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Friday, March 29, 2013

Friday's Faces From the Past ~ Grandma Nancy Buck's Photo Album




Continuing with the mysterious contents of Ann "Nancy" Stafford Buck's photo album, I thought it might be helpful to state some facts about her.

These are the only two photos I have of her. According to the 1900, 1910, and 1920 census she immigrated in 1899, but I have not been able to find a passenger list yet.  I am going to go google for a minute. Be right back.

Will wonders never cease! I just found her passenger list on Ancestry.com! No wonder I had a hard time finding it.  She sailed out of Glasgow, Scotland! Did not see that coming at all.

Source Information: Ancestry.com. UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Since grandma Nancy left England in 1899, I think it's safe to say that the Nottingham photos in the album were taken before June of that year.

The photo I want to share today is actually one that was taken in the U.S, probably Utah.


This photo was developed in Ogden, Utah. On the backside is an ink stamp that is only half legible. It says "GENIE XXXXLEOX PRINT"  new line "xxxxxxDRUG Co. Ogden, Utah"   Where the xxx represents printing that cannot be deciphered.

I think it is very possible that this is a family gathering of some of grandma Nancy's descendants, but which ones?

There were quite a few Buck family members living in Weber County, Utah. These include William Henry and Flora Buck (they were 2nd cousins) family, Luther and Sarah Powell Buck family, and William and Sybil Agnes Buck March may have been in Utah the time of the photo.

So I'm calling all Buck family members for help in identifying these folks.



Leslie Ann

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Fearless Females 27 ~ Immigration


Jane Maria Pickett
Matilda Kelsey Price
I actually have two 2nd great-grandmothers that immigrated on the same ship. The following short article describes the voyage.

"NINETIETH COMPANY. -- Emerald Isle, 350 souls. The ship, Emerald Isle, Captain G. P. Cornish, cleared from the port of Liverpool on the twenty-eighth, and sailed on the thirtieth of November, 1855, with three hundred and fifty Saints on board, under the presidency of Philemon C. Merrill, assisted by Elders Joseph France and T. B. H. Stenhouse. Only a little sickness prevailed on board, except the ordinary seasickness. On the twenty-sixth of December a heavy sea caused by high winds stove in a part of the bulwark, rent a sail or two, and caused considerable confusion. The same evening two children died. Three couples were married on board. On the twenty-ninth of December the Emerald Isle arrived at New York, and the emigrants were landed in Castle Garden, where some of them remained a few days, until they found houses to live in, and the brethren obtained employment. Some of the emigrants continued the journey to St. Louis and other parts of the West, and in due course of time most of them reached the valleys of the mountains."
  --Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, page 792; Vol. XVIII, page 78.

Jane Maria Pickett was a child of 7 when she came to America with her father, stepmother, brother, and two sisters. She was my maternal grandmother's grandmother.

Matilda Kelsey was the young bride of Robert Price. They had only been married a little over a month when they embarked on their voyage. Matilda was my paternal grandmother's grandmother.

They were even on the same page of the passenger list.

Ship Name
Emerald Isle
Departure
30 Nov 1855 from Liverpool
Arrival
29 Dec 1855 at New York
Source
BMR, Book #1045, pp. 1-17 (FHL #025,691); Customs (FHL #175,515)
I wonder how much interaction they had with each other. It boggles my mind to think that a 7 year old and a 22 year old on this long ship voyage would some day  share the same great-great grandchildren.



Leslie Ann

Monday, March 25, 2013

Idaho Territory Sesquicentennial ~ Askersund, Sweden to Colorado to Idaho


Today I am pleased to present my first guest post written by blogger Sharon McConnel from Sharon's Hodge-Podge for the continuing Idaho Territory Sesquicentennial series.




My Swedish-born great-grandfather John Carlson immigrated in the early 1880's. He and his younger brother George settled in the east central Colorado where they worked in the mines and then farmed. At some point John became friends with the family of Cephas and Celestia (“Lettie”) Barker. Cephas and three of the children died of typhoid fever and John eventually married Lettie. Their daughter Alma was grandmother.

In 1903 John brought his family to Idaho: wife Celestia, her son Ira, her daughter Francis and their daughter Alma. Alma was nine years old at the time. Carlsons and two other families rented a railroad box car. They loaded their belongings, farm equipment and teams on the freight car and came to Idaho, to Weiser, which had been well-advertised and promoted.

John worked for Butterfield Livestock in the Price Valley area and Lettie cooked at the ranch. The following year, John and Mr. Long, one of the neighbors from Colorado, heard of work in Emmett building a canal. They both had teams of horses so they checked it out. Carlsons stayed and Longs went back to Weiser.

Two years later Carlsons bought the relinquishment papers on a High Valley ranch, northeast of Ola. There was a 12' x 14' cabin on the property and John added onto it. The Carlson ranch became the stage stop between Ola and Smith’s Ferry. In a 1911 photograph the sign reads Jno. Carlsons Wood Side Home. I can only image how High Valley’s alpine setting must have reminded John of his native Sweden. John died four years before my father was born, so what little I know of him has been passed down through my grandmother's stories and the occasional appearance in public record. One of my favorite stories is how he walked from the High Valley Ranch to the then county seat of Idaho City to file his homestead papers, roughly a round trip of a hundred miles. I wish I could have known him!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Friday's Faces From the Past ~ N. J. Porter



This is another photo from great-great-grandma Buck's photo album. On the back side it says "N. J. Porter, Centerville, Utah.

Dean, the holder of the photo thinks that Mr. Porter may be a missionary that stayed with the Buck family in England.

The only possibility I could come up with according to census records and other information found on the web was that this photo was of Nathan Tanner Porter, jr. So maybe the "J" on the back of the photo was actually a "T", but I had no way of knowing for sure.  I was about give up the googling when low and behold I found this on Southern Utah Universtiy's website.

If that's not the same fellow, I am a monkey's uncle! Nathan T. Porter was the President of Southern Utah University from 1901-1904.

I will have to let cousin Dean know that I figured out who he is. Now I want to know exactly why great-great grandma had his photo and when he was in Nottingham.





Leslie Ann

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Treasure Chest Thursday ~ 1900 Reciepts



Here are a couple of more treasures from my special shoe box. The above original receipt dated Feb 15, 1900 was given to my great-grandfather Thomas Joynes Smedley from the Bear Lake County Treasurer's office when he made a payment on "school" land that he bought.

The receipt below is for the same payment, but shows a little more detail.


According to this receipt he purchased school land on the 15th of Feb 1900. I have quite a few of T.J. Smedley's deeds, but unfortunately I don't have one for that date. The school land could be the Fielding Academy, but I don't know for sure.  I am going to have to do some research to figure out for sure what this school land was.



Leslie Ann

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Idaho Territory Sesquicentennial


March 4, 2013 marked the 150th year of Idaho becoming a Territory with Abraham Lincoln's signature.

Boise kicked off celebrations at the State Capitol that morning with hundreds of folks in attendance. They even renamed the Senate auditorium the Abraham Lincoln Auditorium.

I wish I could have been there, but alas no.

All of my grandparents and five of my great-grandparents were all born in Idaho. And you know how I love Idaho. This year I want to celebrate the 150 year mark by doing blog posts centered around Idaho history and it's Pioneers.

I would also like to recruit some guest bloggers to share their Idaho stories.  If you are interested, I would love to hear from you.



Leslie Ann

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Another Liebster Award




Thanks to William over at Among My Branches I am the proud owner of another Liebster Blog Award.

As mentioned in my other Liebster post, the rules keep changing. I'm not going to pass this one around, but I do want to answer the questions that William came up with.


  1. How long have you been researching your family history?  I have been doing genealogy and family history research since I was in high school, so that's a little over 30 years.
  2. What made you begin researching your family history?  I used to spend hours looking through my grandmother's genealogy books. I have always loved learning about my ancestors.
  3. Was there an ancestor or relative in your family that was also interested in family history or preserved important documents and records?  My paternal grandmother, two great-grandmothers, two great aunts, and an aunt are the only ones I know of besides me.
  4. Have you uncovered any connections to famous people?  Yes. I am related to Lizzy Borden through several different lines.
  5. What is the furthest generation back that you have a photograph for that ancestor–i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd great grandparent, etc?  I have photos of 3 4th great-grandparents.
  6. Do you have any family recipes that have been handed down through the generations?  Not really. But I do have a church cookbook with several recipes that my grandmother and one of my aunts submitted.
  7. What was the country of origins for your grandparents?  All four of my grandparents were born in Bear Lake County, Idaho.
  8. Name a fun fact from your paternal grandfather’s ancestry?  My great-grandfather Thomas Joynes Smedley invented an IMPROVED MACHINE FOR MAKING DRAIN-TILES. 
  9. Name a fun fact from your paternal grandmother’s ancestry?  Grandma used to always tell us that her grandfather Price would say about her grandmother,"You could walk the streets of London all day and never find a more beautiful woman."
  10. Name a fun fact from your maternal grandfather’s ancestry?  My 3rd great-grandmother made  beer to serve to the farm hands in summer time.
  11. Name a fun fact from your maternal grandmother’s ancestry?  When my 3rd great-grandfather, Thomas Barker had no farm work to do, he could make many kinds of baskets and different kinds of matting and bases that people use in church pews to kneel on when worshiping their Lord on Sundays.
Thanks William for these questions. I had fun answering them.


Leslie Ann

Friday, March 15, 2013

Friday's Faces From the Past ~ Unidentified Photo ~ 2



This lovely couple is second in the line of unidentified folks.  If you missed the story behind these unidentified photos, you can catch up here.

The photo was taken by Gibson & Sons, I am going to guess out of their Nottingham studio. I found this wonderful site dedicated to Photographers  & Photographic Studios in Derbyshire, England.

Looking at an example of this studio's work, I am going to guess that this photo was taken circa 1903-1907.

This couple may be a member of the Buck, Stafford, or Taylor families of the Nottingham area. If you have any ideas, I sure would like to hear them.



Leslie Ann

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Treasure Chest Thursday ~ 1957 Postcard



This is another goody that I scanned the last time I was back home in Idaho.  It's a postcard that my great-grandmother, Esther Eleanor Henderson Barker sent to grandma Blanche.

It's postmarked Sep 10 A.M. 1957 Utah and addressed to Blanche Piggott, Bloomington, Idaho.



Sept 9
Dear Blanche & the girls
where was you after the
meeting we never left
town until 6 oclock
from Eldons I called
several times but could
not get you. call ????
& he told us who the
Bishoprick was hope your
all well. we have one
Batch of soup on happy
Birthday to Joyce love
mother 

Joyce (mom) had just turned 15 that day. I don't have a clue who Eldon was, and I hurt my brain trying to figure out who she called.




Leslie Ann

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Wordless Wednesday ~ Family Tree


Family tree given to Weston Hymas while he was in
Denmark sometime before 1980

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Fearless Females 12 ~ Working Girl


Fearless Females is a series of blogging prompts launched by Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist.

March 12 — Working girl: Did your mother or grandmother work outside the home? What did she do? Describe her occupation.

Blanche T Barker Piggott in her office at the
Bear Lake County Courthouse
After grandpa died grandma Blanche had to start working to provide for the family.

She cleaned the church for a while and for extra income she would do some typing from home.

I'm not sure what year she started at the courthouse, but she would later become the Bear Lake County Deputy Assessor.


I actually have one sheet of the stationary from the Bear Lake County Assessor's office with her name on it.


Today I found her name mentioned in the Commissioners Proceedings section of the News-Examiner for the years 1957, 1958, and 1959.





When I was little I used to love visiting grandma at work. I mean, who doesn't love the smell of an old courthouse. There was a judge who always gave us wintergreen lifesavers when we were there.  To this day that is my favorite flavor of mint.



Leslie Ann

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Fearless Females 5 ~ Dating Madsen


Fearless Females is a series of blogging prompts launched by Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist.

March 5 — How did they meet? You’ve documented marriages, now, go back a bit. Do you know the story of how your parents met? Your grandparents?

William "Madsen" & Blanche Theora Barker Piggott

Grandma Blanche never talked much about growing up, or the time she shared with grandpa; not to me anyway. But thankfully she wrote it all down!

After graduating from Fielding High School in Paris, Idaho Blanche was very close friends with Vera Nelson. Vera lived in Bloomington and Blanche in St. Charles. Vera's boyfriend was Paul Haddock and Blanche was dating his friend Owen Thornock. They were both going to BYU and majored in education.

It was while she was dating Owen that she met Matt. He was dating Elmoyne Ward at the time.

From here I would like to share a few excerpts from her autobiography, in "her own words".

One Christmas holiday when Paul and Owen were home we had a party at Otis and Maude Bateman's home. Matt was there with Elmoyne and I don't know what happened but after that night I knew it was Matt that I wanted.  After Owen went back to school Matt and I started going together. He wasn't one to let his feelings show too much (not to me anyway), so it was quite a while before we decided to get married. He always said I asked him to marry me, then he'd laugh. I probably did, in a way. I think he was afraid of marriage because he didn't know if we could make it financially. We had some rough times, but we were making it until he got sick.

....Owen was short in stature and my Dad used to say "I hope you marry someone that can jump across an irrigation ditch without falling in". He liked Owen, but he liked Madsen better.

I liked Matt and even thought his big red 'Ball Brand' overshoes were cute. He was a special person. Everyone liked him. He was honest, had high ideals and morals, and was very ambitious and hard working. He always had time to help someone else if they needed him and would leave his work to go help others. After we decided to get married he went to Logan to make arrangements with Mary Jane Faylor to buy the home that we were going to live in.

Matt was working for Herb Bateman at the time and asked for time off to go to Logan. He told Herb why he wanted to go. After he left for Logan, walking and hitchhiking, Herb decided he wanted the home for his daughter, Mona Rasmussen, so he got in his car and drove to Logan through Immigration Canyon, another route to Logan. As luck would have it, Matt was going to Logan through the Logan Canyon and was able to get a ride through the canyon. He arrived at Faylors and made arrangements to buy the home for one hundred dollars down and one hundred dollars per year for 14 years.

Just as he was coming out of the house Herb Bateman drove up to the gate. He was furious with Matt and told him if he got married he would fire him. He kept his word and when we came back from our wedding in the Salt Lake Temple Madsen didn't have a job.
On September 21, 1933, he and Truman Payne and some other Bloomington boys left for Idaho Falls, Idaho, to harvest sugar beets. On September 30, 1933 I received a letter from Matt.  These are some excerpts from his letter to me. "Your letter and parcel sure looked good to an old, married man when he came in from work. The boys want to thank you, too!" (i must have sent some food). "How are you feeling? Is your back any better? You never said a word about your health. You want to know all I've done since I left. Well, I'll do better than you did and tell all I've done. We never left Bloomington until 3:30 p.m. and only had one flat tire from there to Montpelier. We made it to Lava by dark, where we got a cottage for the  night. They managed to get me up in time to start about 8:00 a.m. The house we are living in is a two room "shack" with two windows out and so full of lies we are able to have fly stew three times a day".

...."We figure we have made $9.50 each this week."

... "While waiting for Truman to come with the car, Homer Thomas and Neville Thornock came to see us. They say a lot of Bear Lake boys are up here. They also said they saw you to Max Haddock's Missionary Farewell party, (They gave the missionaries a party and dance at that period of time.) and that you were having a swell time. I am sure glad to hear it, but of course it was against your wishes that I should. You n ever mention things like that".

"We will be done with this job about the 10th or 15th of October and will be home if we cannot find another job".

..."If you see Mother and Dad, find out how the cattle and chickens are getting along. See if that steer and heifer have come out of the hills. Tell Dad that I forgot to make arrangements about hay and that if he runs out ask him if he will buy some and I will send him the money. But, if he can make it last 'till I get home I want them up to our place when I get back and don't want to move the hay twice".

"Has Clarence (Poulson) moved in the place yet? Listen, Blanche, don't stay at the place nights alone, please! Blanche, if I could figure out a way of keeping you with me here I would sure have you up here. I guess I am homesick for the first time, for I sure have a longing to go back. Next time I go on a goose chase like this, you go too. Have to close, with love, Matt. P.S. Blanche, I cannot begin to express my feelings to you, but I sure miss you, and oh! so bad".

They were married in the Salt Lake Temple by President George F. Richards of the Council of the Twelve Apostles on August 16, 1933. They had five children, Rodney Barker, twins Merrill William and Carolyn, Joyce, and Jean. I always wondered why grandma only gave the boys a middle name.

They would only have twelve years together. In November of 1944 grandpa began to have health problems. He was weak and tired easily. He was in and out of hospitals, but no one knew what was wrong with him. July 1, 1945 the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake ran more tests and decided he had pernicious anemia which is comparable now to leukemia.  He died in the hospital 14 days later.




Leslie Ann

Friday, March 1, 2013

Friday's Faces From the Past ~ Unidentified Photo ~ 1


My second cousin once removed emailed some photos to me that were in a family photo album that he inherited from our Buck ancestors.

The photo album belonged to my 2nd great-grandmother Nancy Ann Stafford Buck. Unfortunately there is no clue as to who are in these photos that were taken in Nottingham.

Thanks to this wonderful new blogging prompt Friday's Faces From the Past suggested by Smadar Belkin Gerson of Past-Present-Future, I am more motivated to post them in the hopes that someone out there may be able to identify them.

I decided to post this one first because I think there is a striking resemblance to my great-great uncle Leonard Buck. What do you think?


Leonard Buck
Nancy Ann Stafford was married to James Buck.  So I would think that the album held Buck family members as well as Stafford, Taylor, and possibly Dobb and Meakin.

Nancy was born 3 Apr 1849 in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, England to Henry and Elizabeth Taylor Stafford.

James was born 25 May 1843 in Hucknall Torkard, Nottingham, England to Joseph and Mary Dobb Buck. Mary's mother was Hannah Dobb, but we don't know who her father was. She was adopted by Mary's husband Thomas Meakin. Hannah had two children with Thomas, hence the possibility of Meakin family members included in the album.

The old cabinet card photo was taken by Frederick Herbert Smith in Nottingham. He is listed in the 1891 Nottingham census as a photographer, but by 1901 he had moved to London.  So that might give some kind of a clue as to when the photo was taken.




Leslie Ann