Paddy Ryan in the Flicker Yearbook Class of 1945

While in Gloucester, I visited the archives at the Cape Ann Museum.  I was looking for records pertaining to widows and orphans of lost fisherman, but what I found was Dad's high school yearbook: Flicker 1944-45.  This yearbook has been available on eBay for some time but I was not willing to pay $65 for something I was pretty sure we threw out when we emptied 42 Bruce Street.  The staff very nicely made copies for me.

This was in the "When They Were Young" section of the yearbook and I sure do wish we had this photo on hand.  I see Paula in this picture.  No wonder Paula is Uncle Tim's "favorite niece". 

As you know, Dad was a cheerleader in college as well as in high school.  He's the guy in the white pants here (you probably figured that out).  Look at the crowd behind them!

This is the Boys Glee Club.  I think these are ROTC uniforms. (Reserved Officers Training Corps) I do remember Dad was actively involved in such programs.  In the mid 1940s, it would have been very common as World War II raged overseas. 

I saw this senior picture and couldn't help but think there was a time when such a character would find himself stuffed in a locker every single day.  If you read his summary, you'll see his ambition is "to go around the world in the Merchant Marine with Umbriago at the wheel."  Umbriago was apparently an imaginary sidekick to Jimmy Durante.  I don't quite get it either, but I'll bet it's clever. 

A few days after I got these, Jim found another copy of the yearbook in a local bookstore.  Someone had very handily labeled all the seniors in the book and this verified that "Paddy" appeared several other times in the yearbook as well but I think these pictures are a fair reflection of Dad in high school.

A Nor'Easter for my birthday!

It's been an interesting weather week here in Gloucester.  A nor'easter hit with a bit more impact than I think was expected.  Though it didn't feel threatening in any way, the wind blew ferociously and the rain came in sheets.  When we went out to take the pictures, I had to anchor myself carefully.

It was pretty impressive and we did get to observe some of it from the Elks Club where we had lunch with Uncle Peter and his girlfriend Andrea.  It's been great to spend a little time with Peter, especially since we missed him the last time we were here.  He's full of great stories I can't wait to share.

Jim arrived last Saturday to start his extended stay (and finish mine:) ).  His brother Robert and wife Bobbie came also for a few days so we had a good time showing them around.  I had a very nice birthday--I've decided I very much like spending it here.  And Paula is on her way this weekend for a visit which everyone is looking forward to. 

Our time here is wrapping up and I feel very settled.  My bloodlines are full of sea air and family stories.  I've begun to recognize people on the streets and in the stores so it's probably time to return home!  See you on the other side.

Report from the Gloucester Front

I am collecting all sorts of stuff I can't wait to share but it will need to wait til I get back to my scanner at 2682 Colesville Road.  Today I went to the library at the Cape Ann Museum and dug up Dad's high school yearbook.  CLASSIC stuff in there, let me assure you.

As some of you know, Paula and I follow a blog called Good Morning Gloucester, Joey Ciaramitaro is the host.  He works off the dock that is at the base of Haskell Street (remember that BIG hill?).  By coincidence, I came across a newspaper article in a 1938 Gloucester Daily Times that described the marriage of two sisters--one of the couples I'm pretty sure are his grandparents Joseph (his name) and Felicia (his sister's name).  I printed it for him and decided to deliver it.  Unfortunately I kind of forgot that people WORK on the dock and I interrupted him unloading fish into some guy's truck so I did not linger.  The fish wasn't the only reason.  But I did introduce myself and leave the article for him.  I would want someone to do the same for me.  He may have used the paper to wrap fish.  If he did, I think we'll hear about it on the podcast. 

We are very happy with the apartment. 

Daytime

Evening

 

 

I haven't seen much of the kids this week but I have babysitting on my calendar for Friday and Saturday!  Jim and I went to the Elks with Tim for Oktoberfest -- I think you saw the Facebook picture but here you go again

We had chicken schnitzel and Timothy's company.  Priceless.  The band that played was the same band that played at Giuseppe's on our last visit!!!!!

We went to Boston University to watch a Harpursville alum play against them for her UConn team.  UConn won in a shootout after double overtime.  I was a good test run for my planned trip to Boston tomorrow by train and subway.  Wish me luck. 

When Jim comes back this weekend, it will be for his 10 day visit.  His brother Robert and wife Bobbie are planning to come for a few days so we'll get to be the guides this time.

I forgot to mention that I went with the kids to the Topsfield Fair and had a blast.  Their parents allowed them to "win" plastic trumpets that tooted all the way down the midway.  It made everyone smile as they marched by.

This is me after the Tilt-a-Whirl

First October 2014 Gloucester Report

As you know, I am spending most of this month in Gloucester.  I'm lucky enough to have all the time in the world to do family history research to my heart's content and still share the weekends with Jim.  Already I have gotten a great deal of cool information to share.  But most of that is going to have to wait until I can access my scanner.

For now, here's a little treat for your eyes:

These were taken at the Cape Ann Marina Fall Fest -- also featured on Good Morning Gloucester for those that follow Joey (Paula!).  It was drizzling but still lots of fun.  This is the "home" marina for Wicked Tuna and we always check out the FV (fishing vessels) when we stop by there.

Our first night we decided to have dinner at Giuseppe's, a restaurant we hadn't been to in a while.  We were having a drink at the bar while we waited for Tim and Emmy to join us.  A woman was celebrating her 94th birthday so Jim offered to buy her a shot to celebrate.  She refused (which is when I knew she wasn't related) but was quite charming and Jim flirted her up pretty good.  We were telling this story to Tim and Emmy after we had been seated when a man approached the table and asked Jim if he was the guy that offered the birthday lady a drink.  He thought it was a cool thing to do, so he left his gift card saying it had a little left on it for us to apply to our dinner.  He said he was paying it forward.

I thought it was a nice turn of events after my recent efforts to do the same until we heard the very next day that Giuseppe's had unexpectedly closed its doors for good!  Makes me wonder if that guy knew something we didn't......and I hope the place we have Jim's birthday dinner will still be open the next day.

Patrick H. Ryan 1935-2009

BAM!  Another door is closed.  Remember John "Jack" Ryan who died of an accidental gunshot wound?  Tim and Peter refer to him as Uncle Jack, so I will follow suit here.  When Jack died, he left a wife Monica and two children, according to his obituary.  I was curious what happened to them so I started researching them.

First of all, I had to find out the names for the children and found them in the 1940 census Monica Ryan and children Patrick and Sheila.  Though I don't have Monica's death fully determined, I did find her son Patrick's obituary.

Handsome guy.  The obituary also contains a valuable clue for his sister Sheila, who apparently married a Morrison.  Sadly, he suffered from Alzheimer's Disease-- a particular insult considering that his childhood was likely difficult after his father's accidental death.  I find it interesting that Patricks are few and far between in our Ryan family. 

On another note, perhaps you've heard that Amy "said Yes to the dress"!  I took a trip to Erie yesterday so that she could show me the dress she'd fallen in love with.  Unfortunately, the shop sample of this dress had been sold so Amy couldn't model it for me.  She had pictures from a previous visit and it is quite beautiful.  But the confirming fact for me was that she loved it so the dress has been ordered.  It was much more emotional than I was expecting.

The emotions were on high alert after we found some evidence in our house that Ron Henry had stopped by for a visit recently.  He had a habit of moving the toilet paper around in the downstairs bathroom, which kind of drove me nuts.  When he died, I thought "Well, at least I won't have to go move the toilet paper back any more."  The night before I went to Erie, the toilet paper roll had been moved to Ron's favorite spot.  We believe it's a message from Ron.  He would have belly laughed himself silly to hear me tell the story of driving out to Erie to find my hung over daughter ready to go to the bridal store to try on a dress that wasn't there.   And then paying for it.  Cue the emotions.

Update from the Homefront

I haven't done much genealogy lately, which has apparently impacted my creativity.  I've been fretting and worrying about the blog so I guess I'll just offer some updates and hope for the best in the near future.


First of all, our little Shea went missing over a month ago and we now believe she's using the Litter Box in the Sky.  She was Jim's cat and was especially fond of him.  She would be very antsy when he was gone and quite contented in his lap every night.  She was a birthday gift to Jim and he named her appropriately.  Now both his favorite Sheas are gone.

I spent some quality time with the Kilmurray children recently, which was a blast for me.  We went over to Austin Lincoln (it's been AGES since I've been there) and explored on foot with our cameras nearby.  I came home with about 700 pictures and videos taken by Delaney and Breyen.  Here are a couple:

We had a great day.  I was also able to get to Breyen's football game this week.  Go B-Man!

 I also had a couple of interesting "Pay it Forward" experiences in the last few weeks.  There's a Facebook initiative to Pay it Forward that I decided to try and it was an interesting exercise.  You promise to send off a little token of remembrance to the Facebook friends that agree to give it a try.  Some of my Facebook friends that agreed are people I know well and see often.  A couple are not and those were the ones I found to be intriguing.  I took the opportunity to stop and think of these people carefully in ways I don't generally.  I found little tokens to send off that I think will appeal to their interests and personalities.  No pressure (like with Christmas) and no timeline (ditto).  I liked taking time to think of those that don't often come right to mind.  Then these friends are supposed to offer the same out to their Facebook friends.  It's a neat way to spread a little kindness.

The other experience took a bit longer to come to fruition.  Quite a while ago, I bought a small bunch of ephemera  at an auction that included personal items like letters and pictures.  I had promised myself that someday I would reunite such memorabilia to remaining family members, and these items seemed to be good candidates.  I carefully reviewed the items, taking note of names and dates then did some research to see if I could find this family online.  It seemed there were 2-3 potential family members with tress on Ancestry.com for whom this might be valuable material.  I wasn't sure how to proceed picking the family to whom I would offer these items first so I responded in the time honored tradition of putting it away to think about later.

Several months later ( and within the time since the last blog post), I renewed these efforts and decided to select the family tree that seemed to be best documented.  I contacted the tree owner to offer to send the items along and apparently picked absolutely the correct person.  The items seem to belong to her grandfather.  This woman believes she is the only living descendant of this man and she was very pleased to agree to accept the items.  So off they went!  I know how happy I would be and was glad to be able to bring that joy to someone else.

Perhaps the good karma will open the creative gates for me in the near future.  Thanks for hanging in here with the blog.

August 1994 was sweet

I'll be taking a break from the recent historical posts about long lost ancestors and related family members.  I can almost hear the collective "whew!".  I thought it would be fun to dive back into the photo albums again and see what was going on 20 years ago this month.  Turns out there was quite a bit going on that month!

All the while that Jim was doing marching band and the kids were young, we'd typically take our own vacation time during the month of August, so I guess it's not too surprising to find so much for August 1994.
It was the summer that we got our new pole barn built after the old one caved in under heavy snow in a previous winter. Harry was still with us (minus a portion of his tail and a large amount of his dignity). I went to Silver Creek for the 20th class reunion.  Amy was 6 and Ryan would turn 3 in a couple of months.  Jim and I took a trip to Chicago that summer and left the kids on Long Island for a few days so they had their own little vacation.

We went to Sesame Place.  Jim got whisked up to the stage by a very large Ernie (which Ryan did not like on little bit) to help them with their schtick.  It's pretty sad when Ernie is laughing at you.

It was Ryan Patrick's first summer.  I think they all look pretty happy

Here's a classic. No further explanation needed.

Mary Jane feeding watermelon to Ryan P on our old patio.

A very pensive little girl at the Syracuse Zoo.  Who knew then what her future held?

So, it was a very busy month but that's what you do when the kids are young.  I often miss the "excuse" to go to some of these places now that the children are older.  I'd feel like a stalker at Sesame Place without a child by my side!

 

 

A reminder (shameless plug) about the new public blog Gathering the Cousins.  I created it specifically as "cousin bait"--that perhaps one day an unknown relative would stumble upon it and recognize either the Irish or the Italian lines as their own.  It would be great if you'd visit the site once in a while--I think the more hits it has, the more likely it will be to show up high enough on someone's search results to be found.  To have a relative find us this way would be a serious affirmation of my efforts with blogging and family history research.