G2G: 52 Ancestors Week 51: Musical [closed]

Question

From Amy Johnson Crow: 

Week 51:

The theme for Week 51 is “Musical.” Band geeks, unite! Who in your family makes you think of music? Whether it’s someone who made their living through music or who just really enjoyed listening, this is the week to sing their praises. (See what I did there? )

Music makes you lose control. :)

Comments

So many musicians in the family. Talking about my brother this week: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2025/12/52-ancestors-week-51-musical.html

Answer 1

Plenty to choose from, but this time, I'm going to stay close to home and introduce the musical talent of my father Udo. Not only did he have a beautiful voice and was able to sing accurately from sheet music (my mother took note of him in the church choir ), his teacher also discovered a talent for the violin in my father (whereupon his grandfather Hermann bought him a violin of his own, which was quite something in the hard post-war years). In high school, he rose to the position of first violinist in the orchestra.

When he moved to Western Australia a couple of decades later, he took his violin of course. There, he no longer focused on classical music but joined a "bushband" - so his violin transmorphed into a bush fiddle. 

Answer 2

Both sides of my family were extremely musical.  My parents were both accomplished singers; my dad was drafted into the army after college and he hated being a soldier with a passion.  He was able to join a group called the Bayonet Chorale and tour around Korea and Japan doing concerts for generals and women's universities and television shows, rather than being a soldier.  My mom and dad were extremely active in the local music community, doing ecclesiasctical chorus, community chorus, theater and opera productions, and professional choirs.  I grew up sleeping under the piano at rehearsals as a toddler several nights a week, and learned how to play piano and oboe when I got old enough.  My family would provide musical entertainment at local resorts and would perform at weddings and concerts on the square.  

My grandmother also sang and further back in the tree, there are those who played the organ and sang.  My great-great grandfather, [[Chickering-206|Sylvester David Chickering I (1845-1919)]], was recorded for  Alan Lomax's project, "Folk Songs of North America", in 1931.  His father also sang.

I'm carrying on the tradition by teaching my daughter how to play the oboe and she is doing very well!

Answer 3

My paternal ggf was nicknamed PomPom, as he loved to sing and hum all the time.  I don't know about my grandparents, but I think at least one played piano.  My father reportedly played a few instruments, and quit university to join the army because his mum didn't want him to be a musician.

My maternal ggm was a piano teacher.

My DIL is a dance instructor, and spends a lot of time choreographing things for her students to dance to in competition.

Answer 4

Musical - made me think of "musicale" and my great grandmother Zeena de Beaumont de la Barthe De_Beaumont_de_la_Barthe-1.  Zeena's sister Leoni was a piano master and was about to become a piano teacher when she passed away at age 17 in Simcoe Ontario.  Zeena kept up the love of piano music by purchasing and having a piano brought in by boat to the small isolated community of Morris Valley, in southern British Columbia in the late 1890's / early 1900's. According to my grandfather's story, this involved two fish boats with planks across and eight men to carry the piano from the landing over the rough trail up to the home.   I found this article in the Chilliwack Progress, published in February 1904. (Link is to article posted on her WikiTree Profile).  

Answer 5

A BANJO PICKER!

Well, going back to John William Shelton's handwritten genealogy from 1901 to 1903, we have Ephram Yates entry as follows:

"I new we would come to him after a while. This is Ephram the Banjo Picker and singer he is one of the finest Boys you Ever met But he was bornd July 2nd 1890 Eph is a pet with all that no him as Well a Every one els Pick your Banjo Eph"

This is word for word including the misspellings as written by John.

Answer 6

This week I went into the Category "Opera Singers" and chose Blanche (Berndt) Mehaffey. Only later I learned that her daughter was a Silent Movies star. Well, now they are connected. I connected them to the aunt by marriage of Blanche Berndt. 

Answer 7

My great-uncle Donnelly Trent James had his own big band orchestra, called the Donnelly James Orchestra. He got into the business by having the good fortune of knowing Glenn Miller in college in Colorado. For a time, he played sax in the original Glenn Miller Orchestra. I wish I'd had a chance to know him.

He settled in Arlington Virginia, and would often play on boats out on the Potomac.

Answer 8

Just discovered several musical people on my Dad's side. He always jokes that my Mom got all the musical talent in the family. Not so! One of his ancestors sang and travelled with a musical group down south. Baptists! 

Another distant connection on his side sang opera. This relative is also notable for the fact that he went to audition in Vienna for an opera house there. While there, war was declared with Germany and they had to evacuate very quickly. He wrote to his mother about the events, and that they were heading to England to get home. Alas, the Norwegian power boat hit a mine. He was one of 2 people (17 on board) who died in that event. 

My Mom's side, her Grandpa Mac (MacSorley, came from Ireland) went blind as a young man. He'd gone swimming in a local Ohio river, got an eye infection. They used quack medicine which destroyed his eyesight. He went to the school for the blind, and afterwards became a music teacher. He knew how to play 14 different instruments and was well respected. 

Wish I could've known him. He sounds like a wonderful man and a very kind soul. 

I also have a cousin that plays in rock bands and has played since he was a young teen. At one point, he was playing in four different rock bands, bass guitar. Also knows how to play about 6-8 different instruments. My sister sings, plays bells, and the flute. She's taken violin lessons. 

So, a very musical family. :)