Friday, January 27, 2023

#52Ancestors-Oops

 Oops is a great topic and there are so many things to write about, but I am sharing the first thing that came to my mind!


My father was born in 1927. His parents had married in 1910. They then had three children: in 1911, 1913, and 1915. And twelve years later...oops...my father was born!

My father's sister, who was born in 1913, would often recall how she would drop my father off at kindergarten on her way to college!





Friday, January 20, 2023

#52Ancestors-Education


I am reposting a blog that I wrote on June 3, 2015, to address the topic "Education"! Above is a picture of Arthur and Nye Gray Adamson. It still amazes me that both of my grandparents graduated from college!

This week’s challenge was the topic “Commencement”.  I chose to write about my paternal grandparents. Both of my grandparents graduated from college.  I find this amazing since they were both born in the late 1800s when going to college was not often considered an option! 

My grandfather, Arthur Logan Adamson, was born on the 29th of April in 1885 in Olney, Richland County, Illinois.  He was the eleventh of thirteen children and, as far as I know, the only one to attend college.  He graduated from Olney High School in 1903.  The family story is that his parents sold their farm in order for Art to attend Westfield College in Westfield, Illinois.

My grandmother, Lotta Nye Gray, was born on the 5th of July in 1888 in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana.  She was the second of five children. One of her brothers also graduated from college. 

Art graduated from Westfield College in 1906 after “three years of hard work and summer school”.  While at Westfield he played quarterback for the football team.  Nye graduated from Westfield in 1907 and was president of her class (which consisted of five students!).    Art and Nye had begun dating each other before they left Westfield.   





The above picture was taken from The Lanz 1907, the yearbook from Westfield College.  It refers to her interest in my grandfather in the line:


"Being a descendant of Adam she has taken a special interest in one of his sons..." 


Art and Nye married in 1910 and went on to have four children.  All of their four children graduated from college during the years of 1935 to 1948.

Obviously, education remained very important to Art and Nye. 

 


Sunday, January 8, 2023

#52Ancestors: Favorite Photo

This was fairly easy to choose!  It is my grandmother and my mother in about 1928!



 

#52Ancestors-I'd Like to Meet

 I may only hit some 52 weeks this year, but this is a start! The topic is who I would like to meet.  That was a pretty easy choice for me.  I want to meet and talk to my great-great-great-grandmother Mary Alice "Allie" Reade.  Allie was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland in 1801. It was there that she married James H Murphy in 1831. 

I choose her because I would like to learn more about her Reade family history and her husband's history. And, at least in our family, it has always tended to be the women who know the secrets, and just knowledge of the families, so I am guessing that Allie could tell me a great deal that I have not been able to uncover!