Vonderheide Wyoming Home

Home of August and Anna Vonderheide (1920-1925)
Village of Wyoming, Hamilton County, Ohio

I've always been fascinated by this house.  Research has shown that my great-grandfather, August Vonderheide, moved into it sometime in 1920.  It is the residence listed in the phone book as their home from 1920-25.  It makes sense that they would have wanted to move into a bigger home at this time because it coincides with the marriages and the starting of new families, all of whom initially lived there.

My grandmother and grandfather, Virginia Vonderheide and Roy Ryan, celebrate their wedding day there on September 1, 1921.  Virginia's brother, Val, also moved in with his wife, Clara Wheeler about that time. My mother, Virginia, and Val's daughter, Dolly, were born while living in that home.

I've always cherished my grandparent's wedding pictures. I recently upgraded my photo-editing software to Photoshop Elements 10 and decided to try my hand at layering these treasurers over the one picture I have of the home.  Here are the results:

Roy Ryan and Virginia Vonderheide Courting

Wedding Guests:  Top Row: Ray Ryan, Virginia VDH, Roy Ryan, August VDH, Anna VDH, Rose Gross Ryan, Clara, Emma Woermann, Victor Becker, Ed Woermann, Julius Gross, Henry and Joe VDH  Bottom Row: Florence Ryan, Josie Turner, Aunt Sophie, Ceal VDH, Emma Huff and Woermann Children

Wedding Day:  Virginia and Roy, September 7, 1921

Of course, their marriage led to the inevitable birth of my mother, Virginia, on July 17, 1922.  Here she is pictured on the porch with her father and grandparents.

Anna, Virginia (baby), Roy, August 

I'd love to show you what the house looks like in 2012.  The address of this home is 416 Springfield Pike, Wyoming, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati with many large, stately, restored homes). However, in the 1960s, this property was combined with a couple of others and torn down. Replacing it is a very sterile, uninteresting building that houses the Wyoming Board of Education.

Current home of the Wyoming Board of Education

I want to acknowledge my Vonderheide cousins who had a copy of the house in their collection and made it available to me.

Update:  A reader suggested that I combine pictures 2, 4 and 5.  What a great suggestion!  From right to left I now have my grandparents courting, getting married, and their first-born child, my mother.  Love it!

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History - Week 4 - Home

I love the challenge of discovering information about my ancestors.  I know my own history -- so it just doesn't seem important to record any of it.  But who better to tell my story than me?  I might as well give a "leg up" to those who may follow in my path.

I linked my blog to a group of blogs focused on family history called Geneabloggers (logo and link found on the right-hand menu).  During 2011, writing prompts will be suggested for us to share our own personal histories.  This week's prompt caught my eye. The challenge this week:  Describe the house in which you grew up. Was it big or small? What made it unique? Is it still there today? 

This prompt immediately triggered some early memories for me -- so Zippy and I piled into the car in 8 degree weather and traveled to 6 Elm Street, Wyoming -- the location of the apartment my parents shared after their marriage.  It was my first home. 

I have no recollection of living here.  What I do remember, however, is my mother's stories of how difficult it was for her to do the wash.  They lived on the second floor.  Apparently she would carry the laundry in a basket down the back steps.  This task was difficult enough when she had just me, but remember -- my brother, Tom, came along less than a year later.  I recall her describing her dilemma.  If she took Tom and the laundry down and left me up there, I would scream.  If she took me down first and then returned to get Tom and the laundry -- again, I would cry -- and I was mobile.  Here is a picture of the back steps.

Kath and Tom on Grandma's Front Steps

As I think back, I don't remember Mom discussing a solution, but obviously it could not be solved without another pair of hands. Eventually, it was solved by a move into a new home in Golf Manor.

2516 Ardmore Ave., Golf Manor, in 2011

This would be the home of my youth. This house was typical of those built after World War II to accommodate the returning veterans and their "Baby Boomer" children. I lived here from the age of two to the age of 10. We moved into this three-bedroom home with two children and left after the 6th child, Dan was born. I have so many fond memories -- worthy of a whole separate post.

So let me finish this post with one recollection that impacted this ten-year old when we were preparing to move on to Pleasant Ridge. When I was in school, they gave us a forsythia bush (or should I say twig) to take home and plant for Arbor Day. "My" bush is pictured on the left of the house, covered in snow. I could not for the life of me understand why I was not being allowed to dig up and take "my" bush with me to Pleasant Ridge. It made me smile to see that more than fifty years later, "my" bush is still there.