It was about noon on a typical Houston summer day (Hot!) The kids and I were home, deciding it was just too hot to go to the grocery store – popcorn for lunch would be just fine! We were all startled when the doorbell rang, not because no body ever came over, but because it rarely worked.
This is the story of my grandma Wallin’s oldest sister, Anna Marie Peterson Genoways (1887-1928). She was a schoolteacher, like I used to be; and she found love later in life, like I did.
I’ve found so many marriage records in my family where the bride’s age has been shaved a little…..or her marital status has been adjusted (leading to the discovery of two cases of bigamy) …..or a father’s employment has been inflated (one of the recurring ones is the elevation of an ag.lab. to ‘farmer’ – we had aspirations, but not status, it seems)…..or a father’s name has been changed or even invented. So maybe the answer lies in people’s perception of marriage? It has to be one of the most conventional and respectable states in our society; so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised if brides and grooms (more often brides, in my experience) adjust inconvenient truths to become the life-story they would rather tell, when embarking on this stage of life.
Directly under the 2013 High School applications is my grandmother’s (Holly Guthrie’s) 1930 High School memory book. Project #2 is identifying her high school mates for the Unclaimed Ancestor blog. Holly was the valedictorian of Mullin High School in Mills County, Texas in 1930. And to my never-ending delight she kept a memory book. Nearly every page is full of photos, newspaper clippings, notes from friends, complete with a best friend and a high school sweetheart. It is truly priceless and contains photos that I’m sure other families will be thrilled to have as well. I discovered it, like all great finds, accidentally.
My husband’s paternal grandmother was a Carriveau by birth. They were a family who seemed to live under a shadow of misfortune. The patriarch of the family was Laurent Corriveau, who came from Quebec to Michigan in the late 1800s after his young wife died (probably in childbirth). He and his second wife Eugenie, who went by “Annie,” settled in Huron County, Michigan—“The Thumb” as Michiganders say—where they began to spell their last name “Carriveau.” In the 1910 census Annie reports that they had “thirteen children, eleven still living.” Nine are shown in this picture, with Larry and Annie front and center.
War had been declared, and Norman Mosey, a farm boy from Michigan, was newly drafted into the U.S. Navy. A reporter for Michigan Farmer magazine did a story about ‘our boys in the service” and when he asked Norman, “What can we at home do for our servicemen?” Norman answered, “Write us letters.” Norman had no mother or sisters or girlfriend to write to him, so mail call was probably not his best time of the day.
I’m tickled pink that I’ve had comments about document wrongnesses in other people’s families – Norah’s gt-gran Jane who was really ‘Mercy’; her ancestor Cornelius who apparently died at 115; MJ’s gt-gran who varied her forename AND her surname …(quite…); and Melvin, you are SO RIGHT to say “do not accept anything…without verifying the facts”. And thanks to Donna for the encouragement – since I’ve never done this before, it’s very welcome.
Many thanks to National Genealogical Society President Jordan Jones for taking the time to answer our questions about conducting genealogical research.
I was forever quizzing my family about their ancestry. Names and dates were vague, but after a few years I put together a skeletal genealogy. However, it did take me a long time to learn how and what questions to ask. That communication skill is a learned art for any genealogist. It wasn’t until 1983 that my greatest breakthrough and brick wall happened.