Trip to Genealogist's Mecca: Family History Library in Salt Lake City

Entrance to the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), Salt Lake City, Utah. Inscribed on the wall to the left of doorway, "Genealogical Society of Utah, established 1894. That is the year that the LDS began to collect genealogical records to help members of the church discover their own ancestors and family history. However, the library and all of it's records are open to the public, not just to members of the LDS. Beginning about 1938, the Church sent out hundreds of missionaries and camera crews to microfilm birth, baptismal, marriage, and death records contained in archives all over the world. To the right of the doorway, the corner stone is inscribed, "Erected 1983-1985".

Off the lobby, in a small theator, I watched a 10 minute orientation and introduction to the Library. The Library contains records on over three billion deceased individuals. It also has about two and a half million microfilms containing images of original, genealogical records. Copies of all microfilms are preserved in a vault which has been carved 600 feet into a granite mountain located about 25 miles southeast of the city. The vault has enough space to accomodate the equivalent of seven times the volume of the U.S. Library of Congress. In short, the library has lots of records which are safely preserved. A good place to reseach your family history.

My first effort inside the library on the main floor was to see if my brother-in-law's genealogical book on the McCutcheon family was on the shelf. Pleased to say that it was there, all one thousand pages of it. I did a quick survey to see if my branch of family surnames were represented: no Streich (Strike), Hohnke, Kramp, Gailliot, Austel, or Gutgsell. I guess the field is still wide open.

My next effort, over the succeeding week was to search the microfilms. In my own travels to collect data on my family's genealogy, I have found the results of the LDS microfilming project in many places overseas. For example, I traveled to County Durham, England, in 1996. There, in the Durham Record Office I discovered rolls of microfilm containing images of parish records and census enumerations. Usually in the first frame of the film, I read that the records were filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU). Again, at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, Scotland, I consulted microfilms which were produced by the GSU. I was told that the Society was allowed to film the records and then returned copies to the archives. Even in Germany, at the archives in Bruhl, I found microfilms created by the Society. Fortunately, the Society microfilmed the parish records of St. Mariae Himmelfahrt Catholic Church in Wesel, Germany, because the church was totally destroyed by Allied bombs in the waning hours of WW II. However, a copy of the church records was preserved at the State Archives in Berlin, and apparently, that is where the Society filmed the parish records in 1942. As stated in the Notes for the film, "Mikrofilme aufgenommen von Manuscript in Berlin, 1942". Indeed, the 1862 baptism of my great grandfather, Heinrich Casper Gailliot, was recorded on one of the seven microfilms in this series. So, from an image of the original parish record, I transcribed the event into my personal genealogical records. If it weren't for these films, I would have little to show for my genealogy, particularly for the early generations.

I have one question about the catalogue of microfilms to which I can't seem to get an answer. Some of the microfilms of German archival records are not available to persons in Germany or can not be ordered from German Family History Centers of the LDS Church. For example, the Notes for a microfilm of the parish records of the Catholic Church of Grietherbusch, Germany (FHL No 907581), states "No circulation to family history centers in Europe". I have a German collaborator who lives in Achen who told me that she has to travel to the Netherlands in order to obtain certain microfilms, because they are not available in Germany. WHY?

Update: A staff member of the FHL told me that the microfilming crews must of course seek permission before filming records at a specific archive. Sometimes the crew is allowed to film the records but certain restrictions apply. As noted above, some films are not allowed to be circulated in the country where the records are originally kept.

Genealogical Research and Writing Plan for 2011- Get the books out

As the year 2011 begins, I am focusing on what will be my genealogical research and and writing plans for the coming year. Of course, the research will continue- checking off my long list of "to do" items. Actually, my genealogical computer program, Ancestral Quest, can print out a report of these research items. First thing I must do is edit this report, deleting those projects that have already been accomplished.

But most of all, I want to get my genealogical data and family history published. I've already spent much time posting the results of my studies on the Internet such as a Public Family Tree (Kramp Family) at Ancestry(dot)com, at web sites for both the paternal and maternal branches of my Tree (scroll down right side panel), and on this blog. I've also posted images to several Internet photo albums and uploaded videos to Youtube(dot)com and Roxio PhotoShow. However, I'm experienced enough to know that much of this information on the Internet is always in jeopardy of being lost. Some of you may remember the shut down of Yahoo's photo album feature. Others may remember the merge of Geocities with Yahoo and then the total removal of all content from their web site. I had to rush to transfer my Mother's genealogical web site to another server.

I believe that the BOOK is still the best means of preserving and passing on one's family history and genealogy. It circumvents the necessity of modifying your data to keep up with newer technological advances in the computer age- the so-called "migration" of data. Just yesterday, I discovered that I couldn't open a document created in an old version of Microsoft Word with the newest version. I finally got around the problem, but I do not want to worry about these glitches. And hey, realize your valuable documents and data are in an electronic environment. Now I ask you, have you ever seen an electron or held it in your hand. No thank you, I would rather have a book in my hands.

In late Spring of 2010, I created my first hard copy photograph albums, called PhotoBooks, at Snapfish(dot)com. See image below. I made one for Mother's Day which included dozens of photos taken throughout her life. Original photos were scanned and uploaded to Snapfish. Then, while on-line, I used templates to arrange from one to eight digital images on a page. The PhotoBook was then mailed to me and another copy mailed to my mother. A few weeks later, I created a PhotoBook of images of my late father.

From Life's Journey II

The image above shows three books (top) created at Snapfish(dot)com; two books (on right) created at Shutterfly(dot)com, and two books (on left) created at Blurb(dot)com. If you enlarge the image, you can read the titles. I have started a series of books in which each book includes images of a chosen decade, for example, photographs taken between 1930 and 1940, between 1940 and 1950 and so on. The book entitled, 1915-1941 was a mistake. I meant 1915 to 1930. Can you imagine creating an incorrect title. Big boo boo. I can correct the mistake on future editions.

The books were easy to create once I took a few hours to practice. The creating process for Blurb books was much more flexible- I could place the image and caption frames where I wanted them on each page. Also, I performed a free download of their "Smart Book" application to my computer's hard drive so that I could create and edit a book OFF-line before making the final submission for printing.

I passed copies of these books to my married children and was surprised to hear that they loved them. They usually roll their eyes to the back of their heads when I start taking family history. Particularly, they enjoyed going through the book in just one sitting.

As seen in the image below, I also gave a copy of the 1930-1940 book to my mother for her 90th birthday last November. She spent her teen-aged years in this decade. She is standing far right in the cover photograph.



So, in 2011, I hope to continue to self-publish these booklets which contain many vintage as well as recent photographs (digital copies) pertaining to my family history.

This blog entry was posted for the 101st Carnival of Genealogy for Geneabloggers.

REFERENCES AND LINKS:

Blurb(dot)com allows me to publicize my book, "What About Bob", on their Internet bookshelf. It is half genealogy, half autobiography, and short. If you want to leaf through the book, go to my next entry and click on the gadget at the bottom of the page.

YouTube(dot)com videos of my genealogy in Part I (me thru grandparents) and Part II (beyond grandparents). Forgive me the inappropriate background music- I had to be aware of copyrights. I need to redo this whole project, but not in 2011.

My public slide shows at Roxio PhotoShow on the Internet.

There is One in Every Family

The challenge this month from our group of Genealogical Bloggers (Geneabloggers) was to create a blog with the theme, "There's One in Every Family". The real challenge of course was to define the one WHAT??? in every family. Is the WHAT a famous person, a black sheep, a renowned artist, a super athlete, an explorer, an adventure who broke out of the family to take a different path than the others? We genealogists look at many families in our research, and I believe there are many people who could fit into the WHAT definition of this theme. However, the person who I certainly HOPE is in every family is the Collector. You might see where I am going here. I am talking about the collectors of family stories, heirlooms, and photographs- essentially, the Family Historians in the family. They not only collect names and dates, but they also collect the information which fills out the character of our ancestors and their descendants- makes them real people.

Family historians never throw anything away that might be of historical significance to the family or might even have the potential of being so.

In my genealogical research, I have often come across several persons in my family who have had the foresight to save stories, pictures, postcards, letters, newspaper clippings, and even the rare journal. My great grandfather, Thomas W. Russell kept an 1880 journal which has survived to this day. Ralph Sherwin, an uncle in my Russell Line, saved a box of vintage photos. Alice Wagner, another aunt, kept all the postcards sent to her by her brother in World War II. The list could go on. It is the job of the family historian to find these collectors in our family and preserve their stash.

Recently, I reconized another person (Theresa) who is the Collector in her own branch of the family. Hopefully, there is at least one in every family. The image below shows a chronological collection of photos of Theresa's mother, Mrs. Shirley Gailliot, nee. Trice. The collection represents several life events of Theresa's Mom.



Theresa displayed her collection on an easel in the lobby of the funeral home in which her mom rested. Thank you Theresa for your exhibit. It reminded me of the happy moments of one member of our family. And my grandchildren will know her too.

REFERENCES and LINKS:

Index for Carnival of Genealogy editions at "Creative Gene" blog.

Proposal by Creative Gene for the 100th editon of the Carnival of Genealogy.

Read posts by other Geneabloggers concerning the topic, "There's one in every family".

Vintage Baby pictures- HOLD STILL!

Chris, a friend of mine, was recently browsing an antique store in Barnegut, New Jersey, and found a magazine for collectors of postcards and other paper items. He mailed me a copy, because he knew that I enjoy collecting postcards which illustrate my family history. Incidentally, Chris collects old 45 rpm records; one time he tracked down a copy for me of Lee Dorsey's "Working in a Coal Mine". The song ends with the line, "Ohhh, I'm so tired".

In the studio photographs shown above, do you see the ghostly shape of another human being behind the baby- but hidden by a drape or curtain?

The January 2010 issue of The Paper and Advertising Collectors Marketplace (PAC CM) had an interesting article on "Uncovering the Hidden Mother (and Father) in Photographs. In the nineteenth century, exposure times for photographs were often measured by several seconds rather than fractions of a second as in modern cameras. So, how does a photographer hold a squirming baby down long enough to take an un-blurred picture- and still focus mainly on the baby? One way is to have the mother sit in a chair, hold the baby, and cover the mother's face with a drape or curtain.

The PAC CM magazine article mentioned several other techniques. In some cases, holes in the back of the chair were large enough for the mother to squat down and reach through the holes to hold the baby. A photographer named Fred Pohle invented a medal holder which babies were strapped into and held motionless for the photographer. Perhaps a less traumatic method was for the mother to hold the baby and then be cropped out of the picture during the processing or matting the picture so that the mother was hidden in the frame of the mounted photograph.

The article prompted me to go through my own photo collection looking for vintage baby pictures of my family to see if any of these techniques were used- particularly "Hidden mothers".

(click to enlarge; then use browser's "back" key)

Perhaps the oldest picture in my collection (see above) is that of my great grandparents, Thomas W. Russell and Eleanor, nee. Hartley, holding their second- and third- born children, Nicholson and Jane Ann or "Jenny". The date of the photo, 1880, is easy to pinpoint. Jenny was born in Sep 1879 and looks about a year old or less. The photo was taken at Schmiechen Studios in Sunderland, County Durham, England, and by Aug 1881, the family, or at least the father Thomas, had immigrated to Pennsylvania. In the picture you can see the parents have a pretty tight hold on the children, particularly holding their arms or tiny little hands.

Unfortunately, the first two children, both daughters, of Thomas and Eleanor died before this picture was taken. One daughter died at about a year; the other daughter, at 11 years. One of the points of the PAC CM article was that often pictures of children were taken because of the high infant mortality in the mid-19th century. The photographs served as reminders.

My great grandfather, Joseph Austel, had 10 children by his first wife, but only one child by his second wife, Rosa, nee. Friedrich. Rosa had a valued picture of the son, Paul, who died in 1904 at age 4 or 5 years. Rosa kept the photograph on an alter that she put together herself and placed at the top of the stairs leading to the second floor. She kept a candle burning on the alter. My mother remembers her grandmother praying at the makeshift alter, but somehow, the picture of Paul has been lost.

The two baby pictures above show my maternal grandfather, Charles Anton Gailliot, born 1894, and his first cousin, once removed, Mildred Ann "Millie" Gailliot, born 1907. Their common ancestors were Anton Gailliot and Johanna "Helena" Schlebusch. Both babies are propped on a chair and lay on what looks like sheep skins. Perhaps these shaggy foundations gave more warmth and comfort than if not present. Would that not have been a calming influence on a baby? In Millie's picture, on the right, there seems to be a folded piece of material behind her head. Could this be her "hidden mother". In certainly does not look like part of the chair. I like the cute way Millie is grasping the back of the chair in her left hand.

By the early twentieth century, cameras and films had improved so that exposure times were reduced, and thus the pictures were less likely to be blurred by the subject's movement. Still, the youngest child in the middle of these offspring of Robert William Kramp and Martha, nee. Streich (on left) apparently needed to be steadied. Note the sister holding the baby's hand.

On the right, is my grandmother's sister, Mrs. Rose Salmon, nee. Austel, holding her first child, John. John's left hand seems to be slightly blurred compared to the rest of the picture. I'm glad the beautiful mother in this case was not hidden.

LINKS AND REFERENCES:

1. Go to the homepage of The Paper and Advertising Collectors' Marketplace. Today, I could flip through the pages of their publication and see more pictures of "Hidden Mothers" in baby photographs including the whole text of the article. Perhaps in the future, one may have to look up Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jan 2010) on their site.

2. The "Dead Fred" genealogy photo archive web site also has an unidentified couple who were photographed at Bolko Schmieken Studios in England. I do not believe they are related to my family.

Pedigree Ornament No. 6, My Maternal Grandfather.

Charles Anthony Gailliot, born 1894, Braddock borough, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; died 1948, Alexandria, VA; buried St. Mary’s Cemetery, Alexandria, VA.


My maternal grandfather worked as a pattern maker, as did several others in the early Gailliot Line. He married the former Margaret Austel at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Braddock, PA, in August 1917, and within a few days, received his induction notice to be drafted into the Army in the Great War, also known as WW I. At the same time, he also received notice that he was approved by the Navy Yard in Washington, DC, to work in the Pattern Maker Department. Since the job was part of the War effort, Charles was not drafted into the Army. Thus, in short order, Charles married; moved to the City of Washington; and began his career in the Navy Yard. Charles and Margaret’s first child, Helen Rose, was born in 1918.

Since my grandfather died when I was only 6 years old, I did not have an opportunity to talk much about what he actually did as a pattern maker. From what I gather, a pattern maker is sort of like a draftsman and they design and make molds for machine parts. I imagine some of the parts which Charles drafted were used in weaponry for the War or for building the Navy’s battleships. On the other hand, I had a hunch of what Charles was able to do by looking at the bookends he made during his “spare time” at the Navy Yard. They were made out of solid brass and one design in particular was the bust of an Indian (see image above). He also made a few brass doorstops which were in the shape of dogs- German Shepherds. Grandpap’s house had two large double doors that separated the living room from the foyer. The brass Shepherds were used to prop these doors open.

One of my favorite activities as a kid was to place the Indian on a sheet of typing paper and trace the outline of the figure’s head. Then I would use different colors of crayons to draw and color in the feathers. By the way, I keep a folder in my file drawer in which I place the scribbles and art work of my grandkids. I sure wish I could see some of these colorings that I made when I was so young.

Shown below is a vintage picture of my grandfather with some of his fellow pattern makers at the Navy Yard. They are grouped together on the steps of the Nation’s Capital. I hope that someone, somewhere, someday, might comment below that, yes, that is probably my grandfather in the group. Similar things have happened in the past. Charles Anthony Gailliot is the third man from the right, standing in the back row (click to enlarge).

**

Bringing Family History Through the Back Door

Be honest now. When you gather the children or grandkids around the Christmas tree this year to tell them a story about their family history, will they roll back their eyes and say, “Ohhhh nooo, not again. Or worse, will they stop and ask you to pass the Wii controls.

We have a lot of competition out there vying for the attention of our young people. And they will tell you they just don’t have enough time to listen to- another story. One of these days I will make up a longer list of excuses. But I still feel it is our responsibility as family historians, not only to gather genealogical data, but also, to present our history in interesting ways to our children. Of course, this effort is in addition to having our genealogy books printed in a standard format and distributed. Nothing, even an Internet Tree, will ever replace a book. However, while that book is on hold for the addition of one more genealogical fact, we need to get something passed on before it’s too late. I have posted over 150 blogs here, primarily on genealogy and family history. But I have not seen or heard any comments by my two daughters yet. I thought about not writing that last sentence, but what the heck. Let’s see where it goes.

On the other hand, I must admit that I did not really have an interest in researching my own roots until I was over 50 years old. And yes, it was too late in some cases. And let’s just face it, Genealogy is not everybody’s cup of tea- What?! It’s not?

In any case, sometimes you have to bring family history through the back door, so to speak. That is the experiment of today's blog.

About 85 years ago, my mother joined her father’s cousin and his family for a tour of Mount Vernon in Alexandria, VA. It is the home and plantation of our first President, George Washington. The first cousin was Harry Joseph Gailliot, who was married to the former Mary Krekeler, and they had traveled from Pittsburgh, PA, down to Alexandria, VA, with their three children. Below, the group stands in front of George Washington’s mausoleum:

I estimate my mother is about 3 years old and is standing far left, next to the gate. Next to her, are her second cousins, Mercedes, Clarissa, and on the far right, Joseph. Harry J. Gailliot and Mary brought along Mary’s sister, Antonia “Tante Tia” Krekeler, who is the tall woman standing behind my mother. After my mother graduated from High School, she returned to Mount Vernon and worked in the gift shop. However, she told me she couldn’t take standing on her feet all day. So, she went to comptometry school. I believe a comptometer was an accounting machine which at one time, was used to grind out numbers and calculations. After this training, she got a job in Old Town Alexandria for a real estate broker but she hardly used her accounting skills.

The following is a vintage postcard showing Washington’s tomb. The women are wearing Victorian dresses. The site looks pretty much like it did when our group visited there in 1923.

In September, I visited George Washington’s tomb myself and had my picture taken to compare it with the same site 85 years ago:

Every time I go back “Home” (Germans call it one’s Heimat), I re-visit places my ancestors visited years ago- sort of like standing in the footsteps of one’s ancestors. The tomb looked a little different than it did when Mom was a toddler. In particular, the mass of Ivy had been cleared from the top of the Mausoleum. Incidentally, Washington never had any children of his own, but his wife had children by a previous marriage. Washington treated the children as his own. The arched gate in front of the Tomb, leads to a mausoleum which contains 25 persons related to Washington in some way but most were related to his wife’s DNA- didn’t we used to say “by blood”. For example one of the tall white columns in front of the mausoleum is inscribed with the name of General Washington’s nephew, Judge Washington, son of John Augustine Washington. Also a plaque inside the gate is inscribed with a passage from the Gospels, John IX.25.

So, now we introduce family history to the younger generation. At the gift shop, I purchased a coloring book which pictured various sites around Mount Vernon, including one of George Washington’s Mausoleum.

“OK. Get out the crayon kids, and start coloring. And by the way, did you know your great grandmother once visited the … and worked in the … “

It was so much fun; I had to do a page by myself. I will leave it to you to figure out which one.

The following pages had to be mailed to me. On the right, note the sun and its rays rising (or setting) behind the mausoleum and a "welcome" mat in front of the tomb. Ahhh, the innocense of childhood.

There are several other pages remaining to be colored. We saved them for Christmas vacation.

REFERENCES and LINKS:

1. Harry Joseph Gailliot was the son of KARL GAILLIOT and Mary Jund; and his cousin (my mother’s father), Charles Gailliot was the son of HEINRICH CASPAR GAILLIOT and Franceska Dumoulin. Read more about the parents in a previous entry, “The Gailliot Line, Introduction to First Generation”.

2. Mount Vernon is not run by the National Park Service. The Mansion and its grounds have been preserved by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. Go to their web site for more information including a virtual tour of the mansion.

3. Janet Horvaka recently wrote on her blog, “The Chart Chick” regarding some great ideas on how to share one’s family history particularly around a family holiday.

Adventskalender 2008 with a Family History

This is going to be an absolutely delicious blog entry. About a week ago, my good friend and fellow genealogist, Rudolf Kerbitz, and his family sent me an Adventskalender 2008. But this gift is very special for my family history.

The relatively large, 14 x 10 inch, Adventskalender features a winter scene of the Gross Markt in Wesel, Germany. One can see the Willibrordi Dom (Cathedral) in the center and the Rathaus on the left which is currently undergoing reconstruction. My (2x) great great grandfather, Anton Gailliot, and his first and second wives lived in Wesel. Anton and his first wife, Maria Dissel, lived right on the Gross Markt (Main Market Square) according to an 1843 Zivil Einwohner (city directory). Their apartment was located to the left and just off the edge of this picture. They most certainly would have looked upon a similar scene over 150 years ago. Anton Gailliot and his second wife, Helen Schlebusch baptized their son and my great grandfather, Heinrich Caspar Gailliot, at St. Maria Himmelfahrt Katholic Church, which is just around the corner from the Gross Markt. The year was 1862, and 20 years later, Henry emigrated to American sailing on the S.S. City of New York. Unfortunately, during the last days of WW II, over 90 percent of the town of Wesel was destroyed by Allied bombs. The Dom, the Gross Markt, the Rathaus and even the Catholic churches were completely demolished. However, it is a miracle that the surviving residents did not abandon the town after the war and have rebuilt the Dom, the churches, and the Rathaus. Indeed, the Rathaus is being restored to its original Gothic architecture.

The people of Wesel are proud of their town and their heritage and are reminding everyone by creating this beautiful Weseler Adventskalender. My Gailliot ancestors would have been very pleased. Their descendants are definitely pleased and grateful.

Oh yes, the delicious part: I have seen what lies behind the doors numbered one through eight. If you like chocolate then you will see my delight below:

In order of the door opened: a boot, French horn, Kris Kringle on a sleigh, an airplane (guess the reindeer got tired). Number 5 is a Tannenbaum, then a truck, and a sleigh with presents, and finally a house (probably a candy house don’t you think). We still have 17 more days to go in Advent season. I wonder what I will uncover. Whatever, I’ll post it here.

Actually, I am refrigerating the chocolate morsels until I see my grandchildren, then we will all share them together.

Froehlich Weihnacht, Rudolf, Ria, and family.

Late Entry, 8 Jan 2009: Well, I snacked my way to Christmas eve on chocolate morsels of our Advent calender. But I paused long enough to take a picture of the treats during the remaining days of Advent season. Well, most of them anyway:

REFERENCES and LINKS:
1. Read my previous entry regarding the laying of the foundation stone for the reconstruction of Wesel's Rathaus.2. Previous entry: Introduction to the Gailliot Line, including Anton Gailliot, and his second family.

Hanging the First Pedigree Ornament on my Blog

I am initiating a new tradition this Christmas, but first, I want to mention a few of our family’s traditions that seem to have run the course. Our family members, like many others in America, reside at relatively long distances from each other. My brother lives in Florida; my Sister, in Maryland; I’m residing in North Carolina. One of my daughters and her family lives in Maryland; the other, fortunately, resides in my current home state of North Carolina. Some of my cousins have children scattered all over the country from coast to coast. Sad to say, like many families since the 1980s, there have been several break-ups and estrangements because of divorce. Depending on which branch of the family being considered, I have recently calculated that 40 to 50 percent of the cousins in my generation have gone through a divorce. Most have remarried, resulting in what we call EXTENDED families. Nevertheless, there are some who are still alone. What I’m saying is that it is often difficult to get the family, or what’s left of it, to come together in one place to carry on any kind of family tradition- to share in the camaraderie and excitement of the Thanksgiving or Xmas holidays. There are fewer and fewer of us sitting around the table for the “traditional” meal or the hand to hand exchange of gifts. Yes, we could take a plane flight or pack into our car and drive, but that’s getting truly expensive these days. Furthermore, it drains our energy resources and puts a strain on the environment. And, is it really safe to be driving on ever more crowded highways perhaps during dangerous weather conditions? Back me up you people who drove home for Thanksgiving.

The situation was not always so. Back in the 1950’s, when I was a pre-teenager, my family would drive over the Potomac River to Alexandria, Virginia, to Grandma’s house. There, I would play and run around with my ten cousins- all of them. Actually, a few cousins were born a little later, as I was the oldest. My cousins and their families all lived within a 20 mile radius of Grandma’s home.

We were so excited to find out what each other had received from Santa Claus. Indeed, it was here we discovered the real story about Santa, but we didn’t have the heart to tell our parents. We exchanged gifts and had a good old time. Grandma spent several days beforehand making up bushel baskets of Fastnachtskuchele, a traditional Swiss pastry that grandma learned to make from her stepmom, Rosa Frederick, who grew up in Canton Thurgau, Switzerland. Then after dinner, after the gifts were unwrapped, after the toys were broken and mended, and after I won the “war” card game, we would all gather around Grandma to take the “traditional” cousins picture (see below). I was able to date the pictures, taken in 1953 and 1956, from the birth dates of the infants on Grandma’s lap.

Image: Grandma Margaret (Austel) Gailliot is surrounded by seven of her grandchildren in this 1953 Christmas picture. (Two of my younger cousins have since passed away).

Image: Grandma Gailliot is surrounded by nine of her grandchildren in this 1956 traditional Christmas picture. One last grandchild, the tenth, was born in 1960. Four years later, that is about eight years after this picture was taken, Grandma passed away. By the way, you would not believe how difficult it is today to get a similar photo of the grandkids together with a grandparent. I am the mean, camera guy at Christmas for trying to force everybody to gather together for a picture.

Christmas Cards and Photo Cards

So you see, these pictures are reminders of some of our family traditions. Perhaps another way to bridge our scattered brethren is to send Christmas cards. I hardly ever sent Cards until about 15 years ago. Actually, it was a means to gather family history and share it with members of my family. I created Xmas letters and cards that featured portraits of my relatives or of places in which they grew up. Recently, one of the more interesting evolutions in Xmas cards is the creation of Photo cards. Now, you can not only send and receive Xmas greetings, but also, you can see how the faces have changed of friends, relatives, and particularly, the children. For several years now, I have archived the photo cards I received, and also, scanned and inserted them into my genealogical computer database. Below is a collage of a few examples:

But even here, forces are working against the tradition of sending cards. A first class letter or Xmas card cost three cents to mail in Grandma’s time in the 1950’s. This week, it costs 43 cents. Maybe we can get around these obstacles by using the computer for sending photos and greetings, though I believe there are some who think this is too impersonal.

A Series of Christmas Ornaments

Now it is time to introduce perhaps a new tradition- a project that can be uploaded by my computer to a public site to be enjoyed by relatives afar, or even by We Three Kings of Orient Are. They would otherwise probably never remember all those user names and passwords at private sites.

Every day, from now until Xmas week, my goal is to hang (OK, post) a Xmas ornament on this blog. However, these ornaments are not going to be like the ones you usually see. I will be creating Xmas ornaments with images that characterize each one of my ancestors in my lineal PEDIGREE back through my great grandparents. This calculates to be 15 ornaments including myself. I might throw in a few extra ornaments, such as those for my father’s adopted parents. Elsewhere on this blog, I have posted pedigree charts containing thumbnail images of my ancestors. However, for this project, instead of facial images, I am going to choose an image which depicts something unique about that individual’s life. It might be related to their occupation, avocation, place of birth or residence, or other things of which you and I will eventually learn.

Shown below is the first ornament on my Pedigree. The first person in a pedigree chart is called the principal. That would be me, Robert C. Kramp, and I am on the left in the red shirt; I stand next to my sister, Beverly, and my brother, Russell. We are standing behind my mother, the former Mary Margaret Gailliot. We are all living and the only ones in my pedigree who still survive, so I won’t go into too much detail for now. I will divulge this: the picture was taken within the last three years.

I am going to try an experiment here, if you are a Facebook.com subscriber you should be able to link here and go to the same image posted at my personal Facebook site.

Incidentally, Webster’s dictionary emphasizes that a tradition is not written down. Rather, it is an oral transmission of information, beliefs, and customs from ancestors to posterity. So, ask somebody to read this blog entry out loud to your children, preferably an older person who can embellish the written story. And after that, read what other genealogists have written about their family traditions in the Carnival of Genealogist, 61st Edition (see link at end of this entry).

Actually, this blog is becoming a type of tradition in itself. About a year ago, I wrote about the animal stable my father constructed out of wooden packing crates and placed under our Christmas tree in a Nativity scene. I will always remember it, and hopefully, it will also be impressed upon my grandchildren.

To the right of this page, I placed a tag, “Xmas-2008”, so that you can pull out the complete series of these particular blog entries, as I also plan to post entries on other topics during December.

REFERENCES AND LINKS

1. My lineal pedigree including facial images of my ancestors.

2. Read what other Geneabloggers (people who blog genealogy) had to say about their Holiday Traditions, all linked from Jasia's Creative Gene.

Japanese Cherry Trees around the Washington Tidal Basin

I continue to bicycle around Washington, DC, taking pictures of monuments and tourist sites and matching them to vintage photographs in my grandmother's photo album- the one with the soft leathery, black-colored covers, and black velvety pages, bound together with a string which looks like it came from an old shoe.

The city of Washington, DC, is a beautiful place, especially around Easter time when the Cherry blossoms are in full bloom around the tidal basin. However, the picture below was taken during the second week of October. The blossoms have long past faded, but the leaves are still green, and on the outskirts of the city some of the tops of maples are starting to tinge with the orange and red colors of Fall. In the photo is a monument that might be forgotten during seasons other than the Spring. It is the "Japanese Lantern" gifted to America by Japan as were the cherry trees surrounding the lantern (see below)

Nearby the Lantern is a stone and plaque (image below) dedicating the grove of cherry trees, an old gnarled one of which stands in the background.

The plaque reads:

"The first cherry trees presented to the City of Washington as a gesture of friendship and good will by the city of Tokyo were planted on this site, March 27, 1912."

Sad to say, this was about 30 years before the Japanese bombed and sunk our American battleships and drowned our sailors at Pearl Harbor. This event was followed a few years later by our dropping the Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and annihilating most of each town and thousands of its citizens. Good will? Hardly. However, for a much longer period of time than those horrible events, the beauty of these Cherry trees have been, and are, resurrected each Spring.

It was one of these Springs that my mother's parents and family took a short ride from Alexandria out to the blossoming Cherry trees and thankfully took pictures of the picnic.

Grandpap, Charles A. Gailliot, and Grandma Margaret, born Austel, and their oldest grandchildren under the blossoming Cherry Trees. Bob Kramp (me) is the oldest boy in the center, with brother, Billy, on the left, and our first cousin, Denis Bailey, on the right. He is the son of Joe Bailey and Helen (Gailliot). Taken about 1947. Unfortunately, Grandpap died the next year in February of 1948, aged 54 years.

Under the Cherry Trees in the Spring of 1947: My mother, the former Mary Margaret Gailliot, stands to the left of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Glen Dora (nee. Tracy) Gailliot, and her sister, Mrs. Helen (nee. Gailliot) Bailey. The picture is also a fashion statement of the 1940s. My mother is wearing MY favorite accessory. It was a fur stole made up of 2 or 3 mink skins. The mouth of one animal was a spring-like clasp that grasped onto the tail of the next mink in line and so on. After Mom doffed the furs, I would play with the skins rubbing my hand over the soft, cool hairs and occassionally clipping the "mouth" onto my fingers until the lack of circulation turned them white.

A Trip to Great Falls, Virginia: Then and Now

My maternal grandmother, Mrs. Margaret Gailliot, formerly Margaret Austel, of Burglen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland. Hand-written caption indicates picture was taken at Great Falls on the Potomac River, on the Virginia shore. Picture taken circa Summer, 1917. Can you imagine crawling over those rocks and water rivulets in a long Victorian dress.

My maternal grandfather, Charles Antony Gailliot, of Braddock, Allegheny County, PA, sits on the rocks of Great Falls, Virginia, circa Summer of 1917 or 1918. Charles and Margaret were married at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, in Braddock, PA, on 6 August 1917. Almost the day after they were married, Charles received his induction notice to report to the Army to serve in WW I. However, he also received at the same time an offer to work as a pattern maker for the Navy Yard in Washington, DC. Thus, Charles and Margaret moved to the District of Columbia. Since his job was a part of the war effort, Charles was not drafted and remained state side. Since Charles' wife, Margaret had their first baby, Helen, in May of 1918, I am certain that these pictures were taken in 1917. Note the trees were in summer foliage.

Image: Bob Kramp, that's me, looks over Great Falls from the Virginia shore, October, 2008, about 90 years after his grandparents visited the same site. The information sign at this overlook is titled, "River of Change", as the area has seen several floods and gone though the process of erosion. But for me, it was certainly a time change, a time warp as they say, since the times of my grandparents.

I grew up in Bethesda, on the Maryland side of the Potomac River. As young kids, the neighborhood boys and I would often come down to Great Falls and climb for hours over the rocks with fishing rods in hand- looking for that special pool where grandfather bass resided. When we got bored of fishing, we could easily switch to catching dozens of water snakes. That was a long time ago. Today, the National Park Service which administers park lands on both shores of the Potomac at Great Falls has posted signs to stay on the approved walk ways and avoid stomping over the sensitive environment off-trail. This is a good idea considering the number of people who visit the park each year and the number of drownings that occur among careless hikers. There are still areas which have been set aside for official rock climbing.

This image of the Great Falls from the Virginia shore was taken with the wide view setting of my digital camera (click to enlarge). I believe my grandparents were probably crawling over the upper rocks of the Falls back in 1917, because it is a long drop to the river where I'm standing to take this photo.

A few days later, I was bicycling the first 11 miles of the former Washington and Old Dominion Railroad which has been converted to the 45 mile-long rail-trail located within the W&OD Regional Park. I suspect my grandparents took the electric car ride out to Great Falls on a side track off the W&OD. Though I don't know for sure, the trip was probably a honeymoon for my grandparents for at the time they visited it was indeed a wonderful resort. The text of this historical marker along the rail trail gives a hint of what it must have been like in the "old days":

The Great Falls Line

The Bluemont Branch of the Washington and Old Dominion was not the railroad's only line. The Great Falls and Old Dominion Rail Road arose in 1906 from the vision of two prominent men. Senator Stephen B. Elkins of West Virginia had prospered through coal, lumber and railroads in his home state. John R. MacLean was involved in several businesses and owned the Washington Post newspaper. Elkins and MacLean bought land on the Virginia side of the Potomac River at Great Falls. They turned it into a resort, complete with a carousel, dance pavilion, and electrified Trolley line to bring the crowds from Washington. The largely undeveloped land along the line was ideal for residential communities including one named for MacLean. [One rides though MacLean and Fairfax City on the trail]

Images of Elkins, on top, and MacLean, are in the upper, right-hand corner of the historical marker.

This trip to Great Falls, Virginia, was made as part of my effort and enjoyment to re-visit sites which were also visited by my ancestors. Previously, I have posted blog entries on my ancestors' trips to the replica of the Lourdes (France) Grotto and the Bartholdi Fountain, both sites being in Washington City, District of Columbia.

Pictures from the Gailliot front porch, 1930s

A couple of entries ago, I mentioned the house that my maternal grandfather, Charles Anthony Gailliot, built from a Sears kit in the mid-1920s. My mother believes she was about 4 or 5 years old when they moved from her grandfather's farm south of Alexandria City to the community of Del Ray in Alexandria. Charles Gailliot and his wife, Margaret, nee. Austel, had 4 children: Helen, Charles, and Mary Margaret (my mother), were born in 1918, 1919, and 1920, respectively. Nine years after my mother was born (at the farm), the youngest son, Edward Austel Gailliot was born. Uncle Eddie, as I called him, built a model of the Gailliot home which I recently posted at this blog. I mentioned that many pictures were taken on the front porch and stoop of the home. Well, here is an page from that album (click to enlarge):

In the upper left frame is my mother, Mary Margaret (MM) Gailliot, and her friend Helen Pesiznak who lived across the street. Helen was validictorian of their 1938 graduation class at George Washington High School. Upper right is mom's older sister, Helen Rose Gailliot, and the family pet fox terrior mix named, "Buddy". Lower left, is mom and a friend and also her brother, Eddie. Everybody who remembers Eddie as a child remembers that he was usually dressed in some kind of costume- usually a soldier. Here he looks like a policeman, complete with a Billy club (or is it called a night stick)- before the days of the "tazer". My dad and I appear in the middle, lower frame and a picture of my brother and I finish up the bottom row.

Uncle Eddie appears on Early TV and Gerber Baby Food Jar. (25 Sep 2008)

Uncle Eddie Gailliot had a few other distinctions besides creating models of airplanes and a model of the house of his childhood (see last entry).

Soon after he graduated from George Washington High School in Alexandria, VA, he lined up at the Recruitment Center to enlist in the post World War II Navy. However, he was pulled out of line and asked to pose voluntarily for a recruitment poster. Up till this time, most posters used painted figures or characterizations. Recall the "Uncle Sam Wants You" poster. This recruitment poster was the first to use an actual photograph (see image below):

IMAGE: Uncle Eddie Gailliot poses for a Navy Recruitment poster and recites the oath: “… that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies whomsoever …”

Eddie told me that the photographer allow him to wear a bracelet but requested him to remove his high school ring. I guess they thought viewers would think, "Geez, right out of high school".

Later on, Eddie appeared on the Classic TV game show “What’s My Line”, which ran on CBS, from 1950 to 1967. Panelists had to guess the "line of work" of the guests who would then respond yes or no to twenty questions posed by the panelists. John Daly, a journalist, was the show's host. Eddie’s “Line” of course was that he was the subject in the Navy’s recruitment poster. So, about 1952, Eddie took a train from Union Station in DC to Grand Central in NY and spent the day as a guest of CBS. Eddie told me he survived about half way through the panelist’s twenty questions. For every question asked, Eddie received 5 or 10 dollars which was donated to a cancer fund for Damon Runyon, writer and newspaperman. Uncle Eddie had the opportuny to meet some famous celebrities that were on the panel, such as: Steve Allen, Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Arlene Francis- and a NY cab driver who promised he’d watch Eddie on the show. Incidentally, the show was revived as a syndicated show in mid-1970s. The show was very popular and probably inspired many hosts and hostesses of house parties to invite their guests to play “20 Questions”. The first question was always, "Is it animal, vegetable, or mineral". I guess Eddie's reply to that one was "animal".

Eddie was also chosen to be another poster child. He won a contest in which a local grocery store invited customers to submit photos for the “Gerber Baby”. Gerber is still a favorite baby food. Eddie’s reward was a month’s supply of baby food packed in the famous Gerber jars with a baby’s face on the brand logo.

IMAGE: Little Eddie Gailliot was chosen as the Gerber (food) Baby of the month.

One more distinction? Uncle Eddie was a drummer in the band for the Washington Redskins professional football team. I think he was a better drummer that the Redskins were a football team- but that was years ago, in the early 1950s.

REFERENCES and LINKS:

War Time posters including recruitment posters available at University of MN: http://digital.lib.umn.edu/warposters/warpost.html

Web site concerning classic TV shows, particularly "What's My Line": http://www.tv.com/what-s-my-line/show/5501/summary.html

Damon Runyon (1884-1946): gambler, drinker, heavy smoker, writer of short stories of Manhattan NY characters (source of Broadway's "Guys and Dolls"), sports writer, newspaperman; died of throat cancer. His ashes were strewn over Manhattan, NY

Uncle Eddie Gailliot was a model builder. (25 Sep 2008)

Uncle Eddie has always enjoyed building models since he was a kid, especially model airplanes. Eddie is about 13 years older than I; so when I was about 5 years old; and he, about 18, he was really getting good at his hobby. I recall that he used fishing line to string his model airplanes all over the ceiling in his bedroom. That was a smart move because a 5 year old could only look at the ceiling mounts, but never touch or play with the delicate models. During and immediately after WW II, Eddie concentrated on the war planes of that era, painting them with vivid colors and pasting them with military logos.

Eddie continued to make models after he retired from the Bell Atlantic Telephone Company (the old “Ma Bell”). He became a docent for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, giving lectures on various airplanes and illustrating his talks with the models he created. He also gave talks at local schools in Alexandria City and Fairfax County, Virginia. It is remarkable to compare his models of the Goodyear Blimp and the Hindenburg Airship (see below). One can really perceive the difference in sizes of these two lighter-than-air aeroplanes. You might remember the dramatic newsreel of the Hindenburg when is exploded into a fireball because it was filled with highly explosive Hydrogen gas.

Image: Uncle Eddie compares the different sizes of models of the Goodyear Blimp and the huge airship, The Hindenburg.

Recently, Eddie turned his talents to making a model of the house he grew up in. His father, Charles Anthony Gailliot, built the original, life-size house from a Sears kit for $2,941- no mortgage nor bank bail-out problems then. It still stands today in Del Ray, Virginia, but no longer in the hands of the Gailliot family. Fortunately, the present owners allowed Eddie to take pictures for his scale model. The model can be taken apart by sections to show “break-away” views of the first and second floors, and the basement. The model brings back vivid memories for me of the real house and its former inhabitants. In the corner of the basement was the coal cellar. Every so often a dump truck would back up to the small outside window and pour coal through a chute into the cellar. The older coal burning stove has since been replaced by an electric one. Perhaps in these energy-crunching days, the cheaper coal burner will return. For years I had nightmares about the dark opening in one wall of the basement that went under the front porch- sort of like a cave. If my Uncle hadn’t told me there was an old man who lived in there, I probably would not have paid it much attention in my youthful dreams. Be careful what you say to a kid.

Image (above): Eddie Gailliot displays a scale model of the house that his father built from a Sears kit. Also on the table is a 1926 Sears and Roebuck Catalogue listing the original building kits.

Many family pictures were taken on the front porch and stoop of this house which was sold by our family in the late 1950s.
Image above: First floor and Basement (coal bin in upper right corner). Some of you might remember the old wringer washing machines. Didn’t you just love squeezing the water out of your handkerchief … and then handing the rest of the job over to Grandma? You may NOT remember the electric clothes dryer … ahem … because there was none.
Several books on the subject of writing your family history suggest that you sketch a floor plan of the house in which you were raised. I have done that for the house where my family lived during my growing-up years, 1949-1963, in Bethesda, MD. But the 3-dimensional model of my grandparent’s house that Uncle Eddie built goes a few steps further. I could write many paragraphs on the activities which surrounded my grandparents house when I visited there as a child. But, the same things are not happening in my generation, and I feel sort of sorry about that. Can you tell I’m getting a little old and sentimental and longing for the old fashioned ways?

• Holiday dinners in the dining room; children ate at their own table in the kitchen.
• My grandmother’s stepmother, Mrs. Rosa Poeschl, spending her last days dying of cancer in the dining room.
• Playing with my plastic toy cowboys and Indians on the living room floor, while listening to the roar of airplane propellers as they landed at nearby National Airport, now, Reagan International.
• The blowing of steam whistles from locomotives at nearby Potomac Yards, “Gateway to the South”.
• The ladies in the kitchen making Fussnachtkirchle (Swiss pastry fried in lard).
• Posing for THE Christmas picture by the Xmas tree in the “front” room. All the grandchildren gathering around grandma for that traditional picture.
• Grandma Gailliot, standing at the fireplace mantel with her head on her crossed arms, weeping over the early death of her husband.
• The big oval glass door leading to the front porch.
  

References and Links:

The City of Alexandria initiated an oral history project a few years ago. School children went into the community and inteviewed some of the senior citizens who spent most of their lives in the area and are essentially walking history books. I am very thankful that a group came to the home of Uncle Eddie and his wife Shirley and took their oral history on audio tape which was then transcribed on put on the city government's web site. I learned some history and stories of my mom's brother and sister-in-law which I had never known before.

Oral History project: Alexandria http://oha.alexandriava.gov/oha-main/oralhistory/oha-edandshirleygailliot.html

Interests and Activities of my Maternal branch, Part II.

I sat down with my mother a few days ago and talked about her interests in porcelain and china painting. I posted some images of her work in an earlier blog entry. One of Mom’s favorite topics to paint were flowers, in particular, roses and daisies. I occasionally visited my grandmother before she passed away in 1963, about 45 years ago; so I had a little difficulty in immediately remembering what were some of her life-long interests. I asked mom.

“Oh no, she didn’t have much time for hobbies and interests like that- she was too busy raising us four kids- doing laundry, cleaning house, mopping floors” I persisted, “She must have had some kind of pastime besides housework ... at least to take her mind off the drudgery of keeping up the house.” Mom always seems to pick the negative side of these type discussions.

Later on, it came to my mind- Flowers. Of course. Grandma had a grand and memorable flower garden. It began at the corner of the neighbor’s garage in the backyard and ran along the property boundary all the way out to the road in front of the house. The whole length of the garden was lined with a flagstone walkway. When I drove by the old house a few years ago, there was no such garden. I believe most people are too busy today to take the trouble to have a garden like Grandma’s. My friend, Ben, who breeds roses for nurseries to sell, told me that sales of Roses are not as strong as they used to be when his father was a rosarian.

In any case, the desire for a beautiful garden has always been strong in our family- and not just by the women. The picture below shows my grandmother walking her stepmother, Grossmom Rosa Friedrich, beside the garden. Unfortunately, the picture was printed in black and white as were most prints at that time in the early 1950s. Rosa was leaning on Grandma’s arm as she was very weak from cancer. She had refused what little therapy there was at the time for fighting the disease. And I believe there was a staunch acceptance of the inevitable in Rosa’s case. However, she must have really enjoyed these walks along the garden as I know it reminded her of her own expansive rock garden back home in Edgewood, near Pittsburgh, PA.

Image: My grandmother, Margaret, walks her step-mom, Grossmom Rosa Friedrich, beside the garden. Taken in early 1950s, in Del Ray, VA, near Alexandria. Sure wish it was in color.

While I have my grandmother’s interests and passions in mind, I must mention the interests of her husband, Charles Gailliot, my maternal grandfather. He worked as a pattern maker at the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington, DC. He built their house from a Sears Kit. All the wood and materials needed for the structure were delivered in the kit, but my grandpap put in a lot of extras like the brick-a-brac around the eaves of the house. He could do any kind of woodwork with his hands and he had large toolbox full of augers, chisels and other wood turning tools. He made a kiddy car for me and painted it a bright red and blue- even the wheels were made of wood. But the pastime I believe he liked best was the canaries he raised in the garage- dozens of the birds. My aunt Helen told me that the family didn’t have much money to spend on hobbies like this. So, when she took her first job as a typist, she gave her father $100 to spend on building bird cages. He couldn’t say anything she said, something swelled up in his throat, and then he let a tear fall.

As family historians, we are always looking out for traits which are passed from one generation to the next- perhaps looking for examples of "What is Past is Prologue". Well, my mother, like her father, raised canaries on a smaller scale and kept a couple of cages of canaries for several years. I remember the tiny, fragile, cream-colored eggs that would one day show up in a canary's feather-lined nest. Now, for eggs to happen, one must have at least one male and one female in the same cage. So how does one determine the sex of a canary. Mom told me we had to wait until one of the birds matured and started to sing. The ones that sang the most eloquently were the males. The proof was in the pudding, er ... rather the nest.

Image: a PARTIAL glimpse of my mother's garden in Westminster, MD, Aug 2004. Click to enlarge. The Black Eyed Susan is the state flower of Maryland. Don't let anyone kid you, they ONLY grow in Maryland. Because, I've transplanted many bunches of the flower in my garden in Monroe, NC, just to have them whither and die before the next season.

My mother always had a flower garden wherever she lived. Her garden at our house on Nelson Road in Bethesda, Maryland, was the envy of the neighborhood. It was the most beautiful garden in the area and I ought to know because I traveled the neighborhood for years on my newspaper route. In those days, one did not purchase bags of soil at Walmart or K-Mart. So, my father made many trips up to the woods at the end of our block with his wheel barrow. He dug up and transported several loads of top soil and then he filled up his barrow with marble rock which were used to line the border of the garden. In the Spring, the deep pick Creeping Flocks would crawl over the rocks and the deep purple Grape Hyacinthes would form a swath of color about a foot wide and growing the length of the garden.

Image: I go for perennials myself- less work. These Day Lillies are doing well this year. In the rear are purple Spider Wort, roses, and an overgrown Carolina Jessamine (delicate yellow flowers are past blooming).

Links:

1. As soon as my Mother recently moved into a cottage in her community, she had to start another heritage garden as noted in this earlier entry.

2. Archived photos from my garden in Monroe, NC (Picasa album)

Bartholdi Fountain- Been there; got the picture

Bob Kramp in front of the Bartholdi Fountain, Washington, DC.
In a previous entry, I uploaded a picture of my great grandparents, Henry C. Gailliot and Franceska, nee. Dumoulin, and my grandfather, Charles A. Gailliot, standing at the foot of the Bartholdi Fountain in Washington, DC, in the year, circa 1918. The dome of the Nation's Capital was shown in the distance. Today, the fountain is still in Washington, DC, but is located a short distance from where it was 90 years ago. Now, the fountain is in a triangular park, southwest of the capital, BEHIND the National Botanical Gardens, between Independence Avenue, First Street, and Washington Ave. It has been described as Washington's best kept secret for a place to relax and enjoy a sunny, warm day, while viewing a collection of the world's most beautiful flowers.

Incidentally, the dome of the Capital can still be seen from the park, but it is obscurred by a large tree in these pictures.

The Bertholdi Fountain, or sculpture as it could best be described because it is dry, was designed by Frederic Bertholdi. He was born in Colmar, in Haute Rhin, Alsace. My great grandmother, Franceska was also born in Alsace, but in Bas Rhin (lower Rhine), in 1871, and now I wonder if she didn't make the trip to the fountain because it was associated with one of her fellow countrymen. Bertholdi also designed the Statue of Liberty which the Alsacian immigrant, Franceska Dumoulin, might have seen on her arrival in New York Harbor in the early 1890s. It's no wonder that Bertholdi and his works were popular among my immigrant ancestors.

Surrounding the Bertholdi Fountain are gorgeous plants in peak bloom, such as this example of a Peoni- and they are labeled for the world traveler: Paeoni lactiflora, "Westerner", Butter cup family, Ranunculaceae.