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Mystery Monday: The 1944 job application

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment
My father, Cid H. Dalin Jr., in 1944 at age 17

As part of my 2016 resolution to organize my small mountain of genealogy records once and for all, I am in the process of transcribing and analyzing all documents I have collected over the years. Yesterday, I worked on an interesting document I discovered only a few months ago. The document is a job application and comes from the personnel files of the Northern Pacific Railway Company. Apparently, my father applied for a job as a “yard clerk” on May 13, 1944 – when he was a junior in high school and only 17 years old. Continue reading →

Tombstone Tuesday: Gravestone of a Mother and Daughter

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

 

Mary and Nora

Gravestone of Mary M. Williams and Nora M. Blacker

Transcription:

Mary W.                                                    Nora M.

WILLIAMS                                               BLACKER

1924 – 1952                                               1902 – 1937

Mary and Nora were my mother’s sister and mother, respectively. They both died very young. Mary was 28 and Nora was 371.

They are buried side by side at Forestvale Cemetery in Helena, Montana. John David Blacker, my grandfather, is buried just to the right of this gravestone.

NOTES

  1. Since the gravestone was laid, we learned that Nora was born in 1900 and not 1902. ↩

A double mystery: Brita’s maiden name and her son Johan

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

The story my father told me so long ago about his grandparents Andrew and Brita Dalin left me with two mysteries – well, at least two.  The first is the mystery of Brita’s maiden name.  I remember my father saying, “Well, it was something like Anderson or Johnson – I think.”  In all my years of research, I’ve managed to narrow it down (if you can call it that) to either: Continue reading →

Family Friends Friday: Meet “Uncle Tom and Aunt Babe”

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment
Nora, Tom and Babe Hauser
Nora, Tom and Babe Hauser circa 1922

This is a wonderful photo of my grandmother, Nora Marie (Kieron) Blacker (1900-1937), comfortably lying next to Samuel Thomas Hauser, III (1878-1941) and his wife, Retta Brown (Clark) Hauser (1878-1940).  The Hausers were very good friends of the Blacker family. In fact, they were such good friends that my mother has always referred to them as “Uncle Tom” and “Aunt Babe”.

After their homes were destroyed in the 6.2 magnitude earthquake of October 1935, several members of my mother’s family (10 in all!) lived with Uncle Tom and Aunt Babe in their “mansion” on Floweree. Continue reading →