Ghosts of Hallowe'ens past

 

When your mom really doesn't like Hallowe'en, but she tries...

October 30

Every summer Grandma and Grandpa Thomas took a trip to Ohio to visit Grandma's relatives, and I usually went with them. In the summer of 1961 I would have been 6 years old and just finished 1st grade in school. 

"Dear Mom, I have come close to 400 miles. How are you? I am still fine and still having a fine time. How is Ricky and Dad. Love, Dianne"

The address was written by Grandma or Grandpa. Postmarked Waverly, Ohio. Postage 3 cents.

 

October 29

Mrs. Erwin Wells

102 Detroit St

Buchanan Mich

postmarked Bangor, Michigan

"Wednesday 13 - 1922  Dear Renue, If Ruthie is better she is quite sick I think we will come Saturday. Don't look too hard for us. The roads are better down this way some. With love to all, Mother"

The recipient, as usual, is Aunt Renue (my grandfather's sister). She married Erwin Wells in 1920, so her last name is not Thomas any more. 'Mother' is Nancy Ford Thomas.

'Ruthie' is probably Ruth Margaret Thomas, the daughter of Renue's older brother Roy. She was born in 1920.

I don't know what month this card was written, but it must have been winter as she talks about the roads being bad. (I looked it up. In 1922 the 13th falling on a Wednesday would have been in either September or December. This card was probably written in December.) It's 50 miles from Bangor to Buchanan on US Hwy 31. I don't know if 31 was even in existence in 1922 or not. 

(Don'tcha just love Google?)

Will the real Aunt Peggy please stand up...

A back-of-photo conversation between Wathada and Cleffie.

Or...

(The red ink handwriting is mine.)

Here's a picture of  the real Aunt Peggy, with the Arnold family:

Photo L-R: Aunt Peggy, George, Adaline holding Etta, Annie behind John, John Henry holding Marlie.

Here's a picture that I believe may be the same woman as in the 2nd (greenish) photo above.

This is George Bullard's 2nd wife, Mary Morehead Robinson Bullard. I could be wrong, but in comparing ALL the family photographs, I think this is the most likely match.

October 27

 

Mrs Irwin Wells

Detroit St.

Buchanan

Mich.

"Dear Renew - We are in Kreamer Pa. at Chas brothers. Had a fine trip all the way. No car trouble at all. Lovely scenery & fine weather. We spent one night & one day with Chas sister in Youngstown, Ohio. Will write card later. Love, Edith Hoffman"

Postmark Kreamer PA

Jun 23, 1923

3PM

postage 1 cent

October 26

One copy I have of this photo just says "Pretty ladies". Fortunately, someone wrote the names of these pretty ladies on the back of this copy.

Jessie, Maud, Ettie, Annie, Bird

Who are these pretty ladies? Let me see if I can identify them by their relationship to ANNIE, who was my great-grandmother:

JESSIE is Annie's sister-in-law Jessie Tamsett, who married Annie's brother George.  

MAUD is Annie's first cousin Maud Cartee, the daughter of Nancy Ellen Carter. Nancy was a sister to Annie's mother Adaline Carter.

ETTIE is Annie's younger sister Etta Lee Arnold.

ANNIE is my great-grandmother, mother of Cleffie Hicks Burford -- my mother's mother.

BIRD is Annie's sister-in-law Birdie Leona Hayes, who married Annie's brother Marlie.

October 25

Fast-forward to 1965. This postcard shows Hartford, Michigan (my hometown). The card is postmarked from Hartford. It's hard to read -- and the stamp seems to have gone missing -- but I noticed the postmark contains the zip code 49057. That would have been a brand new feature at the time!

Christie Thomas was my grandmother. She belonged to a ladies' club. I remember going with her to club meetings many times as a child. They played cards, mostly. They also played a dice game called Bunco sometimes. (Or the Bunco club might have been a different group of ladies.)

I wish I could remember their names and match the names to the faces. The only names I can recall are Hazel Kelso and Edith Davis. Edith Davis was a piano teacher, and the mother of author Roy ('Bud') Davis.

October 24

Thinking about putting together a book featuring the BACKS of some of the family photographs. What do you think?  Some of the stuff written on the backs of the pictures is pretty interesting. And most of the time I recognize the handwriting of whoever wrote the information. (Sometimes two or three people had a whole conversation on the back of a photograph!)

Apparently this is only half of the original photo. I didn't know that until I read the writing on the back. It seems that this picture had two women in it. Including the part that is scratched out in red ink, it says: "Minerva Arnold on the right, mother of Annie Hicks - Mrs. Tamsett on the left (midwife) Delivered Cleffie Hicks". That is Cleffie's handwriting (my grandmother). The first name "Sarah" is my handwriting. 

Our family history album for this branch of the family says that Amy Tamsett was the midwife who delivered Cleffie, but that is an error. Amy Tamsett was only 14 years old at the time of Cleffie's birth (1917). She was a daughter of Sarah Tamsett. Amy married John Martin Carter (a cousin of Annie's). Amy's sister Jessie Tamsett married George Ned Arnold (Annie's brother).

Here is a picture of Minerva Adaline ("Ma") Arnold. I wonder if it might have been the other half of the picture with Sarah Tamsett...

October 23

Dear Renue

I got your card several days ago but alas, I couldn't come to the social without crossing the lake so I thot I wouldn't come. Oh what do I know about you and Ray and the fourth oh you are a dandy. I am having a dandy time here. Cecile L

address:

Miss Renue Thomas

RFD #1

Bangor, Mich

postmark:

Oak Park, Illinois

July 18, 1912

10:00 PM

postage: 1 cent

front of card: Pavilion, Garfield Park

This is another postcard to my dad's Aunt Renue (Grandpa Thomas' sister). She would have been 19 years old in 1912. I don't know who Cecile L is. And I don't know who Ray is. Don't you just wish you could go back in time and meet these people? 

October 22

"This picture was taken at Galveston TX. We had just come out of the Gulf bathing.

These pictures are not verry good but it will give you some idea how we all look. The children's hair was wet and didn't take good [??]

Maggie"

address:

Mrs Adlin Arnold

Caldren

Ark

postmark:

Allen, Texas

July 22, 1910

2PM

U.S. postage 1 cent

"Adlin" would be my great-great-grandmother Adaline Arnold. She was the mother of Annie Arnold Hicks. (Annie and Ulys would have been newlyweds at the time.) I have no idea who this Maggie is. I can't quite make out the last two words written just above her signature. It is a matter of some speculation about whether or not there is Native American blood in our lineage on Annie's side of the family. I don't even know if these people are related to us or not, but they certainly look to me like they have more than a few drops of Native American blood in them...

October 21

 

Well now. Just a reminder that Renue is my Grandpa (Bill) Thomas's sister. Effie is another sister. Effie would have been 22 years old in 1912, and Renue would have been 19. (Bill would be 13.) Effie was married to Harry Wieland. They would have been married 2 years at this time. 

I don't know who Leslie is. Of the people I know about in the family there are two possibilities. One is the man Renue eventually married -- but not until 1920 -- whose name was Erwin Wells. His middle name was Leslie but I never heard anyone call him that. The other would be Leslie Leeth. I kind of doubt it would be him, because he would have been 28 years old at the time this postcard was sent. It's not impossible that Renue would have dated a man 9 years older than her, but I don't know. Also, Leslie Leeth always lived in Ohio, as far as I know, and Renue always lived in Michigan. The most likely possibility is that the Leslie referred to on this card was someone else altogether, someone unknown to me. I wish I knew.

"We are going auto riding to-night." Don't you just love it?

October 20

Dearest Honey: Am sending the little box of rosies today. Hope they arrive ok. Shall promise you a box of "Orange Blossoms" in Feb. Very sorry to hear of your mama's accident. Only hope she improves. Give my regards to all. Am very, very busy. Hardly time to write a card. We have a party of 6 coming Wed. from New Haven, Conn. They sail on the steamer Mohawk down the St. Johns river. This river is a real picture in reality.

Postmark: Fruitland Park, Florida

Date: Jan(?) 16, PM, 2012

Address: Miss Renue Thomas, Bangor "West Bangor" Michigan

Postage: One cent

I don't know who wrote this card to Aunt Renue. She would have been about 18 years old at the time. She didn't marry Uncle Harry until 1920. I don't know anything about any boyfriends she might have had before that. And this might not have necessarily been from a boyfriend, I suppose. Could have been someone else who would call her "Dearest Honey".

Follow Up

When I posted the card this morning from Ulys to Annie, I got to wondering about who Will Anderson was. (The man in the picture on the postcard with my great-grandfather Ulys Hicks.) The other Anderson in our family history that I'm aware of was a Civil War soldier. I've had his picture for many years, but I only knew that he was somehow related to my great-grandmother, Annie Hicks. So I got online and -- not only did I find him, but I also found his wife!!

Photo: John Anderson 

Looking through the writings of various family members I found a few tidbits of information to take with me to the internet: John Anderson was the husband of my great-great-great-grandmother's (Nancy Jane Evans Carter) sister, Elizabeth Evans. Basically, that's all I knew. The names John Anderson and Elizabeth Evans are fairly common, so I didn't really expect to be able to locate the right ones with no more information than that. I use two websites for the research I do on family history -- Family Search, and Find A Grave. Both sites are filled with information supplied by various folks tracing their family histories. Not all of the information found there is reliable. Sometimes there will be legal documents such as birth/death certificates, marriage licenses, the US Census, etc., to support the information. But not always. So I really didn't feel very hopeful about finding 'our' John Anderson and Elizabeth Evans.

Well sir, of the long long list of Elizabeth Andersons on Find A Grave, I scrolled down the page and found one specifically Elizabeth Evans Anderson. And she was in the right timeframe. And she was born in Tennessee and died in Missouri -- just like my great-great-great-grandmother, her sister. Wow! When I opened the memorial, I was very lucky that the person who created the memorial had actually written that she married... John Anderson!! And that he was a Civil War soldier. When I clicked the link to that John Anderson and found his Find A Grave memorial, lo and behold!, there was the very same photograph of him as the one I've had in my possession for all these years!

Sometimes you can spend hours searching and searching and searching, and never find what you're looking for -- or think you found it, only to discover it was a false lead. (For instance, one family tree I looked at had the parents and siblings listed for Elizabeth and Nancy Jane Evans -- but it said they were born in Wales!) But sometimes, like today, the fates smile on you and your ancestor just pops right up and says hello! That's what happened today. And there was a BONUS. Elizabeth Evans Anderson's memorial on the Find A Grave website also included a PICTURE of her!

I can't tell if it's a photograph or a painting. 

The photo of my great-great-great-grandmother on her Find A Grave memorial looks very similar.

It was put on the website by our Arkansas cousin Glynda Carter Tucker, so I'm pretty sure it's actually her. Glynda has a wealth of well-documented information on the Carter branch of the family tree.

P. S. Remind me to tell you about the time (today) that I found John Henry Arnold's long-lost mother, along with her 2nd husband and at least one of her other children!

October 19

This is not from the Thomas family postcards album. This is a postcard sent from Ulysses Hicks to Annie (Bertha Ann) Arnold on 15 December 1909. They were not married yet. Ulys and Annie were my great-grandparents. The photo on the front is Ulys on the left and Will Anderson on the right. I'm not sure who Will Anderson is, or whether he is related to our family or not. 

Ulys's message is written in pencil. The writing above and below it, in blue ink, was written by someone else -- maybe my grandmother (Cleffie), although it doesn't look like her handwriting. Could have been one of her sisters. They were all good about writing on the backs of the family pictures, so they can be identified. One of them (Irene, I think, or maybe Evalee) wrote on  the *front* of many of the pictures, with red ink. That seems taboo to me, to write on the front of a photograph. But since I've been curating the family photo archives, I have come to think it's not a bad thing at all -- in fact, it's VERY helpful. So bless her heart, whoever it was!

Here is a photograph of Ulys and Annie from about that same time period, shortly before they were married.

October 18

 

Beautiful cursive handwriting, huh?

"Have fished off this pier more than once. This is a very common sight here. This stream runs into the Atlantic. Lucretia" (I'm not sure what the word above Lucretia is.) 

Postmark is Fruitland Park, Florida, Dec 30 - I think it says 1911. One cent postage. Renue wasn't married yet. In 1911 she would have been about 18 years old. 

Notice how simple the address is: Bangor "West Bangor" Michigan. I so loved growing up in small towns like that, where the mailman didn't need any more information than that to know where to deliver the card. (And, btw, those towns are the same size now as they were when I grew up there. The world has changed, but in many ways they are still much the same as they were way back then.)

October 17

Mr. & Mrs. Erwin Wells

W. Roe St.

Buchanan, Mich

postmarked Midway, GA, Aug 18, P.M. 1944 (postage 1 cent)

Thurs. a.m.

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Wells

We stayed here last night. We had a good time here. Billy woke us all up in the morning.

Love Joanne.

I don't know who Joanne is, nor who Billy is. Mr & Mrs Wells would be my dad's Aunt Renue and Uncle Erwin (Renue was my grandfather's sister).

The postcard shows a hotel in either South Carolina or Kentucky, but the postmark was in Georgia, so I guess they were 'on the road' when it was mailed.

It's interesting to me that people were traveling during the war years when tires and cars and gasoline were being rationed. I wasn't alive then, so I don't know how it really was, but I've heard folks talk about it a lot when I was growing up. 

October 16

To: Mrs. Irvin Wells, Roe St, Buchanan, Mich

Nampa, Idaho

Oct 19

1:30 PM

1943

Postage 1 cent

Marjorie and I are here to see Bob. Had a lovely trip I mean the scenery not the ride. We have had a grand time with him. He went out to camp this morning and we start for home. So will soon be in Mich. Mrs. Hawks

Photo: Renue and Erwin Wells 1939

I have no idea who Mrs. Hawks is. Mrs. Irvin Wells is Aunt Renue -- my grandfather's (Bill Thomas) sister. She was married to Erwin (not Irvin) Wells.

October 15

Okay, I'm getting bored and repetitive, so we're going to change it up a bit. Time to start looking through all the photo albums I've put together in the past 4 years (or more). And, just to be REALLY different, I'm going to start with the little album full of postcards that came with the Thomas family photos, mostly.

The first one is not a postcard, but a little Xmas card.

This came from Minnie and Frank Davis. As someone wrote on the back -- "cousin on the Ford side from N.Y. state". I don't have the envelope, so I'm not sure who it was sent to.

In this photo the woman 3rd from left is Minnie Davis, and the man on the far right is Frank Davis. The others are (L to R) Kate Adams, Nancy Thomas, Charlie Ford, Clifford Girard (standing), Hattie Girard, Roger Thomas (child), Charlie Thomas. Charlie Thomas was my great-grandfather, and Nancy Thomas was my great-grandmother.