My Family Celebrates and Remembers This Week

This week, my family both celebrates and remembers.

Birthdays

Happy birthday this week to my sister, Noreen! Hope your birthday is a … HOOT! Today is our cousin Sue Still’s birthday as well. May God grant you both Many Years.

Memory Eternal

Ten years ago today my sister (technically hubby’s sister) Wilma Lee Eckman LeMon passed. She was only 52 when she passed. She was the daughter of Frank Eckman and Dorothy Deyoe and the wife of William LeMon. They have three children. She was a great friend, one of a very few I feel safe confiding in. She is deeply missed. She is pictured at left here with Dad (her father, Frank, that is). The picture was taken in my parents' front yard during our wedding reception in 1992.

Today we also remember my husband’s 4^th great grandmother, Catherine Bumberger Herr. She passed 135 years ago at the age of 88. Catherine was the daughter of Michael Bumberger and Elizabeth Hawk. She married David Herr in 1808 and they had seven children.

Monday is the sixth anniversary of my “Uncle” Ray’s passing. Raymond Coblentz married a cousin on my mom’s side. Ironically Uncle Ray and his wife, Denise, both graduated with my Dad! It is actually through my cousin “Aunt” Denise that Daddy and Mom met at a dance.

Friday is the 70^th anniversary of the passing of my 2^nd great aunt Mary O’Flaherty Rogers. Born in 1868 to Dennis O’Flaherty and Martha Durkin, she was one of eight children. Her twin brother, James, sadly died as a child. She married Patrick Rogers in 1891 and they had six children. That's her at right.

My husband’s 1^st great aunt Catherine Coursault Bonner passed 55 years ago on Saturday. She is the daughter of Charles Edwin Coursault and Apolina Morrill. She was one of seven children and it is because of her that I learned Apolina’s maiden name! Catherine married George Bonner in 1907 and they had four children.

My Family Calendar This Week is a weekly feature.

Comments

Coatesville's First Serial Killer

Young Alexander Meyer was a disturbed and angry young man with some major issues. He had failed sixth and seventh grade, and instead of having to repeat eighth grade again, he finally gave up on school. At age 16 he quit Downingtown Junior High. Meyer is not a relative, nor are his victims (that I am aware). I stumbled upon young Alex while reading Tortured Minds: Pennsylvania's Most Bizarre - But Forgotten - Murders by Tammy Mal. On 11 February 1937 Alexander Thweatt Meyer killed young Helen Moyer as she walked home from school in Coatesville along Modena Road. She was not his first. The jury was out only three minutes after hearing Dr. Michael Margolis' testimony on the death of Helen Moyer. The jury determined Meyer had murdered Moyer and should be held for first degree murder. The jury also condemned the parole system which had released Meyer back into the public, after having served just 14 months in Huntingdon Reformatory, for the murder of two other girls - Anna Blasc...

Thaddeus Stevens at the Lancaster Convention Center

Within the Lancaster Convention Center (Lancaster, PA) is a small section dedicated to Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith. The section is known as the Stevens & Smith Historic Site. It is scheduled for development this year. At the moment one can only get a glimpse of it through the Convention Center or by peeking in from the outside. Here at Queen and Vine Streets in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Stevens had his law office. Stevens was an abolitionist. An abolitionist is a person who favors the abolition of a practice or institution, especially capital punishment or (formerly) slavery. Stevens was born 4 April 1792 to Joshua Stevens and Sarah (Sally) Morrill in Danville Vermont. One of four children, he attended Vermont University from 1810 to 1812 when the War prompted its closure. He then went to Dartmouth, where he graduated in 1814. He then studied law and found himself set up in Gettysburg, PA in 1816. He practiced law there until 1828 when he...

52 Ancestors: Remembering the King

Today is Elvis’ birthday. He would have been 80 today. I was only eight when he died so obviously I am too young to have seen Elvis perform. However, when I hear his music, I go back in time. I am once again that young girl dancing in the living room to Elvis and other greats with my father. Back then girls learned to dance by dancing with their fathers not some video of scantly dressed people doing all sorts of things young ladies should not be doing in public! What is YOUR favorite memory - either of your father or of Elvis? 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is a weekly genealogical challenge issued by Amy Johnson Crow, of No Story Too Small . Look for my weekly posts each Thursday! © Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman, 2015

Genealogical Gems

Search This Blog