Civil War Soldiers and Sailors: A New AnceStories Series

I'm probably crazy to begin yet another series, considering I haven't (quite) finished the 1930 U.S. Federal Census series I began a year ago, and I'm still doing some research on the Polar Bear Expedition that my great-grandfather served in at the end of World War I, in order to wrap up that series. BUT, I've been wanting to do this for a while, now, and GenLady's "Where Were You Carnival: The Civil War" is so timely, I've decided to go ahead.

Starting next week until Monday, May 26th (Memorial Day), I will be featuring a Civil War soldier or sailor each day either from my own or from my husband's family tree. Because there are such a large number of men to choose from, I am limiting myself to our direct ancestors (biological, step, and adoptive) and to brothers of direct (male and female) ancestors. This series doesn't include sons-in-law or brothers-in-law or cousins of my ancestors; otherwise, it would be lengthy, indeed! I wanted to feature these men not only to honor them as Memorial Day approaches, but to give an idea of the large number of individuals involved in the tragic war that tore our country apart nearly 150 years ago. Whole families and communities were impacted and sometimes devastated by the casualties that occurred because entire military companies consisting of young men all from one village or neighborhood would be decimated in battle.

Each sketch will feature some facts about the individual--the important dates and locations in their lives, their family members, and the units in/ships on which they served--as well as whatever photos I may have of them and/or their grave sites. I've also managed to collect quite a few Civil War Pension Index cards from Footnote for these individuals, and am sharing them as well. Additionally, I'll be providing links, where available, to the histories of the units in/ships on which they served.

You will be able to indeed see where I (my family) was during the Civil War.

Wordless Wednesday: Emma Alice (LYTON) CHAPLIN and great-grandchildren

Source: Chaplin, Emma Alice Lyton with great-grandchildren. Photograph. C. late 1957 - early 1958. Original photograph in the possession of Alice Chaplin Midkiff. Vancouver, Washington. 2008.

The Old Timer's Page

This one's for all you Americana lovers: This site reminds me of the stories Terry writes on his blog. The page about The Spring House also reminds me of David's book.

Hat Tip: My Aunt Louise

Spring: Not My Favorite Season

This morning I posted "Week Thirty-Five: Spring" over at my journal prompt blog, AnceStories2: Stories of Me for My Descendants. And I have to admit, Spring is not my favorite season. In fact, to name them in favorite to least favorite order, they are Fall, Summer, Winter and Spring.

Now some people just get all excited about Spring. They love that the snow is gone and the flowers are coming up, the days are getting longer and warmer. But to me, Spring has always been too vague, uncertain, and variant. As Lucy from Peanuts would say: "Wishy-washy." By the time we can actually say that Spring is here, it's late May, and summer is just around the corner. Spring brings snow, hail, wind, rain, ice, sun, clouds, and more of the above...usually all in one afternoon, too! When I was a girl growing up in Southeast Alaska and we had Spring weather like that, it was called "Fish Egg Weather," because it meant it was the time when the salmon went upstream to spawn. I remember seeing a creek which was located about a mile from our home being absolutely choked with salmon laying their eggs. Since the weather as a whole (wet and rainy) didn't seem a whole lot different in Spring compared to Summer or Fall (Southeast Alaska gets 160 - 180 inches of rain a year), it's hard to look back on my childhood memories and say definitively, "this happened in the Spring," or "this was a Spring memory."

One thing we had to be cautious about in Alaska in the Spring was the fact that bears were coming out of hibernation and 1) they were hungry; and 2) the females had their cubs with them. These were not pleasant thoughts to consider while walking the lonely one-mile long road from our house to town on the way to school and then back in the afternoon! Dad always said, "they're more afraid of you than you are of them" (doubtful!) and "make a lot of noise while you're walking, like singing or whistling, so they can hear you coming and go away," which is probably how I got into the bad habit of talking to myself, while doing mundane tasks. :-) Since these were black bears, not grizzlies, I was pretty safe, and I never did run into any on my way to school or back. In fact, it was my brother who ran into a bear when he was about 5 or 6 years old in the woods behind our house, and it happened after we moved to Eastern Washington. The bear ran off, and I'm sure Adriaen did, too...in the opposite direction!

On a side note: one of the things we did for fun was to drive to the dump several miles down the road between Klawock (our home town) and Craig to watch the bears. We didn't have television on the island at that point and there wasn't a theater, either (it burned down not long after we moved there), so entertainment had to be creative! There would be bears all over that dump, especially on garbage day. I remember one time when we went, there was a sow and three cubs, and as they ran off into the woods, the third cub was limping a bit. We saw plenty of sows with twin cubs over the years, but that was the only time we saw one with triplets.

One nice thing about Spring in Alaska was that there seemed to be a lot of rainbows during that time. My friends and I had a superstition that you couldn't point at a rainbow, because that would make it disappear. Funny how kids are!

Once my parents started their little farm, Spring meant baby animals being born: goat kids, bunnies, and chicks, ducklings, and goslings. It also meant a lot of work, because the kids had to be bottle-fed so that we could milk their mothers. And as anyone who's ever had a farm or small homestead knows, Spring is the beginning of plowing, planting, and lots of weeding!

When we moved to Eastern Washington in 1979, it took some getting used to a different climate. This side of the state is called the "dry side" for good reason; unlike the West Side, which is more like Southeast Alaska in its climate (damp and rainy), Eastern Washington has four distinct seasons and much drier air. Summer and winter go to temperature extremes, with August blazing in at over 100*F and winter dropping as low as -40* temps when you consider the wind chill factor. Spring was more defined as a season in Eastern Washington than in Alaska, I noticed when I moved here. There are a lot more deciduous trees, which, of course, bloom (the magnolia next door is a favorite); and the lower latitudes allow for a longer growing season, so I could see a lot more variety in the flowers that grew in people's gardens. However, Spring also meant pollen, especially pine pollen. The grand Ponderosa pines in this region put out huge quantities of pollen which are visible in the air on windy days, or on lake and pond surfaces in thick green layers. I lived in this area for nearly 20 years before I figured out why I was getting so run down every May...to the point of becoming pretty ill: I have allergies. One of the things that also seems to trigger my symptoms is lilac blooms...and where do I live? In the Lilac City, no less!

Eastern Washington has fairly clay-ey (is that a word?) soil. Every spring, my parents' long driveway would turn to a sticky, muddy mess as the deep snow melted. Seems I remember numerous times when our 1940-something four-wheel-drive Willey's Jeep and other assorted vehicles they owned got stuck in the driveway. Dad cut back a lot of trees over the years to let in sunshine to the driveway to help dry up the mud, but still, it often meant many summer days for us kids scouring the garden, roadsides and woods for medium-sized rocks to fill in the ruts. After all those years, you'd think their driveway would be cobblestoned from the amount of rocks we placed in it!

Spring Break was always a great relief (and still is, now that I work for a school district!). We never took vacations (as a school custodian, that was/is one of Dad's busiest work weeks). My favorite Spring Break happened when I was a junior, I think. It wasn't anything special, but I remember we had a picnic, and there was a favorite musical on TV. I just remember it was a fun family time.

I don't have a particular favorite Spring holiday now, although as a kid, Easter was a favorite, for obvious reasons. And speaking of favorites, my favorite Spring food is fresh asparagus, which is shipped up here from the Yakima Valley and is simply delicious!

So although Spring may not be a favorite season, there are still enough enjoyable things happening to make it be "okay" for me. What about you? How do you feel about Spring? And will you leave some Spring stories for your descendants to read someday?

The 45th Edition of the CARnival of Genealogy is Posted

Jasia has just posted the 45th Edition of the CARnival of Genealogy over at her blog, Creative Gene. The topic of this CARnival is "Cars as Stars of Our Family History." I believe this may be the biggest carnival yet, with 43 posts submitted by 34 authors, according to Terry. Every family has car story (or two or twelve!), and these geneabloggers are no different. Love 'em or hate 'em, cars have been a part of everyone's family history since their invention (my own submission is 1967 Model No. 1). I encourage you to read these excellent posts, and then perhaps take some time to write down your own car memories. You may also like to record your stories of how you learned to drive, and my journal prompts from Week Twenty-Four: Learning to Drive over at my other blog, AnceStories2: Stories of Me for My Descendants can give you some ideas on how to do that.

The topic of the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be "What Traits Run in Your Family?" Here are some things to consider:

Which of them did you inherit? Do you have your mother's blue eyes? Your grandfather's stubbornness? Your aunt's skill with knitting needles? Is there a talent for music in your family? Or do you come from a long line of teachers? Have you ever looked at an old photo and recognized your nose on another family member's face? Tell us all about your family traits and please submit your articles by the deadline, April 15th (no inheritance taxes will be assessed ;-) . Thanks to Lisa Alzo for the topic suggestion!

Daniel J. MacARTHUR and Martha JOHNSON

Source: MacArthur, Daniel J. and Martha Johnson. Photograph. C. 1863. Original photograph believed to be in the possession of Nancy Masten Peugh, Manton, Michigan. 1999.

This is one of my paternal 3rd-great-grandparent couples, Daniel J. MacARTHUR and his wife, Martha JOHNSON. Daniel was born 7 June 1827 in Glengarry Co., Ontario, Canada to first-generation Canadians of Scottish descent. Martha was born 20 October 1844 in Ingham Co., Michigan. Her mother's family, the MASSEYs, brings the only ancestry located south of the Mason-Dixon line to my family tree, from Kent Co., Maryland. This photograph may have been Daniel and Martha's wedding portrait. They were married 27 February 1863, probably in Montcalm Co., Michigan. However, it appears that Martha may be with child, and it is know that their eldest son, Henry A. McARTHUR, was born 11 December 1865 in Clinton Co., Michigan. Since Daniel was serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, it may be that they did not get an opportunity to have a photograph taken until the war was over.

Besides Henry, who died in 1944, Daniel and Martha had six other children: Daniel Thomas (1867 - 1945); Catherine A. "Kate" (1869 - 1956); George Clinton "Clint" (1871 - 1936); my ancestor Mary E. "Mae" (1875 - 1959); William Edward "Will" (1880 - 1973); and Arlie Mae McARTHUR (1884 - 1971).

Daniel served in Company I of the 1st Regiment of Berdan's Sharpshooters out of Michigan. Near the close of the war, he was furloughed due to illness and sent home to recuperate. During that time the war ended, and for whatever reason either he did not report back to his unit or no record was made or kept of his return. At any rate, when he later applied for a veteran's pension, he was denied, although he appealed unsuccessfully several times.

Daniel and his wife and family lived all over the lower peninsula of Michigan, from the northwest to the southeast and every county in between, it seems. I'm still putting together a timeline to show his many residences in chronological order for my research purposes. For most of his life, his occupation was listed as a farmer, except for the time when he was listed as a shoemaker on his daughter Kate's birth record. Martha died in 1897, and Daniel outlived her by 22 years. Although he married late in life (age 35), he lived long enough to see some of his great-grandchildren. He and Martha are buried in the Phillips/Danley/Hill Cemetery, Fulton Twp., Gratiot Co., Michigan.

Wordless Wednesday: Daniel J. MacARTHUR and Martha JOHNSON

Source: MacArthur, Daniel J. and Martha Johnson. Photograph. C. 1863. Original photograph believed to be in the possession of Nancy Masten Peugh, Manton, Michigan. 1999.

1967 Model No. 1

Source: Robbins, Miriam Joy. Birth Announcement. Created March 1967 by Faith Valk Robbins. Original pasted in baby book of Miriam Joy Robbins in the possession of Miriam Robbins Midkiff, Spokane, Washington. 2008.

It's no surprise that my parents came up with this clever birth announcement for their first model of little Robbinses. You have to understand that Robbinses have been working on cars probably as long as they've been invented. My great-grandfather was a chauffeur before he joined the Army in WWI. In fact, that's how he met my great-grandmother...he was driving the hearse for her grandfather's funeral. My grandfather was working in the automotive repair business when he enlisted in WW2, and after he was discharged from the Army Air Corps, he started Robbins Body Shop in Coopersville, Ottawa Co., Michigan. His father and brothers helped out, and his sons--my dad and uncle--grew up learning how to repair cars; not just body work, but engine work as well. In 1967, when my parents were living in Kodiak, Alaska and assisting in missions work there, both of them worked for a tire shop to bring in much-needed income; dad worked in the shop and mom did the bookkeeping.

(before)

While they were expecting me, my parents took a ride one evening on the mountain road to the ski resort. Mom was getting rather large with me and decided to wear her seat belt, just to see if it would still fit (these were the days before retractable seat belts; remember them?). They hit some ice on the road and ended up rolling their 1958 Lincoln Continental down the side of the mountain. Fortunately, the only injury sustained was a cut on Mom's knee from some glass as she exited the vehicle when it was all over. I guess I didn't like that bumpy ride, because Mom said I kicked all night long, so she knew I was okay (and probably protesting!). They made their way walking to the ski lodge and spent the night. The phone at the lodge only worked sporadically, and no one knew where my parents were, so some excitement was stirred up among their friends until they were found!

(after)

You can see they were in need of a new vehicle. They researched what they wanted and ended up with a pile of car folders and advertisements. One of them got the idea that these would make great birth announcements, so back to the dealer they went to get more brochures!

They eventually purchased a 1967 Chevy full-sized sedan. They had it all: a new baby, a new car--and shortly after--a new residence and jobs, when they transferred to Fairbanks from Kodiak to begin work with The Salvation Army.

Source: 1958 Lincoln Continental and 1967 Chevrolet sedan. Photographs. Originals affixed in "Our Memories" Scrapbook (1965 - 1970) in the possession of Bryan and Faith (Valk) Robbins, Colville, Washington. 2008.

Genealogy Happy Dance - Again!

Oh. My. Gosh.

I'm sitting here at the computer trying to put my finishing touches on my post for the next Carnival of Genealogy AND warming up my scanner for the next Scanfest session (3 - 6 PM today, Pacific Daylight Time), when in comes an e-mail:

My grandmother passed away last December and yesterday we were going through the house and found a bible belonging to Ann (Wilson) Westaby with hand written family names and dates. The Bible was printed in 1852 and the last date of information she put in was 1878. I found you by searching Thomas Westaby on google which led me to rootsweb. Didn't know if you would be interested in seeing photos or (a) scanned copy of the handwriting.

Ann was hubby's 3rd-great-grandmother, and with her husband, they were the immigrant ancestors for this family line to the United States from England in 1850. Can you hear me screaming for joy? ;-)

April Is...

...The Great American Photo Scanning Month. Go to ScanMyPhotos.com to see how you can get 1,000 4" x 6" photos scanned and put on DVD for only $19.95 return shipping. Also, see my notes on Scanfest and Spring Break Scan-a-thon at the bottom of this post.

...National Volunteer Month. See my post on being a volunteer back during Random Acts of Kindness Week.

...National Jewish-American Heritage Month.

April 6 - National Tartan Day (USA)

Sunset of April 19th - April 27th: Passover

April 27 - May 4: Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Week)

Does the above feature in or affect your heritage, culture, or family history?

Carnival Due Dates in April:

April 1: 45th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - Cars As Stars

April 9: 3rd Edition of the "Where Were You?" Carnival - the Civil War (and also here)

April 15: 46th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - "What Traits Run in Your Family?"

April 21: Cabinet of Curiosities #6

April 27: 5th Edition of the Carnival of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture - Irish Gaelic Names and Words

April 27: 6th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy - a Carousel edition (choose your own topic)

Scanfest:

April 1 - 6 (continued from March 29th): Spring Break Scan-a-thon

Part of Scan-a-thon includes extra Scanfests: Tuesday, April 1 and Thursday April 3 from 3:00 - 6:00 PM, PDT

April 27th: Scanfest, 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time

2008 Artistry of Genealogy Awards - the Joke's on Me!

You're going to laugh when you read this. At least I did, because the joke is on me. On Wednesday, I received the following e-mail:

The Photo Preservation Center is announcing the 2008 Artistry of Genealogy Awards through an upcoming Businesswire news release and your site was mentioned. Congratulations and I hope the attention draws many more people to your excellent site. An advance copy of the release is posted on our Tales from the World of Photo Scanning Blog – www.blog.ScanMyPhotos.com. We will make sure to have your site hyperlinked on the official Businesswire release. Thanks for your commitment to also helping preserve families history and memories.

Well, I had never heard of this organization and to be quite frank, there were a couple of spelling and grammatical errors in the subject line and message, and the link embedded in the message led to a 404 error page--all normal indicators of a possible spam message. So I deleted the e-mail. Yes, I did!

On Thursday, Becky's congratulatory post at kinnexions popped up in my feed reader, followed by many others in the geneablogosphere, and suddenly I realized this was authentic! Sheepishly, I retrieved the e-mail from my trash folder and replied with a humble "thank you." Are you laughing at me yet? That's all right. I'm laughing right along with you!

Here is the correct link that will take you to the blog, and here is the press release on Yahoo! through Businesswire. I'm not going to repeat the whole message here as most of you have probably read it on other blogs, but I did want to mention a few things.

First of all, thank you to the Photo Preservation Center for creating these awards and to all those who voted for AnceStories as Best Personal Genealogy Blog (Renee Zamora of Renee's Genealogy Blog also received this award). I'm sorry that I didn't recognize the award for what it was at first glance!

Secondly, congratulations to all my fellow award winners! I'm honored to be listed among them. Every one of the recipients was familiar to me at first glance, with the exception of Favorite Genealogy Research Guide: Genealogy Research Guides, Tips and Online Records. After investigating this site, I slapped my forehead and said, "Oh, it's Joe!" Yes, Joe Beine of www.deathindexes.com and Genealogy Roots Blog. ResearchGuides.net is the front door to his portal of wonderful pages of links to online records. The other one that seemed at first unfamiliar but turned out to be part of Illya D'Addezio's conglomeration of sites (think GenealogyToday) was Family Tree Connection, which won Most Popular Genealogy Database.

One thing I learned from all this (besides not to look a gift horse in the mouth!) was that April is The Great American Photo Scanning Month! As the hostess of Scanfest, I think that's simply terrific! In honor of that event, ScanMyPhotos.com has created the following offer:

Throughout April, ScanMyPhotos.com is providing free photo scans to all members of four leading social networking sites; subscribers to Flickr, MySpace, Blogger and Facebook can have up to 1,000 4x6" photos scanned to DVD without charge when they mail their pictures to ScanMyPhotos.com and pay $19.95 for return S&H, along with the downloadable order form.

This sounds like a sweet deal, and would work wonderfully for all those modern photos you have sitting around in boxes that need to be digitized. As for the antique or one-of-a-kind old family photos or documents, I urge you to join me and scan them during Scanfest (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday this coming week) and Spring Break Scan-a-thon, currently in progress. If you can't make it this week, the April Scanfest will be held Sunday, April 27th from 11 AM - 2 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.

Mary Emeline (WILBOURN) MIDKIFF

Source: Midkiff, Mary Emeline Wilbourn. Photograph. Taken before Sep 1919. Reproduction of original photograph in the possession of Miriam Robbins Midkiff, Spokane, Washington. 2008.

Mary Emeline WILBOURN was my husband's Great-great-grandmother Midkiff. She was born 11 Aug 1839 in Sandoval Twp., Marion Co., Illinois to Dr. John Wilks WILBOURN of Orange Co., North Carolina and Martha Susan DEADMOND of Bedford Co., Virginia. John and Susan's respective families had migrated to Marion Co., Illinois by 1831, when they married. Mary was the fourth of nine known children which included Rufus K. (b. c. 1833), Denita Frances (b. c. 1836), James Manissa (1837 - c. 1837), John Henry (b. c. 1843 - bef. 12 Mar 1878), Aramanthe E. (b. 1846), Thomas Jefferson (1849 - 1942), Sarah Jane (1851 - 1940), and Benjamin Franklin WILBOURN (1854 - 1944).

The Wilbourn family moved from Illinois to Grayson Co., Texas between 1843 and 1846, and were prominent in that early community. It was there on 24 Jul 1859 that nearly-20-year-old Mary was wed to Charles Anderson MIDKIFF. They lived in Sherman Township when the 1860 U.S. Federal Census was taken; a time when trouble between the North and South was brewing. Charles served with the Texas Cavalry for the Confederacy, along with two of his brothers. About that time, the family moved to nearby Springville, Cooke Co., Texas. During the war, their two eldest, William Preston (1862 - 1936) and Charles "Anderson" Jr. (1865 - 1948), were born. Louanna Ellen "Annie" (1868 - 1940), John Franklin (1870 - 1926; my husband's great-grandfather), Ethel Susan (b. 1874), and Thomas Jefferson "Tex" MIDKIFF (1879 - 1941) soon followed. An infant, Mae, did not survive.

The Midkiff family remained in Cooke County where they were enumerated in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census. Charles' occupation was a miller. Sometime within the next few years, they moved to Lexington, Cleveland Co., Oklahoma Territory, where some of their children were married and their first grandchildren were born. Ever on the move, the family may have also lived in Pottawatomie Co., Oklahoma Territory, and were definitely residing in Delta Co., Colorado by 1902, where Charles was cattle ranching.

The Midkiff Family in Delta Co., Colorado. Charles and Mary are in the center, surrounded by their children, children-in-law, and grandchildren.

Source: Midkiff Family at Home in Delta County, Colorado. Photograph. Taken c. 1902 - 1908. Original photograph in the possession of John and Mary Lou Midkiff, Midland, Texas. 2008.

On 10 Mar 1908, Charles wrote his brother in West Texas from Hotchkiss, Delta Co., Colorado and told him he had sold his ranch the summer previously, as he had been injured when his mules ran away with him, getting caught under the wagon and breaking his left leg. Because of being crippled, he could not work the ranch in the winter when the snow was so deep. This injury was probably also motivation for Charles and Mary to retire after a few years to Chico, Butte Co. in Northern California, where the warmer climate and town living were more suitable for the senior couple. Mary's mother and four younger siblings and their families, along with most of the adult Midkiff children with their families, also lived in the area; however, I haven't done enough research to discover if the Wilbourns or the Midkiffs emigrated to California first.

In 1914, both Mary and Charles are listed on the Butte County Voters Registration. California had granted suffrage to women in 1911, nine years before the federal government did so. After Charles died in 1919, Mary lived with their daughter Annie until her own death in 1923. Mary and Charles are buried in unmarked graves in the Wilbourn Family Plot in Chico Cemetery.

The "empty" grassy spot in the midst of the Wilbourn Family Plot in Chico Cemetery is the final resting place of Mary Emeline (WILBOURN) MIDKIFF, and her husband, Charles Anderson MIDKIFF, Sr. The graves of Mary's sisters can be seen in the foreground.

Source: Midkiff, Charles Anderson Sr. and Mary Emeline (Wilbourn) burial location, Chico Cemetery, Chico, Butte Co., California. Photograph. Taken 31 May 2006 by FindAGrave photo volunteer Laural N. D. at the request of Miriam Robbins Midkiff. Digital photograph in the possession of Miriam Robbins Midkiff, Spokane, Washington. 2008.

Wordless Wednesday: Mary Emeline (WILBOURN) MIDKIFF

Source: Midkiff, Mary Emeline Wilbourn. Photograph. Taken before Sep 1919. Reproduction of original photograph in the possession of Miriam Robbins Midkiff, Spokane, Washington. 2008.

Scanfest and Spring Break Scan-a-thon are Coming!

Hear ye! Hear ye! A couple of announcements to my readers regarding March's Scanfest event and the all new Spring Break Scan-a-thon!

First off: March's Scanfest will be held on Sunday, March 30th, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, PDT.

Secondly, I will be on Spring Break from Saturday, March 29th through Sunday, April 6th. Several of you have expressed a desire to join me for Scanfest, but due to church or family activities, Sunday afternoon has not been a good time for you. I wanted to let you know that I plan to set aside Tuesday and Thursday afternoon (evening for you back east) of that week from 3:00 - 6:00 PM, PDT to do some extra scanning...AND, I also plan to do as much scanning during the week as my family will allow me, and promise to be on Windows Live Messenger whenever I am doing so in order for other Scanfesters to drop on in to join me for some scanning and chatting fun!

SO, be sure to set aside the following times to join me and the other Scanfesters:

Sunday, March 30th, 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM, PDT
Tuesday, April 1, 3:00 - 6:00 PM, PDT
Thursday, April 3, 3:00 - 6:00 PM, PDT

And be looking for me whenever you get on the Internet at any time between Saturday, March 29th and Sunday, April 6th to "catch me if you can" and chat with me while I scan (hopefully, you'll be scanning, too!).

For those of you who have never heard of Scanfest, it is a time that those of us who are wanting to preserve our family documents, photos, and other scanable items choose to meet online via Windows Live Messenger. We usually meet the last Sunday of each month, except in November and December, due to the holiday season. Here's how you can join us:

To join us, you'll need a Hotmail or Gmail account, and Windows Live Messenger downloaded to your computer (Mac users go here to download Microsoft Messenger for Mac). Although WLM states that it is compatible with Yahoo! e-mail accounts, we have had difficulty adding Yahoo! users to our chat conversation. If you don't have a Hotmail or Gmail account, it's very easy (and free) to set one up. Just go to the links in the first sentence of this paragraph. Once you have gotten set up, send me an e-mail (my address is found on this page) and I'll add you to our chat list. You'll receive an invitation message from me at my Hotmail address, which will be sent to the e-mail account that you've set up for Messenger (Hotmail or Gmail), and then you will need to verify that I can add you as a contact.

The second thing you need to do to prepare for scanning is go to Sally's website here and sign up for her free e-mail newsletter. This will then allow you to download her helpful information called 8 Blunders People Make When They Scan Photographs...and How You Can Avoid Them All. Then you will know how to set your scanner correctly to enable you to scan your items without damaging the originals or compromising the digital images you create.

I hope you can join us!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all my readers!

Source: The Westaby-Lerfald Postcard Collection. Privately held by Troy Midkiff, Vancouver, Washington.

The 5th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy Is Posted

Jessica at Jessica's Genejournal has just posted the 5th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. The topic is Traditional Dishes, and there were four submissions. Be sure to have a napkin handy, because these tasty posts are sure to make you drool! My own submission was Alaskan Russian Foods. I encourage you to take a gander over to Jessica's Genejournal and check out the articles!

The 6th Edition of this carnival will be a carousel edition, which means submitters get to choose their own topics. Submissions will be due April 27th, and entered here. I hope you'll join us!

West's Forty-Nine Uses For a Flutaphone

Since September 1, 2007, Bill West has been slowly compiling a list titled "49 Uses For a Flutaphone."

Tonight, he completed his task.

Congratulations, Bill!

To read all 49 uses, click here.

Alaskan Russian Foods

As many of my readers are aware, I was born and grew up in Alaska, living in five different communities. The "city" where I was born was Kodiak, on Kodiak Island, where the Russian influence can still be felt in the culture, religious practices, and surnames of the Native Alaskans living there. While Kodiak is near the top of the Aleutian chain of islands creating the Southwest panhandle of the state, the Southeast panhandle--where I spent most of my childhood--also felt Russia's hand and can be seen in the architecture of the old Russian Orthodox churches in Sitka (the capital under Russia) and Juneau (the current state capital). However, the Native Alaskans of the Southeast panhandle were more religiously influenced by the Presbyterian, Catholic, Lutheran, and Salvation Army churches.

Russian Church, Kodiak, Alaska


St. Michael's Cathedral, Sitka, Alaska

(For more views of beautiful Russian Orthodox churches
in Alaska--onion domes and all--click here.)

Two wonderful Russian dishes I remember eating as a child were pirok and kulich. Pirok is a fish pie that my mother would make as a simple, filling main dish, using canned or fresh Alaskan salmon. It is especially tasty topped with a tomato-based cocktail sauce, such as what you would eat with shrimp. Kulich is also known as Russian Easter bread, and is a delicious treat, made sweet from candied fruit and heavy with many eggs (made of course, to celebrate the end of Lent and self-denial). Dad was usually the one who made kulich, and our favorite way to eat it was lightly toasted with lots of butter! In fact, just thinking about it makes me want to haul out my breadmaker and make a loaf this weekend to eat with Easter breakfast!

I believe the following recipe is from Alaskan Cookbook for Homesteader or Gourmet by Bess Cleveland; Berkeley, California: Howell-North Books, 1960.

PIROK

Pastry for double-crust pie
2 c. cooked rice
1 onion
3 hard-boiled eggs
1 can salmon or 1 lb. fresh salmon, deboned
salt and pepper to taste

Line pie with pastry. When steaming rice, add 1 chopped onion. When done, mix with canned salmon, including juice. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Put 1/2 rice and fish misture in unbaked pie shell. Press quartered hard-boiled eggs into mixture, top off balance of rice and fish. Cover with piecrust, seal edges well and cut steam vents. Bake 1/2 hour (1 hour for fresh salmon) or until well browned. [A temperature is not given; I cook mine at about 425° F.] This is a dish brought to Alaska by the early Russian colonists, and was first made with salt salmon.

Traditionally, the kulich dough was braided, then baked. However, when Dad made this, he would bake it just as he and Mom did our sourdough-raisin bread: in greased coffee cans, creating a nice round load, easily sliced and able to fit into a standard toaster. While the sourdough-raisin bread, which was our everyday bread, was made in two-pound coffee cans, the kulich, more of a dessert than a sandwich bread, was usually baked in one-pound cans. I am adapting my Mr. Coffee bread-maker's recipe for a one-pound dried-mixed fruit bread, which yields a similar result.

KULICH

1 egg plus enough water to equal 1 c.
2 c. + 1 T. bread flour
1/2 t. salt
2 T. honey
1 T. dry milk
1/2 c. bran cereal
1/2 c. chopped candied mixed fruit
1/2 c. raisins
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. yeast

Place ingredients into your breadmaker according to its suggested guidelines and use the Whole-Loaf (as opposed to Dough) Sweet Bake setting (setting 8 on Mr. Coffee breadmaker). Yield: 1 one-pound loaf.

Jennie James VALK

Source: Valk, Jennie James. Photograph. C. 1915. Original photograph in the possession of Miriam Robbins Midkiff, Spokane, Washington. 2008.

This lovely lady is Jennie James VALK, a younger sister of my maternal great-grandfather, William James VALK. They and their youngest sister Geertje James "Gertrude" VALK were three of eight children of Tjamme Wiegers VALK and Berber J. DeJONG that survived childhood.

Jennie was born 29 December 1888 in Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan and, except for a few years spent in Holland, Ottawa County as a small child, lived most of her life in the Grand Rapids area. She attended school in Walker Township, now incorporated into the west part of the city, and as a young woman worked with Gertrude in a cigar factory. Another young woman who worked there, Agnes TUINSTRA, eventually married their brother William.

This photo may have been taken in 1915 to commemorate Jennie's engagement to Gerritt John HEIDEMA, whom she married on July 16th in Grand Rapids. An infant son, James John, was born around 1917, but died young. Gerritt succumbed to the Spanish Influenza on 21 December 1918; on 10 June 1919, Jennie gave birth to their son, Gerritt, Jr. In 1925, she remarried, to John S. VANDERWAL, and exactly a week before their first anniversary, their son John, Jr. was born.

Jennie's father passed away in 1922. When her mother died in 1934, she was the executrix of her parents' estate. Because of this, the Valk family documents have been carefully preserved in the hands of her descendants. Her grandson made contact with me many years ago, and generously shared copies of family documents, records, and photos as we traced our family tree together. This photograph was given to me by my cousin as a gift, and is something I will treasure as long as I live. Not only is it a family memento from one cousin to another, it is a fascinating portrait of a lovely lady. If you look closely, you can see that she is wearing glasses, and that in itself is a remarkable thing. Women of this era rarely wore spectacles for a "photo shoot." This photograph is considered rare just for that reason, and makes it all the more endearing to me!

Strange Searches

Recently, I was enjoying reading a favorite non-genealogy blog, Because I Said So. In her latest post, Dawn lists the search terms people use to find her blog (it's hilarious!). So in that vein, I decided to see how users of the Internet stumble upon my little corner of the web. Here are the most amusing--and weird--search terms:

an insulting nickname for a slaveowner
And my blog has the answer to this?

funeral acts of kindness
While I understand how the results of this search could lead to my blog, I am wondering why you would wait until the funeral...

i'm only hauling one thing trace adkins
...and that would be?

insulting nickname for slaveowner is french dix
Apparently someone found the answer. Huh.

my grandpa's giddy stories
As opposed to his serious ones...

sex stories father-in-law daughter-in-law
Yikes! No comment.

things i didnt know about cerebral palsy
I hope my blog has informed you of these.

twp priests spells against moses
OK. I think "twp" is a typo of "two" and not meant to be the abbreviation of township. Are you looking for two priests to spell down against Moses, or to cast spells against him? Weird.

websites i'm addicted to
Well, this is good, I think!

why should my ancestors be proud
Well, if you don't know, you can bet that I don't!

www ancest reading material
Hopefully searching for ancestors and not incest...yuck.

your ancest jokes
See above.

your riches taught me poverty by dickinson wikipedia
Starting Monday, a new series of blog posts. Stay tuned!