Grammy's Genealogy

Dec 31, 2013

New Year's Resolutions

1. Find James Parks, my great great grandfather.
2. Finish my heritage scrapbook albums.
3. Finish Aunt Bonnie's four albums and get them copied and shipped.

I'll be busy!!

Dec 18, 2013

Dec 16, 2013

I’ve had a teeny breakthrough in my James Parks research! A new newspaper has come online in Indiana – a Farmland paper, which is spot on. Unfortunately, so far the paper’s articles start in 1888, long past James’ lifetime and death.

However I found this article which got my heartbeat going:

1902 May 23, Farmland Enterprise, P5, Farmland, Indiana

Rev. W. F. Mullen and wife (the wife is Lydia Parks, my great grandfather’s sister) were called to Nottingham, Monday, to attend the funeral of the latter’s sister, Mrs. Martha Harshman, (this would actually be a half sister) who died Sunday, after an illness of fourteen weeks from dropsy. The deceased lady was about seventy years of age and had many friends living in this vicinity. Her maiden name was Parks, and when a young woman she taught school at Cedar and the Lindsey schoolhouse, south of Neff.

This Martha Harshman would be a daughter of my elusive great great grandfather, James Parks, by his first wife. [I am descended from his second wife.] A couple trees on Ancestry give the name of James' first wife as Susannah Johnson. Since Martha named a couple boys with the middle name of Johnson, I'm inclined to believe that information. Will 2014 be my lucky year?

Dec 15, 2013

2013 Christmas Card

Only one Christmas card hand made this year. It's for friends in Connecticut who hang our cards on their tree. This one features Graphic45 papers.

Dec 12, 2013

DRIP!!!

WOOHOO!! 5:00 p.m. laundry room pipes have begun to thaw on the hot setting. Cold runs fine; Hot will take a little more thawing. There may be clean clothes in this house next weekend after all!!

Dec 11, 2013

The Desert

New definition of "desert."

Dec 10, 2013

More Frozen Pipes

Another lesson learned . . . shut off landscaping water when it's this cold. At 5:00 a.m. Bill discovered water running down the street from our landscaping water box, even though it had been covered with a heavily-insulated fake rock. He nearly froze his hands getting the valve shut off. And the laundry room pipes remain frozen tight. Our space heater doesn't seem to work from inside, and there is no thaw in sight in the near future. Rats!

Anyway, our wonderful gardener/handyman came and fixed it all. Not only had the plastic pipe broken, but the brass fitting had also cracked! It's still only 20 degrees, so we won't be watering the plants soon!