Family History

Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Meldrums - My Great-Great-Great Grandparents

I don't know much about these people, Robert and Pauline (Johns) Meldrum, other than their names, but here's the scrapbook page I made for them.

The Fortons - My Great-Great Grandparents

Joseph Forton was born on March 20, 1841. Mary Meldrum was born on April 29, 1956. At Mary's first communion Joseph stated that he was going to "someday" marry Mary, and he did... On January 21, 1873. Together they had 12 children, including: Marcellus (4/30/1874 - 10/16/195) Phyllis (12/31/1875 - 12/6/1945) Esther (8/28/1877 - 9/10/1877) Lillian (10/26/1878 - 7/11/1954) Alexander (9/19/1880 - 11/4/1883) Adolphus (8/8/1882 - 4/26/1884) Albert Joseph (9/9/1884 - 11/27/1902) Leo (6/18/1887 - 2/13/1957) William (7/4/1889 - 8/9/1889) Jennie Mable (2/14/1891 - 10/12/1918) Eleanor (5/7/1894 - 7/21/1968 Hazel (6/4/1897 - 1/22/1976) Of the 12, only 8 lived to adulthood.

On October 31, 1910 Mary was waiting for the street car at the corner of Donnor and 23-Mile Road, in New Baltimore. Curious to see how much longer the wait would be she stepped out, onto the road, not realizing the train was right there. She was struck and killed.

The Keros - Anthony and Jennie Mable (Forton)

These are my great-grandparents. Mable was the 10th child born to Robert and Mary (Meldrum), on February 14, 1891. Anthony (DeChiro) was the 4th child born to Andre and Philomea, on August 4, 1886, in Bardinella, Italy.

Mable married Anthony (Tony) DeChiro on May 25, 1914, and a year later they began their little family, when Stella was born on July 13, 1915, followed by Dennis, on April 28, 1917.

One interesting story that my granny shared with me about her dad was how he came to live in the United States... He had been out shooting his gun, using birds as targets. This upset his parents, and they grounded him to his room. However, Anthony decided to sneak out the window and began shooting his gun, again, only to accidentally shoot (and kill) the family dog. Being afraid to go home and face his parents, he ran away to America, and lived with his older sister, Theresa, who was living in Rhode Island. Later, he moved to Detroit, Michigan. One other thing I should mention is that his surname WAS DeChiro, but when he moved to the United States, he thought that name sounded TOO Italian, so he changed it to Kero. And, he refused to teach his children Italian. He said they were in America and they should speak "American." Tragedy struck the Kero family in 1918; the world was suffering from a swine flu epidemic, and Mable succombed to it on October 12th. Anthony died just a few days shy of his 70th birthday, on July 31, 1956.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

The Verysers

Some time last summer Jesse and I were called to be the Corte Sierra Ward Family History Consultants. This came as kind of a shock, as neither of us are experts at family history, and now we're expected to help others with theirs. As part of our calling we were asked to teach a family history class for 7 weeks. I honestly don't know if the members of our class learned anything, but I definitely did! And, becuz of that, I've decided to share some of what I've learned, and the pictures that I got from Granny V. when I worked on genealogy back in the 90's. Speaking of Granny, that's where I will start! Estella Anna Veryser was born on July 13, 1915, to Anthony and Mable Kero.

Two years later Denny joined the Kero family.

Tragedy struck in 1918, as the world was hit by the swine flu epidemic, and Mable fell victim to it. Fortunately for Anthony, Mable had a large family, and her two sisters, Hazel and Eleanor were there to help him raise two young children.

Granny's 4th birthday with her grandpa, Joseph Forton

This is another birthday picture; Granny is the girl in the middle with the big bow on her head. Uncle Denny is laying on the ground, down in the front.