This is one of my favorite photos. My granddaughter, Luna meets Santa for the first time. Not yet 1-yrs-old she is fascinated by this strange person.

#Santa and me picture, #52 Ancestors Favorite Picture, #Christmas pictures

 

Namesake

 

Some of my ancestors were named for other family members. I wrote of some of these in another blog post “Same Name”. But there were some others I didn’t mention. My mother and here sisters first names were from characters in a book my grandmother read. They were Yvonne, Bonalyn, Millicent and Constance. I wish I knew the title of the book. My mother’s middle name was my grandmother’s sister’s middle name, Arlene. The only problem was the doctor misspelled it as Arline. When I was born I was given my mother’s name reversed, Arlene Millicent. As for my grandmother, her name was Hazel, and she said she’d come back and haunt anyone who named their child Hazel. He sister’s first name was Mabel. I don’t know if those names were unattractive in the 1890s, but they would not have been choices my mom and her sisters would have chosen in the mid twentieth century.

My grandfather, Edward Wiedrich may have had a middle name. I’ve seen some evidence that his middle name was McKinley. Was he named for the president? My paternal aunt, Carolyn Moore’s middle name was Grover and I wonder if she was named for Grover Cleveland.

My son, Sean was named for John Wayne’s character in the movie “The Quiet Man”. It was a favorite movie of both my husband and me. We had decided that if we had a girl next we would name her Mary Kate after Maureen O’Hara’s character in the same movie. Mary Kate turned out to be a boy and so he was named for the commander of the Alamo, William Travis. Travis’ middle name is Earl after my father.

#Namesake, #52 Ancestors, #Hazel Bristol, #Edward Wiedrich, #Caroline Moore, #Sean Baker, #Travis Baker

Girl Scouts

 

I was a member of the Girl Scouts for about 18 years. I began as a Brownie in second grade which was the youngest you could join in the 1950s. My troop was #430 and Mrs. Davidson and Mrs. Moen were the leaders. The meetings were after school in the basement lunchroom of Highland Park School in Gloucester City, NJ. We wore our brown uniforms to school. One of the things I remember doing was making butter in a screw top jar. It was a revelation to learn where butter came from. We also cooked out one day in the school yard. We made sit-upons. Hopefully yours was waterproof since you might be sitting on wet ground. In those days you were a Brownie from grades 2 through 4.  Then in a crossing over ceremony you became an Intermediate Scout. The crossing ceremony included literally crossing a small little bridge that signified growing up and now being a Girl Scout instead of a Brownie Scout.

Intermediate Scouts was from grades 5 through 8. My troop was #298 and we met in the basement of the Lutheran Church on 4^th St. in Gloucester City, NJ. My leaders were Mrs. Kimmey and Mrs. Williamson. We worked on badges although I never earned many. One of our Halloween parties was especially fun. The lights were dimmed, and opaque bags were passed around for us to feel what was in them. A story went with it. One bag was supposed to be eyeballs. Another was intestines. Then we would try and guess what they were without looking. Eyeballs were peeled grapes and intestines were cooked spaghetti. I can’t remember what other things were in the bags. On Girl Scout Sunday we attended the Lutheran church since they were our sponsors. My mom didn’t let me go on the on the camping trip when I was in 5^th grade. She was afraid I would get hurt or lost or something. In 6^th grade though I was allowed to go camping. We had to prepare by planning meals, going shopping and compiling a list of the things we should take. We camped at Camp Inawendiwin in Burlington County. At that time there was just three campsites with cold water and outhouses. We had a great time. We sneaked into the leaders’ tent and took one of their bras. We may have taken one of the 8^th grade girls’ too. Then we ran them up the flagpole so that in the mornings when everyone got up they saw the bras.

The next year the Girl Scouts reorganized, and Brownies were grades 2 and 3 and Intermediates  was dropped. Grades 4 to 6 became Juniors, grades 7 to 9 Cadettes and grades 10 to 12 Seniors. So, I was a Cadette. Mrs. Jean Hubbs McLaughlin and Mrs. Lois Reader were the leaders. We met in the Church of God basement. We had some trips. One was to NYC to see the sights including Radio City Music Hall. Another time we went to the Camden County Music Fair to see West Side Story. We went camping each year. The best scout in our troop was Miki Baile. She had the most badges and became a First-Class Scout. She also had an award for saving someone from drowning. Four of us went to a Camporee at Inawendiwin. I completed training to be a camp counselor and was a councilor that summer at Inawendiwin. In tenth grade I was supposed to be a Senior Scout but there was no troop in Gloucester City. Another girl, Cathy Moss and I went to a troop in Camden. The girls in that troop were kind of rough. In 1966 not many girls had tattoos but several of the girls in that troop did. Also, they smoked in the meeting. Cathy and I decided we were not interested in joining that troop.

In tenth and eleventh grades I helped with my mom’s Junior troop and also spent almost every weekend in the spring helping troops on camping trips. In twelfth grade I became an assistant leader of a Junior troop. Carol Henry was the leader. Then I became the leader of a Cadette troop at the Lutheran church. It was hard because I had no assistant leader. I did that for a few years and then when I was a teacher several of my scouts were in my class. I had allowed them to call me Arlene at scouts but when they were put in my class at school they had to call me Miss Moore. Of course, they pushed the envelope and called me Arlene at school. Eventually I gave up being a leader.

Girl Scouts was a great program for me. It gave me confidence and led me down the path to maturation.

#Girl Scouts, #Gloucester City, NJ

 

Family Legend: Murder of Sarah Norton

 

My great grandmother, Sarah Wiedrich would tell the story of her grandmother, Sarah Norton who was murdered. She was elderly and was raped and murdered by a local farm hand named Thomas Quackenbush. It was the winter of 1875 in western NY State. She managed to crawl to a nearby farmhouse but died. The murderer was one of a handful of criminals hung in Genesee County. When we went to visit a local museum, the director asked my great grandmother who was in her 90s by this time if she wanted to hold the rope used to hang him. She declined. Years later on a trip to that local I drove by the museum and there was a large banner across the front of the building for a display of the hangings. The admission ticket as a reproduction of the ticket to view the hanging of Thomas Quackenbush who murdered my 3^rd great grandmother. They had the scaffold and rope as part of the display.

#Sarah Norton, #Thomas Burton Quackenbush, #Murder, #Indian Falls, NY, #Hangings, Genesee, NY

Hazel Wiedrich and Funny One-Legged Stories

 

Yesterday I was thinking of my grandmother and when she had her gall bladder removed. I only know the story from her telling. In the 1950’s or so she went to the hospital and had an emergency gall bladder operation. Since it was so long ago and as it was an emergency, she had the large incision that wrapped around the lower chest. Also, in those days it wasn’t unusual to have a week’s stay in the hospital. The doctor, Dr. Azmidia, came to check on her every day and at last he told her she could go home the next day. She said, “Doctor, can I us crutches?” He said, “I operated on your stomach. Why would you need crutches?” To this she said, “If I don’t it would be the first time in almost 40 years. I only have one leg.” Dr. Azmidia threw back the sheets and said, “Oh my God, you only have one leg.” This story has given my family quite a few laughs besides a lesson that the doctor only looks at what his job is.

Another funny story about my grandmother’s one-leggedness happened in the 1960’s while the family was traveling the alligator highway in south Florida. My grandfather was driving the old family station wagon. Also in the car were my grandmother, my cousin Pat and her daughter Cindy, my Aunt Yvonne and an old family friend, Mrs. Thorpe. There were no speed limits then or at least not ones that were enforced, so my grandfather was driving like an Indie driver. He strayed to the edge of the road, lost control and crashed. Pat broke her back; Mrs. Thorpe broke her hip and was partially scalped. My grandmother was partially scalped and was thrown from the front seat to the back and was wedged between the seat and the back of the front seat. Having a scalp wound she was covered in blood. People stopped to help. When they pulled my grandmother out they gasped and said she lost her leg, and that people should look for it. Although she was in shock she still knew what they were saying and was laughing because she had that leg amputated almost fifty years before.

My grandmother had such a good attitude and never considered herself handicapped. It rarely stopped her from doing anything and I’m glad she could have a good laugh about those situations.

#Hazel Wiedrich, #Amputation

Traugott Vogel

 

Air Force Tech School and Emanuel Vogel

Today I shared a story with my church about a young man I met while attending “Aircraft Maintenance School” at Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois. The young man’s name was Emanuel Vogel, and he was born in Germany. We were in the same Sunday School class and were ushers in church. He told me about his family and that his father, Traugottt Vogel, had written a book called Under the SS Shadow. Traugott was in the Hitler Youth Corp. His father was a SS officer. When Germany got desperate they sent Youth Corp teens into battle during the Battle of the Bulge. Traugott who was only about 14-yrs-old was scared and ran away to find his father. When he did he found the father had been killed by resistant fighters. No one would help him bury him and the priest would not allow the burial to me in the graveyard. Only the town drunk would help him bury his father outside the graveyard. Eventually Traugott got a job on a US Army base. Eventually he was able to accept the Americans. He attended a Billy Graham crusade and gave his life to God, eventually becoming a minister of churches in Germany, Texas, Arizona and California.

#Chanute AFB, #Emanuel Vogel, #Traugott Vogel, #Under the SS Shadow, #Arlene Moore, #Arlene Baker

Favorite Discovery

 

Favorite Discovery

My favorite discovery as I’ve researched my family tree is finding Andrew AJ Moore. It began with my search for my Moore great grandfather. The only thing I knew was that the family had come from New Egypt, NJ before settling in Camden, NJ. I wasn’t sure of his name although my h brother and father both were named Charles Shoemaker Moore. When my brother was born my aunt, the family matriarch wanted him to have that name. My parents settled on a different name. But the fact that the name meant so much in the family I decided to search for a great grandfather with that name. Also, he would have been the right age to have served in the Civil War. I went to the NJ Archives to search. Surprisingly my guesses were correct, and I found him easily. Census records for New Egypt led me to find the names of his parents and siblings. From there I went to the Plumsted, NJ clerk. New Egypt is within Plumsted. I asked if they had any information on Charles S Moore or his father John Moore. It was tax time and the clerk said they didn’t have time right now and took my information and phone number. About six weeks later they called and said someone else was asking for the same information. If I gave permission they would give my name and phone number to those people.

Within in a few days I received a call from Jack and Fran Born. Fran was also a great granddaughter of Charles Moore. We talked on the phone and they invited me to visit them in Absecon, NJ. They were such nice people, and we had a pleasant and productive visit. They had Charles’ original Civil War discharge paper. As we talked the said they family stories said someone supposedly was in the 7^th Calvary. They also heard someone participated in the Greenwich, NJ tea party before the Revolutionary Way (so far I’ve found no evidence of that).

I found a book about the 7^th Calvary and the men who served in that regiment. And there was Andrew AJ Moore who had also been in the census in the John Moore family. About this time there was a program on TV about the fire at Little Big Horn battlefield. Historians and scientists were able to study the battlefield forensically as the grass had been burned away revealing spent shells. They described the progression of the battle and how individual troopers and Native Americans moved by matching the spent shells. One of the people was Dr. Wiley who was a professor at a California college. I took a chance and emailed him. His first reply was the next morning and he said that he was in the Middle East on an archaeological dig and didn’t have his notes on the Little Big Horn study. But then he emailed again a few hours later with information. He studied the medical records of the troopers. He found that Andrew had malaria while the 7^th was in South Carolina but had only been treated once. He also found records that Andrew had been shot in the kidneys during the battle and that was his cause of death.

Since I’ve found books that told of Andrew’s movements and death by name. Later I was able to visit the battlefield. A park ranger looked up information the Andrew was buried on the riffle line by his buddies during the battle and a dead horse was put on top of his grave. Because of this his body was never recovered and buried in the mass grave. It was a moving experience for me to stand on that rifle line and know I’ve been the only family visit that grave and remember him.

#Andrew Moore, #52 Ancestors, #Favorite Discovery, #7^th Calvary, #Little Big Horn, #Charles S. Moore