Sunday, May 31, 2009

Memorial Day Family History

The Sunday before Memorial Day, we met Mom and Dad and Glen and Ruth Israelsen at the Taylorsville Cemetery. The chrysanthemums were pretty and the company was great. I took pictures of all the Lehman line we have there and wanted to put them with the stories and connections I have learned and relearned. Let me know if any of you have something to add or subtract!


Purple chrysanthemums next to Grandma and Grandpa's graves.


My Grandma & Grandpa Thalman are Robert Thalman and Mary Magdalena Lehman.

Some of the grave markers were tougher to read in the rain. This is Dad's older siblings, Ernest who died as a stillborn in 1931 and Donna Mae who was almost 3 when she died playing with matches and her dress caught on fire. Correct me if I'm wrong, that Grandma had a dream where she saw her babies that she would raise in the next life.


Sallie Lucinda Parker Lehman, Grandma Thalman's mother, born on 28 Nov 1877 in Mississippi and died 16 April 1960.

Grandma Thalman's father, Ernest Lehmann, married to Sallie Lucinda, born 15 Feb 1874 in Switzerland and died in Logan 10 Aug 1933. Coincidentally, his sister, Eliza Lehman, married August Kohler, Weston's Great Great Uncle. Yep, Weston's Great Great Uncle married my Great Great Aunt! Dad and Weston's Great Aunt Margaret discovered this at our wedding luncheon. :)

Sallie Lucinda Parker Lehman's parents: Lucinda Malinda Jackson Parker and Joseph Marion Parker. Joseph was born in Georgia on 7 Dec 1867 and Lucinda in Alabama on 28 April 1848.

These next four names have had the markers replaced in the last few years. Ernest Lehmann's father is Friedrich Lehmann (my Great Great Grandfather). Ernest's mother, Magdalena Jakob, gave birth to Eliza Matilda Lehmann (mentioned above) 2 weeks after immigrating to Midway from Switzerland and then died 10 days later. She is buried in Midway and I'd like to find her grave this summer. Anna Berger is Friedrich's second wife and Andrew Charlie Lehmann is their little boy.

Charlie Morris comes in on the Parker line. Joseph and Lucinda Parker lived in the South and sometime between 1868 and 1872 (lots of discrepancies Raeann helped me find), Joseph was approached by a black man to help him and his (caucasian) wife who was in labor. Charlie was born, but his mother died and the father handed Joseph the baby, asking him to raise him, because, being a mix, the baby would not be accepted among his people. (Sorry if some vocabulary is not ethnically acceptable, but these stories are at least second hand, and I'm trying to pass it on as I received it). The story goes that Lucinda was nursing her own baby at the time and was able to care for Charlie, but her baby was born in 1872, so I lean towards that year for his birth date. When the family came to Utah, Charlie remained in the South, but followed later. He was a seamster and there is a picture of him in front of a machine and lots of lace. (Dad or Raeann will hopefully scan that and send it out later.) Charlie died in a railroad incident of various details we'd love to confirm, on the 4th of July 1914 and the death certificate says he was buried on the 8th. If I can get a hold of the person who has the books for the cemetery, (I got his phone#), we will find out what we can about his death. Both Joseph and Lucinda, Sallie Lucinda, and even Grandma Thalman were alive when Charlie died, so it's strange that the dates aren't more concrete. In July, the Taylorsville cemetery will be turned over to the City of Taylorsville, I discovered. Maybe those books will become more publically accessible. Aunt Ruth mentioned there were supposedly more Parkers buried in the Taylorsville Cemetery, so I'd like to find out about that.

These two infants are Grandma Thalman's older brothers, Joseph Everett and Ernest Andrew. Joseph Everett was the little preemie baby who was so tiny you could hold him in the palm of your hand. To keep him warm enough, they set him on the door of the wood burning stove in a loaf pan (are those details accurate?). Despite surviving that rough start, he died at 2 years old, chasing his escaped pet canary out over the canal and drowned. Ernest Andrew died the same day he was born. Three years later, a brother, Ernest Andrew Lehman was born 20 Oct 1904 in Park City. He lived a long time and Dad says we used to visit him where he lived in Magna when we would visit the Jensens in West Valley.

Lucinda Lehman, or "Aunt Lu" was Grandma Thalman's older sister. She never married and taught school in Idaho (though her mother recorded her as a bookkeeper on her death certificate) and died of "milk leg". Dad said he was 10 or 11 when she died, and it was his first close relative he remembers dying.

Grandma Thalman's sister Aunt Edie (how did she spell Edie?) married Frank Mellen. Aunt Edie was lots of fun, from being the fastest crotcheter minus one finger-- to scaring kids who didn't know a thing about dentures, by sticking her tongue out at you UNDER her bottom row of teeth! And, yes, I drank her pear juice. When Grandma Thalman and her two sisters, Edith and Evelyn were widows, and traveled to California to visit us, they were a blast. Later, Shauna, Raeann and I referred to them as the Knitting Traveling Grandmas and made our plans to do the same some day, bringing along our knitting, crotchet, and embroidery. I still haven't learned to knit, so I'll take the crotchet!

Aunt Edie's son, Fred helped us tube down the Provo River last August when everyone was together for Raeann's graduation and I remember his wife Fonda. It was surprising to see this new head stone on Sunday, since we had not heard that she had passed away, just in December.

Charles W. Parker is Sallie Lucinda's brother and he and his wife are buried here.


Charles and Lucinda has a grand baby named Adeline. That makes this baby Adeline and my Dad exact 2nd cousins. Her parents were Maron Andrew Parker and Adeline Ross. Maron actually died in Oregon, but was buried in Bountiful. Sounds like a little homework for each of us, Raeann! Thanks to Raeann, we know how this little one fits in, because unfortunately, she was listed as Joseph Parker and Lucinda Jackson's child on Family Search, but she would have been born after her parents died, oops!

I enjoyed straightening this all out in preparation to post this. We usually visit the Provo Cemetery where we have family on both sides, but I realized it has been I long time since I had visited the Taylorsville Cemetery. Hope this helped some of you also remember these ancestors. Feel free to comment or email corrections or additional info! Thanks!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

School Activities Wrapping Up...


SCIENCE FAIR FUN

Lena wanted to do a science fair project on fossils and we found a fun idea making fossils of a shell with plaster paris in different kinds of dirt. She does a great job of her interviews for science fair and feels very comfortable. She won first place again this year, this time in 3rd & 4th grades and went on to district.

Lena and her second place ribbon at district.


Nathan loves science and plays with it daily. After doing an inventor report of Einstein earlier this school year, he became very interested in gravity and Newton, and acceleration. Matching those interests with his marble play, made for a great science fair project idea.

Nathan also has a new love for comics and has read every Calvin & Hobbes, Garfield, and Bone he can get his hands on, so we searched for a comic about gravity and Newton. After reading several that weren't what we wanted, Nathan said in disgust, "They're mocking Isaac Newton!" Gratefully, we finally found a perfect and 'respectful' one for his board.

Nathan got 2nd place for 2nd grade. Everyone who participated received a gold ribbon metal.

Last summer, Sam got a book from the library on how to make rubber band cars out of cardboard. He wanted to make one and test it out on different surfaces. So, he got to learn a bit about friction and have some fun along the way.

Sam and his cardboard rubber band car.

GRADUATION DAY!


Sam and Jake enjoyed going to computer class together this year. Sam loves school and was sad to see it end and even demanded "20 more days of computer class" from me one morning! Ms. Marj is such a fun teacher and made their "graduation" memorable. They love their new set of books they received at the end of the class.

Sam also got to go on Jake's last preschool field trip. The International Peace Gardens was fun on a beautiful spring day. The boys enjoyed this 'Stonehedge' to climb. Though fairly downtown, I think the gardens is one of the best kept secrets around, aside from Wheeler Farm!


5 YEARS of DANCE with AUNT KAYLA

Lena has taken dance at the same studio as her Aunt Kayla for the last 5 years with a Spring recital together at the end of each year. Kayla is graduating from high school this year and it was fun to remember the "family function" recitals each May.


This year, Lena, her cousin Avy and their Aunt Kayla were all in the same recital together!


Three of those five years have been with her friend Megan, who's moving next month! We're going to miss her and her family!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Check Up and Pics

Last Tuesday was Adam's 2 week check up. He weighed 8lbs. 2oz. and 20in. and is doing great. Today he's 3 weeks old and so we went to capture that newborn look before it flies away with time.


One of my favorite things is his perfect "hair do". He has this great wave at his hairline. I also love the long lashes that I haven't been able to capture with my camera.

Some of my favorite shots.

I love the look of awe, what would he say?

Notice the dimple and the little smirk.

Cute little lips.

Trying to wink like his cousin, Avi.

I appreciate the sleeping baby picture more as every child grows up.