Standing in back (if arranged from eldest to youngest) is: Cassius, George, Frank, Charles, and John. Sitting are Juliette, Ellen, Stella, Alice, and Barna Whittaker.
This past summer I attended the FGS Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was so excited to meet the many of the big names in genealogy. One of them was Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective. I paid a consultation fee and showed her this picture on my iPad. I didn't give her any clues as to what my guesses were about the photo. If everyone is placed from oldest to youngest, I have all of them named and my best guess is that the photo was taken @1888.
Here is what she said:
24 Aug 2018: Photo Consultation with Maureen Taylor the Photo Detective. She said that the photo was taken @1890. The girl in the middle with the neck choker is the youngest sister. The puff sleeves on the shoulders help date the picture to 1890. Barna is a very conservative/religious man with his under the chin beard. These are their clothes (they did not belong to the photographer) and the women were dressed particularly nicely (especially Juliette's skirt sash and the detailed shoulder work). These were purchased dresses (rather than homemade) that would have been colored in rust, red, dark blue, and garnet. They were very dressed up for the occasion. They were healthy. She was curious to what the occasion might have been for them to have the photo taken.
I've been asked to write a bio for my Grandpa Ed's 50th Year for the Adams Fire Company's Installation. Here it goes:
Edmund C. Sheliga was born on October 21st, 1922 in Buffalo, NY. He was the 2nd born to his parents of 4 children. Life growing up wasn't always easy as his father abandoned the family and his older brother died in 1932 leaving Ed as the "Man of the House" at the age of 9. Living through the Great Depression, it is easy to understand how he developed early on the trait of fixing things by repurposing items.
As a teenager he developed an interest in radios and became an amateur radio operator using only Morse Code. He graduated from Burgard Vocational High School in 1940 and started a career as an apprentice pressman. Shortly thereafter, he served 5 years in WWII, and was Honorably Discharged with the rank of Private.
He married his wife, Ruth, on August 2, 1952. They were married for 54 years having three boys: Jeffrey, Carl, and Donald. They started out their marriage living in Buffalo, moved to Tonawanda, and eventually settled in Wheatfield.
He worked as an electrician for Bell Aircraft, Sylvania, and Mennen Medical. Many of the projects he worked on at Bell Aircraft and Sylvania were government contracts and classified. You can try asking him about them, but he can't tell you.
He joined Delaware Hose Fire Company around 1958 and Adams Fire Company in 1969.
Ed and Jeanette after the Shawnee Parade June 2013
I've started to blog again on behalf of NCGS featuring items in our genealogy library. You can link to it here: https://niagaracountygenealogy.wordpress.com/ It's help to encourage me to get back to blogging on my own genealogy and presentations that I give.
Yesterday I presented for NTLGC on RootsTech2019. I taught about the new features that Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch announced while at RootsTech. Many of those features are DNA based, but the new MyTreeTags from Ancestry is not. I can't believe how many of my direct ancestors that I haven't yet obtained death certificates for.
MyTreeTags is helping me identify items like that so that I may complete the vital records on at least my direct ancestors. If I ever want to join a descendancy society like Mayflower or DAR, I'm going to need to have all my ducks in a row (as Grandpa Ed always says).
I visited Grandpa Ed yesterday in the Nursing Home. He's 96 now and at this year's Adams Fire Co. Installation Dinner, he will be honored as a 50-year member. I hope we can safely get him there for the dinner.
I've spent all day working on my genealogy, but I've been all over the place. It's like I can't focus on one thing. At first, I was trying to get down the number of shakey leaves that I had. It's a pretty vicious cycle as I started with 5,809 and after hours of work, I ended up with 6,060!! Each time I add a new ancestor, a bunch more hints pop up. Especially the census records that add parents and siblings. I actually started ignoring records of spouses that were nowhere near my direct line. It's hard to do, though, as I know that they were most like part of my ancestor's FAN club and could be in pictures, etc.
I spent quite a long time going through my old Reunion Tree and copy/pasting the notes that I took from interviews with various people and uploading them as stories to my FamilySearch tree. I'd like to go back and add pictures to some of them too.
Later I worked on uploading the church records that I got from the FHC this past Tuesday on the GLEISNER family and making sure that I was citing where I got them and uploaded them to both Ancestry and FamilySearch. It is soooo slow taking the time to properly document and transcribe each record.
My Dad just got back from vacation in Jamaica. He sent me a picture that I couldn't help but see a resemblance to Grandpa Ed. I couldn't stop laughing!!
Back on my October 8th blog post I had said that I had received the wrong death certificate for Frank DEVLIN. Later on in the month, I did receive the correct death certificate. It confirmed the newspaper story that he died on the bus. Other things that were confirmed was that he worked as a fireman for the Buffalo Fire Department, his wife name was Julia GAINEY, he was born in Dundas, Canada, he had a son named Frank DEVLIN that lived at 845 Abbott Rd. at the time, and that he was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Lackawanna.
My 3rd Great-Grandmother Ida HARDING had 7 siblings (4 brothers and 3 sisters). One of her brothers was Perry J. HARDING. I do not know much about him. From the book Our Harding Family by Mary E. Baird, it stated that he was born 31 Mar 1857:
The only other mention in the Baird book is:
He is found in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 Federal Censuses:
1860 Federal Census
1870 Federal Census
1880 Federal Census
The only other documents I've been able to find him in are newspaper articles. These two articles are from November 1879 when Perry was 22 years old (one year before the 1880 Census pictured above). The articles are from the Wellsboro Agitator.
Mr. Perry Harding, of Covington, went to Buffalo recently to enlist in the regular army.
Mr. Perry Harding, of Covington, who recently went to Buffalo to enlist in the regular army, was not able to pass the physical examination.
I'm not surprised by Perry wanting to join the army as his dad was a Major General in the Pennsylvania Militia. I am curious as to why he was not able to pass the physical exam. Was it something simple like poor eyesight or something more serious? If you look back at the 1880 Census above you can see that Perry's sister Emma was listed as sick with a "spinal affect" but Perry did not have any sickness listed. He was also not checked off as blind, deaf and dumb, idiotic, insane, maimed, crippled, bedridden or otherwise disabled (not included in the screenshot).
Another question I have is why did he travel all the way to Buffalo to enlist in the army? As far as I know, all of his family still lived in the Covington area at that time - wasn't there someplace closer to home where he could try to enlist from?
The next record I was able to find on him was when he was 29 years old. The article states that was was recently adjudged insane:
If he was judged to be insane, would there be court records for that? Where was the County Poor-house and what was that like?
He fought his way out to escape!!?? It says he went over the hills toward his home. I wonder if he was still living with his parents at the time.
I also wonder why they were going to take him to Warren Hospital instead of back to the County Poor-house. Was it because they feared he would try to escape again?
The last document I can find was from the Elmira Daily Gazette on 28 June 1892 when Perry was 35 years old. It lists him as a patient of Warren Insane Hospital but that he was being either removed to the county house or returned to the 'care of their friends.'
I wonder if he had been a patient in the Warren Insane Hospital since 1886 or was he in and out? Was he put back in the county house or was he released home? What exactly was his illness?
Here is a movie on YouTube about the Warren Hospital:
This is all I've been able to uncover on him so far. I do not yet know when or where he passed away or where he is buried. I didn't find him listed in the Warren Hospital Cemetery which I was glad to for some reason. I kind of hope that he is buried with his parents and that nobody is aware of it because maybe he doesn't have a headstone.
I am curious to learn more. Some things I can try:
- Look to see if there are court records from 1886 when he was judged insane
- Look to see if the hospital has archived records
- Contact the cemetery where his parents are buried to see if there are other Hardings buried there that do not have headstones (I should ask about sister Emma too).
As I stated on my September 27th, 2015 blog that I was working on trying to find out more information on my 3rd great uncle Frank M. DEVLIN that died on 25 Apr 1943. According to the news article that I found he had suffered a fatal heart attack on a downtown Buffalo Bus:
I pretty sure that this is my Frank DEVLIN as he lived at 77 East Tupper St. I think that perhaps the Courier-Express mixed his name all up and that the Maher is the M. that I see in all his other documents as Frank M. DEVLIN.
The documentation I have that shows my Frank M. DEVLIN living at 77 East Tupper is from him being listed on as a witness on my great grandpa Albert PARKIN's delayed birth record.:
In case you are curious, click here is a link to google maps for 77 E Tupper. The address is no longer a residential address, from what I can tell there is now a parking lot across from the City Mission on Route 33.
So in an effort to try to learn more about Frank DEVLIN, I ordered a genealogical copy of his death certificate from the city of Buffalo. I excitedly opened my results a week later only to find that they had sent me a copy of another person's death certificate with a similar name. It took me almost a week to get an answer from them as to what to do. I've sent back the wrong death certificate and now am awaiting the correct one.
From L to R: Arline WILLIAMS, Mrs. William H. ROBINSON, Inez WHITTAKER, Ida WHITTAKER, Tom BOFFEY, John MEIDENBAUER, Dorothy WHITTAKER, Winifred PRESTON
For this Wedding Wednesday I would like to share some media that I found for my 2nd great-aunt Ida.
Aunt Ida was born: Ida May WHITTAKER on 17 Jun 1903 in Buffalo, NY. She married Thomas BOFFEY (who was born 16 Dec 1903 in England) on 6 Aug 1927 in Buffalo, NY.
