Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere - November 12

Yesterday, Veteran's Day, the genealogy bloggers were out in full force honoring the veterans in their family. These posts were full of love, respect, admiration and gratitude for what these men and women contributed to keep our country free.

It is literally impossible to select only a handful of these posts to feature in today's Around the Blogosphere, so I am providing a link to where all of these tributes are assembled via the Geneabloggers news feed. I encourage you to take time to read as many as you can.

Read all posts from A Day to Remember Veterans

Other blog posts that I enjoyed this week include:

Kerry Scott of Clue Wagon asked for help on identifying the use of a "hen in the nest" dish. Many people jumped in with their comments about dishes they had that were similar to this one.

Holly Hansen of Family History Expos did a nice piece on preparing to attend a genealogy conference. The Family History Expo is in Atlanta this weekend, so check out Facebook and Twitter (#fhexpo) for on-the-spot coverage from the Bloggers of Honor.

The Flip-Pal scanner is catching on like crazy in the genealogy community. Maureen Taylor writes about why she loves her Flip-Pal. I love mine, too!

John Reid of Anglo-Celtic Roots offers advice on the many genealogy ebooks available for Kindle. He advises what to watch out for when purchasing ebooks.

Becky Jamison is the blogger whose very personal project touched my heart deeply this week. On her Grace and Glory blog, she shared her project of compiling a family history book for her son and his birth mother. Then she shared the photos of presenting him with the books and his family tree. Becky's love and kindness shows through in these posts. These are the "must read" blog posts of the week. Hats off to Becky!

Thriller Thursday - attempted breakout at the Nebraska State Penitentiary

In recent months, one of my new found family treasures was an album of photographs that belonged to my grandmother, Ruby Pecht Petersen Baker. The photos were from her first marriage to Otto Petersen and included photographs of my father as a baby and toddler. So I've dated the photographs to be from the mid 1920s.

Among the photos of many family members and friends - the majority of whom are not known to me, were three photo postcards that seemed out of place in this collection of images of family gatherings.

Dummy Gun
Used by Fred Brown
In Attempted Outbreak

The text on this card reads: "Dummy Gun" Used by Fred Brown "The Chain Man" in attempted outbreak September 28, 1925. Nebraska State Prison.

Further research tells me that Fred Brown was a "notorious Omaha kidnapper" and that he and another prisoner of the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Roy Smith, attempted to break out of prison on September 28, 1925. Brown and a prison guard were killed. Smith and another guard were wounded. In earlier crimes, Brown's aliases were Gus Grimes and Ernest Bush.

Source: Lincoln Star, Lincoln, Nebraska, September 29, 1925, page 1.

The next photo postcard in my grandmother's album is one of Nebraska's electric chair. Between 1879 and 1913, convicted murderers who were sentenced to death in Nebraska were hanged. The first use of the electric chair in Nebraska was on December 20, 1920 when Allison Cole was executed. In all, 15 people have been executed in Nebraska's electric chair, including notorious mass murderer Charles Starkweather.

On February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court declared electrocution as "cruel and unusual punishment." On May 28, 2009, the state legislature adopted lethal injection as its method of execution.

Source: Wikipedia

Nebraska State Penitentiary
Lincoln, Nebraska

The third and final photo postcard of this series in my grandmother's album is of the administration building at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln.

The Lincoln Star
Lincoln, Nebraska
September 29, 1925

This post is not intended to solicit a discussion of the use of capital punishment. My curiosity centers around why my grandmother included these photo postcards in an album of family photographs. She was twenty years old and she and Otto Petersen were newlyweds, having been married less than one year at the time of this incident. Ten months after this incident, her first child, my father, would be born. At this time, I know of no known connection between the attempted prison break and my family. Perhaps it was just a representation of my grandmother's curiosity about a significant news event of the time.

Veterans Day - in honor of my Dad

Kenny Petersen
U.S. Navy

November 15, 1944

Dearest Mom, Dad and Sis:

Well it is 11:30 P.M. and I just got back from my last class. We had a movie, a lecture and some look out practice. Well I’ve got a few minutes before I will hit the sack so I am a writing again to let you know that I am thinking of you all of the time. I would a lot rather write to you than anyone because I like your letters so darn much. Well I have been trying to write you everything I can and let you know what I am doing, what it is like here etc.

Golly I sure do wish that you could see some of the places that I have seen done some of the things. Gee I’m not kidding you but I am really seeing the sights. Just think. Who would have ever thought 2 years ago that I would be in the Navy and see the Gulf of Mexico and now I am almost ready to be put on a big ship and see the ocean. It’s really something eh? Just think after this war of all the things that I can tell you. About the things that I have done, and where I have been, about the ocean, the big ships, the different ports. Golly!! Oh, I didn’t tell you one thing that I did while I was on liberty.

Now don’t get mad at me when I tell you. I wasn’t a going to tell you, but heck I can tell my folks everything that I do and not be ashamed of it. Well our whole gun crew got together and Saturday when we went into Gulfport we all had a tattoo put on us. ha ha. I didn’t get a very big one. It’s an anchor with U.S.N. across it. It’s really pretty and the scab is just about off. It’s on my left arm and you aren’t a real sailor until you have one. ha. So now I am a real sailor ha. It hurt a little while the fellow put it on but it don’t bother me a bit and it’s pretty nice. Now don’t get mad please. I’m not a going to get anymore but I always did want a small tattoo on me. ha. Here is what it looks like.

This is just a rough sketch of it but this is what it sorta looks like. haha. It looks really nice and I really look salty. ha ha. Please don’t get mad or bawl me out now. Will you. Write and tell me what you think about it though. I am writing to you and sucking on some of your candy. Boy is it ever good. I really like your life savers and that is the best kind of candy that you can send me. It’s really swell. Well it’s about time to knock off and hit the sack, so will close for now. Keep them swell letters a coming and good night and Lots of Love and Kisses.

Kenny

Note: Dad came home from the war with not just one, but three tattoos. He was just 18 years old when he wrote this letter home.

Wedding Wednesday: Lodisca Stover and Charles Williams

At eight o'clock, on Tuesday evening, at the residence of Z. Stover, at Lena, was performed the beautiful ceremony that forever united the hearts and destinies of Miss Lodisca Stover and Chas. M. Williams. The officiating clergyman was Rev. H. C. Haithcox, of the Lutheran church, and the attendants were Miss Sadie Wolf, of Freeport, and Mr. Harry Williams, a brother of the groom. There were in attendance a large number of the relatives and friends of the contracting parties, and the event was one of the most enjoyable ever known in the history of Lena society.   The bride is known to be a young lady of most excellent qualities. And her friends are legion. Everywhere she is known, she is highly esteemed, and the prayers of all are for a future bright and joyous. C. M. Williams is a young man who was at one time connected with the banking house of S. Rising & Co., of Lena, and is a young gentlemen whom to know is to admire.

They are both popular, and they will always be happy. The midnight train took them to Chicago, to return in a few days. We throw our old shoe after Lodisca and Charley. May theirs be a life that will know no sorrow.

Source: Daily Journal and Republican, Freeport, Illinois, January 30, 1884

my relationship to Lodisca Stover: first cousin, 3x removed

Sunday's Obituary - the Larsens - Who was the survivor?

Most genealogists know that obituaries are not always the last word. They may not even provide accurate information - but at least some clues are present.

A few weeks ago, I was seeking information on the Larsen (or Larson) family who I believe are related to some of my Petersen kin.


Here is what I found.

L. C. LARSON

L. C. Larson, 54 years old, died yesterday of paralysis at his home, 651 Eleventh street west.

He was born in Denmark Jan. 21, 1862, the son of Carl and Mattie Larson. He came to Waterloo in 1888, and lived here until 1908, when he removed to Gilbertville and from there to Minnesota in 1910, returning to Waterloo last fall.

Larson leaves a wife and one daughter, Katherine J., age 11 and a sister in Denmark, Mrs. Mary Olson. He was a member of the Christian Science church.

The funeral services will be from the home Sunday afternoon. Interment at Elmwood.

Source: Waterloo Evening Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, May 20, 1916 

L. C. LARSON

Funeral services for the late L. C. Larson were conducted yesterday from the home, 651 Eleventh street west. Interment was in Elmwood cemetery. Reader A. Matton of the Church of Christ. Scientist, in charge. Pallbearers were James Ingemelis, Horace Early, Frank Davis, Emerson Stevens, F. Fairbanks and A. D. Cramer.

Source: Waterloo Evening Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, May 22, 1916

Six months later . . .

KATHERINE LARSON

Katherine, 11-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Larson, 651 Eleventh Street west, died at 11 p.m. yesterday after a short illness. She was stricken with tonsillitis Friday and grew rapidly worse. She is survived by the parents and a sister. Funeral arrangements have not been completed.  

Source: Waterloo Evening Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, November 1, 1916

Yes, I doubled checked the dates on the newspaper pages. Mr. Larson (or Larsen) died and was buried in May, 1916 and left a wife, daughter Katherine and a sister.

Katherine died in November of 1916. Her deceased father is listed as a survivor and the article indicates she also had a sister. Another daughter was not listed as a survivor in Mr. Larson's obituary.

Both articles indicate that the deceased were residents at the same address, so this is the same family.

Speculating on why the conflicting information was published does not solve any of the research questions. Once again, these articles show that a genealogist can never stop with just one source of information. One always has to keep looking.