M.E. Roche's Blog, page 5

The search for toots ...

Day #18

As mentioned in my last post, I was heading out to Albion and St. Edwards to see where Toots had lived and where her husband and sons were buried. It was a disappointing day as I never found the grave after 2 hours of walking the cemetery and I wasn't sure about the location of their homestead site, even with a map. I met some very nice people, however, at the St. Edward's Senior Center, at the post office there, and at the library in Albion; the librarian, Stacie, even called her father-in-law for some help, but I was tired and didn't have the energy to follow-up. On my drive back to Lincoln, I considered a second trip as I did have the time. I went to the Nebraska History Museum the next day and then set out yesterday for a second try, this time with success!

The primary goal of my trip was to see where Toots had lived as a homesteader--to get a feel of what that might have been like. Their homestead was a beautiful section of land with rolling hills and fields. I was told it had been a very dry summer and the harvest had started earlier than usual, so while there was still corn on one side of the highway (at the bottom of the hill), the fields on the other side had been harvested.

I took photos of several houses looking to be of the approximate age of the period and immediately located where I supposed the farmhouse might have been for these fields, but wasn't able to determine which might have been hers. My most likely guess would be the first one with the cows. I was surprised to see a number of farms where the cows were in these penned areas, but didn't think to ask anyone. There were a lot of questions I never thought to ask!

As mentioned, another goal had been to see where Toots' husband, Michael, and her 2 sons had been buried. I returned to the Senior Center in St. Edwards and learned from Maxine--a participant there who helped map the cemetery--that there were sides in the cemetery depending on whether one was Catholic or Protestant. From there I went back to Kent in the post office--he cares for the cemetery and was the one who had given me the original directions--and he clarified those directions. With that, I returned to the cemetery and found the graves within minutes. There are no markers for the children, but the depressions in the upper right corner are the indication, matching the records on file.

A remaining mystery is how a woman in Chicago met and married a guy from Nebraska. While there will never be an answer, I believe it was my grandfather who was the connection. He worked as a freight conductor for Northwestern Railroad for 42 years; they had a line which came out of Chicago and once had a stop in Albion, where one of Michael's brothers worked at that station. Toots married in 1918 at the age of 30, which in those days made her a spinster; Michael--who ran the farm--was also unmarried at the age of 38. It seems possible the brother-in-law and brother conspired to bring these two together.

Another link: my grandfather came to Michael's funeral. He also supposedly (family report) came to Albion to take Toots back to Chicago, but that's not clear as the decision on the homestead wasn't decided until 1935---another story. Furthermore, there is no verifiable record of what happened to Toots after the 1930 census, until she returned to Chicago to live with family in the 1950's. Below is a photo of my grandfather (on the left), the old Albion freight train station, and a picture of what I think is how rail cars were filled with grain then and today, i.e. an opening in the top of the railcar, where grain is filled from a silo.

This is the last post on my search. What I'll do with the information collected is yet to be decided. It is family history, but I think it could also make the great story of a woman who left her birth country at the age of 10, came to a new country to work as a servant, moved and lived in an even newer state where she eventually lost both her family and property, and then disappeared in all records for nearly 20 years before reappearing in the family history. To be continued......

Find my previous posts on: my Facebook page: M.E. Roche; Instagram: author_meroche; and here on my website: www.meroche.com. I hope you'll join me on the journey!

The Search for toots . . .

Day #14

This was a busy weekend. On Saturday, I drove down to Beatrice, Nebraska to the Homestead National Historical Park... in the pouring rain, which fortunately stopped shortly after I arrived at the welcome station, where the ranger was great about answering my many questions! To the right on the outside wall, one can see the iron outlines of those 30 states that had participated in homesteading, with a cut-out reflecting that proportion of land that had been designated for homesteading. My tour began with a short film on the origin of the Homestead Act of 1862 and then there were 2 floors of exhibits on life at the time, including computers where you could research where your relatives may have homesteaded; I had already done this.

The first homesteader is reputed to be Daniel Freeman in 1863, a Union officer who woke the land management office after midnight on January 1, to be that first as he had to get back to his troops. While the majority of homesteading ended by 1930, Kent Deardorff is considered the last and he homesteaded in Alaska in 1976.

From the main building, I walked over to the Education Building where there were exhibits on the progression of farm implements over the years, showing the incredible difficulty those early settlers had in making their new homes. Along the way, there were multiple markers along lovely trails, including an early cabin where a family of 10 lived in one room.

On Sunday, I made my way to University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History, which included 4 floors of archeological discoveries over the years. It was fascinating look at the size and variety of both land and water animals that had been unearthed and to see that some animals once considered only to be in Africa, were also common here.

Today I'm heading up to St. Edwards and Albion, two small towns with connections to Toots' life in Nebraska and where her homestead was located. This may be what I'm most interested in seeing...in gaining some idea of what her life must have been like here. Stay tuned!

Find my posts on: my Facebook page: M.E. Roche; Instagram: author_meroche; and here on my website: www.meroche.com. I hope you'll join me on the journey!

the search for toots...

Day #11

This past week, I passed through Ohio and Indiana and am now in Elmhurst, Illinois, where Toots had lived, been married, and where she is now buried. I met with my cousin, Margaret who lives near here, to compare what we knew of the family and our aunt and where Margaret shared her family photos with me. Margaret’s father had come over from Ireland, had lived in the same house where Toots and my grandmother had grown up and came to live with my grandmother for a while when he first came to this country. His father (Uncle Tommie) was the youngest son in his family, living in the family home where his youngest son (Margaret’s Uncle Michael) had once lived, but where Michael's son now lives with his family and continues renovations on the old home.

Above is an old picture of part of the exterior and below is another old picture of the hearth on the interior. The house has been greatly re-modeled over the years; there is no longer the thatched roof! I wanted to include the hearth as I remember stories of its daily scrubbing being one of the tasks for girls in the house. Turf, or maybe coal (later on) was the fuel commonly burned and it left a smoky residue—not to mention that cooking was also done on the hearth before the stoves, with which we are more familiar. I'm not sure who is in the upper picture, but I do know that it is Uncle Tommie and his wife Mary (on the right) in the lower one.

So below are several more photos I was able to get: the church of the Immaculate Conception where Toots was married in 1918 and where now the upper part of the building is the school. Margaret and I were also allowed access to the inside of the church which is kept locked when the school is in session (since Sandyhook we were told). We were also told that little had been changed within the church, aside from cleaning and restoration. There had been a fire at some point, but it wasn't clear when that had occurred.

Finally, I was able to locate Toots' final resting place. How she happened to return to family in Chicago is still somewhat of a mystery, but part of that should become clearer as I move on. Today, I'm heading for Nebraska. Stay tuned.

You can find my posts on: my Facebook page: M.E. Roche; Instagram: author_meroche; and here on my website: www.meroche.com. I hope you'll join me on the journey!

The search for toots ...

Day #7

Okay...the past few days have been no work and plenty of play. Above are my forever friends: Kathy and Tom (left) and Pam and Michael (right). Time with them means plenty of food, drink and laughter. It's been a wonderful time here near Cincinnati and now I'm on my way to Columbus to see another old friend, Pat, and then on to Chicago on Tuesday, where I'll get back on track with my search--but, not before stopping for brunch with my brother Jack and his wife Phyllis on the way.

In Chicago, I'll be meeting another cousin, Margaret, who has close ties to Toot's family still in Ireland. We've never met before, but I did know her father well when I was growing up in Chicago. Margaret's father, Tom, was one of the brothers--nephews to my grandmother Nellie--who, as I understood it, had stayed with my grandmother when they first came over from Ireland. Tom and my father were cousins, but were also good friends. I look forward to meeting his daughter and will look forward to sharing more information on my next post at the end of the week. Stay tuned.

You can find my posts on: my Facebook page: M.E. Roche; Instagram: author_meroche; and here on my website: www.meroche.com. I hope you'll join me on the journey!

the search for toots...

Day #5

Have spent the past 2 days with my cousin Frank (on the left) and his wife, Jan, in North Carolina, along with Patricia (on the right), my cousin from Virginia. We poured over old family photos and documents and shared many memories. Unfortunately, much of what we found pertained to what our fathers had done working on the family trees—interesting, but not what I had first hoped to find. Then, I re-thought my goal. Background on the family, especially those who had most supported Toots, was important.

Above is the engagement photo of my grandparents, Nellie and Frank. Nellie is the sister--two years older--with whom Toots came into this country—and with whom she later shared her home—and Frank is, I believe the connection that brought Toots and her husband together. I hope to make that more evident as this journey continues. Stay tuned.

You can find my posts on: my Facebook page: M.E. Roche; Instagram: author_meroche; and here on my website: www.meroche.com. I hope you'll join me on the journey!

the search for toots. . .

Day #1

People often ask where I get the idea for a book and most times I can’t really say. This isn’t really the first day of this story, but rather the beginning---that was months ago when for some reason I’m still unable to fathom, I began to think about my great Aunt Annie, who our family called “Toots”. I began to think there was a real story in her life and I soon learned how much of a mystery that was.

Toots had lived with my grandmother—her sister—in Chicago, where we had also lived part of my growing up. She was very quiet and to my young mind, she was always in the background---someone who retreated to the attic shortly after we arrived for a visit. I now understand the reason for this retreat: there were eight of us kids and being in her seventies, she was likely overwhelmed by our activity. I don’t remember ever having had a personal conversation with her, but she always gave each of us a kiss on our arrival. Those were the days when we kissed on the lips and I vividly remember her lips as paper thin and squishy. She must have thought more of me than I ever did of her because she did leave me a savings bond in her will—an unexpected and much appreciated gift at a time I was considering grad school. Maybe remembering her now and sharing her story---because she was special--- will in some small way be paying her back for her kindness all those years ago.

The story I remembered hearing was that she had lost her husband and two sons in a fire. That was, and still is, an incredibly sad story, but I’ve since learned over these past months, that the story wasn’t true. She had somehow met and married a man from Nebraska who died at home of long-term heart problems. They were homesteaders. She did have two sons, but each died in their first year of life. After her husband died, their farm went into foreclosure and she lost everything to the tune of some $14,000---a big sum now, but it must have been incredible in 1935. Foreclosure on a farm was a very common occurrence in those times, I learned---the time of the “dust bowl”, my knowledge of which was centered on Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. There was so much I didn't know, and that led me to research that time period which covered such a vast area in the center of our country.

Some of Toots’ story I’ve gotten from my siblings and cousins---what they remembered; only a few remembered hearing of a fire. Spit-balling the timeline, I couldn’t find anything in the newspapers about a fire that might have killed her family. I turned to Ancestry.com---don’t believe those TV ads! You have to be prepared to spend hours searching their records---lots of information, but it requires lots of time. Anyway…I eventually found her husband’s obituary, which provided a wealth of information, leading to other findings, leading to a decision to do this road trip—to Nebraska. I had to find out more about this woman who had the courage to come over from Ireland as a child of twelve---who worked as a servant in Chicago and married a man from Nebraska---how did that ever happen? And she became a homesteader.

Then what happened after? I had to get the feel of the places where Toots had lived. I had been to where she grew up in Ireland and I’d been to Chicago many times. Tomorrow is day #1 of my road trip to Nebraska and learning more of her story. My plan is to post several times a week on what I see and learn. You can find my posts on: my Facebook page: M.E. Roche; Instagram: author_meroche; and on my website: www.meroche.com. I hope you'll join me on the journey!

End of summer reads . . .

One of my very favorite memories was getting up early one summer morning on the lake where my family was vacationing. I was probably only about 10, but had never been one to sleep in—I’ve never wanted to miss anything. Sitting at the picnic table outside the cottage, dawn was breaking over the lake where a single small boat carried one lone man fishing. What I remember most are the colors: the blues and pinks before the sun took over. It was so peaceful—maybe that’s why it’s stayed with me.

I hope you’ve made some happy memories this summer as well. If you are looking for some last minute reads, I can make a few recommendations—not exactly “beach reads”, but definitely worth your time. The first two authors are well-known--one was new to me and the other has several new books.

· The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. This author was new to me, but I will certainly read more of his work. The story is the beautifully written account of two brothers who have essentially lost everything and make a plan to travel cross country to start their lives over. They plan to follow “the Lincoln highway” that goes from the east to the west coast. Of course no plan goes as planned.

· My second recommendation is to read anything by James Lee Burke, if you have not already read him. I was so happy to see that a “hold” for one of his books had come up, only to discover it was for an actual book, instead of the audio I thought I had requested. No problem. He has written many mysteries—most notably the Dave Robicheaux series. His writing is poetic.

These next two authors are new to me, but I found somewhat unusual takes on their mysteries.

· Killer Routine by Alan Orloff. I found this particularly original in that the main characters work in comedy clubs. There are elements of humor, but there is also action.

· Atropos by Royce Wilson. Written by an expert in forensics, the main character here is a detective. I did ask the author why he made this choice. His response was that the character guided his choice. I often find that as well—that the character guides the direction of the story as I’m writing. I did ask about the title and was told I had to read the book to discover, so I’ll say the same to you! It is worth the read!

Finally. If you are into podcasts, I recently met Cathi and Christie, two women who live on opposite sides of the country, but have a weekly podcast Game of Books that they call “Corks and Conversations”. They interview a different author each week, while they and their author each sip a wine (the same if possible) or beverage of choice. I haven’t been a podcast devotee, but I have really enjoyed those of theirs I have listened to so far!

Have a great end of summer!!

turtle nests . . .

Back in April, I mentioned my concerns that there might be a problem with turtles nesting on our beach, given some work being done dredging one of the passes. Not knowing what the average number of nests was each season, my worry continued into May. Relief came in June as the numbers began to climb and I learned there had been 60 nests last season on the approximate 3.5 stretch of beach covered by the county’s team who monitor these. In April there were 20+ in the 2 mile stretch I walk each Sunday. By the middle of June we were up to 193!

I have seen a steady rise each week and am amazed at the little surge of pleasure I get when I see the higher number posted on the stakes around the cage. And, now I know to look for the footprints (or finprints, as I was reminded this morning) of the mother turtle climbing the bank and then turning around and returning to the water. If these finprints were older than last night, I wouldn’t see them because of our evening thunderstorms. I then know I am looking at a new nest, and I only have to check that number on the stakes. By the middle of July, we were up to 229! This morning we were up to 240! Of interest one week was seeing the finprints come up the beach and then turn and come back down without depositing eggs. Since there doesn’t seem to be any discernible reason as to how a site is chosen—often right next to another nest, or sometimes right in front of the entrance to a property—this is puzzling.

Two weeks ago, I saw the first of the hatchlings. Most of them had left the nest sometime during the night and these were the stragglers—about a dozen. The beach patrol monitor was checking the site and helped them into a container which he then brought down to the water. A hatchling is about 2-3 inches in size as they emerge from their ping pong size egg. The nests usually contain about 100 eggs and approximately 80-90% will hatch after 60 days. This particular nest was right on target as each nest is numbered and tracked. Unfortunately, only about 10% of all hatchlings will make it to adulthood. So out of the 240 nests, each with about 100 eggs, there would be 24,000 potential adult turtles, out of which only 2,400 are likely to survive, if that.

Turtles cannot breathe under water; they must come up every 4 or 5 minutes to breathe with their lungs. The hatchlings can be seen bobbing their heads in and out of the water to breathe, and until they grow, they will be food for any larger species of aquatic life. Turtles are also capable of what is called “cloacal respiration”—sometimes called “butt breathing”. In this case, that area of their body has a multitude of blood vessels which are able to take in oxygen from the water and diffuse carbon dioxide into the water. There’s no end to what one can learn. Right?

I’ve always felt some kinship with turtles, probably beginning with Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare—one of my favorites. I tend to be slow, but I am steady. I’ve also learned the turtle symbolizes many things in different cultures: patience, healing, wisdom, and courage.

We may still get a few new nests and the nests on our beach will continue hatching through late autumn. I did learn the hatchings don’t always occur at night; rather, they are more likely dependent on a drop in temperature. I’m hoping to witness one this season!

A Haunting . . .

"Ghosts live in a state intermediary between this life and the next. They are held there by some earthly longing or affection, or some duty unfulfilled, or anger against the living."

W. B. Yeats

The notion of a haunted house has always been of interest to me, though even after having been on “ghost tours” in several cities, I’ve regrettably never felt the presence of one. I do, however, accept the possibility of ghosts and of life beyond the ones we live. I also believe that ghosts—just like the living—can have pleasant or unpleasant personalities.

Ghosts have certainly been portrayed on film in many different ways: the scary ghosts found in such classics as The Haunting of Hill House, based on the book by Shirley Jackson (1959); the endearing ones in Casper, the Friendly Ghost; the laughable ones in Ghostbusters; the enigmatic one in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense; or the hero in Bruce Joel Rubin’s Ghost. Then there is the new CBS sitcom Ghosts.

For those who believe ghosts do exist, it is usually with the caveat, as Yeats suggested, that there was something left unfinished—something keeping the spirit here on earth. It might be something they needed to tell someone, or it could be something as simple as confusion as to what had happened to them, or it could be there own stubbornness in resisting death. As a nurse, I 've become comfortable with the notion of an afterlife, having been with a number of people nearing death. I don’t know if they all “crossed over”, but I do know there is a transition and that there is often someone waiting to help that person to the other side. Knowing that gives me peace. Unfortunately, that notion didn’t comfort Helena. I hope you enjoy her story.

And don't forget to leave your review!

New Book Coming . . .

Here's the link to getting your copy: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/td37zu54c9