Happy Birthday Gramps!

Donald (left) and David Wait - 1956

Paul and I have been working on David Wait's genealogy lately.  He was my grandfather's younger brother.  

We have been photographing all of the different places that Uncle David lived, all of them in Greenfield except for one place.  From what we can gather from City Directories and Uncle David's daughter Janet, Uncle David moved to Arizona in 1956.  He had bad lungs and the doctor told him that moving to a dry environment might help.  

This picture is one of my Aunt Dot's slides.  I remember that they came for a visit on their way to Arizona - Uncle David, Aunt Ellen and their five children.  There was another picture taken that day. I can still see it in my mind.  I looked everywhere for it and the only thing that I can think of is that Dot must have thrown it out.  She went through a phase where she went through her slides and "purged" them, although I can't imagine why she would have gotten rid of that one. 

Anyhow, my grandfather and Uncle David were very close and the move must have been hard for both of them.  I don't remember the details, whether he didn't like it in Arizona, didn't think it helped his health or what, but Uncle David was back in Greenfield the next year.

I have many pleasant memories of going to Greenfield with my grandfather to visit Uncle David, Aunt Ellen, and their youngest son Donald, who was two years younger than me.  

Today is my grandfather's birthday.  He would have been 117.  Happy birthday Gramps. 

Happy 92nd birthday Dot!

This was my Aunt Dot's favorite car, her 1959 Chevy Impala.

It was a convertible and I remember it so well.  I remember when the Mass. Turnpike opened in our area, Dot, my grandmother and I went for a ride on it from West Springfield to Lee.  I was so afraid that the ticket would fly out of the car and we would be in deep trouble.  They both laughed and said I was silly and that the ticket would be safe.

I also remember many times riding to my aunt Esther's house in Salem, NJ.  We would always leave after supper, around 6 pm, and arrive at my aunt's house about midnight.  I remember the first time I went over the George Washington Bridge in Dot's convertible.  It was almost surreal - night time with all of the lights on the bridge, being up so high with the wind whipping at us.  It's something I think I will always remember.  One time my Dad came with us and the wind was so strong that he wore a kerchief on his head while we went over that bridge.

In later years Paul and I bought Dot a car model of her 1959 Chevy.  She still has it in her room at her nursing home.

Happy birthday Dot!

My Aunt Ettie

This is my Aunt Esther (I have always called her Ettie).  My grandfather had hunting dogs for many years and I am sure this must be one of them.  I wish I could remember the name.  Ettie has been having memory problems, along the same line as Dot, recently.  I wonder if she would remember her dog's name?

This picture reminds me of a funny story.  When I was a kid, one day I was rummaging around my grandmother's attic and came across a brown paper bag in one of the trunks.  I stuck my hand in the bag and nearly freaked!  I quickly took my hand out and looked in the bag.  There were two long, blond braids, intact, in there.  I found out later that they were my Aunt Ettie's.  I can't imagine what her hair looked like after just cutting off the braids, lol!

Colonel Moore's Six Story Mill at the Mill St. Dam Site

Last Saturday we went to Greenfield to the Museum of our Industrial Heritage.

As many of you know, Paul and I love doing Genealogy.  It started back in the summer of 2003.  My main objective was to find out, on both my mother's and father's side, when the first ancestor came to America and from where.

We've gathered information, bits and pieces, over the years.  On my father's side we found that Captain John Wayte came from England in 1638 on the "Susan and Ellen."  He was 20 years old.  He settled in Malden, MA.  We actually found his gravestone in the Old Burying Ground in Malden, intact.  That was a big find!  Captain John died in1693 at the age of 75.

His son, Nathaniel Wayte, born in Malden and, we think, died in Malden.

His son, Phineas Wait, born in Malden, died in Groton, MA.

His son, Phineas Wait, Jr, born in Groton, MA, died in Groton, MA.

Then we come to William Wait and his brother David Wait, both born in Groton, MA but moved to Greenfield, MA.  They were recruited by Colonel Moore to work as coopers in his six story mill in Greenfield.

It was so interesting to see how the family came to be in the Greenfield area after settling in Malden upon first coming to this country.

But we could never find out exactly where that mill site was.  We knew it was somewhere on the Green River in Greenfield, but not exactly where.

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled onto a couple of sites on the Internet where it stated that the Mill St. Dam site in Greenfield was the site of this mill.  One of the sites was the website of the Museum of our Industrial Heritage.

It was so much fun to visit this museum.  They told us that the museum was definitely on the same site that this early mill was on, and this was the same dam that powered that early mill.

As an added point of interest, my grandparents are buried on the other side of this river, on top of the hill.

So, now another piece of the puzzle is in place!

Thowback Thursday - Uncle Harold Wait's Camp at Lake Sherman

A couple of weeks ago Paul and I went kayaking at Lake Sherman in Brimfield, MA.

Before Paul and I really got into doing genealogy, we went to the Wait Family Reunion in 2002. While we were there we met a lady (my grandfather's sister's son's wife, got that?) who was really into genealogy.  She brought her book that she was working on and went around gathering everyone's information.  

It was around 2003 that Paul and I started getting interested in genealogy.  Some time later in talking with my Aunt Esther about some of what we had found out she gave me this lady, Ann Bonneville's, email.  We corresponded back and forth and she eventually mailed us her book that she was still working on.  It had a lot of information and pictures that I had never seen.

One of the pictures in her book was of Uncle Harold's "camp" on Lake Sherman in Brimfield, MA.  

I remember talk of this camp.  My Dad used to love going there.  My Aunt Dot said she never liked going in the water there because there were blood suckers.  

This picture was from Ann's book.

Last fall I decided that I would like to try and find out if this camp still existed.  We found the lake, but couldn't identify the house.

My Dad told me years ago that he tried to find it and he had to hike from the road to get to it.  The picture we had was from the water, so I thought maybe we could find it from the kayaks.  Believe it or not, we found it and it didn't look much different than the picture we had.  

Through landmarks we were able to find the camp from the road.  No one was there at the time.  When we got home we looked up the deed and found that Uncle Harold's son Jim sold it in 1990.

It was so much fun actually finding this place.  I was really surprised that it was still there.  

In going through my grandmother's photo album this week I found this picture.

On the back of the picture, this was written in my grandmother's handwriting.  

1957  Camp at Lake Sherman, Brimfield Mass.  

Donald Merz Wait, Feb 6, 1900, my grandfather.

David Reed Wait, Jan 19, 1907, his brother.

Can I say it again?  I LOVE doing family history.  

Throwback Thursday - Julia Christina Merz Lamson

On April 21, 2016, Paul and I went to the wake of Doris Hubbard.  Doris was married to Bob Hubbard, and Bob's mother Lucy was my grandfather's sister.  While we were going through the line, two of Doris's sons, Barry and Bobby, mentioned something of interest to us.  

This is what I journaled about that: 

Both Barry and Bobby told Paul and I about a picture that was hanging in Doris's home. It was a picture of Julia Merz Lamson. They told us that she was buried in White Church Hill Cemetery in West Springfield. Neither of them really knew how she fit into the family. So of course Paul and I got right onto it. We went to White Church Hill Cemetery which is just across the street from Kristen and Toby's house. It's proper name is Meeting House Hill Cemetery. We weren't able to find the grave but came home and looked her up on ancestry.com. In just a little while we had figured out that Julia was Dora Merz Wait's sister. Dora was my grandfather Donald's, and their (Barry and Bobby Hubbard) grandmother Lucy's, mother; so Julia was Donald and Aunt Lucy's aunt. We also found out in looking through the censuses that the Waits and the Merzs were from Greenfield, but Julia married a man from Northampton and moved to West Springfield. Bob Hubbard's parents lived on the same street, Larone St., that Julia and her husband lived on. I'm wondering if when Lucy and her mother Dora went to visit aunt Julia, that Lucy met Bob who lived on that street with his parents, and that is how Lucy and Bob came to live in West Springfield and, ultimately, how my grandfather Donald came to live in West Springfield because my aunt Dot told me that my grandfather wanted to get transferred (Western Union) to West Springfield to be near his sister Lucy. I love doing genealogy!!

Hopefully, that wasn't too confusing!

It's amazing what just talking to Doris Hubbard's sons lead us to - another piece of the puzzle for our family tree.  By the way, we did eventually find her grave.

"Lucy Wait and her two children Dorothy and Buddy"

In trying to decide which picture to use for Throwback Thursday this week, I found this picture in my grandmother's photo album.

On the back of the picture she wrote this:

I love the fact that they are sitting on an oil drum! I'm not sure where this was taken, probably in Brattleboro, VT as my father was born there.  My family always called my Dad Bud.  I guess it started early on!

I remember when I was young, in my grandmother's bedroom closet, there were a few photo albums. They were the kind with a leatherette cover and black construction paper pages.  The pictures were attached with black photo corners.  One of them was my grandmother's pictures; pictures of when she was young in Chateaugay, NY, near the Canadian border. There were also pictures of my grandfather, Donald Wait, probably when they started dating.

There was a smaller photo album with pictures of my Aunt Dot when she was young with her church friends and work friends.

There was also a larger album, same type, which was more of a family album.

I loved looking through those albums.  I remember my cousin and I looking through them and laughing at the styles of the clothes.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts some time, maybe in the '80's, Dot took all of the pictures out of those albums (sigh...) and put them in magnetic albums and cut the pictures down to show just the main part of the picture.

I remember going through my grandmother's album, maybe at that time - I don't remember, and asking her who was who. Unfortunately, I didn't write anything down, and I have forgotten who a lot of the people are.

How I wish I had been more interested in old pictures when my grandmother was still here and young enough to remember who the pictures were of.

Throwback Thursday - Wait Family in the 1950's

My grandparents, my dad, my aunt Dot, and my aunt Ettie.  We were at Ettie and Bob Lundstrom's home in Norwich, CT for Christmas.

(Note:  my Aunt Dot painted that picture for Ettie).

Throwback Thursday - Another four generation picture

I recently found another 4 generation picture.  The year is 1975, the occasion was the combined birthday party of Kristen who turned 3, and Mark who turned 1.  It is of my grandmother, me, and my Dad.  I blogged about the other generation pictures here, here, and here.

Thanks for putting up with all my Four Generation pictures!

Who is this woman?

This is a picture that I found in my Aunt Dot's photo album.  I know everyone in the picture except one lady.  I don't know the year, but my grandmother looks like she might be in her 70's, so maybe 1970's.  I also don't know whose house they were at.

From left is my grandmother Lucy Wait, my dad Dave Waite, my aunt Lucy Hubbard (my grandfather's sister), ???, aunt Lucy's son Bob Hubbard and daughter Nancy.

I have asked my aunt Dot and my aunt Esther if they knew who this lady is.  Neither one remembered.

I'm wondering if it was uncle Harold Wait's wife, aunt Tilly but I really don't know.

I guess now I'll never really know.  I wish I had paid more attention to details when my grandmother was alive.

****Update - In a Messenger text with Greg Hubbard in February 2015, I sent him this picture and asked him if he knew who this woman was.  He said that he was not 100% sure but he thought that it might be Aunt Marion Crawford (my grandfather's and his grandmother's sister).

My Grandmother's Attic

Today I came across these two pictures of my Dad.  

The first one was taken some time when he was in the Navy obviously.  I have no idea when or where.

I have no idea when or where this one was taken either.

I used to love my grandparents' attic.  So much old stuff up there.  

I used to keep all of my dolls up there and would pretend it was my "house."  My cousin and I would spend hours up there playing dolls.  In the summer it was oppressively hot, and in the winter it was freezing.  We didn't care.  It was our "house".

I found my mother's wedding dress up there and my aunts'  bridesmaids dresses from different weddings that they were in.  

There were a lot of old telephones and a Morse code transmitter (my grandfather used to work for Western Union).

I remember when I found my Aunt Ettie's braids.  Her real hair braids.  They were in some kind of bag and I remember being freaked out touching the hair while pulling it out of the bag.  I can't imagine what that haircut looked like.  They must have just cut the braids off for them to still be intact!

I found my father's old Navy uniform and letters that he had written to my grandmother while in the Navy.  I wish I had those now.  They probably got tossed when Dot and my grandmother sold the house and moved into a condo.

There were two huge pictures in very ornate frames up there.  One was the picture of my Dad on the tricycle, and the other was of Dot when she was a child.  Dot never liked her picture and at some point took the picture out and put dried flowers in the frame.  My Dad liked his picture and eventually took it to his house, probably when my grandmother moved.

I was 29 when Nan and Dot moved, lived in a brand new house, and never thought or cared about all that old stuff anymore.  Paul brought home some of my grandfather's tools and the old telephones, but most of the stuff in the attic got thrown out.  Maybe it's a good thing; one can only keep so much. What I wouldn't give to go back up into that old attic again though!

Throwback Thursday - Thanksgiving in the '50's

Oh my, how times have changed.

How many men eat Thanksgiving dinner in a dress shirt and tie anymore, especially in their own house?

My grandfather is on the far right.  I remember him as a t-shirt and flannel shirt kind of guy.  Not on Thanksgiving, I guess. The guy next to my grandfather is my Uncle Bob, and then my aunt Ettie.  The couple next to them were friends of my aunt and uncle.  I can't remember their names.

I'm so thankful to have these old pictures; slides that my aunt Dot took.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Throwback Thursday (early) - Lots of snow!

At last count today we had 11.5 inches of snow in Feeding Hills. It got me thinking about the pictures that my Aunt Dot took when she was young of friends and family out in the snow. She also took pictures of her friends in cemeteries. Maybe that was popular back then.

Anyhow, this is a picture of my mother and father when they were dating. Dot always talked about how much snow they used to get back then.

I'm sure that if I were to talk with Dot about all the snow we had today, she would remind me that this is the way winters were when she was young.

Throwback Thursday - A Thanksgiving memory - 1971

With all the talk this week of Winter Storm Boreas, it reminded me of Thanksgiving 1971. Paul and I were going to his parents' house and my grandmother and Aunt Dot were supposed to go to my Aunt Esther's in Abington, MA. We had so much snow on Thanksgiving morning that they also ended up at Paul's parents' house for dinner.

I googled Thanksgiving 1971 and on the www.erh.noaa.gov/aly/Past/WINTER.htm site this is what it said:

"Thanksgiving Snowstorm of 1971 (November 24-25, 1971)

Heavy snow began on the day before Thanksgiving and continued into Thanksgiving day. Albany picked up 22.5", the greatest November snowfall on record, with amounts up to 30" reported elsewhere. This storm turned the busiest travel day of the year into a nightmare, with many stranded travelers not making it to their destinations on Thanksgiving."

I remember us talking about that for years: the fact that my aunt Ettie had no pies on Thanksgiving day, and we had double the amount.

I'm thankful that this year all we are supposed to get in our area is a little rain.

Ever wonder where some middle names come from?

This is my great-grandfather, on my father's side, Bernard Farren Wait.

Some years ago, when Paul and I first got interested in doing Geneology, I got in touch with my grandfather's sister's son and his wife. Ann had been doing work on the Wait side of the family for years and gave us a large notebook filled with information. One of the things she gave us was an excerpt from a book called "Early Days of Turners Falls."

It is an article written about a man named Bernard Farren, and mostly what I want you to read are the last two paragraphs.

I was so excited when I read this. My great great-grandfather, Henry Wait, named his first son after his boss, Bernard Farren. It was the captured conversation, though, between Barney Farren and Henry Wait that made it so personal.

This just reinforces my thoughts about how important it is to record every day life. It doesn't matter which way you choose to do it; blogging, scrapbooking, photo books, or writing it down in a notebook. Just do it!

My Grandparents' Wedding

I have been obsessed lately with my grandparents' wedding.  It all started with this picture. 

I was looking through my aunt Dot's slides a couple of weeks ago and came across a group of pictures of a wedding anniversary party that we had for my grandparents.  I called my aunt Ettie to find out what year anniversary it was.  One thing that I don't like about slides is that many of them don't have dates.  Ettie thought it was their 35th, and after some calculations we decided that it was. 

That lead to a long discussion about their wedding.  We have no pictures, no certificates, nothing.  The story, as I remember it, was that my grandmother, who was the youngest of eight and 20 years old at the time of her mother's death, left the farm in Chateaugay, NY to live with her sister Marion and her husband Dewey Barrows in Windsor, VT.  My grandfather was working as a lineman for the Western Union in White River Junction, VT.  They met at a dance and were married in Marion and Dewey's home.  That was it.  That was all I knew and basically that was all my aunts knew. 

So.....I set out on a mission to find out more!

First I went to the Geneology Room at the Springfield Museums on Friday, March 1st.  Using the computers there I found out on FamilySearch.org that they were married on October 6, 1923 in Hanover, NH.  New Hampshire!  Where did that come from?  I thought they were married in Marion and Dewey's home in Windsor, VT. 

On Monday, March 4th Paul and I took a trip to New Hampshire and Vermont to try and find some answers.  I love doing this and, luckily, Paul does too - maybe not as much as me, but at least he goes along with it.  After a lot of back and forth from the Hanover NH Town Hall, the Windsor VT Town Hall, the White River Junction VT Town Hall and the Lebanon NH library (luckily they are all relatively close) this is what we found.  From the 1924 Town of Lebanon New Hampshire Annual Report, we found out that Donald Wait, 23, lived in White River Junction, VT and Lucy Bessette lived in W. Lebanon, NY and they were married in Hanover, NH by a Rev. John W. Sliney. 

We also found out from a Lebanon City Directory of 1919 that Marion and Dewey lived in Lebanon, NH. 

So....now armed with quite a bit more information I went back to the Geneology Room in Springfield on Tuesday, March 5th.  One of the employees there found on-line the Registration Card for Rev. John W. Sliney who was a pastor of St. Denis Catholic Church in Hanover, NH.  I called the church later that day and they said they would check to see if there was a record of my grandparents' wedding at that church. 

On Monday, March 11th we went back to Lebanon, NH to go to the Town Hall.  There we got a Certified Copy of  Donald and Lucy Wait's Marriage Certificate.  We also found St. Denis Catholic church in Hanover, NH, right near Dartmouth College. 

Tuesday morning the receptionist from St. Denis Church called to say that they found the record of their marriage and that she is sending it to me. She said the only "hiccup", as she called it, was that it was not signed by the priest.  She has no idea why.  I asked if the fact that my grandmother was Catholic and my grandfather was Protestant would have anything to do with it and could they still have been married in the church.  I told her how I had always heard they got married in my grandmother's sister's home.  She said that it was not customary for a priest to perform a wedding in a home, and they must have been married in a church.  The fact that the Certified Copy of the Marriage Certificate said that Rev John Sliney performed the marriage must mean that they got married in St. Denis Church. 

So now I have more questions.  Why Hanover and not Lebanon where Marion, Dewey and my grandmother lived?  They filed for a marriage license on October 1, 1923 and were married on October 6, 1923.  Not much time to plan a wedding.  I guess I'll never know the whole story; but need to be grateful for what I know. 

So, if you're still reading this and haven't left thinking "too much unimportant information", now I am on a quest to find out, by going back to the Lebanon Library and looking at another Town Report, information about Marion and Dewey's wedding and what church they were married in.  Who knows, I may discover some more information about my grandparents' lives in the early 1920's. 

Genealogy.  You either love it or hate it.  It's a lot of work, and can be frustrating at times, but I can't tell you how excited I get when I find out bits of information.  I wish I had felt this way when my grandparents were alive.  It would have made things so much easier!

Donald Merz Wait

My grandfather's birthday was in February.  He would have been 113 this year. 

I think this picture was taken on his 58th birthday, February 5, 1958.  I would have been 7. 

My aunt used to take slides.  At least once or twice a year, usually on a holiday that my aunt and uncle and cousins were with us, we would pull out the slide projector and screen and look at all the slides.  It's funny how the same thing was said for every picture, every time we looked at them.  For these particular pictures of my grandfather's birthday they would always say that the reason I looked unhappy  was because I wasn't allowed to blow out the candles on my grandfather's cake.  They also used to say, it looked like my grandmother was going to hit my grandfather in the head in the first picture, and why in the world didn't they take off the jars and all of the other clutter on the table.  Ha ha!

I must have gotten over it, because I didn't look upset anymore in this picture.

I love how I still remember what we used to say for each picture each time I look at Dot's slides.

Throwback Thursday - My Dad

On December 9, 2012 my Dad passed away.  He was 85.

This is a picture of my Dad and me in 1954.  I had just turned four.

One of the fondest memories I have of my Dad from my childhood is when he would take me for a ride on my grandfather's bike.  I wish I had a picture of that bike.  It was black with a skinny frame.  My Dad would put me on the cross bar and we would ride all over the neighborhood - up and down all of the side streets around my house.  I loved it.

My Dad was always bigger than life.  He talked loud, laughted loud, and always seemed so strong.  It was hard watching him fail and get weaker.  Luckily he wasn't bad for very long.  He's in a better place now and I am grateful for that. 

Throwback Thursday - Pumpkin Pie or Squash Pie?

Having this pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving reminded me of past Thanksgivings at my grandmother's house. 

If you follow my blog at all, you've heard me talk of my Aunt Dot's friend Steph.  Well, Steph and her family used to come over on Thanksgiving afternoon for dessert. 

These are pictures from Thanksgiving 1966.


Ettie, Dot, Steph

These are the guys, in the living room, most likely watching football.  The women and kids were either in the kitchen or in the dining room. 

Steph's husband Ray, my Dad, and Ettie's husband Bob

The pumpkin pie that we had this Thanksgiving reminded me of a funny story about Steph and pumpkin pie.  Steph came from New Jersey where no one had ever heard of a squash pie.  Every year my grandmother would make either a squash pie, pumpkin pie or both.  Steph always asked which one it was before she ate it because she loved pumpkin pie but wouldn't touch squash pie.  One year my family decided to play a trick on Steph.  They told her she was having pumpkin pie and when she finished they asked her how it was.  "Delicious" she said.  They all had a great laugh when they told her she had just eaten squash pie!

This year, the day after Thanksgiving, my Aunt Ettie and cousin Lynda came for a visit.  We picked up my Aunt Dot and went to visit Steph.

Steph, Dot, Ettie

 We had a wonderful visit, talking alot about old times.  I brought up the pumpkin pie vs the squash pie and Steph told the story again.  We all had a good laugh! 

Good memories.

Throwback Thursday - Thanksgiving 1974

Thanksgiving Day 1974 at my grandmother's house.   Paul took this picture in two pictures and then put them together.  There was no "panorama app" in those days!  Left to right - my mother-in-law Priscilla, Kristen (she was 2.  Mark was about 3 1/2 months so he is probably somewhere in his infant seat), my grandmother, Dot, me, and my father-in-law Fred.

So many things in this picture that I remember.  My grandmother always wearing an apron on holidays.  The V-8 juice in the little glasses (my family doesn't like V-8 so I stopped serving it on Thanksgiving, but we always had it).  It's hard to see but I can tell there is marshmellow fruit salad that my mother-in-law made.  Dot also used to bring it to my house on holidays.  We haven't had it in a long time.  I should see if I have the recipe.  My aunt's picture that she painted above the piano.  It is in her room at the Atrium now.  The picture of Dot singing for the Bethany Hour on the piano.  She also has this in her room now.  The sheet music on the piano that my grandmother used to play (and she would also sing while she played).  I wish I could hear that again. 

One of the things that I am thankful for this season is old pictures.  Funny to think that even some of the pictures Paul and I took are now considered old pictures!