Fun Along the Way with Family History

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This has been a rather busy week for our family, so the blog post that I had planned on writing for you with instructions to upload your audio recordings to FamilySearch did not get written yet.  I will prepare it for next week.  However, this is a blessing for you, because you now have more time to prepare your interviews and audio recordings for FamilySearch!  (looking for a silver lining here… 😊

In doing some family history recording this week, though, I came across some articles that were a hoot and wanted to share them with you.  We are in the process of scanning more documents, news articles and photos to our computers and I ran across an obituary from September 1949 of one of Brother May’s family members.  It was not cut out but was still attached to a good portion of the page it was originally printed on.

As I was reading the other articles around the obituary, I came across the following news blurbs from around the nation:

From Las Vegas, NV:  Oldtime movie Keystone Cop Chester Conklin, 63, honeymooned Saturday with his second wife, Valda C. Genessee, 41.  The couple were married yesterday by the Justice of the Peace, A.G. Blad.  (this could be a wonderful piece of a missing puzzle for someone doing research on any of these parties)

From Seattle:  Several pints of boubon whiskey dated 1896 were found hidden in the old Fulton hotel by a wrecker yesterday.  Dismantling was halted.  Sometime later, dismantling resumed.  (hmmmm…  did they drink the whiskey?  Haha)

Berkeley, Cal: David Eakin, 10, and Stanley Sharp, 8, were happy today despite the impending reopening of school.  They found 15,000 pieces of bubble gum in a vacant lot. (what fun!)

Bend, Ore: Vacuum cleaner salesman Erwin Mengis got a quick arrest when he violated the city ordinance forbidding door-to-door selling.  Mengis made the mistake of ringing the doorbell of Police Judge Alva C. Goodrich’s home.  (here again, this could be a piece of a missing puzzle)

San Francisco: Robert G. Parsons, a 22-year old bank teller who waltzed off with $1000 in bank funds was on probation today.  Parsons was placed on five years probation by Federal Judge George B. Harris yesterday after he explained he needed the money to take dancing lessons. (oh my!)

Fort Worth, Tex: The Headline Reads:  Bingo Not Lucky  ----  Amos L. Clannan, 56, who was going home from a church bingo party when he was hit by a car.  Three weeks later, the same thing happened.  Same intersection, same type of injury, but another church bingo party. (time to change activities I think….)

Enjoy!  I hope these brought a smile to your face and an appreciation for the fun things we can find when doing our family history.  And who knows?  Someone may have been looking for some missing information on a family member and these fun articles provided it – either a name and location of the person, a reason why they were arrested, or another family member connection.

Have a great week!  Let us know if we can help with your family history project!  Brother and Sister May

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