Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

I haven't participated in SNGF for quite some time but this looked interesting...    our assigned mission tonight from Randy at Genea-Musings is to check out the dMarie Time Capsule website, select a date from our family history and share the information. 

I selected the birth date of my paternal great-grandmother May Kidwell, born Feb 24, 1903. 

Following are some prices and a few statistics of the time:
Bread: $0.04/loaf
Milk: $0.29/gal US
Car: $500
House: $4,000
Stamp: $0.02/ea
Avg Income: $703/yr
DOW Avg:  49

One of the top books of 1903 was The Call of The Wild by Jack London. 
One of the top toys of the year was Crayola Crayons
I also learned that on this date in 1903, the US signed the agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay Cuba.    

Great site to get more insight to our ancestors lives!   Thanks Randy!

Saturday Shout Out - Comments and New Follows

To acknowledge my blogging friends who've come by and posted comments during the last week. Thank you so much for reading!!!


If you're not familiar with their blogs, be sure to stop by. This is a great way to share other blogs that readers may not have seen yet - I myself visit many blogs by looking at what everyone else is reading. Also below is a list of the blogs that I just began following recently.

Ruth at Genealogy is Ruthless Without Me
Magpie's Mumblings
Nancy at My Ancestors and Me
Tracy at The Pieces of My Past
Les at Bits and Pieces
Renate at Into the LIGHT
Greta at Greta's Genealogy Bog
Jenna at Desperately Seeking Surnames


Blogs that I added to my reader this week:

TJLGenes: Preserving Our Family History
Hanging From the Family Tree
Family and Other Stuff
Renee's Genealogy Blog
Angie's Roots Are Showing

Researchers Worked Together and Got the Job Done!

While I don't typically write posts about other blogs,  I just cannot pass up the opportunity to share this wonderful story.    If you've not been following the recent happenings over at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog, one post in particular - Help Find a WWII Soldier From Illinois  is a must read!  Thank you Lorine!

Of great interest are the comments following the post.  First many from the researchers out there who took an interest in getting the tags back to the soldier's family, one after the other they posted information they had found - every little clue led to others and soon it was determined that he did indeed have living family out there and one of the commenters was going to contact his wife.  Then, the soldier's children and grandchildren begain posting comments about how wonderful it was to have been contacted, and that the word was spreading quickly through their small family.     

As I watched all of this unfold over the last few days I often thought of how I always feel when I see someone else's family keepsakes at the local flea market, antique shops, eBay, and family estate sales.   It saddens me to think that these things are not in the hands of family members who surely would love to have them if given the opportunity.   If we had the time (and the funds to purchase such items as we find them) I think all of us would pour forth efforts to reunite such items with the family.   And these folks did just that.   To all of them and to Lorine for posting the tags - I say great job!   What a wonderful gift and certainly something that Randall's family will never forget!

Wordless Wednesday

John Jerry "Pinkie" Keener

May 1943 - 9 months old

One War....

Two Brothers....    Two Countries....    Two Sets of WWII Medals

I must say, I am very pleased that I made a trip to the post office this morning.  It's chilly here (still) and the sky is gray and wet, the air damp and rainy. I'd much rather be reading blogs and drinking a hot cup of coffee.  But I received a slip in my box at home -  there is a package at the PO and I didn't recognize the name nor did I recall ordering anything so off we go to "town". 

The Postman retrieved the package from the back, but couldn't hand it to me - there were formalities?   I see the Royal Mail post mark on a small bubble-wrap type package "Is that from England?" I ask,  of course it is!!!   At this point I couldn't even hear him speaking to me, what was he asking for?   Why did I need to sign something?   Why do I need to write my address?   Excuse me, do you have a letter opener?  I need to open that right away!!!   

I'm not going to bash our military's way of going about the business of issuing or re-issuing medals to families (although I do have a few choice words for them on making the process easier) but I will say that our friends in England  have a good  hold on the situation and here, in only one month's time I have received the medals for an Uncle who was killed in the war.  Receiving them gives me mixed emotions, while I am elated to have them, I am saddened that it took his family so long to realize that he was due something and no one tried to get them on his behalf.   I've not done any research on these medals or what they were awarded for, I will do that at a later time, right now I just want to share the news that they've been received.

If you didn't see it before, I had previously obtained my Grandfather's WWII medals from our military.    His brother John was left in England when he was a boy, too ill to make the trip across the ocean.  He remained there with other family members and entered the British Army to fight in WWII.  Sadly he was killed in action in 1940 at the young age of 21.   My Grandfather was then determined to fight as well, only he was here and entered the US Army Air Force.  He was wounded in action and returned home in 1944.   His medals were misplaced or lost some many years ago and I made it my mission to obtain replacements from the military for my grandmother (who is still living at the ripe age of 92).

John was a bit of a mystery to us.  His mother never spoke much of him, but when I obtained the items that she left behind I found that she did have a strong connection to this son, and a broken heart that kept her from discussing it.  It must've been very hard for her to leave him there.  I wish I could tell her that his medals are now where they belong - with his family.

One of Grandma Keener's Houses

I don't remember this particular house - Grandma Edna Keener moved from it before I was born.    But she lived there for a few years, and apparently it was situated on a good sized piece of property on a now very busy, very built-up intersection...   one of those pieces of property that you can say "gee, too bad she didn't hang on to that."   In reality, they may not have owned this home at all.  I cannot find any Maryland Land Records for the purchase of this location,  or a record of sale of it when they purchased a home in 1964 and moved a bit further into rural northern Montgomery County.   Grandma did trouble herself in the 80s to take another photo of the corner after the house had been torn down and the 'progress' was moving into the area.  She obviously had an attachment to the place.

In her photos, I found a photo of the home, taken in 1945 with an unknown group of people on the front porch.  

Then in 1960 she took this photo...

Granddad Anderson loved to grow vegetables and large flowering bushes, apparently he had plenty of space to do so when they lived here.  Here's a view of the yard and road.

If you have ancestors in Maryland that may have owned property, you should certainly check out the Maryland Land Records site.  You'll have to register and obtain a password but the site is free and it's a great tool to track property sales in Maryland counties back to the 1700s in some cases.

Wordless Wednesday (almost)

My wonderful parents - Don and Barbara Keener

Today would have been their 43rd wedding anniversary

Saturday Shout Out - Comments and New Follows

Well, with all the happenings around here and the lack of attention that my blog has been getting, I'm sorry to say that this Saturday Shout Out is three weeks in the making.  

Thanks to all the followers who read and especially to my reading friends who've left comments recently, including:

Julie at GenBlog
Michelle at The Turning of Generations
Greta at Greta's Genealogy Bog
A Rootdigger
Katie O. at You Are Where You Came From
Mary at Mary's Musings
Wendy at New England Genealogy


Blogs that I began following during the last few weeks: 
My Family Research Adventures
The Genealogy Geek
You Are Where You Came From
Call Me Shell
Jirene's Genealogy Tips

Wordless Wednesday

Edna Keener

Taken about 1950