To Be So Close

Trains.  Locomotives.  What an addition to transportation!  A welcome addition to those folks who were used to traveling by wagon, coach, horse, and/or foot.

It's been passed down in my husband's family that the beautiful Pearl Williams and her family moved from Missouri to Iowa by covered wagon when she was about 7 years old.  In fact, my husband's Great-Uncle Donald explains in his memoirs that Pearl [his mother] and her sister walked most of the way behind the wagon, and that "...only when they came to a town did they get on the wagon and ride through town," on their way to Collins, Iowa.

About 200 miles.

Probably most of them dusty miles.

Quite possibly some of them wet and muddy miles.

Could you imagine?

I bet Pearl and her sister wished they'd been on a train.  It sure would've been much easier and faster.

I wonder, though, if she appreciated the irony of the situation when she received  the postcard below with a photo of a train on it from her son, Forrest Pointer [my husband's grandfather].  He'd been in Marshalltown, Story County, Iowa while in the U.S. Navy in 1946.  About 30 miles from Pearl in Collins, Story County, Iowa and not even able to go home and see his mom and family.


To be so close, and yet so far.

[This post is a submission for the Festival of Postcards hosted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault on her blog A Canadian Family.]

It's A Small World After All

Worlds Apart
Have you ever heard or used the term, “worlds apart”? It's usually used to indicate how far apart two people's lives, ideas, beliefs, faith, etc. are from one another. Before I started researching my family's genealogy, I thought I was "worlds apart" from other people. I thought I was not really connected to much ~ not to other people nor to history. Nothing. Oh, I knew who my family was [mostly], but not where my family fit into things. Where I fit into things.

Now, I know. Genealogy has become sort of a map for me to show me where I and my family fit into things. I have also come to realize how I'm connected to others ~ blood relations and non-blood relations. In fact, the more I research my family, the more people I run into and stumble upon who I am connected to.

It's really rather amazing at times. How we're connected, that is.

Postcard Connections
This idea of genealogy being a map and everyone being connected to one another crossed my mind while I was trying to select an appropriate postcard for the “Geography” edition of “Festival of Postcards”.

Most postcards have either photos of places or photos of people in places. I know when we travel anywhere, I always buy postcards from the places we've visited. Furthermore, if I were to take my postcards and lay them out on a map, they'd not only be a wonderful representation of where I've been, but each one could tell at least one family story as well.

They'd tell of places on my family tree.

They'd tell of places on my genealogy map.

They'd tell of some of the people I'm connected to ~ by blood or otherwise.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who collects postcards of where they've been because I stumbled upon some old postcards and photographs of my mother-in-law's that she had collected. They were from a trip that her mother, N. Virene Richardson, had taken her, her sister, and some friends in the mid-1960's to Washington, D.C. from Iowa. From the photos, I can tell they had an awesome time. However, I know they had an awesome time visiting our nation's capitol because I took that same trip in seventh grade. Yup. All the way from the tip of Texas to D.C. I remember looking at all the monuments and thinking how incredible they were to see in person, but there was one monument I had seen before.

Mother-in-law's postcard from visit to Arlington National Cemetery in 1960's.

The Iwo Jima Statue. 

And apparently, it had been remarkable for my mother-in-law as well because she had bought a postcard of it.

The postcard instantly reminded me of the same Iwo Jima statue that stands in Harlingen, Texas ~ a town that's about thirty minutes east of the small town that I'm from, Weslaco, Texas. It also reminded me of some recently acquired information that I'd stumbled upon while doing some research of Weslaco, Texas for another blog post. This was the day I found I had a connection to the Iwo Jima statue. [O.K., it's a small one, but I do have one.]

Of Course There's A Story Behind It
The story behind this statue is quite interesting. It depicts the 2^nd raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi 23 Feb 1945 by 5 U.S. Marines and 1 Navy Corpsman at Iwo Jima in World War II. Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press took the photo, and from it the the 3 men that survived the war that had raised the flag, became famous due to the popularity of the photo and what it represented.

When it came time to identify the men from the photo, there was a mistake made in the 5^th marine's identity ~ the one closest to the ground. It was incorrectly identified as Henry “Hank” Hansen who had actually died in between the first flag raising and the second flag raising.

And when the correct marine's mama saw the photo 2 days after it had been taken in the newspaper, she, according to Wikipedia, exclaimed, “That's Harlon!” She even stated, “I know my boy.”

Now, I just love that statement. I'm a mama too. I would know my children anywhere. I would know “my boy.” It's just a “mama thing.” There's just something about the bond that's made between a mama and her child before the child even takes his or her first breath. Yup. There are no two ways about it. I would've known my boy too.

His identity was later corrected. The 5^th marine was Corporal Harlon Block, and he was killed in action less than 2 weeks after the photo was taken. The first statue of Joe Rosenthal's photo was sculpted by Felix de Weldon, and it's now located next to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia [just outside of D.C.]. The original plaster working model of the first statue is located in Harlingen, Texas [near my home town], on the grounds of the Marine Military Academy. The story of Cpl. Block and the other 5 men who raised the American flag in Iwo Jima is told in the book Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley from which a movie by the same name was directed by Clint Eastwood and released in 2006.

I Should've Known
Now, I never knew Corporal Harlon Block, but...

I've played in his park. [Now it's a sports complex.]

I've walked the same streets that he did. [Some look the same, some look a little different.]

We attended the same high school. [Definitely looks different.]

My Dad took me to see the Iwo Jima statue in Harlingen, Texas a couple of times in the 1980's after the statue was donated. [In 1995, Cpl. Block was moved from the Weslaco City Cemetery to lie next to the statue where he still is today.]

My Dad paid for the Washington, D.C. trip where I saw the original statue that marks Cpl. Block's involvement in such an important day in our nation's history.  [Had an awesome time.]

That's right. Corporal Harlon Block and I come from the same small border town of Weslaco, Texas.

What are the odds, right?

I don't remember my Dad ever telling me that Cpl. Block was from Weslaco [or maybe I just wasn't paying attention]. Maybe he just thought that I already knew. I should've known, tho'.  I mean, I'd been playing in the park named after Corporal Harlon Block in Weslaco for, like, “forever.” [rolling eyes heavenward]

Aaah. Those connections are everywhere. We just have to open up our eyes and find them.

For we're all connected ~ some in big ways and some in small ways.

Connected by genealogy, history, people, and geography that criss-cross through our lives like roads on a map. Hopefully, we've collected a postcard or two along the way to help us remember.

I don't believe we're all “worlds apart” anymore.  Nope.  I think Walt Disney got it right.

“It's a small world after all.”

[This blog post is a submission for  Evelyn Yvonne Theriault's Festival Of Postcards on her blog A Canadian Family.]

Best Friends

This is a collage of my Paw Paw [grandmother on dad's side] and her best friend Hazel.  While sifting through some old photographs of my Paw Paw, I found an old envelope with no letter inside.  However, I thought that it was neat to keep because it's my grandmother's handwriting and it has their addresses on the envelope.  The envelope was postmarked 31 Dec 1943.  My Paw Paw would have been 30 years old, and it was 2 days after my dad's seventh birthday.  The black and white photograph, judging by other photos of my Paw paw, was taken probably ca. 1939 [Paw Paw on the right and Hazel on the left].  The color photo is one of my Paw Paw [on left] and Hazel [on right] taken around 1977...and that cute, adorable child practically inhaling the snow cone in the sticky heat?  Why, it's ME, of course!  If I had to guess [which I do], I'd say we were in Breckenridge Park in San Antonio, Texas.

This post is a part of the Postcard Friendship Friday McKlinky hosted by Marie at her blog Vintage Postcards~Cpaphil.  Go take a look at all the vintage postcards and mail-related images.  It's a virtual walk through time!

I Just Needed A Sign

I Just Needed A Sign

As I looked through my meager collection of postcards, I wondered if I'd find one with a sign that also included a family story.  I mean, really, what are the odds?  At first, I didn't find any, but then I remembered that I had a few more.  They weren't with the rest of my postcards because they're a part of the "Genealogical Jackpot."  I quickly located them, and I found that one, indeed, had a sign.  Albeit, a minuscule one, but a sign nonetheless.  As I read the back of the postcard, I realized that the whole postcard was a sign.

You see, the postcard is one that was sent by Annie Ritter to Harvey "Harve" Pointer [the beautiful Pearl's husband].  I had done some preliminary research on Annie, but I'd lost her trail.  Anna Elizabeth Pointer was born to Daniel & Emeline (Belcher) Pointer Jul 1869.  She was more than likely named after her Aunt Anna Pointer who married Alfred McHone.  Annie married Charles Padelford/Paddleford 25 Apr 1885 in Story County, Iowa.  She gave birth to 2 children with only one surviving by the 1900 Census.  The surviving child was Maud born abt 1887.  In addition, according to another researcher, she married a second man by the last name Ritter.  However, this information was not sourced.  So, what had happened to Annie?  Well, I hadn't known until now.  This little postcard, or sign, was a very nice clue.

The front of the postcard is a picture of the C.M. & St. P. Depot, in Groton, South Dakota.  Hard to see with the naked eye, is a sign that reads "Groton" on the Depot.  On the back, she writes to her brother, "Harvie Pointer."  She indicates that she's going to Canada in 3 weeks [postcard dated by Annie 30 Aug 1913].  She also says she'd like to see him again one more time, but that she doesn't have the money to do so.  She signs the postcard "loving sister Anna Ritter."  Aahh.  So many clues in such a small space kept by my husband's great-grandfather, Harvey Lewis "Harve" Pointer.

With this postcard, my cold trail for Annie has just become warm, if not hot.  Here's a quick run-down of what I learned from it and what I need to do next:

• This postcard from Annie to Harvey confirms that she probably married a man by the name "Ritter" because she signs her last name with "Ritter."  Since she's in Groton, South Dakota, I can now look there and the surrounding area for marriage records.
• Annie and Harvey had a brother and uncle named George Washington Pointer.  The uncle and his wife moved to Dahinda, Saskatchewan, Canada, and had 6 children there.  [They had 8 in total but the 1st two children that were born in Iowa perished there.]  Had Annie and her husband moved to live near her Uncle George?
  
• I will be searching border crossing records for Annie and her husband.
• Also, where was her daughter, Maude?  By 1913, Maude would've been about 26 years old.  Where did she end up?  Did she marry?
• I located a map of this particular railway's line.  If she took a direct route from Iowa to South Dakota, then I have everywhere she may have stopped and possibly left records along the way.
  

This is all I can think of right now, but I'm sure there is more that will be apparent later.  As is usual with genealogical clues, it answers some questions and raises more.  I'm sure thankful, though, that Annie wrote her brother Harvey a "goodbye" note on a postcard and sent it to him.  Likewise, I'm thankful that it meant so much to Harvey that he kept it and that his descendants kept it, as well.  Something so simple as a postcard of a train depot in South Dakota has given me more signs of Annie's story.

Caroline
 Festival of Postcards, 3rd Edition - "Signs"
Sponsored by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault