DESERT HOT SPRINGS 2/16-23

We have left the foothills north of Pasadena and headed east to Desert Hot Springs.  We are staying a week at Catalina Spa and RV Resort, a Coast to Coast resort, out in the desert that we have stayed at before.  We really like it here.  They have many retired people activities, sunshine, natural hot springs fed pools and hot tubs.  If we were going to sit in one place for several months in the winter, this would be a high one on the list of places.  We are reveling in the warmth, Wayne washed the truck and we have been just relaxing.  It was rather hectic the last two weeks with all the exploring of family sites and visiting cousins.  It was a wonderful time, but it is time to sit a little now, recoup energy and catch up on writing, photo organization and family history notes.

The snow covered mountains behind Ann is where Idlewild TT is and where Cousin Ginger is this weekend.  If you look really close, you might see her waving to us!!

We have planned out our potential route through September.  The next month or so will be down in Southern California in several locations before we head north to Las Vegas and then Provo and New York.  Read the next 3 blog entries to see what we have been doing the last 2 weeks.  See you on the road!

TIME AT SOLEDAD TT 2/3-16/2012

Family History research is more than gathering names from our past.  Family History research is about linking the present with the past, getting to know our ancestors and trying to understand about their lives.  As we research about their lives, we come to understand who they were and why things happened in their lives.  Then as we do so, we get to know them and our family that we knew little about slowly become our friends.  It is an amazing process, linking the past to the future and and our gaining an understanding of the past.  As one of my cousins recently put it, "Warts and all, we are family."

So, while in the Southern California area the last couple weeks, we have visited a few of Ann's cousins and an aunt and a few of Wayne's cousins to enjoy family relations, discuss past memories and share information.  We also took two days to locate and photograph 32 houses and other locations that relate to both our families' pasts in Southern California.  

I will share just a few:

325 W. 66th St., Los Angeles, CA

where Ann's grandparents lived when Ann's Dad was born

  

 325 W. 66th St., Los Angeles, CA as it looks today.  But due to the area of the city and the people hanging around, we did not stop the car and get out to take a picture

Below: 796 E. Mountain Street, Pasadena, CA where Wayne's Uncle, Donald Lee Cowley was born in 1910.  Here he is with his mother and his nurse

Here is Wayne on the same porch over 100 years later.

 Lillian Cowley, Wayne's grandmother and her two sons, John Palmer Cowley (on the lower step) and Donald Lee Cowley next to his mom, on the front steps of the same porch

 and the house and the front porch today.

 1319 W. Chandler St, Wilmington, CA where Ann's grandparents lived when  her dad, Harlan Huff got married to Dana Rice in 1943.

 Here are Ann's dad and grandfather in front of that house in 1942.

 And here is Ann standing in the same spot 70 years later.

Ann's dad in front of the W. Chandler house

 and Ann in about the same spot, but on the sidewalk.

 877 Chapman St., Pasadena, CA where Wayne's grandparents lived when his father, Allyn Claude Cowley was born and where his father lived for 21 years as it looked then....

 ...and now almost 100 years later.

 This spot was where many Cowley family pictures were taken

 Here is one of those photos just to the right of where Wayne is standing above.  R to L front  are Allyn, Lillian, Joan and Vina Cowley.  Behind Lillian is Leo and behind Joan is Donald.  Do not know the black suit guy.

 The street in front of the house now....

 ...and about 1919 with Wayne's dad in about the same spot.

 Wayne's father, Allyn on an old Indian motorcycle in front of the Chapman house.

 Wayne's dad on the corner of the front porch....

 ...and Wayne on the corner of the same front porch.

 Many, many more pictures were taken of many other places in our histories to compare and link to the past.  We grew closer to our past as we visited these many places that were important to our families as they grew, so many years ago.
Also, visiting current cousins was part of our fare for the 2 weeks spent here.  Here is a meal we shared at Cousin Ginger's house in Santa Clarita. Starting far left and going counter clockwise are Elliott and Joan (Uncle Donald's daughter), Wayne, Ginger (Uncle John's daughter), Ann, Donna (Uncle Donald's daughter) and Frank.  Spending time with them has been a wonderful experience the last three lunches we have had with them!

We forgot the camera when we visited Ann's cousins, but we sure had fun and shared a lot of family information.  We love traveling and being able to spend time together.
We love our family and love getting to know them better, past and present!

TALE OF TWO CHURCHES 2/9/2012

 On the trail of visiting our past we looked for and found St. Mark's Presbyterian Church that Ann's family helped build, was baptized in, sang in the choir of and attended for many years of their Southern California days.  It was located on 24027 Pennsylvania Ave in Lomita, CA.  We were actually driving north on Pennsylvania, looking for one the houses Ann's family lived in when Wayne recognized the church from several Huff family home movies he had seen over the years.
When we got out of the truck and walked into the central compound like park,  Ann immediately said it looked familiar.  We found the office and were surprised that the pastor and secretary were there.

 We told them who we were and why we were there.  They began digging through their files and found many records concerning Ann's family's involvement in the development of the church in the 1950's and early 60's.  They found record of Harlan's ordination to the position of Elder, Harlan's service as chair of the building committee, John and Ann's baptism records and several other bits of confirmation that we were in the right spot.  These they freely copied and shared with us.  When we told them we had home movies of the dedication of the building, they got really excited, so we called Ann's brother, John and he said he would send them a copy for their records.

 We then walked around the grounds and memories began flowing into Ann's mind.  Memories of 45 years ago when she was a little girl attending here.

 Of course it looks much different now, but yet, it is so much the same.

  Then as we were exploring, we walked into the chapel they used when Ann was there, that her father hlped build, that her mother sang in the choir in, and there on the wall were some pictures dedicated to the time when the buildings were being built.  Ann glanced at them and recognized her pastor in the center of the picture, Rev Durham.  This was a thrill to her and brought back fond memories of her times here.

Then looking a little closer she saw a picture of her as a little girl!  "Hey, that's me!" was heard though out the chapel!

And sure enough, on closer observation, it was her!

 Wayne immediately drug her outside and tried to take a picture of her in close to the same spot as the old picture.  That's the chapel door off her right shoulder and the finished brick retaining wall that seemed so much bigger years before!

 We went back in the chapel to look to see if we were close on where we took the picture and on closer examination Wayne heard, "Hey, that's my mom in the choir!"  Sure enough, with a magnifying glass we were able to identify Ann's mom.  She's the woman on the far left of the larger group of choir members in front of the far left window!

 "Hey, there's me again!"

And sure enough, that's her next to the lady in the wheel chair.

  "Hey, I am in another picture!"

And there we found Ann with her mother's arm around her shoulder with their backs to the camera.

Then she began looking at the pictures that dated a little earlier and found pictures of Harlan and John, Ann's dad and brother.  They're not in this one, but...

 But, here is Harlan bent over and John's back to the camera.

 And here is John with his hands in his pockets and Harlan in the back on the far side of the trough

We took the pictures off the wall and took them to the office to identify the Huff family in the pictures, thus adding to the other individuals already identified and then hung them up again in the chapel and documented that Ann had come back to visit where she and her family had been an integral part of the early years of this location of St. Mark's Presbyterian Church in Lomita, CA.

But wait.... there's more!  Remember the title of this blog was "Tale of Two Churches"?  Well..... We had made an appointment to visit the Pasadena Chapel of Roses on 61 North Hill Avenue in Pasadena, CA where we suspected that Wayne's Dad and Mom got married.  With great anticipation we visited, expecting to search records to verify their marriage here. 

 Well, the chapel looked familiar from pictures Wayne had seen and that are in files back in Medford, but the caretaker, even though he had said in e-mails that we could search the records, only allowed us to see the chapel and a few other rooms.  He told us that the records are confidential, were housed in a separate location and I was not allowed to see them.  This was a completely different story than Wayne got while corresponding with him in e-mails.  Wayne was going to have a discussion with him concerning church records and family history....

 ...but thought better of it and asked if we could give him the info we have and ask if he could search the records next time he visits the storage site, to which he consented to do next month.  We shall see.

 Not quite the luck we had at Ann's family's church, but maybe another time, or maybe in March.  Two churches, two stories.

ROLLING HILLS MARKET 2/9/2012

In 1949 Ann's parents and grand parents bought a store just outside the gates of Rolling Hills Estates, CA.  It was a very rural area then and it was a normal occurrence to have more horses in the parking lot than cars.  They operated the store until 1964, when they moved north to Crescent City, CA.

 Ann and I have been here once about 15 years ago, but decided to go see it again seeing as how we were on a Family History site discovery trip and were within a few miles of it.  It was memory lane for Ann!!  Here it is today!  It is no longer a grocery store.  As it did then, it still houses a tack shop and a post office, but the store area is now a pre-school.  The parking lot out front is mostly lawn now.

Here is Harlan, Ann's dad, on the front corner of the store, facing Rolling Hills Rd. about 1960.

 

The corner where Harlan was standing is just to Ann's left in this picture.

 Where Harlan was standing was just behind where Ann is standing now.  Thiswas the front of the store.

This was the side of the store facing Rolling Hills Rd.  Where Harlan was standing was back behind Ann at the corner.  It is still the same brick as was there then.

 This is the back of the store at the still existing loading bay where they would unload supplies for the store.

 And here is the side of the store facing Rolling Hills Rd.  The two posts near Ann is what's left of one of the hitching posts for the horses.

 So, another Family History visitation adventure!