You'd be surprised what you can find on Ebay. It's not just for random items that people are trying to get rid of. Doing just the right search can lead you to some heirlooms, antiques, vintage items, etc. I've had quite a bit of luck with finding some items related to my family. On my one blog post about White Line Laundry, I talk about a special piece I found related to the Laundry business that was based here in St. Louis. Since then, I've found a few more pieces to add to my collection. I search often on Ebay for anything related to both mine and my husband's family. Since Christmas coming, I looked up something specifically that my husband was looking for, and was surprised to find it was available.
Let me start with a bit of background information. My husband's 2nd great grandfather was Joseph Henry Rickards. He lived in Liberty, Missouri in the mid-late 1800s. He married his first wife, Eliza Barkley before he went off to war. Amelia Barkley was the sister of Eliza and married a James M Jones. Joseph & Eliza were very close to James & Amelia. They named their first daughter Maggie, after Amelia. Sadly, Eliza passed when Maggie was just a baby, so Amelia took on the motherly role of raising the baby until she also passed when she was just a few years old, from blood poisoning. Joseph married Sarah soon after and their children were also named after James & Amelia. Joseph, Eliza, & Maggie are buried right next to James & Amelia.
So in the 1800s, James M. Jones owned and operated a distillery in Liberty called A.M. Jones Distillery. Mark was so excited to learn this. Thanks to my friend Chris Harris, an archivist and genealogist that works for the Clay County Archives, he has provided me with some information about the Distillery. I hope to go back to Liberty to do more research about it. I took a picture of Mark in front of the old Distillery before they finished taking it down. I also have a few photos from a book from the Clay County Archives. Chris gave this information on the Liberty Missouri Facebook page:
The property you are referring to is the Jones Distillery. A. M. Jones distilled Whisky there. Murray Road is named after Judge Murray who was a total Temperance guy who hated that his road had a distillery on it. The old cabin on the property is a log cabin. In danger of falling down. Most of the old distillery buildings are gone if not all of them. At one time the property was attached to the Moss property (on Moss Road) which at one time grew grapes and made wine. Murray Road was also at one time before they paved it, a rail spur that led to the old Hanger Plant which in WW I or WW II was used as a coffin factory. Hence the narrowness of the road. They basically covered up the tressell with dirt and paved it. - Chris Harris, I remember when... Liberty Missouri
A few years ago, I tracked down a whiskey shot glass from the distillery and gave it to my husband. After receiving that, he has been interested in finding actual bottles from the distillery. I've searched for years, but finally came across two of them. So I gave them to him for Christmas. I posted videos on YouTube of my Christmas Special of him opening up his gift. Check them out below:
The day is the 20th of December. It's almost Christmas time. What are you doing? Are you wrapping presents? Are you working? Are you finishing up some last minute shopping? Are you volunteering? Whatever you are doing, you are anticipating the Christmas holiday that is approaching. It's a time of celebration... for most everyone. But to my 2nd great grandma, this would be one of the worst days of her life.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, also known as the Great War. The end of the war came with an Armistice that occurred on November 11, 1918. Soon, the boys would be coming home to their families. It was also a time of celebration. This would be the first Christmas after the war. I can imagine my Great Great Grandma Pauline Ilg waiting with great anticipation for news about when her son, William Ilg, would be coming home. Unfortunately, the news she received was not what she was expecting.
On this day, 100 years ago, Great Great Grandma Pauline learned that her son, Willie, would not be coming home. She would learn that he had been killed in action just three days before the end of the war. How devastating. She would not be able to hug her son again. She would not be able to celebrate Christmas with him. All her dreams of seeing him again were just dashed. Her life would never be the same again. Here is one of the newspaper announcements about his death:
We all get so caught up in how things don't always go the way we had hoped or planned. Well, maybe this Christmas, we remember that things aren't as bad as they could be. Maybe this Christmas we remember to pray for those who are hurting and are not able celebrate with family. Maybe we hug our family a little tighter this Christmas and be grateful for the time we do have with them. Maybe this Christmas we remember the sacrifices of our ancestors so we are able to celebrate Christmas.
To my 2nd Great Uncle who gave his life for my freedom, I wish you a Merry Christmas and thank you for your sacrifice. To my 2nd Great Grandma who lost her son right before Christmas, I will never forget your sacrifice as well or the pain you went through.
Hello my friends and family! Hope this year has been a great one for you! This year sure started out with a mixture of excitement and frustration for us. Through it all, we have been blessed. God has been with us every step of the way. We ended last year moving out of our apartment and into our new home in Union. Sadly, we were also involved in an accident five days after we closed on the house. We all gratefully walked away from the collision. Things were rough in the beginning, but we are pretty settled now. The house is so much better than the apartment for sure. God is so good!
If you have never been to my blog before, welcome! This is where I share my genealogy discoveries and some helpful tips as well. If you have some time, take a few minutes and check out some of the entries I have made about family. Genealogy has become my passion. I love playing detective, trying to solve mysteries and put the pieces together. I've found I have a real knack for it. Let me share some discoveries I've made over the past year.
Starting with my 3rd great grandma, Maggie Helfrich. That name probably sounds familiar to some of you. She is traced up on Grandma Ruth Wheeler's side. I've had a hard time trying to find more information about her as she came from Tennessee; born during the Civil War. This year brought great discoveries. I was able to locate her divorce record from her first husband, Logan Dennis, and her marriage record to her second husband, Jacob Helfrich. In the divorce record, I came across some very shocking news about her relationship to her daughter Oma Mae. If you would like to read about it, click here: The Search for Maggie Molten continues. Through all this though, I have not been able to trace back any farther than Maggie. I may need to actually take a trip to the Archives in Nashville, Tennessee to see if I can find anything.
As I stated above, we moved into our new house end of last year. One thing this house has is a dedicated Laundry Room. I was beyond ecstatic. I decided to dedicate that Laundry Room to Grandma & Grandpa Wheeler. Mom told me the story that they met while working together at White Line Laundry located on Chippewa. I loved the story as it related to my own with my husband. We met while working together at a bookstore 17 years ago. To read the story about While Line Laundry and to see the decorations, click here: White Line Laundry.
I hope you are enjoying the stories so far. My journey through genealogy research has not only taken me through the United States, but overseas as well. With some help from some Facebook groups I am a member of, I was able to trace Grandma Ruth Wheeler's Ilg Family back into Germany for a few more generations. I have copies of the original church records written in German. Those were fun to read haha! Google Translate became my friend. I'm familiar with many French and German words, but reading the old writing was difficult. But I was able to go back to my 5th Great Grandfather & Grandmother from Seitingen, Tuttlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Read the story here: The Ilg's have been located.
I know it seems like I've only researched my side of the family this year, but I promise you I've been researching Mark's as well. In the past, a lot of time has been spent on finding his family. Here is a video I made about that research.
One big discovery I made this past year on Mark's family was he had family that came from Silverton, Colorado! We lived in Delta, Colorado for a few years and had even visited Silverton before we knew he had family that lived there and was buried there. Talk about small world! Read about this story here: Relatives in Silverton, Colorado?!
And the final family member I have been researching has been the most interesting of the year. This year marked the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. I remembered we had a family member that fought and died in World War I, so I dedicated some time to getting to know him and all about his sacrifice. William Ilg is the brother of Great Grandpa Joseph Ilg (Grandma Ruth Wheeler's father). He died three days before the end of World War I. That fact alone caused me to want to find out more. Read his story here: William Ilg, the gone but not forgotten Uncle. I am not done researching him yet. There is still something I need to try to finish. It's a surprise!
Like I said, this blog was started to share my journey through Genealogy. I've taken a few research trips over the years and have taken lots of photos. It's hard to share all of them through the blog itself so something else that I decided to do was to create my own YouTube Channel. I take the photos and videos I capture, and create small interesting videos to share. It really brings everything to life. As time goes on, I am hoping to take more trips, and once I do I will be making and uploading more videos. I will also be uploading family videos so they are preserved for years to come. Please take some time and visit my YouTube Channel & take a second to subscribe so you don't miss any uploads.
I know I've shared quite a bit of information with you. If anyone has any questions about the research I have done, or wants copies, or anything, please let me know. I am happy to share all my research with you, my family. My family is also your family. Love you all and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
