As the second anniversary rolls around, I find that my thoughts turn less from grief and more to the times we enjoyed.  I don’t know why, but today I was thinking about my Dad and my dog.

My Dad never really cared for animals.  He could take them or leave them.  Having five kids, he was constantly surrounded by pets though.  He had no choice!

He never really cared for dogs, though we had them growing up.   I like to think back on how Sierra, my Lab, worked her way into his heart.

Sierra seemed to have it in for my Dad from the start.   The first two years were a nightmare.  She dug holes all over the yard, got into the rose bushes that my Dad prized, and she chewed up the floorboards in the hallway.

She was a big thief as well.  She seem to know that my Dad didn’t pay very good attention, so she picked on him.  If he went to answer the front door during dinner, he’d come back to find his chicken missing.  If he went to the bathroom while making lunch, he’d find that someone stole his bread from the toaster.  Once I saw her steal a handkerchief from his back pocket.  She was had no mercy!

I always knew that when my Dad yelled “son of a bitch” when in the backyard it meant that he forgot again that we had a dog and he stepped in dog poop for the third time in a week.

When my arthritis got bad, he took over taking her for walks.  He would walk her at the school yard where there were all sorts of things for them to get into trouble with.  I remember one funny incident that makes me laugh even now.  My Dad didn’t always pay attention when he was out walking.  One day, they were out on the baseball field when a flock of pigeons took flight.  Sierra decided to chase them.  Only my Dad wasn’t paying attention.  He was looking the other day.  She yanked the leash so hard that my Dad landing face first in the grass.  He came home in a fluster only to realize that while he found his glasses, he forgot that he was wearing a baseball hat.  He had to go all the way back and search around for it.  LOL  Well, at least he didn’t forget he had the dog.

My Dad hated having the dog around during meals.  He hated that she stared at him begging for a morsel.  He felt like she was pressuring him.  He never could get her to settle down when he was eating.

I always thought that my Dad saw the dog as one big hassle.  That was until after her amputation.   Sierra adapted to her amputation very well.  She didn’t seem to mind having three legs at all.  This really amazed my Dad.  He’d tell everyone about her surgery and about how she was walking seven hours after surgery.

I had taken some photos of Sierra and given my Dad a couple as a friend wanted to see what a three legged dog looked like.  A few months later my Dad was in the middle of something and he asked me to find something in his wallet.

Whatever it was was supposed to be behind one of the photos.  I noticed he had photos of each of his grand kids and Sierra!  That’s when I knew my Dad was crazy for that dog!   Oh, he pretended that she was a pain in the butt, but I knew differently.  Heck!  There wasn’t one photo of his five kids, but there were several photos of the dog.

There are so many memories bubbling up right now.  But, I’m going to laugh again at my Dad face down in the grass and losing his hat while the dog ran around the field chasing birds.  I think he’d enjoy me laughing at him on this anniversary.  Beats crying, that’s for sure!

I used the Random Name Generator to get a name to research.  The first name to come up was Benjamin Sosa.

I started my search and found several different Benjamin Sosa’s in records, but none in the census.  It took me four more names before I found a match:  Young Richmond.

Young Richmond first appears in the 1880 US Census for Durham Township, Orange County, North Carolina.  He is 20 years old, born in North Carolina,  and is listed as Black.  There is an Emma Cameron also Black listed under Young.

He lives in the household of a J.C. Wilkerson who is White.  Young’s occupation is difficult to read.  It looks like “works as Facting”.  J.C. Wilkerson is a tobacco dealer.  I wonder if “facting” has anything to do with that business (or I am reading it wrong, which is highly likely!)

An 1870 census search was not conclusive but turned up some interesting results.  In this case, the head of family is Young Richmond, who is also Black.  What caught my eye is the family listed next door.  They are Richmonds and also have a child listed with them named Young.

In the first entry in Leasburg Township, Caswell County, North Carolina, we have Young Richmond.  He is aged 44, born in North Carolina, and the head of the family.  Young is a farmer.

Next is a female (his wife?) named Pathenia who is 43 years old. She was also born in North Carolina.  There are three children listed: John (15), Emma (13), and what looks like Burry (Barry?) (11).  In the next house is another Richmond family:

Mason Richmond, 67, with what looks like Jardy (female), 74, Young, 15, Paulina 12, and Mason 8.

It looks like I might have a couple generations of one family. And, look down the list of children.  There is a Young Richmond age 15.  I suspect Young is the one in the 1880 census.   But, who does he belong to?  Reading this it appears that he is Mason’s child, but since relationships are not given, it’s just as likely he belongs to Young Richmond, the head of the previous household.

I decided to take another route to putting these leaves back on the tree.  Mason Richmond seems like a name to work with, so I went back to ancestry.com and typed that in.

In the 1880 Census, I found a Mason Richmond, 15 years old, living with his mother and stepfather in Leasburg.  His mother’s name is Theny who is 52 and remarried to Alexander Currie.  Theny sure sounds like a shortened form of Parthenia!  The other children in the household have the Currie surname, so that’s not helpful.    If this is Partheny and Mason is her son, then it appears that the children in the two households in 1870 may be siblings despite being in separate households.

I did a few more searches at both familysearch.org, ancestry.com, and google.com but couldn’t find any more conclusive information.  I found a Young Richmond in the North Carolina death certificates, but his parent’s names were unknown.    So, I think at this point I’ll have to leave this challenge.  Thanks for an interesting evening, Randy!

It was going to be a painful recovery for her (and us!).    The first week was very hard.  She was on pain killers and though she wore a hood, she had to be watched, so she wouldn’t get to her injury.  She had to be hand fed for the first two days and carried outside to go potty.

She did a lot of laying around which is unusual for a Jack Russell Terrier.  She did begin to feel better at the end of the first week, though she was still sore.

She finally started to act like herself midway through the second week.  On Thursday, I was able to take the hood off, which made her so happy!

It’s been a long two weeks for everyone.  But, she is fully healed now.  Maybe now I can get back to that census.

Here are some of the differences:

The first columns pertaining to residency are the same, but in a different order.

Race or Color:  While this column is the same, the abbreviations are different.  W is used for people of European descent in California, but Cau (caucasian) is used in Hawaii.  (At the bottom is a guide to which codes to use.  The groups listed vary from the Hawaii sheet to the California sheet.)

In the column that asks about highest grade of education, enumators noted high school differently.  In Hawaii, they only noted the amount of years (i.e. 12).  In California, they noted H-1, H-2, H-3, H-4 for high school years.  I don’t know if the Hawaii school system was set up differently.  Was their high school in 1940?

The citizenship section is different.  On the California sheet it asks for the “Citizenship of the Foreign Born”.  On the Hawaii sheet it asks “US Citizenship Status of the Foreign Born”.  I’m guessing that because people in Hawaii could have gained citizenship prior to annexation that would not count as US Citizenship, hence, the different wording.  I’m only guessing here!  A second question asks “Territorial Citizenship Yes or No”.  I’m not sure why after noting the citizenship in the first column, one also had to further declare it in the second.

The section that pertains to where you lived in 1935 is non-existent on the Hawaii census sheet.  I guess they didn’t expect the Hawaii folks to move around much.

The occupation section varies.  On the Hawaii sheet there are 3 questions versus the 5 on the California sheet.  There is no question about whether the individual was employed in government work on the Hawaii sheet.  That makes me wonder if those programs were not extended to the territories.  Also missing in this section is the question that asks why a person was not working.

There are more questions in the last section about wages on the Hawaii sheet.  There is an extra question that asks whether the person was a wage or salary earner.  This column is missing on the California sheet.

The Hawaii census sheet is missing the supplemental questions at the bottom of the sheet that were asked of two people questioned.

In all the Hawaii census sheet has 28 columns and the California sheet has 34 (not counting the supplemental)  This includes code columns.

I find it interesting that they chose to create two different sheets.  I wonder if all the US territories used a similar census sheet to Hawaii or if they designed a different one for each territory.

Now that I’ve exhausted the East Twenty Fifth Street Gang, delved a little in Kilauea, Kauai, HI, I need to have a better sense of who I’ve found and who I need to find.

I’m concentrating on my Portuguese roots for now as they lived mostly in clusters in three cities.  That doesn’t mean it will be easy.  My Grandfather had over 40 first cousins on the Pacheco side alone who reach adulthood.  And, I plan to find every single one of them!

I’ve devised this chart to help me keep track of what I’ve accomplished and what I need to work on.  I’ve set up this spreadsheet in MsWorks:

I’ve organized it by family groups.  The bold type first column represents my grandfather’s parents and his aunts and uncles.

Column 2 is their children and their spouses.  I’ve noted if the person is deceased so I know only to look for their spouse.

Column 3 is the street I expect to find them on.  For now, I’ve gone through and noted everyone I’ve located.  Next, I’ll go through and list the street for those I have not found yet.

Column 4 will be marked F (found) or NF (not found).  I’ll have to figure out how to note if I look up multiple street names.

Column 5 is for noting which of their children and/or grandchildren I find listed with them.  This is important because by 1940 many of my Grandfather’s cousins have married–and some of their children have too.

You’ll notice that some names in column two have “…” before them.  These are the next generation.  Once I’ve clarified whose is not living with their parents, I can set out to search for them.    Already I’ve found a couple of people who are married and living with their parents.  I imagine this was pretty common in 1940 as families are trying to survive the Depression.

Once I’ve exhausted the Portuguese folks, I’ll work on the French and Irish.  I’ll probably come across some of the French in my Oakland research.  But many of them as well as the Irish will be in San Francisco, which will be a little more challenging until indexes are created.

After I’ve covered the West Coast, it’s off to New York for La Grange, Boisvert, and Murphy (my brother-in-law’s tree) and then to Massachusetts for a few Irish cousins.

At any rate, my chart is a work in progress.  This is why I did it as a spreadsheet.  If I feel the need for another column, I can insert it easily.  If I need to change my columns, I can do that too.

Have you created a chart for your research?  How is yours designed?  Are you looking for one or two families or are you on a mission, like me, to map out half the city?

A blast from the past.  This is Easter morning around 1967.  I’m the youngest.

I’ve already been using the utility.  I’ve been through 6 or 8 different enumeration district in Hawaii and California.  It really pays when your people stick to the same communities for 40-50 years.

I decided to pick someone more difficult to locate at any time:  Harry Kenneth Jackson.  He was my great grandfather and a regular Houdini.  I never did find him in the 1930 census.  Beyond a couple earlier census records, city directories, and an obituary, Harry didn’t leave much else behind.

I suspect there were some factors to his invisibility.  His daughter told me Harry was refused US citizenship.  So, I have to assume he was in the US illegally.  He did marry a US citizen (my great grandmother) but they divorced around 1928, a very messy divorce where he tried to burn the family home down.  Arson does get between family members.  As far as I know, their son was the only one who kept contact with Harry after that point (the son was on the outs too, but that’s a story for another day).

So off I went to find Harry on Shafter Avenue in Oakland, CA.  I located the possible EDs 61-3 and 61-4.  Shafter is very long so even with the cross streets I couldn’t narrow it down to just one.  I started with 61-4 but Shafter only appeared 3 times.  61-3 was closer to what I wanted.  I found Shafter several times, but it jumped from the 4000s over the other end of 5000.

Since the numbers went from high to low, I decided to check out 61-2 (though it was not listed in the search results from the utility).  Again, I found entries for Shafter.  Harry lived at 5102.  I started to see low 5000s.  I got closer and closer and…it jumped right over Harry’s house number!  There are 5100, 5101, 5103, 5104…No 5102.  I checked names just in case the number was written wrong.

I will wait until the indexes are available.  It’s possible Harry moved between the time the city directory was written and the census was taken.  It’s possible I have the wrong house number.

Once again, Harry Kenneth Jackson has foiled me!

My Grandma Shellabarger lived through alot.  Her life was a rough road, one that might have crippled others very easily.  Through it all, Grandma could still laugh.

The trait I share with her is the gift of laughter.  Not just any kind of laughter…hysterical laughter.  It’s a trait that my Grandma, my Mom, and all my female siblings share.   I believe my young nieces have the gift as well. Maybe it’s hormonal

All that needed to happen is for one of us to start laughing.  It doesn’t matter who.  The laughter would spread like a chain reaction.  It didn’t even matter if you were in on the joke.  You could be in the other room, walk in, and catch the laughter train.

I’m not talking a couple guffaws or a chortle.  I am talking deep within the pit of the stomach with tears streaming down your cheeks with stomach muscles spasming got to catch my breath kind of laughter.  It happened almost every time we were together.

Others thought we were a little weird.  Maybe we were.  But, once we got going we could not stop.  Sometimes all we had to do was look at each other to start laughing all over again.

There are so many traits my Grandma could have shared with me.  She was stern, tactless, obstinate, and bossy.  It is her ability to laugh hysterically from the confines of her wheel chair that I hope to remember the most fondly.  Whenever my Mom, my sisters, and I get on one of our rolls, I think of Grandma and all the good laughs we shared.

There is one thing that almost everyone in my family shares with my Grandma Lassalle. We’re all short.  My tallest sibling is 5 feet 8 inches.  Everyone else is under 5 feet 5 inches.  My sister and I are both under 5 feet tall.

My Grandma Lassalle was also short.  I believe she was 4 feet 9 inches tall.  My Grandpa was also short.  He made it over 5 feet though.

I remember the story of how my Grandpa loved to take Grandma places because he got her in for the child’s price.  They went to the circus and Grandma got in for free, even though they were husband and wife.

I can relate to this.   It doesn’t happen as much now that I’m approaching 50.  In my 20s and early 30s I was often mistaken for a child.  I got the children’s menu at restaurants on a regular basis.  One I was counted as the fifth child at Discovery Zone.  I was also mistaken for my brother’s daughter in my late 20s (there’s only 6 years between).

When I was a child, being small bothered me.  I didn’t mind the teasing.  I answered to Shorty throughout my school years.  But, sometimes you wanted to be taken seriously and people tend to judge by first impression.

Now I don’t mind so much!    Being 48 and having people think you are younger isn’t a bad thing at all.  I bet my Grandma would agree!

My timeline is for one of my Azorean ancestors, Dona Francesca de Resendes, who lived from 1716-1762.  The prompt recommended using ourtimelines.com to generate the timeline so I thought I would give it a try.

My ancestor came from the village of Maia in Ribeira Grande on the island of Sao Miguel. She was most likely illiterate. I wonder how many of the events that happened during her lifetime she even knew about?

Timeline for Dona Francisca (de Resendes) Medeiros

Custom Timeline
For Dona Francisca (de Resendes) Medeiros

1716 to 1762

1231-1808 : Papal Inquisition from before birth until after timeline 1478-1834 : Torquemada’s Spanish Inquisition from before birth until after timeline 1700-1721 : Great Northern War from before birth until age 5 1714-1727 : Reign of King George I (Hanover) from before birth until age 11 1716 : Francisca born on 11 September at age 0 1716 : Christian teaching forbidden in China at age 0 1718 : Peter the Great has son and heir murdered at age 2 1718 : Spain seizes Sicily (from Savoy) at age 2 1718 : New Orleans founded at age 2 1721 : Rifles brought to America by the Swiss at age 5 1722 : Samoa and Easter island discovered by Dutch at age 6 1727-1760 : Reign of King George II (Hanover) from age 11 to 44 1727 : Quakers demand abolition of slavery at age 11 1729 : Opium smoking prohibited in China at age 13 1733-1735 : War of Polish Succession from age 17 to 19 1735 : Francisca married Antonio Medeiros at age 19 1736 : Son, Antonio, born on 3 March at age 20 1736 : English statutes against witchcraft repealed at age 20 1738 : Son, Domingos, born on 31 March at age 22 1740 : Daughter, Catarina, born on 30 April at age 24 1740-1748 : Austrian war of the succession from age 24 to 32 1741 : Slave revolt in New York, 2nd uprising at age 25 1742 : Celsius invents Centigrade thermometer at age 26 1743 : Son, Manoel, born on 2 May at age 27 1743 : 1st settlement in S. Dakota at age 27 1745 : Electrical Capacitor (Leyden Jar) at age 29 1749 : Sign Language for deaf-mutes at age 33 1752 : Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod at age 36 1752 : Britain and its colonies adopt Gregorian calender at age 36 1754-1763 : French-Indian war from age 38 until after timeline 1755 : Lisbon earthquake – 30,000 dead at age 39 1756-1763 : Seven years war from age 40 until after timeline 1758 : Halley’s Comet (1st predicted appearance) at age 42 1760 : Bifocals at age 44 1760-1820 : Reign of King George III (Hanover) from age 44 until after timeline 1762 : Francisa died on 17 September at age 46

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