Josh Renaud's weblog detailing the exploits of his family in Ferguson, MO, USA. Starring Yoli, Jadzia, Ludi, Josie, and Joseph Renaud.
Joseph and I visited the Soldiers Memorial in downtown St. Louis this weekend. We looked at the cenotaph with the names of World War I dead, and I saw “John A. Becker”. I wondered if this was my great-great-great-uncle John A. Becker, who was beaten and robbed in November 1917 while he was on leave in Chicago from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. He died a few hours later in a nearby building.
Continue reading “John Becker, the WWI cenotaph, and fudged paperwork”
Over the years, my genealogy research has ebbed and flowed.
One area where I made a lot of progress, but also was stymied, was with my Grandma Becker’s parents, Antoni Horosiewicz and Stefania Klekotka.
Continue reading “Finding Antoni Horosiewicz’s birth record from Poland”
My great-grandfather Frank Becker was a fireman. I knew that he had been promoted to captain at some point, and some relatives had once told me they thought it had been covered on TV or in the newspaper.
I wanted to see if I could find a news story about the promotion.
It’s all Ludi’s fault.
Late last year she decided one day at lunch that she wanted a haircut. A dramatically shorter haircut, with bangs in front. She asked to get down from the table so she could go to the bathroom. A few minutes later we heard a loud banging, as if she had removed the top of the toilet. I burst in and found a strange scene. Ludi had climbed the toilet in order to reach sharp barber scissors we kept on a very high shelf. She had then hacked off a big chunk of hair around the front and one side of her head.
Of course she was in trouble. We explained to her the myriad ways she could have been hurt (falling from the toilet, being cut by the super-sharp scissors). And then I had to take her to the salon to repair the damage.
I have gotten used to it, but I do miss her long hair.
Fast forward to the present. Yoli had been getting frustrated with Josie’s long hair. Josie often gets messy when she eats or when she plays outside. Consequently her hair is always very tangled, and that leads to loud, painful combings whenever we want to go out into the world.
So she decided to give Josie a Ludi-esque haircut.
Again, I’m getting used to it, but I lament the loss of her beautiful long locks. On the other hand, seeing her with this short hair immediately reminded me of old photos of my own mother. See for yourself:
!http://www.joshrenaud.com/family/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/josie-nanny.jpg!
Thankfully in all of this, Jadzia has decided she won’t follow the trend. She wants to keep her hair long, but would like her Mam{a’} to give her just a slight trim.
!http://www.joshrenaud.com/family/archives/images/2010-06/IMG_3300.jpg!
Today the weather was so amazing that I could no longer put off a small project I have long wanted to embark on: finding family gravestones at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.
Hey, family history buffs and amateur genealogists in St. Louis County!
Get out your library card, and check out an awesome new resource:
“ProQuest’s Historical St. Louis Post-Dispatch database”:http://0-proquest.umi.com.iii.slcl.org/login?COPT=REJTPTc2ZWMmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=43157
It includes searchable full text and full image articles from 1874 – 1922, though there are some gaps.
This is just one of many helpful databases you can search from the St. Louis County Library’s “genealogy databases page.”:http://www.slcl.org/databases/genealogy.htm All of these databases are free, but some (like Ancestry.com or Footnote.com) require you to search from within a library branch. But this Post-Dispatch database can be searched from home!
Continue reading “Search old St. Louis Post-Dispatch stories (1874-1922)”
!http://www.joshrenaud.com/family/archives/images/2009-11/IMG_2690.jpg!
There are uncertainties in any big trip. For me, one of the biggest concerned our time in Bristol with my great-great-uncle Jerry and his wife Thelma.
Jerry is the younger brother of my great-grandma Becker. I first connected with him almost exactly 2 years ago as a result of my family tree research. I had found a lot of documents relating to his parents and their immigrations to America.
We have been in touch semi-regularly by phone and online since then. The idea for our trip to Washington had its roots in a conversation I had with Jerry about how beautiful the leaves and trees were in Virginia in the fall, and what a scenic drive it would be.
!http://www.joshrenaud.com/family/archives/images/2008-10/IMG_0824.JPG!
It was almost two years ago that I got in touch with Ed Richter.
He was a first cousin to my great-grandpa Frank Becker.
At that time I had made a lot of progress in developing my Becker family tree. As I was looking at all these first cousins, I realized that Ed was still living. On a whim, I wrote him a letter, and asked if he would be interested in some of the family history stuff I had uncovered.
I was excited to hear back from him and eventually to meet him in person. As it turns out, he lived only about 15- minutes away — just a straight shot down Chambers Road.
We talked on the phone and met at his house several times. He remembered quite a bit about his aunts and uncles on the Becker side, even though he wasn’t especially close to them. I learned things from him that never would have turned up in old censuses or church records.
During the time I knew Ed, he was diagnosed with cancer. At the end of March 2009, he died. But I didn’t know about it until recently — and I feel pretty bad about it.
If you are related to me and you are part of our family tree on Geni.com, you should login and check out some of the videos I have posted there from my Dad’s 50th birthday.
Here at the Renaud Empire, there has been no shortage of stories to tell the world at large. There has been, however, a shortage of time in which to write said stories. So, yet again, I am apologizing for a lack of updates here.
A few days ago we returned from a trip to San Antonio to visit family and relax. It was really wonderful. The weather was hot and dry, although we were thankful to see the parched land receive some rain while we were there. My Nan’s pool was loads of fun, and all three of the girls greatly enjoyed it.