Centennial Celebration

Yesterday October 25 2010 was Nanny Flynn's 100th birthday.  This is a picture of me with Nanny and Gammy Nevins (Nanny's mom).  I recently learned that Gammy Nevins spent at least some time as a nurse and this outfit looks a little bit like it could have been that--or not in those days!  I like the way they are each perched to snag me if I step off that curb.

Gammy Nevins is Caroline Brown and I've blogged about her before.  Her father was our Civil War soldiers William S. Brown (or Grampie Brown as Nanny called him).  In all the research I've done over the many years I had never found any record of Caroline living in the same home with her parents.  This has bothered me a great deal--like she was lost and needed to be reunited. 

There are many factors lending to this problem, not the least of which is trying to find the right William Brown in the city of Buffalo at the right time.  Caroline's mother died when she was very young so there's a very small window of time even available to me for finding them all together.

BUT my trip to Boston proved very fruitful in this area.  I paid an extra $5 for special "consultation" time at this conference and gave them this problem to look over for me.  I was honestly not expecting much in return for my saw-buck (that's a five, right?)  The staff found Caroline (Carrie) in the same household with her father and stepmother in 1892 when she was 17 years old.

This is a HUGE find for me and well worth every penny!  I feel as though I've become like "The Locator" on TV--have you seen that show?  Except I'm dealing with dead people.  Makes me just as happy though.  Now I have Carrie reunited with her father.  I think if you double click to open this, you'll see them in the very lowest right hand corner of the pages. 

One more brickwall knocked down!  It's like a birthday gift for Nanny.  I wonder what she'd think of this.