Finding Aunt Hat

When I was very young, in the days when the house was dark and adults were loud, there was visiting and discussions and a new word in our kitchen with its sloping roof. That new word was auction.
The word followed a lot of visitors, Aunt Effie and Aunt Edna -- Aunt Edna reminded me of a full-breasted bird, like a robin, only not red and brown.

Anyway, after these visits and these discussions and these words --"auction", whatever that was -- after all that, we got new (to us) furniture in our house.

I don't remember all of what we got, but one piece stands out in my memory. A dresser, a long, heavy dresser with carved legs and shiny dangly drawer pulls, and best of all, this humongous swinging mirror, hanging between carved curvy shiny pieces of wood.

I loved that mirror.
For all of its life and most of mine, I loved that mirror. It had to be taken off whenever the dresser was moved, and sometimes it couldn't be put back on the dresser. Our ceilings were too low, except in certain rooms and in certain spots.

The dresser was Aunt Hat's dresser.

I sorta knew who Aunt Hat was.Aunt Hattie. Sometimes, when we would walk uptown with Mamma, we would stop in and visit her. I don't remember much about her, but her home and her furniture were so well taken care of that it always almost felt like going into a church. It smelled so good, and things gleamed and there was light.

But, starting genealogy, it's been kind of tough figuring out who Aunt Hat was. There were Henriettas and Harriets and several possible prospects. No one (not surprisingly) was listed as Hat or Hattie.

Someone mentioned her house as being the Woods house, these many generations later. So -- one of our lines did have a daughter married to a Woods. That line also had her having a sister who could have been Hattie. Following that lead, we even found her as Hattie.
But Hattie's married name, as we had it, was not Woods. It was Ulrey.

But, we found her, eventually, and she was a Woods.
She had been married to that other person, and was divorced and remarried someone with the same last name as her sister's husband. He looks to be much older, and we haven't really placed him yet, but

We have found Aunt Hat!She was our grandfather's mother's sister, and lived right up the street from us.

And we found her by looking for her mother, who was known, officially, as both Anna and Dora Hayes, and we continue in search of any history on her. Her mother's name was Redman, and that's as far back as we can get.

Death, Present and Future

Didn't mean to abandon this blog. I'm still interested in the heritages, curious about the individuals, wanting to know the stories. Life got in the way for quite a little while.

My husband, Rex Allen Collins, born 8/23/1955 passed from this life on October 16, 2013. He left behind three daughters and three grandsons and one granddaughter. He was born in West Virginia and died in Cincinnati Ohio.

So, I have a real time death certificate. A genealogical document I would gladly have done without.
But, as a time or timely piece of officialdom, it has some interest.

On the death certificate, it asks, naturally enough, about cause of death. In his case, it was COPD. There are other details about that, but that doesn't matter here. The curiosity, to me, is that it goes on to ask if tobacco use contributed to death. The answer, of course (all things considered) was yes.

It -- the certificate also has places to be marked "if female" concerning pregnancy. 5 different options to choose from there. But it doesn't ask anything about pregnancy as a contributing factor.
It asks about on-the-job injury, with a block (address, time, etc) of blanks to be filled in on that subject.
It  has a place for transportation injury. I thought that section had asked about seat belt use, but I don't see that now.

Interesting way of collecting data, don't you think? Imagine if death certificates had always offered all of that type of information. We'd know a lot more about how our ancestors died, and probably about how they lived.

But even those minimal death certificates are an improvement on the information usually available from a tombstone.

And tombstones are an improvement over wooden markers that decayed, or piles of rocks that had no information.

Still, I wonder about the evolution of the death certificate. How will digitizing change official documentation, as information storage becomes increasingly electronic? Will there be a long lust of checkboxes about the cause and course of illness, accident, or general process of dying? Will an ordered (someday historical) death certificate print off the complete document, or only the parts relevant to the individual death? What will future death certificates offer our descendants about our lives beyond dates and locations?

No one knows the future, of course.
But how many of us worry over the documentation of that unknown future?
Is it even worth worrying over?

But, you gotta admit,for document junkies, it's intriguing speculation,

The Life(s?) of Lige.

There's a character in our family background who keeps showing up as different people,  but on closer examination, he's all the same person. (So far as we can tell.)

We have William Elihu Laycock jr, son of Susannah Parker and William Elihu Laycock. According to one record, he was born November 23, 1834 and died in 1856. July, to be specific.

There is also Elihu Parker Laycock, born August 21, 1842 and reportedly died in 1927.

(also in the same ballpark but not as close, there's a brother Enoch.)

Both of these gentlemen died at Longview Hospital, one in June of 1927, the other on July 17, 1856.

Elias Laycock, born November 23, 1835 "also" died on July 17, 1856. His stone, as you can see, bears the name "Eli", which could cover any of these names.

To recap: Eli was born on the same date, different year as William Elihu jr. He died on the same day as Elihu Parker.

In November of 1862, "Elihu" Laycock married Sarah Vanosdol.

Confusing, isn't it?

Then I started running into references to "Lige", who, it turns out, is Elihu, although who knows, at this point, if he was Elihu Parker or William Elihu jr.

Does it mean anything that this man with many names died as an inmate (so far as I can tell) of a mental institution? Could he have lost himself in the various identities that had separate names?

I don't know, and for now I am stymied at finding out anything more.

If you know anything of any of these Laycock men, please share with me. Maybe we can get "Elihu" sorted out in death in a way that wasn't possible while he was living.

Who's the Cousin? Cousin to Whom?

My mother's father, Willard S Parker, had an older half-sister, Dora (m Potrafke. She was the daughter of John Arthur Parker (b Danville, Des Moines County Iowa 1879) and Essa Swing (b Clermont County, Oh 1881.) Dora was born in July of 1900.

Dora's half-siblings

In 1905, John Arthur married again, to Maggie Purkiser, and they had three (known) children: Estel, Willard, and Gladys.

In the meantime, Dora, family lore says, was living with/being raised by "cousins." We have been trying to figure out exactly who the cousin is and how they are related.

The 1910 Census has Dora in Williamsburg, Ohio, in the household of Frances Vanosdol, who was sister to Dora's grandmother. However, this Frances has no listed relationship with the Head of the Household, one James Burnett. Mr. Burnett is credited with being married to a Mamie nee Fitzwater, and they have a daughter Ella.

The Burnetts, while claiming no relationship with Frances, who is Aunt Dora's aunt, do claim Dora as a "cousin."

So -- who are these people? 
How are they related?

There is a Burnett married into another branch of Parkers. (We already have two of those lines fairly well proven. Just what we need, a third Parker branch!)
There is a Bennett married in with the Vanosdols, mother of Sarah Ellen, who married the Mystery Laycock.
There are a few Barneses scattered into the lines, here and there. 
All of these are possible variations of the name for a census taken orally, and by and from people who may have been illiterate or have unfamiliar accents.

It's more a curiosity than anything else. Family lore vs Family Facts. How is this Unknown Man claiming cousinship with our aunt, but he is no kin to a woman who is her kin?

Just another historical mystery, shrouded by time and fuzzy connections.

July is for Family

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July seems to be THE month for family get-togethers for us. Even the 'other' sides seem to choose July. Previous years, my dad's family had their reunions in July. I'm so glad that he was able to attend before he died. Siblings seem to become more important as time goes by and they move away or age, even as you are aging.
No one knows you like your brothers and sisters.
(Of course, you don't want too many people to know you that way. Why scare them off?)

This year, the oldest of my brothers (should I say most senior? Nah -- if he's old enough to be senior,-- he's not -- what would that make me?) is getting married, and that was a big reunion for him. None of us got to go to the wedding -- too far to drive, but his conglomeration of children were there to wish him happy.
Although, of course, we all do wish him happy. It's about time he had that in his life.

One of his sons did NOT find the drive intimidating, and he (the son) drove down to see us!
Picnic time!
We headed down by the river and spent a pleasant evening.

My next sister is having a reunion with (I guess) her husband's family. This was brought about through Facebook and by the miracle of the 'young people' wanting to know their kin. It is the healing of a long lack of communication.. My sister and her family are pleased (and curious), but above all else, they will be glad to resolve the estrangement.

That's what family does.

First Time with Both Babies

Not that Hailey is a baby, although she will tell you, earnestly and repeatedly, that she was one, once upon a time. She grew in her mommy's belly, and she came out, once upon a time. And even her mommy, once upon a time, grew in her mommy's belly. That's me, and when her mommy came out of my belly, she was a little bitty baby, once upon a time.

But, for now, the little bitty baby is Warren.

Sibling rivalry is not a problem. Hailey is overly helpful and playful with the BB. (Big Boy, Baby Brother, Baby Boy, BuB,) I have to give my daughter a lot of credit for not inducing rivalry by pushing big sis out of baby's face, away from baby's body, etc. That is not an easy job, folks. It was Tam's example that kept me from doing any of those snappy, cranky. mean-mammaw things.

Sibling displacement or something like that is more difficult to maneuver. That is the source of the 'once upon a time' stories. It's reassuring that Mammaw's story and Mommy's are the same. It's reassuring that everything happens that way to everyone.

 It's a little scary, too.
Hailey is finding things to be afraid of. She's always been off and on about being afraid of the dark, and bugs that jump at you are frightening. Now she's afraid of the boogeyman, and ghosts, and, monsters (although she loves the Monsters, Inc collections and offshoots. I'm guessing they make monsters friendly.)

She's not so afraid of bugs, or wasn't when she left here. We armed her with a fly swatter. She can kill any bugs at arm's length. She can even scoop them up and take them outside all by herself. She'll go through the kitchen to the bathroom and call out, "Shut up cricket, I'm coming IN."

All this is normal, and I'm hoping that the excitement of going to school will help her. Kind of worried -- there's a great degree of Social Anxiety type problems in the family, and we may just be exchanging insecurities for her.

But that's pretty much how Real Life works anyway. It will be our job to keep her armed with flyswatters and the ability to express herself and communicate her concerns.
So far, so good.

Baby is a pretty good little one. He was regular with his eating, but you can sure tell that he has a third shift mommy. Bedtime is 6 to 10 at night, play time is 5 to 8 in the morning, sleepy time, nine to noon. Naptime 3 to 6.
Tam asked me to make sure he got tummy time, so I just threw him on the floor, or so I told Hailey.
She got upset the first few times I said I was just going to throw him on the floor, but she soon found that to be a wonderful, wonderful playtime.
And so it was.

But they've gone home now, and I got some sleep last night. I gotta tell ya, Baby's 4 hour sleep schedule and Mammaw's 5 hour sleep schedule just didn't want to synchronize very well at all. And he sure wasn't accommodating to change!

A wonderful half week.

Happy Father's Day to Rex.

Mystery Children

We have had this  little mystery on our hands for a little while now. We found these little ones in a box of family pictures, and they weren't identified. The picture was found with pictures of Gladys Parker Tilton and Maggie Purkiser Parker. We believe them to be Parkers, possibly from the Purkiser or Potrafke side. Maggie died in 1941, which may or may not be helpful. Pictures kept in a box, bag, or book are often unrelated in time, but they are usually related in affection. Maggie and Gladys were both regarded with affection by the picture holder. 

Also, if it is your picture, or that of someone you know, and you’d rather it not be displayed, let me know. I’ll take it down here, and it can remain anonymous on Facebook. I  can take it down there where I have posted it also. We have no wish to claim anything, just acknowledge kinship. We're just trying to identify and sort out the “People Who have been Lost” in the Family Archives.

Until then, I have posted this picture at various locations, such as the My Parker Heritage website. No answers there, so far, but had to ask. (I want to know!)

Maybe a Potrafke (Portrafke) or a Tilton might have an idea. If so, let us know, and we'll try to check it out. I have two sisters  who are awesome researchers. 

Until then, we will wait and wonder, as we have done these many months since the discovery.