Mother's Day

To celebrate Mother's Day, I am posting some pictures of Mothers and their children. 

This one is of me being held by my mom, Patricia Hickman and my brother, Mike Hickman.



This one is of my Aunt Gen and her children.
Glen Harper, Genevieve Harper, Jerry Harper on her lap and Carol Harper.



This is my Aunt Ella and her children:
Marilyn Hall, Eddie Hall and Ella Hall.

My grandmother, Vivian Hickman, with her baby, Erwin "Bud" Hickman.

 

This one is of me and my daughter Vivian.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Parallels

I've been doing family history a long time.  I can remember Mom spreading out her genealogy sheets on the dining room table.  Back then it was all on paper.  She gave me some blank forms and charts to begin my own records.  I would copy her charts in my best handwriting.  I found some of those old charts in her files. 

As I copied the charts and life stories, I learned about my grandparents, their parents, and their grandparents.  Through my teenage years, I searched for stories.  When we would go to libraries, I would look in the indexes of history books to see if any of my ancestors were mentioned.  I had some modest success at it.  When I was in college, I took a class on basic research.  I can remember the thrill of finding that first census record with one of my families.  I was so excited!  I discovered that as I found records and documents for my ancestors, I could piece their life stories together.  As I did so, I somehow felt a connection to them and a feeling that I knew them.



Ellen Bennett Darnley Rogers



That brings me to the parallels.  Sometimes I would find things that happened to an ancestor that I could really relate to, because I was going through something similar.  I felt they would understand.  Some years ago, I did a lot of research on my second great-grandmother, Ellen Bennett Darnley Rogers.  I always admired her strong faith and testimony that led her, as a young woman, to travel to America with her husband and two children.  In New York, her husband and little girl got sick and died.  Ellen was faced with the choice of returning to her family in England, who very much wanted her back, or to go on to Salt Lake City, alone with her little toddler son.  Ellen chose to go on.  She walked the whole way, often carrying her little boy because he would not stay in the wagon.  I honored and loved her because of her strong committment to her faith. 

Recently, I have found another connection with Ellen.  I have been gradually losing hearing in my right ear.    Through family stories I knew Ellen was deaf -- they said that she lost her hearing from sleeping on cold ground while crossing the plains.  But on the 1860 census, before she had made the long trek, it said she was deaf.  Ellen was a weaver.  She grew up in Yorkshire where the cloth factories were built.  She most likely was hired as a girl of 10 or 12 to work in the factory prior to working on the noisy steam loom.  Most likely that is how she lost her hearing. 

Vivian Perkins Hickman

Another parallel--I was named after my paternal grandmother, Vivian (Perkins) Hickman.  In 1958 she had a rare brain tumor.  At that time they were just beginning to pioneer microscopic surgery and her tumor was successfully removed.  There were newspaper stories about her being a "walking miracle."  Recently I was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a rare tumor that grows on the auditory nerve.  I will have to have brain surgery this summer to remove it.  I will be thinking a lot of my both grandmothers, their courage and their faith. I like to think that they will be with me.

A Brief History of the Hickman Family in California

In my last post I bemoaned the fact that one could have too many photos.  One the other hand, maybe there are two few.  Yes, a contradiction. 

  It took two days to scan and organize the pictures of the Hickman family.  Mom told me once that a box of pictures had been left behind on one of our moves.  The few that are left are neatly placed in an album.



Mike Hickman and his Schwin. 
We lived in the house
on the left.

   They bring happy back memories that were long forgotten. 

  I was four when we moved to Burbank.  1420 Leland Way. Across the street was one of the big drainage ditches that filled with swift water during the rainy season.  Beyond that, the railroad tracks and Lockheed Industries.  I learned to count by counting the cars on the long freight trains.

  Laura, Grant and Richard joined us in Burbank.  There was a lovely fig tree in the back yard in which we spent many happy hours climbing the branches. Mom grew sweet peas in her garden and down the block was a patch of colored poppies.

 Mike and I attended George Washington Elementary School, and we went to big LDS Church on the hill, overlooking the city.  I was in Campfire Girls and my best friend was Pamela Wickman. 

  I was in the fifth grade about ten years old when we moved to Lawndale - 4319 West 159th St.




Hickman Children at Lawndale.
Richard, Grant, Merry, and Laura.

 Merry joined the family while we lived there.

I finished out the fifth grade and then went to Middle School.  I had a friend next door, named Bobbie and we used to play with Barbies together.  Down the street lived two ladies who taught me how to sew.  I used to babysit for their kids sometimes.

Laura and Grant played with the neighbor children on the other side, Stacy and Dick Felman.  Mrs. Felman was Mom's friend.

We only lived there about three years.  I was in the eight grade when we moved to Van Nuys.

Before we moved, Melody joined the family.

8056 Langdon Ave., Van Nuys
Melody, Patricia, our dog "Toots," Merry and Laura

    Our house in Van Nuys was a big rambling house.  Laura and I shared a bedroom with a baywindow that had a window seat.  In the back yard was a rose garden.  Mom always loved her gardens.

  I finished up the 8th and 9th grade in Junior High and went to my first two years of high school here.  I was very active in my church's youth group, YWMIA and had many friends.  It was here that Grandmother Vernie gave us a piano and paid for a piano teacher to come to the house to give me and Laura piano lessons. 



Rolling Hills, California
I think that is me, hiding in the doorway
behind the bushes.



Just before my 16th birthday, we again moved.  This time to Rolling Hills, California.  We rented the house partly in exchange for taking care of the owner's horses.  This was a beautiful place to live, but I felt very isolated from friends.  I was able to choose my high school and chose the brand new Miraleste High School.  I was in the first senior graduating class.  Miraleste was on the other side of the peninsula.  We went to church in San Pedro.  My friends here were Lynette Bartholomew and Susie Black, a Navajo placement student from Arizona.  Who would have thought, that in a couple of years I would be moving to her neighborhood.

Here my youngest brother, James, joined our family. 

I graduated from high school in June 1970 and the next day we were on our way to our new home in Page, Arizona.

Too Many Pictures!

I am starting to think one can have too many pictures!  It is overwhelming.  I think Mom found it overwhelming.  There doesn't seem to be any order, many were just stuck in boxes.  Some are in photo albums - there are 31 albums that were started. 

Yesterday, I just dug in to a basketful of pictures.  I discovered that there are some pictures not worth keeping.  Others are definitely a treasure find!  This batch was mostly my sister, Melody's family. 

Here are a few gems:





Sarah, Brittney and Rachele Williams in Kaysville, Utah, taken about 1991.




Anthony Williams with Grandpa Ray Hickman.

 

Sarah Williams and Grandpa Ray Hickman.

Letters

When am doing family history research, I love it when I find a journal or diary.  Grandma Vernie didn't keep a journal, but she did write letters.  And Mom saved all those letters.  One of the many projects she had started was to put the letters in chronological order in a binder.  I am finding many more letters stashed in different files, as well as many letters and cards written to Vernie.  So I think I will finish this project.  The only thing I will add is also the letters to Vernie from her relatives and friends. 

My cousin, Diane, also a granddaughter of Vernie asked if I had seen a letter from Granddad Bailey to Vernie written shortly before he died in 1960.  I had not seen it, but would look for it as I gathered her letters.  Today I found it.  I'm pretty sure it is the one as it was in the envelope postmarked April 1960 and it also had a newspaper clipping of his obituary tucked into the envelope. 

Here is the letter: 

It was good to talk to you for a few minutes the other night. I am glad that I'll get to come home one more time before going to Fresno. We can still meet in Frisco. I miss John and his poppa and momma too.

Will stop for now. Threre's not much to write about here either. Maybe the weather will be better tomorrow. Its always nice in Eureka because you are there.

Always your
Bailey

Sweetheart your simple minded husband - went to the Episcopal Church as planned ecxept that I didn't set my time up and arrived at noon, so I came back to my room. It is real cloudy. I hate to go out it is so cloudy but guess I had better get his mailed and I may need a bite to eat but I'm not really hungry, would be I think if I had you to eat with me. I'll be seeing you. Goodbye now.
RB
　

Family History Jigsaw Puzzles

Courtland Marchant
abt 1928 or 1929

When I do genealogy on a family line, sometimes I go backwards in time and sometimes I go forwards.  Then I go back and forth.  By the time I am done, I've been able to piece together their "story."  The whole process is like solving a mystery and I love a mystery.  Or it is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.  I like puzzles, too.

Sometimes the puzzle pieces pop up in surprising places.  Last year, I was looking at my grandmother's and her sister's families trying to find a few more pieces to the stories.  I "googled" one of the names - Courtland Marchant - my grandmother's nephew. I was stunned to find him on Facebook! Yesterday, I found a second cousin, also a Marchant on Ancestry.com.  

In Mom's office was a box of old letters and cards written to my grandmother Vernie (Crabb) Bailey during the last few years when she lived with my parents.  Some of these were from her nephews.  I also found a file folder of old pictures of Aunt Arloene's family.  I posted these to Facebook - where I am creating a gathering place for my cousins so we can share family history and present day stories with each other -- an ongoing family reunion.  Hopefully someone will be able to identify the photographs with no name.

Here are two letters from Al Marchant, son of Emmer and Arloene (Crabb) Marchant to his Aunt Vernie (Crabb) Bailey:

21 May 87
Dear Vernie and all,
"Greetings from Beautiful Ft. Bragg California."
Hope all is well with all of you.
I have been with Leona for about 8 months.  She has been bed ridden and uses a walker all this time.  She gets up to eat and then back to bed.  She has a lady to take care of her.
I have been doing a lot of repair work around the place.
I liked this cassette so that you would like one to.
Best Regards and may God bless and guide all of you.
           As Ever
                          Al


Dear Aunt Vernie,
"Greetings from Foggy Calif."
Was surprised you were in AZ.
I was thru Page many years ago and I like all of Ariz.
Us Campers stay around Yuma or Quartzsite in the winter and on the Mts around Flagstaff - Williams - Prescott in the summer that way we get the best of two worlds - (wish I was at Quartzsite now.)
  The big mineral show takes place first of Feb every year.
  Leona is about the same
We went to town Sun and she enjoyed the ride.
  Hope all of you are in Good Health and have a "Happy New Year"
       "Jesus is Lord"
                   Al
P.S.  You never told me you[r] daughters name? a cousin I last saw in Commache Texas I think?
  The older I get - the more doughtfull I get.
[enclosed an newspaper article about Quartzsite dated Jan. 29, 1988]

A Christmas card postmarked 1989:

Dear Aunt Vernie:

  Virgil & I wish you a very "merry Christmas" and hope the new year brings you health and happiness.

  We are both doing great.  Virgil golfs three times a week, and I take aerobics three times a week and get in a golf game whenever possible.

  We are meeting our oldest daugther and family at Moutee's in Seaview for Christmas this year.  Then Lisa and family will come up here for a few days before heading back to Calif.

  Weather here is clear and cool.  No rain - no snow.

      Love,

          Virgil & Ruth.

A Life Long Geneaology Passion

 

When we die, we become "stories" in the minds of other people.

Last month my mother died. I inherited her "genealogy." Hundreds of file folders, a computer file, and a thousand or so pictures. It has become my job to somehow make sense and order of all this. Mom apparently saved every genealogy note she wrote. They are filed in multiple and duplicate files. Mom did leave a Legacy Family Tree file which she updated until several months ago. I consider that her "finished work."

Mom was baptized into the LDS faith in November 1952. Soon afterward she began researching her family tree. Doing genealogy became one of her life's passions. It was from her that I learned to love doing family history. I remember on Sundays she would get out her genealogy and spread it out on the dining room table. To keep me busy, she gave me charts. I would fill out the family trees and family group sheets in my best handwriting and learn the names of my ancestors and their "stories." Her passion became my passion.


Mom's Obituary is posted at the Lake Powell Chronicle:

Patricia Lula Hickman returned home to her Heavenly Father on Feb. 8, 2011, at age 81.

She was born on April 11, 1929, in Brownwood, Texas, to Richard Taylor and Vernie Beatrice (Crabb) Bailey, who preceded her in death.  She graduated from Basic High School in Henderson, Nev.  She was a prom queen, the “Sweetheart of Basic High.”  It was there that she met her sweetheart, Raymond Dee Hickman.  They were married on Dec. 26, 1947 in Kingman, Ariz.  On Sept. 12, 1961 they were sealed for time and eternity in the Los Angeles Temple.

Patricia became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1952 and has served faithfully in many callings since. Patricia loved her work in the local Family History Center, where she and her good friend Ida Tenny faithfully served every Tuesday for many years and helped many friends trace their family histories, as well as working on her own. Her love of the Savior and the gospel has influenced many in generations past and in generations to come. Patricia was a very caring and compassionate person who often went the extra mile to help friends and families.  All who knew her loved her for a kind and caring nature.

She loved to read and write stories. She collected porcelain dolls and grew beautiful roses in her garden.

Patricia was the mother of eight wonderful children who survive her: Michael Hickman (Mindy) of Altadena, Calif.; Karen Bush (Samuel) of Page; Laura Dupaix (Leslie) of Kaysville, Utah; Grant Hickman (Anna) of Clearfield, Utah; Richard Hickman of Page, Merry McGuire (Patrick) of Mesa, Ariz.; Melody Adams (Daniel) of Washington, Utah; and James Hickman (LaDonna) of Page.  She was the grandmother of 20 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren who dearly loved her because each and every one was her “favorite.”  She was preceded in death by one great-grandson, Kaleb Hutchings Williams.  Also surviving her are her two brothers, Melvin D. Bailey of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and Richard T. Bailey of Dallas, Texas, and many nephews and nieces.

The family gathered on Feb. 12, 2011 at the Page Cemetery to lay their wife, mother and grandmother to rest, each giving her a pink rose.  Her little great-granddaughter, Brianna, perhaps said what we all feel: “Grandma told me she worked all her life to go to heaven.  I am really happy for her.”