My morning walk on the beach

My Dad picked up Boris and Harlow Sunday morning, so I have today in Strathmere all to myself. This gives me a chance to take my morning beach walk. I like to go early before people start showing up with all their beach crap and their kids. Here are a few snaps to show why I love a quiet morning beach walk.

The water is still cold, but I got my feet wet

I like to pick up pretty stones, mostly white, pinkish-coral and lavender. Today I picked up a few pretty black stone. I wish that I could make something with them. For now they'll go with the other stones in my drepression glass relish dishes, on the windowsill.

Send some sailors my way!

I've picked up a few cute little sailors here and there, so it looks like I have a new collection started. The framed photo is a copy of a 1930s postcard of our street in Strathmere, with our house in the middle.

A photo of my great-great grandmother Jennie Hall Folwell Brazier

How cool is this? Someone who is a distant relative contacted me through ancestry.com because we had relatives in common. Her great grandmother Jennie is my great-great grandmother.
She and my mother are the same age. Her grandmother was known in my family as Aunt Eva, and Eva was my great grandfather's half sister.

She sent me this fabulous photo taken in 1887 of my great-great grandmother Jennie Hall. With her is her first husband James Folwell. The lady who contacted me is a descendant of James Folwell and Jennie. James was committed to a mental institute sometime before 1900, and Jennie then married Joseph Brazier and that's where my family line picks up - my great-grandfather John was their son.

Cool. What's really amazing is that my grandmother Mary and her sisters look so much like Jennie. They all have these deep, circled eyes just like her.

More geneaology intrigue -

 My great-great-grandmother Jennie Hall was married to James Holwell before she married my great-great-grandfather. She and James had 4 daughters. I just assumed that the first husband had died and then she remarried. But looking at censuses online, it turns out that James was committed to the Camden County Insane Asylum around 1900 and was there at least through the 1930s census, he probably died there. The place is known as Lakeland and it always scared me to drive through there when I was a kid. When I worked at the Rag Shop, I drove through there every day to get to work, my fear long gone by then. It's a group of old buildings that I believe are mainly used for juveniles and drug rehab now.

Another interesting thing about James ending up at Lakeland, his brother Eli was also there for all that time. Two brothers sent to an asylum? I wonder what the story is there?!
Intrigue.
Jennie then married Joseph Brazier and had my great-grandfather and his sister. Funny how something can happen and then change or create a whole new family line.

A little Harlow and Boris, a geneaology mystery and what is this name?

First, I torture you with photos of my adorable doggies, enjoying a nice Spring Day (while I torture them to try to get a photo of them both together and looking at the camera)
Left is Harlow, right Boris. Looking unhappy to get their photo taken, but still adorable.
Below is Harlow, laying in her favorite patch of vines. She thinks that no one can see her when she lays down in the vines.







Next, I'm still doing that family tree trace. My grandfather's mother has been a mystery. Her name was Maymella King. First married to a Walker then to my great grandfather Baker. We know she was born in PA, but we know nothing about parents or siblings. So in a process of elimination and educated guessing (which could be totally wrong because I have no way of checking for sure) I have narrowed her down to May King born in 1878 to John and Harriet King, with a brother named Eli. Maybe.
I think that John had a brother named Valentine and this is the 1850 census that shows their mother's name, but what the hell is it?

It looks like Exephan King, but I've never heard of such a name. I've seen alot of bad spelling on the censuses, so what else do you think that it could be?

I also found this, which is interesting. The 2nd ad, Eli V. King would be Maymella's brother and he was a bricklayer. This came from a bricklayer's newsletter, dated 1911. The ad was placed by his father John, who is looking for Eli. John is very ill and needs to get in touch with Eli. From what I have found, it looks like Eli's wife either died, or ran off, and Eli then went away looking for bricklaying work, leaving his son Harry with his parents. I wonder if Eli came back, what happened to Harry? Are these people even my relatives? I don't know, but I'm totally caught up in the mystery.