Sepia Saturday: "W"?..."Waterfall"?...We've Got a Body of Water

This week's prompt at Sepia Saturday is a waterfall, for "W" which is where we are in the alphabet.  I don't have a waterfall picture handy, even though I know there are Niagara Falls photos somewhere, and don't have any "W" references, so am going with your basic water, as in the Great South Bay, of course, located off the South Shore of Long Island, NY where I grew up.

 

                                    NYC is over to the left, with Manhattan on                                                        the island between the East River and the Hudson.

My family spent many happy days in or on the Bay as in this photo, taken around 1949 or 1950, before some of us were born.  My parents and siblings were still living in NYC, but

often went out to Long Island to visit Tante and Uncle Peter.

                                 

                                          Tante in the water, family on stern, Uncle Peter on the bow.

Tante and Uncle Peter - my maternal grandmother's sister Helen and her husband - owned a cabin cruiser, and often took us out for swimming, clamming, fishing and a delicious picnic lunch on deck.  They had been living on Long Island for a few years already.

                                  L-R:  Dan, Mike, Mom holding

                                                  Ellen, Dennis, and Tante 

                                                  behind, looking out from cabin.

We clammed with our feet ("Watch out for the razor clams!"), caught flounder and blowfish, jumped off the boat, and ate.  I can't remember what was on the menu, but I know it was delicious - probably sandwiches and cold fried chicken.

The Bay was so pleasant to swim and clam in - the clear water was only waist-high, no swells to speak of, and the bottom was clear and sandy.  I am sure Uncle Peter knew the good spots for the best conditions.

For more old photos and stories, swim on over to sepiasaturday.com.

#52 Ancestors: Favorite Photo

 It’s impossible, I think, to pick a favorite photo out of the family collection, but it sure makes a good prompt, because it makes me consider what I know about the photo, and therefore, if there’s a story that I can tell.  (Although, I also appreciate some photos that have no definite story that I know of, but might just have a certain feel to them, like a work of art, so are worth posting too.)

The picture that I chose for this prompt falls somewhere in the middle. It shows my grandmother, Lillian Soldati Gregoire (1895 - 1987,) posing with a group of women sometime in the 19-teens, judging by the fashions, and Lillian’s apparent age - somewhere around 20, I would guess. 

I don't know anything about this photo, other than that Lillian is in it, but I do like to stare at it and wonder. Is it a suffrage group?  Is it in New York City, where she lived?  Who is the woman standing in the center, the only one without a hat?

                                            Lillian Soldati Gregoire, seated second from left,

                                       with group of women;  undated, location unknown.

                                        
I think that it might be Carrie Chapman Catt, who was very active in the suffrage movement in New York. This picture from the National Park Service, dated 1917, shows her standing on the right. In my picture, the hatless woman has the sun in her face, but her nose and mouth look similar in both pictures.

                                                Carrie Chapman Catt (right) with Anna 

                                                Howard Shaw, 1917. Bain Collection, 

                                                Library of Congress.  https://www.nps.

                                               gov/people/carrie-chapman-catt.htm

I was very happy to find the above photo to support my theory, because most photos of Carrie show her like this, with her trademark hairstyle - parted in the middle, with "puffs" of curls on each side of her head.  She may have changed that style when my photo was taken, or the wind might have played with it.

                                            From the National Women's History Museum                                                                               at https://www.womenshistory.org/education-

                                        resources/biographies/carrie-chapman-catt.

There were several "photo opportunities" in New York City in the 19teens: the campaign in 1915 to secure the vote for women in New York State, which was not successful; a later campaign which did result in NYS allowing women to vote in November, 1917, and of course, the campaign for federal ratification.

Maybe I'll get lucky and an expert on Catt will discover this post and tell me yay or nay. Meanwhile, I know that I will be obsessed with Carrie Chapman Catt from now on.

#52 Ancestors: Namesake

This week's prompt at Amy Johnson Crow's #52 Ancestors is "Namesake."  That made me think right away of my maternal grandfather, Maurice Ghislain Gregoire, and his son Maurice J.

The photo above shows Maurice G. sitting on the left, and Maurice J. standing behind him.  The man standing on the right is Thomas "Tom" Mallinson, I believe, who married my grandfather's niece, Lucille "Cousin Lucy" Godissart.  Perhaps that is Tom's father sitting in front of him.  More research is needed on the Mallinsons.

Maurice G.'s birth record, obtained from the Belgian State Archives by way of a genealogy service in Antwerp, shows his first and middle names:  Maurice Henri Joseph Ghislain, on line 11.

And the English translation from the same source, on line 6:

His father, Octave, had the middle names Joseph and Ghislain also, so those names must have been important in the family, for a while anyway.  The name "Henri" also given to Maurice was probably after his grandfather, Henri Gregoire.

When Maurice G.'s son was born in 1921, he was named Maurice also, but I don't believe that he had all of those middle names.  I think he just had "Joseph,"  which I recall seeing somewhere, but have to search for it, and also request a copy of his birth certificate.

He did use the middle initial "J" as here on his registration for the military in 1942:

Fortunately for me, I knew both of these dear men.  Uncle Maurice told me that he was called "Sonny" as a child, to distinguish between the two Maurice's in the household.  Most of my grandfather's documentation show that he used the single initial "G".

It's interesting to note that Octave "presented" his newborn son to the Mayor.  From what I have learned so far, this was the custom, to actually bring the baby to the local government official as proof!  

For more stories, check out Amy John Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks at amyjohnsoncrow.com.

Sepia Saturday: "V" Is For Victor

 

This week's prompt at Sepia Saturday is "V" and a lovely old photo of a man playing a violin makes me wish I had a photo like that to write about!  Or even, as is noted, one that shows playing "...the vacuum cleaner, the vaudeville stage, or even the vegetable stew if you so wish,"  any one of which would be a hoot, and a really good story.  

After searching, however, I came up with only one V, for "Victor," and it's not the RCA Victor, which featured Nipper the dog, who heard "His Master's Voice" coming from the phonograph.

My Victor is my maternal great-grandfather, Victor Soldati, born in Italy around 1870, and pictured below with an elegant white-haired woman, possibly his mother.  But let me say that I have always thought it was great-grandfather Victor.  Now that I am doing this post, I am wondering why he looks older in this photo.

On the back of the photo card is a stamp from "D??AY Studio, 75 Fourth Avenue/Mt. Vernon, N.Y. 10550."  A search for a photo studio at that address did not turn up anything; the fact that two letters in the name are illegible because too much ink was stamped is challenging.  In any case, the stamp has a zip code, which tells me that this copy of the photo was probably made many years after the photo was taken.  

The picture below shows him with his wife and children;  his oldest daughter, my grandmother, is seated second from left:  Lillian Soldati Gregoire.  Lillian identified all of the family members in the photo to my oldest siblings, and that information has been shared, and is now finally in writing

 

Marianna (Giampoli) and Victor Soldati, standing, with their children.  Middle row, L-R:  Helen, Lillian, Teddy, Mattie.  Seated on floor:  Jean on the left, and Joseph, who were twins.  Helen was born in 1904.  She looks to be about six years old here.  Lillian was born in 1895, and could be about 15 years old, so I would guess that this picture was taken around 1910.

The man in the first picture appears older than Victor looks in 1910.  But the photo looks like it was taken in an earlier time, because of the woman's dress.  Is that my great-grandfather's father, posing with his wife?  The two men do look alike.  If it is the same man, then that photo was taken after 1910, and what's the outside margin for the latest date?  1920?  

When I first thought of this post, I thought it would be a breeze!  Now that I am presenting the photos and the man on my blog, I see that once again, the family historian has to question and research constantly - nothing can be taken for granted.   So it's back to the drawing board to try to find out if that is Victor in the first photo.  But for today, I am very happy that I did introduce my great-grandfather, Victor Soldati, on the blog, posing happily in the c.1910 photo.  V is for Victor!

Check out sepiasaturday.com for more old photos.

 

 I

SEPIA SATURDAY: "T"

 Today's prompt at Sepia Saturday is the letter "T", and that's any easy theme for me.  T stands for Tobin, which is one of the main lines in my family history.  

This photo shows my father, Andrew Joseph Tobin (1913-1993), smiling for the camera in "Boston 1920."  His sailor suit is modified, since he's wearing short pants instead of long.  Other pictures from this day show that it was July 4, so short pants would be preferable to long ones on a possibly hot summer day.  There's also the fact that boys wore short pants all the time until a certain age, when they then committed to the "I-am-an-older-boy-now" look with long pants.

Long ago, my Dad told me that when he was a child, he took the train from New York City to Boston, Mass., "to visit my Aunt Kate, my mother's sister."  I am guessing that this photo is from such a trip.

 BEGINNINGS

This week's prompt on Amy Johnson Crow's #52 Ancestors, "Beginnings" is very appropriate here since this post is the beginning of my family history blog.  I would like to tell the family stories here, so that present and future generations can enjoy them. 

And the prompt also makes me think about my beginnings in the family, and one of my favorite family stories - hey, it's about me, so why wouldn't it be?

For most of the 20-plus years during which my father was employed by the City of New York, and had the family enrolled in its health plan,  beneficiaries were required to use New York City doctors.  In 1955, my parents and their children were living on Long Island, in Suffolk County, about an hour's drive from the city.

I was due to arrive on August 26.  On the 24th,  my Mom was in New York City visiting her Mom, and having given birth to five children previously, she was quite relaxed about the process.  She said to her Mom, "You know, I'm in the city already.  Let me call the doctor and see if I can deliver today.  Why drive in again on the 26th?"  

The doctor was very happy to induce the birth because, he said, "I can watch the [something-something] BASEBALL!!"  When Mom told the story, it was the "WORLD SERIES!!"  Sounded good to me, but neither I nor my mother were baseball fans, and I have since learned that the series didn't start until late September.  The doc was probably just excited about the Brooklyn Dodgers playing the Yankees - maybe every game was like the Series to him.

"So, I had  a cup of tea, and an hour later I was in the hospital getting hooked up!"

Yours truly in the blanket, my Mom Eleanor Gregoire
Tobin, and my brother Mike, across the street from
Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York City, probably Aug.

28 or so, 1955.