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.”