Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Obituary of Helen A. Medlock (abt. 1881 - 1960)

This obituary is one of the newspaper clippings that was in my grandmother's possession. All identifying information about the newspaper has been trimmed away. Unfortunately, I have NO idea why this person was in the collection. Many of the clippings she inherited from her mother so it's most likely this person was a friend of the family in some way.


I found Helen and her husband Harry in the 1930 Federal Census. They were living on North Aurora St. in Ithaca, Tompkins County, NY. They were sharing a house with 2 other couples, one of which was their daughter and her husband (Helena and Kent FREER).

Helena was 49, didn't work outside the home, and it also lists her father as being from New Jersey, whereas she and her Mom are listed as being from New York.

In the 1920 Federal Census, Helen and Harry were still on Aurora St., along with their 14 year old daughter.

In the 1910 Federal Census, the three of them are there still in Ithaca, but I can't tell the street name because the scan is not good on ancestry.com. They are listed as being married for 5 years so I would need to know her maiden name to search in the 1900 census, but OH, guess what, the obituary neglects to mention that information. Grrr!

No outright clues as to why my great-grandmother saved this obituary, but it's likely they were friends or neighbors since Helen spent what looks like nearly her entire life in or near Tompkins County, NY.

Obituary Text:

Mrs. Helen A. Medlock

Mrs. Helen A. Medlock, 79, of 20 Abbott St., Binghamton, died Tuesday evening, June 21, 1960, in Wilson Memorial Hospital, Johnson City.

Mrs. Medlock was born in Tompkins County. She was a member of the Tabernacle Baptist Church of Ithaca.

Surviving are her husband, Harry T. Medlock of Binghamton; a daughter, Mrs. Helena Freer of Binghamton; three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; two sisters, Mrs. Ida Brewster of Johnson City and Mrs. Flora Huguine of Groton; several nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the J. F. Rice Funeral Home in Johnson City. The Rev. Paul Griffis of the Baptist Bible School Park faculty in Johnson City will officiate. Burial will be in Trumansburg.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - 17 August 2011

Not completely wordless this week....

This is my lovely great-Aunt Mary Ann DOMELLE, who passed away in 2003. She was the only girl with 3 brothers. I like to imagine because of that she could throw a punch and mean it!



Sunday, August 14, 2011

Obituary of Frederick B. English (abt. 1884 - 1958)

This obituary is one of the newspaper clippings that was in my grandmother's possession. All identifying information about the newspaper has been trimmed away. Unfortunately, I have NO idea why this person was in the collection. Many of the clippings she inherited from her mother so it's most likely this person was a friend of the family in some way.

I tried to narrow down a search on ancestry but wasn't able to due to multiple occurrences of the name. Maybe the 1940 census will have them. If I figure it out, I'll do an updated post!



Obituary Text:

Frederick B. English

Frederick Bates English, 74, of 624 Coddington Rd., died at his home early today, June 3, 1958, after a long illness.

A former foreman in the Department of Public Works, City of Ithaca, he was a member of the Caroline Valley Federated Church of Brooktondale.

He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Grace Snyder English; 2 daughters, Mrs. Almus Van de Bogart of Danby and Mrs. Leon Robinson at home; 3 sons, Carl of Brooktondale, Rodney of Ithaca and Arlo English of the Slaterville Rd.; 10 grandchildren and a sister, Mrs. Emma Wheeler of Brooktondale.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday in the Caroline Valley Federated Church with the Rev. Dwight Burkham officiating.

Burial will be in South Hill Cemetery.

Friends may call at the Wagner Funeral Home, 421 N. Aurora St., Wednesday evening.


Thursday, August 11, 2011

KLEYLEIN Immigration Trail

Time for another immigration trail! Last time it was DOMELLE, today it will be KLEYLEIN. I am nothing if not blessed with unusual surnames. When I was growing up I used to wish my name was nice and simple, like "Lisa Smith". Of course, silly me, once I started doing genealogy all of a sudden I appreciated the fact that I had these ridiculously rare names to search on!

Anyhoo! Here is the Immigration Trail of my direct line of KLEYLEIN ancestors going as far back as I know, and ending with the birthplace and childhood home of my grandfather, Leon:

Unterrodach, Oberfranken, Bayern, Germany-->(via port of Bremen, Germany and port of Baltimore, MD)-->Baltimore, Maryland

Yep, that's it! Two places. I can see that my urge to constantly move doesn't come from this particular line!

Couple notes here:

1. Bremen is the same port that my DOMELLE ancestor departed from, but there was a 22 year space in between. My great-grandfather sailed on the Donau.

2. What you can't tell from the immigration trail itself is that we have records going back to the late 1700s showing KLEYLEINs living in the town of Unterrodach in Germany. It fact the tiny town was actually teeming with them to the point that people starting slapping additional descriptors onto their last names. We were the KLEYLEIN-WELTDICKER. Just bask in the wonderfulness of that name for a second! I just may change my name to add the descriptor...

So anyway my great-grandfather Peter KLEYLEIN, at age 16, the youngest of 8 siblings, left his hometown to journey to Baltimore Maryland in 1889. His older brother John had already lived in Baltimore for a few years.

Unterrodach was a logging town. This picture from google earth shows large swaths of forest that still exist in the region, thank goodness:


And so ends my immigration trail for today. I promise future one's will have more than 2 places (I have lots of old-timey New Englanders to work on next).

Wednesday, August 10, 2011