Fair play to the Other Side of the Family

These are my mother's grandparents - Karl and Maja Lisa Till-Olson Eld-Andersson, originally from Bolstad, Dahlsland, Sweden, who immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1880, for my great-grandfather and followed in 1881 by my great-grandmother and their five oldest children

The church is the Lutheran Church in Bolstad where they had been members until they immigrated to this country. A lady in Sweden who does family tree research sent me this photo of the church along with records from which I was able then to trace my roots on this side of my family back to the early 1600's. Needless to say, I was astounded to receive records that far back in time for these ancestors who were, as the old saying would aptly apply here, "As poor as church mice!"

Just absolutely incredible, isn't it?

A New Addition

I decided today to add a new item to my favorites list. This one is actually a website, not really a blog, but it's one of my favorite places to visit - both online and when the opportunity presents, in person too.

What trace remnants are left of this former prosperous coal mining town are located about a mile and a half from my house. It was to this little place that my great-grandparents, my grandfather and at least five of his siblings migrated in 1884. The town they left behind, McIntyre, PA, located in Lycoming County of Central Pennsylvania is also a ghost town and has been for many years too.

The gentleman who started this website is a professor at a college in northwestern Ohio and between his teaching, research for his job and trying to be a good husband and father to two little ones, he has found it very difficult to keep up with information and changes that need made from time to time with the website. So, he is looking for someone to take it over, "run it" so to speak and I might be doing that in the near future. But, we have to determine first if he can give me a crash course in website information plus I will most like need to add space to my computer with a massive upgrade, add some software to it as well and then see if I can actually handle the job. Cross your fingers that this idea/plan will work because I would hate to see it go to the great Cyberspace cemetery where ever that may be!

The research I have mentioned from time to time in the Writers Life Group as well as in my blogs has to do with reading old newspaper issues from the local daily paper here (accessed through the historic newspaper data base with Ancestry.com) and transcribing items about Peale and other villages in the township, events of the date I am reading about along with including data on the residents at that time.

Remember the game that was popular a few years back - Six Degrees From Kevin Bacon - or is it Five Degrees TO Kevin Bacon - not sure which there right now - but it is my theory that many people who came to Peale, were born and raised there and then migrated to other points across the country now have descendants who could be classified as being X-degrees From Kevin Bacon type people, except in this case it would be X-Degrees from Peale!

Because I have roots in my family to Peale, to McIntyre, PA and also to another ghost town here in Clearfield County (Gazzam), studying these places, learning about the towns themselves as well as who lived there over the years, is a fascinating part of my history and that of many, many others too!

I've written several articles about this town and events around it over the past two years and am hoping to compile some more in the near future.

But for now, I just wanted to share this particular interest of mine and show you what there is currently available on the web about Peale - a beautiful little ghost town that was once a major hub in this region.

Check it out - it's the second link on my favorites list. Let me know if you too don't find it just a good bit on the fascinating side!

Big Pow-Wow - well sort of!

Got a call this afternoon from Teresa - my editor/publisher of my favorite little newsletter. She was on her way over for coffee and to bring me a copy of the latest issue of the West Branch Review! Terrific! Mandy stopped yesterday to try to get me a copy at the nearest distributor spot and they had been sold out since two days after this issue hit the stands! Yippee!

Over coffee, we discussed many things - some even dealing with plans for when the next issue will surface and ideas for topics to go in that one too! Gonna have to do some research on New Years type celebrations, history of that, anything pertaining to New Years. So.... if any of you have any suggestions on that topic, feel free to bombard me with ideas! (Guess who is gonna try to do an article about that?)

Mandy picked up the Christmas photos she had taken about two weeks ago at K-Mart of the two little ones together - all decked out in the "holiday" finery. Gosh, they are beautiful! The pictures and the kids!!!! Still can't believe they are actually related to me!

Since no disc was given along with the photos - rats - I will have to scan these in then but would love to be able to figure out how to post photos here then so I could put their picture up here and anyone reading this then could see I am not bragging about how terrific they are for nothing that way!

I see by the "table of contents" thing Teresa puts on the front page of the Review that yes, she has my article titled "Small World" in this issue. Hmmm - leaves me wondering there how my cousin missed seeing that. She lives in Alabama but has a subscription to the REview and had e-mailed me on Tuesday that she had just received the latest copy but hadn't seen anything in it by me! Gonna have to write and tell her where it is - what page it is on - whole nine yards, I guess! Or, maybe if she is reading this posting, she will find it herself located on PAGE 7, Ruth Ann! Go read it now, please!

This issue also contains two articles that pertain a lot to Peale - the recent fire there, the old railroads in that village at one time, plus more about Peter Karthaus - who founded a little local town down river from me and a Christmas story, written by Teresa - the editor. Oh, and there are a few other pieces of good interest for those readers of this neat little newsletter!

Other topics Teresa and I discussed for potential stories in upcoming issues: The Philipsburg HIstoric Association; Underground Railroad in Philipsburg; the "Screw Factory" of early Philipsburg, a soda bottling place that used to be located in the township where I live along with hopefully getting a piece done about a 14-year-old in our school district who plans someday to run for President of the old U.S.A. That boy - just happens to be my cousin's grandson - has his platform all worked out, along with a game plan he has too about college, major in school, future employment and then how he will eventually pull all this together and run for President! This kid absolutely amazes me and really is neat that he is also my cousin! Good genes there, maybe?

So there's a little bit of what those who subscribe to (or purchase individual copies as they hit the stands now) The WBR (West Branch Review) and what we will be trying to write about in coming months.

The topics outlined all sound really interesting to me. How about you? Let me know your thoughts about this, please.