Thankful Thursday: Nanny's kitchen

While out working on leash training our chiweenie pup this morning, these brilliant mushrooms standing out against the gloom of an overcast morning caught my eye. I just had to stop and take a picture, much to the dog's annoyance.

As I continued on, I noticed more and more mushrooms growing in the fresh mounds of mulch surrounding the trees along the sidewalks. Stopping to take more pictures, ignoring the puppy's protests, my thoughts drifted to Nanny's kitchen.

Nanny was Effie Lorraine Parmer Martin, my maternal grandmother. I don't know why she chose "Nanny", but "Grandma" was already taken by her own mother.

Nanny's kitchen was decorated with hand painted wooden plaques which she made herself. They consisted of mushrooms and various garden critters displayed in a line over the kitchen sink and cabinets. She even had a set of mushroom-themed cookware, the kind you could probably only find at garage sales or ebay these days.

Her kitchen wasn't large, but she had a closet-size pantry where, in addition to food, she kept the dominoes, playing cards and poker chips. My parents and grandparents would sit at the kitchen table playing 42 in the afternoon, while my sister and I entertained ourselves in the living room or outside. In the evening they would move to the dining room table on the other side of the kitchen to play poker.

She loved to cook, and try out new recipes she found. Every time we came over, Nanny had some freshly baked treat for us. She made us our first Rice Krispie treats and peanut butter corn flake bars.

So, today, I am thankful for the mushrooms that remind me of Nanny's kitchen, and all the good times we had over there.

Friday's faces from the past: Bettie Frances Nowell Davis family

Bettie Frances Nowell was George Eugene Nowell's youngest sister, and Grandma Zula's aunt.

I can't say for sure when or where this photo was taken. Or even who everyone is. But I can make a few guesses from the data I've collected. Maybe someday, someone from this branch of the Nowell clan will stumble across it and be able to verify the identities.

One copy of this photo was labeled "Aunt Betty's family, children & in-laws" (I have two scans, this one was the larger of the two). Bettie and Sam Davis had eight children that I can account for, that were probably still living when this photo was taken (they lost one child prior to 1910).

The oldest daughter was born about 1901, and I swear, her name on the 1910 census looks to be "Daniel". I haven't been able to find anything else on her to confirm her name, so for now, I'll just refer to her as Danni. :) Second child, Verna, was born 21 Feb 1903. Their third daughter, Della, was born about 1911. I haven't been able to find any more on her, either.

So, I think the women in this photo are Aunt Bettie and her three daughters.

I also have a photo (on the right, there) of Verna Davis and her husband, Lester "Bud" Wright. Perhaps someone with better facial recognition skills can figure out which one is Verna. I think that might be Verna and Bud on Bettie's right, but I'm not certain of that at all. And, of course, it's also possible that any one of them could be a daughter-in-law instead.

Now, the two boys in front are probably Aunt Bettie's youngest sons, John Travis Davis born 1 Aug 1920, and Robert Franklin Davis b. 2 Nov 1917 d. 8 May 1978. I'm terrible at guessing ages, but I'm going to take a shot anyway, and "guess" that the youngest there is around 10 years old. So if that is John Travis, that would put the year somewhere around 1930. Aunt Bettie and her husband, John Samuel Davis, were probably still living in (or near) Chandler, Henderson County, Texas.

Bettie and Sam's other three sons were George M. Davis, 22 Mar 1906 - 28 Jul 1941; Harry Thomas Davis, 15 Jul 1908 - 2 Jul 1961; and Jack A. Davis born about 1915.

I know I'm straying a bit from the topic, here, but something of interest that I came across while researching this branch was Harry's cause of death. According to his death certificate (free member account at FamilySearch.org required to view the image), Harry Davis was "Shot four times with .22 rifle, in shoulder above heart and stomach", and "Homicide" was marked on the certificate. I know my family loves the gory details, so I thought I'd go ahead and mention it. Back to the photos.

I have two more photos of Aunt Bettie. This first one was probably taken around the time she and Sam got married, about 1900, likely while they were still living in Comanche County. But it might have been taken later than that.

The one on the right is labeled November 15, 1943. They were living in Chandler in 1940, having moved back after living in Liberty County for a while. So this may have been taken in Chandler.

If anyone needs these photos for their research, or to hang on their "ancestor wall", be sure to click on them first for the full size image.

Photos: George Eugene Nowell and Rebecca Ann Joplin

George Eugene Nowell and
Rebecca Ann Joplin
Somewhere in Texas ca. 1895
Click for full size image

Now that I am thinking further ahead concerning family photos, I've decided to begin posting these photos for current and future researchers of these lines to add to their family history research. George and Rebecca had a lot of kids, a lot of grand-kids, and who knows how many great-grand-kids. Statistically, there has to be someone out there who will appreciate these.

So, if you stumbled across this post researching George Eugene Nowell and Rebecca Ann Joplin, feel free to save these images. You don't have to leave a comment or anything, but you are certainly welcome to. Here's some info to help you determine if you have the right Nowell family:

George Eugene Nowell 1875-1949
George was born 9 Apr 1875, probably in Delta County, Texas according to the death certificate of J.D. Nowell. His parents were Joseph Benton Nowell and Martha Elizabeth "Mattie" Dennis. He died in Livingston, Texas on 26 Apr 1949, and was buried in Rockhill Cemetery, in Henderson County on 27 Apr 1949. Here is a link to his findagrave.com memorial.

Rebecca Ann Joplin
Rebecca was born in Tennessee on 18 Mar 1879, to John Joplin and Sarah Ann Douglas (or Douglass). Her mother died when she was young, and John Joplin remarried to Lucretia "Creasy" Choate. Rebecca married George Eugene Nowell on Wednesday, July 4, 1894 in Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas. She died 20 Apr 1962 in Tyler, Smith County, Texas, and was buried in Rockhill Cemetery, Brownsboro, Henderson County, Texas the following day. Here is Rebecca's findagrave.com memorial.

More Photos

Rebecca and Zula

George and Lorraine

George, Oletha and Rebecca

I'm not sure whether or not I can post the newspaper clippings of their obituaries without infringing on the newspaper's copyright (if anyone knows, please comment!), so I will check into that. Rebecca's death certificate is available at familysearch.org, but I haven't been able to locate George's yet.

Thinking further ahead... Family photos

Joseph Benton Nowell and
Martha Elizabeth Dennis

While I'm still in the midst of rebuilding some of the elements I lost when I imported Sifting Through the Past over to Blogger, I have another situation on my hands. Have I been wrongly copyrighting old family photos that I've posted to my blog?

It was a tough decision to make in the first place. I didn't want my family to think I was claiming exclusive rights to use OUR family photos. But I also didn't want OUR family photos ending up being sold by some complete stranger with no rights to the photos whatsoever, just because I chose to share the images on my blog without protecting them in some way.

It all started in November 2012
In preparation for a cruise to the West Caribbean, I decided to learn how to use all those mysterious settings on our digital camera. I wanted to get some awesome photos of places I would likely never see again. And, knowing this would be the first, and possibly last, time I would see blue oceans, I wanted to capture that as accurately as I possibly could.

So I downloaded the camera manual, subscribed to Digital Photography School, and started studying. While I've likely forgotten more than half of what I learned in those few weeks of intensive research, something that stuck with me was a cautionary article at DPS about watermarking your photos, whether you intend to sell them or not. (I can't find the exact article right now because I didn't bookmark it, and I cleared my browser cache at Blogger's suggestion after an error on importing my blog posts... sigh.)

Anyway, the article brought to my attention that there have been people selling other peoples photos on stock photography sites. It stressed the importance of watermarking images uploaded to the internet to prevent such misuse, and got me thinking that perhaps I should be doing this with my blog? But I'm not worrying too much about the blog right now cause we are going on a cruise. I just don't have the time.

Uh oh...
Fast forward, we get back from the cruise. It's early December. I get back to my blog, and realize that I have posted some images that may be infringing on others' rights. Damn, sorry dudes, my bad. I immediately begin editing and "un-publishing" anything and everything I'm not 100% certain of.

Then I start contemplating whether or not I should replace the rest of the images with watermarked versions. Like I said, I don't want family thinking I'm trying to claim exclusive rights. I just want to be responsible with the family photos I post online.

So this is how I talked myself into it
It's not like I'm stamping the original photos, or even the original scans. These are scaled-down-to-a-reasonable-blog-post-size copies. I'm just claiming this one little digital file. Not the multiple other copies out there. Well, it seemed like sound reasoning at the time.

Then Jana Last posts about watermarking photos! Validation! I'm not the only one thinking about this! Others are doing this too. It's normal. It's responsible. It's okay.

But I still want other researchers to know that I'm willing to share the original scanned photos. However, I just can't seem to remember to insert a note to contact me for it every single time I include a family photo in a blog post, especially during that Family History Writing Challenge fiasco! There has to be a better way...

There is a better way
And that better way was proposed by none other than Jana Last herself almost two weeks ago, while I was busy investigating where I could move my blog, keep my domain name, and stop paying for hosting.

Jana's blog post, I've Changed My Mind, reminded me that generations from now, distant cousins may set out on the same journey of ancestor discovery that I myself set out on some five or more years ago. I remember being amazed when I stumbled across photos of one of my great grandmothers as a young woman. And, of course, I immediately saved the images to my computer without a second thought.

Thank you, Patsy Davis, where ever you are, for all of the research you have done, and for sharing every single bit of what you found without reservation. I really appreciate the photos of Prudence Leache, Tench Carson Sammons and Elvira DeShazo. Without all of your hard work, there is so much I may never have known about this branch of my family, simply because I wouldn't have thought to ask.

It'll take some time, but I'll fix this for those who really do need these family photos for their own research, just like I did. And still do.

Getting Started With Genealogy Step 2 - Easy to Find Docs

Documentation is a crucial element of genealogy, as it is the only way to verify the information in your family history. Too many aspiring family researchers jump ahead of themselves and start downloading gedcoms with names of ancestors in them, just to find out later that the data is full of inaccuracies (yes, I speak from experience).

Good documentation habits will keep you off of a wild goose chase, and help you to find your answers much sooner. Keep up with your sources. We'll discuss citing your sources of documentation later, for now let's just find some.

Family Bibles

Did you inherit a bible from a parent, grandparent or great grandparent? Many bibles include pages for the owner to record their parents and grandparents names, as well as their own marriage information, and lists of births and deaths of family members.

Bibles are different, but usually, when made available, the family history pages are located near the front of the book. I have also found a Family Register located between the Old and New Testament instead, so be sure to check it thoroughly.

Also contact other family members who may possess a bible previously owned by an ancestor. They probably won't want to give it to you, but may be willing to scan the family pages and email them to you. Worst case scenario, ask them to transcribe it for you, or read it to you while you write it down. Also be sure to include the name of the person in possession of the bible and who the bible originally belonged to on the transcription for later reference.

Vital Statistics and Personal Documents

Many people will keep their personal documents and vital records together in a safe place. When someone dies, often these records are passed on to an heir. If that heir wasn't you, find out who would have inherited the deceased's personal items. While vital statistic records may be easy enough to gain from the county clerk, personal documents may be harder, especially if you don't know what you are looking for.

US States made birth and death certificates mandatory at different points in history, but if your ancestor was born after that date, there is a good chance they had to obtain a copy of their birth certificate at some point. They may have also had need to acquire a copy of an immediate relative's death certificate. Some even had heirloom marriage certificates made up, which might provide more information than the marriage license filed with the county.

Other personal documents can include things such as land sales, tax records, military service, graduation certificates, grade school memorabilia, newspaper clippings, obituaries, and much more. My husband was once practicing his lock picking skills on a strong box he found in the garage. Turned out it had belonged to his grandmother, and contained a document stating that she had married her deceased husband's brother, and shortly thereafter had the marriage annulled.

If you locate someone in the family in possession of an ancestor's personal documents, ask them to make copies and mail them to you. Offer compensation for copier fees and postage, of course. Keep all documents you find together, perhaps in a file folder or manilla envelope.

Note: If you don't already have a copy of your own birth certificate, get one. It can be obtained from the county clerk's office in the county where you were born. You should be able to find the mailing address and phone number of the county clerk online with an online search engine.

Family Photos

Also ask family members if they have any family photos or photo albums. If they live near to you, they may allow you to borrow them for scanning. Be sure to check the back of each photo for name and location data, and scan those too.

If you find a relative who is not close to you has family photos, it is possible that they would be willing to scan them for you, but the quantity of photos or their personal circumstances may not allow this. If the latter is the case, simply make a mental note (or write it down if you're forgetful) to go visit them when the chance presents itself.

Record What You Learn

If you find out anything new, such as birth or death dates, or parent names you didn't previously know, be sure to write it down on your paper pedigree chart. If you have had the need to expand your data to multiple charts, be sure to keep the pages together in a file folder, binder, or manilla envelope.

Be sure to number each chart you add according to the "continued on" number next to the last ancestor on you first chart, and keep your charts in order to make it easier to flip through to the chart you are looking for.

If you haven't started your paper and pencil pedigree, yet, see Step 1 for information and a free pedigree form you can print out.

Next Step, Researching Online