Old Stuff
 

I do like history, here's a little that's close to me. My great Uncle was a very cool dude. He was born 1882, fought for his country and was a stage actor. He had a grin like the Chester cat. I only remember meeting him once, it was on his death bed and you couldn't wipe the smile of his face, he was so happy to see my mother and name-sake. I was about 8 yrs.

He's not blood, he was husband to my great grandmother's sister. We're similar blond and blue. They didn't have any kids. I was named after him, so my kids and I are what's left of memory. I was left with some very cool history. A bunch of scrap books, he was artistic, the work is so nice. My late mother had some of it, so I just came across two more scrapbooks.

Just a few pictures. The first image is a little ironic. He was a wise man.

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Few more.

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Too cool! I love that old stuff. It's really neat to be able to look into someones past and get a glimpse of what they were like. I have some too but It's not as exciting as yours....:)

I have my Great Grandfathers Diary from 1903 when he and his family took a covered wagon trip from Dean, Iowa to Arora, Missouri. It is a great read.

LockDoc

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That's must be a neat read Doc. They could have been around the same age. I may post some more pics, there's a ton of history and creatively. What I want to know is, who took that pic. of my aunt and uncle approaching commando?

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very cool pics, thanks for sharing

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He seemed to be quite the character. Very neat remembrance to have.

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Thanks so much for sharing. I eat this stuff up... love it! He seems to have been a person well in touch with the inner human element within us all.

I am fortunate to have tons of family history of my mother's side of the family due to my mom living in the little mountain town she was raised in, Friendsville, MD. In 1972 the Friends Family Assoc. was formed and then came their museum and library in the old bank building. my mom became the librarian/curator there, is now the second oldest person in town, and is a wealth of knowledge of the town's history and it's people.

No illustrious history or big titles or famous people. Just an isolated town with a rich history dating back to 1765 when John Friend came up (actually south) the Youghiogheny River to this wonderful sheltered basin in the Allegheny Mountains that was a Shawnee summer camp the called The Hunter's Bowl. He asked their permission to bring his family, build a cabin, and settle. He did so on the piece of ground they selected. His forefathers arrived in New Sweden in the 1600s. They were woodsman and were wanted for their ability to live in the wilderness and could help forge West into the unknown lands. John was third generation, I believe. These men traded with the Native Americans, learned their language, and through a series of settlements up the Potomac River were of the first Europeans to set foot in this area. Pretty neat to have learned what I know, and my mom never knew until later in life

http://www.wvgenweb.org/clay/israel.htm

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Very cool, the legend of John Friend.

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My great Grandmother on my mom's side (actually both of them) lived to be 100. Grandma was 96 the last time I got to just sit and visit. She could remember the names and color of the horses that pulled their wagon into the OK land rush, parts of every inaugural speech from the time she started voting, the names of the kids who went to WWI, WWII, Korea and VN, whether they came back or not and how they were related to those still in the area. She was a published author and poet ( local books for the area) and grew a garden that supplied almost all her veggies from the time she was 30 until she turned 98. She drove until she was 92 but my cousin "borrowed" her car and never took it back.(she was a good driver still and could see well but would not drive over 25 and the family was afraid she would get hit from behind). At 94 I took her to pick sandhill plums (wild plums in NW OK) and when I got the basket out of the trunk I turned to hold the barbed wire fence for her but she was already jumping off the top wire.
It amazes me the people who shared their wisdom like this that I never took as much time to listen to as I should have. I miss their insights and wisdom more as I age.

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Please watch the "risque" pics, we have had reports on them. thanks

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Hey Deland, you and the rest might like to watch these. My mom is on the left{

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Have done and will do Liz, thank you. Sorry any offended.

Few more pics. His dad fought for the Confederate army at 15 years old. Sometime later was Republican.

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few more

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Hey Tony, is a great uncle a grand father's brother? Guess what I just learned from my sister today. I had a great uncle that was an actor, Paul Page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Page_(actor)

I never knew my grandfather on my dad's side. He left my grandmother, my dad, and his younger brother when my dad was 4, in 1929. We know all this stuff about my mountain-born mom's side, but basically zip about my namesake side. But my sister has been doing some digging. Paul Page was in movies from 1929-1934. He acted in movies with the young John Wayne and Will Rogers. Pretty neat to find out. My great grandfather (Robert Curtis Hicks) was born in Kentucky and spent his life working for a railroad in the southeast. He worked his way up to assistant to the president and they moved a few times

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Rollie was married to my great grandmother's sister on my maternal side. That's cool about Paul Page. My dad was in the business, just small parts & music scores. My dad was six years younger than Paul.

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That was a classic era in film... talkies, indeed. It turns out my grandfather, his brother, lived in California in the late years of his life. He is buried in Culver City. Paul had a degree in engineering but went straight to Broadway to pursue acting after graduation. Probably pressured into engineering by my great grandfather. Sure sounds like it. We wonder if after getting out of show biz in '35 if he didn't go to work for Hughes, but all my sister's speculation at this point. She's really been doing some digging. She filled me with information last night for over an hour and a half. I remember about 5 minutes of it :lol:.

My grandmother on Dad's side was a Bell. My great great grandfather was C.M. Bell, an early photographer with a studio in Washington, DC. He is known for his photography of Native American chiefs and other notables. If you google C.M. Bell portraits or studio you'll get to see some of his work and or information

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/c-m...ogloc#overview

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I'm diving into some heritage, very slowly, I know there's a lot. Just a first name out of my "mother's" cook book led to a bunch of corrections/results on the web. Anyway, my great X3 grandparents docked in New York in 1891. Strikes me odd they migrated in their 70s, they didn't live past 1896. Looks like Trump's grandfather came over on the same boat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eid...WZ8MAJH-U0dVdU

After more research looks like my mother was right, we're related to Mary Ann Evans, aka George Elliot. Her father (Robert) and my great grandfather x5 were brothers of 14 siblings Their father was name George, same for my 5x great grandfather, so it appears she took on her grandfather or uncle's name to write books.

Heck man, how many people can name "George Elliot's" grand-parents:lol: I can go well beyond that, so far I've traced to the year 595, which is a guy named Chrodobertus I. Internet is a wonderful thing once you cut through the BS.

Update: Make that to the year 300, it's probably deeper, there are just too many branches. If any of you take interest in your heritage, some info. to start you'll be in for a surprise. I linked two records and the result was I was slammed. It gets real interesting, lots of "Sir", "Lady", Duchess, Princess, yadda yadda, no doubt some bums too. It's amazing how well the old country kept track of people. One of my greatx? grandmother's came from a long line of rulers, 1000s of years. The clue was near everyone down her line from the year 1046 past had a picture, DOB & DOD.

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That's really going back. Back before surnames. I always wondered how they could go beyond that point. I know the ancestry sites use DNA but where is that coming from going back so far?

My sister has dug up a lot more on my dad's side, going back to Scotland.

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One of my great-something-grandfathers was supposedly born in northern Ireland around 1750.

On the other side, my namesake great-something-grandfather has been traced back to western South Carolina in the late 1700s, but I can't find anything further back because the name is so common in that area. Of course that was wilderness at that time so not a lot of official records.

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I have no idea. My only thought is the old country maintained a very detailed record. What's interesting is my mother & especially grandmother would tell us stories about ancestors. They never used the computer for this stuff, but I was able to confirm their stories, and a lot of it was automatic. I think you'd be real interested to do it Tim, I suspect we're brothers;)

Downside is the branches can become far to big to manage. You get some perspective about time and old country. We're just a splash in the frying pan.

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Anytime I look at the paternal bloodline, the best source for information is on a police blotter. Unfortunately, it's all in French. ;)

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Came across this cool pic. The guys on top are my father's grandpa's. They worked the railroad. You don't mess with Peter right? Perhaps he was a gentle giant. Word is Gerald and son were hardcore, my dad would attest to it.

This would have been approx. 1905ish, about the same time as my father's birth.

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I wouldn't want to piss those guys off.