My Trails into the Past

W illiam Joseph Hork and Lela Nell Johnston were married at Queen of All Saints Church in Concord, California, on 19 April 1953.[1] Lea’s friend, Barbara Boyenger, was her maid of honor and Bill’s brother-in-law, Gene Soares, was his best man. Before the ceremony, Ken Harvey, Barbara’s future husband, took photos of the preparation at Lea’s house. Barbara must have spent the night as we see the two of them having breakfast still in their night clothes.  The marriage news was written about in the Contra Costa Times and the Concord Transcript . The article in the Times is very detailed about the clothing the participants wore during the wedding and afterward for their wedding trip. They married on a Sunday afternoon at Queen of All Saints Church in Concord. Father Adrian McKenna presided over the ceremony attended by immediate family members and close friends. Because Lea was not Catholic, the ceremony was likely not a full Mass. The photo below shows the couple just at the alt...

In the years I knew my aunt, Bev, she wore what I considered drab clothing. She came to our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners wearing black, white, or silver outfits. I could never understand why she had to be so uncolorful. These colors did match her silver-gray hair, and she always wore bright red lipstick to brighten up her face. Beryl on the right, her sister-in-law, Pansy on the left Pansy (left) & Beryl (right) It wasn’t until later that I learned that black and other dark, solid colors have a slimming effect, and that was likely why she dressed that way.  I have a collection of color slides of my aunt. These images delight my sisters and me. They are of her posing in various outfits probably in her home so that she could change into them easily. I have no idea who took the images, but as we can see, she was very photogenic. These images prove she wore lots of color in her younger years. #52Ancestors-Week 45: Colorful This is my seventh year working on this year-long pro...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)   Which ancestor of yours married the most times?  [This may be interesting for some GeneaBloggers!]  [thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic!] Here's mine: The question asked about ancestors, so I will focus only on direct ancestors, as it is easier to browse looking for the number of known marriages. There was no need to look on my father’s side, as they were all Roman Catholics and married only once. On my mother’s side, her grandfather, Thomas Newton Johnston, married three times. The first marriage was to her grandmother, Nell Hutson , on 6 June 1907 in Comanche County, Texas. [1] Nell died on 14 July 1919. [2] He married next, Zilpha E. Buford (nee Morris ) on 12 December 1931 at Stephenville, Erath County, Texas. [3] This was the grandmother my mother remembered. She was ca...

Last week I wrote about a research trip to Texas and the many cemeteries I visited in Comanche County. One such cemetery, Union Cemetery, has the tombstone of my great-grandmother, Nell L. (Hutson) Johnston. It is an unusual tombstone. It is shaped like a tree trunk and has these words around a symbol: In Memoriam Woodmen Circle.” Nell L. Johnston was born on 8 February 1888 to Sarah H Selman and Peter H Hutson. [1] She married Thomas N. Johnston on 6 June 1907 in Comanche County, Texas. [2] They had six known children. She died after a sudden illness on 14 July 1919. [3] She was only thirty-one years old and left two children under five and three children six to ten years old. My grandfather was only 6. Tom would not remarry until twelve years later. Her obituary says very little. She died on a Monday at home and was buried on Tuesday in Union Cemetery. “The many friends of the family will learn with keen regret of Mrs. Johnson’s untimely death, passing away as she did in the p...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings :  1)  Which of your ancestors lived a life of hardship or sadness?  Who had few possessions or resources, was involved in violence or war, lived through a famine, or suffered forced immigration?   Here's mine: I have a story from an interview with a great uncle, O.D. “Pig” Johnston. Yes, that’s his name and what he had been called since a toddler. The interview was conducted by Jewell Dukes Huddleston and published in two installments in the Comanche Chief in her column called “Wagon Wheels keep on turnin’” on 29 November 1979 and 6 December 1979. He was 81 at the time of the interview. Here is the transcript of what he said about his maternal grandmother, Amanda A. (Haley) Jones. “. . . a twice-told tale recalls the trials experienced by Johnston’s maternal gran...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Here is our assignment tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings: 1)  Do you have ancestors who suffered the loss of one or both parents early in their life?  Did the surviving parent remarry soon after one parent died?  Was a guardian appointed for your ancestor to protect their physical or legal interests?     2)  Tell us about one or two of your "orphaned" ancestors and how this affected their life. Here's mine: The first person who came to mind is my great-grandmother, Nell (Hutson) Johnston, who died on 14 July 1919 at the young age of 31. Even though Texas has been recording deaths since 1903, there is no death certificate for her, so I do not know her cause of death. [1] Her notice in the newspaper said her death was untimely. [2] At the time of her death, she left five children ten years and younger, th...

When my mother lived in Walnut Creek, California, as a young girl in the 1940s and 50s, there were not many stores in town where one could shop. Broadway Plaza had not yet been built. Instead, what people did was take a trip into the city, either to Oakland or San Francisco. It was a big deal to go into the city to shop. Shoppers would get dressed up. Some traveled there by car, some by streetcar over the San Francisco Bay Bridge, and others by bus. I never asked my mother, but we have a photo of her and her mother shopping outside stores in downtown Oakland. It was probably taken by a street photographer who left their card and for a small fee, they got a copy of the photograph. My mother looks about high school age. In Oakland, there were many department and specialty stores. Capwell’s was located at 20 th Street, facing both Broadway and Telegraph. It was a large department store with men’s and women’s clothing, household goods, and furniture.  Sears was on Telegraph at 26 th...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is: Which of your known ancestors lived the shortest life?  Consider only the last eight generations and those ancestors with a known birth and death date.  Do you know the cause of death?  Was there an obituary?  How many children did s/he have?  How did you figure this out? Here is mine: As I traveled aboard the Lake Shore Limited after leaving Boston, my first thought was to list all the infant deaths in the family but realized that none of them would have been my ancestors. DUH!  Nell Hutson Johnston did not live long but did give birth to six children, five of whom lived to adulthood. She was just thirty-one years old at her death. Nell was born on 8 February 1888 perhaps in Comanche County, Texas. She married Thomas Newton Johnston on 6 June 1907 in Comanche County. She died on 15 July 1919. [1] I...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is: 1)  Do you have photos of your spouse, or significant other, or a parent, or a grandparent?  Please share some of them!  Have you collected all the photos of your spouse/significant other/parent/grandparent in a computer file folder? Here’s mine: My mother was born in 1934 in Stephenville, Texas, the only daughter of Tom J Johnston and Pansy Louise Lancaster. She passed away in 1992.  This first photo is the youngest I have of her with her Mom: Her 5th birthday: 10 years old with her dad: Senior year in high school: Wedding photo from 1953 newspaper: 1964 image with the Junior Women’s Club and Louis Armstrong: 1978 Christmas image with husband and 6 children: I am currently working on organizing all my photos and putting them into archive boxes. I am creating a spreadsheet, so it will be easy t...

Although my grandfather, Tom J. Johnston, worked many jobs, mostly he was a carpenter, able to make things with wood. Many of the pieces of furniture in my grandparents’ home were made by him: tables, lamps, picture frames, and even a bar. This photo of my two grandmothers shows the two tables and lamp that he made. An ad in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune in 1940 explained his occupation before the war. [1] He and my grandmother had been married for seven years with one child and lived with her parents, Warren and Leah Lancaster. His occupation was listed as the owner of a wood shop and his income the previous year at $1440. [2] When he was drafted into military service, he gathered up letters of recommendation, probably to aid in getting a carpenter gig in the U.S. Navy. These letters stated he worked the following positions: Worked as a carpenter from August 15, 1941, to December 16, 1941, at the construction of the Fort Worth Aircraft Plant No. 4. Written by J.S. Tait, project c...