Sunday, March 30, 2008

Recent coverage of Latin Mass at St Margaret Mary Church



KTVU coverage of the Traditional Latin Mass at St Margaret Mary Church in Oakland, CA on Easter (23 March) 2008.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Click the image to biggify it. It's an item your Dad sent in to a Herb Caen wannabe:

Arden and the Junior Women's Club

Click image to biggify:



You'll note that her beehive is woefully nonexistent. She should have consulted with Miss Pat or Miss Helen about getting bigger hair:

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Passenger List for the Andrew Foster

You'll need to click the image below to enlarge it...

This is from the passenger manifest for the ship the Andrew Foster, from Liverpool to New York which arrived 9 JAN 1854. The entire manifest is here. I'm not sure, but there's a good chance this is your great-great-grandfather, John Glass (1841-1902), the father of Will Glass who went to the Yukon. The emigration date matches up to what he stated for the census, and he has a brother named Charles (a name which appears throughout the Glass family tree); so far, nothing to suggest this is not the same John Glass.

But the thing I want to call to your attention is the story behind the manifest. The mother (age 40) is travelling with the five children; the father is not on the manifest --- I'd guess that he may have come over during the famine years to earn money, then sent for them later, but that's purely speculation. (I did find a John Glass who arrived in NY in 1852.) So, the mother, Isabella, is travelling with John, age 12; [illegible] son, age 9; Charles, age 6; James, age 4; and Margaret, age 2. Now, scroll over to the far right column, in which it is noted the the mother, Isabella, died on December 15th (in transit), James and Margaret died on December 13th. My eyes well up just typing this. I just hope a father was waiting at the docks to meet them --- I can't imagine what it would have been like to be a 12-year old boy with his 9- and 6-year-old brothers in tow, alone in the streets of New York (they would have ended up on orphan trains were that the case.)

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Walter J Maltesta and the 1920 GOP Convention

This article appeared in newspapers across the midwest. Walter J Malatesta (1887 - ?) was George Maltesta's (1878-1957) younger brother. I have about a 80% degree of confidence that the Walter in the article is the same Walter that was George's brother. I don't have much info on Walter. He was born in 1887. In 1910 he was a "Private Secy"; in 1917 he was a "Retail Sales Manager"; in 1920 he was manager at an ice company; in 1930, he was an investment banker. He was married to "Marian C.". He was the youngest in the family and his mother died when he was a toddler.

Transcription:
L.W. Henley and Walter J. Malatesta are the most popular persons in Chicago. The former is secretary of the arrangements committee and the latter is secretary of the Chicago convention committee.

They were nearly mobbed when ticket distribution took place. Malatesta had the worst time trying to divide 2,658 tickets --- Chicago's allotment for those who contributed the money for staging the big show --- among 150,000 applicants.

"I got 73,000 checks from people who wanted to buy tickets," said Malatesta. "It hurt like the dickens to return all that cash."

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Helen Maltesta a Hit in Theatre Performance

This is from the 17 SEP 1926 San Mateo Times. Text:

"Helen Maltesta gave an impersonation of Pat Rooney in a dance number that scored a big hit. Cleverly costumed and excellent in her performance, the little lady was an instant success."




Not certain if this is the performing troupe that Helen joined that caused the rift with her father.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Arden's Departure for Hawaii + Carl's Obit


Here is the whole newspaper page (Oak Tribune, Thursday 26 Mar 1953), announcing Arden's Hawaii trip.

I also found Carl's Obit:



... and lastly, Arden and Bill's Wedding Announcement (click to enlarge):

Monday, March 3, 2008

Myrtle Kalas

Many members of the Kalas family are buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, so having seen their headstones (and given the Star Trek connection), this family held special interest for me.

I've been fortunate in being able to find several items in the Oakland Tribune's archives on various family members, including several colorful ones involving Myrtle Kalas. The first was her "coming out" party, which featured a dramatic reading by Helen Maltesta (who was then about 12 years old):



(Click to enlarge)

When I showed this article to your Mom, she laughed. She was familiar with all the names of the attendees, and far from being a High Society Deb party, this was pretty much a family birthday party with classmates and young relatives in attendance.

The second article "Local Cupid Snubbed by 15-yr-old Neighbor" describes how Myrtle, when working in the Alameda County Recorder's office (next door to the marriage bureau), opted to apply for a marriage license in San Jose rather than have the snoopy marriage bureau employees find out about her impending nuptials. It was a whirlwind romance: Myrtle and Benjamin were engaged after knowing each other just three weeks:



When your great grandfather, George Maltesta moved alone to San Francisco, Eleanor and Helen moved in with the Kalas family (Anthony Kalas and his wife, Lucy, who was Eleanor's sister. The kids included Myrtle, Anthony, Charles "Quisty", Dolly and Bud.) Helen married Carl Raysor soon thereafter. William Lavery (Eleanor and Lucy's brother) also lived with the Kalases.

War of 1812 - Joseph Orne's Service

I am researching Joseph Orne's service in the War of 1812, since I had read a comment previously that he had been a POW in Ontario during that war. Today I found abstracts from the payrolls of regiments stationed at Burlington, VT. This is a "pay roll of a company of infantry commanded by Catpain Benjamin S Edgerton, of the Eleventh Regiment of th United States, for the months of September and October 1812":

(You can click to enlarge.)

He is listed here with an Ebenezer Orne. Not certain which Ebenezer this is -- there are several in the family. My hunch is that he's a family member. Joseph had a son named Ebenezer, born in 1796, and it's most likely him.

Keep in mind that I'm simply guessing that this Joseph Orne maps to the Joseph Orne in our tree (all I have is a name and a state to go by) but I do not yet have the pension files or other documentation to verify this. My degree of confidence is about 85%.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Will Glass / E J Rubottom Photo

This is E J Rubottom and Will Glass - they traveled to the Yukon together and were related. E J was married to Nellie Hickey, Will's Cousin (they had the same grandparents, Patrick and Bridget Hickey).

E J Rubottom was an interesting guy. I found four patent applications issued to him (you can see one here), two of which were beer-related. Another invention was mentioned in a local paper, but I haven't found the patent application, yet.

Jim Shaw (who is descended from the Hickeys) gave me this photo. He is extremely knowledgeable about Felton history and these families. Here's what he said:
"BTW, Mary Shaw's father, Michael Hickey, was foreman of the Lime Kilns for Henry Cowell. We have a very pretty bowl, made in Prussia, that was a gift to Michael from Henry Cowell. Also at the ranch are large portraits of Michael Hickey and his wife Catherine Quinn Hickey. They are buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Santa Cruz.

"In addition to Mary and Nellie, there were two boys, John, who died in a train wreck two years to the day before Frank Shaw was killed in 1900, and Dan Hickey, who was wharfinger on the Santa Cruz wharf. He was found drowned off the wharf in 1923 and the family always suspected bootleggers.

"Dan's daughter Kate married and had a son, Harold Soper. After she was widowed she married a cousin, Charlie Glass, also an engineer on the South Pacific Coast. I interviewed Harold Soper about 1992, but my tape is packed away. I'll find it one of these days and transcribe it. I also interviewed Red Sinnott, another cousin from that side.

"Ok, I found the photo I was hoping to find. It's from a tintype I scanned. This is E. J. Rubottom, husband of Nellie Hickey, and Will Glass, when they went on the Alaskan Gold Rush."

I found this second photo in the book "Santa Cruz"--- a history of the Santa Cruz area:


Mary Hickey Shaw and Nellie Hickey Rubottom were sisters. They are your great-great aunts (granddaughters of your great-great-great-grandparents).

The date on this photo is incorrect. It was probably taken in 1913 at the time that Nellie was widowed (at which point she moved in with Mary, also a widow). Roy Shaw (the boy in the photo) was born in 1899.