Saturday, May 10, 2008

HCGS 10 May 2008 - "English Research: Why I Can't Go Back"

Alan Toft (see photo) gave an animated and riveting presentation on "English Research - Why I Can't Go Back." He provided an excellent Power Point Presentation which shed some light on the multitudes of ways one can do English research -- from visits, letters, and cemetery footwork, to up-to-date internet search sites. His personal experiences across many years in researching his English roots were enjoyable, especially with all the references to lunatics and pubs. Two pubs in his family are pictured here: the Ploughboy Pub (white) and the Bear & Ragged Staff Pub (brick) in England.


As usual references material was offered for free or at minimal cost. Stan passed out brochures on the Southern California Genealogy Society Jubilee occurring in June at Burbank, California. It looks like two or three of our members will attend.


Delicious refreshments were provided by Louise and Harriet, and after adjournment, 12 decided to have lunch at the Waiolae Tea Room, nearby, in Manoa Valley.


Martha Reamy
provided a mini-biography about her grandmother, Mary Adam Wasiljov, see Martha's grandmother in the photo (below). She is in the bottom right of the family photo. The story of her grandmother is below.

~~Mary Adam Wasiljov of 19th Century Hungary ~~
My Grandmother, Mary Adam, was born in 1886 in Modis, Hungary. This is near Kikinda, the largest city in the area. It was on the border with Romania. After the first World War, the territory was given to Romania; after the second World War it was Yugoslovia. Now it is in Serbia, near the Romanian border. When Mary was six her only sibling was born - a brother - who died in World War I. Her mother died giving birth to her brother, so for awhile, she was the "woman of the house", doing all the cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. After a time her father remarried, but she and Mary did not get along well.

Mary was married young to a man she had not ever met. That man was John Wasiljov (Russian name Wassilov). She came to America at the age of 24 with 3 living children, Peter, Mary and Ethal, and arrived in Baltimore in May 1913. This was just before World War I. They came to "make their fortune", but after the war her father wrote to her and said "children don't come back." It was very bad there at that time. My mother, Louise (Lucia), was the first child born in America, and only one other child in America survived -my uncle Nicholas. There were Mary had 12 pregnancies and 5 living children; many of the children died of diphtheria when small, and several were stillborn.

Mary's husband, John, got a job at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Baltimore, MD, but she did all his work and he went to the bar every day. After that they bought a house near the church, and John went to wo rk at a local Baltimore department store. Because of this, when he died at age 63 (gall bladder disease), she had a Social Security check.
As much as she loved her first and only home, after John died she saw him in the house, and was afraid to stay. The house was sold and she lived many years among her three daughters.

Mary died at the age of 93. She had an easy death. It was summer and she was chilly. Her daughter Ether took her to the hospital and my mother met her there. Mary's blood pressure began to fall, and she closed her eyes and died. She was very good to me while I was growing up. She was a loving person, who never complained. She lived to see my children grow up along with other great-grandchildren. I still miss her and wish I knew more about her family. I found LDS records of the church her family attended, but the records were filmed in 1945, so were only copied until 1945. Mary burned all the pictures she had from the "old country" before she died. She never offered to show them to me.
Martha (Snyder) Reamy
of Baltimore and Hawaii

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is the first time George and I have checked your wonderful blog site. We were so surprised to see you had posted todays meeting since we were just with you for lunch at Waioli Tea Room about two hours earlier. You do such a great job and do it very quickly. Have a great trip. We all will miss you.