In the first blog discussion about the Yoder information that I received in October, I talked about taking the 35,000 names and dividing it into 7 databases, each handling just one of Melchior’s children, to make working on them easier. I’m still working away on Benjamin Yoder, 1700 names, finding documents, and sourcing the work that has been done. I find at about 3 hours in one day; I am ready to put the FTM work away. I'm also spending about 3 or 4 hours a week, reviewing the files that I received. I purchased color dots, that I’m using to help know what I’ve done. Red – is for reviewing the file (the first time). This is simply a process of going through page by page and seeing what is in the file. Sometimes, I’m finding copies of census records that I immediately toss. But I also find copies of pictures or birth certificates, which I know I need to scan and add to FTM.
Yellow – is when I compare the notes in the file to those in the FTM database. I’m looking for information that is not already in the notes, anything new or different. So, today I was going through the file of the family of Andrew Dill and Catherine Yotter, a daughter of Benjamin Yotter. In the notes file for William Morrow, the grandson of Andrew and Catherine, I found an obituary. I checked and found that it was in the notes section for him in FTM and appropriately sourced. That is what I’m hoping to discover as the file is reviewed. At the same time, there was a census from 1860, that was tossed, since census records can easily be found online. Finally, I found a copy of a record from Ancestry, but it is from the “directory of Deceased American Physicians, 1804-1929,” slightly more obscure than a census record. This has been marked for scanning into the FTM database. It has already been noted in the database but having a copy that includes the original source information is great to keep. Blue – is when I scan or add the notes, I’ve found in the file to the FTM. Once I scan them to my computer, they are added to my YODER PROJECT file folder. There I have 7 main folders, one for each child, and their children also each have a subfolder under their parent’s files. For the time being that is what I’ve created. If I find that I’m scanning even more, then I’ll continue to add subfolders for children. The scan is named, in the following way: Lastname_Firstname_date_document/picture. It looks something like this for the tombstone picture of Catherine Yoder who married Andrew Dill and then married John C Chriswisser.
Believe me when I say this takes time. Decisions have to be made about what is important, and what can be tossed. Err on the side of caution when it comes to documents, unless they are ones you know are readily available. Err on the side of handwritten notes on pages, unless you can tell that everything has been added to your database. Decide early on what your process will be and use it consistently to gain the best results. Also remember what works for one person in terms of process and organization, might not work for you. Don't be afraid to take what is explained here and make it yours. I've already adjusted the process for reviewing names in the FTM database, based on the first two children. The next blog is going to discuss some of the reports that can be found in FTM that will help guide your work.
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As I was finishing my college degree in December 1974 (class of 1975), I found myself interviewing with a variety of employers within the hospitality industry. Even after 4 years of education, I was at a loss on where exactly I belonged in the larger scope of the industry. I had a lot of experience in food and beverage, having worked in high school in a kitchen, at a yacht club for a summer in Ithaca and as a banquet server and then banquet manager for my co-op with the Statler Hotel on campus. But I also wanted to work better hours then one normally received in food & beverage in a hotel; so, I also looked at school food service with ARAMARK and country clubs. It seemed as if I had interview after interview that fall, but nothing seemed to cause me any excitement. Then I was told about the Alameda Plaza Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. Their general manager, Philip Pistilli was coming to Cornell to talk about hotel management for one of our Friday lectures. He was going to conduct interviews the prior day with those that might have an interest in moving to Kansas City. I thought - why not - let's walk this process through. The interview went well, and he asked whether I would be attending the New York Hotel Show in November. When I said yes, he offered me a second interview over lunch in New York City. I'm not sure where we went but talk about having to know and demonstrate eating etiquette was so important for this type of interview. The interview went well. and I was even more interested in the opportunity. The next step a trip to Kansas City. He promised it would be a "working" interview, and to bring comfortable shoes and professional dress. I was flown to Kansas City, picked up by their car service and taken directly to the hotel. I was free to explore the city for the rest of the day but was told to be ready for work at 8:00 AM. And yes, I worked, in the banquet department. First meeting with clients, then helping to set-up banquet rooms, then working as a hostess for a large event at lunch. The afternoon was spent with two separate interviews, consisting of management staff in Food & Beverage and Human Resources. I then went back to "work" until about 7:00 pm that night, when I met with Philip for dinner. There we talked about starting salary, hours, expectations and evaluations. He promised to send me a letter of intent by mail within the next week and was hopeful of an answer from me by December 1st. And I was left with a decision about whether the Alameda opportunity was one for me. I don't remember exactly why I didn't take the job, although I was impressed by the interview process and the opportunity in their banquet department. But I seem to remember my mother's face when I said Kansas City would be an opportunity for me during Thanksgiving that year. You could just tell she wasn't excited about me going so far from home. Little did she realize that just 3 years later I would be headed to Hawaii for a job! When this postcard was found amongst my papers, the interview memory came flooding back to me. Having worked in HR for many years, I often wondered how to incorporate this style of interview into the process. It is expensive and time-consuming, but one that helps both the applicant and the business determine the best person for the job. During October 2023, my husband and I traveled to Alabama to pick up genealogical research from a cousin who had decided at the age of 91, to retire from this part of his genealogical life. He continues to research his direct family, but what was being handed down to me was 25+ years of research on the Johan Melchior Yoder children. Since I’m a direct descendant of one of those children, I was asked, to take over the responsibility. My mother had been involved in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s to help with the research on this line for the Yoder Newsletter. So, we picked up 35,000+ names in a FamilyTreeMaker (FTM) file plus the paperwork, well organized, that filled one 4 drawer filing cabinet. Plus, he gave me genealogical journals, maps, and books collected along the way that dealt directly with this family. It is expected that by April 2023, I will review, update and publish using the Yoder Newsletter, information on the seven family lines that descend from Melchior. But the question really became how do you get your hands around the gift? How do you begin to tackle that much genealogical information? Below is a picture of my hallway after we moved things back home. I anticipate across the next couple of months to write about the journey I’m taking to help others who find themselves the recipient of such a genealogical gift. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to tackle reviewing and organizing someone's research. In the first case, I received 40 boxes and 4 filing cabinets of material from my mother after her passing. My dad added to those files with 3 more boxes upon his passing. Although it seems like just yesterday, I’ve had over 15 years to work on all of those boxes. I still have almost all the books (15 of the boxes) and have digitized five more boxes of photographs. The 4 filing cabinets have been whittled down to just 2 drawers, with the rest being scanned and organized online on my computer. I still have the 1000 original letters my mother wrote and/or received as she was researching her family prior to the Internet explosion and working on the plans for those in the upcoming years. And all of the binders of research that filled the other boxes, still need to be re-organized, scanned and reviewed. My mother started research in 1943 (the first date on a research log that she kept meticulously for each family name). Her wish was that I put the material and information online so that others could have access to her work. Currently I have over 8700 names on my family tree, with confidence that the research done backs up their lineage. But I know there is much more to do.
Since October, my mind has been focused on the Yoder family. I’ve tackled two of the lines that I received from my cousin in Alabama. The first is that of Catherine (the youngest daughter of Melchior) and the second is of John (the oldest son of Melchior). In both cases, I chose to export from FTM just their line into a new FTM tree which really gives me the opportunity to focus on the singular line, and not get lost in 35,000 names. Catherine’s initial export was of 270 individuals. Today it boasts more than 900 sourced names that actually cover 6 generations. And although the number of names grew, the focus actually was finding the documents that proved birth, death, and marriage. The Yoder Newsletter pages (YNL- Introduction (yodernewsletter.org)) goal is to offer those doing research a way to find basic information about their family members, whether they are Amish or non-Amish lines. The reasonably exhaustive research is left for the articles published in the quarterly newsletter, which started in 1983 and is therefore celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. Often those articles are used to add additional facts to the individuals. When possible, I add to everyone in the FTM database newspaper obituaries, probate or will records, and military records when they are easily found to grow the historical background. The goal is to have for each child of Melchior, 5 generations of descendants that can be published. The hope is that eventually that will grow to six or seven generations for each line without publishing living individuals. I’m currently beginning the third child of Melchior, which is Benjamin, and it is the largest line that I’ve worked on so far, with over 1700 names in the exported database. My next blog will be about the steps I’m taking to compare the paper files with the content on FTM and make decisions about what information should be scanned and what should be kept in hard copy. Until then, happy researching! I had just finished my first year at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration in Ithaca, New York and was expected to find a job in the hospitality industry for the summer. One call to my dad, found me working at the Hollenden House on East 6th St. and Superior Ave. in Cleveland Ohio. His job with the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, often saw him putting up guests at the Hollenden House, so he knew the manager and asked for the favor.
I don’t think my dad realized that the job that was open would be the “graveyard” shift at the front desk. This meant arriving at work at 10:30 pm in the evening and returning home after the shift change after 7:00 am in the morning. At that point in time there was no I-77 or 480 that allowed me to travel to work in 19 minutes. Instead, I took Broadway to 9th Street to Superior and pulled into the hotel, taking more like 40 minutes at that time of day. I wasn’t traveling through the best part of town, and the off-duty police who worked as hotel security, warned me to keep my car doors locked with plenty of gas in the car and to not stop if I saw anything unusual on my drive to and from the hotel. Yes, hotel security, my first experience taught me a lot about what can happen at night at a hotel. I was forever thankful for those individuals, as they locked the door at midnight, hung out in the lobby and told stories to keep us all awake during the night. I was hired because I could type. It was before automation and computers, and someone needed to produce the bills for the guests when they were checking out in the morning. There was one other individual assigned to the Front Desk at night to help answer phones and check-in late arrivals. My job was to type the guest bills, so they would be ready in the morning. After my first Saturday night, when 100% of the house was checking out the next morning and it was a long night prepping the bill, I tried, but rarely succeeded in not working on Saturday’s. The best days to work graveyard were Monday through Wednesday nights, when we had mostly business clientele staying for the week in the hotel. Thursday night was as bad as Saturday night, and since I was the ‘summer help” you can guess my schedule was Monday and Tuesday off, so I got both Thursday and Saturday in my five-day work week of Wednesday through Sunday. If any room still needed cleaning, that also became our job at the Front Desk during the graveyard shift. Sure, my mom had taught me to make a bed, vacuum the floor and clean a toilet, but not to the standards expected at the Hollenden House. They marketed “Cleveland’s Finest Downtown Hotel” and cleaning standards were high. I had to go through one day of training in housekeeping, before starting the night shift, just so I could meet the standards. I also had training with two morning shifts and two evening shifts, before I was trained on the graveyard shift. It helped me understand the problems created if the bills were incorrect when the guests were checking out at the desk. But it also gave me an early understanding of the importance of training individuals in the standards asked of any hotel company. Did this experience change my mind about the hotel career I was planning? Absolutely NOT! I loved it, every day was different, never two alike and I loved meeting all sorts of individuals who stayed at the hotel. I was ready to return to the regular hours of life, even though college life is not regular. Most importantly I never forgot to treat those individuals who worked the graveyard shift for me with extra special kindness, as they aid tremendously in the smooth running of a hotel. How can someone ask me to pick ONE (1) Favorite Picture? (#52 Ancestor Challenge). I’ve spent multiple hours and years digitizing many of the pictures accumulated from my parents. Currently there are over 17,000 and there are still more than 10 photo boxes, 8 carousels and 10 albums left to be digitized. This doesn’t include the ones we have taken as our three boys grew into the wonderful men they are today. So, I must admit, after much angst, one has been chosen. I made the decision that it had to demonstrate family, fun and fond memories.
This picture was taken from an album entitled 1961, Halifax, Cape Cod, Boston and Nova Scotia. This picture is one of many taken from a summer trip to this area. We traveled, as we often did, with my cousins (Jimmy and Steve) and their parents (Jim and Margaret). In this picture the group had just finished fishing and were showing off their success. Included from left to right are Fred Coffman (my father), Sally Coffman (my sister), Jimmy Coffman, Dan Coffman (my brother), Jim, Steve and Margaret Coffman. My mother was probably taking the picture, as she was the official photographer. So why wasn’t I included in the photo? I would have been seven (7) at the time, and probably was not involved in this adventure for the day. Or more likely, I was upset about not being able to hold a fish! The story told to me, is that while everyone was fishing, I walked around the edge of the stream where the fishing was happening. As I was walking, I explained that I wasn’t allowed to fish to anyone that would listen. I also was concerned that my family wasn’t going to catch anything for dinner and was asking for handouts from others. I did come home with several, no one remembers how many fish, but mom and dad weren’t pleased with my actions. So maybe the picture was taken without me as a punishment, since I had not really “caught” the fish. But what this picture depicts are the vacations. We traveled the USA every summer during my dad’s three-week vacation. Always by car. Always camping as a five-person family in one tent. And we looked like gypsies. But we had fun. My parents believed that we should see all of the national parks and enjoy the splendors of nature. We traveled to Yosemite, Yellowstone, Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Bryce and Zion parks, to name just a few. We covered all of the states and driving from our home state of Ohio. My parents’ goal was to have us see every national park in the US, before my brother left for college. Many of the trips were with my cousins, but some were just our family of five. When the cousins get together today, we often share memories and how much trouble each and everyone of us got into during the trips. We laugh at my mother burning her tongue as she cleaned a rock in the Grand Canyon. Or my sister who would not get out of the car after seeing a dead snake on the side of a road as we traveled into our campsite. Or the time I woke from a nap and was told to stay in the tent, as a bear was rummaging in our food outside the tent. At times I don’t remember the experiences as vividly as the others, being the youngest of the group. But I do remember the scenery and the beauty of the land called the United States of America. A genealogist never stops finding new records, information, and context about our ancestor. Sometimes we are chasing (although we should not do this for efficiency’s sake) BSO’s (bright shiny objects) that seem to appear when we are searching for other research results. But other times, as a result of a well written, focused research question, we find the document that we were looking for. And many times that document is full of surprises. My favorite find (#52 Ancestor Challenge) has to do with my 2nd great grandfather John Lewis Miller, pictured above. His daughter was Jennie Miller who married Clark Whipkey King.[1] Their oldest daughter was Virginia King, my father’s mother, and my grandmother.[2] John was born on 21 March 1842 in Maryland. This fact came from a copy of a bible record my father obtained in the 1970’s.[3] But beyond that record and his death on 19 October 1921, little was researched about this man.[4] As it turns out, the pension file for his service in the Union Army in the Civil War told a story about this man and his life. A trip to the National Archives in 2016 found me hurrying to get the entire 96-page file copied before closing time. It was later that evening in a hotel room, that I realized what all was contained. John’s claim began on 16 September 1887 where he was filing out a “Declaration for Original Invalid Pension” and sending it to the government. John had enrolled on the 10 day of August 1863 in Co B of the 1st Regiment of the Maryland Cavalry. He served until 28 June 1865 when he was discharged in Harper’s Ferry.[5] He was injuring in November 1864 “while on drill by practice jumping our horses over a pole and ditch drilling them to jump. My horse nipped the ditch and I fell over his head and my privates caught on the pummel of the saddle. I receive a rupture and was taken to a hospital at Martinsburg then to Frederick MD, and from there to Annapolis, MD.”[6] His request was received on 27 December 1887 by the Bureau of Pensions. Fortunately they found the Assistant Surgeon, Dr. Ainsworth who determined that he had been admitted in June 1864 (not November), then moved to Fredericksburg on 27 June 1864, then to Annapolis on 4 July 1864, before being returned to duty on 4 April 1865.[7] Unfortunately, the muster records never show him as absent during the November time period that John listed which are the dates the Adjutant General’s Office checked.[8] The times in June were not researched until later in this story. So, additional testimony was requested, as well as documentation from John. This continued through 1893, with him receiving the general allowance allowed under his service, but not additional allowance due to the disability. John reapplied sending along affidavits from a E.M. Rager and S. S. Dowlan regarding his injuries.[9] On 26 July 1893, the commission stated that they could not find these two men on the rolls of the 1st Regiment.[1] Even though both stated that they had been employed by the government as teamsters to manage the horses and may not have been listed on the soldiers’ roles. A Surgeon’s Certificate dated 12 October 1898 was a result of a visit with John Lewis Miller. The rupture was causing problems which were outlined. The surgeon declared him disabled and stated that he should be receiving $30.00 per month as a result of the injuries.[2] However, included in the pension was a note from 1909 that his pension had been increased to $24.00, so no disability had been allowed.[3] John’s paperwork to the Bureau of Pensions continued. In 1917, he became 75 years of age, and asked for an increase.[4] One came in 1920 for $72.00 when the Bureau of Pensions checked the appropriate roles for June and July 1864, finding John assigned to the hospital.[5] John had one year of that payment, prior to his death in 1921.[6] But the largest surprise came on 12 May 1921 on yet another paper in the pension file, almost at the end of the 96 pages. John was having to answer more questions regarding himself and his family. His wife, known as Sarah, was listed as Sarah Yantz – (YES!!!) her maiden name. And he provided their marriage date as 25 August 1868 in Fayetteville, Franklin County, PA. But the largest surprise was that Jennie, his daughter was not their only child. John and Sarah also had Henry P. Miller who was born on 14 April 1877 and John who was born on 6 November 1879.[7] They both are listed in the 1880 census, but neither was found after that time.[8] That is because John had died at the age of 3 in 1882, and Henry died at the age of 8 in 1885. Sarah, John’s wife died in 1883. Knowledge of these deaths led to their graves, carved on either side of their mother’s gravestone. To learn more about the Pension files from the Civil War, be sure to look at the article on the NARA website titled “A Reasonable Degree of Promptitude” that appeared in the Prologue magazine in 2010.[9] They do a wonderful job explaining the process and the term “disability,” at the time of the Civil War.
It seems appropriate to start the new year talking about my mother and her genealogical research. She is the person who served as my foundation for my love of genealogy. And “Foundations” was the first prompt for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2022. Mom’s first notes occurred in 1943. She was living in Memphis at the time, as my father was still involved as a lieutenant in the Navy and was stationed at the base in Memphis. They had been married in 1941 in Washington DC on December 5th, 2 days before Pearl Harbor. After being stationed initially in Hollywood Beach Florida, dad was transferred to Memphis. But their love story is for another time, but this picture taken in Memphis in 1945 says it all! Mom’s first genealogy notes reference the work she was doing on the Fox line. She was researching the relationship of her grandparents Walter Abraham Fox and Eva Leona Fox. She wanted to determine if they were cousins. They were cousins, actually second cousins once removed. But this determination didn’t stop my mother from continuing to research her ancestors, and eventually my father’s ancestors. She continued working on genealogy until the early 2000’s. She left me 40 boxes and 4 filing cabinets filled with her genealogy research, upon her death in 2006.
Today in my personal library there are over 500 letters my mother wrote. Most have the result attached from her request. Now they are ordered now into notebooks by surname. She wrote to courthouses, family members, genealogical societies, museums, and libraries. Remember she did most of her research before computers, but made the transition to computers for typing notes and pedigree charts in the mid-80’s. She took me on numerous genealogy research outings. As a child I was the person running through the cemetery looking for a specific name on a tombstone. Or I was the person helping to roll and unroll the microfilm on a machine in a library while she was searching for a specific document. She took me to courthouses, the National Archives, the DAR library, the Library of Congress and the Family History Library all before I went off to college. She encouraged me to research my husband’s ancestors when his family admitted that they had little information on their ancestors. She taught me about census records, church records, tax records and land records and how to glean information from each one, before looking for a new one. Most importantly, she taught me that genealogy is not just about birth, marriage, and death records. Instead it is about the social and historical context that surrounds the life of an individual. This key foundation has meant researching for the deeper context of the lives of my ancestors. Each find deepens my understanding of their experience during the time period in which they lived. Every time my research ends in a path of frustration, I simply ask myself “What would my mother have done?” “Where would she have gone to research?” “Who else should I be contacting?” The right questions and foundation for any genealogist, but questions carrying meaning and memories of my mother. Among the items handed down to my husband was a large amount of postcards collected by his paternal grandmother, Clara Alice Coleman. She was born in Milwaukee on 23 Jan 1896 to Halbert Armine Coleman and Zillah Louise Barney. Her parents divorced in 1907, resulting in a move from Milwaukee to Clear Lake Wisconsin. In 1924, she attended the state Normal School in Superior Wisconsin where she worked to gain her certification for teaching. Clara moved to Carter County Montana in 1916 and began teaching in a one-room school house. Her journal, found and transcribed by her granddaughter, tells of the harsh winter in Montana and her life as a single woman in the farming land of eastern Montana. She met and married Ezekiel Lee Richardson on 12 May 1917 in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. by 1924 they moved to Rosebud Montana where she taught 7th and 8th grade. In late 1930, Clara married Joe Barley who herded sheep on the Barley Ranch. It was during that time that Clara began collecting stamps and used postcards to stay in touch with friends throughout the world. This was the postcard collection received by my husband. As we sorted through the postcards, determining their dates and senders, we discovered an entire collection of holiday cards. This included cards focused on Christmas, New Years, Valentines, St. Patricks, Easter, July 4th, Halloween and Thanksgiving. The majority of them are dated from 1907 to 1930. There are 2 (two) Valentines in the collection written to Mrs H.A. Coleman, one in 1907 and one in 1913. Even though Zillah Louise Barney Coleman divorced Halbert Armine Coleman, she continued to use her married name through her life. Whether Clara sent these to her mother, or just got them from her mother's estate is unknown. But each is beautifully created and a symbol of the love of a valentine. Neither is signed, so it is unknown who sent them to Zillah Louise. I hope you enjoy seeing these as much as I do. 1. Montana, Department of Public Health and Human Services, death certificate, 69-6527 (1969), Clara Alice Barley, Office of Vital Statistics, Helena. 2. State Normal School Postcard, Wisconsin, dated 1924, written to Willis Richardson (her son), Coleman Family Collection, given to Robert Willis Richardson grandson upon father’s death, Privately held by author. 3. Sandy Jomini, transcriber, “Diary of a Young Teacher – 1917: Clara Alice Coleman,” (transcribed in 1985), copy in possession of author. Original in possession of granddaughter, Billings, MT. 4. South Dakota, Butte County, County Judge, dated 12 MAY 1917, marriage certificate, Ezekiel L. Richardson and Clara Alice Coleman; Copy of original certificate in possession of author; Butte County, South Dakota, Record of Marriage, #57885, no date provided, Ezekiel L. Richardson and Clara Alice Coleman, Department of History, Division of Census and Vital Statistics, Belle Fourche. 5. "Montana, County Marriages, 1865-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F3Q2-XWB, accessed 7 December 2014), Joe Barley and Clara A. Richardson, 25 Aug 1930, citing Marriage, Billings, Yellowstone, Montana, county courthouses, Montana. 6. Postcard collection of 200+ cards written and received by Clara Alice Coleman, 1907 to 1940, Coleman Family Collection, privately held by author. My maternal grandmother was Fern Fox Yoder. I've already written a separate blog about her filed in the "Fox Blog": http://kinsearchers.weebly.com/fox-blog/fern-fox-my-grandmother-on-my-mothers-side. But this #52Ancestors blog is to be written about a Favorite Recipe. My mother gave me her cookbooks from the early 1940's as I was establishing my own home. They are filled with Betty Crocker recipes, everything printed in black and white. But only rarely did my mother actually make a note about which recipes she liked or disliked. Once in a while I come across a white sheet of paper with ingredients on it, but rarely is the dish named. It can make for an interesting result when I try to replicate what is written. So, why no family recipes? Well it had to do with her mother, my grandmother, Fern. Fern loved to bake (and cook) but she was known for her baking. But she baked without recipes. I remember spending time at her side, learning how to bake bread, cakes, pies, cookies (oh, the wonderful Christmas cookies) and cobblers. But it was always done without measuring cups or spoons and NO Recipes!! I'm assuming, although I never asked, that my mother learned to cook and bake in the same way. So what was my favorite baked product? Hands down it was the grape pie. Yes - GRAPE PIE!! I really had to hunt on the web for a recipe similar to my grandmothers. Here is what I remember the process to be. The grapes were first picked from her garden. Big juicy red and purple grapes. They were washed and then each one was hand peeled. And in that process we removed the seed. The pulp was cooked in a large saucepan and we added the skins towards the end. Along with lemon juice. Eventually we mixed it with sugar, a bit of flour and a bit of melted butter. It was all poured into Fern's handmade pie crust. A top crust was also used. The pie was baked. Yes - I'm leaving out the measurements - because it has been over 50 years since I made a grape pie alongside my grandmother! Today, I would be afraid to try this without using measuring cups or even a basic recipe. The closest I found online was with AllRecipes, searching for old-fashioned grape pie from scratch. What I do remember is the satisfaction of my grandfather and father at the dinner table when she would bring out her dessert. The picture above shows my father and Fern in the kitchen "testing" the meal prior to service. This would have been taken in the late 1960's. Pies were a big thing growing up. At Thanksgiving which was typically at my paternal grandparents farm, there would be a table of desserts that grew and grew each year. Often there was a pie a person. Fern would bring only one grape pie - and you had better be in line early to get a bit of that one! Grape Pie just might have to be on the menu in the summer when I can find the big grapes I remember so fondly as being at the heart of this pie. I guess I better purchase plenty of them, as I know it will take more than one try to get the recipe right! My maternal great grandmother was born Luella Drucilla Slack on 15 March 1868 to John Gardner Slack and Elizabeth Hahn. The birth was in Paris township, Stark County, Ohio. Luella was the 8th child of the family which would eventually have 11 children, one dying prior to her birth and another living a short time in 1875. She was known by "Lulu" to everyone within the family and it wasn't until the records were reviewed that her official name of Luella Druscila Slack was determined. My mother told me that Lulu was very upset that none of her grandchildren were named after her. Although I was a great granchild, my mother took the responded to her request, resulting in my middle name being Lulu, not Luella. Even her wedding certificate to Howard Harrison Yoder on 28 March 1894 lists "Miss Lulu D. Slack" as the name of his bride. However, the 1880 census with the family address had changed to Brown, Carroll County, Ohio, does list her as Luella D. This area border with Paris, Stark County. Research on the land John Slack owned is still continuing. Two of her older siblings are school teachers (Adella and Tobias). One wonders whether they were schooling Lulu in the 1880's. Howard and Lulu married in 1894. He was the son of James Longacre Yoder and Mary Clark. Howard grew up in Fox township, Carroll County. It may have been a Clark connection that introduced the two, as Adella married into the Clark family. But no stories of their initial meeting exists. Howard and Luella had 3 children. Earl Vern born in 1895 (my grandfather), Mary Elizabeth born in 1900, and Leah Fay born in 1908. They lived on Murray Avenue in Minerva, Carroll County where Howard owned a meat store. The picture below shows the Murray Avenue home with Lulu sitting on the front porch. Lulu was a good mother who cared about her children and worried about their education. When her only son went into World War One, she wrote letters and corresponded with him regularly about what was happening at home and in Minerva. In 1934, Howard passed, and shortly thereafter Lulu moved to Canton to be closer to her youngest daughter Leah. She lived there until her death in 1958, at the age of 90. She died of coronary heart disease. She is buried in the East Lawn Cemetery in Minerva Ohio. Meanwhile, I was called Little Lulu by my father at the beginning of my life, and then Emmy Lou during my early school years. However, as I entered junior high, Emily became the norm. I didn't understand the Lulu at that point, but I still made sure that it was on each of my diplomas as I worked through to my doctorate degree. Today Lulu means something so much more, as I continue to learn about my great grandmother. 1. Ohio, County Births 1841-2003, Stark, birth registers, 1867-1874, vol. 1, page 14, entry 278, unnamed "Slack" born to John Slack and Elizabeth Hahn, Paris township, reported by B.S. Dibbs, FHL 333256. 2. Marriage Certificate, original, 28 March 1894, Howard Harrison Yoder and Miss Lulu Slack, married by Rev. M.J. Maxwell, Filed in Probate Court Carroll Co. Ohio, personal archives, Yoder family. 3. East Lawn Cemetery, Minerva, Stark County, Ohio, tombstone for Lulu D Yoder, 1868-1958, picture taken by Dorothy Yoder (grand-daughter) 1977. |
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January 2022
About this BlogThis blog has been designed to serve two purposes. The first is to leave the written histories of my ancestors.
The second purpose is to offer some of my own stories, so that my children and grandchildren can learn more about my direct family and my childhood. Categories |