Those Places Thursday -- Alcatraz Island

Last week I went to Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay with my children and my Mother-In-Law.  The reason for our adventure was a historic one..............My Mother-in-Law wanted to show all her grandchildren where she grew up!!

That's right, she grew up on the island!  She moved onto the island when she was just 10 months old and lived there until she was 13 years old!

Comerford Family on Alcatraz Island 1943

Here is my MIL (little girl on the left) with her mother Monica, her father Jim and her two sisters Carol (center) and Jeannie (right).

For anyone unfamiliar with Alcatraz, it is an island in the San Francisco Bay with a very rich history.  From 1850 to 1934 Alcatraz was a Military Post protecting San Francisco Bay.  From 1934 to 1963 the island was used as a Federal Penitentiary housing such criminals as Al "Scarface" Capone and Robert Stroud AKA "The Birdman." The years from 1969 to 1971 are known as The Indian Occupation of the island.  Today the island is a National Park were visitors from all over the world can come and learn about the islands rich history.

For my family, our trip to the island held a more personal historical value.  From 1940 to 1953 my Mother-in-Laws father, Jim Comerford,  was a prison guard on the island, and what many people do not realize is the island was home to nearly 40 families during the years it operated as a federal prison.  My Mother-in-Laws family was one of those families.

Here my MIL points to the apartment where she lived during her 13 years on the island.  

Sadly, all that remains of the apartment complexes is rubble.  When my MIL moved onto the island in 1940 the apartments were brand new.  Her family paid $50 a month rent for a fully furnished 3 bedroom apartment.

This was my third trip to the island with my MIL and what is always fun is she gets access to areas closed to the general public because she is a former resident.  Here she posses with her six grandchildren (who were seeing the island for the first time) and our person tour guide Lori, in the back upper deck area of building 64.

This is the view of Building 64 from the front as you approach the island by ferry.

This is the back area of Building 64 which is closed to the general public.

This is another view of the back of Building 64.  When my MIL was living on the island she said all the kids."on the island referred to this area as "Chinatown."

As we waited for our return ferry to San Francisco, my MIL showed all the kids photos of herself and her family that were taken on the island during their 13 years living there.  I'll show those and more pictures and stories of the island in future post.

Who Do You Think You Are on TLC -- Kelly Clarkson

SPOILER ALERT!!

Last night launched the new season of Who Do You Think You Are? now on TLC.

In the premier episode we follow singer Kelly Clarkson as she traces the life of her 3x Great-Grandfather Isiah Rose.

Kelly first sits down with her mother, who has been tracing their family roots, so Kelly can get an idea of who/where to start.  She focuses on her 3x Great-Grandfather Isiah Rose.

We follow Kelly as she discovers Isiah was a 2x civil war enlisty, who during his second enlistment is captured at the Battle of Decatur and is held prisoner at the awful Andersonville Prison Camp.

While meeting with the Park Ranger for Andersonville, she discovers Isiah escaped while being transferred to a prison in Savannah only to be shot by a fellow union soldier as he returned to his regiment.

Kelly later finds Isiah became a senetor for Ohio and worked to get a Temperance Bill passed only to fail in a reelection.

Kelly then makes her way to the final resting place of Isaih and discovers many other Rose ancestors in the same cemetery.

At the close of Kelly's journey she returns to Nashville to meet with her mother and share all she has learned about Isiah Rose.

While I enjoyed the adventure and road of discover Kelly went on, Kelly herself drove me crazy!!  At times she seemed very immature such as upon finding the gravesite of Isiah she says "What's Up?"  To me very juevinile.

I am eager to see next weeks episode featuring Christina Applegate.

Wordless Wednesday -- Vintage Truck

Tombstone Tuesday -- Masssara

This is the headstone of my step-great-grandparents Joseph and Adelina Massara.

Jospeh died long before I was born, but I was five years old when Adelina passed away one month after her 90th birthday.

I remember her being a very tiny women with little to no hair, who wore a bandanna on her head and didn't speak a word of English.  Although my step-father said she did speak English when he was growing up, but as she aged she reverted to speaking only in Italian.

Friday Faces From the Past -- Giuseppe "Joseph" Massara

This is my Step-Great-Grandfather Giuseppe "Joseph" Massara.

I believe this phot of Joseph was taken in the early 1940's in San Anselmo California.

The resemblance to my step-father is incredible!

Bloggers Helping Bloggers

A couple days ago (July 13th to be exact) I found a genealogy blog The Olive Tree Genealogy written by Lorine McGinnis Schulze.  I spent about an hour reading various post and easily became hooked.

After reading several post I discovered another blog written by Lorine called Ask Olive Tree Genealogy.  Here her readers can email her questions and ask for assistance in their genealogy research.

I decided to ask Lorine for any tips and advice regarding research on my Great-Great-Grandfather Henry Arthur Bolton, who first immigrated to Canada before moving into the United States.  I have hit many brickwalls in my quest to find evidence of Henry in Canada and locating his arrival in the US.

After submitting my email request, I received an automated response email confirming my submission had been received at Ask Olive Tree Genealogy.  Below is what the email reponse stated......

"Thanks for submitting a genealogy question to AskOlive Tree!
I can't send a personal response but if your query is chosen, I will
answer it on my blog Ask Olive Tree at
http://AskOliveTree.blogspot.com/
Not all queries are chosen. I wish I could choose every one but the
number of questions makes that impossible.
Your query stands a better chance of being chosen if you follow a few
simple "Good Query" rules:
1. Make your query concise and to the point
2. Provide NAMES, DATES and FULL LOCATIONS
3. Tell me WHERE you have searched already
4. Tell me exactly what you want to find
*** Please feel free to respond to this email and provide details if
you think you left them out the first time.
There are two ways to find out if or when your query is answered.
1. Watch for weekly updates on my Olive Tree Genealogy newsletter. You
will receive emails approximately once per week. To subscribe to this
free newsletter, go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OliveTreeGenealogy/
Follow the instructions given at that page.
2. Keep checking http://AskOliveTree.blogspot.com/ to see if your
query is posted. It can take weeks before you see it so don't give up.
Good luck and I wish you genealogical success!"



So with that I was ready to wait and see what would come of my request.

Then yesterday, I was reading through blogs I subscribe to via email, The Olive Tree Genealogy Blog being one of them and imagine my utter and excited surprise when I found the recent post was about my inquiry to Ask Olive Tree Genealogy!!!

Lorine gave me so many great tips on tracking down additional information on Henry Bolton, that I can't wait to dig in and see what I can find!! I will be keeping Lorine updated and I will be discussing my quest here at Telling Their Tales as well. 

If you are in search of another genealogy blog to follow, and have not already found Lorine's sites, I highly recommend them!!!!

New weekly blog topic....Monday Memories

In an effort to be more active with this blog I will be posting every Monday under the title of Monday Memories.

Monday Memories will be post about my own person history and memories.  Each week I will focus on a different topic such as my favorite toys to my memories of my Grandparents and everything in between.

If you would like to join me on Mondays and post about your own person memories of the topic of the week,  please do so!!, Don’t forget to add your link on Telling Their Tales for other bloggers to find you.

The topic for this week, and a fitting one I think, is “My First Memory.”

The earliest memory, or memories, I have all take place in late 1973 to early 1974.  I say memories because I don’t really know which is my “first” memory, but they all take place at the same location…..my Grandparents home in Novato, California.

Following my father’s death in September 1973, we moved to my Grandparents home.  My Grandparents were living in the Bahamas at the time and my Uncle, my Mom’s brother, was living in their home in California.  Being a sudden widow with five kids and no means of income my Mom took priority as needing the home and my Uncle moved to an apartment.

I have three significant memories from living at Drakewood Lane in Novato.   When we moved in I was about 10months old and walking and we lived here until I was about 3 years old and my Grandparents returned from the Bahamas.

One memory takes place in the living room.  I was standing between the couch and the coffee table when I saw a red candy on the table.  I clearly remember putting the candy in my mouth and immediately spitting it out.  It was Yucky!  I recall the candy falling on the beige carpet and leaving a little red stain.  As an adult I’m pretty sure the “candy” was in fact a red Sudafed.  I can remember I was wearing white and yellow footy pajamas.

The next memory takes place in the front entryway of the house.  Just inside the front door on the left side was the entrance to our kitchen.  I remember my older sister, who was about 9 years old, was standing in the kitchen entrance and I was standing in the front door entrance.  She had a coin in her hand and she was showing it to me.  Next thing I knew she put the coin in her mouth and “swallowed” it!! I can clearly remember feeling complete amazement that she was able to do that!!  As an adult I can identify he coin as a dime and I don’t think she really swallowed it.  My sister however does not recall this encounter.

My final memory from my very early years takes place in front of the house.  I was sitting on the book rack over the back tire of my older sisters’ bike, a different sister from the previous memory who was about 12 years old.  She was riding me up and down the street.  At some point my foot got caught in the spokes of the back tire!  I can vividly remember screaming in pain!!  My sister attempted to get my foot out, but could not.  Our next door neighbor, who had been tinkering in his garage came out and had to cut the spokes of the tire in order to get my little foot out.  My sister recalls this event as well and she remembers feeling absolutely terrified and so afraid she was going to get in trouble……although she can’t recall if she did or not and our Mom does not remember this event at all.

Do yo have a blog post about your First Memory?  Link up here if you do!!