Welcome to my blog!
I am an amateur genealogist, and I have a problem that I'm sure many genealogists and historians have. How do you take all that data and share it? Only the most clueless (or maybe cruelest) expects non-genealogist to be interested in the pages of documents that we amass. Hey, take a look at 4th cousin twice removed Edna's second marriage certificate! Woo-hoo!
While the researcher might be passionately interested (or at least mildly interested) in Edna's second marriage, most of our victims (er, relatives) don't even know who Edna was, much less why they should care about her or her series of husbands. Unless they died under mysterious circumstances...
My hope with this blog is to take the data and make it more interesting. I plan to take one ancestor at a time, put him or her in historical perspective, and hopefully bring him or her to life. My goal is to take the raw data and make it more palatable.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Richard Joseph WYNN
Vital stats:
Born: 04 Sept 1890 to Richard WYNN and Mary Ellen GILMORE in South Shields, Northumberland, England
Married: Eunice Philemon DeBaribieris on 06 Apr 1920 in Galveston, Galveston, Texas, USA
Died: 28 Feb 1960 in Houston, Harris, Texas, USA
Richard Joseph Wynn arrived in the United States on 23 July 1910, at age 22 with only $10 in his pocket. He was going to join his mother's brother, Hugh "Gilmour" (Gilmore), in Swoyersville, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Swoyersville, near Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, PA, was a coal mining town, named after mine owner John Henry Swoyer. Richard was trading the coal mines of Newcastle, England, for the coal mines of Pennsylvania. The ship's manifest of the SS Campania (see the picture to the left) listed his occupation as miner, and he seemed destined to spend his career in the mines.
A boy from the Newcastle area of England could easily find himself in the dark underground digging coal. "Carrying coals to Newcastle" was the ultimate in pointless occupations. Coal mining and shipbuilding were the main industries of Newcastle in the late 19th and early 20th century. On Richard's paternal side, his grandfather, father, and at least three uncles worked at the shipyard at various times of their lives. On his maternal side, his grandfather (James Gilmore) worked in both the shipyard and the coal mines, and his uncle Hugh worked as a blacksmith for the shipyard.
After immigrating to Pennsylvania, the next record we have of Richard finds him in Galveston, TX, enlisting in the National Naval Volunteers to fight in World War I. Richard enlisted on 19 Apr 1917 in Charleston, South Carolina. His civil occupation is stated as Salesman (no word about what kinds of goods he was selling). He was 26 years old, so less than four years from his arrival in America to be a coal miner he had left the mines. The National Naval Volunteers would pay him $115.50 a year.
We have a discription of Richard from his enlistment papers. Richard was 26 years and 5 months old. He was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 154 pounds. He had brown eyes, dark brown hair, and a ruddy complexion. He had a scar on his forehead.
During his time in the National Naval volunteers, Richard served about three ships: USS Hartford, USS Sterett, and USS Lewis K. Thurlow. In the World War I era of steamships, Richard worked primarily as a water tender, down in the bowels of the ship's engines.
After the war, Richard returned to Galveston, where he met and married his wife, Eunice Philemon DeBarbieris. They were married in Galveston on 06 April 1920. Their first child, Eunice Ellen, was born on 21 January 1920, with a second daughter, Elizabeth Sue, following on 25 June 1921. Next came their oldest son, James Tullos, on 26 November 1923. The next child, Robert Rolland, lived less than four months, having been born on 29 October 1924 and dying 06 January 1925. Their youngest child, Charles Hansen, was born 19 November 1925.
The family lived at 727 Avenue F, Galveston, Texas in 1930, where they rented the house for $20. Richard made his living at the time as a solicitor for a "Cleaner, Dry."
Richard applied for a Social Security number in 1937, getting the number 267-05-5309. At the time, he was working at the Jackson Ice Company of St. Petersburg, FL. In contradiction to his birth registration, he gives his birthdate as 11-10-1891 (10 November 1891) - this is more than a year later than his actual birth.
Born: 04 Sept 1890 to Richard WYNN and Mary Ellen GILMORE in South Shields, Northumberland, England
Married: Eunice Philemon DeBaribieris on 06 Apr 1920 in Galveston, Galveston, Texas, USA
Died: 28 Feb 1960 in Houston, Harris, Texas, USA
Richard Joseph Wynn arrived in the United States on 23 July 1910, at age 22 with only $10 in his pocket. He was going to join his mother's brother, Hugh "Gilmour" (Gilmore), in Swoyersville, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Swoyersville, near Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, PA, was a coal mining town, named after mine owner John Henry Swoyer. Richard was trading the coal mines of Newcastle, England, for the coal mines of Pennsylvania. The ship's manifest of the SS Campania (see the picture to the left) listed his occupation as miner, and he seemed destined to spend his career in the mines.A boy from the Newcastle area of England could easily find himself in the dark underground digging coal. "Carrying coals to Newcastle" was the ultimate in pointless occupations. Coal mining and shipbuilding were the main industries of Newcastle in the late 19th and early 20th century. On Richard's paternal side, his grandfather, father, and at least three uncles worked at the shipyard at various times of their lives. On his maternal side, his grandfather (James Gilmore) worked in both the shipyard and the coal mines, and his uncle Hugh worked as a blacksmith for the shipyard.
After immigrating to Pennsylvania, the next record we have of Richard finds him in Galveston, TX, enlisting in the National Naval Volunteers to fight in World War I. Richard enlisted on 19 Apr 1917 in Charleston, South Carolina. His civil occupation is stated as Salesman (no word about what kinds of goods he was selling). He was 26 years old, so less than four years from his arrival in America to be a coal miner he had left the mines. The National Naval Volunteers would pay him $115.50 a year.
We have a discription of Richard from his enlistment papers. Richard was 26 years and 5 months old. He was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 154 pounds. He had brown eyes, dark brown hair, and a ruddy complexion. He had a scar on his forehead.
During his time in the National Naval volunteers, Richard served about three ships: USS Hartford, USS Sterett, and USS Lewis K. Thurlow. In the World War I era of steamships, Richard worked primarily as a water tender, down in the bowels of the ship's engines.
After the war, Richard returned to Galveston, where he met and married his wife, Eunice Philemon DeBarbieris. They were married in Galveston on 06 April 1920. Their first child, Eunice Ellen, was born on 21 January 1920, with a second daughter, Elizabeth Sue, following on 25 June 1921. Next came their oldest son, James Tullos, on 26 November 1923. The next child, Robert Rolland, lived less than four months, having been born on 29 October 1924 and dying 06 January 1925. Their youngest child, Charles Hansen, was born 19 November 1925.
The family lived at 727 Avenue F, Galveston, Texas in 1930, where they rented the house for $20. Richard made his living at the time as a solicitor for a "Cleaner, Dry."
Richard applied for a Social Security number in 1937, getting the number 267-05-5309. At the time, he was working at the Jackson Ice Company of St. Petersburg, FL. In contradiction to his birth registration, he gives his birthdate as 11-10-1891 (10 November 1891) - this is more than a year later than his actual birth.
Richard died on 28 February 1960, in Houston, Harris, Texas. At the time of his death, he was retired from working at the city water works. He died in the Veteran's Hospital of lung cancer. He was buried in Rosewood Cemetery in Houston.
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