Someday When I Go Home

My creativity has been a bit clogged up lately--keeping good company with the dishwasher, washing machine and toilet I guess.  Must be the cold.  I thought I might blog about the difference digital photography has made for me.  I got my digital camera 7 years ago (Feb 2007).  At the time, I was not convinced that I would or could permanently leave film behind, but I was wrong.  My loyalty flew out the window almost as fast as the wind chill dropped this week. 

I was able to use digital photography to record most of Ryan's high school years, and none of Amy's.  Big difference.  As time has gone by, I've been pretty good about getting prints made of the digital pictures I like.  Despite that, I have found it much more difficult to organize my digital pictures than album photos.  The picture library builds and builds as time goes by and I don't have a really good plan in place to organize them and back them up for the future disaster that is certain to occur.

I back up my files to the cloud and further back up my picture files to an external hard drive so they will be available to anyone who might be looking for them Someday.  This leads me to my concern about what will happen to all the family history work I've done over the years.  I use software to record the details (which is backed up regularly) but lots of paper, notes and old pictures are still filed away in their original format.  What's going to happen to this stuff when I'm gone????  It's years and years of work that one of the future descendants will find critical Someday.  I worry about what will happen with this stuff.  Amy and Ryan will be forced to promise to never use it to make a bonfire, but you all need to make a collective promise to keep it safe so that when that future lost cousin comes knocking, it can be handed over in good conscience. 

More on the "Someday" theme, here's another page from Amy's 1997 Someday book that I find especially interesting given her current household residents:

We met Amy in Olean on Sunday so I could finally hand over the remaining Christmas gifts.  I had this vision that I would show Amy the places I remember and talk about Mom and Nanny and Weenie.  HA.  Mom used to like to go to the Beef and Barrel but it was closed on Sundays.  The restaurant I picked blindly on the internet was also closed when we got there.  We ended up at a nearby Mexican place which severely lacked in atmosphere.  But, who cared about atmosphere when we had Christmas gifts to hand over? 

We did have a nice visit with Amy but my desire to drive around and reminisce went out the window almost as fast as that previously mentioned love of 35mm film.  I don't think Amy minded very much.  I was glad enough to see her, hug her and feed her. 

Remember to check the new Gathering the Cousins blog!  One of the podcaster I follow recommends blogging as "cousin bait" so perhaps Someday we'll be found by a long lost cousin--I like that idea.  And if the blog gets visited frequently, it will rise higher in search results when someone looks for us Someday.

Announcing a new blog!

As you may know, the Ryan blog has been a "private" blog since the beginning in order to protect the innocent :)  This has worked out great but I wanted to take it to the next level by creating a public blog through which I could share the research with ALL the cousins out there.  It will also serve to exercise my creativity in writing to a new audience.

I hope to make some new family connections this way.  For now, I plan to re-tell the stories I've already shared on the family blog.  This new public blog will contain stories from the Irish Ryan side as well as the Italian Dalpiaz side.  I hope you enjoy. 

It's called Gathering the Cousins and is at www.GatheringTheCousins.blogspot.com     Spread the word!  Enjoy and comment away. 

"Man Overboard!"

This is the story of a cousin lost at sea.  Ho Hum you might think.  We have several ancestors who have been lost at sea, what's the big deal?  In every person's life there is a story  and this is the story of a hero.

Nanny Ryan's mother Edith was a Handran before she married William Pierce.  This is how we are connected as cousins to John Handran (technically 1st cousins 4 times removed.  First cousins are children of our aunts and uncles (not just strictly our parents siblings, but all the "great", "grand" and other aunts and uncles)  Times removed refers to the number of generations difference between the two. 

John Handran was lost at sea aboard the Schooner Cleopatra Dec 26, 1885.  He left a wife and 3 very young children just a day after Christmas that year.  I don't know how long the fishing trip had been at the time of the accident, but it is certain he and the rest of the crew were not home for Christmas that year.

This is a picture from Frederick Bodin of Good Morning Gloucester of that time period and I like to imagine it reflects what it must have looked like seaside in the 1880s in Gloucester

He calls it "Return of the Fishing Fleet Circa 1800"

The Cleopatra story inspired an epic poem "The Ballad of the Cleopatra" available on Google Books from Cornhill Magazine .  I encourage you to read it when you have a chance as it gives an interesting viewpoint from a fisherman's perspective.  A storm came up and swept 3 men into the ocean, John Handran was one of them.  Another crewman died on the deck.  A distress flag was raised and seen by a Brisith vessel, the Lord Gough.  As they prepared to send a rescue boat, the distress flag was taken down.  The potential rescuers were confused by this but continued their mission.  Apparently the captain and crew of the Cleopatra took down the distress flag so as not to put other sailors in danger by attempting to rescue them.  This seems a very brave decision to me and speaks to the nature of Gloucester fishermen.  The remaining crewmen were rescued and delivered to the Philadelphia port. 

I suspect John understood the dangers of his livelihood all to well and he acted accordingly by taking out an insurance policy on himself from an organization called the Massachusetts Catholic Order of the Foresters.  I ordered copies of their papers for families I thought might be ours and John's were among the papers I received.  They are extensive in detail just like today's insurance companies use our habits to determine risk and calculate cost. The details provide a rich picture of this man and his family.  One of the questions in the medical examination area of the papers asks: "Does the applicant use ardent spirits, beer or tobacco?" John's answer is difficult to decipher as it is smudged, but it is clearly not a simple "No".   He was 5'3" and 132 lbs--not a big guy at all.  This policy was only 5 months old when he died and paid the widow Sarah one thousand dollars. 

These papers also indicate that John's father and two brothers were both "drowned at sea"--the fishing life took a devastating toll on this family.  John's certificate of death from the Order of Foresters says "Handran was drowned at sea.  He was washed from the deck of the vessal and sank after a few moments of struggle. This is the testimony of some of the crew who have come home."  I found these words haunting.

You see, John died at sea as a recipient of a peacetime Medal of Honor awarded by President Ulysses S. Grant for heroism in rescuing a shipmate who was swept off the US Steamer Franklin near Lisbon Portugal in 1876.  From the New York Herald:  ""poor Henry O'Neil seemed about to pay with his life the penalty for having gone to sea without learning to swim" when two sailors "were soon in the water making for the spot.  One of them, Edward Madden, held a rope's end.  The rope proved too short, the icy waters chilled him, to let go the rope was to lose his own life, and he returned.  The other, John Handran, seaman, kept on with vigorous strokes.  This was not the first time he had risked his life to save a shipmate.  As he approached the drowning man with admirable coolness he kept clear of his struggling efforts to clutch, swimming round until he could grasp him with his right hand just so as to keep his mouth above water". 

It seems fated that John should drown at sea, leaving a very proud story for his children and their descendants.  It brings to mind Tim's service in the Coast Guard, for which we are all grateful and proud-- as we are for all in the family who served.  I'm sure John would not have thought his actions were heroic but it's a story that needs to be told after all these years gone by.

As the calendar turns....welcome 2014

A stream of travels and parties has ended so I now have some time to reflect on the new year as well as the year gone by.  Welcome to 2014.  This was the year I intended to retire, but I'm very happy with my decision to retire last year.  2014 is a nice round number but I am very happy to turn the calendar over and say goodbye to 2013.

So this post will be filled with tidbits and reflections.  Stay with me.  For a various reasons, Amy and Michael decided not to come to New York for Christmas this year so we traveled to Erie the weekend before so Santa could put some presents under their tree.  And this is how we were welcomed:

Nice way to treat Santa and his helper. 

But Amy did prepare dinner for us and it was wonderful!  This was the first time and it marks a turning point in a young adult life (as well as for an empty nester).  And here we go--my girl in her own kitchen making dinner for her visiting parents:

We stopped at the zoo and Amy introduced us to two lionesses who've recently moved into a new enclosure.  It was awesome to be nearly face to face with these two beauties.  They seemed to enjoy the company since the zoo's been closed for the winter and they don't have many.  As we started to leave, they began to pace--we went back to them and they settled down.  I think they liked having a food source nearby.  I (foolishly) took no pictures but here's one of Amy's:

They are really very majestic and I'm a sucker for the big cats anyhow. 

We returned from Erie driving in 60 degree plus weather only to turn around a day or so later to go the same 5 hours in the opposite direction to Long Island to spend Christmas with the Dalpiaz clan.  I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of the new babies--this is Robinson who is about 6-7 weeks old celebrating his first Christmas.

At the Ryan Christmas Bash, I was lucky enough to hold Birdie for a while too.  She's about a month older than Robinson and is perfectly beautiful.  I am grateful that Kevin, Sarah and John took the trip to spend the day with us all.  That was a great gift!

We got a great group picture of those attending the party

I am tickled that so many people "liked" this on Facebook and not one asked "Who's the redhead?".  Rich is our favorite photobomber.

We have high hopes for 2014 and wish you the same.  And, as a PS on the "Snail Mail for Millenials" post, I'd like to thank the Post Office for the timeliness of raising the price of the Forever stamp :)

Snail Mail for Millenials

It has come to my attention that we failed our children in at least one life lesson: how to use the United States Postal Service (USPS or "snail mail").  There is ample evidence that we did not cover this life skill and I thought you might be in the same boat.  If it hasn't become apparent to you yet, I promise you--it will.  My gift to you this Christmas is this 2013 Snail Mail for Millenials.  Share this with your children if you feel they might benefit.  There will be a test later.

The USPS is an independent agency of the federal government.  It moves paper and packages from your house to mine.  It's pretty efficient and cost effective especially when you consider what its customers ask of it sometimes.  However, for many people, going to the post office personally can be challenging--like spending Thanksgiving night with your parents.

Despite current technologies, there will be a need for this service for the foreseeable future.  So buckle down and learn how to use it.  Stop calling your mother while she is in the cemetery to ask "how do I send this phone back again?  I'm at the post office and the lady says she can't help me.  I have the phone right here in my hand.  What's the problem?"

Sorry, I wandered a little bit there.  When you need to send mail out--like a birthday card to your father or a wedding invitation -- you'll need envelopes, addresses and stamps.  An envelope needs to be addressed to the desired recipient.  Put this in the middle of the envelope when it is in landscape format.  Usually you want the back flap on top but it doesn't really matter.

There should be 3 lines: the first is the person's name (first AND last is helpful).  The 2nd is the street address and the 3rd is City State Zip.  It's a little like sharing on Facebook--you have to find the person by name with whom you want to share that crazy link.   This information should be clearly written to be legible by your most elderly aunt.  The print should be in contrast to the envelope (white envelope: blue or black ink creates contrast).  Avoid using gold ink on a gold envelope for example.

You MUST add postage.  One Forever stamp per envelope is generally sufficient.  Put the stamp in the upper right hand corner without obliterating any portion of the TO address.

This is a "Forever" stamp.  You can use it Forever, I guess.  Currently they cost 46 cents each.  It will not go down.  You can pay 46 cents for this bonsai stamp today and use it a year or two from now when the cost of a stamp is 48 cents.  As millenials, you will not have that precious experience of looking across the table at a friend and saying "Remember when we stamps were 6 cents?" while smiling fondly and shaking your head.  You'll never know how much it cost to send that envelope because the stamp won't tell you.  Back in the olden days, looking at the stamp could tell you quite a story:

Yes, this was in my lifetime thank you very much.

A third item on an envelope is the return address found in the upper left corner.  Contrary to popular opinion, a return address is not mandatory but is quite helpful if you haven't followed USPS guidelines to the T.  The return address is your name, street address and city state zip.  You'll get the envelope back if you fail one of the postal guidelines.

The USPS has a great deal in common with the TSA in that the rules change regularly and you never quite know what new thing will be disallowed (and it's always something new that you CAN'T do--never something new that you CAN do).  If  you send a sister pin out without a return address because you want to surprise your sister, it can't come back to you because you aren't allowed to send pins through the mail and you'll never know your sisters did not get theirs unless they come back to you with a nasty note from our friends at the post office.

Then you have to put the letter in a mailbox or give it to the person manning the desk at the post office.

 That's what these blue boxes are for--you can drop your letters in these to mail them OR

 use your own mailbox.  It helps to put the little flag up to let the carrier know there's something in there for him to pick up.  It's also a good way for you to tell if your own mail has been delivered yet since the postman will put the flag back down after he picks up your mail.

Mailing packages follow similar guidelines.  You need postage, an address and a properly sealed package.  You may re-use boxes you might already have if you scribble out any barcodes and do your best to remove any labeling that might cause confusion.

Seal it up really well --the kind of sealing up that makes people nuts when they try to open it.  The USPS designed the rules that way.  Usually you put the name and address on the top of the box--I like to use a clean sheet of paper so it stands out.

Then you're probably going to have to take the package to the post office to pay the postage and have them put it on their trucks.  This can be tricky sometimes as postal hours can be a little finicky:

Ha Ha!  Just kidding, USPS!  I'm feeling like the NSA might be lurking in blog posts so ..... just kidding :) Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Puzzles to Ponder

I received a great gift via Facebook recently when Monica Moore sent me to a link from a Forestville group.  The group was discussing having Dad as an English teacher.  As a child, I was completely aware that Dad taught English to upper level high school students.  About the only specific thing I recall about that was his making kind of a big deal about baking a cake (with peanut butter frosting?) to take in and share with his students to prove that he could.  Sounds just like the Dad we all knew, right?  But, other than that, I really didn't know much about Dad in his professional role. 

Monica lived on Dennison Road heading toward Forestville.  I can't really remember how we became friends but I imagine it was through Brenda Hazelton who was also a Forestville student.  It was a minor mystery in my mind how we went to Silver Creek but Brenda and Monica went to Forestville when we lived between them, on the other side of the road.  Monica's dad was a farmer as I recall.  There was a landing strip on their farm and he took us for a ride in a plane one time.  That seemed like a big deal--and it was!  After we moved to Buffalo Street, I lost track of both Brenda and Monica but we've been reunited through Facebook.

Anyhow, perhaps you saw the FB conversation but just in case you didn't, here you go (in part):


One of the few things I remember about Mr. Ryan was his way of pronouncing the word "extraordinary". He always said it with 5 syllables "ex-tra-ord-in-ary", but with his accent it sounded like a very polished way to pronounce it versus the more typical 3 syllables "extraod-in-ary" or 2 syllables "extraord-nary".


I remember one time when he got ticked atthe students in his class - he climbed up on his desk and threw erasers at the students . . .  Now THAT sounds like Dad


I remember having him for both 11th and 12th grade English. He's the reason I studied English in college.


We were one of his first classes at FCS....he did that "New England thing" of adding "er" to the end of words, therefore he always called me "Linder"...I remember he was dramatic in the classroom, but I do not remember what he said about swearing


A great deal of drama when we were reading Macbeth! I also babysat when their first was only a month old. One of my favorite teachers.  Long, long time ago

 Anyhow, I really enjoyed reading these comments and they touched me deeply.  As a teacher, you always hope your legacy will look like this.  Jim certainly has that for himself and it's very heartwarming.  This conversation was also shared with cousin Cathy who shared it with Uncle Tim.  She said he literally had a tear in his eye which chokes me up even writing this.

So, naturally, I went seeking some more information about Dad's time in Forestville and discovered that I could sketch out an interesting family timeline related to our homes.  Until recently I never knew Mom and Dad lived in Forestville.  I always thought we lived in Olean when I was born but perhaps this was similar to when he worked in Ellicottville and lived there during the week.

I'm having a grand time reviewing old Lake Shore News papers.  I had completely forgotten about this publication and it's just full of newsy-news.  In this quest, I learned something else about Dad that I never ever knew--that he ran for the Silver Creek Board of Education.  This page might be hard to read but there are two big articles on it related to this.  Buried in here we learn that our Dennison Road house was the last house in the Silver Creek district (perhaps explaining a bit about how Monica and Brenda went to Forestville).  From 1963:

Naturally he was embroiled in some kind of controversy and apparently he lost the election or I am quite sure we would have known that he had been on the Board.

Another article I found verified what I thought I knew about moving to Dennison Road --that we moved shortly after Paula was born. From Aug 1960:

There was a Bob Stoll in my class that I dated for a bit.  Coincidence???????

So, Monica gave me quite a gift with this link she shared as it led to these discoveries.  How interesting to get to know a different side of Dad.  It helps to complete some of the puzzle.  And to think it's likely that I've only scratched the surface here.  And what clues will be found about ourselves 50 or 60 years from now??
Puzzles to ponder during a snow storm.