Sunday, June 19, 2011

Searching for Sina - Sina's Little Book of Pictures - Part 5

Here are the next two pages from Sina Bellinger Kelly's Little Book of Pictures.

Unknown Child, Vivian Cline
At this writing, I have not found any historical documents about Vivian Cline.

Edith Findley (Finlay)
Sina has identified this lady as Edith Findley. However, I had to use alternate spellings of her surname to locate some census records for Sina's friend.

The World War I draft registration card for Edith's husband, Austin Don Finlay, is dated June 5, 1917. Mr. Finlay indicates he has a wife who is a "prospective mother." Since this document has his signature, I will assume the correct spelling is Finlay. Mr. Finlay died February 1, 1964.

The 1920 census shows Edith and her husband, Austin, living in Waverly, Lancaster county Nebraska with their two year old son, Howard. Austin is a farmer.

In 1930, Edith was 40 years old and living with her husband, Austin, a farmer in Mill Precinct, Lancaster county, Nebraska. Mill Precinct is located adjacent to Cass county, Nebraska, where Sina and her husband lived. The couple has a 12 year old son, Howard.

A 1937 newspaper obituary states that Edith sang at a funeral service at the Methodist church in Greenwood, Nebraska.

The social security death index indicates that Edith died in May 1978, her last residence being in Louisville, Cass county, Nebraska.

I've yet to find a reference to Edith's maiden name.

More photos from Sina's Little Book of Pictures will be posted soon.

5 comments:

  1. This series is quite interesting! I note the Cass County, Nebraska reference; I have ancestry who lived in the Weeping Water area about 1880, a farmer named Frank Day and his wife, Melinda (Fuller) Day. He came from Sheffield, Lorain County, Ohio, and she was from southern Michigan.

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  2. Daniel - thank you for commenting! My ancestors and other family members moved around Cass, Lancaster, Saunders and Douglas counties quite a bit. Weeping Water, Plattsmouth - those are all part of the old stomping grounds. I feel fortunate to live so close to where my family took root about 150 years ago!

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  3. Hey, this is a long time later, but I'm doing some research in this area. The Finlays later inherited the property that became Camp Kitaki and Camp Ester Newman. In fact, a relative had already sold the property for Camp Kitaki to the YMCA in 1951, but the rest of the property he owned went to Edith and Austin, who then sold it to the Jewish League of Omaha in 1960, who founded Camp Ester Newman. That property now makes up the western half of Platte River State Park.

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    1. Owen, thanks so much for adding to this history. One of the ways that we can learn about our ancestors is from collateral research about their friends and associates. That's some beautiful land at Platte River State Park. Thank you for sharing.

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    2. Absolutely! I'm pretty curious about the Finlays, myself. If you run across more information about Edith or her husband, I'd love to hear it. Her brother-in-law, an E C Finlay, practice law in Omaha and is buried in Greenwood, I believe, but that's about all I know.

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