Category Archives: Daily Blogging Prompts

Treasure Chest Thursday – I’m a Big Sister!

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If you haven’t figured out by now, I love old pictures! These are more from my “treasure” box.

My mom’s first of two younger sisters was born in 1952. My grandma says that mom loved being a big sister.

Happy Searching!

SueAnn

© Finding Mielke, 2012

Travel Tuesday – Queen’ s Hotel Port Elgin Ontario

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The Queen’s Hotel was owned in the 1940′s by Mr. and Mrs. McPhearson, who were great friends to my great-grandmother Edith Basham Lindsay. Every summer, they would drive from Detroit to Port Elgin to spend a month there.

Post card from the Queen’s Hotel Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada

Oscar, Mr. McPhearson, Edith, and Mrs. McPhearson outside the Queen’s Hotel Port Elgin, Ontario

Oscar and Edith outside the Queen’s Hotel, Port Elgin, Ontario

Happy Searching!

SueAnn

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday – Family Portrait (Unknown)

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Found this in the same antique store as the WWII postcards. The imprint on the side says Wolffe & Leonhardt, Wilmersdorf, Augusta str. 1.

No clue of who these people are or when this was taken. Anyone with any suggestions feel free to leave a comment, I would really love to get this back to some related to the individuals in this photo.

Happy Searching!

SueAnn

 

Travel Tuesday – RMS Queen Elizabeth

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Back of postcard says: THE PORT OF NEW YORK is the busiest port in the world. The Queen Elizabeth is shown being berthed. Other ships are from the bottom, The Independence, America, United States, Olympia, Aircraft Carrier Intrepid, Mauretania and Sylvania.

My grandfather and great-grandmother traveled aboard the Queen Elizabeth in 1948 (read that story here).

Happy Searching!

SueAnn

Treasure Chest Thursday – Vintage WWII Era Post Card

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This postcard is from Dinan, France of the Le Viaduc. The picture was taken from before the bombing, but someone illustrated, where the bombing took place.

This is another one of the postcards, I found at the antique shop in my hometown.

Happy Searching!

SueAnn

Motivation Monday – Never Give Up On Tearing Down a Brick Wall

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Have you ever hit a brick wall in your genealogy research? Well, I have, and one of my biggest brick walls, was my great-grandmother Hazel Lee Call Mansfield (you can see another post about her by clicking here).

The story told in my family is that my Granny’s mom had run off shortly after Granny’s little brother Bernard was born. The only names that I had, was her name before she was adopted and a census record from 1920, that listed Hazel and her brother living with the couple that raised them and a Robert Call, aged helper. I always knew that Robert Call, had to be related to me, but seeing as how he was in his early 70′s, I thought that he may have been Hazel’s grandfather. I had done some research on him, and knew that he had married a woman named Leona Davis in 1906 and that he was 61 and she was listed as 16, but I had no other information about Leona Davis. This weekend, since I was off work for my birthday, I decided to do some research.

First, I went back to the private tree I had created for my Granny’s half-brother, Carl Gunn (I met him at Granny’s funeral, but he was quite sick at the time). Then, I went over to findagrave.com, to see if his cemetery information had been added there, and some wonderful person had not only added his memorial, but his five siblings and where they were buried at. I, of course, had to check out there info, just hoping someone had mentioned who their parents were. Well on one his sisters, Martha Frances Gunn Smith, that same nice person, had included an obituary. I almost screamed, when I saw a half-sister as Hazel Mansfield of Crockett Mills and Martha’s parents were listed as Allen and Leona Davis Gunn. Before, I got to excited, I went to check out the other siblings, and on Opal Mae Gunn Adams, there was Granny’s name again. I was pretty sure, I had the right name for her mom, now.

Well that led me back to ancestry.com and the 1910 census record for Robert and Leona Call. I found their marriage record, thanks to the Crockett County Genealogy website. Turns out that Robert and Leona Davis Call had four children all together. Also, according to other records that I found, Leona was only 12, not 16, when she married Robert Call. I still can’t wrap my mind at how a 12 (or 16) year old would want to marry a 65-year-old man.

Thanks to my sleuthing, I found that Hazel had the 5 half-siblings from her mom, and 7 half-siblings from her dad. I also learned that Robert Call had served in the Civil War in the Company K, 10th Regiment Tennessee Cavalry. While, I still can’t prove a 100%, since unfortunately Granny’s birth certificate is in her adopted name, I’m still very excited to have broke through my brick wall.

So my advice to all of you, is to never give up. Just because you’ve hit a brick wall, doesn’t mean you can’t find away around it.

I think, they may have been the best birthday present ever!

Got to go research all those siblings now!

Happy Searching!

SueAnn

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday – Unknown Military Men in Paris, France Photo

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I found this photo is an antique store in Alabama.  The back of the photo says taken by the fountain which is in the center of Place de la Concorde.

This is The Fountain of River Commerce and Navigation, one of the two Fontaines de la Concode (1840) on the Place de la Concorde, Paris, France. In the background is the Hôtel de Crillon and to the left is the Embassy of the United States of America. I believe this was taken in the 1940s during WWII.

If any one recognizes any of these men, please let me know!

Happy Searching!

SueAnn

Treasure Chest Thursday – “London Under Fire” 1940s Postcard

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Taken from London Fire Journal: The bombings of 1940 culminated in the most celebrated and notorious of all raids, that of Sunday 29 December. The warning was sounded after 6pm, and then the incendiaries came down like “heavy rain”. The attack was concentrated on the City. The area from Aldersgate to Cannon Street, all of Cheapside and Moorgate, was in flames. One observer on the roof of the Bank of England recalled that “the whole of London seemed alight! We were hemmed in by a wall of flame in every direction.” Nineteen churches, 16 of them built by Christopher Wren after the first Great Fire, were destroyed; of the 34 guild halls, only three escaped; the whole of Paternoster Row went up in flames, destroying five million books; the Guildhall was badly damaged; St Paul’s was ringed with fire, but escaped. “No one who saw will ever forget”, wrote William Kent, “their emotions on the night when London was burning and the dome seemed to ride the sea of fire.”

I found this postcard will looking around an antique store in Cullman, Alabama. The owner of the store said that she had bought it at an estate auction. I have another postcard plus a picture of soldiers taken during WWII, that I will post next week!

Happy Searching!

SueAnn