Genealogy Synchronicity - Tibbetts home in St. Joseph, Missouri

Dare I say we are fools if we don't believe in Genealogy Synchronicity?

Last week, I had an experience that can definitely be described as Genealogy Synchronicity!

Back in 2011, I wrote about discovering the obituaries and death records for Nellie Welch Tibbetts and her husband, Frank Tibbetts. Nellie was the sister of my great grandmother, Mary (Minnie) Welch Kelly. I had discovered photographs of the home where Nellie and Frank lived in a photo album that belonged to my great grandmother.

The Tibbetts home in St. Joseph, Missouri

I've made several trips THROUGH St. Joseph, Mo in the last two years. It wasn't until last week that I spent an entire day in St. Joe and my last stop of the day was a "drive by" to finally see the Tibbetts home.

As I pulled over to park my car, I saw that the house is currently For Sale!

This was exciting to me, as it meant I would be able to take some photographs without the current owner wondering what the heck I was doing there!

I walked around the property, taking a few exterior photos, when, after a few minutes, a young man exited the front entrance and said Hello!

He happened to be the realtor for the property and he had just arrived at the location!

"Have I got a story for you!" I said! I told him that the house had been owned by the sister of my great grandmother and her husband in the early 1900s. I told him that the owner of the house at that time, Frank Tibbetts, had been a brick mason! The realtor told me that is father is a brick mason!

I brought up the photos of the house, including members of my family, to show him, on my smartphone. Yeah, he was pretty impressed! He told me the house was a foreclosure. And I was able to enter the property to look around.

Here's a photo from Minnie Welch Kelly's photo album taken at the house. I believe the women to be Nellie Welch Tibbetts and her sister, Agnes Welch Garrigus. The "porthole" window at the house is a good indication of where the photograph was taken.

This photograph is taken from the interior of the house. The windows match up with the photographs in Minnie Welch Kelly's photo album.

Here's the fireplace inside, which is probably original to the house.

This is one of the windows looking to the South. My speculation is that the "stained glass" is not original to the home.

These are the stairs to the upper floor of the house. They do not appear to be the original finishing, but quite possibly were there when the Tibbetts lived here.

This is one of the windows, facing South. Quite likely original as seen in the photos in Minnie Kelly's photo album.

















As the house is currently vacant, I feel it is acceptable to post the current "for sale" information on the property. The asking price is $63,000.The photos on the real estate site show a home that looks much better than it does "in real life."

For me, I'm just glad that I made the decision to stop by when I did. How often do you really get to look inside a house where your family lived???

My Nebraska - by Patricia Landon Kelly Petersen

Today I came across a long lost poem written by my mother, Patricia Landon Kelly Petersen, in 1968. This poem was also very special to me and it was read at her memorial service in 1983.

My Nebraska

Oh, you'll never know Nebraska
'Til you've seen her in the Spring,
Awakened by a gentle rain
And hear the robins sing.

Every green and growing petal
Has its face washed, oh, so clean.
If you've been here in Springtime,
You'll remember what I mean.

Oh, you'll never know Nebraska
'Til some summers you have spent
To hike, to swim, to fish, to sail
Or just be quiet and content.

If you've never heard the wind blow
Through those cottonwoods so tall,
You don't know what you're missing,
That's my favorite sound of all.

Oh, you'll never know Nebraska
'Til you've felt her winter cold,
Shared one of her White Christmases,
It's a splendor to behold.

And to see the little children
Bundled up from head to toe.
They ignore my shoveled pathway
To wade the deepest snow.

Oh, you'll never know Nebraska,
Come see her in the fall.
Then she really shows her colors
With the kindest touch of all.

I can taste that first ripe apple.
I can smell that bonfire now.
If I could ever be more blessed
I wish you'd tell me how.

And did you ever go away?
Get so homesick you could cry?
If I tell you that I haven't
Then I'm telling you a lie.

I wonder if you've played this game
When you're returning home,
To see who can be the first to spy
That long familiar dome.

copyright 1968 Patricia Landon Kelly Petersen

William L Kelly Sr Youth Scrapbook

This is the scrapbook created by my grandfather, William L. Kelly, Sr. at the age of 10 years.

William L Kelly Sr - youth scrapbook age 10 from Susan Petersen

Scanning Through Time

Bill Kelly, Susan Petersen, Mabel Petersen, Otto Petersen
circa 1964

I've been wanting to scan the family 2 x 2 slides from the 1960s for a long, long time. Eight years ago I bought a scanner that scanned slides, negatives, photographs and documents. As happens, I've upgraded computers twice since then and the software no longer works on my new computers. HP no longer upgrades drivers for that scanner. On the recommendation of some folks in the Technology for Genealogy Facebook group, I tried VueScan software - a good resource, but again, it requires the HP drivers to work.

About a year ago, without reading all of the product details, I purchased a Wolverine slide scanner. It's a standalone scanner that does 35mm slides and negatives. I didn't catch the point that it was 35mm only. So that turned out to be a waste of money since I wanted to scan the 2 x 2 slides.

After reading a lot of product descriptions and reviews online and asking for advice from the aforementioned "TechGen" group, I went to Office Depot and got the Epson V500. Normally I buy nearly everything online, but I didn't want to make the 35mm mistake again. And it happened to be on sale last week. I asked the clerk to unpack the box so I could see the mattes used for slide placement. He even got a ruler for me so I could measure them. Finally! I have the slide scanning assembly line up and running.

Trip Down Memory Lane


What a delight it has been to go through these photographs from 50 years ago. But also very sad - of all of the people in the pictures, my Dad and I are just about the only ones still living. I think I had forgotten just how much time I spent with family during my teenage years. Most of my memories of the 1960s are of going to concerts and pinning up photos from TeenSet and 16 on my bedroom walls.

There are photos of me with all three sets of grandparents. I have two sets on my Dad's side since his parents divorced and remarried. The photo above was taken at Christmas, 1964, in our home. This is the only photograph of me with both of my grandfathers, Bill Kelly and Otto "Grandpa Pete" Petersen. What a treasure to discover this among the slides. I also see that we are eating from Grandma Kelly's china, a set I still have today.

It seems like a lot of our family gatherings revolved around either the dinner table or the outdoor grill and patio. It seems like our patio and deck were a focal point of our activities. I also noticed that when we took posed pictures, we stood in front of a fir tree in our front yard. It's interesting to see how it grew over the years.

In addition to photographs of special occasions, there are photos of everyday life - like when I won radio contests to get Perky's Pizza or Diet Rite Cola - there are pictures of me with the coupon and with the pizzas! Junior High and High School graduation events are captured in time, as are camping trips and boating adventures, and vacations to Missouri and South Dakota. Dad even captured a shot of me exiting the Varsity theater after watching A Hard Day's Night twice on opening day.

The photos helped me remember just how much I enjoyed hanging out with my parent's friends and the older adults, including my parent's siblings and Dad's aunts and uncle and cousins. I never cared much for the kids my own age or younger, I wanted to listen and participate in the grown-ups conversations. I remember how thrilled I was once I finally graduated from the kid's table at holidays to be able to sit with the adults.

Oh, how I wish I could turn back time and remember all of the stories they told. Mom's family were more storytellers - they loved talking about growing up in Greenwood, Nebraska, life on the farm, and the various injuries they inflicted on one another. Dad is definitely the storyteller in his family. I can ask him one question and the conversation will go on for two hours.

As I reflected on my day of scanning at twilight last evening, I teared up as I said to myself, "I miss my family." But it's so nice to still have those memories and love for them in my heart.

Ancestry.com: U.S. City Directories, 1821 - 1989

Source: Ancestry.com

Over the last several weeks, I've been so busy browsing and indexing 1940 Census records and doing volunteer work (is that an oxymoron?) for the Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society (LLCGS), that I haven't checked in at Ancestry.com.


During a bout of insomnia the other night, I was checking out the Ancestry.com app on my new iPhone (yes, I finally got with it and now wonder why I dragged my feet about upgrading). By following the shaking leaves and some hints, I discovered a much expanded database of U. S. City Directories covering the period 1821 - 1989.


For me, the beta version of this database and image set is a goldmine of information that may end up distracting me from indexing for a few days. My focus has been Nebraska city directories which are available for the following cities: Beatrice, Columbus, Fremont, Hastings, Kearney, Lexington, Lincoln, Norfolk, North Platte, Omaha, Scottsbluff and York.


The Omaha directories go back as far as 1866 and go through 1959. Of course, not every year is there, nor is every directory complete. But, there's enough of a selection that if your ancestors lived in Omaha, the odds of locating them are quite good.


Lincoln's directories range from 1883 to 1960. I've located my grandparents in several directories from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. I found my Dad living with his parents in 1947, having returned from World War II and now in the work force. I found Mom living in Lincoln in 1947 as a young single working woman. I checked out her two best friends from Greenwood and, as I expected, the trio of girls were roommates living at 1936 D Street. This was shortly before my parents were married in 1947. Dad recalled the girls living in a third floor apartment as that's where Mom lived when she and Dad began dating.

Patricia Kelly
Kenneth Petersen
circa 1946-47

This photograph of my parents was probably taken outside of Mom's apartment building. The tower in the background is First Plymouth Church, which is located at 20th and D Streets in Lincoln.


I also discovered my grandmother, Sina Bellinger, living with her brother Clifford and their parents, John and Emma, in Lincoln in 1910. Sina's brother, Harry Bellinger, was trackable in the Omaha City Directories for several years, when he was a fireman for the railroad, then later when he became a railroad engineer.


The Fitzgerald kin make several appearances in the Lincoln directories. John Fitzgerald's entry almost reads like a resume, with a long list of all of his businesses and affiliations. One of his sons, William Paul Fitzgerald, lived in Denver during the 1940s and 1950s. I was able to locate several entries for him as well. I'm still missing evidence of his death, but the city directories helped me move his life forward several more years.

I'm still on the hunt for Margaret Kelly Langdon, the sister of my great grandfather, Daniel Kelly. I've tracked her to about 1918 in Kansas City, when she was living with one of their brothers. I'm hopeful that a couple entries I've discovered for her will end up being a match.

Regarding the database, it is very easy to search and end up with some pretty accurate results. You can search the entire database or narrow it by location. I've discovered that many of the street addresses have been transcribed incorrectly in the database. In nearly all of the examples I've found, the first digit of the street address is missing. However, the images are clear and it's easy to make a correction to the transcribed index.

Search Ancestry'com's City Directories database - I'd love to hear what gems you find!

The link to this post is: http://longlostrelatives-smp.blogspot.com/2012/04/ancestrycom-us-city-directories-1821.html

My First Look at the 1940 Census

The news is out by now. The 1940 Census images were released on April 2, 2012. Due to time constraints, I wasn't able to do very much searching for my ancestors until this weekend. It has been quite an interesting journey with much more to come.

Since my Mom's family lived in a small town, Greenwood, Cass, Nebraska, I assumed they would be easy to locate in the census. I checked every page of the Greenwood village census and they weren't there. Knowing the family had lived in Omaha for a while in the 1940s, I thought they might be there. I wasn't quite ready to tackle a city of that size just yet, especially without an address.

I knew where my Dad's family lived in 1940, so using the tools at SteveMorse.org, I started looking for the Petersens in Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska. Can it get any easier than this? I found him on Page 6 (of 56!) living with his parents and his younger sister.

The Petersen family in Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska, 1940

Clara Laymon Pecht
her grandchildren
Kenneth Petersen
Shirley Petersen
circa 1940-41

This photograph of Dad and his younger sister, Shirley, was probably taken around the time of this census. Their Grandma Pecht died in 1941, so I think that's a pretty good estimate.

In the census, it looks like my grandfather, Otto W. Petersen, provided the information. He said that his wife, Ruby, was born in Nebraska, but all other documents indicate she was born in Kansas, just across the border from Hardy, Nebraska, where many in my family lived for decades (and still do).

I couldn't decipher the handwriting for Otto's occupation, but Dad picked it out clearly, "Fuel Foreman." We both agreed on the "Steam Railroad" part of this data item.

As I shared the census images with Dad, he started yelling out names of their neighbors for me to look up. I couldn't keep up with him! I found several and will definitely go back for a closer look. It was one of those unplanned moments when I wasn't prepared to start jotting down notes as he reminisced about the old neighborhood.

After my success in finding the Petersen family, I had to turn my attention back to the Kellys and see if I could find Mom's family in Cass County. After browsing the list of districts, "Salt Creek" jumped out at me as I knew I had seen "Salt Creek Precinct" on many other documents related to my Cass County kin.

The Kelly Family in Greenwood, Cass, Nebraska in 1940.

Without much of an effort, I found my grandparents, William and Sina Kelly, their son, "William Leroy Kelly, Jr" ("Jiggs") and my Mom, Patricia. In 60 years, I've never heard anyone refer to Jiggs as William, Bill or Leroy, so it's interesting that he is listed as LeRoy in the 1940 census. The two oldest daughters, Margaret and Helen ("Jerry") had moved out of the house by this time. Grandpa Kelly was a farm laborer. His family had been huge landholders and raised stocked until the Depression, so it would appear he may have been working for someone else as most of the family's land and assets were long gone by this time.

Mom - Patricia Kelly
My Aunt Jerry with her baby, Joe
Grandpa Bill Kelly

This photo would have been taken circa 1940-41 based on the birth date of Jerry's son. Mom looks like she was about 13 or 14.

As I read through the list of names of the people in Greenwood in the three Enumeration Districts, it was a very eerie feeling. I came across other relatives who I never knew other than by their name, as they had died before I was born. I recognized the names of the Landon family, my Sunday School teacher, the janitor from the school I attended from kindergarten through fifth grade. Most of those names I see only when I go to visit the Greenwood Cemetery.

The families in Greenwood had been there for at least three generations in 1940. My Mom's contemporaries were the parents of the kids I went to grade school with. Even though I was young, apparently I had a pretty good memory for people and their names, even if I'm not able to place a face to many of them.

These census records are some that I will go through several more times. I found Grandpa Kelly's brother, Paul and his wife, Elsie. And there was Grandpa Kelly's mother, Mary (Welch) Kelly, living with her other son, Francis. Her husband, Dan Kelly, had just died in February of 1940. After celebrating 50 years of marriage, she had to have been going through some transitions when the census taker came around.

I've since located my Dad's great grandparents, Jens and Caroline Petersen, in Hardy, Nuckolls, Nebraska, but I haven't found his other grandmother, Clara Pecht, pictured above, who was living in Beatrice, Gage, Nebraska in 1940. My other great grandparents, John and Emma Bellinger, were dead by this time.

Now comes the part of putting the stories together to go along with the records.

Finding Family in the 1940 Census

It is only 37 days until the release of the images from the 1940 Census. This census will mark the second appearance of my parents in census records. Both were under five years of age in the 1930 census, so by 1940 they were in their early teen years, just starting high school.

Patricia Landon Kelly
circa 1940

Clara Laymon Pecht, Shirley Jean Petersen
Kenneth Leroy Petersen
circa 1940

While I can't tie down these images specifically to 1940, they are certainly within about a year of when the census was taken.

I will be looking for my Mom in the census for Greenwood, Cass county, Nebraska and Dad will be in Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska.

Since the 1940 census images will not be indexed on the day they are released to the public, the first step in planning to find images is to determine the potential enumeration districts where your family members lived.

The search for this information begins at The National Archives. On the search page, I typed in "1940 census greenwood nebraska" (without quotes). The results gave me the following information:

NE ED 13-23: SALT CREEK ELECTION PRECINCT, GREENWOOD VILLAGE.

NE ED 13-24: SALT CREEK ELECTION PRECINCT OUTSIDE GREENWOOD VILLAGE.

I've now narrowed down the images where I need to look for Mom's family in the 1940 census. As I learn more about the process and locating my kin, I'll share it here on LongLostRelatives.net. I've also started "Spring Training" for indexing census records by indexing several batches of World War II draft registration documents. I'll write more about that in another blog post.

Thanks to Randy Seaver of the Genea-Musings blog - I followed his instructions for locating this information.

A Pioneer Gone - William D Kelly - 2nd great grandfather

A local Nebraska obituary for my great-great grandfather, William D. Kelly, had been elusive to me until last evening. To date, all I had discovered was a death notice in the St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press, a city where he had lived thirty years before his death.

Unfortunately, the digital image leaves much to be desired, but I have transcribed it to my best ability at this time. I also referred to the St. Paul obituary as some of the language was similar. The St. Paul article gave his date of death as February 3, 1896, which, according to the Lincoln Evening News, would have been the date of his funeral.

His railroad contracting work was referred to as being west of the Mississippi in the Lincoln article. The St. Paul article stated his work was west of the Mississippi and south of Missouri.

In genealogy, one always has to keep looking.

Below is my transcription, with a few words still escaping me.

A PIONEER GONE.

William D. Kelly Dies at His Home Near Greenwood.

William D. Kelly died this morning at his home near Greenwood at the age of sixty-two. The deceased was born in Ireland, and, coming to this country at an early age spent some of his life in the west. As a railroad contractor he was very successful and took part in the construction of some of the principal lines west of the Mississippi. Though a --- adventurous man he was devoted to his home. He was enterprising and progressive -- a typical -- Mr. Kelly’s health had been failing rapidly for several months and the end was not unexpected. He died fortified by the last rites of his church and surrounded by his children. His wife had gone before him several years since. Of his children, his daughters, Mrs. John Fitzgerald, Mrs. M. J. Langdon, Mrs. Ode Rector and his son Thomas live in this city. His sons, Daniel, Michael, John and William Jr live on their farms near Greenwood. The funeral will be from the pro-cathedral at 10:30 a.m. on Monday.

Source: Lincoln Evening News, Lincoln, Nebraska

31 Jan 1896, page 1

Minnie Welch Kelly's Autograph Book

Here is a quick view of my great grandmother's autograph book, which is a glimpse of her journey from Waterbury, Connecticut to Greenwood, Nebraska. It includes scans of each page and my transcription of the document. Minnie Welch Kelly's autograph book - Subscriber Home Pages

A Day at the Museum - Part 1

For many weeks I've been eagerly awaiting my visit to the Cass County Historical Society Museum in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. It has been a few decades since my last visit and after six years of staying busy with online research only, I was ready to get back into on-site research. 

Both sides of my mother's family - the Kellys and the Bellingers - were early settlers and long time residents of Greenwood, Cass County, Nebraska. My great grand aunt, Mary Kelly, married John Fitzgerald, a railroad contractor, banker, millionaire and they lived in Plattsmouth, Greenwood and Lincoln.

I've been researching the Fitzgerald line of the family for a long time. Because of their 'celebrity' (for lack of a better word), I have more information than I really know what to do with. But it has proven time and time again how important it is to research siblings. From a newspaper article of Mary's recollections I learned of the wagon train journey that my ancestors made from St. Paul, Minnesota to the Dakotas and returning East along the Missouri River until the family settled in Omaha and Council Bluffs, and later, in Greenwood. Researching the Fitzgeralds has given me a wealth of information about my Kellys.

The October 1 workshop sponsored by the Cass County Historical Society Museum provided a unique opportunity that combined two excellent lectures on beginning genealogy by my new friend and genealogy buddy, Gail Blankenau, as well as time to research many of the resources available at the museum. Gail and I first met when we both spoke at the Land Records and Genealogy Symposium in Beatrice, Nebraska in July.

As always, Gail did an excellent job introducing genealogy to a group of relatively new genealogists. She asked how I could possibly learn anything from a beginner's class and I replied, "I've been a beginning genealogist for 30 years." Sorry - not an original line - I heard someone else say that once and thought it fits my situation. As genealogists, I believe we can always learn something new. And with eight pages of notes from Gail's lectures, I certainly did!

This has been a hectic week and I admit that I had not properly prepared for what research questions I sought answers for. But I had brought along my netbook and when it was time for research, I brought up my database on Family Tree Maker. I jotted down some significant dates that matched up with the newspapers available on microfilm at the Museum. I already knew that I would be returning for further research, but I sure wasn't going to go home empty handed.

With the microfilm of the 1896 Greenwood Gazette in place, I was hopeful of finding an obituary or death notice of my great great grandfather, William D. Kelly, the Irish immigrant. It was not to be found. But I'm going to look again when I have more time available. To date, I found an obituary for him in the St. Paul Minnesota Daily Globe. I was hoping to find something in the newspaper of the locale where he was living when he died.

Next on my priority list was to find a newspaper article about the marriage of my grandparents. Here's what I found on page 1 of the Greenwood Gazette, October 9, 1913:

By the Journal we see that Wm. Kelly and Miss Lina [sic] Bellinger are to live as one ... We wish the young people long life and happiness

Grandmother's name was Sina, but at least I found a newspaper article.

Read Part 2: Browsing through the Portrait and Biographical Album of Otoe and Cass Counties, Nebraska - and what I found in the cemetery records.

Related web sites:

Cass County Historical Society Museum

Cass County Historical Society on RootsWeb

Gail Blankenau, APG

Gail Blankenau, Genealogical Speaker's Guild

Labor Day - Jobs of our Ancestors - Dan Kelly: Stock Breeder

With my heritage primarily in Nebraska, it is not surprising that my ancestors were farmers and raised livestock. My great grandfather, Daniel Kelly, was a large scale stock breeder near Greenwood, Nebraska. He made many trips to Omaha to sell his stock at the Omaha stockyards.

He also had a butcher shop in Greenwood.

Daniel Kelly, Stockman

Daniel Kelly
Butcher Shop

Sports Center Saturday: Front Page News

Just when I thought today couldn't get any better for genealogy, look what was in the mailbox today! It's Vol. 32, Issue No. 3 of Nebraska Ancestree, the official publication of the Nebraska State Genealogical Society. Why so special? Because a photograph from my personal collection appears on the cover.

It's been hard for me to keep this a secret for all these months, knowing that the photograph of the 1911 Greenwood, Nebraska baseball team would be on the cover sometime during 2011.

This photo originally appeared on this blog last October. Shortly thereafter, the President of the Nebraska State Genealogical Society, Floyd Smith III, emailed me and asked if the society could use the photo on a future issue, to coincide with baseball season. Of course, I said yes! Thank you, Floyd!

1911 Greenwood, Nebraska Baseball Club
original photo from my collection

William L Kelly, Sr. (back row, left), Jimmy Mann, Henry Weideman (manager), Clay Hansen, John Kimberly, Walter Burke, Clarence Stokes, Evan Armstrong, Ben Howard, Carl Weideman Played 54 games; won 48, lost 6.

Visit the Nebraska State Genealogical Society's web site

Sorting Saturday: Better Than a Day at the Library

Over the summer, I've been going through my personal archives, i.e., boxes of long forgotten Stuff. Yes, so much Stuff that it's worthy of a capital S. I've been quite shocked at the genealogical treasure trove that has been sitting right under my nose for nearly 25 years.

While I've spent the last four or five years scouring Ancestry.com, NewspaperArchive.com, GenealogyBank.com, Archives.com, NARA, and FamilySearch.org - I'd lost sight of just how much information I had gathered back in 1988, pre-internet. This is just one box of goodies that I salvaged from my much too humid basement. These had been stored in a cardboard box and I put everything in this plastic container on a temporary basis. I am STILL waiting for the acid free storage boxes that I ordered back in March that are still on back order.

For now, I've been letting things air out a bit and at least most of the musty smell has gone away.

To say that I was giddy as I briefly took a look at what is here would be an understatement. Sitting before me are original newspaper clippings saved by my grandmother, an entire issue of the February 16, 1927 edition of the Greenwood Gazette (Greenwood, Nebraska), which probably includes a reference to the birth of my mother on February 8 of that year, posters for auctions of my great-grandfather's stock, flyers for auctions when my grandfather was an auctioneer, obituaries for my father's grandparents, and correspondence between myself and two other distant cousins who were researching collateral lines. How smart of me to have kept a carbon-copy (remember carbon copies?) of my side of the correspondence.

Kelly Family Crest
Mom's Family
This hung in the wall of our home for many years.

I don't even know where to begin with everything. I recall at least a couple bloggers who wrote recent posts about cataloging and tracking your personal collection, so I will have to read those for some advice. Until I'm actually ready to begin sorting, filing and cataloging, I plan to do some scanning. And see what lost pieces of information that I can add to my tree on Ancestry.

I'm also guessing that I've probably got enough material here for at least another 500 blog posts! Please, could someone clone me?

Searching for Sina - Sina's Little Book of Pictures - Part 7

It's been a very busy summer, and now it's time to return to sharing more of the photographs from my grandmother Sina Bellinger Kelly's little book of pictures of friends and family.

On this page are two more images of Sina's friend, Garnet Lee, and two other friends, Debra Hoham and Mona Armstrong.

I've located Mona Armstrong in the 1900 census for Greenwood, Nebraska. She was listed as the 12 year old daughter of Joe and Floretta Armstrong.


So far, nothing has turned up on Debra Hoham, but I will keep looking since I want to find out whatever I can about Sina's circle of friends.

I absolutely adore the photo of the ladies in their hats! I do believe that Sina and her friends enjoyed posing for the camera!

Born on July 7 - William Leroy Kelly

William Leroy Kelly
1892 - 1968

My grandfather, William Leroy Kelly was born on July 7, 1891. Or maybe it was 1892.

His tombstone, located in Greenwood Cemetery in Greenwood, Nebraska, gives 1891 as his year of birth. But my research into public records indicate that 1892 is probably the actual year of his birth.

I use this as an example to show that not even tombstones always provide accurate information. At the time of Grandpa Kelly's death in 1968 and when the tombstone was purchased, I'm sure my mother and her siblings listed his birth year as 1891 because he always stated that he was "nine years older than the year it is."

That would have been true - for one half of the year. The second half of the year, he would have been eight years older than the year it was.

I have two pieces of research information that indicate he was born in 1892. The first is his World War I draft registration card. It shows his date of birth as July 1, 1892. He signed the card in June of 1917, the month before his 25th birthday.

The other documentation is the Social Security Death Index which also indicates 1892 as the year of his birth.

This serves as a reminder that you cannot always rely on family lore in determining dates.

One thing for sure, we always knew that Grandpa Kelly was born on July 7. In the 1960s, he seemed to be quite amused that he shared his birthday with Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. Ringo turns 71 years old today, and Grandpa Kelly was born on this day 119 years ago, in 1892.

Searching for Sina: Sina's Little Book of Pictures - Part 6

From the day that I first decided to post the photos from my grandmother Sina Bellinger Kelly's little book of pictures, I could hardly wait for this page to be shared.

Henrietta Loder Beale and Sina Bellinger Kelly

This page features photographs of Henrietta Loder Beale and my grandmother, Sina Bellinger Kelly. As a young girl, Henrietta was called Etta, and then Etty later in life.

This page represents the only two people in this little picture book who I actually knew. Henrietta and Sina were first cousins. They shared the same grandparents, Daniel C. Landon and Anne Jane McVoy. Henrietta's parents were William Alexander Loder and Margaret Ann Landon. Sina's parents were John William Bellinger and Emma Harriet Landon. Margaret Landon and Emma Landon were sisters.

The cousins were close in age - something I specifically learned while doing my genealogy research. Why? Because the women had a reputation during their lifetimes of lying about their age! Whether it was to shave off a few years or to add a few, I'm not sure. Henrietta was born August 14, 1888 and Sina was born eight months later on April 3, 1889. The cousins grew up in close proximity to one another; Sina in Greenwood, Nebraska and Henrietta in Waverly, Nebraska.

Etty Beale, Patricia Kelly Petersen (Mom), Sina Bellinger Kelly
circa late 1940s.

The cousins were as close as sisters and were lifelong friends. My Mom told the story that since she and her siblings had no aunts on either side of the family, Henrietta said to them, "I'll be your Aunt Etty." And so she was. And she was Aunt Etty to my generation of cousins as well.

Aunt Etty married Ralph Beale of Waverly, Nebraska on August 1, 1907 in Lancaster county, Nebraska. The couple lived in Waverly during the early years of their marriage, then moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. Etty bought and sold real estate, as evidenced by dozens of real estate transactions I've discovered in online newspapers. Ralph was known as "Uncle Hub" - and I still don't know how he got that nickname. To me, they were always Hub and Etty. Hub was in the banking and insurance business. Etty and Hub had no children.

My memories of Aunt Etty

I remember going to visit Hub and Etty in their office in one of the tall business offices in Lincoln (tall by Nebraska standards, that is). I remember that Mom and I stopped by to see them on the day that I got my Hula Hoop, so that tells you about how long ago that was!

I always loved going to visit Aunt Etty and Uncle Hub at their home at 1822 F Street in Lincoln. The house has since been razed and replaced by an apartment building. It was in the heart of the capitol district in Lincoln, just a few blocks from the state capitol building.

Uncle Hub's Scrapbooks

From the time that he was a very young boy, Uncle Hub kept detailed scrapbooks of newspaper clippings of local, national and world events. Every time I would go visit, Hub would get out another of his oversized scrapbooks and we would look through them together, as he would relate stories of his memories. Oh! To have been able to have captured those many colorful stories on tape or video!. Mom told me that Aunt Etty once told her that Hub loved it when I came to visit because I was the only one of the younger generation who took any interest in his scrapbooks and his stories.

After Hub's death, Etty offered the scrapbooks (about 15 in all, as I recall) to the Nebraska State Historical Society, which turned down the donation. Why they didn't want them is beyond me. I thought they were a wonderful glimpse of history. I have no idea what ever became of them.

Holiday dinners


Etty and Hub frequently came to our home for Thanksgiving dinner. My grandfather, Bill Kelly (Sina's husband) was there, too, and I'm sure they talked a lot about the good old days. That was a time when everyone dressed up for such an occasion, the ladies in dresses, stockings and high heels.

Helen "Jerry" Dulin (Mom's sister), Aunt Etty, Mom, Me
on the sidewalk in front of 1822 F St., Lincoln
June 1968

Aunt Etty died on Saturday, December 28, 1968 in Lincoln, Nebraska. The funeral was held on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1968 and my father was to have been a pallbearer. His name is incorrectly shown as Kent Peterson instead of Ken Petersen in the obituary notice, above.

Mom, Dad and I were preparing to leave for the funeral when we received a call from a friend in Greenwood, Nebraska. My grandfather, Bill Kelly, had died that morning. We immediately drove to Greenwood and Mom began making arrangements for his funeral. Our absence from Aunt Etty's funeral was noted by many since we had such a close relationship to her. In a period of just four days, Mom lost the last two members of that generation of her family. We all lost the presence of Aunt Etty and Grandpa Kelly in our daily lives, but not the memories of the people who played important roles in our lives.

Searching for Sina - Sina Kelly and daughter Maxine

Sina Bellinger Kelly
and her first born child
Maxine Dorothy Kelly

This is the year that I am seeking information on my maternal grandmother, Sina Bellinger Kelly.

I've recently discovered two boxes of family history information and photos that had been long forgotten. I don't even remember seeing this photograph of Sina and her first born child, Maxine Dorothy Kelly.

Little Maxine (my aunt) lived only 13 months. She was born August 6, 1914 and died the following year, on September 15, 1915. On the back of this photograph, Sina has written that Maxine was three months old. Sina was about 25 years old when this photograph was taken in the fall of 1914.

Sina's mother, Emma Harriet Landon Bellinger, died about a month after this photograph was taken. The following month, in January 1916, Sina gave birth to her next child, Margaret Janice Kelly.

It seems to me that was a lot for young Sina to deal with in just a five month period of time.

More articles about Sina Bellinger Kelly

Sunday's Obituary: William and Sina Kelly

As I've been sorting through my personal archives in recent days, I'm surprised by items I had either forgotten about or didn't realize that I had. Among them were the funeral books for both of my Kelly grandparents, which included the newspaper clippings of their funeral notices. No dates or sources are written on either. I'm speculating that Sina's is from the Ashland, Nebraska Gazette and I'm quite certain that Bill's is from the Lincoln, Nebraska Journal.

Funeral Is Conducted
For Mrs. Kelly, 66

Funeral services were conducted Monday morning at the Marcy Chapel for Mrs. Sina Harriett Kelly, 66, who died Thursday, Nov. 3, at her home in Greenwood.

Mrs. Warren Robinson and Mrs. Barbara Laune sang "Lead Kindgly Light" and "The Old Rugged Cross," accompanied by Mrs. Howard Anderson, organist. The Rev. Clarence Stirn officiated. Pallbearers were Walter Marolf, Maynard Griffith, Harold Pilfold, Evan Armstrong, Charles Dyer, and Elmer Leadabrand. Burial was in Greenwood Cemetery.

Mrs. Kelly was born at Fremont April 3, 1889.

KELLY - William LeRoy, Sr. 77, Greenwood, died Tuesday, Retired mayor and city electrician in Greenwood. Survivors: son, W. L, Kelly, Jr., St. Louis, Mo.; daughters, Mrs. William Dulin, Springfield, Mo., Mrs. Kenneth L. Peterson (sic), Lincoln, M. J. Kelly, Eugene, Ore.
Services: 10 a.m. Friday, Marcy Chapel, Ashland. Burial Greenwood Memorial.

Notes:
Sina Belllinger Kelly died November 3, 1955. William Kelly died December 31, 1968. My parents and I were getting ready to attend the funeral of Henrietta Beale ("Aunt Etty") when word arrived of my grandfather's death. Dad was to be a pallbearer at Etty's funeral, but we immediately went to Greenwood instead. Mom lost her two closet living older relatives within days of one another.

William and Sina Kelly
Greenwood Memorial Cemetery
Greenwood, Nebraska

Bill and Sina Kelly
as I remember them

Amanuensis Monday: Soda Water Free

SODA WATER FREE.

Ode Rector has made some substantial improvements in his drug store at Twelfth and N Sts. His soda water fountain particularly is one of the finest equipped in the city. To make the people thoroughly acquainted with his facilities for serving all kinds of drinks, he will, on Tuesday serve soda water and all other drinks free of charge to all visitors to his store; the ladies especially are invited to make their wishes known at the soda fountain. Any kind of drink will be served free. Some of Rector's favorites are Delmonico Flip, Henrietta, Mignonette and pineapple float; if you have never tried any of those do not fail to call for one of them. Mignonette is a very popular drink. Free soda water is a novelty and Mr. Rector's liberality is sure to crowd his store all day Tuesday. The public is cordially invited.

Source: The Courier, Lincoln, Nebraska, May 26, 1894


Relationship to me: husband of great grand aunt (brother-in-law of my great grandfather Dan Kelly)

Today is National Pillow Fight Day!

Pillow Fight Day?
Sina Bellinger Kelly, my grandmother
Lower Right, Seated

National Pillow Fight Day