Nickname--Charles Stark

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to give a try for the second year. 

     The prompt for week # 3 (January 15-21) is Nickname.

     Last year the ancestor challenge also had a nickname theme and I blogged about mine.  

     I have always been a person who assigned nicknames to folks, both family and friends.  My grandparents--Teek, Grams and Pop Pop; my sons--Big Ar and Bucky Bee or Buck; my pledge in college--Lutterbein became Lima Bean; children I babysat and on and on......

     I have countless blogs about the Civil War soldier in the tin type pictured above.  My maternal great grandfather, Charles Stark, was born in Germany, immigrated to America in 1860, traveled to Pittsburgh and was mustered into service in 1861.  After the end of the war he re-enlisted and went west to the Dakota's probably to fight Native Americans.  This is a capsulized version.  A more detailed blog about Charles Stark is on Flipside as well as several other items about his life.  

     When my maternal grandmother, Martha Marie Frederick Stark, died, my Mom found a large box with a collection of "old" stuff in her apartment.  It was a collection of all sorts of items.  Turn of the 20th century jewelry, old metal opera purses, sterling silver initialed teaspoons, Dresden Christmas ornaments and a tin type of a Civil War soldier.  This box of Stark/Frederick memorabilia came into my possession.   

     When I began my genealogical research, I remembered "the box" and was able to locate it in the attic.  Questioning my Mother about her roots was pretty much a blank.  She had no knowledge of her grandparents on either side.  

     The tin type of the Civil War soldier took me by surprise.  He was the first one I found in my family to be in the Civil War in my early discovery years.  

     Who was this fellow?  I knew of my Frederick great grandparents from census reports.  It was not my maternal great grandfather, Alfred Frederick.  My Stark great grandfather?  I didn't even know his name.  After more research, I found my maternal grandfather's death certificate and saw he and his father had the same name, Charles Stark.  

     During these early years I had to send in a form to get a copy of his Civil War pension file.  (so much easier today).  When it arrived it proved to be quite a bonanza.  

From Charles Stark Pension File
Assignment of a male guardian
Jacob Colmer
September 30, 1890

     The tin type was most definitely my maternal great grandfather.  Also part of the file were copies of the five Stark kids birth certificates and a surprise.  Apparently my Great Grandfather was hospitalized in the Allegheny City Home in 1890 at age forty-five as a lunatic.  Now it was apparent why no one ever talked about him or knew of him among my Mother's generation.  

1890 Pittsburgh Daily Post,
Sep 15, 1890,
page 3

1895 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
 27 April 1895
  Page 2

     We speculated that perhaps his lunacy was caused by his long military service today known as PTSD.  I held on to this theory until I subscribed to the newspaper website through Ancestry.  Charles Stark obituaries told the tale of a man who was financially well off; however, through some poor financial choices, lost all his money causing his mental downfall.

    And where does this all lead to the topic of this blog--Nickname?  Not made by me.  One day my husband made the flip comment, "That must be where the term stark raving mad came from".  And a nickname was born--Stark Raving. 

Also on Flipside:

Charles and Wilhelmine Stark Part 1

 Numerous individual blogs about Charles Stark are on Flipside

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2025, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Favorite Photo--Baby Me

Linda Lee Hughes
and
Martha Jean Stark Hughes
First Day Home
May 1947

 

Linda Lee Hughes
with mother, Martha Jean Stark Hughes
Summer 1947

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to give a try for the second year. 

     The prompt for week # 2 (January 8-14) is Favorite Photo.

     I have blogs under my name on Flipside; however, most are of physical things that have been important to me throughout my life......not many photos.  I have posted numerous photos of my ancestors with their blog.  I decided to take this opportunity to post a few of my favorite photos of me.  😇

Scanned from my Baby Book

     I'm not sure what the occasion of these pictures was; however, there are printed photographs and my father, George VanGilder Hughes, also took motion pictures of this day.  I can guess that it was probably my christening which occurred on October 12, 1947 at five months eleven days.                             .

     There is a blog on Flipside about the outfit pictured and when I wrote it I believed it was my baptism dress.  I also noted that the entire dress, including the booties was something my Mother saved and I still have it.

     My Dad did take generation photographs.  The Hughes Women:  my paternal great grandmother, Elizabeth Ferdinande Olesen Hughes; my paternal grandmother, Sarah Margaret VanGilder Hughes and myself, Linda Lee Hughes.  My maternal grandmother, Martha Marie Frederick Stark is also pictured.  

     Dad must have passed his camera off to one of the ladies for this shot.  My father, George VanGilder Hughes; my paternal great grandmother, Elizabeth Ferdinande Olesen Hughes; my paternal grandfather, George Henry Hughes and myself, Linda Lee Hughes.  

     Here I am sitting in Mom's lap, all dolled up. 😊  

Scanned from my Baby Book

     And yes, I did have all that dark hair from day one.  😁

There are numerous blogs on Flipside about all these family members.

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2025, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



In The Beginning

     

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to give a try for the second year. Last year I made it until the end of May. Then summer, gardening and vacations took over my life. Here we go again.

     The first prompt for week #1 (January1-7) is In The Beginning.

     In the beginning, I had next to no idea of my ancestors past my living grandparents and one great grandmother. I worked full time, had two children and continued working.  Genealogy was not something I had any interest in and probably couldn't even spell it.   

     Roots on television is my memory of the beginning of my ancestry interest.  My eldest son had to do a Roots project for school, and I believe it was after the 1988 airing of Roots: The Gift.  

     We had an early home edition of a computer and a land line.  My parents were of little assistance in getting me back more than a generation.  I had old photo albums on my Mom's side of the family.  My father supplied a family chart of the Vanguilder's which I later found that the surname was misspelled. 😁

     Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, there was some information on the Internet.  USGenWeb and RootsWeb are two I remember.  With a lot of trial and error in search engines, I was able to find that my Mom's Mom was born in Columbiana County, Ohio and I was off and running.  

     I'd drop my kids off at school and head to the Cleveland Museum of History where there was a room full of old census microfilm and books.  Columbiana County, Ohio had an active historical group and there were books of marriages and burials.  Hallelujah 

1880 Ohio Census
Columbiana County, Fairfield Township
June 19, 1880

     The memory of the first time I scrolled through the 1880 Columbiana County census and found my grandmother and her family still sends goosebumps up my arms.  

     Family Tree Maker became my program, then Ancestry, Find a Grave, GeneaBloggers and two online newspaper subscriptions one in the UK and one in the states.  Two genealogy websites and a blog later, I am at 2025 and still poking around looking for some new piece of information.  

     Over the decades I have accumulated numerous family items from pottery that made it across the pond in the early 1900's, tin types, cabinet cards and carte d'visites, etc.  

      Flipside is slowly becoming the repository of photos and stories about all this memorabilia as well as biographies of my ancestors.  Even after thirty-five years of research I still have some brick walls.  

     And what makes all this worth it?  Occasionally I receive an email from a distant relation who has located me through my family website or Flipside and we share information.  

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2025, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



2025 Resolution

     The final blog for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is Resolution.  I am not usually a person who lists resolutions.  I come up with new ideas and challenges throughout the year and either chose to tackle it or not.  

     In the past several years, and with advancing age, I have tried to keep up with Flipside.  Over the decades I have been the family genealogist.  Family members have given me numerous family mementos, photographs, stories and family owned items.  Not having current family members who are showing much interest in genealogy, and fearful that my treasure trove of "stuff" will end up in a landfill, my resolution for 2025 is to continue to add to my blog.  

     I need to continue to take photos of items and scans of old cabinet cards and carte de visite's with biographical information and stories to accompany each blog.  

     My brother and I have talked about collaborating on a video of our grandparents and perhaps great grandparents.  It will primarily include photos and documents with me supplying the narration.  I already have a couple of slide shows on my computer and this can be translated into a video with his expertise.  

     There are some snippets of my grandparents on video.  Decades ago my Dad had a professional load his home movies onto a VHS tape.  My brother was able to copy the old VHS onto CD for us to watch with current technology.  And hallelujah, there are some short pieces of film with my grandparents.  Not their voices, but watching them in motion takes me back to another time and brings tears to my eyes. 💖

     Other ideas for 2025.  I have contacted other distant family relations who are working on genealogy through ancestry hoping they might like to have some of "our" family items.  I have not been successful; however 2025 might be the year.  Another idea is to contact historical or genealogical groups in the various towns where my ancestors lived to see if they might want photos or my research.

     I only made it through about half the year blogging on my 52 Ancestors.  Fingers crossed I do better in 2025.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading what many of you shared this year and look forward to reading about your families next year.

     Merry Christmas and Happy New Year wishes to everyone and see you in 2025 on 52 Ancestors.

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2024, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Health--Mary Louise VanGilder Wotherspoon

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to join.  I am hoping it may help me to pinpoint someone or something that I have researched and not blogged about on Flipside.  AND push me to blog about family each week in 2024.  Sometimes I get lazy. 😁  Let's see how well I keep up.

     Week # 23 (June 3-9) is Health. I decided to cover what was an unmentionable health topic that my paternal grandaunt, Mary Louise VanGilder Wotherspoon, suffered and died from in 1962.  

     Mary Louise, nicknamed "Bobs", was born on March 9, 1894 in Morgantown, West Virginia.  She was the oldest child of George Ethelbert VanGilder and Jessie Poole VanGilder.   

     Mary Louise's father died when she was ten.  Her mother decided to open a boarding house for West Virginia University students in their home to make ends meet financially.  Living in and helping her mother run a boarding house was a substantial portion of life for the four young VanGilder sisters.  

     When "Bobs" was seventeen, the family moved from the Morgantown area to a new steel mill town in Woodlawn, Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  Again, the VanGilder women were engaged in running a boarding house for the steel workers.

     Mary Louise returned to Morgantown to live and work between 1912-1914.  There are a couple of newspaper articles of her visiting her Aunt Sarah Louise Poole Pinyard "Aunt Pinny" in North Charleroi, Pennsylvania.

     

     There is also an article of Mary Louise and her Aunt Pinny vacationing in Atlantic City in 1914.  

     By 1920, the four VanGilder sisters and Mom, were living together in Pittsburgh.  Mary Louise was employed as a stenographer for an oil company in the city.  

     From the few stories I have heard about Aunt Bobs, she was a fun loving gal.  I was told she was a flapper during the 1920's and the picture postcard from Atlantic City certainly gives a nod to that.  She was the one who decided to embellish the surname VanGilder, changing it to VanGuilder.  

     My paternal grandmother must have been close to her oldest sister, Mary Louise, as she traveled to Fairmont, West Virginia to witness the marriage of my grandparents on June 5, 1920.  

     I imagine she may have met her future husband, Robert George Wotherspoon, through employment associations.  He was employed as a clerk at a steel mill. My paternal grandmother, once told me how handsome he was.  When visited Grams and Pop Pop in Florida in the mid 1960's, the widowed ladies gathered around him.

 

     On November 4, 1923, twenty-nine year old Mary Louise VanGilder married twenty-six year old Robert George Wotherspoon at a ceremony in her Aunt Anna Poole Davis' home in the neighborhood of Knoxville outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  

     Robert was the son of Robert Wotherspoon and Maryann Cadger.  He was born on October 24, 1897 in Whitaker, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.  Bob was a veteran of World War I having served with the Army stationed in the United States.

     Mary Louise and Bob did not have any children and I have not found any evidence that she was employed after marriage.  Bob was employed with an insurance company and by 1940 with Carnegie Steel Company.   

     Bob's niece lived with them in East Liberty in 1938.  There was an article in the newspaper regarding a fire that destroyed the apartment while Mary Louise and Ruth were inside.  They lived in nice apartments in the Squirrel Hill area of Pittsburgh, as shown on the 1940 and 1950 census reports, and Ruth also lived with them.

     Mary Louise had a health issue.  When it began and how she contracted it is unknown.  Perhaps the young niece was living with them to assist Mary Louise.  

     I have a photo of "Aunt Bobs" attending my Dad's graduation from medical school in 1945.  I was told she wore the wide brimmed hat to shade her face that was badly pock marked.  

     This photo was taken in the early 1950's at my paternal grandparents apartment.  My grandmother is the second from the right and her sister, Mary Louise is beside her.  Bob Wotherspoon is on the other side of my Grams.  

      My Aunt Faith remembered that her Mom, my Grams, would take a streetcar to Squirrel Hill weekly to care for her sister. Faith also took her baby daughter to visit.  

     For years I had no idea what Mary Louise was suffering from.  No one talked about it.  When the Pennsylvania death certificates for 1962 were released I finally got my answer; however, it actually provided more questions.  

     Mary Louise VanGilder Wotherspoon died on November 1, 1962 at age sixty-seven from tertiary syphilis.  

     

The Pittsburgh Press
Friday, November 2, 1962
page 41

         Mary Louise was buried in Homestead Cemetery near other Wotherspoon family members.  My grandparents had already retired to Florida.  

The Pittsburgh Press
Wednesday, November 19, 1975
page 87

     Bob Wotherspoon retired to Scottsdale, Arizona and died there on November 16, 1975.  He is also buried in Homestead Cemetery.  

      I do not believe that I ever met "Aunt Bobs".  She lived in the Pittsburgh area while I was growing up and I was fifteen when she died.  I find it odd that our paths never crossed.  

     Then there is the syphilis issue.  I am aware of how someone gets the disease and yet I wonder how this happened to my grandmother's sister.  Bob Wotherspoon never got it.  Was he a carrier?  

     I had heard that the Wotherspoon's were practicing Christian Scientists.  Penicillin was available in the mid 1940's.  They chose to not use it.  

     This is a story that I have waiting to write due to its sensitive nature.  All people involved are no long alive.  It is sad that this is the ending to a vibrant lady's life.  

Mary Louise VanGilder--Annual Swimsuit Edition

   

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2024, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Creativity--My Two Sons

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to join.  I am hoping it may help me to pinpoint someone or something that I have researched and not blogged about on Flipside.  AND push me to blog about family each week in 2024.  Sometimes I get lazy. 😁  Let's see how well I keep up.

     Week # 22 (May 27-June 2) is Creativity.   my two sons

          This is a brag on my two son's blog, both artistically talented.  

     My eldest son, Aric, now deceased, was busy drawing from a very early age.  In high school, by his senior year, he was taking art classes in photography and drawing.

TKO
Award Winner
Cinder Block with black and white dots

In Bloom
Cigarette filters

    

       He graduated from Ohio State with honors and a bachelor of fine arts degree.  While at OSU, Aric's primary artistic focus was installation art; however, he also presented works in photography and because he was talented in theater as a high schooler, he did performance art.  

Nuclear Family

     From OSU, Aric was admitted into the Fine Arts Department at the University of Maryland to begin his Masters Degree.  He was able to complete one semester before illness   

     Aric's art was often edgy, always creative and left the viewer thinking.   

*************************

     My son Garrett is a very talented sketch artist.  His ability began to show in elementary school and middle school with his little doodles on school notebooks and pieces he drew in art classes.  Soon Christmas and birthday gifts were sketch books.  A gamer, his art tended toward fantasy figures and dragons in particular.  

      In middle school he participated in art shows and in high school he was awarded a one semester scholarship to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

   

Garrett presenting his stole of honor
to his brother
2012 graduating Magna Cum Laude

     A time came when he put his sketching materials away and began writing.  A short play that he wrote while in community college was performed on stage.  Garrett graduated from the two year program and entered Cleveland State as an English major, continuing to write and graduating magna cum laude.  

     He immediately entered the Master's Degree program in English, concentrating on Black American writers and graduated in 2016 with a Degree of Master of Art in English.

     Imaginative, concise and edgy portrayals define Garrett's writing and his art. 

     So proud of the creativity of both of my sons and I think it is a combination of Hiser and Hughes genetics.

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2024, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Nickname

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to join.  I am hoping it may help me to pinpoint someone or something that I have researched and not blogged about on Flipside.  AND push me to blog about family each week in 2024.  Sometimes I get lazy. 😁  Let's see how well I keep up.

     Week # 21 (May 20-26) is Nickname.   

     I have had a variety of nicknames during my seventy-seven years all of them from childhood.  Only one continues to 2024.

Summer 1949
Brigantine Beach, New Jersey

     The name Linda converted to Linda Lee and Lindee.  My brother, Ken, called me Deeow when he was very young.  

     A favorite nickname of my Dad's was calling my Pickle Puss.  I see many early photos of me making a face like I had just eaten a sour pickle.  Perhaps that was where the nickname came from.  

     My paternal grandmother, Grams, wrote my first name as Lynn.  In college my nickname came from my last name......Hughesie.

Package sent to me by my brother

     And finally, Lin, which is the nickname that has continued to today.

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2024, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser