Clara Etta Wilson (my paternal great grandmother) was born on 27 Jul 1877 in Geneva, Nebraska as the third child of George Franklin Pierce Wilson and Nancy Minerva Lightbody. She had six siblings, namely: George Franklin, Charles Isaac, Dollie Elizabeth, Clarence Cornelius, Jessie May, and Maude Lovina. When she was 18, she married Wirt Wells Fuller, son of DeWitt C. Fuller and Augusta S. Wells, on 24 Dec 1895 in Andrew, Missouri. Wirt and Clara had four children, two of which survived to adulthood. Their children were Gladys Fae Fuller born on 03 Feb 1897 in Savannah, Missouri; Bertha and Dollie Fuller born on 18 Mar 1899 in Omaha, Nebraska (sadly the twins died on 20 Mar 1899) and Ruth Frankie Fuller( my grandmother) born on 05 Nov 1900 in Omaha, Nebraska. Clara died on 03 Apr 1966 in Geneva, Nebraska at the age of 88.
El Paso, Texas. I lived in El Paso as a child from 1959 through 1965. Most of my first memories are from there. We lived on the outskirts of town in an area called Loma Terrace. We lived on Loma Terrace Drive, went to Loma Terrace Elementary School and even swam at the Loma Terrace Pool. Within a block of our house was the desert. It was always a big adventure every time we took off into the desert. In those days, you could pretty much go where-ever you wanted during the day, as long as you were home for dinner.
This is a picture of the house we lived in, along with our station wagon, Cecil! We always named our cars. This one was after the show “Beanie and Cecil”, where Cecil was a dragon. Our favorite show. That’s my Dad and my sisters standing outside. The house always seemed huge to me. There were 3 bedrooms. My mom worked at the time, sending shock waves through the neighborhood! We had a live-in maid from Mexico that stayed with us during the week and then returned back home on weekends. Her name was Maria. She had her own room at our house…there were five kids, my parents and Maria. We three girls shared the master bedroom. I remember that my mom hung a fish net with shells in the master bathroom, as decoration, that just scared us girls silly. We would never use that bathroom at night. We would wake up one of our parents to take us to the bathroom across the hall! My two brothers shared a room, Maria had her own room and my parents slept out on the fold-out couch in the living room! What an arrangement. The backyard had a patio that my dad made using mexican tiles. It was beautiful. There were also 7 trees in back. One for each of us…we used to say. There was also an alley that ran behind the houses. Another great place to play.
My dad worked for an oil company and one thing about oil companies is that they transfer their employees around about every 5 years. So off we moved to Denver Colorado. Never thought I would see this house again. But when I was older and driving from Houston to San Francisco, my younger sister and I stopped off in El Paso. What an eye opener it was… We hardly recognized the place and it seemed so tiny. The desert was now subdivisions. The neighborhood was run down. We were both so disappointed. Almost wished we hadn’t stopped. But one thing it did was make the long drive onward much more enjoyable as we reminisced about our memories of how things used to be in our little part of El Paso.
My parents (Earl Eugene Pyatt, 1922-2010 and Zella Stephens Pyatt, 1928-2009) met in 1947 at the University of New Mexico. They were both in the college band. My Dad played the tuba while Mom played the oboe. Their first date was when the band traveled down to Las Cruces for a football game and Dad asked Mom to the dance afterwards. My Mom had to borrow a prom dress from a friend and she and my Dad danced the night away. They rode back on the bus together. My Dad went on to get his degree in Music/Education and became of high school band teacher in Santa Fe, New Mexico. During their early marriage my Dad played with many different groups/bands…in the first home that they built there was a stage. Only after four of us were born and another was on the way did my Dad realize that he would have to find another profession to support this growing family. He returned to college and obtained his degree in Chemical Engineering. All of us kids played instruments. My Dad would compose music that we all played together. We attended weekly symphony concerts. He never lost his love of music. One of his most enjoyable times in later years was when my brother and I would visit him at his assisted living apartment and my brother would play classical music on the piano in the main entertainment room just for him.
My father was a prisoner of war during WWII. First in the Philippines and then later in Japan. He enlisted January 6, 1941 (he was 17 years old at the time) and was later shipped to the Philippine Islands aboard the SS President Coolidge. He was not there very long before the war broke out. He was interned at first in the Philippines then later taken to Nagoya #6B Nomachi (Takaoka), Japan where he shoveled ore into furnaces. He suffered from scurvy, pellagra, and beriberi while there. His liberation and return to the United States occurred in October of 1945. Although he was not hospitalized immediately after liberation, he eventually required treatment for his various illnesses.
These pictures are of his reunion with his mother, step father, and step brother.
My grandmother kept a diary while my Dad was gone. I will be posting some of her entries as we go along over the next few weeks. Here are a couple of entries that should get us up to date. These entries were from 69 years ago.
“April 9 Fri ’43
One year ago today Bataan fell to the Japs. Still no word of Earl. Glad Herskins sent a paper (Santa Fe) telling of Clarks [Air Force base] and being there. He told a lot about our boy. Can only hope & pray I will hear soon that Earl is safe. Felt pretty low. Warmer today. Some wind.
April 11 Sun ’43
Swell day. My day off. Harley worked – so did I – at home. Washed bath room walls & ceiling. Also curtains. Never left apartment. Wrote six letters and two cards. Made candy.
April 13 Tues ’43
Well at last the long wait for news is over. Received telegram that Earl is a prisoner of war in the P.I. Sure a big relief. Telegram was under door when we returned from work at midnight. Was delivered at 5 p.m. Swell day.
April 14
Cloudy. Took aspirin but still couldn’t sleep last night. Was after 4 a.m. before sleep came. Arose 11 a.m. Every one told me today I looked 10 yrs younger. One said she would like to see what I looked like when Earl came home. I replied they would put me in diapers then.
April 15
Mailed lots of letters to friends & relatives about Earl. Must wait for further information, address, etc before I can write to Earl.”
I can’t even begin to imagine what this must have been like for her. My son is now 21 and I can’t imagine not knowing or seeing him for such a long period of time.
Been a while since I posted to my blog. I have been so engrossed in both researching and indexing the 1940 census that became available on April 2nd. In researching I have found so much, but have plenty more to find! Indexing has been fun and challenging. Some of the handwriting in those days was atrocious! But Familysearch.org has put a lot of thought into their indexing software. Really makes it easy to use.
So far, I have found both my parents, 2 set of grandparents (out of 3), along with various cousins, brothers, and step brothers of my parents. I have also located my mother-in-law in Philadelphia. I got lucky with my mother-in-law. My husband had the address of the house she grew up in. The 1940 U.S. census at the National Archives is set up to where you can search down to the street level and crossroads. Lo and behold there she was as a teenager in that house!
Earl E. Pyatt - 1940s 16-17 years old
I found my Dad yesterday. That was quite a thrill! I thought he was probably already in the Army and stationed at Ft. Hood in Texas. I remember that he told me that shortly before he enlisted his mom, step dad, and step brothers had moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I had resigned myself to the possibility that it wouldn’t be easy to find him on the 1940 census. I would have to wait for the indexing to be done. So at this point I decided to just look for my grandmother and family. Santa Fe had 23 enumerated districts in 1940. Each one with 2-36 census pages. I thought to myself, well this isn’t as bad as some of the larger cities. I took a deep breath and began my search. On the first page of 11th district I spotted my dad’s stepbrother, Nolan! Ah ha! Here they are! Found you! As I glanced up the page looking for my grandmother, there was my Dad! He was 17 years old and had graduated high school! He had worked during the week of March 24-30th for 31 hours and earned $27.00 in 1939. The census taker does not list his occupation or industry. Even better, he was one of the 2 people on each page that was picked for supplemental questions. Unfortunately, those questions weren’t that helpful as the census taker must have misunderstood what information he was to collect. Under Birthplace of Father and Birthplace of Mother, the census taker had actually written the names of my Dad’s parents! He did that on all of his pages! The supplemental questions did show that my Dad did not have a social security number at that point and that English was the language spoken in his childhood.
I feel fortunate to have been able to locate some of my immediate family. Primarily because they all came from small towns in the West. But some folks are still looking for their relatives in major cities where currently there are tons of census records to glean through!
All 50 states are available for indexing. A lot has been done so far, but there is still time to help with completing this project! Please head to this link 1940 U.S. Census Community Project and sign up to start indexing. The more that index, the sooner all the states will be available for name searches! Be a part of history!
Disclosure: As part of the1940census.com ambassador program this blog post enters me into a drawing for $100 VISA gift card.
Slowly but surely the images of the 1940 Census are becoming available online. It will take some time for all the images to be uploaded. So have patience…we have waited this long!
Remember – there is still a need for volunteers to index the images – be a part of history – sign up today at the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project!
“Browse images for: Delaware“Unlike previous census years, images of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census will be made available as free digital images.”THE 1940 CENSUS IMAGES ARE NOW RELEASED! On April 2, 2012, NARAreleased the digital images of the 1940 Unites States Federal Census after a 72 year embargo. These census images will be uploaded and made available on Archives.com, FindMyPast.com, and FamilySearch.org.”
“Progress of the 1940 Census on Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com took delivery of the 1940 census from the National Archives at 12:01 a.m. on April 2, 2012. Currently we are in the process of loading all 3.8 million census images online. Once an image is online, you can browse it to see the information included on that page. When all images are uploaded, you’ll be able to browse by enumeration district (see below for more information) to find your family’s neighborhood.
Below is the current image status by state:
It’s almost here! It’s getting closer every day! Only 4 more days!
April 2nd is the day many genealogists have been waiting for…the release of the 1940 US Census.
Archives.com has created a quick infographic to help you find your family right away, once the census is released. Check it out below!
Don’t forget – Familysearch.org is still looking for indexers to assist the indexing the 1940 US Census. Once that is completed it will be much easier for all of us to find members of our families. To become a member of the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project and help index click here.
Mountainair, New Mexico. Small town with a population of approximately 1200. This picture is of, what we called as kids, “The Farm”. That is my grandmother, Rae, on my maternal side at the gate along with her sister Nadine on the fence. On the porch, her mother, Besse, her father, Ralph, and her brother, Nolan.
Below is a portion of a transcript written by my maternal grandmother, Letha Rae Stewart Stephens on her memories of life in Mountainair, New Mexico.
“…As the second December (1908) rolled around I arrived in a tent during a snow storm of such depth that Dr. Black had difficultly negotiating the trip on horseback to attend the event.
Next summer a two-room house was built. One room was papered with blue building paper, the other with newspapers and pages of catalogues glued with flour paste.
Our needs were procured from W.R. Orme Grocery, Howard Griffin Drugs and Dunlavy Mercantile. We hauled our water from the Ranger Station wells.
Under the supervision of Mr. Carscallan, Forest Ranger, my father helped plant pine trees on burned over land in the Manzano mountains, also survey part of southwestern Torrance County.
Steam engines on the newly constructed railroad often lost chunks of coal as they sped around curves; several families augmented their weekly fuel by retrieving this coal. On such a trip I recall how we were just ready to start home when one horse broke loose and took off, leaving us only one horse to pull a wagon of coal, a difficult six-mile trip.
In summer large crowds attended Chautauqua meetings in town. There were big Fourth of July celebrations with a bandstand set up in the center of Broadway, which played lively music all day and evening. County Fairs at Willard were well attended. Many times after bean crops were laid by there would be a week of camping for us. It took a long day to make the trip by wagon to Red Canyon campground with lunch at Manzano Springs. Many lumber wagons passed our house daily on their way from mountain sawmills to lumber yards in town where lumber was in demand.”
This house is no longer there…but my Uncle now owns the land and has built his own place on it. It’s nice to know that it will continue to be in the family for many more generations.
“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: One is roots, the other is wings.” Teaching children values and giving them the opportunity to excel is essential to good parenting. However, I feel I must also provide my children (and myself) insight into the ones who came before us: our ancestors whose lives and stories have shaped us into who we are. This is my journey; these are their stories…
Kathi O'Neill Genealogy 