There is a new Category (although I’m not sure if that is the right term) titled Gurney, the first page is a picture of Chuck and then under the “Gurney” tag is another about our great grandparents Charles and Esther Parnell.
This is like hiding Easter eggs, you have to look through the pages to find what is new, or under recent posts, whatever. Hope everyone has such a gorgeous day like we are having.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Parnell were my father’s maternal grandparents. I would write about them except the article pretty much says it all. I do have other pictures and will post them later. Much of what we have about our Gurney family comes from our Grandma Gurney she saved every little notice and important tidbit about family. When she was gone then Aunt Datha took over, now that Datha is gone the task has gone to her son Ronnie’s widow Amy Holsapple. This particular copied article I found in my dad’s old papers.
All of my information for the Cook line comes from the work of Everett J. Cook. Around the time of the family reunion in 1997 he was gathering information from family members so that he could complete the work. I think everyone of the children of Ruby and Raymond received their own copies. Mine came from copying Mom’s copy. Mr. Cooks genealogy has involved a lot of work and is very complete. I have been able to confirm some of the details and add a few here and there but nothing really significant. Rachel Garrett Neiswender is another person who contributed to this work in the form of stories about the people themselves.
In the course of my wanderings on the internet and Ancestry.com and Family Search.com I made contact with two significant resources. The first is Vicky Durand who I introduced in an earlier post. She has shared some wonderful pictures with us, because they will be on the site for all of you to enjoy soon. Another significant source is The Tincher Tribe Facebook page. The Tinchers if you recall would be Ruby’s family line. There is also another lady June Ford that Vicky has been corresponding with and I hope to make her acquaintance soon to see if she is interested in sharing what she has also.
There is so much information and as well as stories that I want to make all available right now as I think my the younger cousins will be interested in it. Although maybe you all know these stories and I will be the one absorbing new information and you will be adding the important details. Who knows.
To start I am going to post a better copy of a picture that is floating around in our records as a xerox copy which is terrible dark and not very good. I think you will enjoy seeing it clearly.
Standing from left to right: Elias “Lade”, Elisha “Doc”, Margaret “Belle”, Leander “Tump”, Shelby “Shell”, Cyrus “Staud”, Charles “Hats. Sitting Frances Elizabeth (Cates) and Cyrus Hantsford Cook. The picture is Circa 1898
Our original labels had Cyrus “Straud” and Charles “Hats” reversed. A pretty good looking bunch don’t you think despite them looking grim?
The small picture that is featured is Shelby Cook on the left and Leander “Tump” on the right.
Vicky and I connected through “Find-a-Grave” and it wasn’t even Halloween. Her mother, Betty Cook, daughter of George Edward Cook – son of Cyrus Strother Cook, passes much information as she makes discoveries of mementos and photos as she can toVicky, since she knows Vicky’s curious.
Vicky lives in Lawrence and has done some research on the Cooks as has June Ford (granddaughter of Clair Cleveland Cook and great granddaughter of Cyrus Strother Cook), does that name sound familiar to any of you? It does to me. Anyway June has also done a lot of research and lives close by in Archie MO. I have an extra copy of the research done by Everett Cook back in 1998 and am going to send it to her, between us all I bet we can fill in some gaps.
I am excited about all of this as I am sure you all will be as you make it through the sign in process.
The pictures I am posting under this topic were sent to me by Vicky. The featured image is of Nancy Willis, she is the mother of Frances Elizabeth Cates and those are her two great granddaughters.
Until I can get the back information online I will copy it here: ” It says Nancy (Willis) Cates, 80 years old, February 15, 1899 weighting 98 pounds. Olive Weese 2 years old November 13, 1899 weighing 23 1/2 pounds, Gladys Weese 3 years old December 23 1899 weighing 29 pounds.”
This is at Hazel and Calvin’s anniversary party. Keith took Mom dancing, he was so much taller and she wasn’t as easy on her feet as she was before she started wearing the braces, but that didn’t stop them. They laughed and Mom clearly was in her element. She loved to dance. The stories I could tell and maybe I will another time.
I think this is a really great picture of these 3 ladies. Linda was a wonderful person, who I liked immediately on our first meeting, sadly I only saw her a couple of times before her leaving us. Aunt Ginny is one of those family members who has been in my life as long as I can remember and it was great to see her again here. I did speak with her the other day after finding out about Keith’s death. I hope to write or call her once the commotion has died down and renew our connections.
The first time I had seen Keith in years and met Linda was at Aunt Betty’s birthday party. I saw Aunt Ginny for the first time since we had left for Oregon then too. It was a perfect day and for me the perfection was created by being with many special people. That other good looker is Talley one of Rick and Gloria Henderson’s sons.
This is my Mom and Dad before they were married in 1945. I think the thing I notice,sadly, the pictures of my Dad is that most of the time he is holding a cigarette. Did anyone else have parents that smoked? I don’t remember any. How many of you have pictures of your parents before they are married?
Did you know that Aunt Marceil dated my Dad before Mom? Don’t know how often or how long but wondered if it was Aunt Marceil who dumped him or the other way around? Probably the only person who could tell us is Uncle Harvey and he is surprisingly reluctant to talk about the past when I ask him, although I did not ask him that. Mom told me that.
What I love about this announcement is that my dad filled it in. I have no way of knowing if he only did his family’s addresses and Mom did hers or if he did them all. I love his hand writing. Everything after that date is history.
What about you, do you have any interesting tidbits about yourself? What about the younger great grandkids, were any of them found under a rock or delivered by the stork? Come on were cousins you can tell.
Most of the pictures I have shared on Facebook have been of Keith as a little boy. These are the only ones I have of him as an adult. I bet some of you have something in between don’t you? I remember this meal as though it was yesterday, but then maybe it is because whenever you got Calvin and Hazel, Betty and Raymond and in this case Keith together there was always laughter and jokes. That is the one thing about not being around for the day to day and only visiting it was mainly fun.
Keep~in~Touch 