Email

I received an email today that actually disturbed me. I'm not sure why I found it so disturbing, but here goes. There is a website I just LOVE called http://www.findagrave.com/. In my search for my family history, it has played a huge part in finding vital information of people on my family tree. I became a member last year and began to post my own memorials of my family and photos of graves I've taken. There is also a nice feature called "request a photo" which allows members to request photos of headstones of their family that are buried in far away places.

My paternal great-grandmother, Effie Furst Beck Cloos Roby, was on findgrave. Someone added her and someone else added her obituary. I added the photo request probably almost a year ago. Today I received the following email from findagrave:

Greetings from Find A Grave,

We are writing to let you know that a Find A Grave volunteer has reported a problem with your photo request for Effie Roby.


The general problem they reported is:
Cemetery office confirmed that this burial is unmarked


They also reported, specifically:
Walked the whole section they said she was buried in and found nothing. Went into the office and they confirmed there is no marker.


Due to this problem, we believe that this photo request can not be fulfilled. As a result, we are removing it. If you can fix the problems that were reported and believe a photo can be acquired, please feel free to make a new request.

I sent the email to my sister and she brought up a good point, why would someone go to the trouble and expense of writing an obituary, but not pay for a headstone? Well, maybe that was the financial circumstances of the family at the time.

At the time of her death, five of Effie's six children were still living (although Zetta was not mentioned in the obituary), and an unknown daughter was mentioned, one Georgia Roby of Chicago, a woman I still haven't been able to find.

So, my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my dad, and my dad's brother Raymond (who died at at the young age of 4) have no grave markers. In the case of my dad, that was his wish. I'm not so sure that was my grandmother's wish under the circumstances of her life and death, and feel that my grandparents probably couldn't afford a headstone for their young son Raymond in 1920. When I mentioned all these people without headstones to my sister, she said that it must be a family thing. I guess so.

Transcription of Effie Beck Cloos Roby's obituary:

Mrs. Effie Roby


Mrs. Effie Furst Roby, wife of Ellsworth E. Roby, died at 7:35 o'clock Monday morning at the family residence, 522 North Witt street. She would have been sixty years old in August. She had been in failing health for the last two years, but her condition did not become critical until five days ago, when pneumonia developed.

Mrs. Roby was born near Prairie Home, in Shelby county, Aug. 9, 1871, and was a daughter of Wells M. and Emma Beck. She is survived by her husband and the following children--Mrs. Ben Trump of Greenville, Mrs. Earl Robinson and Mrs. Wells Cloose of Los Angeles, Cal. and Mrs. Georgia Roby of Chicago. She also leaves a brother, Edgar Beck, Decatur, and the following sisters--Mrs. Zadie Loser, Los Angeles, Cal., Mrs. Hattie Wempen, Ontario, Cal., Mrs Edna Coffman, Laramie, Wyo. and Mrs. Grace Thompson, Decatur. The body was taken to the Moran & Sons funeral home where friends may call.

The funeral will be held at 3:30 o'clock Wednesday afternoon at the Moran & Sons chapel. The burial will be in Fairlawn Cemetery.

Decatur Daily Review, The (Decatur, IL) 13 Apr 1931

I do have Effie's death certificate and can say that pneumonia was not the cause of death listed. What baffles me is that she lived 59 years, had six children, two marriages and one divorce, a hard life, and appeared numerous times in newspaper articles, yet I cannot find a picture of her. I know someone has pictures and maybe it's the decendants of the mysterious Georgia Roby.

Time Management

Time management is not my strength and I struggle with it. I have, year after year, considered taking a class in it, but then I don't seem to find the time to do it! Go figure. I had a somewhat draining week and thought that I'd be productive yesterday. I spent three hours sitting in the salon with my mom while she got pampered (her hair, fingernails and toenails) and while I was sitting there, I took the opportunity to read one of the MANY books I've purchased over the years that have become dust collectors in my house.

I love vintage printmaking books, and really vintage art and sewing books in general. The illustrations and artwork are so appealing to me. After I got my mom up in the morning and got her breakfast and confirmed with her that she felt up to keeping her appointment, I got myself ready and gathered up my book and my sketchpad and pencils.

You may wonder why I checked to see if my mom was up for her appointment. Well, she fell out of bed again Friday night and hit her head on the end table on her way to the floor. She was dreaming about trying to help someone and my dad was there in the dream. Apparently an active dream at that, and she was moving around in her sleep and just rolled out of bed. She now has a nice egg sized bump on her head. I had her sleep with an ice pack on her pillow, and she seemed better in the morning. I am seriously considering moving the nightstand closer so that it will stop her from falling or getting some kind of bed guard (if such a thing exists).

Anyway, I played around with an exercise from the book while sitting in the salon and did a "scribble" sketch that will become a stencil. I thought I'd have finished it by now, but once we left the salon and came home, I made my mom lunch and attempted to cool off. Heatwave here and no AC in my car. Then we sat and watch the CNN coverage of Hurricane Irene and chatted, and before I knew it, it was almost 5PM and I needed to go to the grocery store, do laundry, dishes and make dinner.

Hopefully, I can finish my scribble stencil project today. The other thing that has been taking the better side of forever to do is fix or re-take pictures of some of the bracelets I've made. I took some shots of them outside a few weeks ago and even used my own arm as a model. When I saw those pictures, I freaked! My skin looks so old and I almost wondered who the hell the model was!!

My other project that is taking forever (or a week anyway) is loading my files on to my new laptop that I bought last week when my "regular" laptop crashed and gave me the most frightening message "unable to find operating system"! I freaked out and shut it off for about 15 minutes and when I turned it back on, everything was there, thank God! I then went to Staples and bought a new laptop and backed up all my pictures and documents from my croaking  laptop onto my little external hard drive.

So here's hoping I can grasp this time management thing today and kick into Wonder Woman mode and accomplish much! I'll have to stop by later with an update.

The Control Freak is Losing Control

I never really considered myself a control freak, but I really think I am one. I have this idea of how I'd like life to be and how I'd like things to happen, but just haven't quite mastered the fine art of achieving those things. I was raised with the "new thought movement" concept (which includes the laws of attractions) but have really failed on that. I sometimes find it so hard to get out of my own way, and my own way just might be self-sabotaging.

So here I am at the beginning of my fifth decade (I can't even believe that) and am pretty much where I said I'd NEVER be when I was in my late teens and early 20s. I have dreams and goals, yet seem unable to find the way to achieve them. I've tried many avenues and then when they don't work (maybe immediately - yeah, I'm not famous for my patience), I drop that and try the next thing, and then, I'm in the beginning of my fifth decade with what? A bitchy attitude if nothing else.

Rumor has it that as a child I could throw some major tantrums. I don't necessarily recall that, but I do know I'm more than capable of that now. I think the reason for these "tantrums" is really based on lacking control of things in my life and instead of stepping back to rethink, I jump into childhood tantrum mode. That helps, right?

So, why do I feel a bit out control lately? First of all my mom and her early stages of dementia. I can't control that, nor can I bring my mom back, the mom that raised me. I know it is still her and she is still as kind and caring as always, yet she now struggles with her words and doesn't always have the ability to express herself. That just really kills me.

My sister is having a  medical issue that I can't control. I just want to be optimistic and I want her to be whole and better ASAP! I really understand the whole life thing, but, it can be challenging when it hits home. In a perfect world this stuff doesn't happen.

I'm trying to figure out how the hell to organize my life so that I can do things creatively and get out there and sell my stuff. That isn't happening. I try to promote myself and others, but that sometimes just seems to be a waste of time. I also try to promote stuff on my (possibly useless) FB "fan" page and generally, I'm the only one that "likes" or comments on my posts. Therefore, when I try to promote myself and others, and basically feel overlooked, I tend to regress to that little girl that would throw temper tantrums and probably I alienate the world!

My take on it is that if I'm going to play the game, and that seems to include creating these things called "Treasuries", I do it. What I just seem to have a real hard time with is how many Esty sellers, especially those on my that I include in these treasuries, have absolutely no desire to even view or comment on them. I joined a team and part of being on that team requries creating these little hard to pull together gems on a regular basis. I do it, and I admit, I'm not gifted with creating "pretty" treasuries, but I try. What I've noticed is that many of my team members just don't find it necesarry to comment when I notify them that I've included them and I'm kind of at a point where I just wonder what the hell am I doing. Why do I bother. I do notice that the older team members are very good about it and very supportive.

Surely this sounds so stupid to those of you that don't have an Etsy shop or don't create these treasuries. It really seems that it has gotten to the point where creating a treasury and/or being featured in one, is ONLY about how PRETTY it is and it's potential to make the FRONT PAGE. Period. Making the front page is great exposure, true, but from what I've heard, it hasn't necessarily brought sales.Maybe if one of my goofy treasuries made the damn front page, the silent shops would then comment. Yes, I'm annoyed and probably annoying, but I just really wonder what these shop owners think. But I suppose in the "big picture" this really doesn't matter. What really matters is my mom and my sister and their quality of life.

So after my latest temper tantrum (how many times have I said that in this post?), I decided to take a vacation from Etsy and today I spent time with my mom and researching the family tree. I took a trip to the Orange County, California, Hall of Records to pull the marriage certificate of my grandmother's first cousin. He apparently was a rather abusive husband (well not apparently, really, as I have a copy of the divorce record). My intention to was to find his wife's maiden name in hopes of finding her living relatives. I now have her maiden name and tonight have been doing some research, but it isn't coming together as easily as I'd hoped. I did find someone to reach out to and we'll just have to see. I hope it is a connection.

Wordless Wednesday

Paul Robinson, Earl Robinson, unk

I'm not sure where or when this photo was taken, but I do know it is my grandfather, Red (aka Earl) and his brothers. I know that Red's younger brother Paul is on the far left, next to Red, but don't know who the others are yet nor have I been able to get feedback from the Robinsons on this picture. I can tell they are all related though, as they all have the same nose!

Always the Bridesmaid and Never the Bride, Fabulous Finds, and a Song of the Week

I'm so excited! After weeks of always being the bridesmaid and never the bride, I finally won the Etsian Artists Team Challenge Treasury! These challenges happen every Tuesday and are open to anyone. In other words, you do not need to be a member of the team (although, I would highly recommend it as they are awesome) to submit to the challenge or to vote in the finals. So, if you have an Etsy shop and participate and win the challenge, your shop along with your treasury (and all the shop finds you included) will be featured for one week on the team blog!

Last week was rather busy and flew by and I think I was tired every single day. It had been a busy weekend and suddenly it was Tuesday and I thought I'd just not participate in the challenge. I was content with that decision until Elizabeth (Oddball Art Co), our team captain, posted a plea on the team message board to everyone to participate as there were only four challenges submitted. I saw that and suddenly the word vintage came to mind (probably because I tend to hang out in the past with the family history research).

I then put together a treasury called Deliciously Vintage and submitted it. I was actually quite happy with it and did get lots of great feedback and lots of views. By Sunday (yesterday), I had made the finals and was honored to have received the most votes! Now I feel like giddy school girl every time I pop on to the team blog (link above) and see my prints, cards and shop featured there! I only wish I had more items listed. That will just have to be in a future win (oh, I do hope).

The other fun thing about being the challenge winner (and no, I did not say that with a Charlie Sheen tone, hahaha) is that all entries for tomorrow's challenge (the theme is "Scream"), must include one of my items! I can't wait to see what people come up with!

I must also share a Fabulous Find with you! What gal wouldn't love delicate whatnots for women and children, and that is exactly what you'll find at Cherrytime! This wonderful shop is run by two fabulous best friends, Mojca and Vesna.

These ladies are so talented and make the most wonderful crocheted items, toys and repurposed vintage cloth with embroidery, just to name a few things. It is a visual treat. They have so many lovely handmade goods that it was hard to pick just what to share. Here are a few of their items that I adore, but all you have to do it follow the above link for your own fabulous adventure!

I think it is so cool that these two best friends share a love of crafting and work their shop together! They are also quite good a photographing their art and I've asked how they manage to do that! I believe the answer was "practice, practice, practice"! So, do check out Cherrytime as I know you'll just love what you see. You can also check out their blog and follow them on Facebook! Go, do it now!

Finally, a few weeks ago, my mom and I watched a wonderful special on PBS about Folk Music and it was so good that my mom wanted to make a pledge in order to get the CDs. Well the CDs arrived today and man are they good! We were listening to them this evening and it sure did make my day job work that I'm in the middle of doing at home tonight so much more enjoyable! The CDs just contain one great song after another! It really was a great purchase on her part. When this song came on, we were singing along.

My parents had this album and they loved this song. I always remember this song from my childhood and love it, too! The compilation my mom got actually has the Pete Seeger version of Guantanamera, but in honor of my mom and my dad, I'm sharing The Sandpipers cover. Enjoy and I hope your Monday was as fab as mine was!

Sunday's Obituary - Wells Marcus Beck

Wells Marcus Beck was my great-great grandfather. He was born 9 January 1842 in Rosetown, PA and was the son of  Joseph and Leah Furst Beck.

I don't yet know much about Wells' young life, but from various census reports I can tell that in 1860, at 18 years old, he worked as a clerk in Armagh, PA.

On 12 April 1864, at 22 years old, he married Emma Mayben at Lewistown, PA.

In 1870, at 28 years old, he lived in Shelby, IL, and worked as a farmer. He lived in Shelby, IL and worked as a farmer until sometime before 1910. According to the 1910 US census report, Wells and Emma were living as lodgers in Decatur, IL. By 1920 they were was living in Canon, CO with eldest daughter Zadie. They returned to Decatur around 1921.

Wells and Emma had 10 children (Zadie Mae Beck Loser, John Carson Beck, Robert Clay Beck, Effie Furst Beck Cloos Roby, Mary Laura Beck, Edna Vina Beck Coffman, Grace Mabel Beck Thompson, Hattie Bell Beck Wempen, Edgar Bruce Beck, Bessie Cornelia Beck). Wells outlived his wife and four of his children.

Wells died 5 April 1928 in Decatur, IL. His obituary was published on 6 April 1928 in the Decatur Herald.

Transcription of obituary:

Wells M. Beck Dies Thursday

Recently Suffered Paralytic Stroke Followed By Pneumonia

Wells Marcus Beck, retired farmer, died at 7 o'clock Thursday evening in the home of his daughter, Mrs. Wade Thompson, 235 West Cerro Gordo Street. Recently he suffered a paralytic stroke and pneumonia developed a few days ago.

Mr. Beck was born in Rosetown, Pa, Jan 9, 1842 and married Emma Mayben at Lewistown, Pa, April 12, 1864. They moved to Shelby county and lived there during the years of his active business life. Prior to coming to Decatur about seven years ago, Mr. Beck made his home for a few years in Mont Vista, Col. Mrs. Beck died in Decatur in 1922.

Until his illness during recent months, Mr. Beck had been in fairly good general health. His greatest handicap in the enjoyment of life during late years, was his impaired sense of hearing which handicapped efforts to converse with him. But his interest in life did not drag, he enjoyed frequent rides in the auto, always was especially interested in the young folks and reading enabled him to keep abreast with current events.

Mr. Beck is survived by six children, Mrs. Zadie Loser, Monte Vista, Col., Mrs. Edna Coffman, Laramie, Wyo., Mrs. Hattie Wempen, Los Angeles, Cal., Mrs. Wade Thompson, Decatur, Mrs. Effie Roby, Decatur, and Edgar B Beck, Decatur. He is also survived by 20 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

He was a member of the Woodmen of the World at Monte Vista, Col. No funeral arrangements have been made.

Decatur Herald, Friday, 6 April 1928, pg. 9

My grandmother, Lola, was one of those 20 surviving grandchildren and my dad was one of the surviving 15 great-grandchildren.

Wells and Emma are buried in Fairlawn Cemetery, Decatur IL (Macon County).

Wordless Wednesday and the 1940 Census

My dad in 8th grade. Irvington School, Huntington Park, CA 1931. My dad is on the far right, third row up.

My dad and the ladies from the carpool. They worked at Douglas Aircraft. This was a night at Joe's Zamboanga. It was located at 3828 W. Slauson, Los Angeles, CA. What you don't see here is that these ladies of the carpool autographed and left lipstick kisses on the groovy paper frame this picture is in! I wonder who these gals are and who their living relatives are that might really love to have a copy of this fabulous photo.

We had these scary plastic wigs when I was a kid! You couldn't wear these without your head sweating.

And since I'm on a vintage thing, I thought I'd share my latest Etsian Artists Team Treasury Challenge. The theme this week is "Delicious" and my contribution is Deliciously Vintage. You can see the other participants here!

On the exciting news front, Ancestry.com had a press release today. They will be offering the 1940 census for free starting in mid-April of 2012 through the end of 2013! I am not sure I can wait for eight months! Come mid-April, I will hopefully have a little more insight into my great aunt, Bessie's, whereabouts. In 1930, she was in the Alton State Hospital and I still have no idea what happened to her husband Ben. I'm also anxious to find out where Red (my grandfather) was in 1940. I know where I think my grandmother was and now will be able to find her because I now know she fell into the system under the name Marie instead of her birth name Lola. Should be most interesting! You can read the press release here.