10/14/2005 Topic: Research Help Title: Update on my Uncles and the Library   If you haven't tried the library in the area you are researching...TRY IT!   While I've had trouble getting out-of-state help from my local library. They can't get newspaper archives as far back as I need to go. The State Libraries in OTHER states...LOL I recently was directed to try http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/ask.aspx which is the link for the Washington State Library and their Ask a Librarian email program. Boy! Am I impressed!   Marth had sent me the text and publishing information on my grandfather's obit, so I have that...but she didn't have my grandmother's...hmmm....another researcher...Arlene Nelson (researching some connected Fulkerson's) happens to live in Washington and told me I could try this. So, figuring I had nothing to lose, I prepped an email to AskALibrarian@secstate.wa.gov giving them my grandmother's birth and death dates and name and asked for a search of the Seattle papers for an obit. Sure enough, it came back in about a week with a scan of the obit and the publishing information from the Post Intelligencer..DUH! I'd forgotten that my grandparents disliked the Seattle Times when I'd asked a friend to search it for their obits. (We put grandpa's there for some reason though *grin* just goes to show how consistent we aren't LOL)   Well, at the same time I requested grandma's obit, I requested any birth announcements or death announcements they could find on my infant uncles. For some reason I'm stuck on them and don't want to see these two little boys disappear into history. I guess as a mother, I just feel sad that my grandparents lost them so soon. Not something I'd wish on anyone.   James Ward Stephen Fuecker at age 2 in 1929 The librarian looking into this has been SO THOROUGH! WOW! I couldn't ask for more! She discovered by asking at the Washington State Archives that I had Jimmy's middle name wrong, and my estimated birth month was off by 2 weeks! Ozzie had his name as James William Fuecker and only a birthday of 1927 according to what Marth passed on to me.  Well, I know about when he died from stories my mom told me and I have a picture of him on his 2nd birthday, but there's no date listed. The photo I found that pegged it the closest was one labelled "Jimmy 4 mo August 1927" so I estimated the birth in May. Wrong!   The librarian just responded with an entry for James WARD STEPHEN FEUCKER (gosh I love all the misspellings this name gets! LOL at least they didn't drop the 'e' LOL) born 18 Apr 1927 to parents Frederick Micheaai?)l Fuecker. She found this information and had 3 other girls listed to this family LOL and was even looking up Fred's obit! So helpful! I'm glad she contacted me so I could give her the additional information I had and save some of her time, but I never expected them to be so helpful. WOW! I now know his birthday and his actual middle names! Here's Jimmy again if you didn't see my last blog about him and his brother. Happy digging, Sondra

	10/10/2005 Topic: Collaborating Title: Marth the Wonderful!   Been busy trying to squeek financing through so I and the family can buy a house. It hasn't been fun, but neither is our current shoebox living arrangement. Fixed incomes and medical expenses make it tough to do anything. But the bright note in all this is my continuing correspondence with cousins!   Ozzie is sending a package soon, so I can see some of the old pictures she has, and I'm in touch with Sue and Jon (from different sides of the family on and off) and Lorna is keeping in touch. :) Suddenly all kinds of relatives.   But I have to say, Marth is wonderful! She is continuing to fill in the gaps I have on the descendants of my 2g grandparents on the Fuecker side, and she has graciously said I can post this information to my website so others can benefit. :)   As I work through her data, I'm doing more than just copying her entries so it's taking a bit :) Since Marth was nice enough to send me her sources as well, I'm double checking her census entries (since some of these people I had trouble finding, or didn't even know about! LOL) And on some I'm finding additional relatives in the house, like my grandparents who had my grandaunts and great grandmother living with them after my great grandfather died. :)   By double checking, I can enter the census as sources that I'VE actually seen. Indexes, etc, that I can check fairly easily, I do; otherwise the information all gets entered under a source for cousin Marth as detail on her sources (and even there I'm trying to remember to note which census entries she had for each person so people know it's been checked twice!) I have labeled all the obits as who has done the courtesy of sharing with me :) [and sometimes they carry the label of who shared with them too:) ] so it looks like a long list of who's who to thank, but at least it documents the chain!   So much to look through, it makes me so happy! At last I feel like I have extended family again :) It helps when I get blue about missing my folks.   Thanks to all of you, Sondra

	10/8/2005 Topic: Living Resources Title: 1st Cousins once removed   Margaret Janet Ward I was told this was her going to Hollywood as Seattle's 'Best Girl'   When I first began this Quest, I got ahold of my last surviving known cousin on my mother's side.  She's actually my first cousin 1 time removed, but has always seemed young enough to belong to my generation :)   I knew that as the last real survivor of my mother's generation though, Lorna would have the most information, hopefully, about my grandmother's family. Her mother was my Grand Aunt, and through my whole childhood the families were close. I knew it could take awhile; she and her husband run a great Marina on Harstine Island in the San Juan's of Puget Sound so they are busy pretty much year around, and we don't see them much unless we head up their way.   Lorna came through for me in spades today! Pictures of my other Grand Aunt Lula, whom I never met. Some of Lou's daughter...and granddaughter. Birth certificates. Her mom's original and 'changed' copies of her certificate where she lied about her age by 10 years so she could keep working! LOL I told you my Aunt Marge was Grand! A letter from Mary Pickford to her mom talking about her mom's visit to Hollywood as one of the winners of a 1927 'Best Girl' contest.   Marge was Seattle, Washington's 'Best Girl'. And now that I have better dates, I can go hunting for the articles in the State Library in Washington (with a little help from my friends at http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/ask.aspx . They found my grandmother's obituary for me, and I'm having them look for information on my uncles! Arlene, thank you for the tip!)   Anyway, I now know about Lorna's father, her husband, sons and grandchildren...I'm a happy camper. I don't know why I expected her to be as deficient in family information as my siblings and I were when I started this. Maybe a certificate or two and a few pictures...wrong! On her father's side someone has family sheets together, which she sent! And she had all the right information to give me about her family and her parents. It must be that Library Science Degree! :)   She confirmed many death dates for her father, grandfather and grandmothers. It made my guesses so much easier! LOL     I also had an exciting email from the cousin who is researching on my Dad's side of the family, Jon Carpenter, on the Carpenter branch. Surprisingly enough he's also a first cousin 1 time removed! Jon has been looking into the Carpenter line and has discovered a James Elizar and Rebecca (Van Metre) Carpenter who homesteaded in Kansas.    He sent me Rebecca's obituary which filled in a few holes and has pointed me at the census that would step this Carpenter line back. He has the family in 1850 in Ohio and steps it back to the 1740's in Providence. Now I just need to follow it up and confirm this for myself so I can enter all the names into my database! Yippee!   Now I just wish I could find as much out about my line of Millers...Aargh! Maybe I'll have time to really dig into them soon and get the money to request the divorce papers on my Miller great grandparents...their story has me curious! So just call me nosy!   Blessings to All, Sondra :)

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