His challenge for this week is to
1) Determine where your ancestral families were on 16 September 1917 - 100 years ago.
2) List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible). Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?
3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post.
On September 16, 1917, my Mother was just over 6 months old; my father wasn't yet born (but would be in about 7 weeks).
My Mother's family--she, her older sister, Mother (Earl and Fay Swicegood)--were living in Otis, Washington County, Colorado.
This photo was taken sometime in 1919 in Otis, so I assume that's their house behind my Mother.
I visited Otis in about 2007, but couldn't figure out which house Mom's family might have lived in, if it was still standing. There are apparently no City Directories (or rural directories) for Otis while my family resided there.
My Mother's paternal grandparents, John H. and Martha Swicegood, may also have been living in Otis in September 1917, or they could have been in or near Weaubleau, Missouri. At the time of the 1920 Census, they lived in Otis; by December 1921 they were back in Weaubleau. Either place, I don't have a photo of their house. Their youngest daughter, Beulah, was still living at home in 1917.
My Mother's maternal grandparents, Charles and Nancy Brookshire, were definitely living in Weaubleau, Hickory County, Missouri, in September 1917. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly where in Weaubleau they were living, as they moved around quite a bit between about 1915 and 1935 (or so my uncle has said). Their two youngest children, Freda Mae and Henry Lee Brookshire, was still living at home in 1917. This photo is from Freda's photo album and is dated 1915, so this could be where the family was living in 1917 as well.
None of my Mother's paternal great-grandparents (my 2g-grandparents) were living in 1917), but both maternal great-grandfathers were. Henry Clay Brookshire was still working as a doctor at age 68 in September 1917 and living with his third wife in Weaubleau, Missouri. I believe this is the house he was living in. This is his granddaughter, Freda Mae Brookshire, standing in front of her grandfather's house in about 1915. And I believe the color photo is the same house in 2006.
My Mother's paternal grandparents, John H. and Martha Swicegood, may also have been living in Otis in September 1917, or they could have been in or near Weaubleau, Missouri. At the time of the 1920 Census, they lived in Otis; by December 1921 they were back in Weaubleau. Either place, I don't have a photo of their house. Their youngest daughter, Beulah, was still living at home in 1917.
My Mother's maternal grandparents, Charles and Nancy Brookshire, were definitely living in Weaubleau, Hickory County, Missouri, in September 1917. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly where in Weaubleau they were living, as they moved around quite a bit between about 1915 and 1935 (or so my uncle has said). Their two youngest children, Freda Mae and Henry Lee Brookshire, was still living at home in 1917. This photo is from Freda's photo album and is dated 1915, so this could be where the family was living in 1917 as well.
None of my Mother's paternal great-grandparents (my 2g-grandparents) were living in 1917), but both maternal great-grandfathers were. Henry Clay Brookshire was still working as a doctor at age 68 in September 1917 and living with his third wife in Weaubleau, Missouri. I believe this is the house he was living in. This is his granddaughter, Freda Mae Brookshire, standing in front of her grandfather's house in about 1915. And I believe the color photo is the same house in 2006.
My Mother's Mother's other maternal great-grandfather, Robert H. Collins, was also still living in 1917. I believe he was probably living in Idaho near Hailey. He wrote a letter to the local Hickory County newspaper in December 1917 from Hailey, so I assume he was there two months earlier. I have no idea exactly where he lived in Hailey. He could have been camping out in the mountains near the silver mine he owned with his uncle, Jacob Bartshe.
On my father's side, he was not born yet. His parents, Harold H. and Virginia Sharp, were probably living in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas with his older brother.
His paternal grandfather, Alvah Clyde Sharp, was also still living. The 1918 Wichita, Kansas, city directory lists Clyde and his second wife, Rose, residing at 305 W. 8th St. The house that's at that address now, according to Google maps, is definitely not the house that would have been there 100 years ago. In September 1917, Clyde's two step-daughters, Ella and Norma, would have been living with them.
Dad's maternal grandmother, Matilda Elizabeth "Tillie" (Sonnen) Meldrum was also still living in September 1917. She was living at 414 Andrews St. in Houston, Texas. Her youngest son, Curtis B. Meldrum (b.1904), and daughter, Nancy Marie (b.1905) were living with her. I have no photos of this house.
