(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Fearless Female Edith Elizabeth Wolfe Smith Murff Brown Gould Knox

Despite spending a lot of time with my Great Aunt Edith while I was growing up, I'm missing a lot of information on her timeline. She was born in Louisiana on December 9, 1910, and is the younger sister of my grandmother, Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald.

Although she had no children, Aunt Edith was married five times. Her first husband was an Oliver Smith - they were married and living in Dallas when her father, Louis Henry Wolfe, passed away in April 1929.  In the late 30s, she was married to an M.B. Murff, for a brief period of time. She didn't talk much of these marriages that ended in divorce, and I've found no records of them so far.

Her longest marriage was to her third husband, Robert Brown, who died in 1970. He had a daughter, Bobbie Nell Brown, from a previous marriage who was quite close to Aunt Edith - they shared a home after Edith's last husband died, and Edith nursed Bobbie through her final illness.

Edith married Donald F. Gould on December 11, 1981, when she was 71 and he was 77. He died in 1990. Edith married Dee Roy Knox on June 14, 1991, when she was 80 and he was 82. He passed away on November 27, 1997, just nine days after my grandmother Sara Wolfe Guokas Archibald's death.

Edith lived for many years in Houston, Texas, where she worked for an optometrist. Between her third and fourth marriages, she and my grandmother shared a home on Beechnut in southwest Houston, only a mile or so from my family's home. I can remember staying there a few times when I was home from college (because my bedroom in the family home had been given to one of my four siblings).

Aunt Edith lived in Hilltop Lakes, Texas, for most of her fourth and fifth marriages, but moved to New Braunfels, Texas, sometime after Dee died. When I'd make my annual visit to Texas from Washington state, my parents (from Fredericksburg), my aunt (from Houston) and I would meet at Aunt Edith's for lunch, as it was pretty equidistant. Edith's stepdaughter Rowena Knox Hackfield and her husband Leon lived nearby.

Edith passed away at age 96 at her home in New Braunfels, on May 31, 2006.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Tombstone Tuesday: Carl & Minna Massmann

This is a terrible photo of the gravestone of Carl and Minna Freicke Massmann in section 28, lot 20, grave 2 of Memorial Park Cemetery, Skokie, Illinois. It was taken on a snowy day in January, 2000.

Carl Massmann was born May 22, 1847, in Hanover, Germany. He married Minna Freicke in Hanover on January 4, 1870. They had eight children, the first three being daughters who all died before age 5. He emigrated to New York City in October or November, 1884 on the Elbe out of Bremen. He became a citizen in Chicago on October 17, 1891. He was an upholsterer and lived in Chicago for 45 years. He died from uremia and chronic interstitial nephritis on February 7, 1929, a few days after my father, his great-grandson, was born, both in Evanston, Illinois.

Minna Freicke Massmann was born February 10, 1847 in Germany. She emigrated to the United States around 1885, and lived in Chicago for 32 years. She died there from diabetes on March 14, 1917.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Challenges 12 & 13

The Week 12 challenge (developed by my friend Amy of We Tree and hosted by Geneabloggers.com) was: Check out the web sites for the Society of American Archivists (SAA), ARMA International, and the American Library Association. Genealogists can benefit from the educational opportunities and publications of other information-based organizations. You may not be an archivist, records manager or librarian, but you share the same interests. Look at the events these associations hold. Find the books they publish and see if you can request them through your library via Inter-Library Loan. You may also want to check out your state’s (or country’s) library association. If you’re a genealogy blogger, write about your impressions of one or more of these organizations.

I decided to take a look at the SAA website. I was intrigued by their ePublications page. While I didn't see anything directly related to genealogy, I saw some things that might help me at work (I'm a university librarina), particularly a glossary of archival and records terminology, and a thesaurus for use in college and university archives. There were also a number of publications in their online bookstore that were of interest, at least one of which is already in my university library's collection.

Week 13's task is: Make an appointment with Cyndi’s List. All beginning genealogy publications include a link to Cyndi’s List because it is the ultimate guide for family history links. If you’ve never used Cyndi’s List, take the time to look around. If you’re familiar with the site, look again. Take the time to browse with detail. Don’t try to research your own family’s history, just move through the site and get a feel of all it has to offer. If you have a genealogy blog, share with your readers a new website you discovered through Cyndi’s List.

I'd heard of Cyndi's list before, but I wasn't aware of just how much is on it! I'm amazed that one woman maintains this with no help (or at least that is the impression I get from her blog). Perhaps it is getting a little too big, as I encountered a lot of broken links.

Nevertheless, there is an enormous amount of useful stuff at this site. One page that caught my eye was the page on How To - Tutorials and Guides. Since I still consider myself a beginner in genealogy, this page should be really helpful.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Fearless Females: Minnie, Minna, and Frances Massmann

Continuing on the theme of focusing on females for Woman's History Month:

In the center of this picture is a great-great-grandmother, Minna Freicke Massmann, flanked by her daughters Minnie Clara Massmann Petersen on the left, and Frances Massmann on the right. My notes say the photograph was taken sometime between 1895 and 1917.

I don't know much about these ladies yet, but here's what I do know: Minna was born around February 10, 1847, in Germany, and married Heinrich Carl Massmann on January 4, 1870, in Hanover, Germany. They had eight children, the first three being daughters who all died before age 5.

Frances was the next oldest. She was born July 16, 1874, in Hanover, Germany, and baptized Johanna Ernestine Liena Franciska. She never married, but stitched lace curtains and table linens for the wealthy on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, and took care of her parents. She died of breast cancer in Forest Park, Illinois, on July 6, 1958.

Minnie was the next-to-youngest child. She was born April 22, 1878, in Hanover, Germany, and baptized as Maria Elisebet but went by Minnie Clara. She married Anton M. Peterson, who was a few years older, on June 23, 1909. They later divorced and she married his nephew, Arthur M. Peterson, who was 14 years younger. She had no children, and died in Chicago from a stroke on January 29, 1938.

Minna had three other children, all boys, including my great-grandfather, Frederick Henry Massmann. Minna died from diabetes in Chicago on March 14, 1917. All three women are buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in what is now Skokie, Illinois.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Tombstone Tuesday: John & Gertrude Pape

My great-grandparents, John and Gertrude Kramer (or Cramer) Pape, are buried in Lot 18, Block 6 of St. Henry's Cemetery on Chicago's north side.

Gertrude Kramer or Cramer was born January 9, 1859, and baptized January 11, 1859, at Sankt Servinus Katholisch [Catholic Church] in Calle Meschede, Westphalia, Germany. Her parents were Joseph Cramer and Catharina Becker, and she had two sisters and one brother. She attended a boarding school in Paderborn, Germany, when she was 18 years old. In 1885 or 1888 she emigrated, and married John Pape in 1888. They had seven children. It appears that she lived almost all her life in the United States in Evanston, Illinois. She may have had family in Fowler, Indiana. She died of liver cancer on August 20, 1919.

John (Johannes) Pape was the oldest of four living sons of Jacob Pape and Maria Elisabeth Gierse. He was born October 25, 1851, and baptized October 28, 1851, in Boedefeld, Westphalia, Germany. John came to the USA in 1880. At least one brother stayed in Germany and at least one other (Anton, along with first wife Regina and son Hugo) also came to the United States.

John became a US citizen on August 15, 1892. Gertrude Kramer/Cramer was his second wife; his first wife and two daughters by her died in Germany. His third wife was Hedwige Agnes Reimer? who died May 16, 1937. John was a carpenter and later a dry goods merchant (Singer & Pape) in Evanston and north Chicago. He died on March 9, 1945, at age 93 from liver cancer, chronic myocarditis and arteriosclerosis.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Sentimental Sunday: Gertrude Kramer Pape's Stammbuch

I'm going to use this post to address a Fearless Female blog prompt from earlier this Woman's History month:

Did one of your female ancestors leave a diary, journal, or collection of letters? Share an entry or excerpt.

One of the items my cousin Bill found in Great Aunt Martha Pape Bleidt's papers was a 48-page booklet that belonged to our great-grandmother Gertrude Kramer (or Cramer) Pape when she was 18 and attending a boarding school in Paderborn, Germany. It's a little autograph or memory book that she passed around to many people who wrote passages and signed and dated them.

Such an autograph book, called a Stammbuch or Album Amicorum (book of friends), was quite common among young German women especially in the late 1800s. The title page of Gertrude's book, pictured above left, is Zum Andenken v. Therese, which roughly translates to "The souvenir (or memory or memento or keepsake) from Therese." This would probably be Therese Weither or Weitler whose entry is first in the booklet, signed in Paderborn and dated January 29, 1877, shortly after Gertrude turned 18.

One of the pages (at right) has this intricately detailed title, Wohin? which translates to "Where?" Most of the entries in the book appear to be written in old-style German Gothic handwriting, which makes them difficult to read.

There are two pages with beautiful glued-on German scraps or die-cuts which are known as Oblaten or Lackbilder. The one at left, Zur Erinnerung, translates to "For Remembrance," and the one below right, Gedenke mein, translates to "Remember Me."

There are 31 entries and signatures in the Stammbuch, most done in Paderborn in February and March, 1877. One of the signatures (below) appears to be that of a Pape - I can't tell if the first name is Amelie or Emilie or Ottilie. I've learned that Pape is a rather common last name in Germany, and that Gertrude's future husband John Pape had only brothers, but perhaps this is one of his cousins - maybe she had something to do with John and Gertrude meeting?

Even more interesting are two entries near the middle of the book. Both were signed in Boedefeld (Bödefeld), which is the hometown of John Pape. The first (below right) was signed by Maria Gierse on April 6, 1883, and the second (below left) by Florentine Gierse on May 4, 1888.

John Pape's mother was Maria Elisabeth Gierse, and he had an aunt named Maria Florentine (and three other aunts with the first name of Maria as well). Gertrude emigrated to the United States in either 1888 or 1885. Perhaps her Stammbuch was signed by some of John's cousins, or maybe her (future?) in-laws shortly before she married John (which supposedly happened in 1888), or during a later visit home.

If anyone out there can translate the writing on these two pages (click on their pictures to view an enlargement), I would love to know what they say!

ETA February 2015:  Helpful folks in the German Genealogy Facebook group (especially Mathias Steinke) say the one from Maria Gierse reads: 

Wenn still an gottgerechter Stelle zum Herrn empor ihr Geist sich schwingt, dann liebe Fräulein Kramer gedenken Sie mein und schließen in ihr Gebet mich ein. Zum Abschiede gewidmet von Ihrer Sie stets liebenden Maria Gierse, Boedefeld, 6.4.1883

and translates as

When, at the God-appointed moment, your spirit soars silently to the Lord, then dear Miss Kramer think of me and include me in your prayers. Dedicated for remembrance to the farewell by your loving Maria Gierse, Boedefeld, 6th April 1883. 

The second one, from Florentine Gierse, reads:

Das Herz, das sich am meisten Gott hingibt, ist am besten bewacht. Ihre stets dankbare Schuelerin Florentine Gierse, Bödefeld, den 4.5.88

and translates as

The heart, which is most devoted to God, will be protected most. Your ever thankful pupil Florentine Gierse, Bödefeld, 4th May [18]88.



© Amanda Pape - 2010

Working on genealogy with Mom

My spouse and I headed down to Fredericksburg, Texas, where my parents live, on Thursday and Friday so I could do a little genealogy work with Mom, who is 81. I do all the computer stuff on Ancestry.com and Family Search and PAF, but Mom is the one who has written all the letters requesting records over the years and viewed all the microfilm before stuff became available online. She has wonderful, extensive files of documentation - birth and death certificates, baptismal and marriage records, obituaries and Social Security applications, and so on. I don't think Mom has had much if any formal genealogy training, but she was a history major and obviously recognizes the need to get primary sources whenever possible.

I need to go through all her stuff and get copies of what I don't have, and cite this stuff as sources in our PAF and Ancestry.com family trees. My parents have also amassed quite a collection of old family photographs. I scanned some of these on this trip and will be using them in future blog posts. There's a lot more to do, though, so we'll be going back in about a month for another two- or three-day visit.

If you ever go to Fredericksburg, I highly recommend staying at the Camp David Bed and Breakfast. The owners are Bobby and Molly Sagebiel. Bobby's family helped settle the Fredericksburg area and he has lots of cousins in the area. There was a copy of his family history and family trees in our cottage and I enjoyed perusing it. Molly, who graduated from my Houston high school the year before I started there and later served as our alumni director, makes awesome breakfasts which she then delivers to your cottage in the morning. Plus, Molly can read and translate old German script, so I may have a job for her to do when we go back next month (stay tuned for an upcoming post!).

© Amanda Pape - 2010

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday: Ivis Moore Mew

This is the Moore sister missing from the photograph in last week's post. Ivis Moore Mew was born September 12, 1905, on a farm in Lewisville, Texas. Her family migrated to Bray, Oklahoma in 1918 as tenant farmers, and they later moved to East Ward, Marlow. Ivis played basketball at Marlow High School and in her junior year in 1923, she was named all-state guard after playing in the state semifinal championship game in Stillwater. After graduation, she took a job as a housekeeper for the Smythe family for a dollar a day, and later worked as a waitress at the Marlow Cafe.

In 1926, Ivis hitched a ride to Bayside, Texas, by horse and wagon, and then rode a trolley into Corpus Christi to Spohn Hospital . She was the first person accepted into the new Spohn Nursing School, on September 1.

To pay for her training, Ivis took a job as a cook at Mrs. Russell's Boarding House. As a nursing student, she received $8 a month for preparing oatmeal for the nuns and students. This increased to $10 the second year and $12 the third. She graduated on May 15, 1930, and was cited for "sacrifices made" as part of the first nurse training school ever for Corpus Christi.

After graduating, Ivis received $60 a month her first year and $120 a month the following year when she became a night supervisor. Initially, nurses worked seven days a week, and Ivis did not recieve a week off until her second year - and then was too busy to take it. She ended up working her first two years without a day off.

Ivis met her future husband, Benjamin George Mew, while she was a student nurse. He worked for Dr. Arthur E. Spohn, founder of the hospital, as a carriage man, taking care of the horses and carriage the doctor used for house calls and driving him on his rounds. They married on October 15, 1934. Ben was about 26 years older than Ivis, and he passed away April 14, 1949.

Ivis was a nurse at Spohn and at the Ada Wilson Crippled Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi until 1961, when she returned to Oklahoma to care for her aging parents. She worked in nursing homes in Marlow, Rush Springs, and Chickasha, and the Talley-Walker Hospital, and assisted in opening the Shannon Springs Nursing Center in Chickasha, serving as the first Director of Nursing. Ivis passed away on November 11, 2004, at age 99.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy: Family Search Pilot

Week 10's task (developed by my friend Amy of We Tree and hosted by Geneabloggers.com) was: Investigate Family Search Pilot, which is part of FamilySearch.org. This is a wonderful collection of records which literally grows every day. In the middle left of the page is a link that says “Browse our record collections.” Click it and pick a region. Search collections outside your research interest. Investigate the types of records collected all over the world and see how they differ from those with which you are familiar. If you are a genealogy blogger, pick a type of record from another country and share your observations about it.

I took a look at the information from Germany, but was not successful in finding anything - I have had more luck with the regular Family Search International Genealogical Index.

Under the Canada, USA, and Mexico region, my eyes were immediately drawn to the red-starred (new or updated!) Illinois, Cook County Birth Certificates Collection, 1878-1922. Since I have LOTS of ancestors born in Cook County (and I was too), I checked this one out!

I found birth certificates for my great uncle Lee Pape and great aunt Rhea Pape, but not my paternal grandfather or his other four siblings, despite the time period being correct. However, it is a work in progress, so I'll keep checking. I also found birth certificates for five of the six children born to August S. and Emma Pape Childs, as well as the marriage certificate for the latter two in the Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871 - 1920 collection. I'm hoping the information on these will help me eventually figure out just how Emma (who gave Great Aunt Martha Pape Bleidt a photo of my great-great-grandparents) is related in the family.

I also found a birth certificate for a Joseph Dienes, the tenth (and previously unknown to us) child of great-great-grandparents Frederick and Regina Matthias Dienes. He was stillborn on May 13, 1880, and with this information I also found him on the 1880 US Census Mortality Schedule in Ancestry.com.

There are a lot of other records in here I'd like to explore, including Louisiana Deaths 1850-1875 & 1894-1954, Texas Deaths 1890-1976, and llinois, Diocese of Belleville, Catholic Parish Records, 1729-1956 (this is where the Matheis family, who were Catholics, lived in the 1850s, and I may be able to find Illinois Governor William Henry Bissell's baptism in these records as well).

I'm so thrilled with this collection that I signed up to be an indexer. I think everyone researching family history should give this a try. For one thing, it will give you an appreciation of the difficulties in reading poor handwriting and faded documents, and perhaps more patience when you have difficulty finding records because of how they were indexed.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy: Catching Up

I'm a bit behind on the 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy challenges (developed by my friend Amy of We Tree and hosted by Geneabloggers.com), so this is a catch-up post. Challenge 9 was:

Pick five genealogy blogs and read them every day. Meet new people and networking within the online genealogy community is a great way to expand your own research and experience. Reading the blogs of others will help you get to know others. Try to find some blogs that are out of your area of expertise. Lists of genealogy blogs can be found at Geneabloggers.com and Genealogue’s Genealogy Blog Finder. If you already subscribe to many genealogy blogs, find five new ones that are “outside the box,” perhaps in history or archives. If you have a genealogy blog, write about the blogs you discover and introduce others to them.

I tried to do this one, but to be honest, a the moment I already follow way too many blogs, both personally (genealogy and book review blogs) and professionally (library-related blogs). I did pick five genealogy blogs and followed them for more than two weeks, but I did not find enough of use in those five (I was particularly looking for "how-tos) to continue to follow them. I do appreciate the links to the lists above so I can look for more blogs in the future that might help me with tips and techniques.

Challenge 11 was:

Read the back posts from the Transitional Genealogists Forum. This is a message board for genealogists who are taking the steps needed to become professional genealogists. Even if you aren’t interested in that goal, you will benefit from the questions and answers provided on this excellent discussion list. If you have a genealogy blog, write about a question or subject from this board that was helpful for you.

Being just a beginner genealogist, I didn't find this discussion forum particularly useful. I wish there was a way to expand an entire discussion thread and read it at once rather than have to click on each post individually. It's also frustrating when the title of a message doesn't give much information about its contents. Plus, responders often veer off-topic, or worse yet, respond publicly when they should respond privately. Just as I have trimmed down the list of blogs I follow, so I have also cut way back on discussion list-serves. I just don't have the time. However, once again, I'm glad to be made aware of this resource and who knows, it could come in handy in the future.

However, I LOVED Challenge 10 and have a separate post coming on that.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: The Moore Sisters, 1929

This lovely photo is of four of the six Moore sisters, taken in the summer of 1929 in Marlow, Oklahoma. The one on the far left is the youngest, my mother-in-law (who I sadly never met), Jewel Moore Gresham (1914-1994). Next is Audie Ruth Moore Cook (1911-1969), Beulah Mabel "Mabel" Moore (1910-1932), and Ruby Clayton Moore Albillar (1908-1967). Not in the photo are Velma Moore, who died in 1910 at age 7 from diphtheria, and the then-oldest living sister, Ivis Moore Mew (1905-2004), who in 1930 was working as a nurse at Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas. She was the first to enroll in the Spohn School of Nursing in 1926.

There is a lot of information available about this family thanks to my husband's first cousin, the son of the oldest and only brother of these sisters, Thomas Gurth Moore (1902-1935). I hope to relay some of these interesting family stories in future posts.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Sentimental Sunday: Heirlooms from my grandmothers

The Fearless Female blog prompt for March 6 is:

Describe an heirloom you may have inherited from a female ancestor (wedding ring or other jewelry, china, clothing, etc.) If you don’t have any, then write about a specific object you remember from your mother or grandmother, or aunt (a scarf, a hat, cooking utensil, furniture, etc.)

The photograph shows some rings that belonged to my maternal grandmother, Sara Wolfe Guokas Archibald, and a sugar bowl that belonged to my paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Massmann Pape.

The ring on the left (an unusual design with one large cubic zirconium surrounded by four smaller ones) is one my grandmother gave me the summer before she passed away in November 1997. The one on the right was given to me after her death by my mother. It's gold with real diamonds - supposedly my grandmother had it made from her rings from her two husbands. It's the only diamonds I have so it's pretty special to me. I used to wear her watch as well (also given to me by my mother after my grandmother's death), but recently it quit working and is not repairable.

The sugar bowl is part of a set my grandmother had when she was a newlywed. After my grandfather passed away in 1970, I believe she started giving pieces of the set to her granddaughters (and grandsons?) as they married, but I'm not entirely sure about this. Hoping some of my first cousins will read this post and let me know.

I'm glad to have done this post as I looked more closely at the sugar bowl. It has a Pickard trademark on the bottom (specifically, #11 from 1925-1930). At the time the company was based in Chicago and specialized in hand-painted designs decorated with 24-carat gold. You can see more examples of this beautiful china here.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Fearless Females: Elizabeth Massmann Pape Engagement and Wedding

The Fearless Female blog prompts for yesterday and today are:

March 4 — Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one.

March 5 — How did they meet? You’ve documented marriages, now, go back a bit. Do you know the story of how your parents met? Your grandparents?

I'm going to focus on my paternal grandparents here, specifically my grandmother Elizabeth "Betty" Massmann Pape. In December 1996, she was interviewed for her retirement home's monthly newsletter, so much of this information comes from that.

Betty's friends called her "Chicago Flapper" because she loved to have fun. Growing up, she enjoyed golfing, acting, and being on stage. At the age of 18, she met Paul Pape through a friend. One of their most wonderful dates was when they took a romantic canoe ride on Lake Michigan and he sang "Indian Love Call" (links to original and later lyrics; 1925 instrumental, 1936 movie, and later recorded versions) to her.

Four years after meeting, Betty and Paul were married on September 3, 1924, at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Rogers Park, Illinois, in a beautiful large wedding and reception. They honeymooned in Woodruff, Wisconsin, where, unfortunately, it poured rain the whole time! So they returned to Chicago and enjoyed the shows and dinners out, "but not fishing," Betty said.

The engagement announcement above is from the August 26, 1924, edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune. The wedding photo at right is was taken by Joseph David (J. D.) Toloff (1888-1957) of Evanston, Illinois.  Another photo from the wedding is here that includes Paul and his father, John Pape, and Betty and her parents, Frederick and Elizabeth Dienes Massmann, as well as her paternal grandfather (my great-great-grandfather), Carl Massmann.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Gertrude Kramer Pape, Fearless Female

The Fearless Female blog prompt for March 2 is:

Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?

This photo is of a paternal great-grandmother, Gertrude Kramer Pape. She was born January 9, 1859, and baptized January 11 at Sankt Servinus Katholisch [Catholic Church] in Calle Meschede, Westphalia, Germany. Her parents were Joseph Cramer and Catharina Becker. She attended a boarding school in Paderborn when she was 18 years old. In 1885 she emigrated, and married John Pape in 1888. They had seven children. It appears that she lived almost all her life in the United States at 1043 Sherman Avenue in Evanston, Illinois, in a house that was apparently still standing a couple years ago. She died on August 20, 1919, of liver cancer, and is buried at St. Henry Cemetery in Chicago.

This image, generously provided by my second cousin Bill from his grandmother (my great aunt) Martha Pape Bleidt's collection, is actually a hand-colored postcard photograph. I chose this photo because I love hand-colored black-and-white photographs, and I love old postcards.

I also chose it because it was taken when my great-grandmother was about the same age as I am now. Based on the postmark on the back, it had to be taken on or before August 2, 1912, when Gertrude would have been 53 - my age in about a month. The postcard was mailed from what looks (from the postmark) to be Fowler, Indiana. I'm not sure why it was sent from there; perhaps one of my great aunts or great uncles was living there at the time, or Gertrude had family there. Here's the back of the postcard (also from Bill):

And here's what my father has to say about it: "The handwritten letter looks like an old German script J instead of a G which would fit. J. (John) Pape, my grandfather and your great grandfather, had his place of business in 1912 at 6949 N. Clark St. in Chicago. This is not too far from Howard St., the dividing line between Evanston and Chicago. The post card looks like it was written in old German."

© Amanda Pape - 2010

Fearless Females - Blogging Prompts for March

Lisa Azlo over at The Accidental Genealogist came up with a blogging prompt for each day this March to celebrate National Women's History Month. While I would like to do every one of these "Fearless Females" prompts, like I did in December for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories, this is just too busy of a time at work (with midterm of the spring semester next week) for me to blog every day.

However, I'm going to try to do as many of the prompts as I can, in some cases combining them or moving them around a bit to coincide with some of the day-of-the-week blogging themes from GeneaBloggers. Watch for the first post in a couple hours.

© Amanda Pape - 2010