52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Spring

Week 14. Spring. What was spring like where and when you grew up? Describe not only the climate, but how the season influenced your activities, food choices, etc. Thank you to Amy over at We Tree for sponsoring this event.


Looking down into the woods.

When I was in elementary school during the 50's a group of us spent most of the daylight hours playing in the woods behind our houses on Washington Drive from spring through fall.  The woods was our playground.....a fantasy world...a place to learn about and respect nature.  It was our kingdom and we were the rulers.

I think we all anxiously awaited spring when we could get back down our playground after the winter hiatus. The woods was a valley directly behind our street with a shallow creek winding its way from end to end.

My best gal pal and I would pack up enough food and beverages for the day and head down the path.  We had a "secret" camp along the creek way up stream and about a half mile from our houses.  The day would be spent wading in the creek looking for little critters, wandering around picking wildflowers, cooking our lunch over a fire in the hand dug fire pit, reading and just having FUN.  It was a time of self entertainment--no computer games, no cell phones, no iPods.  Granted there was TV, but that was for after dinner.

There was a small hill on the way to our camp that was filled with violets in the spring.  I can remember we would collect baskets full of them, make small bouquets tied with ribbon and sell them door to door on our street.  We were enterprising ;-)

If we weren't in the woods, we were out on our bikes...the old balloon tire two wheelers.  Both my friend and I got them for Christmas in 1955 and we decided that annually we would paint them.  One year they were black and gold for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers, one year pink and blue!  We would drive all over the area where we lived on those bikes.

The warmer weather brought everyone out and as soon as the daylight hours began and the days grew longer, a large group of us would spend the evenings playing "kick the can" out on the street.  Oh the hiding places we had for that game.  I imagine that some of the parents weren't too happy with us as I know we destroyed some landscaping hiding inside shrubs and climbing into tree.

Such fond memories of a time past....a treasured childhood.

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.

© 2011, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser





52 Weeks of Personal Family Genealogy and History--Sweets

Week # 13 Sweets. What was your favorite childhood candy or dessert? Have your tastes changed since then? What satisfies your sweet tooth today? Thank you to Amy at We Tree and Geneabloggers for sponsoring this challenge.

     No question, I am genetically predisposed to sweets. Frankly, I never met a cake, pie, cookie, ice cream, donut, etc. etc. that I didn't like. Ok, let me amend that....I don't like rubarb pie.

     I have posted this photo of my paternal grandmother, Sarah VanGilder Hughes, in the pink dress, back in 2009. It always puts a smile on my face when I look at it....in fact, just thinking about it lightens my spirit. Maybe that sweet tooth came from her 😀

VanGilder Sisters posted in 2009

© 2011, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy - Challenge #10--Family Search Pilot

Investigate Family Search Pilot, which is part of FamilySearch.org. This is a wonderful collection of records which literally grows every day. In the middle left of the page is a link that says “Browse our record collections.” Click it and pick a region. Search collections outside your research interest. Investigate the types of records collected all over the world and see how they differ from those with which you are familiar. If you are a genealogy blogger, pick a type of record from another country and share your observations about it.

This search engine is not new to me, but I did not find it on my own. My husband's aunt, a genealogist from way back, introduced me to it back in the fall. She does not own a computer; however, she is a member of the local genealogical society where is lives and there was an article about the site in her newsletter. Thankfully, she passed it along to me.

Living in Ohio and researching numerous Ohioans from the past, this site has been a HUGE help to me as all the early to mid 1950's death certificates are on line. Granted I sometimes have to play around with the spelling of the names to find the documents, but detective work IS a BIG part of genealogy, isn't it! West Virginia is another state I work in and they have also put a death certificate website on line. I wish other states would follow suit.

To be honest, until this challenge, I had not looked to see what other information was out on the Family Search Pilot. I do have family from England, so I decided to poke around those records. I did not have any success finding my family.

So, I am searching back in the good old USA--Columbiana County, Ohio since there are early tax records and I have NEVER seen those before. WOW....this is a HAPPY DANCE time....here is one of the records I found.


Lindsay Cannon or Lindsey Cannon is my maternal ggg grandfather. I had found an early Columbiana County newspaper article years ago mentioning that he was the owner of a mill in St. Clair Township, Columbiana County, Ohio. There is in that area a village called Cannons Mills, which I had to believe was named for his mill. Here is a tax record that proves he DID have a mill in St. Clair township--a gristmill, distillery and sawmill. I need to explore more of these tax records for Lindsey as well as for other ancestors in the Columbiana County area.

COOL BEANS!

© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser