Field Trip Friday: Sleeping Heroes and Rockets

  Today we wrapped up our Sleeping Heroes Civil War veteran documenting for the summer at Lyndon. We were able to finish two of our county cemeteries this summer.  Bubby was at a sleepover, so it was just Mookie, Shorty and I with our buddies.  It was a beautiful morning for it.

Cheese!

We had to drag Bubby away from an air soft war, but we finally made it on our way to watch another of our buddies launch rockets not too far from our house.

blast off!

Next week a trip to the Kansas City Zoo to celebrate Mookie's 9th birthday!

Field Trip Friday: Lyndon

  We didn't really take a "field trip" per se this last Friday, but we had a lot of fun in the process!  We had rescheduled our Sleeping Heroes (documenting Civil War soldiers) at Lyndon Cemetery from the week before, and boy are we glad we did - the temperatures were SO much better and we got to hang out with more of our buddies too!  We documented over 55 veterans and even found a Civil War nurse!

We had a great time.  It helped that Shorty was in an agreeable mood for wandering through the stones.  He didn't last the whole time, but for a 1 year old, he did excellent!
  Then we ate a picnic lunch at the city park and just played. 

my monkeys:)

  Mom really wanted to go to the Osage County Historical Society too, both to make it an official "field trip" and to visit with a fellow researcher there.  It turned out to be a quick trip (ie. mostly chasing a toddler up and down the aisles) but Bubby got to see some cool fossils, Mookie liked the handiwork, and I found a G.A.R. picture for my research!

checking out the fossils

 

 

an identified picture of the Lyndon G.A.R. band (thanks to the Os. Co. Hist. Soc.)

  I'm thinking next week we may venture north and check out some territorial Kansas sites!

Grandma

  I am in the process of trying to reorganize my house.  I have gotten past the getting rid of huge rafts of things and now am tweaking it to move more efficiently.  The problem with Hubby and I, we are both keepers.  So, past the stuff that we use on a daily basis with our 5 person household, the rest is like a museum of family items.  I was digging around in my recipe cabinet and found Great Grandma Laura (Gill) Duff's recipe book.  What a treasure!  It was also a reminder to me to check everywhere for family references!  As I perused the pages, I came across a recipe for "Grandma Tarver's fruit cake".  That made me stop.  Who is Grandma Tarver?!? I went back to the drawing board. I did have both of Grandma Duff's grandmas accounted for, but did this go further back past them?  I couldn't let it rest!
  How to figure such a thing out.  First I did some basic searches on Ancestry and Google combining Gill (Grandma Duff's maiden name), Duff, Tarver, and Pennsylvania (where the Gills and Duffs were from).  No dice.  Second I did a search in Osage County, Kansas for Tarvers, assuming it may have been a family friend.  I found an Edmund Tarver, born in 1815 that immigrated to that county in Kansas in 1867.  The Duffs came in 1871.  Sounds good.  Edmund Tarver and his wife Rebekah were born in England.  They resided in Valley Brook township (proximity) and are buried in Lyndon cemetery where the Duffs and Gills are buried as well.  I can only assume at this point that since Grandma Duff left both of her own Grandmas in Pennsylvania, she found a wonderful Grandma on the Plains of Kansas to help fill that void:)  I can't imagine, leaving your family a half a country away, possibly never to see them again.
  Doing all that reminded me of how I proved that a "Grandmother Glenn" was Grandma Duff's real grandmother.  In some of the things Hubby inherited was a large amount of Victorian calling cards.  They span the time period from before the Gills/Duffs left Pennsylvania to after they arrived in Kansas.  Many are family, and some just friends. Several years ago when I sorted through them I found one that stuck out - "Grandmother Glenn". 

The majority of these cards were Laura's.  I knew her Grandmothers to be Martha (McKee) Gill & Harriett (Stewart) Morehead.  So who was this gal?  Then I came across a memorial cabinet card for a Harriet Glenn and an obituary for the same who was a "grandmother to many".  So was I looking at a grandmother figure like "Grandma Tarver", or since Harriett Morehead had the same first name was this her remarried?  

  A comparison of birth & death dates & also finding corroborating evidence on-line I concluded that it was in fact Harriett (Stewart) Morehead who married a Robert Glenn after her first husband passed.  Interestingly, Robert's first wife was a cousin to Harriett's first husband. 
  So, we should conclude that we should never assume, but always check out any lead - who knows what you'll find! :)