Tuesday's Tip - eBay - Don't Be Stupid, Sparky

Sounds a bit harsh?  I'm not saying don't use eBay to look for lost family treasures or bits or regional memorabilia.  I have searches on eBay that go straight to my Google Reader account.  They're great.  This is more of a tip for those selling the memorabilia on eBay.  Don't insult the item in the title or description.  Don't be stupid, Sparky.  You want to sell it don't you?  This is the item that caught my attention and inspired this brief post:

Difficult to read.  Click to enlarge.

The screen shots are cropped to hide the seller's name and other items he's currently selling, but I think you can see what I'm talking about.  I'm from the Hazleton area.  Born and raised and that is not without embarrassment to say considering the awful state of the area now.  There are truly sweet and wonderful people there, but they are drowned out by the much more prevalent personalities like this one here.  Sad but true.

HINT:  If you want to sell something, even if you don't think it's the best thing in the world, you aren't going to by insulting it.  You should describe it in a way that makes people want to buy it.

Needless to say the item wasn't sold.  Shocker, I know.  There is apparently some deep rooted issues this person has with the items or with the area (although he lives there still so he can't hate the area too much!).  It shouldn't have come out in the attempted sale.  He's at least $8.50 poorer than he would have been if he had described the item properly.  Of course, unless there was something very dear to me in these photos the starting price is more than a little too high.

Ah, well...back to trying to find ephemera on eBay.  It is really a great tool when used properly.  At least he didn't just title it "7 Stupid Photos".  At least with "Hazleton" in the title it popped up on my reader.

I'm on vacation right now, and actually am on the road so no census this week.  I should be back with the 1850 census next Tuesday, but who knows...I may be having way too much fun!

Have fun tending your roots!

Military Monday - Central Texas Casualties 2009

Faces of the departed - 2009

 

Roll Call

SSG Roberto Andrade JR

PFC Lucas M Bregg

SGT Timothy A David

SGT Ezra Dawson

LTC Garnet R Derby

PFC Richard A Dewater

SGT James M Dorsey

SSG Bradley Espinoza

CPL Keith E Essary

2LT Joseph D Fortin

SPC Matthew D Hastings

SPC Albert R Jex

SPC Ryan C King

SGT Christopher M Kurth

PVT Thomas E Lee III

SSG Edmond L Lo

SPC Jeremiah P McCleery

SGT James D Pirtle

SFC Johnny R Polk

SA Jacob I Ramsey

SGT Joshua L Rath

SGT Jeffrey A Reed

PFC Daniel J Rivera

PFC Jonathan R Roberge

SPC Jessica Y Sarandrea

SPC Brandon K Steffey

SPC Shawn D Sykes

PVT Jhanner A Tello

CPL Stephen S Thompson

SPC Jake R Velloza

SSG William D Vile

SPC Demetrius L Void

SGT Joshua A Ward

SSG Leroy O Webster

May our Soldiers come home soon.

Sunday's Obituary - Eli Cayemberg

Eli and Florence Cayemberg nee Villers

 

"ELI CAYEMBERG, 77, IS DEAD AT PULASKI

Resident for 30 Years Succumbs to Heart Attack.

(Special to Press-Gazette)

PULASKI, Wis. - Eli Cayemberg, 77 Pulaski, died suddenly Monday night after a heart attack at his home here where he had lived the last 30 years.

Born in Rosiere July 1, 1861, he had operated a general store, a cheese factory and a blacksmith shop here.  He was treasurer for 12 years of Lincoln school.  Mr. and Mrs. Cayemberg had been married 53 years on April 24.

Surviving are his widow, nee Florence Villers; seven sons, Frank and Walter, Pulaski; Martin, Green Bay; Henry, Manitowoc; Felix, Ensign, Mich.; Wilfred, Manitowoc; and Pat, Green Bay; three daughters, Mrs. Russel Anderson and Mrs. Harvey Moureau, Green Bay, and Mrs. Eli Cravillion, Luxemburg; 31 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 10 o'clock Friday morning at St. Edward and Isadore church in Flintville. Burial will be beside the body of his daughter, Mrs. Emily Guillette, in the Flintville cemetery."

[There is no date on the article, but Eli Cayemberg died on 08MAY1939.  The article appears to have been published in the Green Bay Press-Gazette]

 

Florence and Eli Cayemberg

On the Road!

This morning before the crack of dawn I will have piled in the car with the hubby and kiddos to start our vacation.  We'll be driving from Killeen, Texas to Greentown, Pennsylvania and stopping along the way to enjoy the journey.  Hopefully we'll make it to Nashville, Tennessee for the first night...or at least Memphis.

The boys will be enjoying practicing their new swimming skills in hotel pools and we'll all enjoy a night of camping under the stars at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  We'll celebrate America's beginnings at Williamsburg, Virginia and watch the sun rise over the Atlantic at Virginia Beach before heading over to Fredericksburg to learn about the great war that threatened to tear our country apart 150 years ago.

We'll arrive in Pennsylvania sometime on the 14th which means I won't be on the road when the much anticipated release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 comes out!  I have posts scheduled to go out while I'm traveling and I'll certainly be checking in on everyone's blog posts, tweets and any comments you may leave while I'm on the road.  Gotta love technology!

I'll be diving into the county courthouse of my ancestors for the first time as well as tracking down some obituaries and tombstones, and leaving flowers at the ancestors' gravesites.  My oldest seems to be showing a mild interest in genealogy and our family history right now so I hope I can fan those flames!

As always, have fun tending those roots!

Follow Friday - She Just Leaves Me Amazed

Jenn Woods from Climbing My Family Tree: One Branch at a Time has the most wonderful series of Genealogy for Kids!  If you haven't checked out her series and you've got kids or grandkids that you'd like to get interested in genealogy, you really need to head on over to her blog!

Her first in the series "Family Notebooking Page" has an adorable family tree that your kids can fill in.

The second post "Cemetery Scavenger Hunt" has a wonderful scavenger hunt that can occupy their attention whether they've started reading yet or not!  I can't wait to have my boys use these while we are traipsing around cemeteries in Pennsylvania over the next few weeks.

The third "My Ancestor Notebooking Page" which has spaces for the little ones to fill in dates the ancestor lived, where they lived, historical events they lived through and more.  Really puts your ancestor's live into historical perspective for the kids and is sure to get them asking questions!

And the last is "Jobs of My Ancestors" which has boxes for the kids to draw a pictures of various jobs their ancestors had and label them.  I know I'll have to dig deep for this one in educating my kids...Soldier, teacher, farmer, coal miner...that pretty much sums up the majority of our ancestors!  I'd like to see them draw genealogist though! :)


I can't wait to see what Jenn's going to come up with next!

Treasure Chest Thursday - Another Reason I'm Lucky

Last week I showed you two wonderful scrapbooks that were passed onto me from my mother-in-law.  She got them from her mother-in-law.  Some had articles from World War II and I can't believe I let them sit around without scanning them for so long!  Well, another wonderful gift that I had received at the same time from my mother-in-law was a magnetic photo album filled with funeral cards.  This time they were collected by her mother and passed on.

Some are incredibly delicate

I did rescue the cards from the magnetic photo album they were originally in.  It was touch and go there on a few cards as well, but they all remained in pretty good condition.  They are now safely stored in an archival safe album with photo corners so they can be removed and both sides can be viewed.


I have over 200 memorial cards in that photo album.  A treasure.  I know that they were collected for a reason.  Family members?  Friends?  Parishioners?  Historical events?  Most likely they are all of the above and I just need to figure out which ones are connected with my family.  Regardless of which category they fall into, I'll eventually get each one posted.

One of the most unusual memorial cards I have is for President John F. Kennedy.  No doubt all the Catholic churches handed them out when he died being our only Catholic President.  Just as cards for Pope John Paul II were handed out after he passed.  There were millions, I'm sure, but I still get a kick out of the card!


There was some damage done by the magnetic album, but it didn't destroy any of the cards.  It did ruin some of the beautiful artwork on the cards though.  I love looking at the religious artwork on the cards.  I love seeing the cards written in German and trying to see how much I can make out in that old script.  And I love the cards with pictures of the departed on them.

Damage done by the "glue" on magnetic photo albums

Is it odd to like memorial cards?  Perhaps no more than roaming cemeteries and courthouses.  We genealogists are an odd bunch!

Enjoy tending those roots!

Gorgeous artwork.  Who was he and why did he die in a military camp during WWI?  The Great Flu?

UPDATE:  I just had to do some poking around and found several websites on Camp Sherman, Ohio, one of which (aptly named Ohio History Central) reports a large outbreak of the "Spanish Influenza" where many of the Soldiers died.  The time period would be correct as well.  I think I may be ordering a death certificate.  Strangely enough  don't have anyone in my tree that died of the Influenza Outbreak of 1918 (I hate calling it Spanish Influenza since that name is just so inaccurate).  This would be the first person I've discovered that did succumb to the pandemic.

Gorgeous artwork

Wordless Wednesday - Fine Scratches Removed and Edges Repaired

Before

After

Another picture that I scanned from my step-father's (James Trunzo) side of the family.  I really need to identify the people in the pictures that I scanned though!