My Trails into the Past

A value that my husband’s grandmother held was service. Throughout her adult life she valued providing a service to others. There is no documentation as to why she did this. Perhaps her unorthodox childhood had something to do with it. Matilda Pearl Davey was born on 18 April 1880 to Frederick Henry Davey and Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber. She was their second-born child. [1] She had three brothers from Fred’s first wife, one brother from his second wife, and two step-brothers from the third wife. [2] Her mother died when she was five years old. [3] In the beginning, her mother’s sister, Julia Wollenweber, came to live with them and her father married her on 28 July 1887, however, the marriage did not last and they were divorced by 1892. [4] The story as told by her son, George, Matilda was sent to live with aunts and perhaps spent time in a children’s home. [5] She married Joseph Norman Gorrell on 19 December 1900. [6] He was a lineman for a telephone company. In their first ...

To come up with a person to write about each week, I do an “everywhere” search in RootsMagic for the themed word. This week, service came up in hundreds of events for funeral services, military service, and even social services as written on state vital records. However, I did find this ad for John V. “Vir” Quigley’s restaurant Quig’s. [1] What makes this ad meet the theme is the fact there was fountain service, where milkshakes, sodas, and floats were sold, and drive-in curb service with a large parking lot. Other ads found include these two: At left: Napa Journal, 17 July 1949; at right: The Mid-Week Shopping News, 3 Sep 1947 His fountain café was located on Main Street at Lincoln in Napa, California. It’s gone today and newer buildings are in its place. In fact, I found two notices in the newspaper where he tried to sell the business in 1954 and 1956. [2] He moved to Redding sometime between those years as his obituary in 1959 stated he had lived in Shasta County for five years. [3...