A double mystery: Brita’s maiden name and her son Johan

The story my father told me so long ago about his grandparents Andrew and Brita Dalin left me with two mysteries – well, at least two.  The first is the mystery of Brita’s maiden name.  I remember my father saying, “Well, it was something like Anderson or Johnson – I think.”  In all my years of research, I’ve managed to narrow it down (if you can call it that) to either: Continue reading

Family Friends Friday: Meet “Uncle Tom and Aunt Babe”

Nora, Tom and Babe Hauser
Nora, Tom and Babe Hauser circa 1922

This is a wonderful photo of my grandmother, Nora Marie (Kieron) Blacker (1900-1937), comfortably lying next to Samuel Thomas Hauser, III (1878-1941) and his wife, Retta Brown (Clark) Hauser (1878-1940).  The Hausers were very good friends of the Blacker family. In fact, they were such good friends that my mother has always referred to them as “Uncle Tom” and “Aunt Babe”.

After their homes were destroyed in the 6.2 magnitude earthquake of October 1935, several members of my mother’s family (10 in all!) lived with Uncle Tom and Aunt Babe in their “mansion” on Floweree. Continue reading

From Pennsylvania to Montana

Catherine B. (Tyler) Buchenau
Catherine B. (Tyler) Buchenau

An interesting blog post, written by Scott C. Steward at vita-brevis.org entitled “Far afield“, inspired me to share the story of my great great grandmother on my mother’s side, Catherine B. (Tyler) Buchenau.

The gist of Scott’s post is that most folks think their ancestors didn’t move around much. I immediately related to his post because I used to think the same thing – until I learned about Catherine. Continue reading

Tombstone of Margaret Rebecca (Loury) Blacker

Tombstone of Margaret Rebecca (Loury) Blacker, located in Oakwood Cemetery, Macomb, McDonough County, Illinois. Photo taken in 2001 by Wendy Edwards.

Here is a copy of the photo I mentioned in a post from several days back.  The photo was taken by Wendy Edwards, a newly discovered cousin who is also the source of the cemetery record discussed in that same post.

Wendy is a descendant of Margaret’s daughter Elizabeth1.

Thank you Wendy!!

The inscription reads: Continue reading

  1. Elizabeth was a sister to my great grandfather, DAVID LYMAN BLACKER.