Mystery Resolutions sometimes come in small notebooks

 When my sisters and I opened up our mom's cedar chests last week I knew there would be many finds to capture my genealogist's heart. She tended to hold on to the very things that would interest me. Mom has been gone for almost 7 years but schedules, location and a promise to wait until we all could look inside together has kept us from opening her hope chest and our grandmother's cedar chest until last week.

I came home with a crate, a box and a bag of pictures, files and artifacts tucked in the back of my car. The dining room has been covered with stacks of pictures, letters in new sheet protector homes and a variety of other documents and artifacts.

When I pulled out a small, red, loose-leaf notebook from one of the folders last night, I knew I had something special in my hands. On the first tiny page, the handwriting said:

"Family Record
Presented to Forest R.E. Dibbens (my grandfather) 

from Mother (my great grandmother, Jessie Christene Field Dibbens) Written Mch 9, 1932 

Cheney Kansas"

Besides the fact that it was written by my great grandmother, I was excited to find an answer to a mystery that I have been trying to solve for several years. My great grandfather, ARJ Dibbens Jr.'s family came from Isle of Wight, England. It has been very difficult to go back very far in England because of some names that keep confusing me. The surname, Cobb was showing up on both of his parents branches within one generation. I always thought I had something confused but Jessie devoted almost an entire tiny page to that mystery. On page 26 (yes, she numbered each page!) she wrote:

"Grandfather & mother Cobb

Great grandfather

Linnington

Leah Linnington married

Mr. Cobb then

daughter Ann (Cobb)

married William Dibbens"

That may not be exciting to some people but it left me saying, "aha!" Now it makes sense! I love a solved genealogy mystery!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone which is a very advanced skill! ;-)

Is he in this one?

His is my dad, Earl Johnson, at about 5 or 6. I do have a few other pictures of him but I do mean "a few." Once he got his first camera, he seemed to always be in the background taking pictures. That is bad for my picture collection because I have to really hunt for him and also good for my collection because I have lots of pictures of other family members on both sides of the family. He also remembers who the people in the pictures are because he was there.

Some neighbors gave them this Jersey calf and it became their pet until it grew up and Grandpa sold it with some other cattle.

He is a great dad and the victim of many hours of questions from his genealogist daughter. Something tells me (his long answers) that he enjoys answering my questions. Every time I talk to him I hear something I have never heard before.  Happy Father's Day!                   

Several Mothers and a Baby

This is one of my favorite pictures and I'm posting it here in honor of Mother's Day. These three beautiful women are all looking at me through the window of the hospital nursery. I know I'm a little hard to see but the picture is dated 8-55 so that is my proof! It is actually a 4 generation picture with a twist. On the left is my mother, Vera Dibbens Johnson. Her mother (and my grandma), Frances Rutkowski Dibbens is in the flower print dress on the right. Next to her is her mother-in-law (and my great grandma), Jessie Field Dibbens. It's just like my dad to think to take a picture. (He is the represented by the flash in the window.)

Happy Easter!

Emily - Palm Sunday 1987

The Edwards family (- Matt) 1989

This was juuuust a few years ago - back in 1989. We usually went from church over to Vince's parent's house for the afternoon on Easter. That's where this picture was taken. Emily was 7 and Brittany was about 7 months.

My Mom was a Multifacited Teenager - Wordless Wednesday

Vera Dibbens on their farm near Murdock, Kansas.

Vera Dibbens in town (probably Kingman, Kansas) wearing a new dress. (abt. 1945)

Four Sisters and their Grandpa - Wordless Wednesday

My Grandmother, Frances Rutkowski (left),
with 3 of her sisters (Eva, Mary and Blanche) 
and their grandpa, Henry Lewis Warnken.

iLike my iphone - Tech Tuesday

You would think I would have heard all of the stories by now. I've been asking questions and I've known him my whole life. That doesn't seem to matter. My dad thinks of a new story almost every time I talk to him. The problem is, I don't trust my memory and many times we are in the car and I am driving! We were on the highway coming back from a trip to Osage City, Kansas, where his mother grew up. He started talking about his Grandpa Nelson who came to Kansas from Sweden when he was about 20 years old. He recalled the Swedish words that his grandpa used to call his horses to him. Then, he repeated the words from so long ago. I scrambled for my iphone and touched the button for voice memo. I now have it recorded and saved to my computer. A few weeks later I mentioned to my dad's younger brother that I had heard how Grandpa Nelson called his horses. Immediately, he repeated the same words with the same thick Swedish accent. I wish I knew what the words meant but neither of them have a clue! I have voice recordings of many special people thanks to my iphone!

There are many iphone apps that I use in my genealogy work. The obvious ones besides voice memo are Ancestry, where I can look up basic data from my entire family tree and Genealogy Gems for great podcasts. Of course, I use Google, Maps and History Lite to find more information about events and places I am studying. I have a new App called Research Logger that I hope will help me during my genealogy adventures this summer.

My iphone has proven to be a great tool to have along wherever I go. Oh, it also makes a great phone!
Does anyone have other Apps they use for genealogy?