Panoramic Views of St. Rose

Tonight I was experimenting with adding links to videos that I made -- my latest project. In the process, I "googled" St. Rose Church.  I followed a link to a site that belongs to Ron Rack.  If you click on the title for this post (Panoramic Views of St. Rose),  you will be linked to his site. You can also click on the link at the bottom of this post.

On his site, he has some panoramic views of St. Rose Church.  You can actually put your cursor inside the picture and virtually travel around the interior of the Church.  He has several other "panos" of Music Hall, Union Terminal, etc.  You have to have a couple of plugins installed on your computer like QuickTime, but he even has links to the plugins in case you need to download them.

I hope you have as much fun on this site as I did. 

Link to Ron Rack's site

Charlie and Peg Jones

I want to personally thank Donna Kramer Roy for searching through her gold mine of family pictures to come up with this one.  No one in my family had ever seen it.  Charles Frederick Jones married Margaret (Peg) Gividen on

Never had we seen a picture of our Dad (Johnny) at age 17.  He looks like a baby -- and he has a full head of hair.  Bob is the brother pictured on the right.  Rosemary is the flower girl on the right.

I realized when I got ready to post about Uncle Charley and Aunt Peg that I was missing a lot of information.  I wondered why my branch of the family always called him "Charley" but other branches called him "Bud".  I had not been in touch with Fred and Peggy, and didn't have as many quality pictures as I would like to have.
 
I got in touch with Peggy and from that grew a luncheon that 19 of the "cousins" attended in January. We swapped pictures and stories and very much enjoyed our time together.

Peggy loaned me some wonderful family pictures.  I love this one of Pop as a young man holding his oldest son, "Bud".

As with all of the Jones boys of that generation, World War II defined some of the best years of their lives.  Included in the pictures Peggy loaned me were more than one of her father preparing to leave for the war.  I love this picture because I can just imagine what is going through his head.

With the departure of each son Norine and Pop gathered with them for a keepsake picture on the front porch.  They had to go through this ritual three times. Peg is pictured on the right with everyone putting on their best face.

As a pet lover, I think back to growing up and knowing that Uncle Charlie and Aunt Peg always loved their dog.  "Maggie" is the dog that comes to mind when I think of them.  Peggy tells me that this dog was named "Jigs". This picture is so special.













Following the war, "Bud" and Peg built a home in Golf Manor, as did the other two brothers.  After years of trying to have a child, they were blessed with the adoption of Fred.  Later they became the parents of Peggy (Ann) and their family was complete.  You can see from the pictures how much they relished their role as parents.

When we got together for the Cousin Luncheon, Peggy told the story that originally had been shared with me by Patty Volz. Both Peggy and her father shared a 4th of July birthday. Peggy was under the impression until about the age of five that all of the fireworks and celebration of our country's birth was all in place to celebrate her birthday. Her Dad was the one who created that illusion. I'll never think of the 4th of July in the same way again without that story in the back of my mind.

Here is my favorite picture of the "happy family" with Peg, Fred, and Bud looking adoringly at the newest and final member of their family, Peggy. As I write this I miss Aunt Peg and Uncle Charlie but know they would be so proud of what all of us have become. I put together a photoshow with all of the pictures Peggy shared with me. To view it, complete with music, go to this link: Peggy's Pics

The Brevings

Somewhere in everyone's family is a collection of old photos.  It takes a little project like this to locate them and realize what a gold mine of memories we have.  I look at this picture of Edith and see that same wavy hair I've always had.

Rosemary told me she knew she had copies of pictures of her mother as a young student at St. Rose School.  Here are three of them.  In the first picture, Edith is the second person from the right in the second row.

I love this picture.  Edith is wearing glasses and is standing in the first row.  When I first saw it, I thought for sure I was looking at the face of one of my cousins.

This is a picture of 8th Grade Graduation from St. Rose.  There were 14 boys and 15 girls in this class.  Looking at what all of them are wearing, you know that this was a very important milestone.  Edith is in the first row and is the first one on the left.

Edith and her husband, Fritz, went on a vacation to Chicago with another couple in 1947.  Here is a picture of the other couple,  taken in front of the Holy Name Cathedral.  (I'll add the names later).  Rosemary told me that this was the last vacation they were able to take before Fritz's death at the age of 49.

This is a picture of Rosemary on her First Communion day with her father, Fritz.  Rose told me that every bit of her First Communion dress including her slip were sewn by Norine.

It's always the personal things that people do for us that we remember.


Here is a little experiment.  I put together a video (that has a couple of errors) with some pictures Rose and Donna loaned me.  It has music.  Give it a shot.
Breving Video

Edith Jones Breving

We finally made it to our parents' generation.  One of the joys of doing genealogy is when you get to find out about and share some real gifts you've never seen before.  One such gift was seeing the beautiful wedding picture of Edith Jones and Frederick (Fritz) Breving.  I never had the opportunity to meet Uncle Fritz.  He died a year before I was born.

Edith and Fritz were married on June 15, 1932.  Fritz was 32 years old and Edith was 22.  Their witnesses were the brother of the groom, Jim, and the woman he would later marry, Gladys Goldsmith.  The two beautiful flower girls were the sister of the bride, Margaret Ann, and Alice Riedy.  They were married at St. Rose Church by Fr. Robert W. Schutte.  This gives me the excuse to post one more picture of St. Rose Church.

Frederick John Breving was the son of German immigrants, William Breving and Ameliz Stortz.  He was born on September 14, 1899 in Cincinnati.  Rose tells me that being of German descent, that he valued thriftiness.  When he and Edith were married they lived for a year at 2444 Eastern Ave. until he was able to pay cash for their home in Mt. Lookout. Rosemary was baptized at St. Rose Church.

Fritz was a electoplater working for the Rapid Electric Co.  He worked with lead every day on his job. His death certificate says he died of bronchiectasis, a lung disease that can lead to serious consequences.  He died at the age of 49 leaving a young widow with three children -- Rosemary, Fred and Bob.  I was able to find a copy of his draft card for World War I.  Rosemary told me he was never drafted because he did not have vision in one eye. Notice that he was living on Columbia Ave., as were the Joneses until they had to move for the construction of Columbia Parkway.

Edith was the oldest of five children of Fred and Norine.  I like to say that I come from a long line of strong women, and she was obviously one of them.  Widowed at the age of 39 and having lived with a sick husband prior to his death, she certainly had her hands full trying to raise three young children alone.  Rosemary gave me a picture of Edith at six months.

Edith attended St. Rose School, of course.  Rose tells me she has a copy of a picture of her mother that is housed in the St. Rose Archives.  I'm going to borrow it so we can upload it.  You can refer to a picture in the blog posting for September 2, 2009 on the "Perfect Family minus One" to see a teen-aged Edith.  I'm going to meet with Rose and scan in some other pictures of Edith in the near future.

Edith was a caretaker and a homemaker, very much cast in the mold of her mother.  Not only was she the first-born and a young widow of three, but she became the caretaker for her father, Fred, giving him a home after Norine's death.  It couldn't have been easy.  They lived in a two-bedroom home.  Both Edith and her Dad suffered from macular degeneration as they became older, losing their vision for all intents and purposes.  Edith became a member of Rose and Don's family.  Edith died of breast cancer on March 9, 1991 at the age of 80.  Both she and Fritz are buried at Calvary Cemetery in Evanston.

Today was a beautiful but very cold day in Cincinnati.  It was also the 100th Anniversary of the wedding of Fred and Norine Jones.  Ever since I've known the date of their anniversary, I've resolved (but never followed through) on commemorating it in some way.  I picked up a dozen roses and headed to St. Rose Church.  I walked to the river bank and took a few pictures, knowing that the Ohio River of 100 years ago was not nearly as wide as the river I was viewing.

Several years ago the Church secretary had helped me make a copy of the marriage record for Fred and Norine.  I knocked on the door and told her I wanted to commemorate their wedding anniversary.  She gave me free reign in the Church.

First stop -- a statue of the Blessed Virgin where I lit a candle in their memory.  I then went up to the altar and looked up into that beautiful domed ceiling with the stars.  The sunlight was streaming in through the stained-glass windows and everything in the Church seemed so alive.

 

I had not noticed in the past that in front of the altar they have a beautiful rose inlaid in the wooden floor.  Since I had brought roses, I added one to it and took a picture.  Light was streaming in the windows and as I turned around the most beautiful pipe organ stood bathed in the golden sunlight.  I couldn't believe it when the Church bells started ringing.  I guess I never realized how beautiful they sounded.

With time running short, I again thanked the Church Secretary and headed to the Walnut Hills Cemetery.  It was such a great feeling to finally be able to acknowledge my grandparents' wedding anniversary with the remaining roses.

So Happy 100th Anniversary, Jan and Pop!  You'd be proud of the family you created!

 

Here is a short video shot that day.

A Little Whimsy

I've always been amused by the word "whimsy". Designers seem to love it. I am currently working with a group of teachers who made me aware of an interesting website. Here is the link for Wordle:
http://www.wordle.net

The program takes all of the words it finds in this blog and creates a design.  You can click on "randomize" and get one variation or pattern after another.  Here are a couple of examples:

Tomorrow is a BIG day for our family history.  It is the 100th Anniversary of the marriage of our grandparents, Fred and Norine.  I'm going to try to commemorate it in some way, without my genealogy sidekicks (Tim and Julie).  Unfortunately, we did not get our calendars together in enough time to follow through on some tentative plans.  I promise I'll post something.

Thanksgiving 2009

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, 2009.  My brother, Dan, and his wife, Carol hosted us as they do every Thanksgiving.  It was great and I know we all feel so blessed.  We were able to give thanks because our one sibling who was not there, Karen, found out the day before that she gets to start a new job with Dade County on Monday.  Don and Frani were celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary.  She was wearing a beautiful string of pearls and matching earrings.

It was the year to celebrate the newest generation.  Chris and Sarah brought the newest member of the family, Quentin Christopher.  Lisa and Chip had Will and are expecting a brother or sister for Will next June.  Liz and Roland brought Ian, soon to be 18 months old.  Savannah, our princess, was their with her Dad and Mom, Mark and Carol.  Adam and Melissa did not come to Cincinnati as they are expecting a sister or brother to Mae in the next three weeks.

Tim called me the other day with the realization that our grandparents, Fred and Norine, were married 100 years ago!  They were married on December 16th, 1909.  We are trying to figure out a way to recognize the anniversary -- one they never celebrated.

Fred Breving has emailed out his 2009 Santa schedule.  Rose and Don just back from visiting John and his family in Florida.  At yesterday's Turkey Day race in Cincinnati, Liz and Roland had fantastic times and I know that Susan and her husband Gary ran as did my brother Don and his daughter Haley.  Linda and Karah walked the 6.2 miles.

Bill and I did not go to the race but hung out with Ian.  Bill put up the train for Ian in the living room, and if Ian is awake, the train must be running.

Dan and Carol are about to celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary on November 28th.  Rian will be sweet sixteen on December 15th and is starting to drive.  Linda will still be younger than I am on December 16th -- the 100th Wedding Anniversary of Fred and Norine.

Patty and Tom Volz celebrated the third-year anniversary of becoming grandparents to three additional grandchildren adopted by her daughter, Shannon, and her husband.  Shannon put a video of the celebration on facebook.  It was quite touching.

So to summarize, the descendants of Fred and Norine are doing quite well.  We all know the meaning of family and we're keeping it going with the youngest additions to our families.  This is just a snapshot.  How full our lives are -- and how thankful we are for our blessings.

First Families of Cincinnati, Ohio

The Hamilton County Genealogical Society encourages amateur genealogists to research their families and try to trace their history in Cincinnati.  Two years ago, I was able to get an award for documenting that our family was in Cincinnati before 1860.  The recognition everyone wants to get is one for "First Families" -- those who can prove their family was here before December 31, 1820.  During this past year, I was able to prove to the satisfaction of the reviewers that William Wainright, his wife Ruth Wright, and their son, Britton, were here in 1819.  They are even listed in the City Directory.  Britton was born here. 

Today I was honored at a luncheon held at the Hilton Netherland Plaza downtown.  It was really a nice honor.  I received the medal with the blue and white ribbon pictured above.  Two years ago I received the medal on the right.



On the left is a copy of the narrative in the program.
One of the reasons I'm so interested in submitting our family history to the Genealogical Society is that they will eventually digitize the entire record and donate it to the Historical Society.  This would mean that even if all of my records were lost, they would be available for our ancestors should one of our descendants want to research our family.

Not all of the recipients were present to be recognized.  One lived as far as California and another in Florida. Pictured above are the Settlers and Builders and First Families recipients who were able to attend.

Bill attended with me and photographed most of the pictures.  He was able to capture this one as they gave me a framed certificate and a medal. 

They've started a new recognition for families that were in Cincinnati more than a century ago.  This will enable me to submit the Ryans and Vonderheides in the next couple of years.  I hope I represented all the Joneses and Wainrights well.

Ohio University Archives - Athens, Ohio

Cover of Loah Dow's Photo Album

Loah was the granddaughter of Ann Eliza Wainright


Yesterday my family history companion, Julie Jones, traveled with me to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. As part of the Alden Library, there is an archives collection that I've linked to this post. I discovered about six months ago that they had housed in their collection scrapbooks, diaries, photo albums, etc. that had been put together by the Broadwells and related families.

Ann Eliza Wainright, sister of Britton, married Henry Broadwell from Mt. Carmel, Clermont County, Ohio. I discovered that both the Wainrights and Broadwells had come from Morristown, New Jersey to Ohio. The families probably knew each other there.

Henry and Ann Eliza Broadwell had as many as many as 11 children. Married in Cincinnati in 1834, the family is listed as living in Canaan, Athens, Ohio in the 1860 Census.

Although Ann Eliza is not in my direct family line, as a sister of Britton, I was interested in what I might find. IT WAS A GOLD MINE!

In one of the diaries I found an entry written by Ann Eliza Wainright Broadwell on her 50th wedding anniversary. She is saddened by the fact that this is the second year she's had to celebrate the anniversary without her husband.



The photo album had quite a few surprises. The first was a picture of Henry Broadwell and his wife Eliza Ann Wainright. They were the parents of Amanda Broadwell and grandparents of Loah. Loah had quite a photo album.

Loah was a child of privilege. The archives had a scrapbook from her time as a student at Ohio University. I think she graduated in 1915. It held rent receipts ($7.10 for three weeks of board), dance favors, tickets, sorority items, etc.

There was also a "sewing book" that she had created for her sewing class at OU. It had neat samples of various types of stitching, hemming, button holes, pockets, etc. She was very talented, but it made me wonder what her major was.


There was a priceless picture of Henry Broadwell's parents, John and Phebe Lindsley Broadwell. Boy, does she look happy. We photographed the back of it where it listed their names and the names of some descendants.
















The photo album identifies this as a picture of Ruth Broadwell Bean. Ruth was one of the children of Henry and Ann Eliza. I'm sure she was named after her grandmother, Ruth Wainright.










Which leads to the best find of all. In the album was a picture of "Grandma Wainright." I believe it is a picture of Ruth Wright Wainright, wife of William and mother of Britton and Ann Eliza.
The notes on the back were not very clear, but also described her as the Great, Great Aunt of someone whose name I cannot read. I made sure to copy the picture with the handwritten identification in view.

If you follow the link attached to this post, you can read in detail about the materials they have housed in the archives. Luckily for us, someone had the forethought to donate these materials.

Note: You can click on the title of this blog entry and be linked to the information re: the files held in the archives at Ohio University.

Odds 'n Ends - Evansville, IN

Since I am now semi-retired, I've had more time to pursue some of the leads that always are on the back burner of any family genealogist's plate. My niece, Julie Jones, has graciously agreed to accompany me on some of these adventures.

Two weeks ago, we traveled to Evansville to try to research the Ryans, another Irish part of my heritage that I will eventually write about in a separate blog. We visited the Willard Library, a great old library in Evansville that is said to be haunted and has 24 hour a day "ghost cams" on their website.

The next day we visited the Indiana Room in the Evansville Main Library. They had a great picture of the Evansville riverfront as it would have appeared at the time our ancestors lived there.

On the way back to Cincinnati we stopped in Corydon, IN to see the Civil War battlefield where Morgan and his Raiders first fought as they crossed into the "North". Britton Wainright died of heat stroke on his march to confront Morgan. Corydon is about 14 miles from New Albany where Britton lived.

I was surprised what a small area is preserved. There is a small monument acknowledging the northerners who died in the skirmish and the southerners who died on the reverse side. A sign tells us that the cabin on the property was moved from a nearby location to give a feel for the type of cabins that people called home at the time. They also had a typical cannon of the time. Julie humored me and agreed to be photographed near it.





We traveled on to New Albany and the area where Britton's blacksmith shop had once been located. It is now an area of charming stores located a couple of blocks from the city's farmers' market.