Norine's Birthday

Norine Dailey Cronin Jones (my grandmother) was born on this day in 1884.  It was hard for me to even type 1884 as I realize that those 126 years include parts of the 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries.  If Norine were alive, one thing we would know for sure -- she would not be drawing attention to her birthday and would be unwilling to reveal her age.

In anticipation of Norine's birthday, I was considering which picture to post on facebook in recognition of the event.  When I logged on this morning, there was a message from Rose Kramer:

Did you know that when we lived on Drakewood Dr in Oakley, Pop drove GAN to stay with me for the day and we would sew? At exactly 4pm he picked her up again. Her goal during lent was to make a garment a week which she accomplished easily. By then we had 3 Scardina girls and Mary Beth to sew for!!!!   Love you, Rosemary

That made choosing a picture simple.  Recently, Rosemary sent me a few additional pictures from her family collection.  I love this one which pictures Rose and Norine visiting Spring Mill State Park in Indiana in 1948.

I know the following picture is fuzzy.  I "extracted" it from a video taken in 1957 when the family came together to celebrate my First Communion.  Norine is toasting the occasion with a glass of wine.

Although the picture may not be clear, her happiness is.  So here is a toast to you, Norine, on your 126th!

Johnny Jones and Virginia Ryan

It's been a real adventure blogging about my Dad's siblings: Edith, Charlie (Bud), and Bob. Now I have the privilege of writing about my Dad and Mom -- Johnny and Ginnie.

Dad was the 4th child born to Fred and Norine. He was born on September 30, 1920 (at least that's what we always thought). His birth certificate says that he was born on September 20th, but his mother insists that it was a typo and she ought to know -- she was there. The family count was now one girl, and three boys.

Johnny was ten years younger than his older sister, Edith. I know how this can be as I am 10 years older than my brother, Dan.  The picture is cropped from the picture of "The Perfect Family" picture posted in an earlier posting.

 Dad attended school at Highland Elementary, right across the street from his home at 2424 Eastern Ave. (now Riverside Dr.).  My cousin, Fred Breving, told me that he remembers seeing water founts in the back of the school that were designated for "Colored" and "White".

I have no doubt that Dad loved growing up on the river.  We have that wonderful picture of him in his canoe that he would take out into the river and ride the wake of steamboats that passed by. He had to sell the canoe when he married our mother so that she could buy a sewing machine.

As a young man of his generation, Dad had to go to war.  He spent the war in England loading bombs onto planes.  He never really discussed much about the war, but England was constantly being bombed by the Germans during the war and the Allies returned the favor.  There must have been some lighter moments as one of the pictures that survived the war was one of Dad with two local dogs.

(I think we all inherited that gene).

In this picture, Dad is the one in the upper right hand corner.

Mom and Dad met after the war.  The Newman Club, a Catholic social club for college students, sponsored a boat ride on the Island Queen to Coney Island.  One of Dad's best friends, Bob Kroner, was the President of the organization and invited Dad to come.  Thus my non-Catholic father met my Catholic mother.

Mom and Dad dated and got married on January 24, 1948 at St. James Church in Wyoming.  It was cold and snowy that day in stark contrast to January 23, 1947 when Bob and Mary got married.  Mom and her sisters got married between January and June of 1948.  Her sister, Evelyn, actually got engaged first, but she felt that Mom, being the oldest sister, should be the first to get married.  It was a busy time for Virginia Ryan because she sewed all of the bridal and bridesmaids gowns for all three weddings.

Of this marriage were born seven children: Kath, Tom, Tim, Karen, Ted, Dan and Don.  Dad, whose primarily worked as an electrician at the Environmental Protection Agency, worked additional part-time jobs to support his family of nine.

We lost our father at the age of 57 to cancer.  Our mother married two more times -- first to Dick Godar who also died of cancer, and then to Frank Klug.  Cancer also took Mom shortly before her 72nd birthday.

We often reflect that our parents would be so proud of us.  They both believed in us and believed in education.  I could write an entire blog on my immediate family -- and perhaps eventually I will.  Just know that all of us were blessed and continue to be blessed by being born into this family.


To view of photoshow with pictures of our parents, go to: Johnny and Ginnie Photoshow

Robert Leo Jones and Mary Berluti

Robert Leo Jones, born July 15, 1918, was the 3rd child and second son born to Fred and Norine Jones.  Historically, he was born while our country was involved in World War I which ended June 29, 1919.  As a mother I cannot imagine looking into the eyes of my newborn infant son and imagining that eventually he would have to go to war -- and one even larger than the one the country was fighting.  Yet this is exactly what happened to all three sons of Fred and Norine.

The war had to be a defining moment in Bob's life.  Here he is pictured with his parents as he prepares to leave.




















Our mothers were part of that group of marriageable women who had no one to date.  My mother used to say that the only men not away at the war were older, married, or had some medical disability.  I can't imagine all of the pent-up demand when all of the "boys" returned home.

Bob married Mary Berluti on January 25, 1947 at St. Andrew's Church.  The couple to the right of Bob are Alma and Emmit Shcwartz.  (Emmit was Bob's best friend and eventually became the Godfather to Mary and Bob's son, Bob. The bridesmaid on the left is Dina, sister of the bride, and her future husband, Larry.  Rose verified that the bridesmaid on the far right is Margaret Ann.  What a handsome couple they made!

To this union was born Bob and Gina.  Of course my childhood memories of Uncle Bob were our rather frequent visits to the "Pony Keg" in Silverton that he owned with his brother-in-law.  My brothers remember a lot more than that.

Mary worked for the Rosenthall Printing Company from the time she graduated from secretarial school until she had her first-born, Bob. After becoming a mother, Mary worked on the side for Aaron Matheu who had been her former boss and a writer. At the age of 47, Bob died leaving his widowed wife with two very young children -- Bob was only 10 years old and Gina was 8. Mary went back to work for Rosenthall until the early 70's when she was able to get a job with 5th/3rd Bank.  She eventually supported her family by working as an assistant to the President of 5th/3rd Bank.

 A few years ago, Gina tried to get more understanding about the father who had died when she was so young.  Knowing that he had served in World War II, she contacted our State Representative at the time, Steve Chabot, who had an aide research Bob's war record and get duplicates of the medals he had earned.

Several of us attended the event where Gina received these medals. I hope to be able to find out more (or have other cousins comment on this post).  We have plans to get together and share stories and pictures at the end of this month.  I hope to be able to add more then.

Kate Probert Update

On my August 31st post, I discussed going to Mt. Sterling, KY and attending a meeting of the Mt. Sterling Historical Society that was taking place when I arrived.  They had a speaker, Becky Ryder, from the University of Kentucky.  She discussed preservation techniques for artifacts, newspapers, etc.  Miles Hoskins, the local president of the Historical Society, had found out that some very old copies of the Kentucky Sentinel were going to be part of an estate sale.  The Kentucky Sentinel was a weekly paper published in the 1880s.  He purchased the papers and the society loaned them to U.K. to make digital copies.  They have a website at the Kentuckiana Digital Library.  If you click on this link, you can read the obituary for Kate Probert.

Kate Probert's Obituary

I copied the text for easier reading.

Mt. Sterling Advocate:  Wednesday, March 22, 1905 p. 7.

Probert – Mrs. Kate Probert, relic of Thomas Probert, deceased, departed this life on Sunday night the 20^th instant, at 11 o-clock aged 66 years.  Funeral service was conducted at her home on Sycamore Street on Tuesday afternoon at 2 o-clock by her pastor, J. R. Hobbs, of the Baptist church, and her remains were buried in Machpelah cemetery.  Mrs. Probert had been a member of the Baptist church for many years and of the Mt. Sterling Baptist church since its organization in 1870, and as a Christian and church working woman she was consistent in living and faithful in the discharge of religious duties.  As a neighbor, friend, mother, step-mother she was absolutely free from prejudice and favoritism and her endeavor was to be kind and just to all.  She had been sick for more than eight years and such christian fortitude in pain and sorrow has never been surpassed.  The home will be lonely without her, but the evidences she left of trustfulness and the chirstian life will be sufficient to impress the living that she is in that home provided for her through Christ and where she abides others may attain through repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Mrs. Probert leaves two daughters, Mrs. C.C. Coleman, of Cincinnati, and Mrs. Maud Casey, of this city and three grand-children, Katie Mae and Ida Gorman and Georgia Casey.  Mrs. Probert’s husband was an Odd Fellow and she gave evidence of their watchfulness and care for a brother’s widow.

I am amused that the term "relic" as in "relic of Thomas Probert" is used instead of the word "widow". Kate was the stepmother of Lucy Probert and grandmother of Norine.  Interestingly, none of the six children of Lucy are listed as surviving grandchildren.

Another interesting observation is that Kate was apparently a committed member of the Baptist Church.  I believe her husband, Thomas, and his first wife, Mary Dimond were Catholic -- as was Lucy and her husband John Cronin.  They were Irish Catholic. (I've since found out that Thomas and Mary Dimond were married in a Baptist Church in Lexington).

I am so happy that more and more historic newspapers are being digitized.  It certainly makes my job easier.

And so ends my research for 2009.  I wish everyone a Happy New Year for 2010 -- and I hope for more "happy hunting" for myself.

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.