Monthly Archives: February 2018

Sepia Saturday – A girl and a Bicycle

Posted on by
10

Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images.

It has been a really long time since I participated in Sepia Saturday! The first photo to come to mind is one I posted a long time ago for another Sepia Saturday prompt. An unknown girl with an unknown dog. They are still unknown to me.

Mystery Girl and Dog

But it doesn’t seem right to simply post this photo again, so let’s see if I can go another round with the general theme.

When my mom’s brother, Albert (Al) Hoskins was approaching a milestone birthday, his wife sent out a request for memories. Mom included a story about a bicycle.

I apologize for riding off on your bicycle when you would come in after deli­vering your paper route. I guess I thought a chance to ride a bicycle (when it wasn’t in use and without permission) was a very special treat for me.  I must have reasoned that if I to had ask I wouldn’t have been given permission.

After all those years, I guess Mom still felt guilty about making off with her brother’s bike. It sounds like it may have happened more than once, which makes me think Al didn’t blow up at her or get her into big trouble with their mother.

Here’s a photo of Mom with two of her brothers. Older brother Al on the left and younger brother Roy in the middle. I’m not sure how old Mom was when she made off with Al’s bicycle, but I would guess within a couple of years of this photo.

I recently had some old family films digitized and found a couple of clips of Mom riding bicycles. I haven’t mastered clipping and saving the moving pictures and uploading here, but I captured a still from one of them.

There’s Mom, breaking the rules again! Riding a bike in her Sunday clothes.

The kickstand is down in this still, but the film shows that she did, in fact, ride that bike across the yard in her heels and Sunday dress. I have no idea why. A little later in the movie, she had changed her clothes and took a spin down the street with my sister – pictured here. Maybe Kim had a new bike and Mom was encouraging her to ride. Or maybe Mom just felt that old urge to take off on a bike.

And just to bring things full circle, here is a shot of me with my bike in Great Bend, Kansas … in a Halloween mask? I have no clue about that costume.

Hop on your bicycle (or someone else’s) and ride over to Sepia Saturday to check out some other takes on the theme.

Who Were the Immigrant Ancestors? # 5 George Westfall and ???

Posted on by
Reply

I’m on a mission to identify the immigrant ancestors in my family and my husband’s family.

These are the questions I’m asking:
* Who were our ancestors who first immigrated to the United States?
* How many of them have I already identified?
* Did the family follow a pattern of family reunification (what is being described negatively as chain migration) with one person or family arriving, getting settled, and sponsoring a family member or family unit?
* Can I determine (or make a good guess) about why they left their native country?
* How might our ancestors have fared if a merit-based policy had been in place at the time?

It was easy – so easy! – to identify the immigrant ancestors in my Grandmother Eveline’s line. Her parents! Joseph Coates. Mary Ann Harris. Mary Ann’s parents William Harris and Celia Jenkins. Easy peasy.

Turning to the line of Eveline’s husband, my grandfather Thomas Hoskins – I can only identify one: George Westfall (or Westall), my 4th great-grandfather.

“History of Perry County, Ohio” written in 1838, includes a biographical sketch of John W. Westfall, grandson of George.
” … George Westall, was born in London, England, and after a 42 days voyage, full of peril, landed in Rockingham county, Virginia, in time to serve in the Continental army as a drummer.”

Sometimes you have to take these county history bios with a grain of salt, but I tend to believe the naming of a grandparent as an immigrant. I looked some yesterday for a record of George serving as a drummer in the Continental army, but haven’t come up with anything to verify that yet.

It was finding transcribed letters online between George’s daughter, Hester Jane Westfall (my 3rd great-grandmother) and her sons that gave me the genealogy bug years ago. Thank you, Hester Jane and whoever kept those letters for posterity!

The rest of the immigrant ancestors in my grandfather Hoskins line are a mystery to me.

3rd great-grandfather John Franklin Bryan (married to George Westfall’s daughter) was born in 1794 in VA.

I have a 4th great-grandfather Jones Stokes born about 1775 in VA.

And I have a 3rd great-grandmother Mary Keeling born about 1794 in VA.

It’s the end of the line for now identifying the immigrant ancestors in my mother’s family line.

So a review of my mom’s family for immigrant ancestors yielded two “recent” coal mining immigrant families from England, some folks born here before 1800, one “confirmed” immigrant who may have arrived young enough to be a drummer boy for the Continental Army, and a bunch of unknowns.

Many of these families arrived before there was a formal immigration/documentation requirement.

I have one old photo from this side of the family: Jones Stokes’ granddaughter, Sarah Stokes. She was my 2nd great-grandmother.

The search continues …

Previously:
Who were the Immigrants?
Who were the Immigrants? #1 Joseph Coates
Who were the Immigrants? #2 Mary Ann Harris, #3 William Harris, #4 Celia Jenkins

Who were the Immigrants? #2 Mary Ann Harris, #3 William Harris, #4 Celia Jenkins

Posted on by
Reply

I’m on a mission to identify the immigrant ancestors in my family and my husband’s family.

These are the questions I’m asking:
* Who were our ancestors who first immigrated to the United States?
* How many of them have I already identified?
* Did the family follow a pattern of family reunification (what is being described negatively as chain migration) with one person or family arriving, getting settled, and sponsoring a family member or family unit?
* Can I determine (or make a good guess) about why they left their native country?
* How might our ancestors have fared if a merit-based policy had been in place at the time?

Mary Harris Coates Appreciating a Cow

My great-grandmother Mary Ann Harris (Coates) was Eveline’s mother. She was about 11 years old when she arrived in the U.S in 1884 with her parents, William Harris and Celia Jenkins (Harris).

A coal mining family who emigrated from Durham, England, the Harris family settled in southeastern Iowa and William worked in the coal mines in Mystic. William and Celia had four other children, all of whom died before their move to the U.S.

Mary Ann was teased in school because of her accent to the extent that her mother schooled her at home. Unfortunately, William died just 10 years after their arrival. Mary Ann and her parents did not become American citizens, but remained permanent resident aliens.

No story of family reunification here. They arrived as an intact family and no other family members followed.

Since we don’t have details of exactly how a merit-based immigration system would work, I can only speculate that this family would not accrue many points indicating their desirability.
Education: Unknown. Probably minimal as William was a miner.
Age: William and Celia are older than the desired age range
Employment in a high demand occupation: Coal miner – nah
English language – yes
Country of origin – England could be a plus
Siblings or sons/daughters already in U.S. – no

Why did they come? I can only speculate. Perhaps the promise of work in coal mines in the midwest at a better salary, or better working conditions, or the possibility of a nice piece of land, or a better life for their child and future grandchildren…

Below is a picture of Celia Jenkins, Mary Ann’s mother, and immigrant #4. She looks like a tough cookie, but so many folks in old photos tend to look stern. Unfortunately I’ve never come across a photo of William Harris.

The search continues …

Previously:
Who Were the Immigrants?
Who Were the Immigrants? #1 Joseph Coates