The Hair Color, Wash and Set, and a Genealogy Challenge

Busy Saturday. Took my mom to get her hair colored today. Three hours later, we left the salon! You might gasp that it took that long, but you must realize that we are not talking about the blow-dry type salon here. My mom comes from the wash and set with curlers and sit under the hairdryer generation.  Once the hair is dry, it is followed by back-combing and teasing and lots of hairspray! But she was happy, and that's the point!

After the appointment, I made her lunch and we went to get her vitamins and pick up a few grocery items (and lottery tickets for me). Then home to watch recorded episodes of Keeping Up Appearances while I put the finishing touches on The Dionne Catuplets (should be ready to list tomorrow). So, yet again, no test prints of lino blocks! Tomorrow for sure. I will get up in the morning, make a cup of coffee and get printing!

In between the above, and making dinner, I checked my blog reading list and found a fun post at GenBlog about a challenge. The challenge is to list your 16 great-great-grandparents with their birth, death and marriage data (dates and places), countries, etc.  Well, since my genealogy research of the past two years has really only focused on my paternal grandmother, Lola, and her family, I am not ready to participate in a challenge dating back that far. However, I can list two of my paternal great grandparents and give a little history of them! So here goes.

George Cloos - Father of my paternal grandmother, Lola. Born 23 Dec 1871 in Germany (not yet sure where in Germany). Son of George Cloos and Elizabeth Grauhausen (both from Frankenthal, Germany, according to grandpa George's death certificate which I have a copy of). From what I can tell, he arrived in the US in 1876 at age 5. He had an older sister named Catherine E. Cloos Sowers Mauzy that he was very close to. He married my great grandmother, Effie Furst Beck 14 Dec 1892. They had five children - Bessie, Lola, Monroe, George and William. They split up before 1910 and were divorced 11 Oct 1920. George remarried Grace M. Hayes Abel Cloos sometime after 1920. I have established contact with a granddaughter of Grace and she has a picture of grandpa George to share with me once I make my trip to Illinois. George died in Decatur, Illinois on 28 June 1947.

Effie Furst Beck Cloos Roby - By far, the most notorious of my great grandparents, Effie was the mother of my paternal grandmother, Lola. Born 9 Aug 1871 in Prairie Home, Shelby County, Illinois. Daughter of Wells Marcus Beck and Emma Mayben (both from Pennsylvania). Her middle name, Furst, was the maiden name of her paternal grandmother, Leah Furst (mother of Wells Marcus Beck). Effie was the fourth of ten children. I have learned quite a bit about her thanks to a favorite site for genealogy research called NewspaperArchive.com. They have many Decatur newspapers archived there.

On 23 Sept 1889, Effie gave birth to an illegitimate child she named Zetta Fern Beck. According to newspaper articles, Effie was "betrayed" by a 25 year old "Lothario" named Charles Cox, who refused to marry her after, as her father, Wells, put it, "blighting the life" of his daughter. Effie did charge Charles with "bastardy" and that must have been terribly scandalous in the 1889s! A young woman of 17 years old being pregnant and unwed must have been enough to drop a family from certain social activities of the time. Wells and Emma did claim Zetta as their daughter on later US Census reports, yet, Zetta was never mentioned in obituaries for Wells, Emma or Effie.

I'm not sure yet how George Cloos and Effie Beck met, but I think George may have known Effie's brothers (from articles I've seen). George and Effie married 14 Dec 1892 and their first child, Bessie, was born 7 months later on 1 July 1893. They then had four more children - Lola, Monroe, George and William. They split up sometime before 1910 and Effie and the children were living with different families as either laborers, domestics or servants for their board. Obviously, Effie was in no position to financially support five children once her marriage split up. I still cannot find grandpa George's whereabouts in 1910, but have found him in newspaper articles in Decatur from 1915 on.

Effie was arrested a few times in 1914 for being drunk in public. The articles did mention that she had a hard life. On the 13 Jan 1920 census she was "married" to Ellsworth Roby, yet her divorce from George Cloos wasn't "official" until 11 Oct 1920. Effie was arrested in 1930 for illegally selling booze and died at the young age of 59 on 13 Apr 1931 in Decatur, Illinois.

Moms, and My Attempt at The 30 Day Art Challenge

I went to a really nice memorial service today. A good friend of mine lost her mother last week after being diagnosed with brain cancer a few months ago. These past few months have been extremely hard on my friend as she and her mother were very close. Her mom was an amazing woman. She had a bit of a hard upbringing and was a single mother raising two young daughters when her marriage broke up, but did manage to overcome the hard times and succeed. She also instilled that drive in her own children, who are both very successful and independent young women now. She had a love of life and was taken way too early. She was only 59 years old.

After the service, I went to the office for a few hours before leaving to pick up my mom for her eye doctor appointment. As I've mentioned before, my mom has macular degeneration and has stated that she didn't feel like her glasses were good any longer. She had the full eye exam and her prescription glasses checked. Basically, the doctor said she is in the "end stages" of macular degeneration and that there is nothing that can be done to improve her vision and that it would just be a waste of money to get new glasses at this point. He also said that two major factors contribute to this condition - age and genetics, and then asked me when I last had my eyes checked and told me that I had a 30% chance of getting it! So, some things you can do to help prevent or slow the condition is to eat well (fruit and vegetables with every meal), don't smoke, and avoid hardcore drinking.

We left the appointment and I took my mom to a salon for some pampering. Then we came home. I made vegan lasagna for dinner and it was killer! I made a double batch of tofu ricotta from the Skinny Bitch in The Kitch cookbook, Daiya cheese, lasagna noodles, black olives and two jars of tomato and basil marinara sauce. Layer and bake for 60-75 minutes at 375F and then let it set for about 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving. I think what made this batch of lasagna sooo good was the marinara I used! As it was baking, the house spelled so fabulous!

Making some minor finishing touches to my latest mixed media "masterpiece". Then I can list the prints on Etsy. This was inspired by an episode of Antiques Roadshow. Someone showed up with collectible Dionne quintuplets dolls and that inspired this piece that I call "Dionne Catuplets". Now, I just have to finish it and list it.

Then I must run test prints of my carvings! That is on my "to-do" list daily and still isn't done. Ugh. Maybe I'll find my second wind after I finish this post and wash up the dinner dishes.

Busy Week and A Few More Blog Features!

It has been a busy week. Let's just say the week started this past Saturday. I took my mom to the chiropractor and then to get her hair done. After that, we went to a wonderful dinner party to visit with some friends that were in from Denver. We all had a great time.

On Sunday I had an invitation to join the fabulous Etsian Artists Team on Etsy. I have always been a bit hesitant about joining a team because there is a commitment involved and I wasn't sure I could fully participate with my current schedule. But, I decided to bite the bullet and join the team. I am glad I did. Great artists and a great support group.

Since joining this group on Sunday, I have been featured in several Etsy Treasuries (I'll post those over the weekend) and featured on the team blog. I have also contributed two treasuries of my own (I'll post those also).

Today, I got up for work, went in and left to take my mom to another doctor's appointment. After that, we went to pick up her prescription that I had filled and came home. I was then able to finish up some work from here. Also, today, I was featured in three team treasuries and one of my prints was featured on a great blog! Thanks to the very talented Em at Jazzy Gems by Em blog for including me! I was so jazzed that I had to go buy a lottery ticket. Now I need to check that!



All week I've been attempting to do another mixed media painting. It just hasn't happened yet, though. I have the idea sketched out and a little hint is that it was inspired by an episode of Antiques Roadshow this week. All I will say now is that someone brought a stroller with dolls in it to the show. The dolls were the Dionne Quintuplets!