EOW, EOM -- So . . .

It's no big deal, but next month is almost here, less than 24 hours to go until the month that summer will begin anew. Here in Northern California it is confusing sometimes as to the weather and what season it really is. The last couple of weeks the mornings have been very cool and very dreary.

The yard though contains lots of color and it offsets the dreariness and then too, the afternoons have been very sunny and warm.

The Search Goes On

This week -- yesterday actually, I tuned into the
special webinar (for subscribers only) at Legacy Family Tree.

This webinar appealed to me because it had to do with Iowa and a how-to about searching in that state.

Both Gail and I have relatives and ancestors who lived in Iowa. So I was anxious for the webinar to be over so that I could try out some of the suggestions that were given.

And that is what I did -- I went to the first place that the presenter recommended:

Iowa Gen Web Project



And started plugging in surnames from our tree that I knew lived in Iowa. I started with Bumgardner as that is my mother's maiden name and her father's family were all over Iowa.

I found a reference to a Sarah Bumgardner and decided to follow up with her.

I knew about several Sarah Bumgardners but this one had a middle name (I only knew an initial) and I uncovered a lot of details about her life.

She married a man 28 years older than her, a man that had lost his first wife (Mary) two years prior to their marriage in 1859.

David Powell Johnson was a prominent doctor in Muscatine.


A few years after the marriage they had a son and named him David Powell Johnson, that was in 1863, unfortunately that David Powell Johnson died in 1865. Apparently Sarah was pregnant with another son that was born later in the year 1865 and they chose to name that son David Powell Johnson Jr.

Sarah lived until 1920 -- 78 years of age, her husband, Dr David Johnson, passed away in 1900 at the age of 86. Their son David Powell Johnson Jr, who also was a medical doctor, lived until 1956 passing away in Chicago, Illinois.

I was fortunate enough to find a photo of Sarah on the find-a-grave site and also a photo of the very impressive Dr David Powell Johnson residence in Muscatine.

Before this search I did not know about Sarah's marriage and life.

If I get to Muscatine again, I'll be sure to visit some of the key places in her life.



When Gail and I visited Muscatine back in 2003, we visited the one cemetery that we found for several of the Bumgardners, but Sarah and family are buried in a different cemetery.

Below left is the name of the cemetery: Greenwood and it looks very well maintained.

On the right is the most impressive monument that I've seen for a family member yet.

I would definitely like to visit that cemetery. It apparently has 18,000 or more interments.

I have a lot of other surnames to check into in Iowa -- it never ends, a good thing.


Lastly

The San Francisco Giants moved into first place in their division this week -- how long will that last?

We'll watch and find out including in a few minutes when we watch the game SF Giants vs Atlanta Braves . . .

While writing this, Gail pointed out to me that Dino was patiently guarding two of his favorite soft chew toys in the hallway while he looked out the front door . . .

That is a bit of our week -- see you all in a few!

It's Generational

Again this week so far -- cool in the morning (enough to put the heater on for a bit) and then warm almost to the point of needing the a/c. But here is something to get warmed about:

Thanks to Jim Hiles for sending me the above picture. It actually is the "old farm" where Jim was born some years ago on May 29th. The colors are rich and beautiful and I can only imagine the setting.

I believe Jim said that his father -- Edward Lloyd Hiles was also born on the same farm only on the 9 July 1910. The farm is located in Perry County, Ohio. What a serene looking setting!

So we take this moment to wish Jim the very best tomorrow and many more! Have a great day!

It is a Generational Thing . . .

I never have paid much attention to the terms assigned to generations -- until recently when I heard that "Millennials" are the current largest group in our society. I wasn't sure even what was meant by a "Millennial" . . .

So about 30% of our current population is made up of these folks. And this group apparently has distinctive traits.

Clicking on the chart to the left the "life decisions" stated do sound familiar.

Generation Z has yet to be heard from as a group. I can only imagine how their life decisions will be changing.

My parents belonged to the "GI Generation" while I belong to the "Silent Generation" somewhat news-to-me . . . and my kids are in Generation X.  Maybe I'll get a handle on this or maybe not.


A Webinar This Week

Besides being concerned with generations and their characteristics, the webinar put on by Legacy Family Tree Webinars this week was an excellent look at migration patterns mostly before 1860 that so many of our family members took part in . . .


Mary Hill had a top-notch
 presentation regarding the most common migration patterns -- and I am sure my branch of the family fit into those patterns.

The state of Ohio played a major role both into and out of the state. And I see our family right there and of course we see some of our family still there today (Jim for one).

The webinar is available for the next several days -- free of charge -- at Family Tree Webinars
it is well worth the time to view it.

A Pedigree Chart

On the left is a pedigree chart for me that shows 5 generations -- up to my Great Great Grandparents.

Starting with my Grandparents -- I have two sets meaning four people.

In each generation the number doubles so you can see that I have listed 16 G-G Grandparents and I have most of their names listed.

So, guess what that means about 3rd  Great Grandparents -- that number is 32.

I only know some of them.

At this point I have NO pictures of any of my 16 G-G Grandparents. My guess is that there are some pictures somewhere.

On the right are the folks I have identified as my 3rd G G Grandparents.

I have 18 of the 32 possibles, identified somewhat.

But, thanks to a cousin on the Gillett side, I do have pictures (images) for two of the folks. Thank you, Carmen.

And there you have it -- images for two folks from the tree that were both born in the 1700s.

You can see more images and other documents at the
The Hiles Website

I have added quite a few more things in the last couple of weeks.

I continue to search in old newspapers and I have found a lot of "tidbits".

I still have lots of unidentified photos that I hope that I can maybe identify at some point.

The week & month are ending fast . . .


That is a peek of this week -- see you all "in a few"!

Purple Discovery

What's interesting is that in our part of the world we are having very cool mornings and cool evenings and in between close to hot . . .

We are having an explosion of floral displays and (we're old) it is quite fun to watch. Yesterday we sat and watched a solitary bee working the "California Poppies".  Shortly later a solitary Hummingbird came to "work" the geraniums. What's next -- well the bird feeder is increasingly being depleted more rapidly.

Click on the above to get a closer view of the brilliant purple -- what is interesting also is that these flowers open some days and remain closed on others -- we do not know the rhythm nor the reason.

The above flowers are by the front porch and most of the flowers there are purple or white with a few exceptions. This week we actually got up enough gumption to "fix" one of the faster growing plants:

The left picture shows the "Oleander Tree Bush" and the right picture doesn't . . . the Oleander was about 4 years old but far outpaced the rest of the plants AND began to restrict our view to the front street. Much more to our liking now.

The Search This Week

I was again "all-over" the board while searching for "stuff" relating to our family. One of the fun things to do I've found is to search old newspapers. In this case I already had a clipping -- or should I say Gail already had a clipping.

While examining the clipping we discovered something that we had not noticed earlier -- i.e. there are two of Gail's relatives in the 50 year class reunion of the Kent 1915 graduating class.

Originally we had only spotted Frank Bouldron -- and then upon reading the detail we spotted Sadie Calhoun. They are Gail's Great Uncle and her Great Aunt, respectively. It's a small world ...


Continuing Communication re The Stacey William Hiles Branch

It has been great this week talking back and forth with Jim and getting to know more about his family. He has had a chance to view the Hiles Website and has offered additions and corrections which we really appreciate.

In our earlier post it all started with Stacey William Hiles (Rev) and his family. Since then we have gotten to know much more.

Above are some photos that Jim sent and they are of all the kids (6) that Stacey & Estelle had along with a possible picture of Edward & Hannah Hiles who would be the Grandparents of Stacey.

There are others posted on the Hiles Website and hopefully even more in the coming posts.

What is Now on our Nightstand?

We have finished reading the novel by Fannie Flagg -- and that was fun. We are now doing a multi-book try . . .

We are reading non-fiction again and the first book "a Boat, a Whale & a Walrus" is a combination recipe and story book. It all takes place in Seattle by a woman who owns and operates four restaurants there.

It is really fun to read and hopefully on our next trip to Seattle we will visit at least one of the  restaurants. This was a gift from Lisa & Bob on Mother's Day.

The other book is -- back to the biographical -- about the life of Shirley Temple. The opening chapters though are very much about Franklin D Roosevelt which sets up the scenario of living in the "Great Depression". We are finding it too very interesting.

Lastly

Our town has already had it's multi-hour Memorial Day parade and the annual "fair" is in full swing at this moment.

The weather has cooperated and it "feels" like a four-day weekend.

And that is a bit of our week -- see you all in a few!!

Prediction -- Rain

Just not in our area . . . all week they have predicted that Northern California would receive some rainfall -- but it did not happen in our area. Maybe next week. Water is now a real issue and restrictions are being put into place.

The above "Wordle" displays some of the jumble of genealogical things going on this past week. It has been a flurry of activity -- again.

We did celebrate Mother's Day last week in a
quiet fashion. Some calls, some visitors and a
very nice dinner.

And as soon as we finish our current reading
we have ample material to begin with new directions.

The sunshine and moderate temperatures were
appreciated.


Where I Was (45 years ago)

I happened across this picture the other day in my collection and it was odd that almost exactly 45 years to the date I was looking at it.

We were staying in the Hilton Hawaiian Towers on a ten-day visit to four different islands.

It was a fantastic trip and it still feels almost like yesterday.

The magic of the trip continued after our return.

The Search this Week

In last week's post I mentioned "finding" Rev Stacey Hiles
and a few details about his family.

I even mentioned that it would be nice to "find" some of his
descendants and maybe even communicate with them.

Well,  (thank you, Lora) I was able to "meet" and communicate with James Edward Hiles a Grandson of Stacey
and a cousin of mine.

Jim and I had a great time emailing back and forth and even talked on the phone a bit.

I look forward to learning more about his great branch. And I found it interesting that our paths may have even crossed at some point. He made several business trips to Seattle while I lived there.

To the left is a collage showing many of the pictures that I received from Jim, and a couple of items that I spotted in old newspapers.

I have found a lot of bits and pieces in the papers and will try to get them placed on the Hiles website.

I am working on updating profile photos on the website as time permits. But it sure is fun!



Lastly

I mentioned to Jim that I had purchased the sign
on the right on eBay a few years ago.

I won the bidding and now the sign hangs outside in the backyard.

Someone probably knows the origin and to what Hiles branch it belongs.

If you have any ideas, please let me know.



That is a peek at our week -- I am busily working on the "new-look" Ancestry site, it is really a nice update!   See you all in a few!

Another Little Princess

There used to be a chain of discount stores in California named "White Front". They are long gone but the front of our house has a lot of white right now. We have hundreds of white roses and other flower varieties going on.

We have noticed several folks just stopping as they walk by to comment on the display. We may take out the white oleanders as they are getting too leggy -- but will replace them with some other white flowering plant.

The cycle always amazes us as the flowers come and go.

The Search This Week

I have been deep into a branch of Hiles cousins that seem to have a ton of newspaper articles written about their everyday life. Births, marriages, deaths, military duties and school activities abound for this group.

But I'll just mention a bit about one of them for the moment:  Reverand Stacey William Hiles

To the right you can see his Find-a-Grave memorial.

Stacey was a minister in the Evangelical United Brethren Church in various locations in Ohio.

Unfortunately he died young -- of a stroke. He was returning from a Christmas visit with one of his sons and family when while driving it hit him.

He and his wife had six children, four of whom lived past childhood. There are numerous newspaper references to him and to his children.

Warden R Hiles was his youngest child and lived over 70 years.

He was married with a family as well. He lived til 1992 and his wife lived until 2010.

We'll look at some of Stacey's other children in future posts.

To me it is astounding that in growing up none of these cousins were known to me.

I had no idea that there were so many HILES
living relatively close to our family.

On the right is a brief look at a relationship
chart.

It points out how Stacey and his family are
related to me and thus to you.

I hope to eventually find some currently living
Stacey relatives and even communicate with them.

Right now I am sorting through the many articles that I have seen in a lot of small town Ohio newspapers.

Thank you Newspapers.com & GenealogyBank.com.


Second Week for another "Little Princess"

Last week we posted about the "Little Princess" by Dina Artlip. This week we have another princess to report about.

Thanks to Dick Eastman at www.blog.eogn.com for the following:

It is hard to believe that the birth certificate for such a royal person would be so straight forward and simple.

It was good timing that Dina's "Little Princess" book was released just about a week before this second little princess was "released".

Even though royalty is not officially recognized here it is fun to keep track of some of the line.

The world needs more events like the above rather than much of what we see on the evening news.

Speaking of baseball . . . the Giants have done fairly well lately . . .




That is a glimpse of our week so far -- see you all "in a few".