Sentimental Sunday: Genealogy is a Rocky Road

Rocky Road Clusters, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

In two weeks, I will be attending the first New England Geneabloggers Bash in Londonderry, New Hampshire at the home of Heather Wilkinson Rojo and her charming husband Vincent.

We were asked to bring food that means something to our family. I was already planning to bake a special cake but when the list of those coming to the events grew longer, Russ Worthington suggested that we might need two desserts. He's planning to eat one all by himself.

I was talking this over with my daughter and because she likes to have company over, she said I should make my mother's Rocky Road Clusters. That when I remembered giving her a recipe box with family recipes from both sides of our family. She told me that she makes them all the time and there are never any leftover when the company leaves.

I looked in my recipe book and I didn't have a copy of the recipe in it. She brought it over and I photocopied it to remind me to buy the ingredients. Looking at the recipe reminded me that, yes, my mother used to make these (and without the walnuts). I was feeling very sentimental.

When I assembled the items seen here in this photo, it dawned on me that the path that we take in our genealogy research is often a Rocky Road. I have had one of those weeks.

Just because you may not be going to the Bash doesn't mean you can't have the food! These are easy to make. I love the use of the microwave to make this a summer (no heat) dessert to cook.

Enjoy!

Sentimental Sunday: Frosting!

Frosting!, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

One of the great pleasures of life is frosting. Sometimes, I think it would be a good idea to spend a whole day thinking about what we like to do and why we like doing that. Today is one of those days.

I like to take photos. People, scenery, beach, and of course, gravestones.

You can't eat frosting all of the time. You can't blog all of the time. You can't research all of the time. You can't vacation all of the time.

You can enjoy life some of the time. Pass the frosting, please!

Sentimental Sunday: Houses We Loved

Houses We Loved a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

I'm feeling sentimental about houses as we have an offer to sell the house we lived in for 39 years. I decided it might be nice to reprint a few photos of the house there and give them to the new owners. I did this when I sold my parent's home in 2002 and the young couple loved getting them in the mail. It felt weird writing someone elses name with my parent's street address.

As usual, I got carried away and sorted through my parent's and grandparent's photos and eventually my own albums to make sure I has digital copies or scans of my favorite photos of places we lived. I really needed ones without people in them but I couldn't help but put in the one of myself and my playhouse in the collage.

I created this collage for a frame that I have bought to go over my corner desk/charging station in our living room. It is 8 x10 and looks like it is floating in the corner. [Frame purchase information]

It is interesting how the houses we live in change over the years. I discovered a photo of my grandparent's house with another person's name on it. Sure, enough, he was the man who lived in the house before my grandparents purchased the house. I now could find the house in earlier city directories. I found a tree that has his name it in and let them a message. No response so far.

He was a photographer. No wonder those photos are exceptional. I'll blog about that later when I have done more research.

Sentimental Sunday: Coffee Jello

Coffee Jello
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Yesterday, hubby and I went to the Rhode Island Genealogical Society day-long meeting held in North Kingstown. It took us almost 90 minutes from door to door.

I missed my home state and my parents and grandparents while traveling down Rt. 95. I looked at the exit we always took to visit my parents and have to deal with the heartache for days afterward.

When my daughter was little, we called that the "almost there" location. I said out loud, "Almost there!" for sentimental reasons.

Since everyone is dieting in January, I decided to make a New England favorite, Coffee Jello. Coffee is very big in Rhode Island. If you don't drink coffee, don't go there.

I have two recipes. One given to me by a friend who was a professional cook. This makes coffee jello in a large quantity. It is on the yellowed piece of paper under the packet of gelatin.

I have made a modern, lazy person's version.

Midge's Rhode Island Coffee Jello
2 cups black hot coffee (Dunkin Donuts medium size is perfect)
1 packet Knox unflavored gelatin
1 tsp sugar or Splenda

Sprinkle gelatin in with a small amount of water into a large Pyrex measuring cup. This is called soaking the gelatin. (A small amount of water is about 1/16 of a cup) Let this gelatin/water mix sit for several minutes. Add the hot coffee and stir. Add the sugar or Splenda and stir again.

Microwave 2 minutes 30 seconds. Pour into small dishes and refrigerate until firm.

Variations: you can use flavored coffee like French Vanilla or Hazelnut. Today, I used original blend Dunkin Donuts and a 1/4 tsp cinnamon extract. I have used vanilla, french vanilla, coconut, and peppermint extract and they are great too.

Top with cool whip and eat.

Sentimental Sunday: Ruth and Her Sons

Ruth and Her Sons
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Today, we will travel to Rhode Island to the memorial service for my mother-in-law.[Ruth C. Frazel) Her service will be held in the church where my husband and I married. It is one of the oldest churches in Rhode Island. I don't remember it well. My wedding service was 22 minutes almost 38 years ago. The pews are hard wood and it is cold in there.

This photo is of her with her three boys. My husband is the middle child. He is being obedient, standing still next to his mother and baby brother, posing for the camera.

This photo says a lot about his mom and his brothers. It is the only "old" photo I can find will the brothers and their mother. Did you notice the imperfection in the lower left of the picture? Is it a reflection on something in front that we can't see?

Reflecting on the life of my mother-in-law today. I liked her. She was a kind and loving mother.

Here is a recent photo taken with two of her sons.

Sentimental Sunday: Little House in the Woods

House in Bridgewater
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Sentimental Sunday: Little House in the Woods

This is the last Sentimental Sunday post I can write for a while. We are moving soon and I will be to busy and tired to blog much . But, here's a photo that I will be sentimental about very soon.

Since this photo was taken, we have had to take down many trees in our yard. They kept falling over onto our roof. I think that is part of why I no longer wish to live here.

My husband loves his yard but it is time to give that up and move to somewhere we can handle as we age.

See, I am sentimental already.....

Sentimental Sunday: Dorothy and the Foliage

Springtime in the Yard
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

This slide, found in my grandparents collection, shows my young mother picking flowers from the trees. I wish it was dated but she must be in her early thirties as this is what color her hair was when I was born.

My grandparents employed a team of gardeners to keep the yard looking this lovely. I used to watch them work from the front window in the living room until my grandmother would catch me. They always knelt in a circle and prayed before they began. No one every explained that.

I thought that it must be a thanks for their talent with nature. For some reason, it annoyed my grandmother to see them praying. I think she was worried what the neighbors would think.

At my grandmother's graveside service, I though of it but still didn't dare ask my mother. Some things are always a mystery and maybe left up to God to explain. After all, it IS Sentimental Sunday.

Sentimental Sunday: Bonnet Shores Beach Club

PICT0004
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Sentimental Sunday: Bonnet Shores Beach Club

A reader kindly remarked that my scans of my grandparents's slides were colorful and clear that I must have done something special to them. This scan will show you that I did not. This scan has been enhanced as much as I can but the combination of age, glare and out of focus photo taking makes this a not so good family treasure.

Of course, I am clearly an adorable baby.

Bonnet Shores Beach Club is shown in the background. It still stands and is now a condo community in southern Rhode Island. It even has a history page.  It was a wonderful place to spend a summer childhood. My mother and grandmother were not employed full time so we went to the cabana frequently. When someone says summer, this is what I think of. I am so sentimental.
 

Sentimental Sunday: Ice Cream and Romance

Peter Bros.
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Advertisement from Westerly, RI City Directory, 1915, p. 275

Last Sunday, I blogged about my maternal grandmother meeting my grandfather at the place she worked in Westerly after graduating from high school in 1912. A friend, who works in the genealogy room of the Westerly Public Library tells that when the renovations are complete she will be able to look her up in the yearbooks stored there!

As my handwritten notes say that  she worked at a place called Peters, I checked the 1914 and 1915 Westerly City Directories and easily found the same ad in both years. I have cropped it to show here as it is less than 10% of the page of city directory stored at Ancestry.com. I noted that Ancestry.com now allows these pages to be attached to your family tree and to be saved to your hard drive. This was not the case a couple years ago.

I checked the 1914 city directory and  discovered that the shop was owned by Albert L. and Brainard J. Peters and they were indeed brothers. [1914, p. 127]. This street still exists as many of the streets in New England do that are named Main St. It would be possible to stand in that spot today.

 My grandfather, Evans Stewart, was born in North Stonington, CT which is not too many miles from Westerly. His father, Charles, was an accountant when he was young and started his own business called the Westerly Laundry. Those ads in the Westerly City directory are terrific. I can track by each year the changes in the names and locations. My grandfather, took part of the business and moved it from Westerly to the Cranston-Providence line where my father worked for him. I guess I have soap bubbles in my blood, too!

Evans and Josephine married in Westerly, RI on 27 Jan 1914 with his brother, Dudley W. Stewart and her sister Dorothy Palmer Barber in attendance. It was not a big deal. They were married by the minister in the parsonage on a Thursday. The next notes say my mother was born on 7 January 1916 in the cottage hospital on Highland Ave. in Westerly.

Without these notes, I would only have what it says on the official marriage and birth certificates and not be able to visualize the events. I know that Evans and Josephine lost a baby before my mother. My mother, who was in the room when I asked these questions, didn't know that and didn't know exactly where she was born.

The city directories have allowed me to track my grandparents in all the places they lived. It is a wonderful resource! Excuse me now, I must go have a dish of ice cream and put up my feet!

Sentimental Sunday: Grandpa's Hands

DSC03940
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

While everyone was running around getting set up for our grandson's first birthday party, I spied a "photo-op" of Anthony standing in front of the sliders to the deck where everyone else was (except me).

I watched while a "Sentimental Sunday" memory was in the making and was glad that I was quick enough to take two photos before they noticed me.

Cute, huh?

Sentimental Sunday: The Glider

The Glider
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

This glider overwintered on the back porch of my grandparent's house. As a ritual, it was moved from there to the back yard near this stone fireplace. I can't remember this clearly but I do remember that when you sat down on it, it swung. I was scared of it when it didn't have the summer cushions on it.

My mother, shown here, loved to sun her legs. If it was glamorous, my mother loved it. I smiled when I saw this slide. It is so like her to pose for the camera.

This blog theme Sentimental Sunday gives purpose to the time it takes to scan these slides.

Sentimental Sunday: Dining Room

Dining Room
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

This is a rather dark shot of the right hand side of the dining room at my grandparent's house. The chair you can see is the only part I have left. It is in my bedroom and I sit on it every morning to put on my shoes.

The windows were low and grandpa, I called him "Bop", and I used to sit and watch the birds at the feeder and the birdbath. My first book, given to me on my second birthday and that I still have was a Audubon Bird Guide. I think my grandfather was pleased to have a granddaughter who could sit and absorb information and never complain. I liked what he liked.

For the coming months, I will be writing on Sundays about my adventures with my grandparents. Being an only grandchild is a marvelous thing.

Sentimental Sunday: Pansies

PICT0079
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

With this project of scanning the slides that were in my family, I am feeling a bit homesick for my parent's and grandparent's houses.

This photo, unlike many of the others in the box, I remember being taken. My grandparent's had a beautiful yard with a lot of flowers. The hydrangeas along the driveway were amazingly huge and I never could get close to them. I swear that the bumblebees were the size of small rodents.

But, the cute pansies around the tree near my swing set were quite special. My grandmother planted them early before it got warm. I always thought they looked like smiling faces.

Sentimental Sunday: In the Sun Room

In the Sun Room
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

My maternal grandparents lived in a beautiful English Tudor home on the edge of Roger Williams Park in Rhode Island.

This is a photo of me riding on this toy in the sun porch on the front of the house. I have no idea why my mother cut my bangs so high up on my forehead!

I loved the way the sun streamed in the glass windows. I miss my grandparents even more now that I am a grandparent.

Sentimental Sunday

Short Arms
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Growing up in the last few years of the 1940s and the 1950s means that I listened to Sentimental Journey on the radio in my parent's living room. I didn't know it was co-written by the famous Les Brown!

This is a sentimental photo of my Dad and me doing the "hands across the table" I certainly have short arms.

Today, I went through the Christmas cards I received this year and enjoyed the notes that people write on them. One lady was a neighbor of my parents. She is 95 this week! I sent her a birthday card as she was a January baby like my mother.

Sentimental Journey
"Gonna take a Sentimental Journey,
Gonna set my heart at ease.
Gonna make a Sentimental Journey,
to renew old memories..."

Copyright 1944 by Morley Music Co., Inc.
31 West 34th Street, N.y., N.Y. 10019
Copyright renewed 1971. All Rights Reserved.