UNCLE!

I've been sort of caught up in my research on Jeremiah Swain so I
haven't written anything new for this edition of the Carnival of Genalogy
which focuses in the topic of "Uncles". So I'm crying "Uncle!"

However, I thought I'd mention three of my granduncles I've posted
about previously, the first two from Mom's side of the family and the
third from Dad's.

The first is Frank McFarland, who I wrote about in one of my earliest
posts, "TOMATO SANDWICHES AND UNCLE FRANK" .

Next is Frank's brother, my granduncle Tommy McFarland in
"THOMAS LUKE MCFARLAND" .

On my West side of the family, I posted a series with my granduncle
Clarence P.West's memories of his fifty years as the caretaker of the
Azizcoos Dam in northwestern Maine. You can read them starting here
with "GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS PT1" .

I'll try to have something new for the next edition of the CoG!

A PICNIC AT PLYMOUTH

When our family moved to Boston we left a two family house
with a big backyard to live in a triple decker apartment house
with a very small backyard. Cookouts weren't possible there
nor was cooking on a charcoal grille on the back porch of a
wooden building.(I still shake my head when I see news
reports about house fires started by a grille on the porch.)
So occasionally our folks would take us out somewhere
for a swim and a picnic. These excursions weren't as frequent
as visits to Aunt Peggy's cottage at Hough's Neck and took
place over 50 years ago now, so I've only a few memories of
those picnics. Some of them took place at a statepark at
Stoneham, I think, and one or two at Hougton's Pond in
Milton. And there was one very memorable picnic at a beach
in Plymouth with some of the relatives from Mom's side of
the family.

Besides my parents, my sister and myself, there were my
Uncle Ed and Aunt Emily and their kids, my mom's cousin
Anna Bruno, her husband Ralph and their daughters, and
my Granduncle Tommy McFarland and Grandaunt Frances,
Tommy's wife. We set up on a stretch of grass at the back
edge of the parking lot where there was shade and a picnic
table and a bandstand we could clamber around on. Somebody
brought along a charcoal grille and we had hot dogs and
hamburgers, and there was lemonade in a big jug for us kids.
Although I can't spot any beer bottles in these pictures I
wouldn't be surprised if the adults had kept them in the
cooler and poured them into paper cups to avoid detection.
The dog in the photo didn't belong to any of the families.
He just wandered in, mooched successfully and stuck around
for more.


The reason I'm not in any of thses pictures is that I took them!
Even at 7 or 8 I was finding ways to dodge a photo!


This picnic was where my Dad broke his ring finger while
playing baseball on the nearby ball field, trying to catch a line
drive barehanded. The finger swelled up and when he went to
have it checked out they had to cut his wedding ring off.

Once we moved out of Boston to Abington we had a small patio
and a picnic table, and then my folks had their trailer up in
New Hampshire to go to on weekends, so cookouts replaced
picnics. But while thinking about this post, I made a list of
people and dishes I'd like to have at a picnic: Grandaunt
Frances and her lemon meringue pie, Grandaunt Peggy and
her chicken salad, Aunt Emily and her lasagna, Mom and her
homemade coffee cake and of course Dad and the traditional
hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob and baked potatoes.
(By the way, baked potatoes are eaten by hollowing them out,
and after you eat the potatoes you put a piece of butter in the
skin part, fold it and then eat that as well!)

I'm getting older and eating all that stuff nowadays might not
set well afterwards but it would be well worth it!

THOMAS LUKE MCFARLAND

My grandmother Agnes(Aggie)McFarland was one of a large
Irish Catholic family, but was one of the younger children. So
by the time I was born and was old enough to interact with
adults, most of her older siblings were deceased. I only have
memories of three: her older brothers Frank and Tommy,
and her younger sister Margaret ( Peggy). I’ve already
written a bit about Frank, and a future post will be about
my Aunt Peggy, but today I’m posting my memories of
Uncle Tommy.



Thomas Luke McFarland was born on 14 Jun 1893 in Boston,
Suffolk County, Massachusetts to John and Annie McFarland.
He was their seventh child, one of the nine who would survive
to adulthood. He appears on the 1910 Federal Census as a 17
year old office boy for a “diamond office”, probably the Arthur
A. Crafts Company at 125 Summer St. where he worked for
most of his life. By the time he registered for the World War
1 draft in 1917 he had worked his way up to tool maker. He
had a slim build and was of medium height with brown eyes.



Sometime in the early 1920’s he married Frances. (I don’t
know Aunt Frances’ last name as yet. I’m in the process of
tracking down the marriage’s date) and by 1930 they had
moved out of Boston south to the town of Milton. By now
Tom was a diamond cutter at A. A. Crafts Co. which
specialized in industrial diamonds and so he and Aunt
Frances were able to buy a house at 58 Sunnyside Road.
Frances was like most women of her times a homemaker, and
at some point her sister Katie came to live with them in the
small white house with the fenced in yard.



My earliest memories of Uncle Tommy, Aunt Frances and
Aunt Katie involve food, books, and their dog. Frances and
Katie would take my sister and I out to the kitchen where the
table folded up into the wall and serve us homemade ice
cream, chocolate cake or apple pie with a glass of milk. Tom
and Frances didn’t have any children and they always spoke
to us in a way that made me feel a bit more grownup, and
boy, could Frances and Katie cook! That chocolate
cake still ranks up there as the best I’ve ever tasted.


I envied Uncle Tommy’s living room: it had a glass door
bookcase. I can’t recall if it went the length of the room’s wall
but I do know it held a set of encyclopedias. What really
sticks in my mind is that on several occasions there were
copies of Analog Science Fiction Magazine and since I’ve been
a lifelong sf and fantasy reader, I wish I had talked with him
about his interest in it. When did he start reading it?
Who were his favorite authors?


Lastly, there was Tommy and Frances’ dog, Chips. (There
may have been a Mr. in front of the Chips.) He was a little
Boston Terrier and had the buggy eyes common to the
breed. He also liked to carry around in his mouth one half of
a pink rubber ball which sometimes would be held so it
covered his nose and made Chips look very funny.



I don’t recall ever seeing Tommy drive a car or if they even
had one. There mighty have been a garage next to the house
but I seldom spent time outside when we visited them. I’d
usually grab something to read and go sit in the other room
while the adults talked. There were family picnics, like in
the picture above, where my parents would pick Tommy and
Frances up in our car and they’d ride along with us


Time passed in that sneaky way it has of doing. One of the
first times I noticed was when at age 13 or so I realized that
I was now taller than Frances and Katie. The younger
McFarland and McCue adult relatives visited Uncle Tommy
for his expertise when they purchased their wedding rings.
I never had cause for that service, so as I grew to adulthood
the visits to Tommy and Frances grew fewer and fewer.

Uncle Tommy passed away in 1977 and Frances followed
ten years later. The picture of them with this article is pretty
much as I recall seeing them: Tommy in a white or light blue
shirt smoking his pipe and Frances every inch a lady.

I never heard either of them say a cross word, either to each
other or to anyone else.

THE STREETS WHERE THEY LIVED

Dick Eastman mentioned a new website from Tufts University,
Boston Streets and I checked it out. It has historical maps and
city directories from a number of years and I searched the
directories for my Mom’s family.

The McFarland’s didn’t arrive in Boston until sometime around
1880 so I began with a look at the Sampson and Murdock
Boston Directory of 1885. I had no success with McFarlands or
with the Whites or Offingers from Mom’s paternal grandparents
but they were born in 1873 and would still have been children in
1885.


I had a bit more luck with the 1905 edition. Great Grandfather
John McFarland and his eldest son Mike are listed:

McFarland John laborer h 950 Parker Rox

McFarland Michael E plumber bds 950 Parker Rox

I found only two Offingers listed:


Offinger Albert C upholsterer 338 Boylston bds 23 Metropolitan
av Ros

Offinger Joanna C widow h 23 Metropolitan av Ros


And I found my great grandfather White:


White Edward J teamster h 33 Ridge Ros

The 1925 edition had more. John McFarland had died the
year before and the death is noted by two entries:


McFarland Annie widow John h 950 Parker Rox

McFarland John (950 Parker Rox) died Aug 3 1924

There are entries for three of their sons:


McFarland Michael E shoe cutter h 946 Parker Rox

McFarland Robert J shoeworker h 946 Parker Rox

McFarland Thomas diamond cutter h 7 Dunlap Dor


This might be Uncle Leo who married Peggy McFarland:


McCue Leo motorman h 28 Worcester sq

One of the Offingers remained. Perhaps Albert was a brother
to Great Grandmother Pauline?

Offinger Albert mgr of work room 30 Winter h 23 Metropolitan av Ros

And finally Great Grandfather White and two of his other

sons other than my grandfather:

White Edward J electrician h 41 Philbrick Ros

White Charles W clerk 395 South sta h 31 Philbrick Ros

White Fred E checker res 41 Philbrick Ros

An interesting site that I definitely will spend more time exploring.

WHAT I FOUND AT ANCESTRY.COM

I mentioned a few nights ago about a trial membership at Ancestry
During that time I was able to find things I hadn’t seen before,
primarily the World War One Draft Registration Cards for my four
McFarland grand uncles and my grandfathers. I also downloaded
some copies of Federal Censuses. While I found these items and
had the family tree uploaded, I don’t think I can afford to pay the
cost of full membership so regretfully I didn’t subscribe.

I'll continue to make do with the free genealogy sites for now.

Here’s what I learned about the McFarlands:


Tom lists his occupation toolmaker at A. A. Crafts at 125 Summer
St.in Boston. For dependents he lists mother and there's a word in
front of that I can't decipher. His physical description is Medium
height, Slender build, with Brown (or Blonde?) hair and Brown
eyes. At the time he filled out the card he was living at 950 Parker
St. in Boston.


Frank was living with his family at 50 Cotton St. in Medford. He
lists his occupation as "bottiling" at the Moxie Plant at 69 Haverhill
St. in Boston. His eyes were Gray, his hair Dark Brown; his height
and build were given as Medium.

Robert was living with his family at 121 or 126 Paul Gore St. His
occupation was shoemaker at the Thomas J. Plant(?) Shoe Co. at
what looks like the "corner of Centre and Bickford Streets" in
Boston. His height and build are Slender, his eyes Light Brown and
his hair Black.


Mike was living at 946 Parker St in Boston with his wife Mary and
he was a shoe worker but at George A. Keith Company at 288 A St.
in So. Boston. His height was given as Tall, his build Medium, his
hair Dark and I think that it says Brown for the eye color.



Then there are the cards for both my grandfathers.

Floyd Earl West gives his occupation as farming in Upton, Me. His
height is listed as Short, his build Medium, his eyes Blue and his
hair “D. Brown” He claimed an exemption from the draft due to
an injury to his right arm and shoulder; on the disability line he
adds “right arm weak”. But whatever the injury was it healed
because Grandpa West did get drafted a year later and was
inducted(?) on 29 Apr 1918. He reached the rank of Pvt 1st
class in November of 1918 and served as part of Company K, 303
Infantry. He never made it overseas and I think I recall Dad
saying Grandpa had been stuck at Fort Dix N.J. during the
outbreak of the Spanish Influenza. He was honorably discharged
on 12 Mar 1919. So far Grandpa West is the only one out of this
group that I've found to have actually served in the military
during World War I. But the McFarland brothers were all in
their late twenties or older and Grandpa White might have been
exempted due to his occupation.


Finally, my mother’s father, Edward F. White lists his occupation
as “helper” on the “N.Y., N.H., & H. R..R. & Co.” by which I take it
to mean the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad. The
business address is given as Union Station in Harftord. He gives
his home address as 41 Philbrick St in Roslindale Ma. and lists as
closest relative his mother “Lena White”. His height is Tall, build
Medium. His eyes were Blue and his hair Dark Brown.

The information on Mom’s father is of interest because frankly,
there’s so damn little we know about him. For example. we’d never
heard mention of his working for the railroad. And this is the first
mention I’ve had of his mother as “Lena”. Up until now, I knew
her as “Pauline”

So much I don’t know!

So much to learn!