(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: St. Margaret Mary First Grade, Chicago, 1935

This is a picture of the first grade class of St. Margaret Mary Catholic School in Chicago, Illinois, in 1935 (click on the photo for a larger view). My dad, Fred Pape, is in the second row, all the way to the right, on his knees in front of the nun. Dad says he was placed there because he was a troublemaker. Dad's cousin, Jack Bleidt, is in the front row right behind the "1" sign. They both would have been about six years old in this picture.

This photo was provided by my second cousin Bill from a collection belonging to his dad, Jack, and grandmother, my great aunt Martha Pape Bleidt.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Fred Pape and his cousin Jack Bleidt, July 1939

Although the only information on the back of the photo is the date "July 1939," the boy on the right is Jack Bleidt, and I believe the one on the left is his first cousin, my dad, Fred Pape. They were born within days of each other in February 1929, so they would both be age 10 in this photograph. I believe it was taken at the same time and place (Dawes Park in Evanston, Illinois) as this photo of my great-grandfather and their grandfather, John Pape. Even today, Dawes Park still has this lagoon, originally constructed in 1933 as a Works Progress Adminstration project, and recently reconstructed. Dad says you could ice skate on it in the winter.

This photo was provided by my second cousin Bill from a collection belonging to his dad, Jack, and grandmother, my great aunt Martha Pape Bleidt.
© Amanda Pape - 2010

Sentimental Sunday: Happy Mothers' Day!

A number of the blogs I follow posted about this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun created by Randy Seaver, the first part of which is:

List your matrilineal line - your mother, her mother, etc. back to the first identifiable mother.

I didn't have time to do this last night, since I worked until 10 PM and had to be at work at noon today (with 45 minutes of commuting each way), but I thought it would be a perfect Mother's Day post! Here is my maternal line:

1 - Me.
2 - My mom, Geraldine Margaret GUOKAS, married to Frederick Henry PAPE.
3 - My grandmother, aka Nani, Sara Melzina WOLFE (18 March 1908 - 16 November 1997), married to Charles Peter GUOKAS Jr. and later to Wallace Archibald.
4 - My great-grandmother, Addilee Tennessee SHELTON (4 March 1890 - 22 August 1977), married to Louis Henry WOLFE and later to Charles B. Harris.
5 - Sarah Ann (or Sarianne) SPIKES (28 September 1871 - 10 April 1935), married to Levi Marion SHELTON.
6 - Lucy Leah PICKERING (or PICKENS) (27 May 1835 - 8 June 1903), married to George Washington Barton and later to Levi Lewis SPIKES.

Lucy Leah is one of our brick walls - I don't know anything about her parents, so my matrilineal line stops there. I'm the oldest daughter of an oldest daughter of an oldest daughter of an oldest daughter (well, sorta; her older sister died at birth) of an oldest daughter (again, sorta; for her mother she was).

The photo above of numbers 1 through 4 was taken in early 1958 in Houston, Texas, sometime between January (when my parents moved from Evanston, Illinois, to Houston) and March 17 (when my sister was born). My mom is on the left, pregnant with my sister. My great-grandmother is holding me (I'm somewhere between 9 and 11 months old), and Nani, my grandmother, is on the right.

The photo below has numbers 3 though 5 and was taken sometime before 1935, probably in Louisiana.  My grandmother Sara is on the far right, her mother Addilee is the dark haired woman to her right, and her grandmother (my great-great grandmother) Sarah Spikes Shelton is the woman in the middle.

© Amanda Pape - 2010

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: James Edward Hedger, Sr., 1933 - 2010

My uncle Jim Hedger, husband of my dad's sister Marilyn, passed away on April 29, 2010, after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born on October 30, 1933, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Benjamin James and Minnie Rice Hedger. He had at least two older sisters, Lorraine and Juanita "Nita." Jim lived in Chicago and Oak Park for most of his life, until he moved to Florida in 1981. He was the proud owner of Graves Spray Supply, Inc. which continues to be owned and operated by his family. He and Marilyn were married (in a double ceremony with Marilyn's sister Rosemary) on June 13, 1953. They had six children (all happily married today), 26 grandchildren (many married or engaged); and one great-grandchild (with two more on the way).

Jim was an avid fisherman and golfer, and known to all as a most generous, kind and loving person. He was a man of strong faith - Psalm 112, read by daughter Ginny at his funeral, is an apt description.

I did not meet my Uncle Jim until 1976, when I was 19, but have seen him at a number of family occasions since then. Jim and Marilyn, Ginny and daughter-in-law Jane were in Seattle on business on August 1, 2002, when the photo above (with me) was taken. Jim and Marilyn also put me up in their then-condo in Clearwater, Florida, when I visited briefly in December 1999; a visit I will always be grateful for since my grandmother Elizabeth Pape, also living in Clearwater at the time, died a month later. Uncle Jim always had a ready smile and booming laugh, and I will miss him.

© Amanda Pape - 2010