Wedding Wednesday - Golden Anniversary for Mr. and Mrs. John Nellis

"Golden Wedding - Mr. and Mrs. John W. Nellis, 1521 Smith St., celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently. They have two daughters, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren."

I love seeing people married for this long, but I don't miss the days when they wouldn't give the woman's first name. I don't know who they are or why this clipping was in my family's scrapbook. I can make an educated guess based on cities/towns that my husband's family lived in. Doing that I found a John Nellis in the SSDI that could be a match. He died in Luxemburg, Kewaunee County and was born in 1901 which certainly makes him old enough to have married in 1920. I could look him up in census records, but I wouldn't know if I was on the right track. Rather than wasting that time on a "maybe" I've put the John Nellis from the SSDI in my research calendar and I'll pull his obituary when I get back to Wisconsin. I'll let the obit tell me if I have the right person.

Amanuensis Monday - The Obituary of William Nellis

Another Nellis clipping from my family scrapbook, but it doesn't really get me too much closer to whether they belong in my tree. There are Hermans in my tree but that line is poorly developed. Perhaps this obituary will come in handy in the future. Who knows?

"(Handwritten Oct 24, 1971)

William Nellis

William Nellis, 83, Dyckesville, died at home Sunday morning after a short illness. The son of the late Oliver and Emily Nellis married Katherine Bodart oct. 2, 1912. The couple farmed in Dyckesville until retirement about 15 years ago. Mr. Nellis was clerk for the Martinsville School from 1935 to 1955. He was preceded in death by one brother, Jule, and three sisters, Adele Hermans, Mary Prevost, and Odile Hermans.

Survivors are his wife; one son, Donald, Green Bay; four daughters, Mrs. Walter (Odile) Ducat, and Mrs. Edwin (Evelyn) Legois, both of Champion; Mrs. Marvin (Caroline) Jonet, Bay Settlement; Mrs. Wilfred (Virgil) Jonet, Dyckesville; 16 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; three brothers, Antone and John, both of Green Bay; Goldie, Forestville; one sister, Mrs. Norman (Laura) Robson, Algoma.

At Malcore Funeral Home after 7 this evening. Rosary each evening at 8, Tuesday by the Rev. Damian Wieber. Funeral 10 a.m. Wednesday, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Champion. Burial in church cemetery."

So the obituary did mention a Donald Nellis. The bigger question is if this is the Donald Nellis I blogged about earlier?

Sunday's Obituary - Leonard Lewis Tabor

Leonard Lewis Tabor, Hazleton High School
Senior Class Picture

My uncle passed away about two and a half years ago. I was in and out of my blog around that time and I never got to memorialize him with more than just a photo. Fortunately my godparents sent me a copy of his obituary back in November 2012. As I was going through items that needed to be sorted I came across it and decided that it was long past time to memorialize him.

"Leonard L. Tabor

Nov. 12, 2012

Leonard L. Tabor, 68, of Hazleton passed away Monday at Mountain City Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; Hazle Township.

Born in Scranton on March 10, 1944, he was the son of the late Clarence and Florence (Bronsaviage) (sic) Tabor. He was a 1962 graduate of Hazleton High School and spent all of his life in Hazleton.

Hazleton Standard Speaker - 26NOV2012, A2

Leonard was employed as a truck driver for Central Penn Transit and was a member of St. John the Baptist Polish National Catholic Church, Hazleton. He served with the U.S. Army Reserves, Hazleton; was an avid hunter, fisherman, and fan of NASCAR and the Chicago Bears. Surviving are his brother, Paul, West Hazleton; nieces, Michele Ranzan, Saylorsburg; Cherie Cayemburg (sic), Colorado; and Aimee Inama, Iowa; an aunt, Lillian Rominski, Scranton; and cousins, Carolyn Smith, Lillian Hasenzahl, and Shirley Leach, all of Scranton; Barbara Holtzman, Lake Ariel; Stanley Rominski, Clark Summit; Barbara Bronsavage, Ewing, N.J.; and Mary Ann Billig, Hazleton.

A Memorial Mass will be held at a later date in St. John the Baptist Polish National Catholic Church, 748 N. Church St., Hazleton. The Rev. Bogdan Janiec will celebrate the Mass. Interment took place privately in Mountain View Cemetery, West Hazleton, where the Rev. Janiec gave the final blessing.

Harman Funeral Homes and Crematory Inc. (West), 1265 Rock Glen Road, Rock Glen, assisted the family with the arrangements. Online condolences can be entered and more information is available at www.harmanfuneral.com."

A pretty poor obituary and my uncle deserved better. I got to call and say good-bye to him just days before he passed. He couldn't talk anymore. Just listen, but my boys and I got to tell him that we loved him one last time. He was such a good man. I loved my uncle very much. Seeing his obituary just made me ask so many questions and make so many snarky comments. Snarky in that Bronsavage was spelled wrong in regards to his mother's maiden name, but correctly for his cousin. My surname spelled incorrectly as well. Did no one proof-read this article before it was run? Questions regarding his military service...as in...really he served? I've never seen a photo of him in uniform. I've never heard it discussed. The statement that he served in the Army Reserves with no rank or when he served is a big thing to overlook as far as this veteran is concerned.

Maybe I'm just being grumpy. You see the whole "private" interment that took place was nonsense. The obituary was published in the Hazleton Standard Speaker on November 26th 2012. So none of his nieces knew he died until he was buried. My uncle had the surviving family mentioned in the obituary, but they didn't see him regularly. Were they called and given the opportunity to go to the interment? He lived in Pennsylvania almost his entire life. Plenty of people never escape that city. Would people he went to high school with have wanted to attend? Would coworkers from Penn Transit have wanted to? Whether they would have gone or not will always be a mystery because his brother decided to make the burial "private."

I guess there's no use crying over dysfunctional family members. At least I've been able to visit his grave. I go each time I return home. My uncle is "on my rounds" for placing flowers. He's next to his mom and dad and I see that the gravestone has room for my dad when he goes too. I've created a FindAGrave memorial for him too so others that may be interested in saying goodbye to this loving man can do just that.

I hope to find a picture of him in uniform someday, but I'm not overly hopeful. Maybe someone will come across this blog that served with him and be able to share one so I can put him in my Veterans Day post properly. Although until I know details about his enlistment it won't really be properly noted.

Nothing makes a genealogist/family historian grumpier than a dysfunctional family with a poorly written obituary.

Tabor tombstone at Mountain View Cemetery, West Hazleton, PA

Funeral Card Friday - Peter Colle

Funeral Card - Peter B Colle (reverse)

Funeral Card - Peter B Colle

Last week I shared a memorial card for Terry Delveaux and in my search to discover who he was and if he belonged in my tree I came across the name Peter Colle. Peter Colle was Terry's step-mother's second husband. So no relation to Terry, but I also had Peter's card so I thought it would be a good time to share it.

Peter Bernard Colle was born on June 7, 1923 and died on February 18, 1989. You can find him on Ancestry.com in the SSDI and the Wisconsin Death Index. There is even a memorial created for him on FindAGrave. I can see by the memorial not only was he Joyce's second husband, but she was his second wife. I'll be pulling his obituary to get more information. I'm not silly enough to simply take the word of a FindAGrave family link, but it gives me something to search for.

Rest in peace, Peter.

Wedding Wednesday - Donald Nellis

As I was looking to match up the funeral card of Terry Delveaux to someone in my family tree I came across the obituaries for his father, Richard Delveaux, and his step-mother, Joyce Colle-Delveaux nee Cravillion. Joyce and Richard were already in my tree so the obituaries helped to figure out who Terry was. One thing that caught my eye was that I had Joyce married three times in my tree, but when I looked at her obituary there were only two husbands mentioned, Peter Colle and Richard Delveaux, both of whom predeceased her. In my tree her first husband was Donald Nellis and they are listed as having divorced. It's telling that he wasn't mentioned in her obituary especially since they had a daughter together. In fact as far as I can tell it was the only child Joyce had, but her father was omitted from the obituary.

The information on this line in my family tree originally came from the family tree that was compiled and distributed by the Cayemberg-Villers Family Reunion. So I was fairly certain it was accurate as the information on family members in it isn't the result of research but of first-hand knowledge. I still get supporting documents for these members as I go through. Dates can be transcribed wrong and names can be misspelled. Pulling the obituaries mentioned above actually helped to add some sources by their names in my family tree. If someone were to be researching this line though without access to our family tree, Donald could be easily over-looked and placing her daughter with the correct father (or any father) could become challenging. My assumption is that Donald was persona non grata after their divorce. Not too surprising. We're human and it happens.

The fact he wasn't mentioned in the obituary was certainly enough to pique my interest, but that wasn't the only thing. I've seen that surname before. I couldn't remember where though. A quick search of my memorial cards and I couldn't find it. Looking at Richard's obituary I saw that his mother's name was Nellis and while that was incredibly interesting it wasn't where I had seen the name before. So I pulled out the scrapbooks and inside there were several clippings concerning the Nellis family. I'll be diving into them in the future.

So far nothing showing Donald and Joyce's wedding. What I could find on Donald was that he died in  1995. The Wisconsin Death Index and the SSDI give his birth and death information and FindAGrave has a memorial for him (without a tombstone photo). I'll be pulling his obituary from the Green Bay Press-Gazette when I get back to Wisconsin.

I went back and reread the information in Joyce's obituary and saw it. The bit of information that would help me confirm the marriage...Judith, Joyce and Donald's daughter, died before her mom. I searched Ancestry and found in the SSDI that Judith died in Green Bay on March 29, 2008 and was born on February 20, 1942. The birth date matches the one in my family tree which helps confirm I have the right person. There was also a memorial for her on FindAGrave. The memorial has a transcription of her obituary which lists her father as Donald Nellis. More it says, "to Donald and Joyce (Cravillion) Nellis," which is the obituary's way of showing the marriage. Judith's obituary is also still posted on Proko-Wall Funeral Home's website.

Even though I found Donald and confirmed he belongs in my tree I'll still pull his obituary. I want to see if Joyce is mentioned in his obituary with perhaps a date that they married. If I find that I can pull a wedding notice out of the paper (if there was one). In my family tree I only have that they married in 1942. Of course I don't know where they were married. Perhaps in Pulaski where Joyce was originally from. I could try to search records there for January and February of 1942 to see if anything was put in before Judith's birth. My guess would be that if the marriage did happen in 1942 that it most likely happened before Judith was born, but I could be wrong. Either way I've made the connection and that's enough for right now.

Amanuensis Monday - Four Generations

Clipping from unknown paper dated 22AUG1944

Since I was preparing posts about the Nellis clippings/information I have I thought I'd start with this one (more in-depth stuff to come on Wednesday). As I was looking for and scanning clippings of everything Nellis I came across this one. I wasn't sure which day and blogging prompt would best suit this clipping so I opted for Amanuensis Monday. If it weren't for  Amanuensis Monday I never would have learned how to spell "amanuensis"...and would have just shared the clip some place else.

"The little girl in the foreground is Judith Nellis, representing the fourth generation of a Dyckesville family. At the left is her father, Donald Nellis. In the center is her grandmother, Mrs. Willie Nellis, and at the right is her great grandmother, Mrs. Gregory Bodart of Champion."

I don't know if Donald Nellis ever moved far from home during his lifetime. I still have pulling his obituary on my research calendar. I suppose I may find out then. What I do know is that he is buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery in Champion, Wisconsin. Maybe he stayed close to home. I know that I have clippings for the surname Bodart in my collection too. Perhaps I need to start sharing and exploring them. After all could my husband's grandmother really have only kept Bodart clippings because a cousin married a Nellis and his grandmother was a Bodart? Who knows, but there could be more to it. I'll be sure to investigate that surname soon!

Sunday's Obituary - Mary Villers nee LaCrosse

Unknown newspaper clipping*

"Mrs. Frank Villers

ROSIERE - Mrs. Frank Villers, 70, Rosiere, died Sunday afternoon at her home. The former Mary LaCrosse was born April 1, 1882, and married Frank Villers on May 20, 1913. Her husband died on Sept. 1, 1954, and four brothers and one sister also preceded her in death. She was a member of the Alter Society.

Survivors include one son, Louis, at home; one grandson, Marvin Villers; two great-grandchildren; one brother, Felix LaCrosse, Algoma; two sisters, Mrs. Emily Bero and Mrs. John Monfils, both of Rosiere.

Friends may call at Wiesner-Massart Funeral Home, Casco, after 6 tonight. The Rosary will be recited at 8 tonight and Tuesday evening. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Hubert Church, Rosiere, with the Rev. A. C. Kenny in charge. Burial will be in the parish cemetery.

(Handwritten - Mar 24, 1963)"

I blogged Frank Villers' obituary back in 2011. At the time I didn't know where Frank fit into my family tree. That mystery has been solved and he and his parents are placed neatly and securely in my tree. I just needed time to work on it. In the research I happened to find some other interesting morsels which I will share in a future post. Both Frank as well as Mary have memorials and tombstone photos in FindAGrave.

*This clipping was taken from a family scrapbook that was passed on to me. It isn't known which newspaper the clipping was taken from. The handwritten date appears to be the date of death and not the date that the obituary was published.