What? Grandma was married before she met Grandpa?

Monday, January 31, 2011

Yesterday, I was searching marriages on Family Search and punched in my Grandma and Grandpa's names. Their marriage information came up which was cool to see.

What a shock when her name Eleanor Fahl came up again! First of all the status on three different entries showed her marriage status when she married my Grandpa, Willis Harold Lyon as being, unknown, married and divorced. What?

So after checking further it said she had been married to a Clifford Archibald Blair when she was 17 years of age and he was 20 years of age. What? They married September 24, 1917.

I really thought about this for awhile, not believing the information so then I called my sister Nancy and asked if she had heard of this before. "Yes" she said. Mom had told her years ago. Why didn't I know that? Especially with me being the family historian! Next I plan on asking my Dad about it. Unfortunately it turns out that marriage was not a good one for her and she got out of it by divorcing the man. It was also surprising, because she came from a religious family and back then - 1917 - it most likely was not looked well upon to have a divorce.

So I looked up Clifford Archibald Blair on Ancestry and came up with his World War I enlistment record which also showed his birthdate. His closest kin was his mother. There is not much information at all on this man and at this point I do not know if he married again, had children, or when he died. Amazing.

My Grandma Lyon was the sweetest woman ever, so this really surprised and shocked me. I told my sister - "if you have any secrets you better tell me, otherwise I will find out about it sooner or later for sure!"

Never Say Die

Friday, January 7, 2011

Back in the late 70's my coworker knew I loved hilarious things. Anything hilarioius. Well take a look at this newspaper clipping of a guy who amazingly survived the Civil War. Wow! This is amazing! And it it hilarious! Make sure you read to the end. It is something. Unfortunately I do not know what newspaper it came from. It was cut out from the page.



For some reason I kept this and found it again when Mike and I recently moved. Thought you would enjoy it. I tried looking on Ancestry to see if I could find any family, but I did not have any luck with his name.



Enjoy!






Winter Siblings

Don't you just love this picture? My Grandmother, Eleanor (Fahl) Lyon is on the right. She is with her brother Robert and sister Edna. There were six siblings in total in her family.



Based on the looks of their ages this photo would have been taken on or about 1907 in Marion, Iowa.



Happy January! Keep warm and cozy.







Three Generations of First Born Sons

Tuesday, January 4, 2011




Years ago, when my mother in law gave me a little pale light green baby outfit I was not too impressed. We had just had our first baby, a boy.


She went on to tell me my husband wore this outfit at about three weeks old and there is a picture of my father in law holding him in this outfit.


So - at about three weeks of age we went ahead and put this outfit on our Nathan and had a picture taken of the two of them as well.


When I found out we were expecting a grandson from Nathan I forwarded him this baby outfit. Two days ago, he put his three week old first born son into this little outfit and had a picture taken.


So here you have it. In the span of 57 years here are three first born sons wearing the same baby outfit!



Chuck holding Mike, Mike holding Nathan, Nathan holding Judah

Hurray for Hellman men and their first born sons!

Happy New Year

Here is to the year 2011. What are you hoping to uncover this year? So far, everything I have uncovered has been unexpected and a great surprise. Meeting new cousins is one of my favorites!



This year hopefully I will finally find out about my gr gr grandpa Andrew S Davis. Who were his parents? Did he have any siblings? What does the middle initial S stand for? What did he do for the 40 years of his life? Had he been married before 1865 and before the civil war?



So.....here is to another year of searcing for our long lost ancestors!



Happy New Year