From left to right are: John Edward Winblad I (1856-1914); Salmine Sophia Severine Pedersen (1862-1914); Dewey Ernest Lattin I (1898-1985); Jarvis Andrew Lattin (1853-1941) in a hat; Mary Jane Puckett (1854-1927); Eva Ariel Lattin (1892-1939) who has her hand on Norman Edward Winblad (1911-1980); and Theodore Roosevelt Lattin (1901-1980) at the home of Jarvis Andrew Lattin near Santa Barbara, on the Isle of Pines, Cuba in 1911. The photographer was Anton Julius Winblad II (1886-1975).

What is up with Wikia.com. Their servers are down multiple times during the day for several minutes. I would say that three or four times a day I get the message:

Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to familypedia.wikia.com

Then maybe once a month the site is down for a day or more where I can read pages from the server but I cannot write to the server. It is independent of the browser I am using. 

My insurance company, American Modern Insurance Group of Cincinnati, Ohio, is cancelling my home insurance because they want the front of my house repainted because it has some pealing paint on the cedar shingles. I called them up and said: "Do you really expect me to paint the outside of my house in sub-freezing weather. The paint will freeze before it dries." Their answer: "Yes, you must address the deficiency listed in the letter we sent you." I am not sure what risk peeling paint will bring to a house that just survived two hurricanes in two years. Time to find a new insurance company.

New DNA based family news. My cousin Kevin Borland and I both did a DNA test through Ancestry.com and we came up as matches as expected. Except, I have a match with another known cousin, Todd Wickman, from the Norway side of the family. Kevin came up as 0% Scandinavian. So, it seems that we have solved an old family mystery. We know that my grandfather, Arthur Oscar Freudenberg (1891-1968) abandoned the family in 1928, the year that Helen Eloise Freudenberg (1928-1989)  was born. So now it seems that my grandmother raised one of Arthur's children from one of his mistresses. That baby was Helen Eloise Freudenberg. The next step is to order her birth certificate and see who is listed as the mother. 

Emil August Schneider (1886-1955) with Inga Karoline Eldora Pedersen (1882-1927) circa 1913-1914

Emil August Schneider (1886-1955) with Inga Karoline Eldora Pedersen (1882-1927) and Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940) and Alice Violetta Schneider (1913-2002) circa 1913-1914. Image from Ancestry.com.

Will Bury Heights War Hero. Another of World War martyrs, Corporal [sic] Louis Julius Freudenberg will be buried Sunday afternoon in Flower Hill Cemetery. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. at his late home, 22 Hopkins Avenue, Jersey City. Dr. Clark, of the Summit Avenue, M.E. Church and a delegation of Fisk Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars, will officiate. Corporal [sic] Freudenberg was 24 years old at the time of his death. He was a runner in Company M, of the 309th Infantry, 78th Division. He was wounded in the right leg at the battle of Montfaucon, October 16, 1918 and while making his way back to the first aid station was shot through the head by a German sniper. Young Freudenberg was born in Hoboken and attended No. 3 School of that city and No. 8 School of Jersey City. He was inducted April 4, 1918 and trained at Camp Dix, leaving for France in May with his unit. He is survived by his mother, Mrs. Eloise Freudenberg, five brothers, Charles, Arthur, Richard, formerly of the 32nd Field Artillery, 11th Division; Ralph and Eugene and three sisters, Ada, Clara and Grace.

Person: Louis Julius Freudenberg I (1894-1918)

Louis Julius Freudenberg I (1894-1918); his sister, Ada Augusta Freudenberg (1885-1957); and Ada's husband, Ralph Kohlman (1885-1957) circa 1915-1917 at Matavan beach, now Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey.

Why do I see this 4 or 5 times a day when I am editing in Familypedia? I have never come across a website that is down so much. This is Wikia. It seems to be down for 5 minutes at a time 4 or 5 times a day. What is the problem with Wikia and their servers?

On Facebook you can create memorial pages for people. However you cannot back-date images of them. You get a message "You have specified a date earlier than the creation date of the page." All images have to be dated newer than the creation of the page. So I cannot take any photos from my archive of a dead person and add a proper date to it.

Marriage of Earl Vincent Winblad (1916-2004) and June Amanda Salisbury (1912-2003) on Valentines Day, February 14, 1950 in Carson, California. This was her third marriage.

Marriage of Ralph Freudenberg (1903-1980) and Nora Belle Conklin (1902-1963) on February 16, 1921 in Orange County, New York.

Wedding Deferred; Commits Suicide. Prospective Bride-to-be, Fiance Gone, Takes Own Life in Grief.

Wedding Deferred; Commits Suicide. Prospective Bride-to-be, Fiance Gone, Takes Own Life in Grief. The postponement of the date set for her marriage to Anton Winblad, with whose parents she lived at 437 Wayne Street, caused Clara Minnie Olsen, 22 years old, to commit suicide by inhaling illuminating gas in her bedroom yesterday afternoon. The woman who is barely 22 years of age was discovered by Mrs. Selmine Winblad who detected the deathly fumes of gas coming from the bedroom. The girl was lying one the bed with one end of the gas tube fastened between her teeth and the other was connected to the gas jet over her head. Mrs. Winblad terrified at the sight of the body of the young girl ...

Notes:

Anton Julius Winblad II (1886-1975) goes to the Isle of Pines in Cuba to scout out living there and his fiance, Clara Minnie Olsen (1888-1910), takes her own life.

Marriage of Oscar Arthur Moritz Lindauer (1815-1866) and Sophia Weber (1815-1891) on May 27, 1851

Marriage of Oscar Arthur Moritz Lindauer (1815-1866) and Sophia Weber (1815-1891) on May 27, 1851 in Essex County, New Jersey. The oral family history had them married in Alsace and then emigrating to the United States.

Geni.com and hubris.

Genealogists should avoid Geni.com.

The genealogical website, Geni.com is displaying hubris. They are following the Netflix model of taking their service and drastically changing the terms of service. What was a free account for storing your family tree is now a pay service. For free you can only add 100 people. I have several thousand people in my tree so I cannot add people any more. Geni used to be my primary place for storing family information, but I am switching to the free tree storage at Ancestry.com. I will be migrating photos to Ancestry over the next few months. Why would anyone pay $7.95 a month for the rest of your life ... and eternity if you want your children and grandchildren to be able to add to the tree after your own death. Ancestry offers the same service for free, and with a paid account to Ancestry you get actual transcribed primary documents. All Geni offers you is access to your own tree, and access to anyone else that has a match in their tree. You do not need a paid account to access your tree in Ancestry, just a paid account to access matches in other trees. In Ancestry you just have to do it once, get a 1 month account or a one year account. Geni wants $95.4 a year just to access your own data.

Better use of $100 would be to buy a terabyte hard drive and use Ancestry.com to store your tree for free.

Remembrances of Thomas Patrick Norton II as he awaits death in a hospice at age 91

Remembrances of Thomas Patrick Norton II (1920-2011) as he awaits death in a hospice at age 91.

I had two scares over the past two year where I thought my dad had passed away. When someone is approaching 90 it is always on your mind that he is mortal. He was still living alone at his condo in Lake Hiawatha. I had arranged for a home health care aid to come three days a week to help wash him and she would stay for several hours. I would come on the days she was not there just to keep him company and clean up and make sure he was eating his food and drinking enough liquids. Before I had made myself keys, I would ring the doorbell and he would open the door. This time no answer, I rang and rang and rang. I thought my dad had passed away. I called the condo association to see if they had a key and they told me to call a locksmith. A woman came into the building and she let me in the outer door and I knocked again on the inner door and tried to force the lock open with a coat hanger. My dad then opened the door and asked "what is the commotion about." I explained that I had been ringing the doorbell for 30 minutes and then I hit the buzzer again. But now being inside I could hear the buzzer going off upstairs. He said "next time use my button, it is the middle one."

The second scare was when I had my own keys and I let myself in. There was my dad on the floor on his back seemingly lifeless. I ran over and gasped out "dad", and he opened his eyes and said "Richard. I have been waiting for you, help me up."I asked what happened and he explained "My glasses fell on the floor and when I got on my knees to pick them up, I didn't have the strength to lift myself back up again, so I slept on the floor until you came. I tried crawling over to the couch but I don't have the upper body strength I had just a few months ago." I thought of having him move in with me, but the bedrooms are upstairs, and the last time he was over for dinner he could not make it up the stairs without a struggle. I then went on a search for an assisted living facility.

September 11, 2001 remembrances on 10th anniversary

September 11, 2001 remembrances on 10th anniversary.



For September 11, 2001 I was in Baltimore, Maryland at the Society for Bimolecular Screening (SBS) trade show at the Baltimore Convention Center. I was working for ASDI at the time. I heard from the woman in the booth next to mine that her mother had called her to tell her that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. It was just after 9:00 am and the doors to the show had just opened. We both opened our laptops and connected to the Internet. Around 10:00 am they put on the big flat-screen television designed for broadcasting the talks at the show and the first image we saw was the first tower collapsing. People were quiet but there was occasional sobbing. Everyone who had one, was on their cell phones and rumors and panicking started. A man said that he just got a call from a friend in Washington and he was told that the convention center was a target. That caused people to panic and start to leave the building a little too quickly. People were outside and not sure of what to do, and then there was a roar from Air Force jets as they they engaged their afterburners. This caused people to panic even more. Baltimore is near Andrews Air Force Base and jets were being dispatched to protect the area airspace, but people were assuming the sounds they were hearing were passenger planes headed toward the convention center. A woman screamed something but I couldn’t hear what it was, but it caused people started to run down the street. One woman in a gray skirt-suit fell to the ground as people tried to rush past her. I walked back to one of the hotels with friends and we watched the events unfold on CNN. When we went to dinner later, walking down the streets was eerie. There were very few cars on the streets and several armored vehicles were now parked in front of some of the federal offices and the federal courthouse. There were also US Army vehicles in convoys moving down the streets or parked on street corners. Several buildings had a cluster of armed soldiers in front with M16s.

I drove a group of people back to New Jersey, Sophia Liang from Aurora Biomed in Vancouver and her father. They had a booth at the trade show and their next appointment was with Bristol Meyers Squibb in Princeton.

A few days later II went to Ground Zero with a woman I knew from the Internet, Judy Lanza, and I took photos and collected some ash that I now keep in an amber jar. I showed my Civil Defense badge and they let us into the inner area. They were having people collect any papers that survived the collapse of the towers or were from the airplanes. They had bins set up to drop off any papers that anyone found.

Nora B. Skinner (1903-1963) and Ralph Freudenberg (1903-1980) tombstone

Geni.com changes their model to push more people into the pay version

Geni.com changes their model to push more people into the pay version

The genealogical website Geni.com has changed their software and added new features to the pay Pro version of their website. The problem is that now users can no longer search for people in their tree. When you do you reach their paywall. This occurs even when the person is in your own tree that you created.

Maria Elizabeth Winblad (1895-1987) Freudenberg

Maria Elizabeth Winblad (1895-1987) aka Mae Winblad, was a housewife, and a cleaning and laundry woman. (b. February 16, 1895; 294 West Houston Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York County, New York City, New York, USA - d. March 07, 1987; Christ Hospital, Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, USA) Social Security Number 147188206.

Parents:

Her parents were John Edward Winblad I (1856-1914) aka Johan Edward Winblad, of Sweden; and Salmine Sophia Severine Pedersen (1862-1914) aka Salmina Olsdatter, of Norway. John was the son of Anton Julius Winblad I (1828-1901); and Elsa Maria Elisabeth Näslund (1829-1907) of Ytterlännäs, Sweden. Salmine was the daughter of Ole Mattias Pedersen (1822-1914) and Thea Johanne Torstensdatter (1825-1865) of Farsund, Norway.

Birth:

Maria was born in Greenwich Village in Manhattan on February 16, 1895. The New York City Birth Index incorrectly lists her as "Mary E. Weinblad".

Siblings:

Maria's siblings are: Anton Julius Winblad (1886-1975) aka Anthony Winblad, who married Eva Ariel Lattin (1892-1939) and after her death married Marguerite Van Rensselaer Schuyler (1891-1972) aka Marge Van Rensselaer Schuyler; Theodora Winblad (1888) who died as an infant; Mary Winblad (1889) who died as an infant; Otto Edward Winblad (1892) who died as an infant; John Edward Winblad II (1897-1899) aka Eddie Winblad, who died as a youth from pertussis; and Otto Perry Winblad (1902-1977) who was born in New Jersey and married Helen Louise Hollenbach (1905-1928) and after her death he married Leah Maria Way (1901-1986).

New Jersey:

The family moved out of Manhattan to live in the quiet of New Jersey around 1900. They had a new house built on Wayne Street in Jersey City. Otto Perry Winblad was born in 1902 in Jersey City.

Isle of Pines, Cuba:

In 1910 the family decided that they would move to the Isle of Pines in Cuba. John Winblad had wanted to be a plantation owner, and many other American families moved to the Isle of Pines during this time. Maria spent a year and a half in Cuba, where she rode a horse named "Happy". She said when she arrived in Cuba there was no one there to greet her, and she had to get help to find out how to get to the Isle of Pines from Havana.

Marriage:

She returned from Cuba to Jersey City on March 26, 1912 with her brother Otto. While in Jersey City she met Arthur Oscar Freudenberg I (1891-1968), who was a Sunday School teacher at Waverly Congregation Church. Maria was a very devout Lutheran at Trinity Scandinavian Church in Jersey City. Maria and Arthur married on February 28, 1914 at the Trinity Lutheran Church at 195 Claremont Avenue in Jersey City.

Death of parents:

Maria's father and mother attended her wedding, and then they went to Norway to visit family. Both parents died within a few months of each other in 1914. Otto Winblad was with them in Norway and returned to live with Maria and Arthur in Jersey City on July 6, 1915. On the same day that Otto arrived from Norway, Maria's brother, Anton and his wife Eva returned from Cuba with their two children: Anthony Leroy Winblad and Norman Edward Winblad. They brought with them Eva's two youngest brothers: Theodore Roosevelt Lattin; and Dewey Ernest Lattin. Eva's father and mother stayed in Cuba until 1924 and then settled in Lake Helen in Florida. Otto lived with Maria and Arthur from 1914 until he married in 1927.

Children:

Together Maria and Arthur had the following children: Naida Muriel Freudenberg (1915-1998) who married Burnett Peter Van Deusen (1913-1993) aka Peter Van Deusen; Selma Luise Freudenberg (1921-2009); and Helen Eloise Freudenberg (1928-1989) who had a child with Edward Ganley and later married John Earl Borland I (1924-1986) and later married Albert Brindley.

Abandoned by husband:

Around 1928 Arthur abandoned Maria, although he appears as the head of household in the 1930 census. The oral family tradition has been that Arthur ran off with a burlesque stripper. At the height of the depression, Maria lived on Claremont Avenue in Jersey City and raised her three children earning money by being the superintendent of a four-unit rental property owned by someone else. She took in laundry, scrubbed floors, and prepared meals for other families. She did all that she could to keep the family housed and fed. Arthur never provided any money and lived with his mistress. Maria wore her wedding ring for the rest of her life.

Middle years:

When Maria's children got married she split her time between them, living at their houses. She lived in Paramus for a number of years and also spent time with Pete and Naida at their home.

Broken hip:

In the late 1970s she broke her hip in Paramus and was confined to the Lutheran nursing home in Jersey City.

Death:

She died in 1987 of a heart attack at age 92 at Christ Hospital.

Burial:

She was buried in Bayview Cemetery. In the same plot are the ashes of her daughter, Helen; and her brother who died as an infant, John Edward Winblad II.

Archive:

Many of her letters are extant and archived.

Memories of Maria Elizabeth Winblad:

Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) wrote on February 20, 2011. When my parents moved to Paramus, Maria lived with us for several years. She did the cooking and used to wash me in the kitchen sink. It is one of my earliest memories about her. Everyone called her "Nanny". She could read and speak Norwegian and had a Norwegian bible. She was very religious and would go to church events during the week and never miss a Sunday sermon at the Lutheran church. She was a very good cook and once told me that she cooked professionally at one time. She would make Swedish meatballs in gravy and would never buy ground beef, she would buy whole cuts and grind the meat herself. She also made excellent desserts, apple pies and lemon meringue pies. If I asked her what was going to be for desert she would tease me and say "apple sauce". Another dish she made that I enjoyed was Harvard beets, its beets in a sweet and vinegary sauce. I am not sure of the year she broke her hip but I was there when it happened, she was standing in the doorway to my room and talking to me while I was in bed when she just leaned against the doorway and collapsed, her hip had fractured and could no longer hold her weight. After the hospital she moved into the Lutheran Home in Jersey City and I would visit her. The home was a terrible place, but she was happy there, because she had volunteered there was she was younger and she still would visit other rooms in her wheelchair and share whatever cookies or candies I brought her. The home had a mix of demented patients and the infirmed. Some of the demented patients would be screaming or crying continuously. She had a heart attack in 1987 and was moved to Christ Hospital and I visited her the night she died.

Eulogy:

Her eulogy reads as follows: "Mae Freudenberg was born Saturday, February 16, 1895 in New York City. Her parents were members of the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church in downtown Jersey City. Mae was a member of Trinity for most of her life, and her children were all baptized there also many of her grandchildren. She taught Sunday School and was a member of Glad Tjeneste. On the 95th anniversary of Trinity, Mae received a certificate of recognition for her years of faithful service to the church. For about fifteen years, Mae was a volunteer of services to the Lutheran Home on Nelson Avenue in Jersey City."

Source:

Researched and written by Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) for Findagrave starting on June 16, 2003.

Update:

Updated by Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) on February 20, 2011 with minor fixes.

Last night before bedtime I discovered a whole new side of the Norton family in Boston, Massachusetts

Last night before bedtime I discovered a whole new side of the Norton family in Boston, Massachusetts.

I was going through Familysearch on Monday, July 18, 2011. Familysearch is the Mormon website, they have lots of data but the absolute worst user interface. For the ten years I had been searching in it, the database would not allow me to search for the junction between two last names. They finally allowed those searches sometime this year. Last night I searched in the database for any Mulligan - Norton children or marriages and the result was James T. Norton (1849-1898) and Catherine A. Norton (1851-1913) Murphy of Boston, Massachusetts. The dates fit perfectly as a sibling of Patrick Norton. Patrick came from Boston and was naturalized in Boston according to a photocopy of a naturalization record that was passed down in the family. The connection to my Michael Norton (c1825-?) and Bridget Mulligan (c1825-?) is still tentative but all the given names exist in my side of the family too. There is no document that ties James T. Norton and Catherine A. Norton (1851-1913) Murphy to my Patrick J. Norton, but I may find a funeral notice that mentions the family in New Jersey. The only evidence so far is the name of the parents. I called the cemetery on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 and the said Catherine A. Norton (1851-1913) Murphy was buried with John Murphy, age 14, who died on March 25, 1895; and Thomas Murphy who died on March 12, 1969 at age 84.