Happy New Year 2013!

I haven't been keeping up with the blog very well lately.  I have no good reason.  I've just been stuck.  But I think I'm un-stuck for now and I hope you're glad for a new post.

So here's a little bit of randomness:  the Board of Education accepted my resignation last night effective June 2013.  I've never actually resigned from a job before.  Huh. 

Speaking of random things:  here's some of the stuff I found in the Ryan family Bible:

I'm not sure who Richard Gordon Ryan belongs too yet but Richard and Ida Boulae Ryan's family members are very familiar to me.  Richard (with wife Ida) is Grampie's oldest brother as well as the oldest child in the family.  This likely explains how these children are well documented.  By the way, you might remember Ida from an earlier clipping I shared when she went missing for a time--apparently she returned safe and sound.

Another page:

This is a little messy so I think it's possible these deaths were noted together then later corrected.  In other words, this wasn't a Bible in which life events were recorded as they occurred over generations.  It appears to mostly have captured a period of time in the Ryan family. 

Here's an interesting little item that fell out of the Bible:  this was very carefully cut out of a book or newspaper:

He's very handsome but I have no idea why he's so carefully preserved in the Ryan family Bible.  Hmmm.  But the Nevins side of the family weren't the only ones with a legal career.  This Judge John J. Flaherty was the Essex County Superior Court Judge and State Chair of the Democratic party prior to his death in 1906 when he was only 47.  He was probably at the height of his career while Grampie and his siblings were growing up. 

Here's another interesting piece of  history:

The United War Work Campaign was a massive fund raising effort to support World War I.  It says "A Million Boys Behind a Million Fighters" at the bottom.  John  would have only been 11 when he donated this dollar toward the effort.  This was a time when civilians pulled together in huge efforts to provide support at home and abroad for their military.  It's interesting to me that American society has swung back in that direction now.  PS Remember that John was later accidentally shot by a buddy with a rifle.  Never said it was a boring family!