Tumbleweed Guest Ranch, August 1943

"The Gang
Tumbleweed
1943"
(Christine (Szerejko) Shenette, First Row Center)

(Digital Images. Photographs Privately Held By Cynthia Shenette; Photographs and Text, Copyright (c) 2013 Cynthia Shenette)

Enjoy a New Thrill - Go Western in New York

Vacation on Horseback at

"Tumbleweed" Guest Ranch

Westkill, N.Y.

Pack trips every week - Free Horseback instructions

Swimming - Archery - Ping Pong - Badminton

Social Activities, etc.

Moderate Rates - Write for Reservations Now

Directions - West Shore R.R.to Shandakin Station

Call Ranch for Pick-up

(1941 Newspaper Advertisement)

It's amazing how much information you can discover about a photo or a group of photos once you start digging.

Last week, as I was sorting through the last couple of the boxes of stuff from my mom's house, I found an amazing vacation photo album from the 1940s.  The funny thing is I vaguely remembered seeing the album at my grandmother's house when I was a kid.  I have hazy memories of sitting on my grandmother's living room couch, flipping through the scrapbook, looking at photos of my mom dressed in cowgirl clothes. Mom seemed so young.  It was hard for the ten-year-old me to contemplate my mom was ever so young. Years went by, and Gram downsized to an apartment at a nearby senior living complex, and shortly after that my parents and I moved into her old house.  Stuff got moved into the basement, and I never saw the scrapbook again.  Until last week.

The album was in the last box I opened.  Subconsciously, I must have saved the best for last!  The album, with it's nondescript brown cover, didn't look like much when I picked it up.  But when I flipped it open there they were! The photos I remembered from so long ago!

"Kris + Brownie"
(Christine (Szerejko) Shenette)

Mom use to talk about spending summer vacations at a dude ranch. Somewhere.  I thought she said New York, but I wasn't sure.  I remember the idea of a dude ranch kind of cracked me up.  It seemed so hokey, and old fashioned, almost like something you'd see in a Mickey Rooney / Judy Garland movie.  Mom loved the place!  I discovered Mom and her sister, Helene, vacationed there three years in a row.

"Helene + Cherokee"
(Helene (Szerejko) Dingle)

Thankfully someone, probably Mom, took the time to write captions to go with the photos in the album. From the captions I learned that she and Helene went to Tumbleweed during the war years--1943, 1944, and 1945. The section of the album for 1943 has almost 60 photos alone!

"Watering the horses at the creek"
(Christine (Szerejko) Shenette, Facing Camera)

Luckily, Mom took a few scenery shots, and a couple of the captions identify the Catskill Mountains.  I did a quick Google search looking for info on Tumbleweed in the Catskills.  I discovered that Tumbleweed was located in Westkill which is a hamlet of Lexington, New York.  Tumbleweed eventually became a ranch-style camp for teens in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a facebook page devoted to memories of Tumbleweed!  I also did a little newspaper research and discovered a bit of info, including the ad above.  I found ads in newspapers from New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.  My guess is my mom and her sister probably found out about Tumbleweed from an ad in one of the local papers.

"Daniel Boone Halstead"
(Mason Halstead)

What's also nice about the captions is that some of the other people at the ranch that year are identified.  The young man above is Mason "Mace" Halstead.  He appears in quite a few of the photos in my album. I have contacted possible descendants on Ancestry via their message board, so hopefully I'll learn a little more about him.  If you are related to Mace and read this I'd love to hear from you!

"Lucy"
(Lucy and Jack Franks)

Little Lucy appears in a number of my photographs.  The man in the photo with Lucy is identified as Jack.  I discovered that a Jack Franks owned or ran Tumbleweed for a while.  I don't know if the Jack above is Jack Franks, but am in the process of contacting the Lexington Historical Society so hopefully I will find out more from them.  I do know they have some info on Tumbleweed, so hopefully I'll have more information to share in a couple of weeks.  

"Warren
Saddling Cherokee"

I don't have a last name for Warren.  I think he worked at the ranch.  If you recognize him I would love to hear from you!

"The Ding Bats
fight it out"

This couple also appears in a number of my photos.  Unfortunately, they are always identified as "The Ding Bats!"  Were they guests at Tumbleweed or did they work there?

"The dunk hole"

Also included in the album were nice scenery shots, some of which were identified by captions which in turn helped to potentially identify some of the locations.

"Egg Shampoo"
(Christine (Szerejko) Shenette and Helene (Szerejko) Dingle)

A number of the photos were taken at "the falls."  After a little research, I suspect there are two sets of falls in these photos.  If you look at this video for West Kill Falls here you will see rocks that are very similar to the photo below.

"Picnicing  (sic) + Resting
At the Falls"
(Christine (Szerejko) Shenette, Reclining Top Left)

I suspect that the falls below are Diamond Notch Falls.  I found a video of Diamond Notch Falls here. What's interesting about the video is that sound is included.  While I love the black and white photos, the sound and color of the video really do give added perspective to the scene.

"The Falls"

I also checked for maps of the area.  There is a map, with hiking information and a layout of the area here.

"Diamond Notch
Pass"

Several photos were taken at or near the summit of Hunter Mountain. Using the same Catskill Hiker website I was able to find a map with hiking information and a layout of the area for Hunter Mountain as well.  You can find that here.  The fire tower is shown on the map, plus there is additional information on the fire tower on Wikipedia here.  The Wikipedia article also notes a couple of books--Fire Towers of the Catskills: Their History and Lore, by Martin Podsckosch and The Catskill Forest: A History, by Michael Kudish--that might be interesting and add insight.

"Forest Ranger's
Tower - Hunter Mt."

There is also a Wikipedia article on Hunter Mountain here. What's interesting is that the Hunter Mountain summit is given at 4025 feet in the photo below, but all of the current information that I found has the height of the summit at 4040 feet.  I also love the caption on the photo below. Clearly, Warren must have been the troublemaker in the group!

"Betty, Warren, Helene
Kris + Harry
(Stop Kicking, Warren)"
(Christine (Szerejko) Shenette, Bottom Left; Helene (Szerejko) Dingle, Top Right) 

I feel incredibly fortunate that Mom took the time to write captions for all of the photos.  They are helpful for identifying people, places, and even figuring out some of the personalities involved.  I have transcribed the captions exactly as they appear in the album.

"Kris - Helene
Brownie - Cherokee"
(Christine (Szerejko) Shenette, Left; Helene (Szerejko) Dingle, Right)

While this concludes my August 1943 visit to Tumbleweed Guest Ranch I do intend to post images from 1944 and 1945 as well over the next couple of weeks.  

It was a great vacation!  See you next year!



Other Posts You Might Like:

Analyzing A Photo: The Holiday Party
More Than Meets the Eye - Tuesday's Tip
Not So Wordless Wednesday: Mule Train Into the Grand Canyon
Madness Monday: The Stuff We Throw Away, and...

Analyzing A Photo: The Holiday Party

The USDA Worcester (MA) Office Christmas Party, Circa 1947

(Digital Images; Photograph and Card Privately Held By Cynthia Shenette; Text Copyright (c) 2013 Cynthia Shenette)  I hoped to write this post sometime in December, but time got away from me, so rather than wait until next December I decided to make this my first post for 2013 while my research is still fresh in my mind!  It's interesting what you can learn about a photo without knowing much about the context in which it was taken.  Sometimes I find that the story behind a photo is like a little mystery that reveals itself over time; you notice details one day that you didn't see the day before.

My mom, Christine (Szerejko) Shenette is the young woman in the front row standing to the right of the Christmas tree.  Obviously the people in the photo are having a little holiday celebration of some sort, but I no idea who the people were or how they related to my mom's life.  Mom looks quite young in the photo, and the clothing styles in the image seem to date from sometime in the 1940s.  I figured the party might be connected to a church activity, college, or work.  I didn't recognize any of the people in the photo other than my mom so I knew it wasn't a family photo.  The people in the photo are not of college age so I took a guess that the group was probably work related.

In the 1940s Mom worked for two main employers--the ration board in Worcester, MA during World War II and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the Federal Building (also in Worcester) until she was married in June of 1953.  Last summer when I looked at this photo something jumped out at me.  Look through the window.  What do you see?  Notice the architectural elements on the building across the street? They are pretty distinctive.  I drive by the old Federal Building on my way to the Worcester Public Library all the time, but I don't usually look up. The next time I went to the library I did, and what did I see?  The top of the building on the other side of the street from the Federal Building has the same architectural elements as the building in my photo!  The holiday photo was taken while my mom worked for the USDA!

Once I knew where the photo was taken I took a closer look to see if I could recognize any of the people in the photo.  Sure enough I did!  The woman in the dark dress standing three people to the right of my mom was my mom's friend Shirley (Putnam) Johnson!  I knew Shirley as a much older woman.  I didn't see her all that often and didn't recognize her until I was able to put the photo in the correct context!

I checked the city directories at the library to narrow down the possible date range in which the photo could have been taken.  My mom is first listed as working at the USDA in the 1947 city directory.  She still worked for the ration board in early 1946 when when the 1946 directory was compiled, but most likely changed jobs later that year.  

The photo was taken in the late morning.  Look at the hands on the clock and the Danish on the table!  There is snow on the roof of the building across the street.  I might be able to narrow the date of the photo even further if I check the local weather to see if some of the Decembers between 1946 and 1952 did not have snow before Christmas.  Quite a few people worked for the USDA in the Federal Building, and there were several different regional offices.  See the evergreen corsage my mom has on?  Some of the other ladies in the photo have the same corsage, including Shirley.  I know Shirley worked in the same office as my mom.  I wonder if the ladies with the corsages worked in the same office as well.

My mom stayed in touch with her co-workers after she left the office in 1953.  During the late 1980s and 1990s the group met for lunch twice a year at Rom's restaurant in Sturbridge, MA. Mom said her co-workers were a nice group of people, and they still enjoyed one another's company some forty years later!  Given that she stayed connected all of those years I wondered who some of the other people in the group photo were. Well, didn't I stumble on something in my collection of stuff to help me to figure it out!

When my mom left the office to get married in June of 1953 her co-workers gave her a group wedding gift.  I don't know what the gift was, but I found the card that accompanied the gift in my collection.  All the people who worked with my mom signed the card!  My initial thought was that some of the people who were with the USDA in 1953 might have worked there in the 1940s as well.  Sure enough!  When I looked up the names of the people on the card in the city directories and checked their individual directory listings, I discovered that more than half of the people who signed the card in 1953 worked for the USDA in 1947!

The names on the card are: George W. Mingin, Walter B. Shaw, Shirley Johnson, Charles C. Starr, W. Earl Paddock, Lois Nelson, Irene Davis, Ralph C. Reynolds, Charles W. Turner, "Penny" [Eleanor] Reynis, Mary Lazaro, Val [Valerie] Pyzynski, Fran [Frances] Hesselton, Mary Cassidy, Bill Miller, Leon Marshall, Mildred Thomas, Jean Stewart, Evelyn Lyman, Ken [Kenneth] Boyden, Edna Sommerfeld, Arthur L. Verdi, Robert H. Beisha, Ruth Peterson, Richard H. Clark, Gayland E. Folley, Gardner Norcross, Ruth M. Darling.

I know my mother stayed quite friendly with Shirley and her husband Wallace Johnson for many years.  I also know that my mother was quite friendly with Jean Stewart and Ruth [Ruthie] Peterson and remember meeting them many years ago.  If you know or are related to any of the people listed on my card, recognize any of the people in the photograph or knew someone who worked for the USDA office in Worcester during the 1940s or 1950s I'd love to hear from you!

It really is pretty amazing how much you can find out about something without knowing much at all.  Six months ago the holiday party photo was just another photo lying at the bottom of a box in my collection.  Today it has a nice little holiday story to tell!


Other Posts You Might Like:

Happy New Year!
An Interview With My Grandmother
Christmas In Poland, 1929 - Wordless Wednesday
More Than Meets the Eye - Tuesday's Tip

Business Profile: Helen's, 39/41 Millbury St., Worcester, MA

The Rialto Building, Circa 1955
Helen's, 41 Millbury Street, is to the Far Right, Next to Wentworth's Bakery

(Digital Images.  Photographs Privately Held By Cynthia Shenette; Photographs and Text, Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette) My grandmother's sister, Helen E. Bulak (1894-1985), was a well regarded member of Worcester's business community for 55 years.  She and her friend, Katherine (Pomianowska) Gralicki, each invested $100 (about $1,526 at today's currency rate) and opened Bulak and Pomianowska, a millinery shop on Millbury St. in Worcester in November of 1918.

Helen and Friends in Hats
Sitting, Left to Right:
Sophie (Kowalewski) Konopka,
Helen Bulak, Antonina (Bulak) Szerejko.
Standing: Unidentified  Friend

Helen learned hat making by taking millinery courses and the business end of things by taking a bookkeeping course at Becker's Business School. She and her partner made hats by hand from horsehair, panne velvet, lacy straw, soft tulles, and flowers.  One hat could consume an entire day's work with the most expensive hats--those decorated with an ostrich feather or bird of paradise plume--priced at the princely sum $50 (the equivalent of $763 in 2012)!

In the early 1920s business boomed and four girls were hired to help in the shop, but by 1927 manufactured hats were the rage.  Handmade hats had lost their popularity, and Katherine Pomianowska, now Katherine Gralicki, retired to stay home with her family. Helen changed the shop's name to the Rialto Dry Goods Company, and she began to focus on selling infants' clothing rather than hats.  By the 1940s Helen made the decision to include women's and girls' apparel, and the name of the shop was permanently changed to Helen's.

For decades Helen worked from 8:30 in the morning until 9 at night Monday through Thursday, from 8:30 to 10 p.m. on Fridays, and from 8:30 until 11 in the evening on Saturdays.  At various points in time my grandmother, Antonina (Bulak) Szerejko, helped out at the store, as did my mother, Christine (Szerejko) Shenette, as did my grandmother and aunt's adopted sister, Rose (Choronzak) Miller, and Rose's sister, Sophie (Choronzak) Shenkowski.  Helen closed the store for a vacation for the first time ever during the summer of 1968!

When Helen started business in the primarily ethnic Millbury St. area, Millbury St. was like Main St. for Worcester's eastern European immigrant community.  She catered to the ethnic population of the Vernon Hill neighborhood.  Helen spoke Polish, of course, but also understood and could communicate in enough of the other languages spoken in the neighborhood--Yiddish, Lithuanian, Russian--to be popular with her wide customer base.

Helen's was located in the Rialto Building, which still exists on Millbury St. The Rialto Building housed a movie theater, the Rialto Theater, in the center and businesses on either side.  I remember going to the store when I was very little.  There was a pool hall that was located in the building upstairs, and I could occasionally hear the crack of pool balls when I was in the back room of my aunt's shop!  Whenever I visited "Auntie's store" with my mom and my grandmother Aunt Helen let me take sales from customers and operate handle-crank cash register!  I also loved playing behind the counter and sliding the doors underneath the cases where merchandise was stored!

Helen retired after 55 years in business on October 30, 1973 at the age of 79.  A brief newspaper notice upon her retirement quotes Helen as saying, "I loved my work, and I loved my customers, and I'm going to miss it all." She also knew that Worcester was changing.  In another quote she reflected, "But times have changed, and the street has changed, and I know it's time for me to go."

Submitted for the 120th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.


Other Posts You Might Like:

The Opal Ring
Photo Story: Auntie Helen's 1937 Trip to Poland
Send Up A Flare, Again! More Mystery People Identified!
Chopin Rising

A Window in Time, April 11, 1940

The Szerejko Family, Circa 1940

(Digital Image.  Photograph Privately Held By Cynthia Shenette; Text Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette) Years ago I read and loved Jack Finney's time travel classic, Time and Again.  In the story, the main character looks out his apartment window at The Dakota, and over a period of time the landscape changes from contemporary New York to the New York City of 1882. It's kind of like how I feel when I look at a census record. Except now I'm the time traveler. The window opens, and I get a glimpse of my ancestors' lives on one particular day in time.

On Thursday, April 11, 1940 my grandparents lived in a relatively new (built in 1925) three-decker in Worcester's Vernon Hill neighborhood.  The weather was cloudy with a light easterly wind.  Rain was predicted for Friday.  Spring bulbs peaked through the ground.  The smell of spring was in the air.  For two cents the Worcester Telegram was a good deal, but the news was discouraging, full of the war raging in Europe.

BRITISH BESIEGE OSLO
To Bomb City Unless Nazis Surrender
F.D.R. Bans Gold Withdrawals

ENGLISH POUND REICH FLEET
Allied-German Naval Battle Continues of Norway Coast

POPULATION FLEES IN PANIC
English Warships Force Way Into Harbor After Long Battle With German Fleet
Reich Cruiser Emden Reported Sunk

And a little closer to home:

WALL STREET: Markets Swayed by War News

Newsprint Prices Hold: Canada Furnishing Supply Cut Off From Scandinavia

Thankfully the local news was a bit more positive:

Journalism Classes of High School of Commerce Visited T-G Plant

South Worcester Branch Library Gets New Books

Layouts advertised that Sherer's department store was wrapping up its fur sale.  Furs regularly $119 to $189 were on sale for $55!  Teens could shop for saddle Oxfords at Barnard's for $4.19, while their parents ran over to Denholm's to check out new Hotpoint refrigerators for $114.95 on the 5th floor.  Brockelman's Worcester Market enticed shoppers with sales on pork and beans (3 for .22¢), a dozen eggs (.23¢), a peck of potatoes (.27¢), cube steak (.21¢ a pound) and two rye breads for .11¢!

In entertainment news Rebecca, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, was held over at the Warner Theater.  The kiddos could look forward to Walt Disney's Pinocchio which was starting on Wednesday.

There was joy in Mudville!

BOSTON RED SOX BEAT CINCINNATI 2-1!

When census enumerator, a Mr. William F. Foster, finished talking to the Samuel Alpert family at 27 Fairfax Rd. he knocked on my grandparent's door.  He was probably in a rush.  Or was he just careless?  In his haste he wrote down the wrong house number in column two on the census form. Mr. Foster also forgot to write down who answered the door. Was it my grandmother or my grandfather?  We'll never know.  Glenn Miller's In The Mood was the number one song on April 11, 1940.  Was it playing on the mahogany cabinet radio in the living room that day?  Mr. Foster quickly filled in the columns on the census form, eager to move on to the next house on his route.

Do you own or rent your home?  Own.  What is the value of home? $8,500.  What's your name? Adolf Szerejko? (Pause)  How do you spell that? Shzeregko, Adolth.  Age? 45.  Highest grade of school completed? Eighth.  Where were you born?  Poland.  Occupation?  Machinist. Industry? (Illegible.)  What was your residence on April 1, 1935?  Same place. Income in 1939?  $1456.  Who else lives here?  Anna.  Wife.  Age? 43. What is her highest grade of school completed? Eighth. What's her place of birth? Poland.  Occupation? None. Anyone else? Christine.  Daughter. Age? 18. Highest grade of school completed?  Four years of high school. Anyone else?  Coleen.  Daughter.  Age?  17.  Highest grade of school completed? Three years of high school.  Is that it?  Robert.  A son.  Ten.  Highest grade completed? Fourth.  I need to ask you a few supplemental questions. Name, again.  Szireko, Adolth.  Where was your father born?  Poland.  Where was your mother born?  Poland.  Mother tongue?  Polish.  Are you a veteran? No.  Social Security number?  Yes.  Usual occupation?  Machinist.  Usual industry?  (Illegible, again.).  Thanks for your time...

By New Year's Eve of that year much would change.  Mom would graduate from the High School of Commerce in June of 1940 and be attending Becker College by the fall of 1940.  My grandparents and their children would leave their old home and Vernon Hill behind to move to their new home on Grove St., to the neighborhood where my family would live for the next sixty years and to the house where I would later grow up.  By New Year's Eve Pearl Harbor would be less than a year away.  But no one knew it.  In November of 1941 Glenn Miller would still be playing on the mahogany cabinet radio, but life would be different.

Have you looked at the 1940 United States Census yet?  Push back the curtains, and take a look.  What do you see?  Is that Glenn Miller I hear playing on your living room radio?  I think it is...

A Note on Errors:  Much of the information on the 1940 United States Census record is either incomplete or wrong.  The house number is wrong.  The 1940 census lists the Szerejko family house as 33 Fairfax Rd.  The Szerejko family actually lived at 31 Fairfax Rd.  My grandfather's name looks as if it is spelled Adolth Shzeregko, and their daughter Helene's name is given as Coleen.   Also, the enumerator did not note who furnished the information  per the instructions (by circling an X) for my family, or for any of the people enumerated on the page.  In the "Supplementary Questions" section my grandfather's name is spelled Adolth Szireko, and he WAS a veteran of World War I.  "Industry" is illegible on both sections of the form.

Submitted for the 117th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.

(This post is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Robert A. Szerejko (05 May 1929-04 May 2012).  He has joined his parents and sisters.  We will miss you.)


Other Posts You Might Like:

A Comedy of Errors: My Family in the Census (Part 1 of 3)
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun...
My Family Tree: A Literal Interpretation
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The Opal Ring

Auntie Helen wearing the opal ring in 1920

(Digital Image. Privately Held by Cynthia Shenette; Text Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette)

Sometimes it's hard to think of our ancestors in terms of being people, or at least people different in any way from the way that we knew them. My great-aunt Helen Bulak was one of those people.  Aunt Helen always seemed like a fussy old lady to me, or as my mom said, "Sometimes Auntie can be a real noodge..."  It's hard to think that she might have ever been different.

My grandmother said when they were little, my Aunt Helen was the "pretty one." Helen was prettier and chubbier which was high praise back in the day when chubbiness was indicative of a healthy constitution. Helen was also popular.  According to my grandmother Helen was "...a bridesmaid for all the weddings."  I have dozens photos of Aunt Helen dressed as a bridesmaid.  Sometimes she's pictured with a young man (always a different young man) and sometimes as part of a larger wedding party.  As they saying goes, "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride."

While Aunt Helen never married she did become an astute business woman, operating what began as a millinery and dry goods shop, for decades on Millbury St. in Worcester.  She was never rich but definitely was well-to-do, traveling to Poland in 1937 when most people, my grandparents included, were struggling through the Great Depression.  Helen became a leader in the Worcester Polish business community and later worked to assist Polish DPs in coming to the States after the war.  When Auntie Helen retired in 1973 she had been in business for 55 years.

Besides being a fussy, old lady (at least in my young eyes) the other thing I remember about Auntie Helen was that she always wore a large opal ring on one hand.  Always.  Opal was her birthstone.  It is a pretty gold ring with a large opal in the center and two tiny diamonds on either side.  My mom told me that a young man gave the ring to her when she was young.  Apparently she fell in love with this young man when she was fifteen.  Unfortunately for her he was twenty-five.  The young man asked her to marry him, but her mother was against it.  He was ten years older, and he wanted her to go back to Poland with him after they were married.  The relationship ended. He returned to Poland, and Helen never saw him again.  Before he left he gave her the opal ring.  When I asked my mother what happened to the young man she told me, "He died in one of the wars."  My mom told me Helen never forgave her mother for ending the relationship.

Over the last two years I've been working through a box of some 70 or 80 letters and postcards sent from family in Poland.  I scan the letters or postcards and send them to my cousin Marek who translates them from Polish into English and returns the translation to me via e-mail.  Last year I scanned and sent a postcard.  Imagine my surprise when I received the following translation:

[Date stamped 1913]

Dear Helenko,

I wonder very presently how much is your health miss, myself even though everything is good here I continue to think about you and my future [?]

The business I'm currently working at [?] came back to [?] because

I'm not happy here, yours Wacek.

Farewell and please answer me at least a few words.

Please greet the parents.

A poem was also written on the card:

Yes, there are names that are not forgotten
still above the tearful heart will circulate

still continue to open healed wound
until the crystal tears sit in it.

I also have another postcard from Wacek with similar sentiments which was sent in 1912.  The postal stamp indicates the postcard was sent from Lublin, so I know Wacek left America at least by the end of 1912.  Helen would have been eighteen in October of 1912.

How would both of their lives been different if they had married?  Would they have been happy?  Would they both have been killed in a war?  

It's so easy to forget our ancestors were living, breathing people with hopes and dreams for the future.  What were Helen and Wacek's  dreams? When I look at Helen's bridesmaid photos and see a young man standing with Helen I wonder, was he the one?  Is that Wacek?  Would Helen have turned out a different person if she had taken a different path in life?  I'll never know.  One thing I do know.  She wore the opal ring for the rest of her life...

Special Thanks: To my cousin Marek for his translation of the postcard.

Submitted for the 116th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.


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Chopin Rising
Photo Story: Auntie Helen's 1937 Trip to Poland
Memories of the M/S Pilsudski? An Author Wants YOU!
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Flash Back! The Life and Times of Francois Chenet (Greatly Abridged)

(Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette) Well, it's Carnival of Genealogy time again, and our assignment for this month is to create a "flash" family history of one of our ancestors in 300 words or less.  I decided to write about my great-grandfather Francois Chenet.  To use Francois as the subject for my flash family history is absurd to say the least, given the...um...details of Francois' life, but the concept was both fun and challenging.  Let's just say I tried my best to capture the highlights (cough) of Francois relatively long life.  While my flash family history is short, I think I've done a reasonable job in capturing the essence of the man.  What do you think?

Francois Chenet (18 Apr 1813- 22 Mar 1886)

My great-grandfather Francois Chenet was born in St-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Quebec in 1813.  He married Marie-Marguerite Charron in 1836.  Their first child Marguerite was born in 1837.  Their second child Justine was born in 1839. Their third child Jean-Baptiste was born in 1840.  Their fourth child Julienne was born 1841.  Their fifth child Celina was born in 1842.  Their sixth child Philomene was born in 1844.  Their seventh child Francois was born 1845. Their eighth child Marie-Reine was born in 1847. Their ninth child Marie-Vitaline was born in 1848.  Their tenth child Joseph was born in 1849. In 1850 Marie-Marguerite died.

Francois married Theotiste Tetreault (1852).  Their first child Francois-Xavier was born in 1852.  Their second child Louis was born in 1854. Their third child Louis-Napoleon was born 1856.  Their fourth child Toussaint was born in 1858.  In 1859 Theotiste died.

Francois married Marie-Louise Dubreuil (1859).  Their first child Marie-Louise-Delima was born in 1860.  Francois enlisted in the Union army (1863).  Their second child Marie was born in 1864.  Francois was wounded at Cold Harbor (1864). The Civil War ended (1865).  In 1866 Marie-Louise died.

Francois married my great-grandmother Lucie Touchette (1867).  Their first child Victorine-Lucy was born in 1868.  Their second child Francois-Adei was born in 1871.  Their third child Joseph-Theodore-Hormidas (my grandfather, who became Frank.  Go figure...) was born in 1873.  Their fourth child Joseph was born in 1874.  Their fifth child Marie-Josephine was born in 1876.  Their sixth child Flavi-Joseph was born in 1878.  Their seventh child Francois-Elzear was born in 1879.  Their eighth child Marie-Delina-Vedora was born in 1882.  Francois died in 1886.

And the women of Quebec breathed a collective sigh of relief...

Submitted for the 115th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.


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More Than Meets the Eye - Tuesday's Tip

Photo A

(Original Images and Text, Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette)  I have hundreds of photographs.  If you throw slides into the mix I probably have well over a thousand images.  While I'm thrilled to have so many photos I also think it's easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of images and miss information or clues some individual photos have to offer.  I didn't really look at this one all that closely until a couple of weeks ago when I posted Christmas in Poland, 1929 for Wordless Wednesday.

Look at the street scene in Photo A.  It's one of several photos I had randomly grouped together from a family I believe to be related to my grandmother's Bulak or Kowalewski family in Kepno, Poland.  I never really looked at the photo that closely before.  The actual size of the physical photo is approximately 3 1/2" x 5 1/2", a little bigger than an index card.  Small it doesn't look like much, does it?  Now zoom in.  Before I tell you what I see take a look for yourself.

I was amazed at the details of the lively scene unfolding.  Look at the business under the sign "W. Piatkowski." I was able to see several of the words clear enough to translate them: wlosow, szczotki, lalek, perfumy, panow, manikure (hair, brush, dolls, perfume, men, manicure).  See the two girls on the steps in their white jackets?  It's a beauty shop!  Check out the business to the left of the beauty shop.  I don't know what it is, but it appears to be at number 30 on the street.  The man walking on the sidewalk is carrying a cane, and there is a man leaning on the back of the car.  The car has a license plate.  There's a lamp in front of the beauty shop.  A gas lamp maybe?  A toddler with what appears to be a rake is standing just to the right of the lamp.  

Look over on the far right side of the photo.  What's going on over there? See the restaurant?  I can make out a few words: piwo, win, herbata, kawa, zimne, cieple (beer, wine, tea, coffee, cold, warm).  Do you see the man in the suit leaning out the window?  Look at the business to the immediate left of the restaurant.  The owner of the business is A. Mazur.  Can you see what's in the window?  Hats!   Apparently A. Mazur was the owner of a hat shop!

See the business to the left of the hat shop?  There's a man holding a baby.  He is standing on the stairs under the awning and a woman is standing behind him. What about the store window?  The writing on the window says "Sklad Obuwia (Composition Shoes) T. Walkowski," and there is a display of shoes on a shoe tree.  Take another look at my post, Christmas in Poland 1929.  The man in the photo is Tomasz Walkowski!  Now I know what business he is in!  Shoes!  I also know from family letters Tomasz Walkowski was fairly well off and owned several apartment buildings in Kepno.

Look at Photo B.  What do you see?  Zoom in...

Photo B

The people on the sidewalk look like one family.  Or are they?  This photo was also taken in Kepno.  Seven children!  Wow!  At least that's what I thought.  The funny thing is that other photos I have of this family only include four children. I asked my cousin Marek, who is from Poland, to take a look at the photo and see what he thought.  Not surprisingly he saw something I didn't.  Look on the first balcony above the people standing on the street.  What I thought were flowers are actually children standing on the balcony!  Marek also noticed something else that I didn't.  See the white plaque to the right of the door?  When you zoom in closer it looks as if the plaque has a Polish eagle on it.  Marek told me that plaques like that are used to identify government buildings.  He thought the children in the photo might be from a government school or orphanage.  Some of the children standing with the family group might not be part of the family!

What else does Photo B tell us?  Do you see the words Mleczarnia Kepnie? It's some kind of a dairy shop.  See the man and the two women on the balcony above Mleczarnia Kepnie?  Now look at the very top of the building with the children.  Do you know when the building was built? 1933, and probably by someone with the initials J.W.  Could W. stand for Walkowski?  Another possible lead to follow up on...

Tuesday's Tip:  Look at your photos closely and more than once. Zoom in to see the details.  Have someone else look at your photos to see if he or she sees something that you do not, and if you are not familiar with a location ask someone else who might be.   Sometimes there's more to a photo than you might initially think.   Maybe you will see something today that you didn't see yesterday!


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An Interview With My Grandmother

(Original Image and Text, Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette) In December of 1953 my grandmother, Antonina (Bulak) Szerejko, gave an interview to the local paper in which she talked about her family traditions at Christmas.  I remembered seeing the newspaper clipping with the interview years ago, but I didn't know what happened to it.  I was sad to think that perhaps it had been lost, but didn't serendipity strike!  I found it a couple of weeks ago as I was sorting through the last two boxes of items from my mother's house, and just in time for me to write about the interview for the 113th edition of Carnival of Genealogy!  While I can't reprint the exact text of the article for copyright reasons, I can present quotes, information, and one of my grandmother's recipes which was included in the article.

A Gathering of Family

"He's the one that eats me out of house and home."

My mother, Christine (Szerejko) Shenette, as well as her sister and her family, and my mom's brother who was in college in Indiana returned home for Christmas.  I had to laugh at the quote from my grandmother about her son.  My nine-year-old son eats constantly.  My husband and I joke that we are both going to have to get part-time jobs when he hits his teen years to make extra money to keep him sufficiently fed.  Apparently a hollow leg runs in the family!

Wigilia Supper

"We finally gave it up, because it was too much to do with a big Christmas dinner to fix the next day--too many dishes to wash and the children got restless sitting through all the different courses."

As long as my great-grandfather, Antoni Bulak, was alive my grandmother continued the tradition of Wigilia on Christmas Eve.  Wigilia is a feast of seven, nine, or 11 courses.  Many Poles celebrate Wigilia today.  Dinner involves an uneven number of courses, and there must be an even number of people at the table.  An extra chair is set in case a stranger, symbolic of the God Child, appears at the door to join the family for dinner.  Christmas Eve day was a fast day.  Courses included pike with horseradish sauce, baked sauerkraut with yellow peas, and other fish and vegetable dishes.

Passing the Oblatek

"It means that no matter what corner of the world you are in, the family ties are still strong.  On Christmas Eve we pass it around and wish each other a good year to come.  If there are any disputes or hard feelings in the family, that's the time they are made up."

The oblatek is similar to a communion wafer and is stamped with holy pictures.  My grandfather's family in Warsaw sent the oblatek every year.  I will admit to getting a bit teary when I opened a card earlier this year from my grandfather's family in Warsaw who I reconnected with in 2010.  Inside the card was an oblatek!   Despite all that time and distance, family ties and traditions remain the same.

Polish Mushrooms

My mom use to talk about the delicious mushrooms from Poland that they ate during the holidays.  She said they were very expensive so my grandmother would only use a few and then only on special occasions like Christmas and Easter.  According to the interview the mushrooms were purchased at a kosher delicatessen, and she said they had a unique flavor "something like steak."  She also said that my grandfather Adolf Szerejko, who was originally from Warsaw, used to spend summers with relatives in the country during his childhood in Poland.  This information was new to me.  Apparently he had fond memories of mushroom hunting in the woods during his summer visits with the family.

Christmas Marzipan

"In Europe they don't have candy on the counters the way we do here, so we made marzipan at home to hang on the Christmas tree.  My mother was afraid of using coloring, I remember, except for the juice of carrots or boiled onions--she thought it might be poisonous."

One of the best things about the interview is that it includes a number of my grandmother's recipes.  I don't have any of her written recipes so this was a particularly exciting find.

Marzipan (Marcypany)

1 pound almonds, blanched
1 pound powdered sugar, 
2 tablespoons rosewater
vegetable coloring

Grind blanched almonds very fine.   Combine with sugar and flavoring. Cook until mixture leaves sides of saucepan.  Add coloring, if desired. Roll out like piecrust until one-fourth inch thick.  Cut in small hearts or other fancy shapes.  Decorate with cherries or other glazed fruits.  Place in warm place to dry.

These are used instead of candy and hung on the Christmas tree for the children.

I was thrilled to find this clipping.  It's almost like my grandmother knew I was looking for it and led me to the right spot to find it just in time for this COG!

While my grandmother was never much of a drinker she loved creme de menthe and did treat herself a couple times a year to a grasshopper.  It's my tradition to have one during the holidays, partly because I love grasshoppers and partly because they remind me of her. So here I am with my grasshopper as I finish up my COG post on New Year's Day 2012.

Cheers!  Here's to you Gram, and thanks.

Submitted for the 113th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.


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What the Dickens 2, Or More Tales from Hell's Kitchen - Advent Calendar, Grab Bag

(Copyright (c) 2011 Cynthia Shenette)

"Do you know the Poulterer's, in the next street but one, at the corner?" Scrooge inquired.

"I should hope I did," replied the lad.

"An intelligent boy!'' said Scrooge. "A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they've sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little prize Turkey; the big one?"

"What, the one as big as me?" returned the boy.

Bigger isn't always better, especially when it involves a turkey.  I learned this the hard way.

Yes, Gentle Reader, It's Holiday Time Again!

Due to the popularity of last year's holiday post, What the Dickens, Or How to Blow Up a Duck, I have decided to return to Christmas Past to share more holiday tales of food preparation gone wrong.

I realize that whenever you do Part 2 of something it never seems to live up to the audience's expectations  of Part 1.  Even when Part 2 is good it never quite achieves the same level of greatness as Part 1.  So, Gentle Reader, with that said it's time to lower your expectations and once again journey with me back in time as I try to shamelessly capitalize on the popularity of the initial post to Christmas Past...

Christmas 1985, Or How to Lose Your Cookies

Several friends and I had a brilliant idea!  Let's have a Christmas cookie baking party!  I was dating this guy at the time who offered to host the party at his apartment.  Each of us brought a cookie ingredient (flour, sugar, eggs) and a recipe for batch of cookies.  The plan was to make a huge batch of cookies which we would all share.  One friend who was a bartender thought it would be fun to mix up a couple of pitchers of Blue Hawaiians to liven things up a little.

Well it didn't take long for my friends and I to realize that we really hadn't thought through the logistics of our cookie baking activity.  A small apartment, multiple batches of cookies, one oven, limited counter space, and a large batch of Blue Hawaiians were not exactly the ingredients for success.  We were quickly overwhelmed by dirty dishes, empty cookie sheets, full cookie sheets, cookie dough, and all of the already baked cookies.  There were cookies everywhere--cookies on the counters, cookies on the table, cookies on top of the refrigerator!  To put it in perspective think Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory with peanut butter blossoms instead of bonbons.

As the evening wore on my friends and I were getting desperate (plus I suspect the Blue Hawaiians were starting to kick in).  What to do, what to do?  An idea!  Why couldn't we rest some of the hot cookies still on cookie sheets on a window sill to cool?  They would be out of the way and cool off at the same time.  Did I mention my boyfriend's apartment was in a three-decker?  Yep, you guessed it.  The cookies fell out the window.  I don't remember how many flights.  Let's just say the cookie incident kind of foreshadowed my relationship with the boyfriend (which was also out the window) a few weeks later.

Christmas 2010, Or You'll Shoot Your Eye Out Kid

My husband and son LOVE cranberry sauce.  So do I, so every year I make home-made cranberry-orange relish.  My son is somewhat spoiled and won't eat the stuff from the can which is fine with me.  I'm always looking for ways to remove high fructose corn syrup from our diets.  I'm happy to make my own which only contains three simple ingredients--cranberries, oranges, and sugar.  How can you go wrong with only three ingredients?

I've come to think of kitchen appliances as power tools for the kitchen.  A food processor is not for the faint of heart.  I hadn't really thought too much about it until last year's mishap.  I pulled out my food processor (which I rarely use I might add) put the cranberries in, put the cover on, and turned the power on.  Unfortunately I forgot one thing.  You know that cap that goes over the little tube you feed stuff into?  I forgot to put that on.  Oops. The result--a rapid-fire cranberry machine gun shooting cranberries all over the kitchen!  My cranberries could have given Ralphie's Red Ryder BB Gun a run for it's money any day.

Thanksgiving 1989, Or More Problems With Poultry

Now, Gentle Reader, I know you are asking, "So what happened with the turkey?"  I kind of alluded to what I have come to think of as "the unfortunate flaming turkey incident" at the end of my duck story.  To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what happened other than the turkey was really big and Mom was using one of those cooking bags again.  Clearly we learned nothing from the exploding duck episode.  All I know is Mom opened the oven door, and flames shot out!  Still being the nervous type, I went for the kitchen fire extinguisher, again.  Mom, still not being the nervous type, told me to put away the fire extinguisher, again. She closed the oven door, and the flames went out.  After the fire was out Mom said in a calm voice, "Once you cut off the oxygen the fire will go out."  Good to know.  The turkey was fine, but I wasn't doing so well, again.  And yes, we did have that turkey for dinner.

Do you have a Christmas tale of culinary chaos? A souffle that flopped? A fondue that didn't?  Do you fear Christmas Dinner Yet to Come?  Feel free to leave a comment. After all, misery loves company.  Now I'm off to Home Depot to buy safety goggles.  I need to make cranberry sauce...

God Bless Us, Everyone


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