Fearless Females Day 16: Who shall I invite to lunch?

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

Lisa Alzo’s “Fearless Females” blog prompt for March 16th is: If you could have lunch with any female family member (living or dead) or any famous female who would it be and why? Where would you go? What would you eat?

This is a hard one. I would definitely choose a female family member over someone famous – but which one?

Nora Marie (Kieron) BlackerAfter making a long list of possible lunch companions, I finally settled on my grandmother Nora Marie Kieron Blacker.

Nora was 100% Irish, having been born in Butte, Montana to immigrant parents – her father from County Monaghan and her mother from County Galway. Nora’s mother Kate died when she was only 36 years old – Nora was just a toddler. Sadly, history repeated itself when Nora also died at age 36 leaving my grandfather to raise five children. The youngest was 8 and the oldest was 14. Continue reading →

Fearless Females Day 15: Six-word memoir tribute

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

I just came across this wonderful post by Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist, in which she suggests the following:

Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month

Wish I had seen this earlier in the month! But better late than never, as they say.

And so I’ll begin with Lisa’s prompt for March 15th, which is to “write a six-word memoir tribute to one of your female ancestors.”

In honor of my great grandmother, Catherine “Kate” (Myers) Kieron of County Galway, Ireland . . .

Álainn, cróga, dóchasach. Imithe ró-luath.

English translation: Beautiful, brave, hopeful. Gone too soon.

Who is the woman in this photo? Part 1

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment
Photo #1
Photo #1

After several years of research and a recent phone session with The Photo Detective Maureen Taylor, I now believe that the woman in this photo, dated about 1890, is probably my great grandmother Brita Johansdotter1 Dalin and her son Johan.

But let me back up a bit and fill you in. Continue reading →

  1. As to her maiden name, my current thinking is that it is probably “Johansdotter”. This issue is discussed in more detail in Part 3 of this blog post. ↩

Hmmm. I thought they always said it was women who lied about their age . . .

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment
David Lyman Blacker
David Lyman Blacker

This very sophisticated looking fellow is my great grandfather, David Lyman Blacker. He was born in Huntington, Pennsylvania in 1829, the oldest son of Lewis Blacker and Margaret R. (Loury) Blacker.

According to the document below, he married my great grandmother, Ada Cordelia Buchenau, in Doniphan County, Kansas, in 1871. He was 28 years old at the time and she was 18.

Marriage Record: D. Blacker and Ada Buchenau
Marriage Record of David Blacker and Ada Buchenau

Wait – what???  If David was born in 18291, he would have been 42 years old in 1871 – not 28.

Needless to say, the discrepancy between David’s birth date and the marriage record raises a few questions.

  • Was he perhaps embarrassed to marry a woman who was 24 years his junior?
  • Could the clerk have made an error?
  • Did Ada know how old he was?
  • Did Ada’s parents know how old he was?
  • Is David’s birth date of August 29, 1829 incorrect?2

In any event, assuming David was 42 years old and not 28, and he appeared in person to obtain the license, I can only imagine the clerk may have thought he was stretching the truth just a bit.

NOTES

  1. I have several possible birth dates for him, which I posted about here, although none of them would have made him 28 years of age in 1871. ↩
  2. I will do a post in the near future regarding my complete analysis on this point. ↩