for last year. There I met her husband, daughter, maternal grandparents, as well as her bio father, his wife, their son, and her bio paternal grandmother.

Another incredible thing that I learned about yesterday came in the form of an email from a former graduate student. In my course my students are required to create a well-researched tree on Ancestry.com. They don't have to make it public but we use it to communicate about their research. 

This student had her tree public and last week her family received a knock on the door from the FBI. Yup, apparently they had a 2017 cold case. The unidentified remains lead back to a family my student had in her tree. Her mother hadn't tested, so it wasn't that they found them through a DNA match. No. The DNA matches they did have must not have been close enough or did not supply substantial family trees. Thus the found my student's tree and are now testing to confirm if this deceased individual is connected to her family line.

Kind of fabulous right?

DNA testing opens a whole can of worms, maybe not for you. maybe you're biological parents are legitimately the people you were raised by but I bet you anything someone in your list of DNA matches is searching for their biological family either because of adoption or misattributed paternity. 

And if your DNA or family tree can bring peace to a distant family member in the form of notification that their loved one is no longer a John Doe, why wouldn't you want to be part of that?

Exciting stuff, my friends, exciting stuff.

If feels good to give people the truth.

Newly Available Records: 1950 Census & NYC Vital Records

Some exciting things have happened in the last 2 weeks. One of course has been the much awaited release of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census. The other came as a great surprise to me, the release of the New York City's historical vital records online.

Yes, that is right. On March 15, 2022, the City of New York released their historic vital records online, for free, searchable from home for download and print - for FREE. https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/

The index to these records have been available online for a very long time. Compiled by the Italian Genealogy Group and German Genealogy Group, the index is available on their respective websites, in Ancestry.com, and through FamilySearch.org. 

In the past I would rely on the FamilySearch.org index more often than not. For several reasons really. One, it was a more robust index record. It showed much more than just the name of the individual, county, and date of event. The FamilySearch index record showed the name of the individual, the county, the date of event AND often the name of the persons' parents, addresses, etc. depending on the type of record. Secondly, though, if you went to a Family History Center you could view the images of the records for free there, just like you can at home now. There I could view and print the records I wanted without traipsing into Manhattan. One could go to the New York City Municipal Archives at 30 Chambers St. in Manhattan and look at the vital records there. When I started doing that the records were on microfilm. Then they migrated them to digital images. I would scroll through microfilm there for hours though making wonderful discoveries. And I could look for free and transcribe the record by hand for free. In-person though I could also purchase a copy for a reduced price from ordering a record. I believe ordering online most recently had cost me $18.50. In-person it cost me $11, I think. Sometimes it was worth the trip but when you calculate in the cost of taking the train or driving in and parking, sometimes I'd just order the record but it was far too expensive to just guess and order something that was not for your person.

Now, vital records include birth certificates, marriage records, and death certificates. These records vary in date range based on the type of record.

Birth Certificates: 1855-1909

Marriage Certificates: 1866-1937

Death Certificates: 1866-1948

But don't let those start dates deceive you. Record keeping in NY did not really take hold until the 1880s. Those earlier dates reflect records that exist but it wasn't required by law to register birth, marriages, or deaths in New York State until June of 1880 for deaths and sometime in 1881 for for births and marriages. 

Vital records are typically managed by the state. Except in the instance of New York City. They are the only entity in the entire country that manages their own vital records, Sure city and town clerks might also have a register of vital events that occurred in their town but the documentation is handled by the state (except for NYC). 

One has to know where the event took place to know where to order the appropriate certificate from. Just because your relative lived their whole life in NY doesn't mean they couldn't have died on a road trip to New Jersey or while away on vacation in Florida.

So this has been very exciting to browse and download records from the City of New York for my dead people. Most of the documents I had already but not in digital format so I have been finding them online, downloading the records, and then converting them to jpegs and attaching them to my family tree on Ancestry. 

Now the 1950 census release was not a surprise. We have been waiting for that for 72 years. In the U.S. we take a census of the population every 10 years, on the years ending in "0". However, those records are not released to the public for 72 years. The aggregate data is published early on, telling us how many people live in the country breaking it down by locations, age, sex, and race. The actually census records themselves, listing residents by name, does not come out until 72 years after the record was made. That is really a measure of identity projection for the citizenry. 72 is life expectance, although that age is really increasing in our time, but still they figure in 72 year most of the people recorded in a specific census will likely be deceased and if not, they certainly will not be living with the same family set.

I was so jazzed to look for my father in the 1950 census. He was born in 1949 so he should be in there living with his parents who were married in 1948. Well - - I can't find them. 

I have found their block. I have read through every page of their enumeration district and multiple surrounding districts but there is no entry that I can find for their house; not even a note that says "no one was home." Funny as that sounds, "no one was home" is a common entry on the pages of the 1950 census.

In fact, I am offering a reward for anyone who can find my father, his parents, or his paternal grandparents in the 1950 census because I give up. I know, I know, it's only day 2 of having access to the records but I have had so much success finding others that I can't with dad no more.

The first step is to know where your people lived. Easier said then done, I know, but some of our living septuagenarians (those 70 and older, well, 72 in this case) are in these records.

If you have a potential location you can look up the Enumeration District (ED) on a map and see the ED number. My grandparents lived in Merrick, New York, which is in Nassau County. Looking at a map clearly showed their block in ED 30-338.

ED 30-338 is a 46 page document. Once in the correct ED, you can through in a surname and it might take you to the correct page of the census. That is what happened for me and finding my Drew cousins who lived across the street from my grandparents.

But no Earles show up. Either they were somewhere else that we don't know about - but I've looked in other EDs and areas of Nassau - or the census taker skipped that side of their street. As through all of time, mistakes were made, people.

Those images above were taken from https://1950census.archives.gov/ 

Go there. Give it a shot. See if you can find your people.

I have found both of my maternal grandparents (not yet married to one another), Grandpa Earle's brother, 3 out of 5 of my Grandma Earle's siblings, one of Grandma Earle's sister-in-laws, Grandma Earle's mother and grandmother, and a researching friend's family.

Today I plan to find my Grandma Earle's sister Ann, her brother Charlie, Grandma Gardner's sister Ann, and maybe Grandpa Gardner's sister Lois.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 9: "Females" - great-great-great aunt, Isabelle Nancy McLean

I think that aunts fill a really important role in one's life. If for no other reason, they have the ability to help a child understand the parent. I have 4 magnificent nieces. No boys here. Just beautiful feisty girls. I certainly have much more experience in dealing with their mothers than any of the girls do, simply based on my age. As the oldest sibling, my nieces' mothers have been my sisters their whole lives. So, I would hope as the girls grow up, they each know they can come to me for some insight into why their mom is being like that. What else are aunts for? Besides showering them with gifts and field trips .

The women in my family are strong, independent, hardworking women. By hardworking, I do not mean they worked outside the home necessarily. Historically the women in my family have held very traditional roles; they were mothers and homemakers for the most part. Except for the women on my mother's paternal line, almost none of my foremothers have an occupation recorded in a census record. My mother, though, descends from several women who were listed as nurses in census records and city directories. One of those women was Aunt Belle.

Back in 2012, early on in the start of my blogging days, I wrote about Aunt Belle. She is a story I often revisit in my mind but she deserves revisit in word. Aunt Belle was Isabelle Nancy McLean. She was born on April 4, 1871 in Stanstead, Quebec, Canada. She died on May 24, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. She was the younger sister of my great-great grandmother, Lydia Ann McLean-Sharp (15 September 1868 - unknown).

As you can see I don't know when my great-great grandmother died. I can estimate that it is between 1911 and 1915. I also don't know when Belle moved from Canada to Lowell, Massachusetts but it was prior to WWI. When her niece, my great grandmother Mary Elizabeth "Mayme" Sharp-Gardner (2 October 1891 - 25 January 1961), moved to the U.S. with her younger brother Daniel, it was Aunt Belle who they went to live with. This signifies to me that there was an obvious caring relationship between Aunt Belle and her niece, Mayme. It is also meaningful to mention here that Mayme is one of the women in my family tree who also listed as a nurse in several U.S. census records; just like her Aunt Belle.

It was actually a medium who told me I'd research this Aunt Belle which is the strangest of all my genealogy research stories.  A friend of mine has a sister, Mary, who is a medium. Regardless of how you feel about psychics, Mary is no joke. I had never had a reading before I sat with her. She said the most amazing things to me; things no one could have possibly know. And I am sure everyone who goes to a psychic and is taken back by what they say, says that; "the medium told me things no one else could possibly know." But can you tell me how Mary could have known this...

There were many things Mary said during my reading that still stand out to me, including that it was wonderful to read someone who knew their family history. I do believe the spirit of our loved ones surround us and it was easy for me to understand who Mary was referring to in the reading. Towards the end of the session Mary said to me, "You're going to come across two family names in your research; Williams and Evans." It didn't strike me as remarkable at the time; I mean, they aren't that uncommon of surnames. In fact, I completely dismissed the Williams at the time because my Cousin Kelly had recently married into a Williams family. I took what Mary said with a grain of salt and filed it away.

She then asked me, "Who is David?" I shrugged. I didn't know a David. I mean I had in my lifetime met many Davids. I had worked with a few. My father's cousin had a son named David, but I didn't really know him well. Nope, I didn't really know any David really well.

Not more than 3 days after my reading, I was going through some family papers, papers I had looked at a hundred times if I had looked at them once, and there on my great grandmother, Mayme's boarder crossing card from Canada into the United States I noticed a name. Mayme listed that she was headed to Lowell, Massachusetts to see her Aunt Belle EVANS. EVANS. And Mary's words floated back to me.

At that point I had not branched out and researched my great-great grandmother's siblings at all. I didn't recall finding an Aunt Belle in the research I had done. Now I was on a mission to find out who this Belle Evans was. It was a mission that took a very long time and depended significantly on the kindness of well-connected friends.

I began by searching census records for Belle Evans and sure enough I found a Belle married to a Fred Evans in Lowell, Massachusetts. I assumed this was Aunt Belle but then I put my research down for a while, as we all do from time to time. 

Several months went by. I attended a genealogy conference. There I befriended a genealogist who was from Massachusetts. His name was...wait for it...wait for it....David. It didn't really strike me at the time that I now knew a David. Sincerely, I had forgotten that Mary asked me about a David. But here he was.

It wasn't long until I called upon David's expertise in locating records in Massachusetts to helped me locate a marriage certificate for this couple, Belle and Fred Evans. At that point I wasn't even 100% sure that this was "Aunt Belle" or that Aunt Belle was really my great-grandmother's aunt. Belle could have been a friend of the family as is often the case with my family. There are many instances when very close family friends are called Aunt and Uncle despite the fact they are not related; it can and often is just a term of respect. Sometimes Aunt and Uncle are titles given to near relatives too. For example, I call my father's first cousins Aunt Ro, Uncle Charlie, Uncle Ed, etc. So was this Aunt Belle really an aunt to my great grandmother?

David helped me to secure this document:

If you look at the details about Isabelle you'll see her last name is listed as Williams. What?!?! Yes, Williams, was the surname of her first husband. Her marriage to Fred Evans was her second marriage. In parentheses after the Williams you will see the name McLean. 

I knew the parents of my great-great grandmother were, Lydia McLean-Sharp, were Donald McLean and Elizabeth Walker-McLean. I now knew, without a doubt, that Isabelle Nancy McLean-Williams-Evans was the sister of of my great-great grandmother Lydia McLean-Sharp. Aunt Belle was absolutely the biological aunt of my great grandmother Mayme.

And there it was; Williams and Evans. Staring me square in the face were the names I was told I would research. A document I probably would not have seen if not for the help of a David. Again, Mary is no joke.

Aunt Belle played a pretty critical role in my family's history. She was the person who facilitated my great-grandmother's move from Canada to the United States. Several generations before, this line had lived in New Hampshire but moved up to Canada for land. Great Grandma Mayme moved to from Canada to the U.S. for work, likely because she had just lost her mother. I don't know how she met my Great Grandfather Albert Gardner (21 September 1891 - 11 February 1946) who lived most of his life in New York. However, had Mayme stayed in Canada, someone else would be writing this blog. Thus, I am incredibly grateful to Aunt Belle. Thank God for aunts!!