Another Dorothy in an Old Photo

Since I had such good luck with the last old photo identification "Ralph, Matt, Frank, Dorothy" I've found another picture, in another album of my great-grandparents Akins/Blanding.  This one has the writing "Dorothy and Cousin Harry" on it.  I looked for Dorothy Hatinger's first cousins on the Hatinger/Hattinger side via old census records. Although I did find one "Harry Hatinger" in Montcalm, Michigan, I'm not sure if the ages are right.  In addition, I don't even know if this is Dorothy Hatinger - it doesn't look quite like the older Dorothy Hatinger from the other photo.  I'll have to ponder this one a while longer!  Any suggestions about what year this might have been taken?

Dorothy & Cousin Harry

How I Identified the People in the Old Photo -Akins? Blanding? Squier? Ells?

 Mystery People from my Great-Grandparents Album 

Ralph ---  Matt  --  Frank  --  Dorothy

 I have had an old photograph, from my great-grandparents photo album, which has caused me many hours of fruitless searching and wondering.  It shows four people, of probably three generations, who I didn't know how they were connected to my family.  Since my Great-Grandmother, Edith Akins was from Minnesota and she married Frank Blanding in Minnesota, I figured it must have been taken when they went back to Minnesota in the 1920s or 1930s from their Los Angeles home (since 1905) for a visit.  Luckily there were four names listing the people:  "Ralph, Matt, Frank, Dorothy"  But no last name!  I looked all through my Akin, Squier, and Ells families, but couldn't put all the names into a logical family connection.


   I recently made a connection with a Squier cousin, Cheryl, through Member Connect with the Family Trees on Ancestry.com.  We have been exchanging copies of old photos with our e-mails so we can expand our Squier family portraits.  We've also exchanged many other tid bits of family information.  Anyway, I scanned off the entire photo album with many unknown photos during a recent online "Scanfest" that Miriam organizes, and had them all in a "album" folder so I wouldn't forget just where I had originally obtained the images.  I attached many I thought might be a Squier connection to Cheryl so she could have a look.   The next thing I did was look at that one photo with the tantalizing four names.  I though "I wish I could search my index in Family Tree Maker by first name (given name), and when I looked around at the index in version 2011, I saw that option!!!! 

      I don't know if it was available in earlier versions (probably) but for some reason I never thought to try that kind of search.  So I did search through all the Dorothys in my index, and lo and behold I found Dorothy Hatinger..  So I went to the Hatingers and found my Great-Grandfather's sister, Martha Blanding (Mattie), had married three times and her first husband was a Safford, with a son named Ralph, her third husband was a Hatinger and had a daughter, Dorothy!   The Frank in the photo was her third husband, Frank Hatinger (Hattinger).  What a relief to have those pictures go into the right places - with surnames - into my database.  I also copied the photo and cropped each person for their thumbnail photo in Family Tree Maker.   

   I'll have to write Cheryl and tell her that the photo with "Ralph, Matt, Frank, Dorothy"  weren't Squiers after all.  And since they all lived in Montcalm County, Michigan (where Frank Blanding was from originally), I now know it wasn't Minnesota in the background.

   I believe my great-grandfather took the photo, and in that case it was before 1926 when he died.  Also the photo was taken before 1930 because that is when Frank Hatinger died - as evidenced by the photo I took of his tombstone when I drove around Michigan in 2002 (see my other blog http://www.ancestortrackingdreamroadtrip.blogspot.com/

   I love genealogy!



My Great-Grandparents, Frank Blanding and wife Edith Akins

Costume Customs - Fern Blanding Bullock photos

The new "10th Edition Smile For The Camera - A Carnival of Images" is taking place, and this is my entry into the carnival to "Show us that picture that you found with your family collection or purchased that shows the costumes of the rich to the not so rich, from the civil war to the psychedelic sixties."

I love the photos of my Great Aunt Fern Edna Blanding. She was born 22 Sep 1889 in Skyberg, Goodhue Co., Minnesota, spent some early years in Madison Lake, Blue Earth Co., Minn, on to Sibley, Georgia by 1900, a couple years around Palm Beach, Florida where her father help construct one of the Breakers Hotels. Then on to Los Angeles, California by about 1905. These photos were taken in Los Angeles around 1910 I would imagine.

These photos are of Aunt Fern. The first in a big feathery hat for a glamor pose. Nicely dressed for the studio photo. The next photo shows her in a Salvation Army uniform. I don't know exactly how long or what she did in the Salvation Army, but last year while visiting a distant cousin in Lake Elsinor, CA, I saw another photo that showed Aunt Fern and her sister, Pearl, both in Salvation Army uniforms.

Aunt Fern never had any children of her own, but she did have four husbands! She was an excellent seamstress. When my mother was a little girl she made 352 dresses for her one year! I remember that nearly every dress I had growing up until about 7th grade, was made for me, by the loving hands of Aunt Fern. She was married in 1928 to Fred George Bullock at Whisky Slough, California. She died 13 April 1962 and is buried at Montecito Memorial Park, Colton, CA.

I think hats were a big part of looking nice in those early days. Another photo of Fern Blanding in a hat. These days a big hat like this is seldom seen, and perhaps only at the Kentucky Derby or on a member of the Red Hat Society. It must be a fun thing to wear such a big hat even though Fern was not cracking a hint of a smile in the photo to the left.

7 Aug 2008 - Arizona

On my birthday, August 7th, I am back at the computer and find the time to describe my last two weeks in Arizona with my family. It took a GMC pickup and a Dodge Aspen to transport us all to the Sprucedale Guest Ranch, near Alpine, in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. I drove the pickup and Emily (age 14) rode with me, acting as navigator and photographer. Daughter, Alisa, son-in-law Scott, and grandkids Heather and Braden were in the Aspen. We left Sierra Vista, AZ once we got ourselves packed, and headed north to the I-10 east. Around Willcox (home of Rex Allen, cowboy star), we turned north to Safford. At this point the lunch bell rang, and we stopped at Arbys, then the real treat was a dessert stop at Dairy Queen for their July special flavor: Girl Scout Chocolate Thin Mint Blizzard. How double delicious!. Heading east we reached Hwy 191, the Coronado Trail, which took us to the old mining towns of Clifton, Morenci and Metcalf. We were amazed at how huge the Morenci copper mine was. They say it's the biggest in America, I believe the Phelps-Dodge Company owns it. Clifton reminded me of old Bisbee. The highway north, paralleling the New Mexico border, is famous for it's many twists and turns. I was expecting worse, but because the road surface was very good, it wasn't so bad, however Alisa opted to take another route home (via the New Mexico side). We saw a few stranded cattle along the road, and hundreds of acres of forest that had burned a couple years ago.

After 6 1/2 hours we arrived at Road 26, just north of Hannagan Meadows. For the next 12 miles, west, we were on a gravel/dirt road and past some beautiful ranch homes and exceptional mountain meadows. Just before the ranch we drove through the meadow where the Ranch horses were loose to graze. There were several foals that we would later meet. Sprucedale has been a guest ranch owned by the Wiltbank family since 1941. This week there would be 32 guests, and more than half were children. Every day we rode horses on outstanding mountain/meadow trails, able to get out of the "line" and enjoy an actual ride. Meals were home-cooked and delicious in the dining room. Activities included foal leading, cow milking, kittens & puppies, horseshoes, vollyball, football, rodeo events, dances, a cookout, a evening bonfire, and hay wagon ride. We knew this time of year is the "monsoon season" in Arizona, but we were caught off-guard a couple times with the suddenness and intensity of the storms. It even hailed one afternoon. But these rains passed quickly and except for the mud in the rodeo arena, quickly forgotten. One day I took an "historic drive" with "Big Emer" Wiltbank in his Suburban with three other guests, and we saw a great deal of the historic country/ mountains/ lakes and into the Apache Reservation. When we got to the site of the former logging camp "Maverick" it poured rain, but we got a good idea of where our guest cabins were originally built on the Apache Reservation, and later moved to Sprucedale when the logging contract ended many years ago. The last day included a gymkhana of pole-bending and keyhole racing. I competed in both, and did OK, with only minor stresses on my right wrist and shoulder (I'm not 14 anymore!).

Saturday, July 26, we went separate ways, with Braden, age 11, and I driving north on Hwy 191, and the rest of the family heading back home. Braden and I were going to Flagstaff to participate in the Elderhostel Intergenerational Program: Rails, Ropes and Rafts. But we had one day to kill, so I decided that a detour to Canyon de Chelly National Monument would be interesting. Leaving Sprucedale we encountered horses crossing the Highway at the first town, Alpine. Of course I stopped an took photos... we were the only vehicle heading north at the time. Then we passed Nutrioso (means beaver & bear in Spanish), Eager, Springerville and St. Johns. We got caught up in the Rodeo parade at St. Johns as we ventured into the old Mormon ranching town to get gas. Finally we reached Sanders at I-40 and I was able to get a brief cell-phone signal on Verizon. We called Alisa and they were just about to Morenci on the way home. We continued north on Hwy 191 to Ganado and the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. It was a great surprise to visit this original trading post now on the Navajo Reservation. It was a step-back in time to enter the trading post built in 1883 and J. L. Hubbell's home. President Teddy Roosevelt was once a guest there. I spied an oil painting on the wall of the home, by Louis Akin, and ever seeking genealogical connections, I looked him up where I got home. Alas, he stems from a completely different Akin family than mine, as near as I can figure out. Just north about 30 minutes we reached Chinle, AZ and the entrance to Canyon de Chelly National Monument. We checked into the Thunderbird Lodge and with directions from the National Park Service visitor's center, we drove along the 19-mile south rim of the canyon and stopped at the beautiful overlooks. before sundown.

Sunday, July 27, 2008 Braden and I were up early to get breakfast at the lodge and take the Thunderbird morning truck tour into the Canyon floor. One must have a Navajo with you to enter the Canyon except at one particular trail to White House ruins. The canyon walls are up to 1,000 feet high and includes 2,000 prehistoric sites and 12 major Anasazi ruins. We enjoyed the open truck ride, especially when it criss-crossed through the river going up the canyon. But our schedule was tight, and after the tour we headed for a fast lunch and were off towards Flagstaff. I decided to try local Navajo Reservation Road 15 as the fastest route to Flagstaff. It turned out fine, and very scenic, but the Navajo Nation doesn't seem to post many roadsigns, so I relied on my map. We drove through Burnside, Cornfield, Sunrise Springs, Greasewood, Indian Wells, and Dilkon before returning to I-40 and a fast track to Flagstaff, and our La Quinta Hotel. Remarkably we arrived just exactly on time, at 3 pm, Arizona time (the Navajo Nation goes on federal time (day-light savings)). Just in time to check into our room and attend the Elderhostel registration. There were 37 of us, and mostly grandchildren, who would be here this week, and we all walked to dinner at the nearby Sizzler Restaurant.

This week was filled with so many wonderful and adventurous events and happenings, that I'd best just list them: Mon: Ropes Challenge Course (more later), Forest survival workshop, and Raptor presentation at the Flagstaff Arboretum. Tue: Bus to the Glen Canyon Dam; 3/4 mile walk to the Horseshoe Bend overlook; drive down 2-mile tunnel to the Colorado River to take rafts for floating down 25 miles to Lee's Ferry; dinner at Cameron Trading Post. Wed: Geology presentation at the University of Northern Arizona and freetime which Braden and I filled with a visit to the Pioneer Museum, and the Museum of Northern Arizona, finishing at the University of Northern Arizona Library - to search the Special Collections for my Ferrell/Blanding family neighbors when they lived in the Cliffs district northeast of Flagstaff (more later). Thur: Bus to Williams, AZ, then old train to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park. We hiked down Bright Angel Trail a for a ways and visited the historic buildings and sights on the rim. A great treat was double scoops of ice cream. There was a horseback train robbery on the train ride back to Williams, and singing cowboys. A great trip. Fri: our last day was the morning a Walnut Canyon National Monument just east of Flagstaff. There are more Anasazi cliff dwelling ruins in this beautiful canyon. All too soon our time ended and we headed back to Sierra Vista. Unfortunately, I would later learn that I'd forgotten to take the clothes hanging in the closet at La Quinta. When I later called them, they had put it all in a bag at the lost and found and we arranged to have it sent UPS to my home in Hawaii. Pheww!

To go back to the bit of genealogy research I was able to do. My great Aunt Fern Blanding married Lee R. Ferrell around 1914, but he died about three years later, so then she married his brother, Carl E. Ferrell, around 1917 and moved to a ranch near Flagstaff. They are located on the 1920 US Census at Cliffs Precinct, Coconino County, Arizona. My mom said that Uncle Carl was a big lumberman who, together with my grandfather, Leonard Pearce, and Aunt Fern, bought some property to raise potatoes and probably hay, etc. Looking at Carl's WWI Draft Registration card he shows he was at "Black Bill Park" a meadow area originally purchased by Black Bill ( H.Conrad West) when the land was a possible railroad track site to get to Grand Canyon. Braden and I visited the UNA Library to look up their neighbors that were there when my mom visited them in about 1920. Using the UNA computers I printed out the census pages and found the neighbors, the Harlow Jaeger family, Floyd & Daisy Copeland, and the Bert Doyle family. Braden searched the photo archives card cataloge and found an 1894 original photo of Bert Doyle standing on the steps of the Flagstaff city hall. We had to have white gloves, etc. to view the photos of him and also author, Zane Grey. I think Bert Doyle may have help guide Zane Grey around Flagstaff (Al Doyle was noted as the guide). Anyway I ordered a copy of that photo for $15 and should get it in the mail.

The long trip back south to Sierra Vista was a bit eventful. North of Phoenix there was a two-motorcycle accident which blocked Interstate-10. We sat at a standstill for 10 or 15 minutes then went about 5 mph merging into one-lane for the next five miles until we passed the scene. While stopped the digital thermometer readout on the truck rear-view mirror showed 122 degrees F. It was very hot and we were wondering how interesting it would be to have raw eggs and see them fry on the pavement. Between Phoenix and Tucson we narrowly avoided a terrific thunderstorm and sandstorm that passed across the highway just before us. We came upon two wrecks on either side of the highway who had been blown off. One car was totally upside down. At last we arrived back in Sierra Vista at sundown and had a nice reunion with the rest of the family.

20 June 2008

The last week in May, before I left for Central America, I spent a week in Los Angeles and Southern California doing some genealogy. I visited the former homes and schools of mine my parents, my grandparents, great aunts, and great-grandparents. These were from the Hague, Wallace, Blanding and Akins families.

After my first day driving all over L.A, I stayed with long-time school friend Carolyn and her husband (see photo of Carolyn & Leonard at table), in Palm Desert.

Then I drove over through Hemet to Lake Elsinore and stayed with 3rd cousin Joyce Stucky Movius of our Akin lineage. (see photos of her family members).

Donna-Joyce-Georgette with Akin Heritage book I gave Joyce

Joyce in 4-generation photos

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I was overjoyed when Joyce gave me an old water and mold-damaged tin-type photo album that had belonged to Howard Nelson Akins. (see photo of old tin-type). So I am going to take special care and fix up the scanned old tin-type images . Few have names, I'll try to preserve and identify them all. I had inherited a little box of a few of Howard's papers, etc. when he died in 1954. I was a child, but very impressed with the "old things" including mention of his father, Marshall J. Akins serving in the Civil War -36th Reg, Wis Vol. - I think this is what started my early interest in genealogy. Marshall Akins was born in 1844 at Busti, Chautauqua County, New York.

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Finally, I drove to Fullerton to visit cousin Patti and her family. We had a big dessert night and her sister Carol and family came over. These are my Dad's nieces and of the Hague / Wallace lineage. See photo of some of the clan around the table.

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I drove back to Los Angeles and took even more photos of old family homes. Google maps helped out. Here is a photo of a Blanding family home from the 1920's or 1930's on Long Beach Ave. The train tracks are in front of it. It used to be painted white and was called "The White House."

From LAX I flew to Central America with Overseas Adventure Tours. In a group of 16, we visited Mayan ruins in El Salvador, Honduras (Copan), Guatemala (Tikal), and Belize (Lumanai). It was a good experience and all things went very well.

August 8, 2007

Sierra Vista, Arizona - Bisbee

August 4th we were back at my daughter, Alisa's, house and with access to a computer and the internet, I was able to read all my e-mail and happily jump back in doing some genealogy. My Blanding cousin, Howard, in Florida asked me to look up his wife's family, and although the names of Thurn and Bettcher are not the easiest because of the possibilities in misspelling, I think I came up with a lot of new information for him after those families immigrated from Germany about 1884. Also I was jolted into reality of passing time with an e-mail from my Pearce cousin, Jeanie, in LeMars, Iowa... we are going to meet in Boone, Iowa and I finally came up with a decision on a date to meet her in Boone and get a motel. As of now we'll meet Aug 27th and 28th. I want to look up land and tax records on our gg-grandfather, John Pearce, of Wales, in Angus, Iowa from 1881 to 1900. While doing a Google search of Boone, I found out that is the birthplace of Mamie Eisenhower, and that there is a scenic tourist train ride that I'd like to take. So much to do, so little time.

To the right is a "Diaper Cake" Alisa made from disposable diapers for a baby shower she attended recently.

The monsoon rains continue in Arizona - every day the sky turns black. On Monday was the first time we have actually seen the "fabled" waterfall on the Huachuca Mountains to the west. I am amazed it is so tall - reminds me of Bridlevail Falls in Yosemite (only shorter). It's quite the sight in this high desert. A road not far from here was totally washed out at a bridge, and now the people can't get out of their country neighborhoods. There have been plenty of flooded streets/washes in Tucson and Phoenix lately.

August 6th Emily and I took a drive to famous old western mining town, Bisbee, where Alisa works at the Copper Queen Hospital. We drove the southern route Hwy 92 paralleling the Mexican border. Six miles from Bisbee we passed Naco, a U.S. port of entry that sees lots of Border Patrol activity from Mexico. It was also a battle site of the Mexican Revolution in 1911.

Since it was my birthday Aug 7th we went out to lunch at the Lawman & Outlaw Cafe. Quite the rustic, old artifact decorated place. We all ate the "Road runner Sandwich." Bisbee was founded in 1880 as a center of copper, gold and silver mining. It became the Cochise County seat in 1929 when it was relocated from Tombstone to Bisbee. The huge "Lavender Copper Pit" (see pic on right), an open pit mine, is in the center of Bisbee and ceased operations in 1975. Bisbee claims the oldest Baseball Park still in operation (since 1909) and is used by the the professional and semiprofessional teams called the Bisbee Kings. The TV series I remember, called "Sheriff of Cochise" a 1957 contemporary/western police drama, was filmed in and around Bisbee.

On the return trip we traveled the north Route 90 back to Sierra Vista - and past the road to Tombstone. It was raining in Bisbee but after going through the Mule Mountain tunnel it cleared up. In the distances above Sierra Vista a very big storm front and monsoon rain was directly over Sierra Vista and heading into the Huachuca Mountains. I had to take a photo of it (at left) as it still amazes me to see such a sight. By the time we arrived home there was no more rain, but we really could see the mountain waterfall again. We ate out again to celebrate - this time to La Casita Mexican Restaurant. Such good food, and so much of it! Ole!

School started for the kids here in Sierra Vista on Aug 8th and things are quiet. The monsoon rains may subside, and the waterfall in the Huachuca Mountains from the kitchen window is getting smaller.

July 16, 2007

Flagstaff AZ - Sierra Vista AZ
The Super 8 Motel has a continental breakfast of sorts and the mouse to their internet computer was broken, but we managed, and rolled out of the motel to begin another day of travel and discovery. First was a drive of about 10 miles north, to Copeland Lane. It is here that my great-Aunt Fern (Blanding) Ferrell with the help of her mother, Edith (Akin) Blanding, bought some land with her husband Carl Ferrell and tried to make a go of it in the early 1920's. According to deed/mortgage records I found at the court house in Flagstaff in 2002, they raised hay and potatoes. My grandfather, Leonard Pearce, was also an investor in the farm. It is here that my mother, Nadine Pearce was sent on the train by herself as a child (about age 6) to stay with Aunt Fern. She tells the story of her little girl friend, Daisy Copeland, who lived across the road. And she told of another family about a mile down the road whose little girl had a pony (her father (maybe Doyle) was said to have been a guide for western author, Zane Grey). One day Nadine had ridden down to that house with the little girl on her pony when some of the neighbor's cows came wandering back to their property. The family was wondering how the little "pock" marks had gotten on the rear of some of their cattle. That is when little Nadine said "Oh, my Aunt Fern did that" -- Aunt Fern had taken her BB gun out in frustration with the cattle damaging her garden and shot at the cattle to get them out of the garden. This upset the neighbors so they developed a plan to get get even. When Aunt Fern and Uncle Carl came in their big Studebaker car to pick up Nadine later in the day, they wouldn't let Nadine out of the basement where she was playing, until they got some sort of satisfaction for the BB gun episode. Heated words were exchanged and when the man looked like he was going to slap Aunt Fern, Uncle Carl pulled out his big pistol and demanded they produce Nadine. Nadine was summoned up from the basement, and that was the end of Nadine's rides on her friend's pony to her house where the swings were. My mom says she figures that was the time she was kidnapped. Well, about 80 years later, Aunt Fern's great-great-great grandchildren were driving along Copeland Lane taking photographs, and imagining the pony walking down that lane, and trying to figure where Aunt Fern's house might have been. This lane is just east of the largest San Francisco Peaks.

Next we continued up Hwy 89, north about 5 miles to the Sunset Volcano Crater National Monument. This cinder cone that rose quickly and blew it's top 900 years ago. The eruption killed all plants within a 5 mile radius. Sunset Volcano is the youngest of the 600 volcanoes that make up the San Francisco Peaks (see picture at right) area of Flagstaff. At a top peak of 12,633 ft, there is skiing offered in the snowy winter here. We got a National Parks passport stamp and enjoyed the visitor's center activities, then drove a little more to a overview lookout site to see steam coming up from a volcanic vent. The surrounding lava fields surround the road and the two types of sharp and smooth lava are called the same as in Hawaii - a'a and pahoehoe. We didn't have time to drive around the loop and visit the Wupatki National Monument and see the pueblo ruins of 800 years ago of the various cultures of the Wupatki people.

I noticed what looked like an archaeological dig going on as we drove south on Hwy 89 (one mile north of Flagstaff Mall). It is an ongoing excavation and restoration of the Elden Pueblo Archaeological Project and an interesting place for a short walk. It is a 65 room pueblo of the prehistoric Sinagua culture from about 1200 AD and Hopi ancestral pueblo site. Excavation began here in 1926, so I guess Aunt Fern had left the area by that time and returned to Los Angeles.

Ever since Braden found a brochure for "Meteor Crater," he'd been wanting to see it. So we headed east on Interstate 40, to the road leading to the crater, 35 miles east of Flagstaff. We could see storm clouds off in the distance. We arrived at the privately owned National Landmark where 50,000 years ago a piece of asteroid, 150 ft across, crashed into the earth. The site was originally 700 ft deep and over 4000 ft across, it has eroded little here because of the arid climate. It was an amazing site. We listened to a guide talk about the crater's history, we saw a movie, and visited the impressive museum. A raven, called " Charlie" glided around us outside in the winds, which got to be very, very strong. The winds were the front of an approaching thunder storm. There was a Subway sandwich shop in the gift shop area, and we ate before leaving, still hoping to visit Walnut Canyon pueblo ruins back towards Flagstaff. But Scott telephoned about that time and calculated we wouldn't be home in Sierra Vista until 9:30 pm if we left Meteor Crater and drove directly home. So I decided to make a bee-line home rather than ending up sleepily driving in the middle of the night home.

As it turned out the drive south was long, as we left Meteor Crater a hail storm hit us with a temperature of 60 degrees. We left Flagstaff on I-17 at 4:30pm, and Phoenix at 6:30 pm, As we drove through Phoenix the temperature rose to 116 degrees!!! Continuing on I-10 as we drove south of Tucson, a large series of dust storms blanketed the landscape and caused decreased visibility, but a great sunset. We stopped at exit 208, a favorite Pilot Gasoline stop, and also filled up with Dairy Queen blizzards. Turning off onto Arizona-90 we finally arrived at Sierra Vista, and home sweet home at 10:20 pm. We traveled over 800 miles from St. George, Utah.

July 7, 2007

I'm on the "mainland" now. The weather in Arizona is sizzling, and it was 114 degrees in Las Vegas yesterday. I'm heading for Las Vegas today with grandkids, Emily and Braden. We will arrive there after crossing the Arizona desert, in the evening. Then Sunday we'll stop by to see sister-in-law Chris Hague, and nephews. Also get a chance to see nephew Rich's wife, Lucy, and son, Michael, again. Michael is two now and almost talking. We plan to go see my brother's grave. Richard Hague died last November and I haven't seen his grave marker yet. Then we'll have to high-tail it on to St. George, Utah, where we'll begin our Elderhostel Intergenerational Program.

This Elderhostel program is about dinosaurs in S.W. Utah. It promises to be a terrific program for the grandkids and their grandparents. We'll stay 4 nights in St. George at the College Inn, part of Dixie State College. We're going to Grand Escalante National Monument and to the Dinosaur Discovery Site. We watched a Discovery Channel program on a new type of dinosaur found there (or somewhere close) that is a mass grave of a dinosaur than is transitioning between a meat eater to a grass eater. Should be interesting.

Then we go on to Bryce Canyon and stay at Ruby's Inn for two nights, including taking in the Bryce Rodeo. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up with more relations on the trip - Jeff and Leslie and their five children. Then back to St. George for another night and the end of the program. I plan to drive back to Sierra Vista via Flagstaff and show the kids where my mother stayed with Aunt Fern Blanding Ferrell in about 1920 on a potato farm on the northwest side of Flagstaff.

In my disorganization to plan/pack for two trip this summer (Arizona, etc. and China) I forgot to put my cell phone charger into my suitcase. Hmmmm. No other way around it, I had to go and buy a new charger. Well, now I've got an extra I can keep in my suitcase - ready for any trip. I helped Emily cleaned out some of her closet yesterday so she could pack for the Utah trip. What a chore! Luckily Braden is better organized even though he's only 10.

Genealogy news: I've found the 1870 Agriculture Census online at Ancestry.com. I don't know why they added this Ag Census for Goodhue County, MN - but I'm glad they did. It's very interesting to see that my David Akins had two horses, two milk cows, one swine, spring wheat, indian corn and oats. He, my great-great grandfather, had homesteaded near his cousin, Marshall Akins, his wife's father, James Warren Ells, and his son, Edwin Ells, and another cousin, John Orcutt. These early pioneer families stayed together when they got land in Minnesota from where they were in Wisconsin. Edwin Ells had some of his land surveyed and established the village of Skyberg, Goodhue Co., Minnesota. Today is is a ghosttown. Click to enlarge census.

I've sent photos back and forth with Terry Akin and Howard Blanding about relations in Chautauqua Co. NY. We still can't seem to find photographer George Morris Akin in the business directories, etc. for Fredonia, NY. We know he was a very good photographer from looking at some of his work - probably at the turn of the century. Also Terry and I are sending "Mystery Photos" to each other from our pile of old, old photographs, in the hopes of identifying the ones without names. I love a good mystery!

Is this Welton Akin? --------------A Ship in Newport RI -----An Akin of RI -maybe his ship?

July 1, 2007

I've been happily tracking down new family history and websites on the Akin line, thanks to my contact with cousin Terry Akin through cousin Larry Akin. Terry has carefully put much Akin information on the website www.findagrave.com. It is a free website where people can enter information about people and which cemetery they are buried in. Since Terry is my 3rd cousin once removed we share many relations that lived in Chautauqua Co., New York near Jamestown in the southwest corner of the state. I've spent many days, over three different years, driving around the area and researching my ancestors in that county, which also includes the Stevens, and the Blandings up in the Silver Creek area. Terry is my closest Akin relation that is doing genealogy and we are very happy to have found each other. Anyway, I was able to send him the tombstones photographs that I took at the Stillwater Cemetery and the Busti Cemetery. The oldest tombstone pictures are of Joseph Akin (1761 - 1847) (pictured) and wife Elsey Holloway (1760-1833) who were among the very first settlers in the Jamestown area. The photo on the right is of the original Akin homestead area at the Stillwater, Kiantone Twp, Chautauqua County, NY. Joseph traveled from near Albany along trails to purchase land from the Holland Land Co. near Erie. Then he probably sailed down the coast of Lake Erie to Westfield area and then followed Indian or trapper trails back eastward to claim his land in 1807, on the east end of Lake Chautauqua. He tried to establish a village called "Akinville" - but wanted to lease the lots instead of sell them fee simple. So eventually Jamestown became established and more popular. But Joseph had the first house in the township.

My great-great grandfather, David Akin moved west from Chautauqua County New York, to Wisconsin to teach, but became ill with tuberculosis. Terry's great-great grandfather, John Howard Akin, Jr. asked his younger 25 yr old brother, David, to come back to New York and stay with him and sit in the sun in his apple orchard, so he could get well. David did return to his brother's farm and he was identified as staying with him in the 1860 census. Luckily for me, David did recover, and went back to Wisconsin to marry Sarah Minerva Ells. Together David & Minerva and their Squier cousins then moved west on to new land in Goodhue County, Minnesota, to farm and establish the town of Skyberg. David Akin had dairy cows and built a school house on his property for the community. Good thing too, as he had 12 children. On the left is a picture of apple blossoms I took around Busti near John Howard Akin, Jr's land. The lower left picture is David & Minerva Akins in Minnesota about 1927. The picture on the right is David's brother, John Howard Akin, Jr. in New York in earlier years.

It's really fascinating history around there. Guess what Westfield, NY is famous for??? Two things - Welchs Grape Juice and the place where President Lincoln got off a train and a little girl said he'd look better with a beard -- and the rest was history.

I finally had to stop doing the fun things and settle down to getting my stuff together for my big trip to the Mainland. I courageously and cautiously approached my old Vaio laptop computer - which was such a faithful friend on my two-year Vagabond roots-finding journey - and attempted to start it. I bought it in 2000. After a few coughs, it started right up when plugged in. I don't think the batteries are any good anymore. Anyway the next challenge was to find the external CD player that connects to the laptop and see if I could download the latest version of my Family Tree Maker program. Amazingly it worked. The next challenge was to move my present 432 megabyte Family Tree file onto a flash drive, from my PC, and that went surprisingly well. Then with that flash drive stuck into the Vaio laptop I hoped beyond hope it would work, so I could transfer the family file to the laptop. But no, the laptop couldn't find the driver for the flash drive - of course. The Vaio laptop has Windows 98 still on it and the modem no longer works, but if I find the CD that came with my other the little flash drive and load the driver, it would work.... But the little flash drive is only 128 megabytes, so it wouldn't work. Anyway, I decided to burn the family file from my PC to a CD and copy it to the laptop. This worked!!! But then the copied file in the laptop is a read-only, so I had to re-copy it in the laptop and rename the file in order to be able to edit it. At last all systems are go, and I can pack up the laptop in hopes it will work when I attend the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Indiana in August.

Now I have to collect all the stuff I'll need for my iPod and iPod microphone, for my Sony VideoCamera, my Sony digital still camera, and who knows what other crazy gadgets I must have. The worst thing is that I have to carry it all onto the airplane. So let's see: Laptop computer, two cameras, iPod, cell phone, all the cords for recharging the items, food, ear plugs, empty water bottle to fill up after security, a book, chapstick, medications - what else needs to be in the carry on? I'll be flying the ATA red-eye, an all-night delight from Hawaii to Las Vegas, then on to Tucson.... Oh yes, I need to carry-on my noise canceling headphones. Of course I'll have to remember to print out my e-ticket boarding passes before I leave.

I don't know if I'll be able to add to this blog while I'm gone, but maybe I'll be able to use my daughter's computer to do it. So until then, I'll say aloha. Don't forget to add comments to any of the pages.

June 3, 2007

June is here and I am still working on figuring out which cord or cable goes with which electronic gadget. I've finally finished the first cut on the first three hours of the Mongolian adventure, and downloaded the 4th hour of videotape onto the hard drive, and backed it up to my external hard drive. I will have to begin editing that, then download hours 5 and 6 to finish with the video from Mongolia. The Adventurers' Club meeting was held at the Outrigger Canoe Club on Waikiki and the subject was about some of the cities of Europe. The presenters' photography was outstanding and the the food great. I'm editing my Mongolia tapes to do my own presentation in Feb 2008 for the Adventurers' Club.

I've spent some time getting involved with FamilyHistoryLiveOnline.com and have volunteered to give online genealogy classes and genealogy support. I've also connected up online with familyoralhistory.us which has a blog of Family Oral History Using Digital Tools. Susan Kitchens, the host, had a "scanfest" where we could connect using a download of "Gizmo" service. If what I'm saying doesn't make a lot of sense to the reader, well, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me sometimes, either.

Today I was searching on Ancestry.com for Howard Blanding (picture on left) my "3rd cousin once removed" on my Blanding side, of Erie County, NY, and lately living in Florida. He has given me a lot of information about his line in New York, we have a common ancestor in Ebenezer Blanding II, whose father was in the US Revolution. I found his Carey family in all the census back to 1850 and it was quite a challenge with different spellings and different transcribers' interpretations of the name they saw. I didn't find the link back to Ireland for the Carey's, but at least I may have shed a little bit of new light on the Careys. Picture of Howard's grandfather on right - Samuel Love Carey.

Yesterday I drove up to Waipahu, about 45 minutes away, and participated in the Genealogy Workshop at Hawaii's Plantation Village. The village is a wonderful collection of authentic homes and other buildings from the collection of various cultures that lived on the sugar plantations. This day was a chance for different cultures to get help with genealogy: Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Okinawan, Portuguese and our table from the Honolulu County Genealogy Society. It was a fun event and we helped quite a few people. One Japanese-American woman, (and her mother -- both born in Hawaii), didn't know that her mother, was born on the island of Kauai, until we had her fill out a pedigree chart! I think she got the message that she should find out about her 92 yr old mother's life before it is too late.

I've got one month left at home before I fly out to Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Iowa. I bet I won't feel very prepared for the trip by the time comes to leave.