All because Two people fell in LOVE!!

Well, in this case all because FOUR people fell in love!

Today, is the day of love, the day of hearts, flowers and chocolate.  I am not a particularly ooey and gooey kinda gal.  I don't want or expect flowers and a gushy card on this or any day of the year.  To me, this is just the time of year to teach my kids about loving all God's children.  Yes, occasionally my husband has been sweet enough to bring me home a bouquet of flowers and I love them.  But more just because of the thought and time it took him to stop and get them.  He works long hours and is usually exhausted by the time he gets off work.  We always try to show our love for each other all through the year.  We take time out of our day to stop, hug and tell each other we love each other AND mean it! And when possible we go out on dates. So no, I don't put much thought into celebrating our love for each other one day out of the year.

But I thought it might be nice to take time out to pay tribute to the two couples that have made the love my husband & I have for each other so special, by example and by creation.  Without both of our parents who first found each other and "fell in love" to "create" us.  And then lead by example, neither Theron nor I would be the people we are today, to love and cherish each other the way we do.  Was it all peaches and roses....no, of course not.  But through their struggles we have seen how strong couples can be and make it to last. 

So thank you to my parents Bob & Sandy Adamson and Theron's parents Earl & Marge Wahl for being who you are and loving each other! We learn by example, and you have both been great examples.  We are blessed to have you both in our lives and in our children's lives.  WE love you!

Lloyd & Helen Timbrel, Sandy & Bob Adamson, Wavel & Bill Adamson

Earl & Ramona Wahl, Earl & Marge Wahl, Bev & Jim Thornton

Yesterday's history was "Real Life"

As modern day people, when we look back on the past, it's easy to put it all in a box and take out the emotion of the everyday lives.  Everyday, we have to deal with emotions.  Whether, it's the emotions that comes from spilling the salt shaker or seeing the morning news.  And lets be honest the morning news hasn't been all that peachy in quite a while.  Or seeing our kids getting along and laughing together.

But sometimes we can look back at past events and put it in a nice and tidy box and not deal with the emotional part of life that came with that time.  Maybe we want to know but we still manage to separate ourselves from the emotions of them.  Maybe because to us they weren't "real" or "before our time" or "un-imaginable".  Some of our ancestors went through things that we can only imagine in our wildest dreams...bad or good. 

Genealogist try to seek those times out.  We want to know what made our ancestor's tick.  What made them mad, or sad or more importantly happy.  I sometimes wonder where did that Timbrel temper come from.  And when dealing with my children how many generations back did the Wahl temper go....Genealogists or family historians, whatever you want to call us want to know these things.  

I have spent a good part of the past 5 years digging into the lives of not only my ancestors, my husbands but also random stranger's.  I have investigated the "everyday folk", murder's, robber's, the "cream of the crop" and even cities and have been touched and moved by a lot.  I have been brought to tears and laughed and stunned with the best.  A couple years ago when researching a particular relative of my husband's it suddenly occurred to me that I was looking at the face of my children's 6th Great Grandfather.  A rather moving moment. I mean he wasn't my blood but he was my kids' and that was amazing!

I had another one of those moment's today.  A rather sad one, I must admit.  I was looking about for an obit for just a "regular" fellow and his wife when I ran across this article.

Elko Daily Free Press 19 Nov 1976 Courtesy Northeastern Nevada Museum

The story of Patty Hearst is a sad one.  And I am not sure why this one in particular affected me today.  But it occurred to me that this was headline news back then.  This was real life for the people living.  Today we deal with President Obama and his medical care, gun bans, and school shootings.  This is what we are living today.  My kids are being taught in school today about segregation and  Marin Luther King Jr.  and in Nov 1976 they were living through the Patty Hearst saga.  Through all time we have been living with emotion, the key is find the good ones and try to concentrate on that.  We can't ignore the bad, as the saying goes "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," George Santayna. 

So what is your point Mindy, you ask?? Well, I think, one way to get out of our emotional box is to pick an ancestor and learn about them.  I am not encouraging you to go out and fill in your entire family tree.  Just one person in time.  Whether, it's someone that lived through something that makes the hair on your arm stand up or just someone that had the patience of a saint or just someone you have always heard about.  This is my call to my friends and family to get involved in learning about your past.  It is important!! Don't decide to become the super obsessed weirdo (not that there is anything wrong with being that person as I AM that person lol) family historian.  Just learn about someone, one person, that is related in bringing about the fact that you are here today. :D

Treasure Chest Thursday!

On the 25th of August 1995 my Grandparents, Lloyd & Helen Timbrel, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary (a great goal for Theron & I).  My Mother, Sandy, and her siblings had worked together before hand to make them a wonderful gift that they would treasure because it came from the heart.  Each of my Grandparents children made their own squares, then my Aunt Dolores put the blanket together and quilted it.  The result the most beautiful blanket.

Helen & Lloyd looking over their beautiful gift.

This was taken today

Near the center of the blanket is their wedding photo and marriage license.

I was 15 when I wrote this.

When I went to visit my wonderful aunt, she was prompted to give this blanket to me.  She felt that it would be truly treasured with me.  And it is! I feel so honored that out of all the grandchildren, I should be the one to end up with it.  Thank you!

Wedding Wednesday!

What a perfect day to talk about wedding's....especially because on this day 10 years ago, I married the best man, and future father to my children.  I can't believe that it has been 10 years already! We have had many up's and down's and a some flat stretches along the way but I wouldn't trade one single moment.

He got it up my nose!! So immature!! ;)

 

Sept 2011 She how much we have grown up. lol. 

I look at the photo of us at our wedding reception and I can remember the day perfectly...I can remember the day we got married perfectly too lol our reception was two days after our actual wedding....It was a great day! And I have to be honest, I knew he was going to shove that cake in my face so I tried to give as good as I was getting but his arms are longer. :D I also remember the day we walked temple square in Salt Lake City, UT.  We went up for the day, and Theron wandered around while I spent the morning in the Family History Library (wink, it wasn't enough time) and then we spent the rest of our time there walking the temple grounds.  Which is why I am not all gussied up.  We had such a good time though.  And that tells you what kind of man I married, that he would hang out for a few hours while I searched the archives I needed.  I am lucky indeed!!

Swedish Nobility Calendar

It came! It came!! I am so excited! I wasn't expecting it to come in till the spring but I went to the post office the other day thinking I was picking up a late Christmas present, when the worker was intrigued by the unusual label.  At first, I was confused but it quickly dawned on me that it was my copy of the Swedish Nobility Calendar for 2013.  :D

Last spring, I got an email from a lady researching Theron's direct line.  She was not a relative but was a worker for House of Nobility in Sweden.  I did some research to make sure it wasn't a scam but it is a reputable establishment.  They compile a record of all the descendants of Swedish Nobility...which Theron's direct line is through.  Sadly, we are not in the book because it goes by the male line.  And this is his Mother's family.  But his parents and Marge's siblings are in it.  I can't wait to share with his Mom.

Here is the line that takes us to the Nobility:

Theron Wahl- Marjorie (Thornton) Wahl - James Elliot Thornton - Raymond Ernest Thornton - Ernest Adlerstam - Hugo Adlerstam

The name changes from Adlerstam to Thornton when Ernest dies while Raymond is very young and is then "adopted" by his Mother's second husband Joseph O. Thornton.

Theron takes great pride in the fact that he descend from Swedish Nobility! :D

The Christmas Presents

Well, now that Christmas is over I can share with you the Christmas presents I made for my brothers and sister's.  I loved them and I think that they all loved them too.  It took me a long time to get them done, mostly because I was still collecting the photo collections.  If I get any more collections I will update their binders. 

The binders are comprised of a cover sheet, a letter from me, a photo pedigree chart, then a bigger pedigree chart and then the picture indexes. I really had fun working on these binders. :D

deadfred.com

Since, I am in the mood for talking about photo's lately, I thought I would share a cool little website called deadfred.com.  It's a website where people...including you...can upload photo's for other's searching for their ancestors.  And where you can go to look to see if anyone may have found a photo of your ancestor's.  Why? and How? you ask.  Well, have you ever been into a second hand store or an antique shop?? Do you see the photo's in the old frames hanging around.  There are just enough of us crazy people that buy those photo's to try to find family member's of the people in them, so they can go somewhere they will be loved and cherished. And yes, I am one of those crazy people. ;)  And it's easy and free.  Sign up as a member and then upload the photo and what you know about it.  You just never know who might come looking.

A few years ago I was given the most beautiful gift in the world. It was shortly after I had found my Great Grandfather Ralph Henry Adamson's family.  Ralph has been one of those ancestors I can't stay away from for very long.  Anyways, finding his family was a very big deal to my Dad and his brother's.  They didn't know anything about Ralph or his family.  Like I was saying shortly after I found his family, I get an email from this very nice lady asking how I was related to Minerva Mulford Adamson.  I emailed back and let her know that Minerva was my 3rd Great Grandmother.  She was so excited to find a direct descendant of Minerva's.  She emailed back saying she had a photo of Minerva and she would send me a digital copy and then would put the original in the mail, if I would just provide my mailing address.  WELL, of course I emailed it right away and sat impatiently...I mean patiently waiting for her return email with the digital copy.  When it came in I couldn't believe my eyes.

Wow!...even now I look at her and want to cry.  I never in a million years thought I would see a picture of her.  Then when the original came in the mail I just went crazy.  I mean here she was in my hands.  So how did this lovely lady end of with a picture of my ancestor.  She told me that about 15 years before, she worked for one of her local schools and had asked her colleagues if anyone had any old frames she could buy, as she was collecting frames.  The wife of her principal brought her some frames, but in one of the frames was this picture.  She said she tried to return the photo but they didn't know who she was and said they didn't want it.  The amazing woman then held onto the photo in an envelope, in a box, in her basement for all those years.  Her husband and her were retiring and getting ready to move, when she found this box of photo's.  So she got online to try to find family members for the photo's she had received while collecting old frames.  AMAZING!!! This is still one of my most favorite stories to tell. ;)  I emailed her back and asked if she was still in touch with the people she got the frame from and luckily enough she was.  She called them to see if they were interested in talking to me.  Turns out I am related to the principal through Minerva.  We are both direct descendants of her one of her son's (me) and one of her daughter's (him).  And we have been friends ever since.  I tried to return the original photo to him as it was rightfully his but he said that she was in a loving home and he now had a digital copy and that was just fine by him.

After this experience, I promised my self that if I ever came across any photo's that had names on them, I would try to find family to send them home.  Two summers ago, I took a trip to see my sister who lives in Washington state.  While doing the tourist thing, we stopped at an old antique shop in Bellingham, and I found quite a few photo's.  I brought them home and was able to find family for a couple of them.  I still have three photo's that I haven't been able to find a home for but hopefully someday, someone will come looking for them.

In the meantime, I might just post them on deadfred.  :D

So the next time you are in a shop and see photo's, look to see if they are labeled in any way.  And then pay it forward.  Someday, when you least expect it someone might give you the surprise of a lifetime. 

Mrs. Clara Anderson

A. Mark Conklin

Thomas Howard Gaffney