Thursday, January 31, 2013

Are We Related?

I am hoping people will read my blog and check to see if we have any relationship.  I am writing this to tell my family story, but also to find my ancestors.

Do we have any family lines in common?  Please check my posts and see if you recognize any names.  As I get further back I should start connecting with people.

If you have any questions please leave a comment and we can discuss our ancestors.  If we are related maybe we can become friends!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Anna Catherine Boughner Plummer - A Nazarene Woman

Anna Boughner was born in Falmouth, Kentucky, on April 9, 1978, to William T. and Elizabeth Isabel "Eliza" York.  She was raised in the Pendleton and Bracken County areas of Kentucky, right along the Ohio River.


Grandma reading her Bible


She married at the age of 14, to Charles Franklin Kelch who was 10 years older than her.  She gave birth to her first child, William Kelch, when she was 15.  I don't know how many years they were married, but they divorced.  She married my grandfather, James Plummer, on June 17 1904, in Pendleton County, Kentucky.

The information on  the children's birth certificate and  the census records give me an idea of where they lived over the years.  They lived in the Bracken and Pendleton Counties areas of Kentucky for a while and then by 1907 they were in Cleves, Ohio, which is near Cincinnati..  In 1910 they were living in Metamora, Indiana.  They lived in the Metamora, & Brookville, Indiana until around 1928. In Brookville several relatives were living near them.  Around 1928 they moved to Connersville, Indiana where they lived for the rest of their lives.

My grandmother and grandfather had nine children together.  Their children were Florence, James, Ethel, Charles, Ella, George, Warren, Thelma, and John.

My grandmother died quite a while before I was born.  My siblings who were born before she died were so young that they didn't remember her.  I have talked to a couple of cousins that remembered her so my impressions come from them.

She was a very strong, religious woman.  She always attended church. She carried her Bible with her and spent a lot of time reading it. In Connersville she attended The First Church of the Nazarene.  I have a cousin that told me when he was 5 he stayed with her for a while, up until just before she died.  He remembered that they would go to church and it was a few blocks from their home.  She would walk and he would ride his tricycle and park it outside the church.  He loved going to church with her, and he still attends the Nazarene Church.



As Grandma's health got worse, my mom used to go to her house and sit and rub her feet for her.

My Uncle George's children remember her, but they were young.  Their memories are about her being sick the last few month's of her life and living with them for a few weeks until she went to the hospital and died.
There is an older sister that I haven't gotten to talk to that may remember more.

Grandma Plummer's funeral was held at the Nazarene Church.  My cousin who went to church with her, remembers that his mom held him up to the casket so he could kiss Grandma goodbye.  She died on Jul 26 1943.

She is buried at Maple Grove Cemetery beside her husband who died less than four months before her.





Anna's Family Tree From Ancestry.com





Wordless Wednesday - Fighting Irish

Wordless Wednesday on GeneaBloggers.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Jack Plummer - The First Drowning Victim in Brookville Lake




Jack is the son of Charles and Shirley Hoover Plummer.  He was born in Richmond, Indiana on July 22, 1939.  Jack was 15 years older than me so I don't remember him except as a man.  I don't remember him living at home, in my memory he was always married to Della Hahn who I called Sis.  In actuality they were
married January 23, 1960, when I was five years old.  

Jack was an avid outdoors man   He was a hunter, a fisherman, he rode horses, and he water skied   stock . He loved cars.  He was always busy and involved in something.  I remember how excited he was when he got his first deer.  He also raced stock cars. There was a race track somewhere east of Connersville, Indiana, where he would race stock cars on the weekend during the summer.


  

Jack was a sheet metal worker and he worked for Triangle Sheet Metal, in Connersville, for many years.  He was the owner's right hand man, and head foreman.  

Jack and Sis would take the take me to their house to stay a lot.  They also took my two brothers and my younger sister. We were still living at home with mom and dad.  They would take all of us fun places and do things with us.  It was  like having an aunt and uncle who had no children.  They would spoil us.  I know he taught my brothers how to do lots of things.  Dad wasn't very well by this time and was unable to do a lot of things.  We got to do those things with Jack.  

Jack had a dog that was very close to him.  His dog, Belle, was left at home one time when they were gone and someone tried to get in.  Belle tore up a lot of things in the house.  They couldn't leave her inside any more because she would get nervous and tear things up.  They started chaining her outside when they left.  She broke several chains.  Sometimes she would get to our house before they did.  We knew he would be coming around soon when she would be standing at our front door.  She was a great dog.  She just didn't want to stay at home when they were gone.

Jack and Sis had always wanted children of their own.  They were unable to have them.  They decided to adopt but it was difficult to find children to adopt and they didn't think it was going to happen.  My brother that was just a little younger than Jack was having problems raising his children.  He and his wife decided to allow Jack and Sis to adopt the baby they were going to have.  They had a little girl in July 1974.  Jack and Sis adopted her.

Jack bought a boat the in the summer of 1974.  He was out in the boat almost every weekend.  It was getting to be late summer and I had gone to Connersville to see mom and dad.  Jack came by and said he was going out on the boat and asked if we wanted to go.  My husband, my mom, my daughter and I had gone out the weekend before.  We decided not to go and told him to have fun.  A little while later we headed home which was a couple of hours away.  When I walked into my house the phone was ringing.  It was mom calling to tell me that my brother had died on the lake that afternoon.  He drowned at Brookville Lake.  He was 35 years old.  Brookville Lake had been opened to boaters for the first time that summer.  He was the first drowning in the lake.  Jack died on August 26, 1974.   His daughter was one month old.  Jack  is buried at Dale Cemetery in Connersville, Indiana.



Tombstone Tuesday - Jack Plummer, Drowned at Brookville Lake




I am participating in Tombstone Tuesday from GeneaBloggers.  They suggest ideas for daily posts to keep you motivated to publish something each day.  I decided to do this today.  I will probably do an additional post with family history.  Maybe a follow-up to this post.

The tombstone I chose was the tombstone of my brother, Jack Plummer.  As you can see Jack has been gone a long time now.  He was the first drowning victim at the Brookville Reservoir Lake.   I will definitely write more about him in another post........To be continued. 

The Plummer Migration - Across the Ohio River and Northward

Life along the Ohio River, that was the story of the Plummer Family for a few generations. My father's parents ancestors both lived around Bracken and Pendleton Counties in Kentucky. Strolling along the river and sitting and fishing a leisurely day away might have been what they did to pass the time. So why did that change with a generation?







I had a older second cousin that lives in Cincinnati tell me that some of them moved due the Great Flood of 1913. Her father told her about homes being destroyed and family members having to move away. This may explain some of the later movement, but my grandparents had already moved across the Ohio River by 1907,

My grandparents had their first child together in Bracken County, but when there second child was born they had already migrated to Ohio. They lived around the Cincinnati area for a few years, then continued northward. in later years some of my aunts and an uncle moved back to the Cincinnati area. There are still cousins in the ares today.

My grandparents traveled north and little west to Brookville, Indiana were they settled for a while. There were several other family members on both sides of the family living in that area. I am sure some came before them, and most likely others followed them. My grandmothers parents traveled up to the Brookville area to settle at some time.

Another group of extended family had made their way to Dearborn County. it lies just a little south of the Brookville area. One of my cousins ended up back in the Dearborn County area to raise her family.

When my grandparents were nearing retirement age they left Brookville to finish their migration. They moved on to the nearby community of Connersville, Indiana where some of their children had settled.

Connersville seems to be the stopping point again. How many generations will live out their lives there. My children and I have moved on, but several family branches still continue to flourish in Connersville, not far from where our grandparents lived.


Creating Stories of Me for My Family History

I got a comment on my other blog My Mother's Family History that has had me thinking. My comment was from Karen. I had posted questioning how to cover the stories of living members of the family while they are still alive and can still tell me stories. She made a comment "While your at it , don't forget to write your own story too."

As I was writing the first couple of posts on this blog introducing you to my Dad I traveled back through time. This year will make 38 years since my daddy died. As I wrote about him and memories came flooding back, I wiped away tears. I still miss my dad.

Now after I read back through those posts I realized, I am writing my story. I am putting me into these stories. I may not be writing all the details of my life, but I am putting my feelings there. I think someday when I am gone, my children, grandchildren, and the future generations will be able to see who I am by reading this silly little blog.

Here is a picture of my dad and my two youngest brothers.  I haven't been able to find any pictures of me and dad.  Dad died when I was twenty and Mom had a fire that destroyed most of the pictures.

Well I started out trying to write my ancestor's stories for my family, and I see now I am reaching out to others and connecting, and writing my story while I'm at it. Wow!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Charles Thomas Plummer - Where my history starts

Charles Thomas Plummer was born on April 27, 1910 in Metamora, Indiana.  James Plummer and Anna Boughner Plummer were his parents.  His father was a tobacco farmer.  He grew up in a large family as was typical of the times.  His father and mother had both been married before so he had half-siblings on both sides of the family. He was one of the nine children his parents had together.  I don't know a lot about his years as a young boy. I do know that he made money as a young boy by working at the Brookville, Indiana,  Theater. My last post shows a picture of him that resided on their bulletin board for many years.



As a young man I know he spent several years traveling around and playing semi-pro baseball (I need to do research and see if I can find out more about the team he played for and details). During those years he got married.  I have never known who he was married too.  My mom told me he was married and had a daughter.  She said the marriage was very short-lived.  My oldest sister tells me that he had a son and a daughter.  When my sister was  around 12 or so the daughter came to our house looking for Dad.  That is the only time she ever had any contact I guess.  I would really like to figure out who he was married to and if his daughter and son, if there is one, are still around.  I think my older sister would really like to know too!  I believe he married her somewhere in another state, but I don't know which one.  I don't know if his children had his name or not.

On October 31, 1938 he married my mom, Shirley Hoover Plummer.  They were married until the time he died.  My mom and dad had nine children together.  My oldest brother, Jack, died in a water skiing accident at the age of 35.  They also had a daughter, Joyce Jean.  who died at 10 months of age from pneumonia. I have not been able to find birth records on my sister and my older siblings do not remember when she was born.


My older siblings remember traveling around the country when mom and dad were looking for work.  Their memories include living near a small town in Missouri.  They lived in a rural area, but they would go to town for shopping.  The little town they traveled to was Steel, Missouri.  My sisters said the town had a boardwalk and when they got into town mom and dad would give them money. The kids would go to a movie at the theater while mom and dad were doing what they needed to do in town.  My sisters and I have talked about talking a trip there this summer to see if it is still as they remembered it.

One of my male cousins told me some stories about hanging out with my dad and my brother, Jack. He said he had such a great time with them.  He reminisced about  hunting and fishing with them.  Dad taught him how to put up fence.  Apparently Dad used to roll what ever he could find to smoke when they were out building fences, a tobacco leaf, a corn stalk or whatever was there.  My cousin says that is why he never smoked, he tried a corn stalk when he was young and it turned him off ever smoking anything again.

During the years that I was growing up Dad still traveled around for work, but we stayed in one place and he would be gone all week at times.  I remember him coming home one time with a little tiny puppy in his pocket.  He brought my younger sister and I our first grown up dolls.  I was so excited to get my doll.  I named her Cynthia.  I just thought it sounded fancy at the time.

When Dad got sick with emphysema he couldn't work any more.  He was at home a lot with my younger sister and I which was great for us.  He got sicker and skinnier as the years went by.  My brother, Jack, used to stop by almost every day on his lunch to talk to Dad.  When Jack died my Dad grieved so much and he died within the next year.  My oldest daughter was two, and my oldest son was six months when  Dad died.   My daughter had gotten very close to him.  He was spending most of his time in bed by then, but he always found the energy to play with her.  He had little dog figurines that he kept by his bed.  They would walk the dogs all over the bed and she loved their little activity   When I told her that he had to go live with Jesus she reacted as a young child might.  She said she didn't like Jesus because he took her Grandpa away.



We had our last father's day get together for Dad on June 15, 1975.  He went into the hospital the next day. He went into a coma not long after that.  We were trying to get all the kids there to see him for the last time.  My youngest brother was out of state and could not be contacted.  My brother Wayne had to come from Ohio.  Shortly after Wayne arrived my Dad awakened from the coma.  He said, "Wayne, you're here!"  He really didn't say much else, but we all talked to him.  My mom sent a few of us to the cafeteria, I think she knew it was the end.  I remember thinking he was better.  Someone came to the cafeteria to let us know he was gone.  He died June 19, 1975.  He was buried on my brother's birthday.

Here is a copy of his family tree from Ancestry.com.





Sunday, January 27, 2013

Good News!! I'm Ready to Start Growing my Dad's Family Tree

I started a blog about a month ago to work on my Mom's family tree.  I didn't know how long it would be before I could start Dad's.  Well I decided to just go for it.  

My Dad died when I was 20.  I didn't get very many years with him.  Dad was 45 when I was born, I was the eighth of nine children.  During the last eight years of his life he wasn't well.  He had emphysema and had a horrible time breathing.  I would set and listen to him to hear if he was going to get his next breath.  He would choke and cough and it was so scary. 

 There were a couple of good things that came from being with Dad during those years.  I had my Dad at home all the time.  In previous years, he was traveling for work and would be gone for days at a time. It also made me never touch a cigarette.  

I will devote another post to my Dad's genealogy and life story, this one is just a getting started and a post to just tell everyone how much I loved my Dad.  He was very special to me.

My sister was gifted with a wonderful surprise one day out of the blue.  A friend of hers brought her a picture.  We had no pictures of my Dad's family or my Dad until he was older.  We have since collected a few from family members.  Our family had fires that destroyed all the pictures a couple of times during the years that we were growing up.




Now getting back to the surprise picture.  My sister's friend told her he had come into possession of it a year or more before he brought it to her.  There was a old theater in Brookville, Indiana that had been torn down for years. Someone had put away all the things that were taken from the theater when it was demolished.  I'm not sure how he came to be there the day they were going through the items.  When the picture was brought out someone read the back of it and it said "Young Charlie Plummer".  Apparently my father had worked at the theater back around 1920.  He cleaned up after the movies and made a little money.  At the time he was working there someone had taken his picture and posted it on a bulletin board.  It had hung there for years and when the theater was torn down it was boxed up and put away.  When my sister's friend heard them read the name Charlie Plummer he knew it was my sister's Dad.  He told them he knew the family and would it be all right if he gave it to them.  So he took that day and forgot about it for awhile.  When he came across it again he took it to my sister.  My Dad was around 10 years old in the picture.  He is dirty and his pants are tied up, but I love the picture.  I believe it is typical of children of the era in a small farming community.

I had a enlargement made and now have it framed and it is a treasure to me. In the future I hope to get a picture of the Old Brookville Theatre to add to my collection.