San Francisco 1906

I was surfing YouTube looking for a vintage car video for my other blog, Your Car Gal. I found this footage taken in 1906 from a Market Street Cable Car just days before the Great Earthquake. See my Article on Emma Nevada Pauline Kleine Goforth Crithfield (my mother's ex-mother-in-law)--she was there!

This video is for my Crithfield family!

How Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 Saved Me $590!

It was one of the highest ticket impluse purchases I've ever made. Usually, I limit myself to contraband Snickers.

I really love my MacBook Pro. I love iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand. I love not worrying about viruses and pornadoes. However, I do NOT love iWork. I have tried to get used to Pages-no luck. I also do not like Reunions 9.

Since the two main things I do with my laptop (besides using it as a portable DVD player) are word processing and genealogy, I was starting to think it was time to go back to Windows. (Please let's not start Platform Holy Wars).

I ran into Office Max for a notebook and a pen. $137 later...I came out with 2 notebooks, a pen, a thumb drive, a calculator, and Family Tree Maker for Mac 2. I figured that since my purchase also came with a free 6 month subscription to Ancestry.com, the software really only cost me $10 and saved me from making a $600 laptop purchase. So, according to Sequester logic, I saved $590, right?

So far, I've managed to update my Mac OS, install and register FTMfM2, and import my GEDCOM's. It only took one phone call to Ancestry.com tech support (PEBCAK=Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard).

It's a little premature to offer an opinion on the software itself. I'm hoping that it's more intuitive for the way my brain works. That will be a topic for another post.

What is your favorite genealogy software? Leave me a comment below.

Ad Disclaimer

Blogger posted a pro-Tammy Baldwin anti-Tommy Thompson ad on my blog. I opted out of ads because I don't want to passively promote candidates and causes I disagree with.

If you see an ad on here, it doesn't necessarily reflect my opinions, beliefs, or products I use or endorse. When in doubt, ask me.

This blog is for family stories. If you want to discuss politics, rant on Facebook like everybody else.

Love you!

Ida Marie Sutter

My family just got back from a lovely trip to Nauvoo. The weather was cooperative. My mother was able to join us. The children were peaceful. The roads were not under construction! In short, it was the family vacation we have pictured in our heads, but never seem able to achieve! We achieved it!

My daughter and son-in-law and their children were sealed in the temple. (See Mormon.org). This was, of course a beautiful ceremony. I was very touched by the number of friends and family members who made the sacrifice of a twelve hour round trip to join us!

Of course, any time I get to attend the temple is a time for Family History. My mom spotted the name Ida Marie Sutter in my Family File. After a few quiet minutes, she tearfully told me this little story of my great-great aunt Ida:

Ida Marie Sutter was the sister of my great-grandfather Henry Sutter. Ida was born 10 June 1871; she had a twin brother William Peter. Aunt Ida worked as a housekeeper for the priests. I followed her life through the parade of censuses and city directories. When she was 20, 28, 38, 48, 58, 68 she worked for the priests. She cooked the meals and scrubbed the floors and did the laundry and kept all of the church linens, the cassocks and surplices and altar cloths, spotless. She never married, never had children. She devoted her life to serving the priests so that they could serve God and their parishioners.

When she became old and was getting too feeble to work, Aunt Ida was let go. She had no where to go and no one to look after her, so my grandmother (Margaret Ann Sutter Mitchell) took her in. For the remainder of her days, when my father came home from work, Aunt Ida, thinking she was still at the rectory and that my bachelor dad was one of the priests, would say, "Good Evening, Father."

Ida Marie Sutter died in 1963 at the age of 91.

I'm grateful for my grandmother's example of kindness, hospitality, and compassion for an elderly aunt.

Indexing Marathon

I copied and pasted this straight from https://familysearch.org/node/1726  

Amazing! We passed the 5 million records goal in less than 16 hours and just kept going! Thank you to the 46,091 indexers and arbitrators who participated in this historic event.
Final Record Count:

• 7,258,151 Indexed

• 3,082,728 Arbitrated

• 10,340,879 Total

Celebrate with us. Print and/or share this badge online to let your friends know you helped make history!

Special thanks to McDonald's on North and Calumet for their free WIFI and $1 Diet Coke. My portion of this goal was 400 names. All from the 1940 US Census in Michigan. 


Speaking of the 1940 census. I renewed my Ancestry.com subscription and found both my parents and their families. 


I keep balking at the cost of Ancestry.com, but really, it's money well spent.

Your Car Gal--The Blog

I have a new endeavor. Your Car Gal--The Blog. It's a companion to News from Your Car Gal. If you've been getting my newsletter, the content will be the same, just in a more convenient, hopefully more user friendly format.

Visit www.yourcargal.blogspot or email me at maggiemitchell@lakelandauto.com and I'll be happy to put you on my newsletter mailing list. Or you can follow me on You Twit Face.

Now back to stories about dead people...

Listography: Some Traditions Suck!

Ok. True confessions time. I used to LOVE Christmas. My parents made Christmas magical for us. They even continued giving us gifts from "Santa" long after St. Nick himself had put us on the naughty list with all the other teenagers with bad attitudes.

When I got married and was establishing new Christmas traditions with my husband and children, I had a real struggle on my hands. My husband (now Darling eX-Husband) had a very difficult time at Christmas. I had heard of such things, but had never met anyone that actually experienced it.  It wasn't until many years later that we discovered that he was struggling with Bipolar Disorder. It was a few years after that we discovered that Bipolar Disorder was a trait passed to two of our children. Hooray for DNA!

Unfortunately, many of our Christmas memories are like those of children who grew up with alcoholics. We definitely put the funk in dys-funk-tional!

So here we are, it's Christmas 2011. "DXH" is happily married to "ESM" (the kids lovingly refer to her as Evil Step-Mother--seriously, it's meant as a term of endearment!) He's stable and working. "The Hulk" is living with them and doesn't turn green nearly as often as he used to. "The Riddler" is managing his condition proactively and creatively. These are all things for which I am profoundly grateful. BUT, my children for the most part have grown up planning on Christmas being disappointing and painful. This leaves me in the throes of trying to establish all new positive Christmas traditions and Christmas memories. I'm trying to re-create Christmas magic with little money, zero time, and not much hope of success. My hope is that the kids will establish all new magical traditions with their spouses and children. My hope is that they recognize that I kept trying and never gave up.

Here is what we do every year (or nearly every year):

• Plan on sending Christmas newsletter
• Plan on sending New Year's newsletter
• Plan on sending Ground Hog Day newsletter
• Shoot for next year on the newsletter
• Commit to fitness goals between Thanksgiving and Christmas
• Forget fitness goals when there is fudge in the room
• Re-commit to fitness goals for the New Year 
• Forget fitness goal--it's 15 below!
• Read Samuel the Lamanite's prophecies.
• Read Isaiah's prophecies
• Make Latkes and spin the Dreydl for Hanukkah
• Listen to the children remind me that "Mom, you know we're not Jewish, right?"
• Smile three months later when same children ask if we can have a Passover Seder.
• Plan to take the kids on a ski trip in lieu of presents
• Look at bank balance and rule out ski trip
• Ignor bank balance and go skiing anyway.
• Receive $25 parking ticket for parking on the even side of the street on an odd day.
• Revisit bank balance--make a list of people to whom I can get away with giving baked goods or thoughtful homemade gifts.
• Sing The Messiah with the Symphony Chorus
• Debate the benefits of the live vs. artificial Christmas tree
• Absolutely forbid the use of tinsel
• Reverse tinsel mandate.
• Curse the tangle of Christmas lights--This tradition is passed down from my dad.
• Wonder why my Christmas tree always looks like it got dressed in the dark--blame the tinsel.
• Attend friend's Caroling party, but avoid actual caroling because it 15 below and the buffet is warm.
• Watch Charlie Brown Christmas and cry when Linus recites Luke 2
• Watch It's a Wonderful Life and cry.
• Watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Boris Karloff version) and cry.
• Watch A Christmas Story and laugh and cry--prompting children to comment on my tendency to cry over EVERY movie I watch.
• Avoid all Lifetime Made for TV Christmas movies.
• Enjoy goodies left by the "Christmas Ninjas"
• Act as "Christmas Ninjas"
• Absolutely refuse to go in to work on Christmas Eve
• Go in to work on Christmas Eve
• Show up an hour and a half late to my brother's house--see previous item.
• Shop for stocking stuffers at Walgreen's on Christmas eve becasue they're the only store still open.
• Read A Visit from Saint Nicholas
• Read Luke 2 with the kids.
• Cook a turkey and have someone ask why we're not having ham
• Cook a ham and have someone ask why we're not having turkey
• Ponder the possibility of melting chocolate on a spoon and injecting into my veins
• Sing "Santa Baby" until children beg me to stop.
• Try singing other carols to get endless loop of "Santa Baby" out of my head.
• "Santa Baby" replaced by endless loop of "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"
• Call my family on the phone.
• Realize Christmas was just fine and wonder what I was so panicked about.

What are your sucky traditions?

No Blood Relation

This post is especially dedicated to my sweet niece Julie and her two sons, Kevin and Nico. She asked me, as the de facto family historian, where the Crithfields came from--I never did get back to her. Special thanks to Janet Wright for the excellent research and beautiful photos she is posting on Ancestry.com

George Ross Crithfield IV is my nephew. George Ross Crithfield III is my eldest brother. George Ross Crithfield II was my mother's first husband and my older siblings' father. George Ross Crithfield I is no blood relation.

Did your brain make that record scratch noise? Did you tip your head to the side like my dog does when I run through the house in a towel?

In my last post, you were introduced to Emma Nevada Pauline Kleine Goforth Crithfield. Emma's first husband, Charles Goforth, died of complications from diabetes before the advent of insulin. She remarried my older siblings' grandfather Henry Crithfield. Henry Crithfield was born Henry Haueise in Brookfield, Missouri, in 1887.

From here the story gets just a little shaky. My mother always told the story that as a teenager, he was "farmed out" to help support the family. Some boys who went to live as hired hands were treated brutally, starved, beaten like rented mules. Henry, however, went to work for Mr. George Ross Crithfield, who was kind and treated him like a son. Later Henry took this foster father's last name.

Other evidence (swiped from his granddaughter Janet's public tree on Ancestry.com--I should probably have asked before posting this) suggests that Mr. Crithfield and his wife Mary adopted Henry at the age of two following his mother's death. His brothers and sisters were adopted by other families.

Either way, the impact of Mr. Crithfield's kindness has impacted my family for four generations of namesakes--but he is no blood relation.

A Post for Another Day--Emma Nevada Pauline Kleine Goforth Crithfield

My dear mother is an independent women who comes from a long line of strong English women--stiff upper lip and all that. She had her knee replaced last month. I was secretly hoping that surgery and recovery would induce her to accept some help from me and the kids. "Oh, not to worry. I'm fine."

Well, Mom was on my mind today, so, of course, I had to give her a call. Talk turned to genealogy. I've been trying to get her to tell me more about her childhood, her parents, her grandparents. She told me a wonderful story, one that she has told me many times before. It is a little worrisome that she repeats stories, I'm concerned about her memory. She will even ask, "Have I told you this before?" It doesn't matter what our answer is, she tells the story anyway. It's OK, she's a very good story-teller.

This particular story is especially amusing because, when I'm trying to get her to talk about my ancestors, she tells me about her ex-mother-in-law, Emma Nevada Pauline Kleine Goforth Crithfield. No blood relation at all, but grandmother to my older brothers and sister. (More about the importance of "no blood relation" in another post.)

My mother has always said how wonderful both her mothers-in-law were. According to my mother, Emma's father was a sea captain. Her mother came from Germany. She sailed around the horn to get to California. The captain gave up the sea and started a ranch in Oso Flaco, Santa Barbara County, California.

Emma's job on the ranch was to make the bread for the family and all the hands. She would roll up her sleeves to knead the dough and shape the loaves. One of the ranch hands, a young Charles Goforth, told her what lovely wrists she had. In a day and age when allowing your petticoat to show while dancing caused the little old ladies to comment on your virtue, a shapely wrist was probably exciting stuff--especially to a ranch hand who spends his days looking at cattle and horses.

Another time, Emma and Charles went for a buggy ride. The horse had eaten some green alfalfa and started spraying awful green alfalfa nastiness. They had to hide behind the buggy robe to avoid being sprayed with "you-know-what." Well, this struck them funny and they got a case of the giggles.

Emma and Charles were married in 1904. Early on the morning of April 18, 1906, they were awakened by their bed shaking. It continued to shake for several minutes. They grabbed onto the sides of the bed and held on. The ridiculousness of the situation struck them funny. They laughed and rode the bed till the earthquake stopped. They heard noises and people screaming in the streets. They went outside they saw that the chimney had fallen. It probably would have killed them had they gone out earlier. Then they saw the smoke and the fire across the bay in San Francisco.

When Mom was telling me this story the other day, it finally dawned on me that she was talking about THE San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.

Serendipity Moment: at the gym today, I was listening to back episodes of Genealogy Gems podcast by Lisa Louise Cook. She was talking about how to research victims of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Don't you love it when that happens??? 

More about my Crithfield relations in another post.

Wecipe Wednesday: Crazy Cake

When my little brother was old enough to go to school, my mother went to work. I was too young to be responsible for my rambunctious little brother; I was too young to be responsible for myself. Summertime would have been problematic if it had not been for Ruthie. Ruthie was our babysitter for that first summer. Because Ruthie's father was an Apostolic minister, her family did not watch television or go to the movies.

In the morning, we would go to Summer School. When we got home, Ruthie would come over and make us lunch and then we would play. As I recall that summer was unusually wet and we had lots of rainy days. Rather than turn on the TV, Ruthie would bring over puzzles and games. We played Old Maid and Crazy Eights. We played Authors and Go Fish. We made potholders and painted rocks. One day Ruthie taught us how to make Crazy Cake.

I had made box cakes before, and I had taken Fun with Food in Summer School. This was absolutely bizarre to me. It didn't have the ingredients that I thought it should have. It had vinegar in it, but no eggs. How could this possibly work and not taste like pickles.

"That's why they call it Crazy Cake," Ruthie said.

Every time I make Crazy Cake, I think of Ruthie and her gentle way off getting my little brother and me through that long, wet, latchkey summer. So here it is.

• Crazy Cake
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups cold water

1. Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into a 9 x 13 inch ungreased cake pan. Make three wells. Pour oil into one well, vinegar into second, and vanilla into third well. Pour cold water over all, and stir well with fork.
2. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Frost with your favorite icing or dust with powdered sugar.

What recipe tickled your fancy as a child? Comment below.