Wisdom Wednesday - "Remember Your Name"

My daddy, Estel Shoemaker, Jr. in his senior portrait.

On my father's 60th birthday, we gave him a surprise birthday party.  In fact, it ended up being more like a "roast" when just about everyone present stood up and told a funny or embarrassing story about him. During my brother's segment of the evening, he relayed a message that my father had always reminded him during his childhood. The statement was "always remember your name".  When he first said it, people laughed because it does sound like a joke.  But, my father meant it in a deeper context, because the sentence goes on, "Always remember your name, because there are those who share it with you".

His meaning to us was very clear. We were never to do anything to bring shame to ourselves or to our family.

I've thought about those words many times. In this day and age, when everyone seems to be thinking, "I'll do what I want. It's MY life and I am the only one who has to live with the consequences", it's interesting to ponder how life would be different if more people would think about how their actions affect their family members well-being and reputations before they act.  I realize there are many that might not care, but I think that my ancestors probably thought quite a bit about how their actions reflected upon their loved ones.  I know I have never wanted to bring any negative attention to my family, and although I may not have always lived up to my intentions I continue to hear my father's voice repeating, "Always remember your name".

Wordless Wednesday - Graduation Invitation

My father's graduation announcement, Sabina High School, Sabina, Ohio, 1948

Surname Saturday - My new Swadner cousin

For the past couple of weeks, my life has been filled with moving boxes, U-Haul trucks, and a few tears as we have been moving my son and daughter in law into their first apartment.  It is a bittersweet time for us. We are so proud of him and the fact that he has just finished his Master's Degree in Education and will be beginning his career as a high school science teacher in just a few days.  But, watching him pack up and leave our home and the lack of his presence here has been difficult.  It's something all parents go through and even though we know that he is just fine and that it is our job to give our children both roots AND wings,  it is hard to let him go. 

With as busy as this month has been, I have had to leave my blog and most of my genealogy work on hold for awhile.  I had noticed two messages in my Ancestry.com mailbox that I wanted to get back to as soon as possible, but a phone call last night beat me to it.  I picked up a call in my voice mailbox from the very lady who had messaged me about my family tree.  She said that she had found me on both Ancestry.com and from contacting the Montgomery County (Ohio) Genealogical Society and she noticed that I was seeking information on the Swadner family.  I have written a little on past blog posts about my great great grandmother, Clarinda Swadner Routsong, and it appeared that Susan (my caller) is the great granddaughter of Ida Belle Swadner, my first cousin, three times removed.  She went on to tell me that she has a large amount of photographs, tintypes, and even some furniture that belonged to Ida Belle and since she has no children to pass them on to, she wanted to know if I would like to have anything.  I could hardly believe that I was hearing her message correctly.  I couldn't dial her number quickly enough.  Luckily for me, she answered the phone right away and was happy to hear from me.  We spoke for a few minutes and planned to meet at some time in the future so I can pick out whatever I want from her family collection.  I can hardly wait for that day.  My heart always breaks when I see "orphan" photographs in antique stores and flea markets because somewhere, there has to be someone to whom those people are family.  So, I truly appreciate the fact that Susan tried so hard to find a family member to pass the photographs on to.  I may not be able to take a great many of them, but I certainly will take as many as I can.  In the meantime, I will take the time to discover as much as I can about my cousin, Ida Belle.

Wordless Wednesday - Vernon Hellmund

My husband's grandfather, Vernon C. Hellmund, Dayton, Ohio

Sentimental Sunday - Grandma and Grandpa's House

It wasn't a big house. It had two small bedrooms and one even smaller bedroom, a tiny bathroom, a living room, dining room, a kitchen, and a basement with a big furnace that had ductwork that to this little girl looked like the arms of a giant monster. Later, a two car garage was built next to the house, although I can't ever remember there being two cars kept there.  It had a front door, a side door, and a back door, which I always thought was odd since there was very little space from one to another. The door pictured above was the side door which led out into a beautiful yard,  the upper portion of which was actually owned by my great aunt and uncle. That yard was just perfect for the family picnics we had every Labor Day.  On that day, it was filled with croquet games, the passing of baseballs, chairs, tables full of food,  and tons of Norris family laughter.  The backyard contained a cement porch where evenings were spent making conversation....and ice cream. Across the driveway from the backyard were grape arbors, gardens, and apple trees; one of which contained a handmade swing on a branch that wasn't too stable and always swayed up and down along with the "swinger".  It was land that remained from a substantial amount of farmland that had belonged to my great great grandfather who was an very early settler of the township. Through the years, that land had been divided among his children and this portion had belonged to my great grandmother, Elizabeth Routsong Norris. My grandfather, Leland Norris had, after living in various other locations in Dayton, come back to this land and built a home here. As Van Buren Township and eventually the city of Kettering, had grown up, it was very rare to see a home surrounded by as much land as they had. It wasn't overly large, but it was much bigger than the suburban yards we were used to and I thought it was fantastic.  My great aunt and great uncle lived just up the hill on the side yard and we would visit them often and delight in seeing the giant goldfish in the small outdoor pond in their backyard.  As a child, I never appreciated the gift of  growing up in such a wonderful atmosphere and it flew by much too quickly. After my grandparents passed away, I think most of us hoped that someone in the family would be able to buy the house and the land, but the real estate in that area of the city was far too valuable and none of us was able to make the purchase.  Seeing the house in the hands of someone else was very difficult, especially when almost immediately, they began to renovate the house, both inside and out. It was even harder when my great aunt died a few years later and her home and the remainder of the land on the side of the house was sold. Shortly thereafter, an extremely large, modern home was built on the land and obscured the view of my grandparents house from the highway.  The new house sits directly on our old "croquet field" and the field of apple trees in the backyard had to yield the way for crop of new and expensive homes. 

A couple of years ago, my mother gave me an envelope full of my grandparents important papers.  Inside I found the mortgage book that my grandfather kept showing all of his house payments.  It includes the date stamped for the final payment.  It's one of my favorite keepsakes, along with the pictures my husband took of my grandparents home before we left for the last time. No matter how many people move into and out of that house, for me it will always be "Grandma and Grandpa's". 

Treasure Chest Thursday - Her Face on the Tea Towels

I hope you will indulge me a bit today as I go a little bit off the genealogy trail to share this treasure, for today I am thinking of July 29, 1981.

I had been married myself only a few weeks when Lady Diana married Prince Charles in St. Paul's Cathedral.  I was one of millions who awoke at 4:00 am to watch the festivities.  I had begun my "Diana" collection a few months earlier, quite innocently enough.  Newly engaged, I was watching the CBS Evening News when a brief report began picturing the Prince of Wales and a beautiful young woman dressed in a brilliant blue suit.  As they were shown strolling hand in hand, the story went on to describe their engagement and gave the woman's name as Lady Diana Spencer.  The next day in the newspaper, a photo from that press report appeared and I thought it might be nice to have a copy of it for my "wedding scrapbook" to show something that was going on in the world during the time of our engagement. I thought it would just end at that, but, boy was I wrong!

Lady Diana, the lovely, young, kindergarten teacher caught the imagination of the whole world and "royal wedding" fever began to spread.  I decided to start a scrapbook about the wedding itself and there was no shortage of items with which to fill it.  One scrapbook turned into two, three, four...... 

I also starting buying other souvenirs; plates, dolls, stamps, books and the tea towel pictured above.

After the majesty of the wedding, came the "baby watch" and the births of Prince William and Prince Harry. But, it was soon quite obvious to everyone that the royal marriage was not a happy one.  By the time of the official announcement of their impending divorce, no one was surprised, although it was very sad. Now, we watched Princess Diana begin a life as a single woman; much wiser and no longer the innocent young lady she was when we first came to know her.  When she spoke of the fears she had prior to her marriage, she said her friends had told her she could not back out of the wedding because "her face was on the tea towels".  I have to admit when I read those words I felt very sad.  How trapped she must have felt by the expectations of the entire world.

When Diana died in Paris that Labor Day weekend, I cried my heart out. Her funeral took place during one of my regular work days and those of us in the office sat around the television and watched.  There were several "twenty-somethings" who worked with me and they expressed confusion as to why Diana's death was "such big news".  We had lost famous people before. Why was Diana so special?

I can only speak for myself, but this is what I think.

My generation, maybe more so than any other, was raised on the fairy tale.  The story of the beautiful princess meeting her prince, falling in love and living "happily ever after" was a staple in our lives.  We had the Disney "Big Three" in Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty.  In the 1960's we were even given Rodgers and Hammerstein's brunette version of Cinderella in the form of Lesley Ann Warren. (Who was my special favorite!) So, when Lady Diana appeared, it was almost like a fairy tale come true. It was even spoken in their marriage ceremony, I believe by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who said, "This is the stuff of which fairy tales are made. A Prince and Princess on their wedding day."  We wanted to believe it was true love.  We wanted to see the "Happily Ever After".  So, when it ended so cruelly, so abruptly, it was truly painful.  We felt like we knew her. We were pulling for her to be happy because she had been treated so unfairly and her death was almost too much for people to take. Maybe that's why the emotions were so great.

My scrapbooks became larger over those weeks as I concluded Diana's story.  I'm glad I started my collection almost 30 years ago now,  and I don't think I could ever part with any of it.  It's a remembrance of a special time and it truly is one of my "treasures". 

Sentimental Sunday - Shared Birthdays

I have heard people lament the fact that they share a birthday with a family member.  They somehow feel "short-changed" by the fact that celebrations were never just for them alone.  I guess that maybe that might be true for multiple birthdays within an immediate family, but I consider myself lucky to have shared my birthday with my two great aunts, Carmen and Olive.   Our birthdays all fell on September 14.  I was a C-section birth so my parents were allowed to choose the birthdate and I was always happy they chose a day that would allow me to celebrate with "Carmie" and "Olive"

Inside the "Baby Book" my mother lovingly kept for me are two precious handwritten letters, sent to my parents by Aunt Carmen and Aunt Olive just after I was born.  I love reading about their excitement at the news of my arrival and I'm thankful that my mother cared enough to save them for me.  

When I was very young, we actually did have the opportunity to celebrate our birthdays together and I'm grateful for the photographs I have of those times. I don't have any memory of those parties, but they sure look like they were fun!

As I grew up, I could be guaranteed that on every birthday, without fail, I would receive a special birthday card from each of them.  Since we weren't living in the same household, I wasn't "sharing" the attention with someone else, but rather I was receiving "special" attention from people I knew loved me. Throughout my childhood and into my married life, we continued to send each other those birthday wishes year after year, until Alzheimer's Disease began to take Aunt Olive away from us and Aunt Carmen passed away. 

Each year, as the calendar turns to September my thoughts go back to those precious days and to those beautiful ladies that I love and miss so much and I sure wouldn't mind sharing my birthday with them again.

Wordless Wednesday - James Nash Marling

My great great uncle, James Nash Marling

Columbus, Franklin, Ohio

circa 1900

Tombstone Tuesday - Milton and Josephine Morrow Jacks

My great great aunt and uncle, Milton and Josephine Morrow Jacks and their daughters, Maude and Ora.

Surname Saturday - Roseanna Varvel Shoemaker

My great grandmother, Roseanna Varvel Shoemaker

Roseanna Varvel was born 15 June, 1876 in Adams County, Ohio.  She was the third child of seven born to George W. and Mahala Mahaffey Varvel, the first of their four daughters and she was named in honor of her grandmother, Roseanna Bowen Varvel.   Sometime in 1895, she was married to Thomas Jefferson Shoemaker, the son of Jacob and Anna Mariah Grimes Shoemaker,  in Adams County and they began farming in the rugged southern Ohio land.  In 1896, their first child, Floyd,  was born and Ann would eventually give birth to thirteen children, twelve of whom survived to adulthood.  It was not an easy life for Tom and Ann as they struggled to feed and shelter their large family, which also included two of Tom's brothers, Ike and Jake.  At one point, they even lost their farm due to a combination of unscrupulous maneuverings by a mortgage holder and poor record keeping by a too Tom.  Somehow, they managed to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.  Ann was a strong and courageous woman.  Her daughter told a story of how she herself was terrified of all the snakes that made their homes around the family farm, but Ann was never bothered by them. She would simply pick them up by the tail, "crack" them like a whip and their heads would fall off.  She would just go on about her business, teasing the girls about their fear. 

The Shoemaker Home from 1933-1949 photographed in 1990

As her children grew up, Ann had to watch her oldest son go to war and several of the others leave the homestead to find the jobs that were not plentiful in and around Peebles.  She persevered, taking care of those who remained and watching her family grow as her children married and had babies of their own.

On 19 October, 1943, Tom had a massive heart attack and died at the age of 74.  According to her daughters, Ann was never the same.  She spent a great deal time living with her daughter, Lulu, in Xenia, Ohio and that is where she died on 28 January, 1956. 

She is buried next to Tom in the Locust Grove Cemetery in Peebles, Adams County, Ohio.