For My Family: 99 years ago today . . .

Whit Criswell Bryan in Seymour, Texas - 1921

I've posted about Dad so many times. Today is his birthday. He was born 99 years ago today. Dad died in August 2001. He would have loved this blog. It seems like just yesterday when he showed me the family bible and asked me to look for Reddick Bryan on my new AOL connection. Find more about Dad at this post - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #2 Whit Criswell Bryan.

The Baylor County Banner - December 30, 1920

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - 2019

Whit Criswell Bryan
1920-2001

I read today that today there are only three living survivors of Pearl Harbor. There are no living survivors in my part of Virginia where local survivors' names are engraved on a monument at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.

The Pearl Harbor memorial was built and dedicated in 1990 on the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.  An expansion to the monument was completed in 2001 which includes 184  names of known local survivors of the attack.

Names were added to the monument
just a few months after my father's
death in 2001.

My father, Whit Criswell Bryan, was a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack. Dad was stationed at the Mobile Naval Hospital #2 as a Pharmacist's Mate 3rd Class. He was one of many Naval personnel constructing the hospital and it was not complete when the bombing occurred. He didn't talk about his specific duties after the bombing so I did some searching to find out more. 

According to U.S. Navy Medicine, The Mobile Naval Hospital was not yet uncrated but provided personnel, supplies, and equipment to treat 110 patients on the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked. 

Hospital Corps Quarterly, Volumes 15-16 has a list of all officers and enlisted men stationed at the Mobile Naval Hospital on December 7, 1941.

Bernard Williams, a Pharmacist's Mate at the mobile hospital, stated that after the attack they began the task of cleaning up the debris and worked well into the night. 

LeRoy Knurr, a Navy carpenter, said his unit was quickly put to work building medical facilities for casualties. It was written that as soon as an area was finished, beds would be brought in and it would soon be filled by wounded. Edward C. Kenny stated they worked frantically to finish the mobile hospital to accommodate 400 burn victims. 

George Gorohoff's obituary stated that he was personally responsible for making over 3,000 battle dressings following the attack while working in a cane field. The mobile hospital was surrounded by cane fields. 

Robert Brunner and others from the mobile hospital crowded into trucks and hustled to the harbor. The most severely burned victims were taken to the naval hospital. More than 100 were treated in the still-unfinished mobile unit.

left - Whit Bryan and Robert "Bob" Brunner - Pearl Harbor - about 1941
right - Robert "Bob" Brunner and Whit Bryan - Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story - December 7, 1991

Visit these links to learn more about Dad's time in Pearl Harbor. 

• Friday's Photo: Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2012


Thoughts of Dad on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2014
Remembering Dad and Pearl Harbor: Naval Mobile Hospital # 2
Friday's Photo: Pearl Harbor 
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - Dad was stationed at the Mobile Naval Hospital #2 in Aiea Heights, Territory of Hawaii
#52ancestors Post Fifty-One: The Second Anniversary of Mobile Hospital No. 2, Pearl Harbor - August 1943 
Friday's Photo: Pearl Harbor Survivors, Whit Bryan and Bob Brunner - 1991

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Other Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection Diana Bryan Quinn. 

“JEB Little Creek-Fort Story honors Pearl Harbor survivors and victims at annual remembrance ceremony .” 13newsnow.com, https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/national/military-news/jeb-little-creek-fort-story-honors-pearl-harbor-survivors-and-victims-at-annual-remembrance-ceremony/291-d6ce17a8-ef1c-4274-815f-017330c444d4. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.

Napa Valley Register (California) 9 February 2001, obit for George Gorohoff, GenealogyBank.com https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/13C7C709F1A0A2B8-13C7C709F1A0A2B8 : accessed 7 December 2019

Friday's Photo: Charles William Giddens - 1962

Charles William Giddens and his homemade Christmas decorations
Hollywood, Florida - 1962

Charles William Giddens was my Great-Uncle Charlie and the son of Charles Allen Giddens and Mary Lucy Glynn. My grandmother's brother, Charles was born in Crew, Virginia where his father had a clothing store for a short period. By 1900 the Giddens family was living in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. Charles served in the U.S. Army in WWI and left for Florida during WWII to serve in the U.S. Navy. Charles and his wife, Louise Uhde were living in Hollywood, Florida by 1948. They remained in Hollywood until their deaths, Charles in 1972 and Louise in 1975. 

I've posted about Charles and Louise Giddens several times in this blog. To learn more, click on the following links. 

Friday's Photo: Cannons in Phillipsburg, New Jersey

Friday's Photo: A New Photo of Charles William Giddens 

Thanksgiving at the Aviation Free Gunnery School - 1942 

Friday's Photo: Charles Giddens Had a House on Irvington Avenue in South Orange, New Jersey 

Friday's Photo: Another Giddens Family Photograph

Friday's Photo: Charles William Giddens

Friday's Photo: Charles Giddens - Four Years Old

Friday's Photo: Louise Uhde


If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn. 

Friday's Photo: Anna Rita Alter

Anna Rita Alter was my grandmother's first cousin. Her mother, Caroline "Carrie" Glynn, was the sister to Mary Lucy Glynn Giddens, my great-grandmother. Anna, the daughter of Caroline Glynn and William Alter, was born in the Bronx on June 7, 1905. 

Anna married Joseph John Doran in 1925 in the Bronx. It is said he died young. If so, it was before 1938 when she married James V. Morris in Dutchess County, New York. James and Anna had one child, a daughter. 

According to the obituary, Anna died at 58. She is buried, along with her husband and other relatives, in Fishkill Rural Cemetery. Anna's obituary can be seen below. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn. 

New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967. New York State Department of Health; Albany, NY, USA; New York State Marriage Index. Ancestry.com

Poughkeepsie Journal, Mrs. Morris, Fishkill Resident. Poughkeepsie, New York. 

19 Jul 1965, Mon  •  Page 16. Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39406783/poughkeepsie_journal/

Friday's Photo: William Glynn and Family of Albany County, New York

On the back: Johnny, Margurite, Willy, and Grace 1938

William Glynn was my grandmother's first cousin. He was the son of Henry H. Glynn and Harriet Mae Snyder. Henry H. Glynn was the son of Joseph Albert Glynn and Julia Harvey (my great-great-grandparents). 

William, born on December 26, 1892, in Cohoes, NY,  was one of two siblings born to Henry Glynn and Harriet Snyder. Harriet died in 1893. It is said Henry Glynn died about the same time. The two brothers, William and Albert, were raised by Harriet Snyder's parents, William and Angeline Snyder in Albany County, New York. 

William married Ella Marguerite McBain in 1913. William was a milk dealer or owned a dairy. They had one child, Grace, who married John King. William and Marguerite remained in Albany County until their deaths. William died on April 24, 1960, and his wife died on January 23, 1977.

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn. 

Honoring my Parents on Veterans Day

My parents served in the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps. Mom and Dad met when both were stationed in New Orleans in the 1950s. 

Dad served in the Navy from 1940 to 1969. I've written much about his service. You can find more at this link - Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - Dad was stationed at the Mobile Naval Hospital #2 in Aiea Heights, Territory of Hawaii.

Mom joined the Navy in 1952 while working in New York City. She was only in the Navy for a few years but had duty stations in Bainbridge, Maryland (Boot Camp), San Diego, Corpus Christi, and New Orleans. Mom left the Navy a few months before my birth in 1955 and was a Navy spouse until Dad retired in 1969. While Dad was deployed, Mom managed the household and was the sole parent of two children. Thank you, Mom!

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection Diana Bryan Quinn.

Friday's Photo: Cannons in Phillipsburg, New Jersey

On the back:
South Main Street
Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey
The Civil War Mortar, at the left, was built at Fort Pitt, Pa. in 1862. It was used at the Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River from 1862-1865. 

Charles Giddens 1911
Charles lost the tip of
his right index finger
in the 1909 explosion.

I don't know where I purchased this postcard. Maybe an antique shop or eBay? My interest was South Main Street as I knew my grandmother grew up living over her parents' shop on South Main. And, I was very interested in the cannon pictured as my grandmother's brother, Charles Giddens, stuffed dynamite in a cannon causing minor injury to Great-Uncle Charlie and his friend when detonated. See Monday's News: Dynamite for newspaper articles describing this event in 1909. 

My great-grandparents' store is not visible. It must be further down the street. So on to my next question, Was this the cannon used by Uncle Charlie and his friend on July 3, 1909? 

A little research told me that the item pictured was a Civil War mortar, not a cannon. According to Google, a mortar is simply a tube. The mortar shell has its own contained lifting charge and stabilizing fins.  A cannon works like a rifle with the shell casing and bullet in the tube.

This mortar was one of four mortars found in Phillipsburg - three mortars around the Civil War Memorial and one on the soldiers’ plot in the cemetery are the property of Tolmie Post. These appear to be the "cannons" granted to the John G. Tolmie Post, No. 50 of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1896.

From the Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Volume 54, Issue 1

I re-read many of the articles about Uncle Charle and the cannon explosion and learned that the boys probably loaded the dynamite into a home-made cannon, not the mortar.  

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Sources

“Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States - United States. Congress. House - Google Books.” https://books.google.com/books?id=1lNQAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA478&lpg=PA478&dq=civil+war+mortar+phillipsburg+nj&source=bl&ots=MWZy0Pz9ox&sig=ACfU3U2D1IQLJPZkE6-74xuLXcbctLJvJA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7jJ7roqnlAhVuhOAKHRfAAYYQ6AEwEXoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false. Accessed 8 Nov. 2019.

King, Drew. “Phillpsburg, Pennsylvania {note that this should be New Jersey not Pennsylvania} Civil War Memorial .” <i> Adventures in History</i>, https://monumentman.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/phillpsburg-civil-war-memorial/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2019.

Quinn, Diana Bryan. “Moments in Time, A Genealogy Blog: Monday's News: Dynamite.” https://momentsintimeagenealogyblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/mondays-news-dynamite.html. Accessed 8 Nov. 2019.

Friday's Photo: Is this Laura Jessie Wimberly?

Laura Wimberly, Bryan Martin, Charlie Martin, and Tommie Martin

I knew that the boys in this photo were the sons of Laura Frances Bryan and Thomas Jefferson Martin, but had to sift through the several Lauras in the Wimberly Family History to find Laura Wimberly's parents. 

If I am correct, Laura Wimberly is Laura Jessie Wimberly, daughter of Jesse Wimberly and Jane Crumpton of Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Laura, born June 26, 1879, was the first of four children. Her father died in 1889 and Laura was raised by her mother. 

Laura married John S. Sheppard, a farmer in Red River Parish, in 1913. They had three children; Catherine, William Henry Marshall, and Mary. 

Sadly, Laura died young in 1921. As told in the Wimberly Family History, her children were sent to the Genevieve Orphanage in Shreveport.  Catherine and William later made their home with Laura's brother, Abner and his wife, Callie.  Mary was adopted and her whereabouts were unknown. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.


Wimberly, Vera. Wimberly Family History: Ancestors, Relatives, and Descendants of William Wimberly, Pioneer from Georgia to Louisiana, 1837. Houston, Tex.: D. Armstrong, 1979. Print. 

Friday's Photo: The Biggs Family + One in Erath County, Texas

This photo has always been a puzzle. I looked at it just last week. The three girls didn't appear to match approximate known ages in the family. One family member decided that one of the girls was actually a boy. Nothing made sense until I saw Maureen Taylor's (The Photo Detective) Instagram post today - Not Only Family Members Posed for a Photo.  Immediately, I thought of the older girl in the photo.  Was she a Biggs child? Probably not. 

Short hair? Hair was cut to help cool off
a fever. Hair was shaved and treated with
kerosene when head lice was a problem.
Others cut their hair short as they might
have deemed it fashionable. 

Terrell Little "Bunch" Bryan and James D. Biggs were married in 1880. This photo was taken between 1891 and 1898 when W. B. Praytor had a studio in Stephenville. Looking at the children's sizes and knowing their birthdays, it makes sense that this photo was taken in 1891 or 1892. The first two Biggs children were girls born about 16 months apart in 1881 and 1882. The two younger girls in the photo are both about the same size and look close in age so these girls are probably sisters, Willie and Maggie. The boy to the far right would be Terrel Bryan Biggs (born 1884) and the baby, James Ely Biggs who was born in 1890. 

Who was the older girl? She looked much older and so much more mature than the other girls in the photo. Terrell Little Bryan had two unmarried sisters at this time. James D. Biggs had many siblings. She could be a family member or even a boarder or neighbor. Do you have this photo? What do you think? 

Update - The older girl was Belle Hanley Cameron (aka Belle Latta). Read more about her at From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Belle Hanley Cameron (AKA Belle Latta).

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Sources

Family photograph from the collection of  Sue Pierce and Pat Waas. Accessed January 2006.

“Cabinet Card Photographers: William B Praytor.” http://cabinetcardphotographers.blogspot.com/2017/09/william-b-praytor.html. Accessed 25 Oct. 2019.

“Short hair. Who Were They?"https://whowerethey.photos/2015/02/08/short-hair-2/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2019.

From the files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Mary Thornton Kotchevar, Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Ellett of Shreveport

Mary Thornton Kotchevar was not family. According to the writing on the clipping, she was Charlie's nurse in 1912.  Charlie, Charles Arthur Martin, died young on June 15, 1912. 

Mary was the daughter of Irene Ewing and a currently unknown Thornton. Irene was a widow when she married Joseph P. Ellett. 

The above cemetery stone shows that Mary served in the U.S. Navy as nurse. Her husband, Leopold, served in the U. S. Marine Corps. 


If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2019

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.

Mary M Kotchevar (1891-1935) - Find A Grave Memorial. Created by: wmpr2. Added: 23 Jul 2011.  <https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73802797#source>