This is for the 10th edition of Smile for the Camera – “Costume”:

Whenever I think of a “distinctive style of dress” concerning my family’s genealogy, I always think of my g-g-grandmother, Irene Mary (Beckman) Seibert.

Here she is as a child, in one of her more distinctive outfits:

(Photo taken at Elrod Bros. studio at 313 W. Jefferson St., Louisville, KY)

The latest Carnival of Genealogy prompt is The Happy Dance – The Joy of Genealogy:

“Almost everyone has experienced it. Tell us about the first time, or the last time, or the best time. What event, what document, what special find has caused you to stand up and cheer, to go crazy with joy?”

I’ve had a couple instances where I’ve jumped for joy when researching ancestors, but the absolute best, in my opinion, was when I found information regarding my father’s side of the family.  My mom and dad divorced when I was young, so I never had much contact with my dad.  Then once I got interested in genealogy, my dad didn’t have much to tell me.  His mom and dad were both dead so they had nothing to offer, and he didn’t know the names of his grandparents because he only knew them by their last names, for example “Grandma Bone.”  I thought for the longest time that I might never find information about his side of the family past his parents.

But I did it.  And with each new finding it seemed like I kept hitting the jackpot:

I started with census records, knowing that my grandfather’s name was Bruce Stiver and was born in 1900 in Pennsylvania, and that Bruce had a brother named Russell.  I finally found them in the 1920 census in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, living  with their parents Silas and Rosella Stiver.  Finding the names of my great-grandparents in itself was something I’m sure I did a little dance over, but this wasn’t it.

After finding out their names, I did a little poking around on the internet and found someone’s family tree that had a TON of info on Silas and his ancestors for quite a few generations on both his mother’s and father’s side.  It even had info on the Stiver clan back to when the name was previously spelled Staiber.  I had always thought that the spelling ‘Stiver’ seemed wrong, and that it was likely spelled another way back in Germany, but I didn’t know what it would be. Now I know what it was (or at least have a better idea) and now I have an alternate spelling to do searches under.

After finding this data, I discovered a cousin through a mailing list who had been researching the Stiver name for over 25 years.  She was able to confirm all the info I had found on the internet and to top it off she had info regarding Silas’s wife Rosella, whose maiden name, she was able to tell me, was Wells.  She also had a photo of Silas, Rosella, and two children, likely their first son Harry, and Bruce when he was an infant:

I’ve gone on to document much of my grandfather Bruce Stiver’s genealogy from all of this info, including finding out that Rosella was the “Grandma Bone” that my father had remembered.  She had remarried a John Bone after Silas had died.

Now I just have to find more info on Bruce’s wife’s side of the family.  That will be a bit more tricky, as I have precious little to go on and her maiden name was Smith.  I can’t wait until I can do the happy dance regarding that side of the family as well.

I got this photograph from a relative who has no idea who any of the people are in the photo.  I identified the young girl in the man’s arms as my great-grandmother, Thelma (Seibert) Furry.  That means the photo was taken around 1911 or 1912, probably in Louisville, Kentucky since that is where my great-grandmother lived until she was about 6 years old.

I’d like to know who all of the other people are in the photo, but I’m most curious about the older man standing on the right, holding a chicken.  I think he is the same man pictured in this photo I posted a few months ago.

If anyone recognizes these people.  PLEASE let me know.

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This is for the 9th Edition of Smile For The Camera: Who Are You – I Really Want To Know?

This is a 1941 staged photo of my grandfather, Floyd Cummings, pretending to be drunk with two friends, sisters Mary O’Fay (on the left) and Renee O’Fay (on the right). The car pictured is my grandfather’s first car, a 1940 Studebaker.

The first time I saw this photo, a few years ago, it cracked me up. I wasn’t entirely sure it was a staged photo or if he really was drunk, but my grandfather assured me that it was staged; just he and a few friends having some fun.

It’s one of my all-time favorite photos of him, just because it shows his wonderful sense of humor.

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This is for the 6th Edition of Smile For The Camera: Funny Bone

Just a cute photo of my daughter that I thought I’d share:

This photo was found in an old family photo album belonging to my great-great-grandmother, Irene (Beckman) Seibert of Louisville, KY. None of the photos were labeled, so no one knows who this is a photo of. It could just be a friend or neighbor, because we have identified a few neighbors in some of the other photos, but I’m guessing that this is of a relative.

Associated Surnames:
Beckman
Frey
Kintzer
Knörr
Rix
Seibert
Sermersheim
Strömsdörfer

If anyone can identify him, or even just date the photo, PLEASE let me know.

Today was Earth Day 2008. What did you do to help out?

I found a Eastern painted turtle in the middle of a busy road near our house, far from water, at least from what I could tell. I saw a couple people barely miss hitting him with their cars so I just had to stop and move him out of harms way.

I could have simply moved him to the other side of the road, but I felt like that wasn’t the best thing for him. I know that moving animals from their home territory is not a good thing to do, but in this case, it really did seem to be the best thing for him. I could be wrong, but…

I took him home with me and released him into the canal near our house. Hopefully this old guy will be happy there and won’t think of trying to cross any more streets.

Here’s a photo of him right before I put him in the canal:

PS. Yes, I do know that it was a male turtle. He had a long tail and very long claws on his front feet, typical of males.