2024 #52Ancestors, Week 21: Nicknames

 

Matteo Francisco (Martin/Mike) Palermo

When I first discovered my Cousin Carol via the wonders of Ancestry, I remember composing an email in which I tried to explain my connection to her.  (This was before DNA tests were popular and before that was an option Ancestry offered.)  I introduced myself as best as I could and then wrote "my grandfather's name was Martin/Mike/Matteo Palermo."  I definitely stared at the sentence for a while before sending my email.  I was new to genealogy at this point, and I wondered if my information was incorrect.  Surely my grandfather didn't have three different first names...  That was, however, the case. He was likely named for his great grandfather, Matteo Palermo (1826-1896).  Most of his siblings, though, opted for more Americanized names, and Matteo became Martin.  And then everyone called him Mike.  Would we call this a double nickname?  Regardless, it certainly made recordkeeping a bit dicey.

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 20: Taking Care of Business

My great grandfather, Mariano (Mario) Aloisio, and his brother, Cosimo, emigrated from Sicily in the early 1900s.  To them, 'taking care of business' meant finding a way to earn a living in their new country.  Cosimo was a tailor.  I assume this is a skill that he had practiced in Sicily, as it takes a certain level of precision.  Mario is listed as a plasterer in the 1900 census and on his WWI Draft Registration card.

Tailoring, as a profession, has been around since the Middle Ages.  At that time, though, tailoring wasn't nearly the art form that it eventually became.  It had more to do with covering the body and less to do with being specifically made to fit the wearer.  Once tailors moved from utilitarian clothing to clothing fitted to the individual, actual skill became a necessity.  Tailors needed to have an eye for detail, the ability to do fine needle work, knowledge of different types of fabric, etc.  Master tailors took on apprentices who wanted to fine tune the basic skills of measuring, cutting, and sewing.  Thus, I think it is likely Cosimo had acquired this skill in Sicily.  He was already in his early 20s when he came to America, and all documents indicate this was his profession for the entirety of his lifetime.

Mario was in his mid-20s when he arrived in New York, and the first mention of an occupation is the 1910 census where it is indicated that he is a plasterer in the building industry.  This job would have required some level of skill in terms of being able to lay even layers of plaster, but it wouldn't have necessitated the same level of training as a tailor.  I think it is likely Mario learned how to plaster on the job.  His WWI draft registration card indicates he was still in the business of plastering in 1918.  I have not found a 1920 census, the 1930 census is illegible, and he is not working on the 1940 census.  Nonetheless, both these men did what was necessary to take care of business and take care of their families.

Source:
"Working Lives - and Workers' Organizations," WCML, Working Class Movement Library, www.wcml.org.uk/our-collections/working-lives/. Accessed 30 May 2024.

#52Ancestors #Week22 #Creativity

As a woman of a certain age, I'm quite familiar with advice on keeping your brain sharp.  Crosswords, they say.

Well, just lately as Cuzzin Rachel and I try to untangle to supporting lines of our Pearson ancestors, we've had to be plenty creative.  For instance, how many ways can one spell "John Staton"? There are John, Jon, possible Jonathans, the archaic abbreviation Jno., and Jack.  And the surname has been spelled variously as Stanton, Staten (like the island), Staton, Stayton and Stayden. If we're looking at handwritten documents from the 1700 and early 1800's, "S" is written as "F", and best of luck making out most of the rest.

Trying to use the "Find" feature in lengthy documents or indexes is even more challenging when your many-times great grandfather's surname is "Field." There are a lot of them, too.  An old Virginia family, with English names like John and Jane here as well, although they kindly named one son Obadiah.

The other place where we essentially have to play something akin to paper Jenga is maps or land records. County boundaries changed frequently, forming new counties of (often) two or three pieces from mutliple older counties. With sometimes slim or missing residential information, we have a group of about 7 counties in Kentucky that I look at regularly for the same people.

Who needs crosswords? (With apologies to my crossword partner, you know who you are!)

#52Ancestors #Week21.5 #Nickname

My search for a family member with a nickname has been just this side of arduous. My parents deliberately gave us names that can't really be shortened, and while my brother has a nickname within the family, I'm looking for something historical here. My Grandma Margaret wasn't "Maggie" or "Meg" and I can't imagine Aunt Dorothy entertaining the idea of something like "Dot". Uncle Dick (technically the 3rd Dirk in the family) was mistakenly labeled "Richard" at one juncture, but only that once that I'm aware of.

I received a few emails last year, from someone unrelated who found some family mementos and found my TenKley tree online. She kindly emailed me a few things, clippings and photos related to one of my Grandma's cousins (56 maternal 1st cousins in total!). My great grandmother's sister Dena set out with her husband for Canada in the late 1890's, and circumstances stopped them in Montana.

Albert L. "Red" Bolster was his parent's middle son, born 14 May 1903 in Plentywood, Montana. He grew up with 3 older brothers and 3 younger brothers. The 1900 Federal Census of Montana indicates his dad was a rancher, but later records tell of their livelihood as residents of the town. The Bolsters ran a rooming house that was also a store and post office, and Mr. Bolster was very involved in the civic life of their adopted home, serving as Justice of the Peace, postmaster and even Mayor.

Albert dated the above correspondent's grandmother and among her mementos was a signed photograph taken for an area newspaper. "Red" was a boxer, and while it was the era of Jack Dempsey, I don't believe Bolster's career lasted. The relationship with his sweetheart didn't last either. Albert wed to Edith Bell in 1926 and the marriage lasted 50 years until her death. The couple had no children.

Albert “Red” Bolster, May 1925

Coincidentally, my bonus Dad and I were recently discussing his red hair, noted by his mother to be inherited from a paternal uncle. However, both his mother's paternal cousin (another Dorothy) and quite possibly "Red" Bolster were also redheads, leaving me insatiably curious if there were more, and how many? A festival of redheaded participants is even held in Breda, Netherlands!

2024 #52Ancestors #Week20 Taking Care of Business

I've written previously about the shoemaking of my Dutch immigrant great-great grandfather, and of Peter Winkel's involvement in the Farmer's Co-Op and Stock and Lumber Yards. Also, about my grandmother working at Dayton's Minneapolis. There was a great deal more work or business going on in north western Iowa in the early years of the previous century, particularly sewing and mending in a time when you certainly couldn’t run to the mall for a new blouse.

1899 & 1900s

Miss Allie TenKley hereby announces to the public that she is ready to do any (sewing) work - Wednesday August 2, 1899

Miss Bertha and Alice TenKley are sewing at their house and at others. - Nieuwsblad, Sioux Center, Iowa - Sept 14, 1904

I’ve known most of my life that my great grandmother was quite a talented seamstress. I have a few photos of the entire family that include outfits, I’m told, where it’s likely that she made every stitch of clothing herself. I hadn’t realized that she and her sister both offered their skills for hire. I also learned from official records that both were attending the public schools at this same time.

Dick Winkel has given up his job at the Wassenaar’s lumberyard and intends to go to Canada. His brother Pete will take his place in the yard. - Nieuwsblad March 15, 1945 (36 yrs ago - 1909) 

Dick Winkel and W. Brandts returned disappointed from Canada. No work claims to be gotten too far from the railroad so when they had spent the money they took along from Sioux County they made up their mind to return to the motherland, for they thought they had as much chance in Sioux Center as in foreign lands. - Nieuwsblad May 3, 1945 (36 yrs ago - 1909)

Not needlework at all, but this Canadian trip of Dick Winkel (Peter’s brother, not his dad or his son) has to have been a very big deal. Considering the dates of the newspaper article, they seem to have been gone for at least 6 weeks. I imagine they journeyed by train, and I know considering my own hometown, it is NOT warm in Canada in March. I wonder if this would have affected the trajectory of the rest of his siblings, had they been successful.

1910s

Mrs. W. A. van Steenwyk and Miss Jo Winkel were at Sioux City on business. - Hull Index May 31, 1912 

Miss Johannah Winkel, one of our milliners, has returned from the Twin Cities where she purchased her fall line of goods. - Alton Democrat Aug 24, 1912

Mrs. W. A. van Steenwyk and Miss Jo Winkel went to Minneapolis on Monday evening to do their shopping for the fall. - Nieuwsblad August 1912

The millinery firm of Van Steenwyk is dissolved. Miss Johanna Winkel will alone have charge of it in the future. - Alton Democrat June 7, 1913

Millenery Opening

Friday & Saturday 

19 & 20 Sept.

I'll have my millenery opening

All Ladies Are Becoming Friendly

Invited to come in.

Never before

Has there been such a beautiful assortment (of)

Hats at SIOUX CENTER

Been on display.

For ladies of all ages.

I have one of the finest trimmers,

Who is available.

Good and neat work guaranteed.

At the lowest prices.

Mrs. J. Brandts

Better known as: Jo Winkel

Nieuwsblad Sept 17, 1913

Mrs. J. Brandts will ... going to Minneapolis to do her shopping.- Nieuwsblad Feb 18, 1914

Mrs. P. Winkel and her sister-in-law Mary (Jo?) went to Sioux City a day last week on business. - Alton Democrat Jan 11, 1919

Jo, Mary and their mother, circa 1910-15

I had to do some digging, to find out anything at all about my Great-Great Aunts Johanna and Mary Winkel. One lived with her children in Sioux Falls, the other in California. I have no idea why there was almost no information about them within the family, perhaps I didn’t ask any of the right questions years ago.

At any rate, it was fascinating to learn this year that Jo was the co-owner of a business, one that she kept at, if briefly, after she married. It certainly wasn’t unheard of for a woman to have a shop, and she may have spent a fair amount of time at her father’s knee as he plied his cobbler’s trade in the shops of other men.

Clearly from her ad, Jo and her partner dealt in fashionable hats, but lace and linen caps were still being worn by many of the Dutch women of this largely Dutch community. Perhaps those caps were relegated to seamstresses like her sister-in-law.

1920s

FOR SALE - Gerrit ten Kley, Chevrolet 490 touring, Jelle … Chevrolet sedan. - Sept 1, 1920

I’ve included this last clipping as a nod to the ability to go increasing distances, which allowed both the mobility to source more goods, but also to travel to the increasingly popular department stores spreading across the nation. The town seamstresses and the local hat shop were superseded long ago.

Even my Grandma preferred “store-bought” after growing up with homemade (though well done) garments. Clearly she had a huge amount of company, and I was a fortunate recipient of some darling little dresses from Dayton’s. Oh, how I loved going to The Mall with her, too!

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 19: Preserve

Let's talk about the difficulties of preserving family history.  If you're like me, you have a full-time job that takes up much of your time - time that you would much rather be spending tracking down elusive ancestors.  Maybe you are also raising children.  I have a daughter.  She is in elementary school, so her folder must be checked and emptied every night, and there are always birthday party invitations to consider and permission slips to be signed.  On top of these responsibilities, we also have a yard to maintain and a vegetable garden to manage.  The garden is substantial - it used to be a 20x40 in-ground pool.  Somewhere in the midst of all of this, I steal an hour or two in the evenings to work on genealogical mysteries with my distant cousin, Heather.  What I'm saying here is that preserving family history takes time.

Time, however, is not the only necessity.

I inherited this stack of boxes from my grandparents when my maternal grandfather passed away in 2022.  I have sifted through them multiple times, trying to organize the photos into Grandma's side or Grandpa's side.  I have made some progress, but as you can probably tell from the items unrelated to genealogy piled in the foreground, these boxes have been sitting on the table for some time.  In fact, these photos have been sitting on a table in our dining room since October of last year.  They had been sitting on the floor in my library, but we rescued a dog, and I didn't want to risk finding out the hard way that he was a chewer.

Speaking of the library, this old TV stand has been repurposed into a coffee table for our book room.  Inside it, you will find another collection of genealogy materials.  I have my mother's DAR application (putting in my own application has been on my to-do list for some time), a cabinet card album full of my great grandparents' relatives, a book on dating photos using fashion, an assortment of pictures my dad gave me of his aunts and uncles, books detailing the tips and tricks of genealogy, a CD of information about my Arter relatives...and who knows what else.  The point is that while preserving family history takes time, it also takes space.  

You might ask, what is the point of this post?  Just this.  Thank your family preservationist because he/she has certainly dedicated more time and space to this calling than you realize.

2024 #52 Ancestors #Week19 - Preservation

When I saw this prompt, thoughts immediately went to my maternal grandma's strawberry freezer jam. I can't write much about that, except to say that it was a delicious treat, that I miss it - yes, I know I could learn to make it - and that I have a strawberry tattooed on my right arm in her memory.

I confess to being more than a bit obsessed with family photos (the older the better) and I spend most evenings chatting with my lovely Cuzzin, not always solely about genealogy but at least mentioned almost every day. I enjoy the research, the "hunt" as it were, more than most other hobbies or genealogically related tasks, and I enjoy sharing what I've learned.

The chore of preserving the "finds" properly never ends, and I am still learning to site my sources. This is a significant learning curve when one web link or note noted down 20 years ago leans to many a rabbit trail and too often, few actual discoveries.

I plan to leave everything to my youngest daughter, who shares my interest, and anything that she doesn't care to keep can be donated to the library or historical society. In that interest, getting scraps of paper and their sources documented properly, photos sorted and labelled and everything in some semblance of order is extremely important, as well as making sure much of this is digitized. This is a project I thought I might make some headway on this year, but it hasn't worked out that way quite yet. Binders and boxes and piles, oh my!

Meanwhile, I'll keep recording bits and pieces here until the heavy lifting gets a bit more traction!

2024 #52Ancestors #Week18 Love and Marriage and Divorce and Love and Marriage

My Grandpa Clint Lowe was born to city dwellers in Sioux City, Iowa in January 1916.  My Grandma Margaret (nee Winkel) Lowe was born 9 months later in Sioux Center, Iowa, about 45 miles away.  While she had no doubt visited Sioux City with family, her parents moved to the city when she was approximately 15.

Clint and Margaret's brother Dave were both members of the Order of deMolay, and one day Dave Winkel brought my Grandpa home with him, where he was introduced to Margaret.  They may have seen each other previously, but this was auspicious. The two became sweethearts.

On Sunday April 14, 1935 the two of them journeyed 40 miles to Vermillion, South Dakota and stood before Robert Martin Jr and one Methodist clergyman and were married. Neither of the newlyweds were yet 20, although according to the record, Grandpa reported he was 21. They went home to Sioux City and after informing their two sets of parents and siblings, the couple lived with Grandpa Clint's parents, Gus and Lulu, and grandpa's 14 year old brother Jack.

I do not know what specific disagreements may have occurred, but I know these details: Two women at home (grandma may have been working outside the home, Lulu was not), two men at work, and a teenaged boy in the house as well. The depression was on, and times were difficult on a good day.  

Some time in 1939/39, the disagreements, whatever they were, resulted in Grandma petitioning Woodbury County court for a divorce, which was granted. I've found no evidence that my grandpa knew of this, but his own father had been divorced back in 1911 after an extremely brief marriage which produced a daughter no one in our family had ever met (I learned this in 2020 via a newspaper clipping).

Again, I know little of what happened over the next few years except that Grandma spent time with her eldest nephew, Dennis, and Grandpa worked for the Sioux City power company.  War arrived.  Grandpa enlisted and was sent to Ohio and later North Carolina before going overseas.  At some point Grandma moved to Dayton, Ohio, where she lived on Victor Ave and worked in the Finance Department at Wright Field.

On Saturday, July 17, 1943 Clint and Margaret appeared before Rev. Charles Zimmann at First Lutheran Church in Dayton and were married again. Grandma wore a powder-blue crepe dress, which I just know was so flattering on her. They spent a week honeymooning in Chicago this time and stayed at the Atlanta Hotel for $34 for the entire week. They attended one of the WLS-AM Radio Barn Dances, and servicemen were treated well everywhere they went, being admitted to the bus, the train and the movies for free.  Grandpa told me once that when they went to a nightclub, the maitre'd saw Grandpa in uniform, pulled them out of line and led them to a table right next to the dance floor.  They were, per a Sioux City newspaper, briefly joined by Gus and Lulu while in Chicago.

From Chicago, Grandpa was sent to Fort Bragg. Grandma went back to Dayton and her job. When Grandpa was later sent to New York, Grandma joined him there for just a few days.  I imagine it was there that Grandma kissed the back of her photo with her pink lipstick, which he kept in his wallet.

When Grandpa did come home, they visited Sioux City together briefly, and set out to make their new home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They were eventually married for a total of over 60 years, sharing their Lutheran faith, working and raising 2 children. They enjoyed 5 grandchildren (and some of their 9 great grandchildren) prior to their passings in March 2001 and in May 2004. All of us grandchildren are married now, and my husband and I will make half of 60 this year. 

Grandpa and Grandma in Chicago

Grandma and Grandpa late 1990s

2024 #52Ancestors, Week 18: Love, Marriage, and Divorce

Something that you hear frequently is that "divorces just weren't that common back in the day."  As I have researched various family lines, I have found this to be distinctly untrue.  I tried to come up with a unique spin for Week 18's Love and Marriage prompt, but it just seems to make the most sense to link to some of my previous posts where love leads to marriage...and then to divorce.

Nettie M. Pearson (divorced in approximately 1915, 1916, 1917, 1933, 1939, and 1945)
Nettie wins the prize for marriages/divorces with a grand total of six husbands. The link above only mentions five of them, but I have recently uncovered a marriage to Ansel Gus Hursey in May of 1917. This brief marriage occurs between her marriages to Roy Hudson and Walter Miller. While I do not have divorce documentation for each marriage, I do have divorce dates for "The Two Walters." I also know that none of these marriages ended due to the death of the husband.

Jennie Grace Terpinitz (divorced in 1936 and 1941)

Jennie was a highly educated and independent woman, but she was married three times and divorced at least twice. As I don't know what happened to her after she returned from World War II, it is possible her third marriage ended in divorce as well.

Dora Isabelle Green (divorced in approximately 1882 and again before 1895)
This sister to my great great grandmother was married and divorced twice, and her third marriage ended with the death of her husband.

Ann Elizabeth Echols (divorced in 1869)
My great great great grandmother is my earliest documented divorce. She and Thomas Green divorced in 1869 after she could no longer handle the changes in his personality caused by his Civil War service.

And if you're looking for a divorce record, I recommend checking out Dade County, Florida.