Valentines Day - 1923

I had a dream last night....I was sitting with my Grandmother Lillian and she was telling me how much she appreciated all the work I was doing on her(our) family history.  The last thing she told me was, " be sure to share the letters!"   And with that I woke up with a start!  For the next hour or more, I could not go back to sleep...It was not scarey, just a bit startling.   I couldn't quit thinking of her and Grandpa, the mind just got going as it does sometimes!  I have felt for a long time my Grandmother's gratitude but to have her express it to me in a dream was quite a thrill. It is or maybe it is not...ironic that this weeks blogs happen to be about Grandma's White family,  her Grandmother's family. 

After a busy morning, this afternoon I decided to go find those letters that she was referring to.  The letters that I was thinking of were letters that Grandpa wrote to her and my Dad while he was in the seminary.  Well....what I found was even more special since today is Valentine's Day.

It's a Valentine from Grandpa that she kept. Addressed to Miss Lillian Losee at 1530 Deleware Ave in Flint, Michigan. Check out the post mark... it is February 14th, 1923.  This Valentine's Day was about six months before they were married.

This is the sweetest card which has been saved for 90 years.

And Everett's signature..just as I remember it.

This photo was taken on Lillian's 17th birthday, February 25th, 1922. This was taken in the back yard of neighbors house, the Caulkin's Family. Lillian and their daughter were best friends.  I do not recall her name right now but I have it some where.

This photo was taken closer to August when they were married...Can you see the LOVE and adoration in her face? 

I thought that it would be interesting to share this with you.

May you always feel this loved !  Happy Valentine's Day! 

(Thanks for the visit Grandma, I love you too!)

Love, Jan

Tombstone Tuesday - February 12, 2013 - Edwin R White

Thetford Cemetery in Genesee County, Michigan

The Thetford Cemetery in Genesee County, Michigan in the White plot we have several family members buried. Today's entry will be for Edwin R White the son of Phebe and William C. White

 

 January 2, 1873 - August 11, 1891

  This funeral card was left to us by my grandmother Lillian Smith.  It had belonged to her Grandmother, Mary Florence Boyer , the sister to Edwin R White.  It had been her Grandmother's cherished possession  remembrance of her beloved brother's life.

 Edwin had a twin brother named Edward who died after in February of 1873. I do not have a tombstone or burial information for Edward. The next time I am in the area I will need to see if there is a stone for him and the other children who died from the family.

  This couple, William and Phebe White, lost six of their sons before they became adults;  Francis A. died at 1 year in 1860, Frankie died at age 2 in 1867 , William died at 23 years old in 1894, Edward B. died in 1873, Edwin died at 18 years in 19891 and Pervical F. died at age 2 in 1879. An incredible amount of loss in a short period of time for one family. 

The White Family – New York to Michigan

The Family of William and Phoebe (Johnson) White

Back row left to right: Silas Herbert, Mary Florence, Eunice Electra, John Newell

Center Left to right: Leroy U , Phoebe (Johnson) William Claiborne, William

Front Left to right: George Ernest, Edwin R.

This photo must have been taken in the late 1880's because Edwin R died in 1891 and William (Jr.) died in 1894. 

Funeral Card for Edwin R White

Funeral Card of Phoebe (Johnson)White

Phoebe and William C are my ggg-grandparents. I have found through my research that there has been a bit of discussion about whether we are descendents of the Mayflower White Family. Many family members seem to think that we do, but I would really like to see the proof. With the data that I have as of today, there seems to be two missing generations. These two generations would include the time of the Revolutionary War. So I am looking for men with the last name of White who served in the Revolutionary War. I am concentrating on the John and William White's from NewYork for the time being. William C White's father, John White was born in Wayne County, New York in 1797. This family, like many during the time frame, appeared to reused the same given names from one generation to the next. As in my Smith family search, the sheer number of White families in early America makes this task worthy of  an entry in my “Needle in a Haystack” Blog. 

 

This week I signed up as a member of the National Genealogical Society. My hope is that they will have some training opportunities which will help me to learn how to break thru the sheer volume of data in my most common name families. I also learned that as a member of NGS I could get a reduced rate membership to FOLD3. It is a database of documents from the US National Archive which encompasses all military files, early tax records, early census records and the documents of our American government as it was forming. I decided that I would try it for this year at least.  (As a side note...as of today, less than a week later, I have gotten my $39.00 worth of data from this subscription. I paid at least that amount for Civil War records several years ago.)

 

I spent quite a lot of time this weekend looking through the Revolutionary War Pension records to see if they could help me identify the parents of John White. I am surmising that if we descend from the Mayflower White family than family members would have probably served in the Revolutionary War from New York or Massachusetts. There are four John White files and three William White files in New York which amounts to more than 172 pages of data to read through. I have downloaded them to my database and will go through them in the next couple of weeks to see what I can find out. If nothing else it gives me specific places in New York to look for White families in hopes of placing our John White in one of them. I'll keep you posted on what I find.

Happy Hunting,

Jan Smith

Tombstone Tuesday - February 5, 2013 - William W Densmore

William was the first son born to John and Sarah (Reynolds) Densmore. He was born on June 11, 1859 in Canada and arrived in the United States  soon after his birth. He died on February 11, 1927 in Port Huron.

I thought that this would be an easy Tombstone Tuesday to write. I had information indicating that he was married to Ellen but no last name. I showed that he had three children; Arthur born 1884, Mamie born in 1886 and Wesley Walter born in 1898. SO I thought I would just go see what I could find on Ancestry.com about Ellen and hopefully would find her last name.  Well, it seems that our William W. Densmore and a William Alvin Densmore both born in Canada have gotten a bit confused.   It could be that these two Williams are cousins but I will need to find out.  So I will need to look into this better.

For now I will post it with information I have and this story is to be continued

Happy Hunting!

Jan