Treasure Chest Thursday - Autograph Book

©2007 A.B. Deller, digital copy, original held by D. C. Deller

One of our family treasures is an Autograph book that belonged to "Ed & Ollie Ingram," also known as William Edward Ingram and Viola F. Taylor.  The entries in the book date from January 1882 to January 1887.  During this period, they moved from Jeffersonville, Illinois, to Hempstead, Texas, where three of their children were born.

This entry from Ed's sister Fannie seems to be a typical entry:

©2007 A.B. Deller, digital copy, original held by D. C. Deller

Dear Brother and Sister,

Let peace attend thy home retreat,

Far from the friends you love so well,

And linked virtue hold her seat,

In cot or mansion where you dwell.

May heavens richest choicest boon,

Entwine and crown your brow,

And make thy pathway bright as noon

To cheer the friends you are far from now.

Fannie Hill

Murphysboro, M'ch 8th, 1882 

Besides the beautiful handwriting and the interesting quotes and poems, it's been a source to confirm relationships.  Fannie's entry starts, "Dear Brother and Sister"; other entries through the book are signed, "Your Sister," and "Your Cousin."   And it's possible that, considering the number of Taylor family members who signed it, Viola was primary owner of the little book.  

In addition to all that, it also indicates locales that were important to their family.  Murphysboro, Illinois, Jeffersonville, Illinois, and Hempstead, Texas.  

It really is a great little treasure chest of information.

Sweet Easter Memories

Hats, purses and white gloves. Those were the days!

Happy Easter!

Share Your Memories

Hi All,

We [the Deller family] are in the process of putting together a family history book, and would like to ask family members and friends to send in stories and memories of anyone in the family. This basically means anyone related to Carolyn or Charles Deller, and specifically including Mabel and Rudy Valdez, Mona and Delores, as well as relatives of the Jones [Carolyn] family.

The hope is to put together something for the family which they can keep and share in the future, preserving memories that might otherwise be lost. The best things would be specific memories or stories.

[David speaking: “I remember asking Rudy when we were fishing whether the fish knew they were going to cut their heads off. ‘Yeah,’ he said with a grin, ‘they know.’ Or when I visited Granny Mabel in Tulsa as a kid, and she would always be sitting at the coffee table, smoking Salems, watching TV, and playing solitaire. That’s how I remember her. Those are weak examples, perhaps, but are just off the top of my head. Think of something you think would interest other family members, and is worth remembering.

Another example: When I was 4, my sister threw the bologna from a sandwich accidentally/on purpose into my hair. That’s silly, but might help someone remember Diane. Or seeing her dance.

Just whatever you remember fondly, and would like to share with others. There is no necessary limit, but the “editors” may have to alter some to get them in. But we can handle quite a bit, because whatever we cannot get into the “book” itself, we plan to put on a DVD/CD inside the back cover which could contain a lot of stuff. And I [David], characteristically, want to include as much as possible. We hope to put together something that others would be interested in having [we haven’t figured out the logistics yet].

Thank you in advance, and looking forward to your stories. We’re trying to get this done by August, so we are hoping to get all the material by June.

Thanks again for your contribution.

David

Pictures from top to bottom, left to right
1- Carolyn Jones & Charles F Deller at Tulsa Airport, OK abt 1995; 2- Mable Roark Deller Valdez holding Diane Deller, & Rudy Valdez holding Martha Deller, abt 1955; 3- Mable Roark with her father George Thomas Roark & brother Roy Roark, abt 1910; 4- Charles Franklin Deller & Carolyn Jones, 1950; 5- Mable Roark Deller Valdez

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy - Challenge #6

When I'm in the United States, the Tulsa City-County Library is my library. And I love it. Every single location, but especially the Genealogy Center at the corner of Harvard Avenue & 29th Street (for obvious reasons).

This weeks challenge is to find Online databases at your public library. And our library has them, sometimes even if you don't have a library card (I've heard the librarians giving out temporary "visitor" cards to those without regular cards). There are a few web based databases available for use: Edition, Heritage Quest, New England Ancestors, and Footnote; these are only available for use in the Genealogy Center branch of the library. Ancestry.com is available at all the library branches. There are also web links to the Broken Arrow Genealogical Society, FamilySearch.org, the Family History Center (the library's own web site), National Archives & Records, Oklahoma County Section Line Maps, Oklahoma Historical Society, Tulsa County page at US GenWeb, Social Security Death Index, State Archives Referral List, Tulsa Genealogical Society, Tulsa Historical Society, US GenWeb & Where to write for Vital Records. All that, AND, links to the websites for the Five Civilized Tribes.

All these last web links can be access from any computer, anywhere with internet access.

In the library is one computer with many different CD's installed on it. I don't have the list in front of me, but one I remember is the German Immigrants one (since I recently accessed it). They also have CD's of births

That's a bunch of information. Now if I could just access some extra hours to view it all...

In Praise of Hometown Libraries

Since I last wrote, I've had little time for any research at all, but yesterday I was able to take a long awaited road trip to a town the Deller's lived in for years, Coffeyville, Kansas.

More than once during my library visit, I said to the librarian, "I love this library!" She replied, "That's only because you've found something." And she was right, in a way. Even when I don't find information, I love being in libraries, but yesterday I found something because they are repository for the local newspaper, The Coffeyville Journal. And the local historical society had also taken the time to create at least a dozen books of obituaries from that newspaper, making it even easier to find obituaries.

Yes, I WAS a happy camper, to find obituaries and news articles that linked family members and introduced me to new family I didn't even know were there. I will be returning, there was just too much to absorb in one visit; and I'm looking forward to that just as much as I did to yesterday's visit

I know it'd difficult for many people to make trips like this (it's taken me more than six months to be in the right place at the right time), but if and when you get a chance to visit, don't pass it up. Those libraries hold gems for the mining.

New Years Resolution: Backup Data Regularly

It's been a full month since my last post (and a few of those I created in advance); it was a hectic time, but I'm back and ready for a few serious research trips. Yea! It's time for our annual holiday trip back to the good old U.S. of A. and I'm getting all my papers together and have updated RootsMagic for all the new information I hope to gather.

But before I actually fly out of here - most importantly - it's time for a backup. I have good intentions for monthly backups, but that doesn't always happen. But I get nervous when it's time for travel, worrying that something will happen to my computer en route; so I break out an old external hard drive, and back up both our systems, just in case. The hard drive is big enough that I can just copy one system to the other, but soon, that won't be possible; I'm gathering too many big files, so researching new backup systems is on my to do list.

I know my system isn't top of the line, and nothing is completely foolproof - but it is a backup of all the really important files - and I can recreate it (with time) if needed. I hope you have a system for backing up your files - as an old programmer told me once, "It's not a matter of IF you'll need a backup file, it's WHEN!"

Wordless Wednesday - Newspaper Article

This photo and the accompanying article appeared in the
Arkansas Gazette, dated Sunday, June 7, 1936.

This is the wedding picture of Philip H. Bernays and Kate P. Jones Bernays, who were married Wednesday, September 10, 1879 in Little Rock.

Mrs. Bernays, who will be 80 July 2, is the only daughter of Dudley E. Jones, who with Augustus H. Garland and Gordon N. Peay, was a member of the state Board of Supervisors at the Arkansas Constitutional Convention of 1874.

Mr. Jones, the father of Mrs. Bernays, came to Little Rock in 1865 and went into the general merchandising business with General Bussie in 1866. This business known as the Dudley E. Jones Machinery Company was located for 47 years on East Markham street, near Commerce Street. It was closed out shortly before 1913, at the death of Mr. Jones.

The late Philip Henry Bernays was proprietor of a men's furnishing goods store under the Capital Hotel from 1879 to 1884 and did his own buying in New York. The Little Rock Boating and Athletic Club, now the Little Rock Athletic Association and the oldest athletic club west of the Mississippi, was organized in 1873 in his store and he was its first vice president.

Mr. & Mrs. Bernays left Little Rock for Oakland, Cal., in 1890, taking their small daughter, Edith; sons, Dudley and Ralph, and infant daughter, Anna Louise. Two more children, Ralph Fearing and Dorothy Caroline, were born in Oakland. The children are all living in Southern California except Dudley E. Bernays, who is in Little Rock, working on the federal historical survey under the direction of Mrs. Bernie Babcock. Dudley Bernays was associated with D. Palmer Patterson and the late Dr. Charles Hillman Brough for a year in the Community Sunday Forum here, 1932-33.

Philip H. Bernays was killed in an automobile accident in 1926.

On their 25th wedding anniversary Mr. & Mrs. Bernays had a picture made in Los Angeles, posed similar to this wedding picture.

Mrs. Bernays makes her home in Los Angeles.