Nellie Jane Kirkpatrick LEE's Story

Whereas Oliver’s story takes him on a limited adventure, Nellie Jane’s story is more about Lansingburgh, NY and the home her father bought on Second Avenue.
Nellie Jane was born the older of two female children to young first generation parents Charles and Martha Jane Kirkpatrick in Lansingburgh (now Troy), New York in August 1873. She was raised in the Presbyterian Church, as evidenced by her profession of faith and the notation of her marriage in the Westminster Presbyterian Church records.

Nellie Jane moved a number of times as a child, but in 1886 her family was living in the house where Nellie would spend a great deal of her life, 246 2nd Avenue. Here she was surrounded by first generation Irish, like herself. She would have felt comfortable. Nellie’s aunt and uncle also lived with the family, Anna and William J. Wright. Neither had any profession, but perhaps helping around the house and caring for the two little girls.
Nellie Jane’s marriage to Oliver is announced in the Lansingburgh Times on September 8th, 1894. There is no way to know how they met, but we can perhaps imagine that Oliver delivered mail to her family’s home or perhaps Nellie and Oliver attended the same church. Nellie Jane is seven years younger than Oliver. They were married at her parent’s home by Reverend George Fairlee from the Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Oliver and Nellie Jane’s first child, Charles Herbert Lee, is born in July 1896 in New York City, not Troy, NY. Perhaps the young couple went to New York City to have the baby and introduce Nellie Jane to Oliver’s family.
By 1900, Nellie has two sons, Charles and Horace. She keeps house, living under the same roof as her parents, Charles and Martha. Charles continued to work, but Martha must have helped Nellie Jane with the children.

Perhaps because her family is growing, Nellie and Oliver move out of her parent’s home 1901, moving to 125 6th Avenue. Three years later in 1904 her third child, Olive, is born. With the family still growing, by 1910, Nellie Jane has moved again, down the street to 93 6th Avenue where Margaret is born in 1911.
Nellie Jane’s parents die within a day of one another in January 1912.
By 1915, Nellie Jane is still living at 93 6th Avenue, but her oldest son has started college at Syracuse University. Herbert attending college is a source of pride for the Kirkpatrick family, as he is the first in the family to ‘attend’ college. Herb’s period as a college student ends, however, as he serves in World War I in France as an ambulance driver. Nellie would have been aware of her great uncle who served in the Union Army during the Civil War; his body having been brought back from Virginia where he died and interred and marked magnificently in the family plot in Oakwood Cemetery.
In 1920, Nellie continues to reside at 93 6th Avenue with her husband and three younger children. Horace, or Harry, is working as a salesman for a drug company, perhaps helping with the family expenses. Herbert marries in 1923 and Nellie’s first grandchild, Virginia, is born in New York City in 1924.
In 1925, Oliver and Nellie have moved back with the three younger children to Nellie’s former house at 246 2nd Avenue. Herbert and his wife Florence have their second child, Charles Herbert in 1927. These are the only two grandchildren that Oliver and Nellie will have.
Though in 1930 Nellie has two grandchildren living in New Jersey, her reality in Troy is still caring for her two daughters and husband. Presumably she has some cousins and aunts and uncles living nearby to make holidays more festive.
According to the 1940 census, Nellie and Oliver are living on Oliver’s Government pension as their older daughter Olive remains with them, working as a secretary in a collar factory for $1,500/year .
Nellie Jane is blessed to see the graduation of both her grandchildren from well-respected colleges – Smith and Princeton. Her grandson joins the Navy at the end of World War II while her granddaughter gets married to a veteran in 1945. Virginia and her husband move across the country to Arizona.
In 1947, Olive is caring for her parents at the same address, however sometime after that time the three Lees move from Troy, New York to Yonkers, New York. The three of them live together at 1428 Midland Avenue, Yonkers, New York. Presumably Olive relocated because of a job and it fell upon her to take care of her aging parents. In the Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, New York, Oliver dies in January 1953 at the respectable old age of 86.
Charles, Nellie’s grandson marries for the first time in 1954 to a Smith graduate, Mary Lind M. There are no children from this union, and Charles marries again in 1963 to Natalie. Nellie gets to hold her great grandson PCL shortly after his birth when she visits her grandson in Brooklyn Heights in 1966.
Nellie dies in July of 1968 from generalized arteriosclerosis at the age of 94. She is buried with her family in downtown Troy, NY in the Kirkpatrick family plot at Oakwood Cemetery. She joined her sister, parents and grandparents in Plot 242 in Section D-3.

#1 Reviewer

TripAdvisor is telling me I am their #1 reviewer in my hometown with 169 reviews and 69 helpful votes. It's nice to get the recognition.

Of course now I have been doing so much genealogy research and writing that I can't even get in 5k steps in a day. Luckily I have a gym appointment today, otherwise I wouldn't walk further than the bathroom and kitchen. Obsession can be scary....

Roberta Maher's story

In 1901 Brooklyn, Roberta was born the fourth of five children to John Joseph and Lillian Charlotte Ehlers Maher. Roberta’s mother stayed home with the children and her father John worked as a letter carrier for the Post Office. Though both of her parents were born in New York, Roberta must have grown up with both German and Irish influences in her life, as both parents were first generation Americans. Roberta’s older brother Edwin was married and out of the house when Roberta was quite young. There was a fifth female child born when Roberta was about four years old, but who died stillborn, perhaps nameless, and buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

In 1910, Roberta was living with her parents and older sisters in a rented apartment at 197 7th Avenue in Brooklyn. She was surrounded on the block with children of other immigrant families in professions such as salesmen, bricklayers, firemen, shoemakers, etc.

Roberta’s mother dies in June 1919; Roberta is still living with her older sisters and her father in the apartment on 7th Avenue. Her father continues to work as a letter carrier. While Roberta is attending school, sister Florence is working as a stenographer at a Publishing Company and Lillian is keeping house for the family.

By 1925, Roberta’s sister Florence has married handsome C. Herbert Lee, and they have moved to their own apartment in Brooklyn. Roberta is again an aunt, this time to Florence’s daughter Virginia. Roberta, Lillian and father John move to a new apartment at 35 Clarkson Avenue, still in Brooklyn. By this time Roberta is also working as a stenographer, a respectable office job for women.

In September 1928, Roberta gets her first taste for foreign travel, potentially traveling with a few single girlfriends. She spends a week in Bermuda.

Somewhere along the line, Roberta meets a young(er) man, Albert Carlton Gould, who works as a radio engineer. He was born in Jamaica, Long Island, and living in 1929 at 1636 Emmons Avenue along the waterfront in Brooklyn. Roberta and Albert marry in September 1929. They live together at 2714 Avenue D in Brooklyn, Albert commuting to the airport to work on airplanes.

Roberta and Albert do not have any children and they ultimately divorce , though no information has yet been found about the date; the divorce is gleaned from a later passenger list which lists Roberta’s marital status as divorced.

We lose Roberta’s story until 1953 when she returns from a trip to the Caribbean over New Year’s with her older sister Lillian. At this point the sisters are living together at 207 West 11th Street.
Roberta dies in October 1969 at her apartment. Natalie, the wife of Roberta's nephew Charley, remembers sitting with Lillian at their apartment when Roberta died.

The Maher women, taken about 1918. Roberta is sitting up front on the floor, with her mother behind her.

Mothers, Food and Genes

A mother’s diet alters genes
How well a mother eats before conceiving a child can alter her child’s genes. That’s the conclusion of a new study that looked at pregnant women in western Africa—where diets change radically with the seasons—to better understand what factors influence fetal DNA development, LiveScience.com reports. The study involved 84 Gambian women who had conceived at the peak of the rainy season, when more nutrient-packed, leafy green vegetables are consumed, and 83 who’d conceived at the peak of the dry season, when such foods are often scarce. Researchers measured nutrient concentrations in the women’s blood during pregnancy, then analyzed six genes in blood and hair samples taken from their babies. The infants conceived during rainy season had consistently higher rates of methylation—changes in DNA that can “silence” the expression of particular genes. Researchers also found that the lower the mother’s body mass index, the more methylation occurred. “Our results represent the first demonstration in humans that a mother’s nutritional well-being at the time of conception can change how her child’s genes will be interpreted, with a lifelong impact,” says study author Branwen Hennig of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. But while scientists now know that pre-conception diet has a genetic impact, the functional consequences of the changes in gene behavior remain unknown.

I remember hearing about a study performed in Sweden, I believe, where the dietary intake of fathers impacted the obesity of their sons and grandsons. It was a very controlled group and the researchers studied the boys who developed their sex characteristics during a famine period or a feast period of years; those boys that did not have enough food passed on genes to their sons and grandsons that made them fatter than the boys who developed with plenty of nutrition around.

Pretty amazing what effect we can have on the health of our children as expressed in their genes.

Washing Denim

Ok, this little tidbit surprised me and even grossed me out a little.

Never launder denim. “You’d be surprised how many people do this.” Yes, you should spot-clean stains. But when the jeans need a refreshing, just put them in a Ziploc bag in the freezer for a few days. “The low temperatures kill bacteria, remove any stink, and somehow make them feel freshly clean.”
Source: Babble.com

I don't have room in my freezer for my jeans.

Memories of Coffee

I was reading my favorite magazine again, The Week, and they had an article on Coffee. Well, caffeine, really, but it made me think of my dad. (And here we are on mother's day, I should be relaying a story about her...)

My father did serve during WWII; he was in the Navy. Perhaps he developed his enjoyment of coffee and/or caffeine during that period along with the rest of the soldiers and sailors.

American coffee consumption peaked in the World War II years. Back then, coffee was flat-out winning in the competition against other beverages. Americans drank 46 gallons annually — nearly 20 pounds of beans per person.

But what I remember mostly about my dad is that he always had a cup of black coffee - and his teeth were stained with it (and with smoking, I guess) - but in restaurants whenever he ordered a cup of coffee he would ask for a packet of Sanka on the side. I guess he liked it stronger - like the Navy's coffee, maybe - because I believe Sanka was instant decaffeinated coffee. That is always something I will associate with my Dad.

I miss you, Dad.

Photographs - what do you do when inundated?

As perhaps I mentioned, I have found a ton of Lee/Kirkpatick photographs/memorabilia in my attic. I am ashamed that I have had it all along and am only now realizing it. What I recall from the time that I cleaned out Olive’s apartment in the late 90s is that there were a ton of tiny travel photographs - maybe 1 and a 1/2 inch square. I knew they were very cool, because they were Rome, Moscow, China, etc. – but they were so small and I couldn't deal with it at the time. It appears that I had more presence of mind than I realized – I seem to have saved some really good stuff. Thank you, God.
However, going through all the unlabeled photographs made me think about my own colletion of photographs. Mostly I make shutterfly.com books of my travel photographs. But, those books are more about what I see rather than the people. I know from this archival or historical process that it is the people who will be interesting years later, not the places – unless, of course it is someplace that eventually gets destroyed, like the Buddha statues in Afghanistan. Then you want to keep those photographs.
So, I have sorted through years of photographs. I had to wrestle with the question of outdated storage media, slides and negatives. My husband suggested that I keep all the negatives, and I suppose they don’t take up too much space. I didn’t even tackle the slides. I have a ton of black and white negatives from photography classes over the years, though they are already slipped in to sleeves and filed in a 3 ring binder. I did throw some photographs away, though. That feels like sacrilege. I tossed photos of a cousin’s wedding, but only because the quality of the photographs is so poor; it was a tough decision, though. I am sure, though, that I have photo albums somewhere with these photographs and these are the duplicates.
Of course I have come across miscellaneous photographs which are not people, but make me think about my family and my life. So, in that vein, I have scanned – and I will now toss – a photograph of the house my grandmother rented for a number of years in Kennebunkport, Maine. I will also write the memories I have of the house and my family's time there.

• This house was owned by the Pruitt Family
• The house is just down the road from the Walker (read President Bush’s) compound on Walker point. I remember when I heard Senior President George Bush make a speech when he was running against Reagan, before he became his running mate.
• I spent summers here reading Jane Austen while cousin was reading English literature; I think he was preparing for graduate school.
• This was where Gammy had a piece of spinach on her nose and another cousin and I were laughing about it. When Alex told Gammy about it, she answered with “well, I think it looks good there.” Santos came out to serve the next course and used her finger to wipe it off. I can picture that to this day.
• The my brothers and my cousins spent hours walking/playing on the rocks along the Maine coastline.
• Gammy bought us tennis, sailing and diving lessons and such to keep us out of the house and active.

Honestly, I am overwhelmed with all the photographs - and also the knowledge that being childless, none of these images will be of interest to another generation. I will hope that my nieces and my stepchildren with be happy for the images of their own parents amongst my collection.

5,300 DNA and grandchildren....

Some Austrian scientists have used DNA to prove that 19 men currently living in the Tyrol region are related to Otzi the Iceman, whose 5,300 year old body was found frozen in the Alps in 1991.

Camel Fiber

You learn something new every day. (Hopefully, I suppose.)

While reading Volume 11, Issue 1 of Wild Fibers magazine I noticed a photograph of camel moms with their babies. (Do baby camels have a name, like kids or cria?) One frequently sees llamas, alpacas, etc., but I don't ever recall seeing photographs of camels in a context of knitting fiber. Maybe I just haven't been sensitive to it in the past, but it struck me as worthy of investigation.

The advertisement is for Weaver Creek Fibers. According to their web site they are wholesale purveyors of luxury fibers. I'm afraid they do not have a terribly long list of locations where one can buy their product, as I would love to feel camel fiber. They will blend the fiber with merino wool or silk.

Camels may be creatures of the desert but they need a downy undercoat to keep the suns rays away from their tender skin. Camel down has been prized for centuries and in modern times was in every gentleman's wardrobe, in the quintessential Camel Hair Coat.

OMG, Camel hair coats really are made of camel hair!

The Baby Camel Down is a warm golden brown and so very soft. This short stapled fiber is prepared in a manner that makes it very easy to spin and will do well, whether spun with a lot of loft or tightly for sturdy garments. It pairs wonderfully with merino and silk in our spectacular blends and will take dye beautifully. Camel down is the soft warm inner down of a bactrian camel with a fiber structure similar to cashmere. The down is usually 1-3 inches long. Camel down does not felt easily. Baby Camel Top has been becoming more popular every year.

I wonder if camel fiber is generally used for knitting, as well as making men's winter coats. I will have to ask around. I notice, too, that they are discussing the use of baby camel fiber, not the fiber from an adult animal. What do they do with all the adult animals? I did a google search on the address, and one cannot tell if they have a lot of land and they are raising the animals. (But, perhaps they are not raising the animals, given that they mention yaks, rabbits, alpaca fiber, too.) I was disturbed by the thought of all the adult animals.... So, I conclude, perhaps naively, that they have a source of fiber from a place that has more 'use' for adult animals.

As I read further, I see them discuss the animals. They indicate:

Bactrian camels have two humps, weigh about 1600 pounds and stand about 7-9 feet tall at the top of their humps. Their gestation period is 370-445 days and give birth to calves weighing 80-130 pounds. Their life span is 40-50 years. Bactrian camels have two coats: the warm inner coat of down and a rough outer coat which is long and hairy. They shed their fiber in clumps consisting of both coats and is normally gathered. They produce about 5 pounds of fiber annually.

What I conclude is that they do not raise their own animals, as the photograph shows animals with only one hump, not two...

I have swiped this image from a google image search.



Ok, I am disillusioned. And I wonder why they would use a photograph of animals with one hump instead of the two humps they discuss in their description.

A baby camel is a calf.

The health effects of Fat

Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple has been arguing this for a long time. The whole Primal way of eating has included lots of naturally occurring fats in one's diet. One should make sure that the animal fat is from an animal which has been allowed to eat what it was born to eat, not the feed the Global Industrial Complex has our farmers feeding their animals.

Were doctors wrong about fat?
After four decades of persistent warnings that saturated fats should be avoided in healthy diets, new research is casting doubt on that claim. An extensive new analysis of nearly 80 studies involving 660,000 people has found no evidence linking the fats found in meat, butter, and cheese to an increased risk of heart disease, reports The New York Times. Researchers also found no firm evidence that unsaturated fats, such as the omega-3 fatty acids in salmon, reduce heart disease rates. Taken together, the findings further muddy the waters in the ongoing debate about what’s best to eat. “These are interesting results that encourage careful reappraisal of our current nutritional guidelines,” says researcher Rajiv Chowdhury of the University of Cambridge. While saturated fats are known to increase LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, the new findings suggest that the relationship between cholesterol and heart disease is more complicated than previously thought. Researchers did confirm, however, that the much maligned trans fats, the partially hydrogenated oils found in processed foods, do have a direct link to heart disease.

I read this in the April 4th issue of The Week Magazine.