hunter cousin chatting

i've had some fun chats with our new-found cus.  much has been said on fb about the hunter men resembling one another.  here's an example as we discover more commonalities. 


Maddie (Madeleine):

When I first saw this photo there was something about Maddie that reminded me of Jan.

A sample from this afternoon's chat:

4:00pmMaryEtta
i've got your new photos up as we chat. the one of you dancing so reminds me of my sis, jan. she's got to see this. are you fb friends with her yet?

4:02pmMadeleine
not sure wats her last name

4:02pmMaryEtta

McAffee

4:03pmMadeleine
yes i am she dosen have a pic on her profile do you have one of her

4:04pmMaryEtta

I'll have to put one up.

4:04pmMadeleine
she said she didnt know how to and neither did i till to day

4:06pmMaryEtta

sorry we can't hear the music
 

4:06pmMadeleine
sorry wat music
 

4:07pmMaryEtta

with the photos of dancing
 

4:08pmMadeleine
oh yeh i dont do it oftern enough
 

4:08pmMaryEtta

i've got jan on the phone
 

4:08pmMadeleine
say hi for me please
 

4:09pmMaryEtta

she's getting to fb to see your photos
 

4:09pmMadeleine
i have to say im not that fat now
 

4:10pmMaryEtta

she's ready to jam
 

4:10pmMadeleine
bring it on cus
 

4:11pmMaryEtta

this is so fun
 

4:12pmMaryEtta

she's looking at the photos now 

sorry you can't hear us

Now about a visit to her sister, Sally in Baltimore:

4:52pmMaryEtta 

how long were you there?
 

4:53pmMadeleine
only 2 weeks,sally and i went into manhattern shopping oh i love your mals

4:56pmMaryEtta

shopping with the girls is another of jan's favs.

oh i love to shop
mainly for the home tho

4:57pmMaryEtta

let me ask you about that. do you change your furniture around frequently?
 

4:58pmMadeleine
oh yes it drives mark mad he gose to work and wen he gets home its all changed even my bedrooms
 

5:00pmMaryEtta

oh dear you and jan are one in the same
 

5:01pmMadeleine
ahh brill im glad we like and do the same it gives us that long distance family bond
and im not the only nutty one in the family
 

5:02pmMaryEtta

i've got jan on the phone again about moving furniture and she's cracking up.

5:03pmMadeleine
wow this just soooooooooo good

Well, what do you think? 

One more thing.  Here is what each has on her facebook profile:

Maddie:  

what you see is what you get,no hidden extras or skelitons ,im a shy happy go lucky person,no likey no lighty

Jan:

To know me is to love me, to love me is to know me, that is what it is.

How similar is that?

 

precious

I think I can count on one hand the "R-rated" films I've seen.    As reading Black and Blue was,  seeing Precious was important.  There are some aspects of life about which I am thankfully clueless.

An ugly story turned hopeful and inspiring, some great acting, directing and editing that told the story well . . . .   Important heros in the story to bring about opportunity--a metamorphosis. 

 As the film ended I wondered how could I get all those diatribes of "f" words out of my mind and go to bed. Then a hopeful song played through the credits and there was hope for many such as Precious.

One more influence for good from Oprah.

Dave, a teacher at the alternative high school in Bozeman made great use of films such as this to help his students talk about and process the hard times of their lives--their real-life experiences.

So, so much in this film.

Looking for Uncle Malcolm

This evening I'm following a hunch after finding Malcolm's death date online.  From Mother's travel diary, 1963, we know he had three children ages 2 to 9 and lived near Fleet, England.  His death record shows he died  in August 1988 in Newbury, England, not far from Fleet. 

The birth records for 1961 for the 2-year old in 1961 aren't quite so generous with information and certificates.  There was only one Hunter born in 1961 in Newbury so I took a chance and looked for Madeleine Hunter on facebook. 

She graduated in 1977 from Kennet School which turns out to be in West Berkshire, where Newbury is located.  Her photo reminds me of Jan.   I think we may have found our Madeleine and her brother, sister-in-law and niece.  If they are ours, the brother apparently was born after Madeleine, so that would make 4 children. 

 Ian and Debbie Hunter.  He graduated from Kennet School in 1979.  He maintains the range at Ash Ranges for the Army. 
















I've sent both Madeleine and Ian messages.  Here's hoping . . . .

Hope: Haitian Mother and Infant

Thanks to Marian's critique I finished my largest painting yet, "Hope:  Haitian Mother and Infant," last night.  Its on a 16" x 20" wrapped canvas.

Following the Haiti earthquake last month I saw a photo that spoke to me in its beauty and hope amidst so much sorrow and destruction.  The colors and everything about the photo encouraged me to try a painting.

I've found the element of personal connection with a possible subject and a  wanting to express what I see in an image has to be part of painting it.  That is what got me started in the gesture drawings of my 16 grandchildren over a period of a year. 

So here it is.  It really has been delightful to paint it.  As Polly is likely to point out, I painted it when I was home with shingles and listening to a couple of audio books downloaded from the library, a Willa Cather and something else.  So I was in good company. I finished it listening to "The Help," a story of black maids working for white families in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963.   This is the first time that I've painted most of a piece at home and then gone to class for critique and advice. 

So here it is:

This view shows the wrapped canvas edges as well as a better view without so much graininess in the photo.

As with most of the work I've been doing, I paint random splotches of primary colors on the surface, spray alcohol to disperse the paint and water if there still needs to be more liquid and then start tilting to let the colors run over the paper/canvas till I get a base of color.   At the finish I used caran d ache, a type of watercolor crayon to pull up the baby's face as well as some parts of the mother's hand and face that I couldn't get with a paint brush. 

I like painting in a larger size and liked the wrapped canvas so I don't have a framing cost.  

Ned's and Nedra's kitchen table has been perfect for my painting studio.

Krystyn Aquino

I thought about Lily and Harriet this weekend when Krystyn Aquino was baptized and confirmed in my ward.  She is 9 years old and just moved to our ward with her mother and brother. 

Several months ago when they were living in another part of Salt Lake she noticed two young men in black suits walking into her apartment building.  She called out to them, "Are you missionaries?"  When they answered yes, she asked if they would come visit her family. 

They did and she soon knew she wanted to be baptized.  Her mother, Ami, gave her permission but because she and her family are new to the church Ami needed to attend the church three times.  A couple of weeks ago they came to our ward for the first time.  It would be her third time coming to church.

It was a hard day for her.  She had a terrible tooth ache and cuddled into her mother during Relief Society and then during our Sunday School class.  She felt too awful to go to Primary, but she didn't want to go home.  She really wanted to be baptized.

After our Sunday School lesson which was about the priesthood, we asked her about her not feeling well and then told her and her mother about priesthood blessings.  Ami said, "But we're not members of the church.  Can we have blessings?"  Two of the priesthood holders from our class told her more about blessings, they  blessed her and she felt relief. 

Her baptism by the missionary who first taught her was really nice Saturday and her confirmation yesterday by our bishop was also. 

This is a picture of Krystyn and the two sets of missionaries that taught her.

 

 

This is Krystyn and her brother, Samarian.

Samarian is 7.  My missionary companion, Donna, and I get to start teaching Krystyn, Samarian and Ami the missionary lessons again to help them to know more about the church and to help all her family be baptized.  Her mother and brother are really nice and like coming to church.

I'm glad I got to teach a little lesson to Harriet before her interview for her baptism.  It had been a long time since I had taught a lesson to young children.  It took me all day to prepare.   

 

This will be a happy time to be teaching missionary lessons again after 50 years.  It has been a long time for Donna also.  She was a missionary in the Rochester, New York Mission, the Cumorah Mission where Joseph Smith lived when he prayed in the grove.  That will be a very special first lesson for us to give to Krystyn and her family.

Familia Gonzaga update

I've just been writing in portugues and now I'm struggling to get back to English.  My Portuguese is not all that good either.  Mauricio, the adult son and also the mother, Suelena have both written.  Perhaps I told you that Suelena and Justino are coming to UT in April to visit their daughter and a new grandchild.

Here are some photos Mauricio sent of his son and daughter serving missions in Brazil.

 

   

and even their youngest, Luigi goes on splits with the Elders.

  

A missionary from my era and his wife are serving in the Campinas Temple.

We are having a baptism in my ward this afternoon.  Nine-year old, Krystyn.  She and her mother have been meeting with the Elders for some time where they used to live.  They have been in our ward for a few weeks.  Perhaps I told you about the bad toothache she had during our SS lesson on the priesthood.  She was in such pain she had come in with her mother.  Afterward we told them about priesthood blessings and a couple of the elders in our ward gave her a blessing.  Hopefully her mother will also be baptized soon.  Evidently, she has a few adjustments to make in her life.  Its nice to have them in the ward.

Oregon Cousin Crocus

From Heather and family:

Our crocus have been up for about two weeks.  On a recent fishing trip, Brad and Ian and Gus found a hunk of wood in the road.  It was a pretty red color, so they brought it home and turned it on the lathe into a vase.  I like the feathery red streaks next to the white and brown ripples.  On a rainy day we brought a tight little blossom in doors and watched it open under a lamp on the desk.  Very, very mild winter here.

P.S. from Karen
We've got a month or more til anything blooms here.  Still over a foot of snow to melt before we find the dirt.  :)

KHP


P.S.S
Look what I found in my yard!  My new bulbs are really up on the east.

 

More than just the little purple crocus.  New this year--tiny iris.

 

Returning primroses beneath the bird feeders on the north.

Spring!

Last week when I walked at Red Butte Garden for the first time in a few months I spotted snowdrops in bloom!  Last night I left my home in dry weather on my way to my art class in Polly's neighborhood.  As 215 headed farther east to the mountains the snow started and I got this heavy feeling that, "I don't want to be on this road coming home tonight."  I was felt to turn back except for the fact that I had promised to deliver "The Help" to a friend in book group for the duration of my check out period. 

Awakening this morning I wondered if the storm had materialized in my neighborhood.  I had turned back to my dry neighborhood, e-mailed Marian that I wouldn't be coming to art.  Opening my windows I felt vindicated in my choice to come home.  I really didn't want to drive in that stuff late last night.  Wet, wet snow clinging to my fence tops and stuck to the driveways.

Now this wonderful view in my e-mail box:

The first daffodil at Red Butte!

http://www.redbuttegarden.org/blog/3

I bet I know where it is.  On my walk at Red Butte last week I had been watching carefully to see how far along the daffs were.  Perusing the blog I was surprised at all I had missed in bloom.  I only noticed the snowdrops and the budding of pussy willows.  Pussy willow always reminds me of the Adcocks.  For years after Dad's death Sister Adcock brought me stems of pussy willows to honor Dad when they first opened in her yard.

What joy spring bulbs bring! 

I wonder if Lily has spotted any wildflowers yet.  I wonder if the MN cousins have been to the arboretum to spot emerging flowers or are they still under inches of snow.  The Mapleton cousins have a hardy row of crocus blossoms along the edge of their driveway.  I was jealous and now a few days later, I have a purple crocus peeping through the mulch on the east wall of my corner cottage.  Anything flowering in KY?

What hints of spring do you see?  What a glorious, hopeful time of year!

Family ancestral photos

Jill has continued to scan and send me ancestral photos weekly and we're moving right along.  This week's photos contained one of my father's great grandmother Ferguson Renwick.  Margaret, Jan and I have been trying to figure out a puzzle of who is who?  Now having the three photos side by side once again I think I get it. 

 

Ferguson Renwick, 1820-1889.

If you want to see a photo of the church in her home town go to:

http://hunterwatsonphotos.blogspot.com/ 

and search "Ferguson".

 

Martha Gillespie, 1827-1904.

 

Elizabeth Kirkwood, 1855-1914.

This was the photo and the back of it that caused the confusion.  

 

Here's the reason.  Years ago the Colston's printed photo pedigree charts for us.  Mother gave me this photo to use for Martha Gillespie.  Then after the printing we realized we had used the wrong photo for Martha Gillespie and I wrote Eliz. Kirkwood on the back.  Even so, Margaret and I both had fixed in our minds that this was the photo of Martha Gillespie.

Not till yesterday did I step back and analyze the photo.  The first two are obviously from the same era of photography and fashion even though Ferguson and Martha's apparel are from two different social strata.   Yet, the hats have a similarity.   The third is from a different era, another generation. 

Whenever I thought of the story my father used to tell from his childhood of his grandmother with her pipe in her mouth calling him to her privately and saying,"Wee Jimmie, how aboot runnin' doon the toon wi this copper to git yer granny a wee dram?  Be swift laddie an dini tell a soul," I always pictured Ferguson.  Some how the story fit better with the photo of Ferguson Renwick than with Elizabeth's photo.  

 

 My Great Grandmother Elizabeth Kirkwood without her pipe and copper for "a wee dram".  Each of you has a copper.  How many greats is she to you?

 

The real Martha Gillespie.

My parent's remembrances of the difficulty identifying Martha Gillespie in their Edinburgh searches of old parochial registers and censuses fit more with the photo of Elizabeth in my mind.  This posting is helping me to reprogram my brain.   

After hours of searching and confusion among various Martha Gillespies they realized, Martha had been fudging on her age at each census and each new husband!  Mother and Daddy loved that story.  Martha's "memory" of her age made her live for them.  Dear Martha was widowed twice.  

Take a look at  new.familysearch.org (you'll need your membership ID# and confirmation date to register from your ward clerk Sunday).  

There is a story if you'll look at the dates of the history of Martha Gillespie's family.  You'll learn more about Martha as you explore the options.  

Why does her son John have the last name Ingram?  Click on his name, then click on "details" and then "individual notes" at the bottom of his list of details.  

You'll also see who is contributing to his information.  We've got another relative that I've never heard of!  You can write to him and ask him how you are related, where he lives.

How many children were there and what were their ages when their father, John, died in 1871?  

When did Martha remarry?  What do you think about the responsibility Robert undertook in marrying a widow with that many young children?

How old was her oldest son, our great grandfather, Thomas Gillespie Watson, when his father died, when his mother Martha remarried and when he married Elisabeth Kirkwood?  How many greats of a grandfather is he to you?

How long were Robert and Martha married before she was widowed again?  Who was Martha's third husband and did she outlive him?  

Hearing my parents excitement of finding Martha Gillespie and the searching  they did to do it is my first remembrance of having an interest in my ancestors.  Since then I've been hooked.  They have become real people to me--people I admire.

You can now write your history of Martha Gillespie Watson.  You can search the Internet using place names for  photos and social history about her times.  That is how I found the description of Peesweep Row housing where some of our ancestors lived.  It is very humbling to think of how they lived even into the next generation when some of my father's cousins were orphaned and the 17-year old took care of his brother and sisters till they could take care of themselves.  His story is what has prompted me to send you birthday cards telling you of an inspiring relative.

When we moved to Moab and our first children were born my heart turned to genealogy.  I took a BYU correspondence course.  One of the assignments was to place an ad in a newspaper in the hometown of an ancestor.  I had never seen such an ad in a newspaper before.  Dutifully and by that assignment I placed an ad in a Lisburn, Ireland newspaper and one in a Worcester, Massachusetts paper. 

I still recall the thrill of receiving three responses from the Worcester ad that eventually led to finding my great uncle's daughter, Agnes Hunter Smith.  We corresponded until she died.  I hadn't known I had a great uncle anywhere in the East until I studied  my parents' genealogy charts and said to my mother, "I didn't know you had an uncle who lived in Massachusetts?"

At times as I searched old records on microfilm in Bozeman I felt the encouragement of my deceased father to keep looking, don't give up-- then finding name after name every week for week after week.  I was finding so much information that I'm afraid my research notes aren't what they should be.  New Family Search is helping me to get my records straightened out as well as adding to them.  

Fortunately, I had contributed information to Ancestral File years ago in Bozeman.  About the time I moved to Utah I made a mistake in migrating my files and lost some information.  Now I'm finding it on NFS because I had submitted it to Ancestral File and because I'm going systematically through our pedigree and searching for duplicates just as is recommended. 

Now you know what I've been doing many days since my stake gained access to NFS.  A little bit each day has some times turned into most of a day.  I can't quit!

Family history has blessed my life.  Because of my many years of genealogical research I qualified to be a substitute librarian at Bozeman Public Library and filled a niche on the staff.  I loved that job.  I  came to love the people of Bozeman even more.

The most wonderful thing to me is that as each of you has turned 12 and each of you can go to the temple you have been able to do things I'm not able to do by myself.  I hope that as you do things for others that they can no longer do for themselves that you sense your heart turning to those who have walked this earth before us.  Their hearts are also turned to us and caring for us.

. . . seeketh not her own.

The theme of our RS commemoration evening was the scripture on charity found in I Corinthians and Moroni 7 which begins "And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, . . . ."  Twelve sisters were asked to speak briefly and to be creative in sharing one of the twelve phrases in the scripture.  It was a memorable evening.  Each sister presented something that was meaningful to her in one of the phrases.

We heard about the long suffering of a man a couple in the ward had worked with while on their inner-city mission.  A woman who no longer had a beautiful singing voice had asked a younger woman to sing a lovely song with guitar accompaniment and envied not.  A single sister related the circumstances of several photos she had taken on a trip to Ireland with family and the rejoicing in good times together.  Another shared a varied list of many things to believe in.  One recently widowed sister, referred to the pioneers and their crossing the plains and burying loved ones and played "Come, Come Ye Saints" on her harmonica.  Her music seemed to unknowingly introduce the words of the last sister who shared that over a period of six years, the loss of her own three young children while three good friends each lost a child--enduring all things.  Now I know what has made her who she is.  None of us knew until now  what has made her the gentle good person that she is.  Our few YW had sung our opening musical number  "A Woman's Heart" and six of our RS sisters sang the closing number, "My Sister's Hands."  Beautiful music.

It really was a memorable evening.  I don't believe our presidency knew when they asked, the inspiring stories we would hear.  The food wasn't catered food which has often been the case, but simple good food made by a committee and the tables simply decorated with a focus on the Savior and Relief Society.

"Seeketh not her own" was the phrase I was assigned.  After looking to see what the prophets have said of that scripture I decided to use some of President Eyring's words that had pointed me to the sacrament.  For the past couple of weeks I've tried to paint an 8 x 10 wrapped canvas depicting the emblems of the sacrament to illustrate the message I would give.  It became a  personal expression to illustrate the words I shared and for a wall in my loft.  It joins Darrel George's leather engraving of The Last Supper, Faith's collage framing of The Living Christ, a frame of The Family proclamation and Relief Society declaration, and the Romanian icon Bruce brought back from his mission.  Since I moved into my corner cottage the loft has become at times my personal "upper room."

This is my part on the program.


Charity . . .  seeketh not her own.
The bread and water, tokens of the sacrament,  remind me of the love of the Savior  and to seek not my own.        

 

The sacramental prayers tell us--

To put the  [Savior] first in our lives.                                                                                                        We should want what He wants rather than what we want or what the world teaches us to want.                                                                                                                                           

It’s not what I want but what He wants.   He knows best.  He knows what I don’t know.

We promise always to remember Him.. . . .  That remembering fills our hearts with love.     Remembering Him, helps us to love better and to do hard things.

We promise as we take the sacrament to keep His commandments,….    The Lord has given us nothing that is useless or unnecessary.                                                                                                              

He will always help us when we try.

Remember Him.

Charity . . .  seeketh not her own--the needy, the naked, the afflicted.  Whatever it is that He would have us do.  That is what we seek. 

Whenever we partake of the sacrament we are reminded that we will remember what he has asked us to do.  Remembering fills our hearts with love for others. 

Quotes in italics  from The Ensign » 1998 » May, pp 67-68,  That We May Be One,  Elder Henry B. Eyring.  “Seeketh Not Her Own,”   M.E. Parkinson, acrylic on wrapped canvas, 2010.