Very early this week, aren't I? Well, don't get used to it.
Hails and horns, Wikipeeps! Man, I've got a lot to cover this week. Let's start from the beginning.
This week saw me finally getting a picture of my 2x great-grandmother, Gertrude Stevens. A half-cousin posted the picture on Familysearch. I asked her about it and we talked for a bit. She's in the middle of the front row. Here's a thread about it for details: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1038561/shared-photo-walter-howard-senter-and-family
Gertrude is with her second husband and their family in the pic. Her first husband was Wilfred Felker and he was my great-grandfather's father.
Now that I have this pic, I have to find more for the other 2x great-grandparents I am missing. If they exist. Getting your pic taken in those days was way more expensive than today where you can just take your phone out and take a pic.
All of this led up to my blog about tombstones for #52Ancestors: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2020/05/52-ancestors-week-21-tombstone.html
Yes, that is a Back to the Future reference. C'mon. You know I had to do it. I HAD TO!! We were all thinking it. I originally was going to write about Jeremiah Felker, my 3x great-grandfather. But, that got sidetracked by Gertrude's pic. It all worked out, though!! What I forgot to mention in the blog was how much my mother looked like Gertrude. Kinda funky!!
The genealogy fun didn't stop there, true believers! This week we ventured to Home Depot and another floral shop to get veggies for the garden and flowers for the cemeteries in Haverhill and Amesbury. Like I said before, I'm within driving distance of several cemeteries where my ancestors rest.
Along with seeing almost everyone in masks (Good job, NH and Mass!!), we gathered some nice flowers and headed to Haverhill, first. It is closest. We cleaned up Vincenzo, Marco. Maria and Olympia's grave. I washed the plaques at the foot of the graves and saw in Italian "Buona Riposa". I asked my dad what it meant and he said it basically means "Rest in Peace".
I always thought it was odd that St. Patrick's cemetery was the Italian cemetery. While we were there, we swung by Giuseppe's and Clementina's. Everything looked clean there. One of my dad's cousins was probably there recently. I should note that we used Haverhill city water to clean the stones and it was kinda brown. Might have just been in the pipes too long.
We then went to Amesbury to do some cleaning for my grandfather on my mom's side's grave. They updated the date of death on the stone to 2017. I said to my mom we need to upload a pic to find a grave because....well...look:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/129782690/robert-e_-hamel
One of the images had just 1923- No death date. It was like that for four years!! So, it was made when he was alive. Ugh. That's another issue altogether.
I was cleaning up the plaques again. This time I had the pleasure of meeting tiny little friends. Small bitey ants. I had gloves on and the little buggers (so censored.) were going to town. I did my thing and said a few words like I did at my other grandparents' grave. I looked at my grandma Natalie's name and smiled. I said "I found a pic of your grandma."
I heard a voice in my head saying "Well, she wasn't lost!" It sounded exactly like her. Make of that what you well!
And that's it on the genealogy front. Hope everyone has a great weekend!