My Father’s hobby was photography and he was good at it. He’d set up the camera and we’d pose, leave a spot empty for him. Timer set, he’d hustle into his spot and VOILA! We’d have our Christmas Picture. So it was in 1949. This blog is about the tree as much as it is…
When my father died in 1990 I inherited a ragtag collection of photographs, letters and Bibles. They were all from his Grandfather, my Great-Grandfather, Edwin Alfonso Niess. Among this collection are a few pictures of homes the family lived in during the Washington D.C. stage of their lives. In November of 1889, Edwin moved from Harrisburg,…
Water can be beautiful. I have fallen asleep listening to the sea through an open window, water-skied (in my youth!) on beautiful Lake Mead, and seen many awe inspiring waterfalls, including this one on Rt. 100 in mid-state Vermont. That is until Hurricane Irene! She started up from the south creating havoc as she went.…
It’s a bad flood. Central Pennsylvania was hit hard. The rain didn’t stop and it wasn’t just rain, it was a torrential rain! Estimates are over 12″ of rain with river banks overflowing and basements flooded. Twenty seven feet above flood stage! Some are comparing it with the 1889 flood, a record that may be…
Yes, Dad would have been 96 years old today, if only . . . According to his birth certificate, he was born at midnight on September 4, 1915 at Sibley Hospital in Washington D.C., a hospital still in existence today. William Francis Sherman, Jr. was the first child born to the marriage of William Francis…
My great-grandparents, Edwin and Carrie Niess once owned a home on Crittendan Street in the District of Columbia. That address is mentioned in a lot of correspondence of Edwin’s and noted on the back of a lot of pictures. I knew the home must have been larger than it looked in the snapshot I found…
Some people will go to any lengths to get that one little piece of information that they are looking for. I am one of them. My husband drove to Stroudsburg, over 200 miles roundtrip, not once but twice, so I could find George H. Auxer’s headstone! But perhaps I should start at the beginning of…
Since I am both a postcard collector and a family historian, I had to buy this postcard, hoping there was a name or two on it that just might connect into my family. Alas, the only words on the back of it are in the title of this blog.Can you help identify anybody in this…
Our house from across the street ~ want to buy it?? Jim trying to open Linda F’s gate ~ we finally went around to the garage where we had the garage door opener 1 PM in the afternoon ~ impress you?? Outdoor dining anyone? Not today. . . . . . . and a final…
With cards and supplies for Mother’s party shipped to California, it was time for us to follow them! We left Philly mid-morning on Sunday and arrived around 6PM in Ontario, California to a greeting via the pilot “welcoming Blaine’s father back home!” Yup, our son was on duty at the Tower and had been the…
