Unknowns from Woodson County, Kansas

  A couple of years ago I was blessed to have a cousin let me copy all the photos out of a photo album that had been my great-grandmother Minnie (Schaede) Murray's.  Some of the pictures were identified, but the majority were not.  I'm going to share them here in hopes I can find someone else to help me identify them:)  Minnie grew up in Neosho Falls, Woodson County, Kansas and died in LeRoy, Coffey County, Kansas.  The Yates Center pictures are most likely either Schaede, Yeager, Krien, or other branches of her family.

Cabinet card taken in Yates Center, KS.  Most likely the seated woman is Minnie's mother Amelia (Krien) Schaede

Guess Who? #2

Some more of my unknowns...

Barrington, IL

Chicago, IL

Yates Center, KS

Pretty sure the woman on the right is my gg-grandma Emilie (Krien) Schaede.

This one is identified as Bill Martins, Mark & Floyd Runnar, and John Mullins.  I know how John fits into my family, and the others are supposed to be related, but I don't know how!

This woman is my gg-grandma' Susan (Camp) Murray's sister.  The age of the photo would make it either Tamson (Camp) Evans, or Caroline (Camp) Shriver.

This one was on the page with the Camp pictures.

This one was on the Camp picture page too.  Isn't she cute?

Guess Who?

Everyone has those pictures, those unmarked ones that taunt you with their hidden identities.  Don't give up hope on them, at every chance you get, send them out to new cousins you find and see if they find a familiar face.  That worked for me once, I sent xerox copies of my unknowns to a cousin and she found one that was an exact match to one in her collection - he was unmarked there too, but we narrowed down the family he belonged to.  So, to whomever may read this blog, I'm going to put my unknowns into cyberspace in hopes of finding out who they are:)  These are from my Dad's side of the family (Murray, Schaede, Krien lines).

Westphalia, KS

Neosho Falls, KS

Neosho Falls, KS

Neosho Falls, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

In Pursuit of History

Today our family celebrated the life and passing of one of our own.  My great-aunt Elsie, almost 102, passed away this week.  She was a wonderful and kind woman.  I didn't really truly get to know her though until I started doing genealogy (which I think if you are doing true family history research, you should not only be finding out about your deceased ancestors you know nothing about, but also drawing close to those that are still alive).  Aunt Elsie and I would sit and talk at length about family both past and present.  She took my mom & I out to see cemeteries with long forgotten relatives.  She invited distant cousins over so we could chat about those same relatives and pour over pictures of the same.  She would also chat about her daughter and her family whom she loved dearly.  It was always a blessing to go and visit, or to receive a letter from her which she would send regularly and I would try so hard to answer even though I was (& still am awful at it).    Even though I hadn't seen her recently, I still missed her and loved her dearly. 
  After the graveside services, I had to look up some relatives...

   My gr-gr grandparents Schaede are buried just in the next row.  Aunt Elsie told me that when she was little she used to pretend that she had an earache just so Grandpa J.G. would blow pipe smoke in her ear to cure it:) 
  After eating lunch with my folks, we headed out for one more adventure.  My hubby likes to research the Civilian Conservation Corps in Kansas so we headed south to just outside of Yates Center to the Woodson Fishing Lake where Camp Fegan was around 1934-5.  It was a family adventure.  While my husband took pictures of the dam, the kids found shells on the shore...

and then helped Daddy try to find building foundations from the camp.  Bubby was totally excited to find, by himself, the CCC flagpole.

What a glorious day of good weather, reconnecting with family, and exploring:)