by Sherry Stocking Kline
28 April 2011

It’s a bit past Monday, but I didn’ t find this little tidbit until Tuesday, while volunteering to hunt for an obit for the Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society’s requests. 

Unfortunately, after looking through the requested time period’s “The Monitor Press” (no longer being published) I didn’t locate the obit, but did find a cool little bit of news that tells me that my Grandfather and Grandmother, Warner and Carrie Jones and family, hosted a family gathering, when my mom was just a bit more than 15 years old.

The Monitor Press
Marshall Crawford Publlisher
Published Every Wednesday at
117 East Harvey Avenue
Wellington, Kansas
Bell Phone ………….143

Milan – Mr. and Mrs. John Roe and sons, Edwin and John from north of Argonia; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Roe and daughters; Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Breneman and children, Hershel and Ilda Fern, of Wichita; Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Breneman, of Mayfield; Victor Breneman and Kenneth Jones, of Kingman; Mrs. S. E. Breneman; Miss Mildred Swain; Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Jones, of Milan, were dinner guests of Warner L. Jones and family Sunday.

It was neat to read this, and even neater to tell my mom, “I know what you were doing on a Sunday in September, 1937!” 

When I read it to her, she said “I know what I was doing, too!  If all of those people were there, I was cooking to help feed everyone!”

And if you notice, the article gave all of the out-of-town people’s home towns, and in one case, for a rural resident, even told what area they lived in.  What a help!  Now I know where these people lived (most likely) in September of 1927!

More Links:

Warner and Carrie Jones Photograph

The Victor Breneman Family

The Otto Breneman Blacksmith Shop – Mayfield, Kansas

Bernice Breneman – child of Mr. & Mrs. Otto Breneman

Constantine Breneman & daughter-in-law Carrie Breneman Jones & children

by Sherry Stocking Kline
22 April 2011

Summer is reunion time for many families, and ours is no exception!  

This is our year to get together, and I’m really looking forward to it!  After hunting down a cool place to gather, one with plenty of things for both old and young to do, (my mom insisted the place have a tornado shelter!!) the next thing to do is send out “Save the Date” invitations!

While playing with my Heritage Maker’s website (affiliate link at http://www.turnmemoriesintobooks.com/) to personalize our own invitations, I made several to choose from, and I’m posting one of those here. 

The Camp Horizon campground is a real campground in Kansas, (and is not pictured above) but the contacts, and family and reunion information posted here is fictional, not fact! 

 I substituted made-up names for our own names & info, so if you show up to attend our Jones Family Reunon on July 4th, just be warned — we won’t be there!

If you would like to use this template to make a “Save the Date” invitation like this one,check out my website at www.TurnMemoriesIntoBooks!  There are numerous templates to choose from in the template gallery, just do a search on Invitations or Save the Date. If you sign up for a Premium or Club HM membership I will gladly share the one shown above with those who sign up! 

I plan to post some invitations using the Basic Membership art work soon!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
08 April 2011

My thanks to Susan Peterson at LongLostRelatives.net for the Lovely Blog Award recognition.  Susan said, “I have recognized you with the Lovely Blog Award because of the graphic design AND content of your blog. If you want to accept the award, you may get the information here: http://longlostrelatives-smp.blogspot.com/2011/03/lovely-blog-award.html

Thank you, Susan!  This award is an honor, and it is very much appreciated!  Once again, Thank you for recognizing my blog!

 The rules of acceptance for this award are:

And now, it is my turn to pick other deserving blogs to be awarded!  This is a daunting task, as so many are deserving that it will be difficult to pick from them all!

And now, the envelope please:

1.  “Shades of the Departed” – a fantastic website designed, maintained, and written by none other than the Footnote Maven herself. 

2. “Footnote Maven” – a fantastic sister site to the Shades of the Departed, also designed, written, and maintained by the talented but secretive, elusive Footnote Maven herself.

3.   Genea-Musings is a great place to go learn how-to, and get blog hints, and you don’t want to miss his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!!

4.   “GeneaBloggers”  is Thomas MacEntee’s website, and it is “the” place to go to find more blogging prompts than you have time to write about, technical info, GeneaBlogger’s Radio (is that cool or what?), plus the new stuff coming down the pike genealogically speaking!  Thanks, Thomas!

5.  “Roots N’ Leaves,” Joan’s lovely, fun, informative blog was  awarded a Top 100 blog from My Heritage.  You’ve got to read her conversation with her ancestor at the tea party!  Oh, if only!

6. “Reflections From the Fence” a lovely, lively mix of fun, fact, research and how-to!  I loved her Carnival blog about her favorite vehicle “Big Butt,” and how it got its name.

7. “Georgia Black Crackers,” a Family Tree Magazine 40 Best Blog, sharing African American history and how-to-do research and lovingly tended by Mavis Jones!

8. “Herstoryan” – a lovely and lovingly tended genealogy blog by another great story teller and stories’ keeper, Herstoryan.

9.   Jennifer at  “But Now I’m Found…” at  http://blackgenealogy-griot.blogspot.com/

10.  “Your Family Story,” a fun, cool blog written by Caroline Pointer.

11.  And  “Apple’s Tree” a lovely blog written by none other than Apple herself. 

12.  “Creative Gene” – Thanks to Jasia, the Carnival of Genealogy gets a great kick-off with an interesting topic each month! 

13.   “Dear Myrtle” blog has such great information each week!

14.   “Family Cherished” a lovely, informational blog.

15.   “Heritage Happens” – Cheryl Palmer’s lovely family history & genealogy blog!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
April 1, 2011

Week #13 – Sweets Week 13: Sweets. What was your favorite childhood candy or dessert?   
Have your tastes changed since then? What satisfies your sweet tooth today? This challenge runs from Saturday, March 26, 2011 through Friday, April 1, 2011

Deciding what my favorite Sweet Stuff was when I was growing up wasn’t easy!   Several things vie for first, but the most special sweet that I enjoyed eating at Christmas when Mom made pounds and pounds of it,was divinity! 

White, airy, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth divinity!

Mom knew just when to stop cooking the corn-syrup-rich mixture, when to pour it over the whipped egg whites, and just how long to beat it.  Mess up, and it will become a sticky caramel-like substance that tastes good, but you need a spoon to eat it.

Get it right, and it’s the food of angels.

Mom usually got it right.

A favorite with many, it was a ‘best-seller’ at the Mayfield Federated Church Lord’s Acre sale, often bringing high dollar bids.  It was also a huge favorite of my nephew’s as well.  For many years while he served in the Navy, Mom sent him a large box of divinity at Christmas time.  Once he confessed to opening the box, hiding it from everyone, and eating the entire three pound box all by himself! 

Can’t blame him for that!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
5 April 2011

The past year has been full of neat genealogy happenings!  I asked several family members if I might borrow their older photographs so that I might scan them, or I’ve asked if they might scan and send me digital copies, and so it has been ‘raining’ photographs and memorabilia!

My expectations were that I might be loaned 3, 4, maybe even as many as ten photographs at a time.

I certainly didn’t expect one cousin to bring a six inch thick folder of photos that took hours to scan, nor a California cousin I’ve never met who sent pages of photocopied photos, and last week, my cousin and her son came by to visit, and he brought a large box, too heavy for me to lift, chock full of pictures and albums!

Excerpted from a 70+ year old newspaper clipping:

Alone

Before I heard the doctors tell,
The dangers of a kiss
I had considered kissing you –
The nearest thing to bliss.
But now I know biology
And sit and sigh and Moan,
Six million mad bacteria –
And I thought we were alone.
 – Exhange

Isn’t that a hoot!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
02 April 2011

It’s time for more Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – the 1940 US Census. ”   I was excited to learn when the census was going to be released, and was just wondering about that this week! And since it is after midnight, only 365 days to wait! 

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  Know that the 1940 United States Census will be released for public viewing on the National Archives website on Monday, 2 April 2012 (366 days from today!).  My understanding is that, when it is first released, that there will be no indexes available – we will have to search them the “old way” – with known addresses, finding enumeration districts from maps and websites, and then go page-by-page to find our folks.  Eventually, there will be indexes available, but we don’t know how long after the release that will be.

2)  Which of your ancestral family members will be in the 1940 census?  Consider not just your ancestors, but also their siblings. 

3)  Where did your ancestral family members live in 1940 on Census Day?  Have you found all of the addresses in city directories or telephone books?  Please list the ones you know the addresses of, and the ones you need to find addresses for.

4)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, a comment to this blog post, or on a Facebook note or comment.

Note:  This idea came to me on Friday night while participating in the Geneabloggers Radio chat – we had a discussion of the 1940 census release.

1).  Eeek, no index?  I guess I’m getting spoiled!  Oh well, I can still search at midnight in my sweats!

2).  By 1940, my mom and dad had been married for nine years, had two sons, (my brothers) and were living on the farm (rural route, Mayfield, Kansas) where I grew up.

 By 1940, my dad’s father, Elmer Stocking,  had passed away two years earlier, and (I think) maybe my grandmother, Maud McGinnis Stocking, had moved from our town to Cedarvale, Kansas, to be near one of my uncles, Frank Stocking.  Grandma Stocking lived in Cedarvale until she passed away on February 28, 1962.

I can still drive to my grandma’s home in that tiny Kansas Flint Hills town, but I don’t know what her address was, and don’t even know if the little town had addresses.   I think getting addresses/locations documented is something I need to “fix”, not just on my grandma’s home, but on all our homes.  Many of my ancestors and close family members lived on farms, and that was well before the country got 9-1-1 addresses, so I will probably need to get farm legals or type in good directions.  GPS coordinates would be a good idea when I can go back to the exact spot and add those in.

By 1940, my great-grandfather, Roderick Remine Stocking, had lost his third son, thirty-seven-year old Roderick Porter, to an accidental electrocution, and he moved into Mayfield with his daughter-in-law, Myrtle Nyberg Stocking and her children.

On my mom’s side, her father and mother were still living, and lived on a farm just two miles straight east of Milan, Kansas on what is now known by locals as “the Old Highway” and is now  known as 20th Street South according to the 9-1-1 addressing.

by Sherry Stocking Kline

I’m trying to blog along with the “52 Weeks of Personal History and Genealogy.”  As you can see, I’m more than a little behind.

Week 12: Movies. Did (or do you still) see many movies? Describe your favorites. Where did you see these films? Is the theater still there, or is there something else in its place?

This challenge runs from Saturday, March 19, 2011 through Friday, March 25, 2011.

I grew up on a wheat and dairy farm, about 10 miles from the nearest theater, and my folks were not rich, so we didn’t attend movies a lot.

They used to show movies on the side of buildings…

I learned after I was grown that many of the small towns in our area used to show movies on the side of a building and folks came to town, sat around in cars and chairs, visited, snacked, and made a Saturday night get-together out of it.

In fact, that used to be one of the ways that the merchants ‘lured’ people to town to shop, and then they stayed open on Saturday nights.

My husband remembered doing that, and him just a year ahead of/older than me, but I sure don’t remember it at all.  I wish I did.  It sounds like a wonderful way for small towns to spend some Saturday night fun together.

I Remember When We Saw Old Yeller…

I was eight years old, which means my brother Gary would have been twenty when “Old Yeller” came to our local historic Regent Theater (now newly renovated re-opened)

My brother asked me if I’d like to go to a movie with him on Saturday night.

And I’m all like “Me and you?”

And he was like ‘Yes, me and you!”

I thought he was kidding, I mean he usually went out on a date or out with his friends.

So, he got all Saturday-night-dressed-up, and I did, too, and we met up with one of his friends who had also brought along his little sister.

They bought us popcorn and pop, and sat us two rows in front of them. (Close enough they could watch us along with the movie, but maybe not so close that everyone knew we together, you suppose?)

On the way into town, my brother warned me that the movie had a sad ending, and that “Old Yeller” was going to die at the end.

With all the superior wisdom of an eight-year-old that knew that Disney movies did NOT have sad endings, I told him he was wrong, that it wasn’t going to end that way.

And of course, he said “yes, it does.”

Life Doesn’t Always Have a Happy Ending…

Well, come to the end of the movie, and us little girls are sitting there sniffling about that little boy having to kill his dog, “Old Yeller” because he has rabies, and he’s all like “I tried to tell you”, and I’m sniffling and saying “they didn’t have to kill him….”

I think maybe that was my first introduction to the notion that movies, and life, doesn’t always have a happy ending, and that sometimes you simply have to do things you don’t want to do.

But when I look back on it, it was a good memory, and a really unselfish thing for a twenty-year-old big brother to do.

I wish he were still here so I could say “thank you….”  one more time.

My brother, Gary…

by Sherry Stocking Kline
April 1, 2011

My mom and two brothers, Gary, Dorothy & Fred Stocking - maybe dressed for church, with "Nancy Jane" before I was born.

Cars were an important part of our lives on the farm. They took me to school, helped herd dairy cows, took us to town for groceries, to the elevator for supplies and nickel pepsi’s, and  made ‘blood runs’ (high speed trips) to the parts store when the combine or tractors broke down.

Nancy Jane…

Our cars had personalities (some more ‘congenial’ than others) and Mom always, always,  named them “Nancy Jane.”

“Nancy Jane, you start now, we need to get to church,” she might say as we hurried off to church on a cold morning.

“Nancy Jane, don’t you dare get stuck,” she’d say as we slid sideways down slippery, muddy unpaved roads to and from our home.

It always seemed to me, growing up, that after Mom called the car Nancy Jane in a firm, encouraging, and sometimes scolding voice that the car made an extra effort to do exactly what Mom asked.

After she spoke to it,  ‘Nancy Jane’ nearly always came through for us.

Do I talk to my vehicles?

Surely you jest!  Of course I do!  How else are they going to know what’s expected of them!

“Come on, Baby,  we gotta go pick up the granddaughters from school….”

by Sherry Stocking Kline
March 19, 2011

At first no one knew what the little red,  itchy, dots were. They thought it might be allergies and that being the case, my three nephews were exposed right after I came down with “it”, whatever “it” was.

And then they thought it might be measles.

But it was not measles.

It was Chicken Pox.   By the time our parents figured out what I had, the boys, my nephews, 2 1/2, 4 1/2 years, and 6 1/2 years younger than I, were coming down with it, too.

So we were  miserable together.  We didn’t have air conditioning in our little farm home. It was summer in Kansas. It was Hot.  How in the world did we ever live without air conditioning, anyhow?

We had what was referred to as a squirrel cage cooler that ran air over water from an outdoor hose. It just barely cooled the air down, and it moved it around fast enough to blow your hair, and you had to talk loud to be heard over it.  It also added humidity to the air, so on hot, humid, muggy, days it was like trying to breath under water with that thing running.

No one wanted four miserable whiny kids in the house…

Anyhow, no one wanted four miserable itchy, whiny, hot kids in the house with them, so our parents set up old green Army cots under the shade tree by the water hydrant in the back yard, just a few feet from the back door in the shade and the south wind.  They probably gave us some books and coloring books,  and then they parked us outside in the breeze.

If we had a television then, and I can’t remember if we did or not, there were only three channels and few things that kids would be interested in watching.  I don’t remember much more about that time, except that we were sick, itchy, and bored beyond distraction.  We were close to a sand pile and a water source and we didn’t feel like playing, so we laid on the cots, scratched, and whined.

Fortunately for me, I got it first, so I got over it first, and so I was able to escape our exile sooner than my nephews could!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
March 19, 2011

Hi everyone!

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings says: “It’s Saturday Night –  time for more Genealogy Fun!!!”

So, it’s time for you to read Randy’s post here: Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Contribute to the Genealogisms Dictionary.

Have you ever experienced Genea-Dipity?

You know, one of those serendipitous moments, when you have spent hours and hours in your genea-cave searching through page after web page of on-line genea-crapola, and then there it is!

One of those unexpected rare pieces of good luck, a Genea-Dipity!  A Serendipity!

You’ve done it!  You’ve found the one thing you thought you’d never find, the one fact, the one photo, the one really cool piece of information that makes you do a ‘happy dance,’ gives you a “genea-gasm,” and keeps you piecing together family puzzles and filling out the blanks in your family tree!

What was your “genea-dipity” this week?

And what new word can you add to the “Genealogism’s Dictionary.”