POP'S PORTRAIT POSTCARD

I posted this picture of my grandfather Floyd Earl West, Sr. in my
series about my Road Trip vacation but thought I'd go a bit more
in depth about it now.

"Pop" served in the U.S. Army as an hospital orderly at Camp Devens
(later Fort Devens), Massachusetts in WW1 during the Spanish Influenza
epidemic of 1918. He entered the Army in April 1918 and was discharged
in March of 1919 so that gives me a timeframe on when it was taken. My
guess is he had it taken when he was on leave in November, 1917.


As I mentioned before, this is a postcard and on the back I can see that it
was taken at Avery Studios. Apparently business was good because there
is a list of 6 locations in Boston:

601 Washington St.
637 " "
361 " "

90 Court St.
129 Court St.

21 Tremont St.





Boston at that time was an active port city and railroad center and I would
think that a photography business would be very busy taking pictures of
soldiers and sailors to be sent home to loved ones. If you look at the background
behind Pop you can see it is a painting of an Army camp scene with tents and
the American flag flying proudly above it. There must have been a background
for sailors as well. I'm still trying to find a mention of Avery Studios in Boston
City directories for the period but so far no luck.

I also was struck by the chest pocket on "Pop" 's tunic. There's clearly something
in there because you can see the slight the edge of it pressing against the
cloth. Perhaps his papers or something else that "Pop" felt might be more secure
there than in his uniform's pants pockets?

As you can see, Pop never sent the postcard, instead bringing it home to his family
where it has been passed down still in great condition (The blue streaks are on the
image, not on the original, a result of some goof I made in scanning ) and now Aunt
Dot has passed it on to me.

Maybe I'm prejudiced, but "Pop" sure cut a fine figure in uniform!

THE 56TH CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY IS POSTED!

The 56th Carnival of Genealogy is up at Lori Thornton's Smoky
Mountain Family Historian and it's a first: a two parter! Part One
is the actual posts submitted by the participating genea-bloggers
on the topic "10 Essential Books in My Genealogy Library".
There are 33 contributors in this CoG and a wide range of books
mentioned, so many in fact that in Part Two Lori lists all the ones
selected in order of most mentions. (Number one is Evidence
Explained with 15 mentions.)

Lori also gives the call for submissions for the next Carnival of
Genealogy:

"The topic for the next edition of the COG will be: I read it in the news!
Newspapers can be a wonderful source of family history information.
Share some aspect about your family history that you learned about in
a newspaper. Articles, advertisements, obituaries, classified ads, photos...
all are fair game if they appeared in a newspaper. What did you learn
about your family from this information? Was the information accurate?
How did you learn about this information... online search? Perusing old
newspapers? A clipping saved by a relative? Fill us in on your family
scoops... who in your family was in the news? The deadline for
submissions is October 1st. The next edition will be hosted at
the Creative Gene blog."

So stop the presses and send along your entry to the 57th edition of
the Carnival of Genealogy here and include a brief description of your
article in the "comment" box of the form !

BLOGGING BRUNCH 18

Some choices from my Sunday "geneabloggers-bord":


Thomas over at Destination: Austin Family has been trying to get
the term "genea-blogger" added to Wikipedia but they can't seem to
bring themselves to accept it as a legitimate word. Read his letter
to them here on his blog.

So I guess I should not ask to add geneabloggers-bord then?

Randy Seaver on Genea-musings has a post about and a link to a
most unusual obituary that made me laugh. This was a lady with a
sense of humor and whoever wrote this showed their love by honoring
her with laughter.

And here's a link to a story about the return of a "kidnapped" mechanical
gorilla to its rightful place at a store in East Machias, Maine. It has
nothing to do with genealogy, but I was struck by the contrast between
the philosophy of the volunteer who transported the gorilla home with
that of the attitude of the "kidnapper".

I"VE BEEN HEART-ED!

Elizabeth over at Little Bytes of Life has presented me with the
"I Love Your Blog" award. I am of course flattered that she thinks
enough of this geneablog and if I could I'd present her with one
right backsince I enjoy her writing as well. But now it's my turn to pass it
on to someone else and the rules are these:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog;
(well, as you can see, I did that already!)

2. Link to the person who gave you the award
(that too!)

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs;
Ok here are 7 genealogy related blogs I enjoy
(and that haven't already received the award):

Tim Abbot's Walking the Berkshires

Janet Brown's Cow Hampshire

Lisa's 100 Years in America
A Light That Shines Again
The Small-Leaved Shamrock

Colleen's Orations of OMcHodoy
The Oracle of OMcHodoy

Tim's and Janet's genealogy blogs were among the first I read that
made me think I might want to try my hand at this. I was introduced to
Lisa and Colleen's blogs through the Carnival of Genealogy. All 7 are
great reads with well thought out and researched articles.

4. Put links to those blogs on yours;
(already done long ago)

5. Leave a message on the blogs that you’ve nominated.

Well, that last one is the one thing I still need to do...so if you'll excuse
me, I'll get right to it!

ON MY BOOKSHELF

The 56th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is
"Ten Essential Books in My Genealogy Library". Eight of my
ten books are here in my apartment, the other two are online
at Google Books. I've included a comment on the significance
of each book.




The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
New York City, New York: American Bible Society, 1859

(The West Family Bible with family records of births, deaths and
marriages. )


The History of Wilsons Mills and the Magalloway Settlements
Wilsons Mills, Me.: The Town of Wilsons Mills, Maine 1975.

(The source of my Uncle Clarence's memoirs of the Azicohos Dam,
this book includes photos and short entries on my ancestors as
well as the other families of the area.)


Abbot, Abiel and Abbot, Ephraim. A Genealogical Register of the
Descendants of George Abbot, of Andover: George Abbot,
of Rowley; Thomas Abbot, of Andover; Arthur Abbot, of
Ipswich; Robert Abbot, of Branford, Ct.--and George Abbot, of
Norwalk, Ct. Boston, Massachusetts: James Munroe & Company,
1847 (online here at Google Books)

(I've used this a lot in researching my Abbot ancestors)


Abbot, Elinor, Our Company Increases Apace: History, Language, and
Social Identity in Early Colonial Andover, Massachusetts.
Dallas, Texas: SIL International, 2007

(I'm still reading this book, recommended to me by Tim Abbot. More insight
into the town where my Abbot and Barker ancestors lived.)

Butler, Caleb History of the Town of Groton: Including Pepperell and
Shirley, from the First Grant of Groton Plantation in 1655
Boston, Massachusetts: Press of T.R. Marvin, 1848 (online
here at Google Books)

(Another online edition which has been the source of much information
on the Ames and Prescott families, among others.)


Lindsay, David Mayflower Bastard: A Stranger Among the Pilgrims
New York City, New York: St Martin Press, 2004

(While the book is a biography of Richard More, there are many references
to my ancestor Isaac Allerton.)


Mills, Elizabeth Shown, Evidence!: Citation & Analysis for the Family
Historian. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing
Company, 2007

(Well, I hope this list shows why it's essential!)

Morgan, George, The Official Guide to Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah:
Ancestry Publishing, 2007
(A great help in navigating the Ancestry site.)


Philbrick, Nathaniel Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
New York City, New York: Viking, 2006

(I learned a lot about King Philip's War from this book. A good read!)


Vrabel, Jim, When In Boston: A Time Line & Almanac Boston,
Massachusetts: Northeastern University Press, 2004

(What went on in Boston influenced all of New England. This gives
me an idea of what news my ancestors might have been discussing over
dinner.)

So there it is, but like most lists, it's a fluid thing and I work in a bookstore,
after all. There's always some new book that grabs my attention that might
knock a book off the list and take it's place!

SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001

Sept 11th 2001 I was on my way to work at the bookstore which opens
at 9:00. As usual I was listening to WBZ AM, the Boston news radio
station and was somewhere on Rte 37 in Braintree when the news
bulletin came about the first plane hitting the South Tower of the
World Trade Center in New York. At first I thought it was some
terrible accident as I listened to the report. I remember at one traffic
stop the light turned green and the first car in line didn't move right
away. Nobody honked their horn at the driver. They were all listening
to the news.

I was running a few minutes late already and so I was just pulling into
a parking space when news came at 9:02 of the second crash. Now I
and the rest of America knew the first crash had not been a mistake.
We were under attack. I went into the store and punched in, then
knocked on the Cash Office door, where Linda, the office manager
at the time, was listening to the radio. Given that there had been a
previous attack on the Twin Towers by terrorists we realized this must
be another by the same group or another like it and talked about it for
a few minutes but the store was about to open and I needed to be out
on the sales floor.

It was a surreal day. Linda would relay the news to the staff about the
collapse of the Towers and the other two planes crashing into the
Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania. We heard that the planes had
come from our own Logan Airport and had many New Englanders
aboard them, which made it even harder to hear. But work went on,
as it did for so many other Americans that day, even though our
minds and hearts weren't into doing our jobs.

That night when I got home, the networks kept showing the same
image over and over of the planes crashing, the Towers falling and
of the people running ahead of the looming cloud. I was angry at
whoever had done this to so many innocent people, and I wanted
them caught and punished for it.

Today, it's a different world. September 11th changed it forever.

And I still wait for Osama bin Laden to be caught and punished.

"BACK TO SCHOOL" ON MY IRISH GENEALOGY

A new edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture
is coming up and it's a "Back to School" sort of theme, but
in the sense that it deals with family and genealogy. Here's how
Lisa at Small-Leaved Shamrock puts it:


Have Irish heritage in your family history? Make a plan to further
investigate the Irish side of your family tree and share your goals
with us. Here are some ideas:

Work back a few more generations on one branch of your
Irish family tree

Find naturalization papers that give the county of origin
for an immigrant ancestor

Find the townland in Ireland where your immigrant ancestor
was born

Get in touch with other relatives who share the same Irish
genealogy

There are also other activities she suggests other than genealogy
but I need to do a lot more work on my Mom's side and this
gives me a chance to formulate an organized plan of attack,
so to speak.

I've had some success these past two years in tracing my family
lines on Dad's side but there's still a lot of blanks on my Mom's
branch of the tree, starting with her grandparents John and
Anna (Kelley) McFarland .According to the 1900 Federal Census,
John and Anna were married in 1879 and emigrated to the States
either that year or a year later in 1880. (depending on which census
I'm looking at.) So here is what I need to do:

1. Check out the newspaper collection at the Main Branch Boston
Public Library for obituaries on John, Anne, and their children.
This will entail a train trip into Boston on one of my Thursdays off.

2. Visit the Archdiocese of Boston's archives when they reopen
in Braintree to check on any baptismal, marriage, death, and
burial information they might have. Since the Archives are closed
until 2009 while they are moved from Boston to Braintree it will be
awhile before I can do this. The good news is that once they are
open, it's only a ten minute drive which is very cool! I can spend
more time there than if it were in Boston.

3. Search online for ships' records of John and Anna McFarland
and on the passenger lists. So far I've had no luck on this but
I 'll keep at it.

4. Search for John and Anna's naturalization papers. I'm not sure
Anna when became a U.S. citizen. Up until the 1930 census she
wasn't, and the entry in that column in 1930 could be either "Na"
for "naturalized" or "Pa" for "first papers". John had died on
3 Aug 1924, so perhaps his death caused Anna to apply for the
better legal protection citizenship might give a widow. John
was listed as "Na" beginning with the 1900 census.

5 Explore the possibility of what Boston City records might exist for
John who was employed as a city laborer. Would they list his
parents, and the exact place of birth in Ireland?

6. Explore the possibility of records of John's employment by the
Boston Elevated Railroad(now known as the Massachusetts Bay
Transit Authority) for the same information. My mother told me
several times that John had been one of the workers when it was
originally built.


7. Talk with my older cousins for any thing they might know
about John and Anna that they might remember or that their
parents told them.


So there it is. Let's see how much I can get done before "school's
out" next June.

KOWABUNGA!

I'm not sure what happened but I had 113 hits here yesterday(Monday).
The keywords and searches that brought them here were spread pretty
evenly across the board with many being on family names such as
Prescott or Ellenwood/Ellingwood. And the majority of views lasted 5
seconds or less so they might have come here, but they didn't hang
around long.

On the other hand, this is only the second time I've had 100+ views in
a day, so I'll take it anyway I can get it, thank you very much. Thanks to
those who dropped in no matter hiow long you stayed!

And I've made contact with another Barker relative, so the Barker line
leads the others in "number of new cousins discovered"!

GETTING TO KNOW ME, GETTING TO KNOW "WEST IN NEW ENGLAND "

There's a whole bunch of memes and carnivals out there that I
need to get caught up with, so without further ado, here's one.


Terry Thornton of Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi
used the lyrics of Rogers and Hammerstein's song "Getting to
Know You" to issue a challenge to genea-bloggers:


"The number of new blogs is increasing so rapidly that many
of us are having trouble keeping up with reading and visiting.
There never seems enough time to get to know new blogs much
less to interact with their authors. To help out in that regard,
I'm issuing a challenge to all Bloggers to help us get to know
each other --- tell us the bright and breezy and beautiful from
your blog using the following format.

Write a short paragraph describing you, your work, and your goals
for writing"


I'm a bookseller for a major bookstore chain and I just turned
60 two weeks ago. I have a B.A. in history and for years my
primary area of interest was ancient and medieval, but as I've
become more involved in genealogy I've come to have a greater
appreciation for American history. I am an avid reader of sf,
fantasy, and historical mysteries, and oh yeah, I have a computer.

As for the purpose of my writing this blog, thrifty New Englander
that I am, I'm going to recycle this part of a post from the
Genea-Blogger Games:

"A blog about genealogy and thoughts about the various
roots and branches of my family tree as well as the times
in which my ancestors lived."


I wrote that the day I began "West in New England" and while
it's a fairly succinct description of what this blog was intended
to be, it's become a bit more since then. My goal was to
preserve and share what I know or discover my family's
genealogy but that now has expanded to include my memories
of my immediate family, of growing up and living, and of some
of the things that I like or dislike.(Such as the previous "Tunes"
post inspired by Tim Abbott's meme.) Now as I grow older,
I want to leave stories that my niece and nephews can have
about myself and my parents, because I have come to realize
how little I know about my mother's parents and their side of
the family and wish that I knew more."


The Best- Orpha The story of the brief first marriage of my ancestor
Jonathan Phelps West and the devastating effect a diphtheria epidemic
had on his family.

The Brightest:A FLUTAPHONE LULLABYE
Inspired by a humorous challenge from Cow Hampshire's Janice
Brown, this is the final post of the uses I and others came up, all
of which can be viewd by clicking on the label "flutaphone"


The Beautiful: Boy this is tough but I have to go with AGGIE, not
because it's exceptionally great writing but because it was the first entry
where I went beyond names and dates to try to give a sense of what the
life of one of my relatives was like.


If you're new to my blog, feel free to post a comment on an article, or
if we share a common ancestor, let me know by comment or email. I'm
always glad to meet a new relative and I'll happily share with you any
information I might have about our families .

I look forward to hearing from you!

BLOGGING BRUNCH 17

It's Sunday morning and I'm back to my usual football season routine
of browsing the web and my fellow genealogy blogger's blogs as I
eat my toast and drink my coffee.

There's certainly plenty of reading material, too, since Jasia posted
the 55th Carnival of Genealogy and I think it's a record number of
entries with 50 articles from 49 contributors. I'm going to have to
come back to that after the Patriots' game to read whatever I don't
get to before the game! The theme this time around is "Show &
Tell" and my post on the "Amos Hastings Barker Family Reunion,
1896" was my entry. The next COG is on "10 Essential Books in
My Genealogical Library" and the deadline is Sept. 15th. You can
submit an entry here, and please include a short introduction of
your article in the "comments" box. The COG has grown to such
a point now that at 40 or 50 entries, it's the least we can do to make it
easier for Jasia to get it ready.

Hmm. Maybe I can come up with a new genealogical term for
this? Genea-brunch? Genea-bloggersbord?

Readers might have notice a change in this blog's layout starting about
10 days ago. It's a result of my setting up a mirror site over on Wordpress
as a backup. The layout I used there appealed seemed "cleaner" to me
and I switched to a similar one here at Blogger. I've noticed that I have
less margin problems with the text with this new layout, so that was an
added benefit.

That's it for now. The pregame show is nearly on.

GO PATS!

FALSE ALARM

About 9pm tonight the fire alarm in my apartment went off and I
quickly realized it was the whole building's alarms sounding. I
went outside to find my neighbors standing around trying to
figure out what was wrong. None of us had smelled nor seen
smoke. As we waited for the fire trucks to arrive, I went back
in to my apartment and got the only item I could think of I
needed to save, the West Family Bible that I wrote about in my
last post.

After about ten minutes the alarms went silent after the fire
department fixed whatever was wrong in the control panel
downstairs in the basement. I brought the Bible back inside
just as it began to rain(remnants of tropical storm Hannah).
By the time I went back outside, the fire trucks were gone and
the neighbors were all back inside.

All in all, an interesting experience but not one I want to repeat
soon, nor am I in any great hurry to have to deal with the real
thing!

ROAD TRIP PT6

When we got back to Diana and Gary's house we all went inside and
I took a seat on the couch in the parlor. When I'm at home I usually
end up taking an after-dinner nap in the chair in my own parlor so I
was trying not to do the same thing at Diana's place when something
happened that sure woke me up: Diana brought out a birthday cake.
I never had a clue it was coming!


Diana and Gary gave me a handcrafted steak knife from Warther
Cutlery which was made in Dover, Ohio. (I used it last night, by
the way. Boy, is it sharp!)






Diana and Gary also gave me the license plate off Pop's Model A along
with the moosehide thongs he'd had to cut through with a hacksaw
to get the plate off the frame. This meant a lot to me because Dad
used to tell us kids how he learned to drive in that car at a pretty
young age on the back roads uphome. The license plate is now on
the top of the bookcase next to my computer desk





Then Aunt Dot gave me her gift. The birthday card with it contained
a picture of my grandfather in his WW1 uniform. It was the front side
of a postcard which apparently he'd never sent but brought home himself.
That in itself was a great gift, but there was a wrapped gift along with it.
Now having worked in the book business for nearly 19 years now I knew
it was a book of some type and my first thought was that maybe it was
something from Lehman's or maybe the Houghton book that Dot had
shown me photocopied pages of the night before. But it was something
I really hadn't expected.




It was the West Family Bible which originally belonged to Arvilla Ames
before she married my ancestor John Cutter West and has the records
of births, deaths, and marriages of their children and grandchildren. I was
completely surprised and honored that she felt I should have something
that had such significance to our family. I'll do my best to keep it safe
until it's time to pass it on to another family member. I can never thank
Aunt Dot enough, as well as the others for their gifts and for giving my
sister Cheryl and I such a great visit.





And thank you, Cheryl, for the whole trip. It was a great 60th birthday
gift!

We all posed for a picture before Louise and Steve had to leave. I'm the
big goof in the back with the Red Sox cap. Afterward we had a piece of
cake and coffee while I found out how long this surprise had been in the
works (since last year!) and then it was time for Cheryl and I to leave.
We would be heading on down to Washington D.C. the next day, so
our visit with Dot and her family was coming to an end.

It was a great trip, getting to visit Dot and her family and see a beautiful
area of our country and whenever I look at my birthday gifts I'll think of
about it. This was the third time in three years we'd seen each other (the
other two times were for the weddings of Cheryl's daughter and of her
oldest son) after some years when we hadn't been able to get together
and I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

(L to right, Steve, Aunt Dot, Louise, Diana, Gary, and myself in the back)

ROAD TRIP PT 5

We met Aunt Dot, Louise and Steve at Diana's house about midmorning
Tuesday and after a bit of discussion on where we might go it was
decided to start with Lehman's Hardware and then decide where to go
from there afterwards. We took two cars: Diana rode with Cheryl and
I and Aunt Dot went with Louise and Steve. Diana's husband Gary
was dealing with the crash of their computer so he wasn't able to join
us.


It was another great day weather-wise and we saw a heron wading in
a river as we waited for a traffic light to change. We stopped for lunch
along the way before continuing on to Lehman's.


Lehman's is located in Kidron, Ohio in the heart of the Amish country
and is huge. When the owner decided to expand he purchased an
Amish farmer's barn and had it reconstructed beam by beam next to the
original store. It's as much of a museum as a store, with old machines
and products displayed along the walls and in the beams overhead.
I got a few laughs from the copies of vintage signs for sale, such as one
for Ted's Root Beer (as in Ted Williams, which was sold in New
England during the 1950's.)and some of the other signs with sayings,
such as "If You Remember the Sixties, You Weren't There!". There was
also the toy section, with an electric train running through the rafters and
metal peddle cars like the one I had as a kid displayed on a shelf by the
windows. A quick glance at the price tags told me they were a heckuva
lot more expensive now


The other wing of the store had modern stoves, refrigerators and stereos
manufactured with old fashioned exteriors from the 19th and early 20th
centuries. The workmanship was amazing and nice to look at but they
were definitely well out of my price range. Outside next to the building
was this humongous farm machine with a huge chain attached to it,
though I think any attempt to steal it would be noisy enough to attract
quite a bit of attention.


It was nearly 5pm and it was decided we'd drive out to Lake Atwood
to the Lighthouse Restaurant which is located in the West Marina on
the lake. It's a nice location with a good view of the lake and we sat out
on the patio. The food was good and I enjoyed the dinner with the
exception of the large business party of about twenty men who were
so loud that on occasion it made it hard to carry out a conversation
at our table. Afterwards Steve and I walked down to the water and he
told me about how Lake Atwood was one of several man made lakes
built during the Depression. Quite a few people boat on it or camp
by it, and it's such a pretty spot I could see why!

After dinner we all went back to Diana and Gary's home and I finally
saw a live deer. (We'd seen four dead deer along the side of the
highway on the trip out.) I'd missed a small group of them earlier
that Diana had spotted but this one was grazing in a field by the
road.


It had been another good day and it had been a thoroughly enjoyable
visit with my Aunt and her family.


But it wasn't over yet!

ROAD TRIP PT4

We left Yoder's Farm and drove back to Walnut Creek, Ohio to a
restaurant that Louise and Steve knew called Der Dutchman. Even
though it was mid-afternoon on a Monday, there was a line of diners
formed up on the porch waiting to get inside! It was a mild day and
we were outside and under the shade of the porch so the wait was
fairly pleasant as we talked and after perhaps 20 minutes we were
inside and seated. I ordered a hamburger (which tasted great) and
french fries (also tasty and a good size serving). I should mention here
that in my younger days going to science fiction conventions I had
adopted a "no experiments" with food policy on trips and I usually
stuck to eating meals that wouldn't come back to haunt me later, so
to speak, and it worked very well on this trip.


Der Dutchman's dining room was lined with large bay windows and
even though we were not sitting next to them we still could see
a hawk that glided by several times, probably hunting food in the
valley behind the restaurant. All in all, it was a pleasant meal, with
good food and good service, and I recommend Der Dutchman as a
good place to dine if you are the area.


After we'd finished, Steve went to get the car and Cheryl and Louise
visited the restaurant's bakery while I went around back to take a
few pictures of the valley behind the restaurant, which are at the top
of this post. I bet the view is even prettier when the leaves turn in a
few more weeks!


Our next stop was the Wendell August Forge and Gift Shop in
Berlin, Ohio. The company has been in business for about 80 years
and is famous for hand-hammered aluminum items. Their main
location is in Pennsylvania but the Berlin shop has a working forge
(which was not in use on our visit). It also has a model train that runs
around the beam overhead, a coin operated player piano, a small
amphitheater showing a film on the history of the company, and my
favorite, the world's largest Amish buggy! There is also a wide
selection of finely crafted items for sale and I bought a keychain
for my younger brother Phil. While the others did a bit more shopping
I went out on the shop's front porch and watched several Amish folk
pass by in buggies and bikes and enjoyed the weather.


We made a few more stops at stores on the way back to the motel,
including one in the town of Sugar Creek(I think.) where the buildings
in town have Swiss chattel style exteriors that reflect the origins of the
towns' early settlers. I have to confess that by now my knee was
bothering me so I stayed in the car and enjoyed the sunroof. (I probably
spent more time outdoors during this vacation than I have in years and
missed it when I went back to work at the store when we got home.)

Louse and Steve dropped us off back at our motel after a day that had
been fun and relaxing but we would see them later that night at Aunt
Dot's house where we had lasagna and garlic bread for dinner. Diana
and Gary were there as were Dot's grandchildren Brian and Anya and
Anya's three boys, so there were four generations of the family sitting
down for dinner that night. After dinner Dot and Diana gave me copies
of the photos I'd been interested in the night before and I was able to
give Dot some information about our Houghton line.

After dinner, plans were made for us to meet up at Gary and Diana's
house the next morning and Cheryl and I headed back to our motel
after a great day of sightseeing and visiting with the family.

BEDTIME GENEALOGY 27

A little end of the workday fatigue has slowed down my posting
of the next parts of the Road Trip series but I plan to buckle
down this weekend and finish them. I did take the time to
backup this blog with a mirror site at Wordpress after reading
about how Cheryl Shulte's Two Sides of the Ocean blog
disappeared. Having 370+ blog post going "poof" on me is not
something I want to experience, so now I have insurance.

Meanwhile, this article about a misplaced gravestone might
interest you

ROAD TRIP PT3

Monday morning our cousin Louise and her husband Steve
met Cheryl and I at our motel (I have to put in a good word
for the Comfort Inn in Dover, Ohio. Nice place, and I could
really get into the idea of continental breakfasts for the rest
of my life.) Louise had sent us an email before the trip with
some of the local points of interest and we'd picked a trip to
Yoder's Amish Home, an Amish working farm that gives tours
of the site. Louise and Steve had a few other ideas as well so
he plan was to sightsee a bit and then go out to Aunt Dot's
house that night for a family dinner.


Now I need to back track a little here. A few days before the
trip I'd twisted or pulled something in my knee so I spent
most of the trip limping and dreading walking up or down
stairs. The ironic part was that once I was up and moving on
it, it was less painful. So my mobility was not what it usually
is for some of the trip. PlusI'm not a big fan of stairs.


Steve drove while we caught up a little on family news. We
passed the spot where my Dad's car had broken down near a
brick factory on a visit back in the 70's that I'd missed while
spending the summer as a camp counselor. Cheryl pointed
out the spot where they'd sat while waiting for it to be
repaired. Once again I was impressed by the scenery:
meadows or corn fields stretching over rolling hills, herds of
cows and horses. And this was the heart of Holmes County
with the largest Amish population in the country. We saw
some in the traditional horse and buggys but there were
also Amish men riding bicycles. I am still wondering how
they keep their hats on!


We got to Yoder's at around 11am. They offer guided tours
and/or buggy rides for a price and have a giftshop which we
browsed in while waiting for our tour to begin. Our guide was
an older Amish woman dressed in traditional Amish clothes
and once we were all assembled she led us up to the two
old houses that were open to the public. We paused by the
garden before we entered the older house which was built
about the time that my ancestors John Cutter West and
Arvilla Ames were married and starting a family back in
Maine. I was struck by the thought that their home might
have resembled this Amish home in many ways while
differing in others due to the Maine climate and other factors.
We then walked down a steep flight of stairs from the porch
to make our way over to the "new" house.


Did I mention that I hate stairs?


The second house was built around the 1860's and is a bit
larger. Some adaptations had been made to modern technology,
such as battery powered lights. The house also is the farm
bakery and there was bread and cookies being made even as
we took the tour. While the rest of the group went up another
steep flight of stairs, I went back out onto the front porch
and talked a bit with another tourist, a lady from West Virginia,
as we watched two hawks circling above the fields near the
buggy ride. Then the group came back downstairs and we
joined them in the summer kitchen where I bought a peanut
butter cookie and a brownie to snack on later.


The house tour concluded, we made out way over to the barn
where some of the others in our group discovered that barns,
being what they are, smell. There were sheep, pigs, goats,
ducklings, puppies and horses of various sizes and ages,
including two huge workhorses that looked like they'd put a
lot of work in at plowing over the years. Outside there were
several dogs and puppies a kitten, and one cat that had
greeted us on our arrival as we stepped out of the car by
allowing us to pet it as humans are supposed to pet cats.
There was also a tom turkey with his hen and if one of the
group got too close the tom would puff out his chest and
spread his tail feathers which made him a perfect ad for
Thanksgiving dinner. A Spanish lady seemed determined
to pat him but eventually gave up after much puffing and
hissing from the bird.


All in all, it was an interesting tour and I recommend it for
any of my readers who might be in the Holmes County area.
But our day wasn't over yet and we were off to our next
destination: lunch!

To be continued.....

BEDTIME GENEALOGY 26

Well, my predated blog entries posted today while I was
at work, so I guess I fixed them right! One of them
is also my entry in the next CoG so I killed two birds
with one stone on that one.

I'm going to post the next part of my Road Trip memories
tomorrow. It's going to be a longer series of posts than I
originally thought but there is a lot to tell about, after all!

Meanwhile, here's an interesting story involving another
sort of Pilgrim Rock on Cape Cod.

YODER'S FARM

These are some photos I took at Yoder's farm. The bedroom
and kitchen are part of the original farmhouse built back in the
1830's. The country side in the area is beautiful as I've already
commented several times. But hey, it's true!

The waterpump stands between the old house and a newer one
built around 1860. If you look carefully you can see the old boot
being used as a planter holder. There were several of these also
among the flowers and bushs around the house.

Cheryl took pictures as well and got some great shots and I might
ask her if I can post them here.

AMOS HASTINGS BARKER FAMILY REUNION, 1896

This is one of the copies of family photos that Aunt Dot gave to
me when my sister and I visited her last week. It shows a
Barker Family Reunion at "Gibsons Grove at Norway Lake in
1896 ". A Google Search found that Gibson Grove is at Lake
Pennesseewassee in Norway, Oxford County, Maine which is
the area my Barker family ancestors hail from.

At the center of the first picture sit my great-great grandparents
Amos Hastings Barker and Betsy Jane (Moore) Barker while
gathered about them are their children and grandchildren.
The second image is of a letter sent to my Aunt Dorothy by a
Judy Barker who identifies the people in the photo as follows:

"First row children only L. to R. Everett Smith, Fannie and
Natalie Barker (Arthur's girls) Eva Smith (twin to Everett)
Merton Wyman,, Asa Smith, Oneal Mills.

Second row L to R. Fred and Leila Skinner, Amos Sr. holding
Bessie and Ella Skinner, Mable Wyman in back, Amy Mills in
front, Betsy Jane Barker holding Ervin Mills, Melinda and
Edwin Smith dau Alice between them, Arthur Barker.

Third Row L. to R. Earl Barker his sister Charlotte, Dora and
John Wyman, Olivia and Amos Barker jr. Mary and Zenas
Mills, Florence and Eben Barker, Gipsy wife of Arthur Barker.
John Barker was not in the picture."

Arthur's wife's first name is listed here as Gipsy but I've found
it on the 1900 and 1910 Federal Census images at Ancestry.com
as Gypsey. Interestingly enough, the transcription of the 1900
census gives her the name "Gregory"!

My great grandmother Charlotte didn't marry her cousin
Frank Barker (son of Nathaniel S. Barker)until two years after
this reunion but even if he were present it seems only Amos
and Betsy's immediate family posed for the picture.

Amos Hastings Barker Sr. died 5 Nov 1907 at age 79.
Betsy Jane Moore Barker died 12 Mar 1924 at age 83.

So at the time of the reunion they were 68 and 54 years old
respectively.

It's great to be able to put faces with names, and thanks to
my Aunt Dot, I can do that now with many of my Barker
relatives!

ADDENDUM: I've been looking at this picture a bit more since
posting it and the two top hats (one belonging to Arthur Barker
and the other to Eben Barker) has me wondering about their
owners' occupations. It would seem they might have been men of
means if those ahts are any indication. And at first I thought
that John Wyman in the back row was smiling but on a closer look
it's just the way his mustache frames the mouth.

FINAL TALLY FOR THE GENEA-BLOGGER GAMES

Category: "Write, Write, Write!" -completed. all five
events.

A. "Write a summary of what your blog is about and post
it on your blog." Check!

B. "Participate in a genealogy or family history related blog
carnival."
Check! And I've put it in pre-publish status to be posted on
Sunday Aug 25 at 1pm to partially comply to

C. "Prepare several posts in draft mode (if possible with your
blog platform) and pre-publish." Check. Although I had to
reschedule the first prescheduled post when I realized I'd
goofed in setting the date and time.


D. Write a brief biographical sketch of one of my ancestors.
Check. Posted a brief biography of Amos Hastings.

E. Volunteer to host a future blog carnival.
Check. I emailed both Tim and Lisa and I'm taking a turn
on hosting the Carnival of Irish History and Culture in
late October or early November.,


Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness!
Completed 4.

A. Comment on a new (to you) genea-blog. Check. Although
Debra Sandstrom Fleming doesn't have a comments
application, I emailed her with my thoughts on her post on
The Ancestry Detective, "When Genealogy Gets Ugly."

B. Join another genea-blogger’s blog network on Facebook
Blog Networks.
Check. Joined the Crowes Nest, Ancestry Detective, Ancestor
Search and GeneaNet Genealogy Blog networks.

C. Invite other genealogists to join Facebook.
Check. I extended the invitation to Debra in my email.
I really like her writing and I'm hoping she'll join a Carnival
as well.

D. Assist another researcher with a research request or
lookup. See AnceStories "Random Acts of Kindness Week"
posts for ideas for this..."

Check. I shared the Barker Family photos with three
Barker cousins which comes under the "sharing data" label
I think of Miriam's list. Maybe. I hope.

So, my final tally is a platinum medal for "Write Write
Write" and a Diamond Medal for "Reach Out and Perform
Genealogical Acts of Kindness."