Alfred and Moina

It has been a bumper week for genealogy. After having been on hiatus for a while with no new lines of inquiry or interesting discoveries, I have had a simply amazing week.

It started last Saturday with the discovery of the Wisconsin newspaper articles, and continued on Sunday with collecting nearly a hundred Montana newspaper clippings on the Ducies and related families.

On Tuesday I telephoned Lehigh University in Pennsylvania to inquire about access to student records for my great grandfather who studied for an engineering degree there in the teens. Just two days later I received copies in the post from his senior yearbook, including this picture:


We have one baby picture and pictures of Alfred in his later years but nothing from his youth. I was immediately struck by the mouth and chin and then the eyes, which I knew I'd seen before. I was in fits of joy, laughing and dancing round the apartment as I read the following description of Alfred from his yearbook:

"Al has been known throughout these four years as the other half of that immortal combination known as "the Wish Twins". He also comes from Boston. Coming from the classic shades of old Harvard, he still retains enough of his early training to pronounce 'idea' with a heavy 'r'. He came back last fall from a summer's 'practice' in Canada with wondrous tales of his travels. They sounded like a new edition of 'The Arabian Nights' with himself in the role of Inbad the Sailor.

Alfred is a graphic and lengthy desciber: to get a description of a game of bowling from him one endangers the chairs and other furniture in his immediate vicinity and puts the safety of the auditors in jeopardy as well. Al will probably be a success as a salesman of mining stock for the reason that he never allows an opinion to exist which varies one iota from his own."

Opinionated, with the gift of the gab. Remind you of any one?!

I also learned that Alfred was the Lehigh Class of 1913 Treasurer, he was 5'11.5", 162 lbs, his politics were "Bull Moose" and his nickname was "Pat". He was an active member of the Mining & Geological Society and graduated with a Masters in Engineering. So sorry Dad, you weren't the first O'Brien/Bovee to achieve a graduate degree.


But that's not all! I have further tales of graduations, but this time of Alfred's future bride, Miss Moina Ducie of Anaconda, MT and my great grand-mother. On 1 June 1913 The Anaconda Standard reported:

"Mrs. John Ducie will leave for Spokane Wednesday, accompanied by her daugher Miss Evelyn, to attend the commencement week exercises at the Holy Name academy. Miss Moina Ducie, one of Anaconda's most popular girls, is a member of the graduationg class, and it will be a gala week for the Montana representatives at the festivities."

The article was accompanied by a picture of 18 year-old Moina:

Moina also studied at St Vincent's Academy in Salt Lake City and Gonzaga College. She was quite the society young lady, appearing at all the best parties and gatherings in Anaconda and Butte, as befit her status as daughter of John Ducie, one of the most prominent citizens of southwestern Montana. There were several articles about his various mining and real estate interests, from which I can only conclude - as we've always suspected - that he was probably filthy rich.

How the celebrated Miss Ducie ended up the wife of humble mining engineer Alfred O'Brien remains a small mystery. Oh and what happened to all the money. That too. And the collection of dinosaur fossils. And the gem stone collection. And yes, the largest sapphire in the world. I just need to get my hands on the 1916-1926 issues of The Anaconda Standard.

This one is for Jonathan

Your great-great-great-grandfather was interested in dinosaurs as well. He even kept some in the house. Article

Sad accidental drowning

This is my great-grandfather’s youngest brother, Truman, aged about 1o. Despite the dour expression typical of old photographs (they had to pose for up to 10 minutes while the plate developed), I think he’s quite a sweet looking little fellow. I know from his death certificate that he drowned at the age of just 20, but no further explanation was given and I had been thinking only the other week that I would never know if it was drunkenness or tomfoolery on his part, or just a tragic accident. But Ancestry.com have recently expanded they’re collection of digitised Wisconsin newspapers, and quite by chance I came across this:
As I read this on my computer screen, I was gripped not only by the drama and tragedy of the unfolding tale, but also by the thrill and delight of discovering something I had longed to know. It was a strange mix of emotions.

I bought the new Coldplay record. No surprise my favourite track is called Cemeteries of London.

Poor them

I just heard the most ridiculous news story on BBC World Service. The Saudi "moral police" - we knew them as mutawahs - want regular police protection and danger pay because of a backlash against them from ordinary Saudis. They claim their work has become difficult and dangerous and they want that to be recognised. Bloody cheek!

Essentially, these guys hassle people for a living. They're mostly just a nuisance - I was stopped a couple times in the Saudi city of Khobar where we used to shop occasionally and told my dress was unacceptable and a sign of my deep moral degredation which I had apparently managed to achieve at the tender age of just 12 - but according to the news report last year several mutawahs stopped girls escaping from a burning school because they were not wearing their head scarves and fifteen girls died in the fire. The majority of these moral police, according to the report, are university graduates, which surely proves that education does not make you intelligent.

The irony is, this comes some fifteen years too late. I remember Mum saying that any mutawah that threatened her would certainly need to be ready to defend himself. And our mild-mannered friend Virginia Stewart did actually push and shove one and knocked him off his feet one night as she got on the Khobar shopping bus. She was lauded with a round of applause if I remember correctly. It was one of the most exciting things that ever happened in our Saudi life.

Ticket to Ride

Dave taught me to play Ticket to Ride on Tuesday. In case you don’t know it… TtR is the It game of the summer. You line up little multi-coloured plastic choo-choos across a board displaying a map of the US, traversed by dozens of potential train routes between major cities. Here’s a visual.

So far, I’m pretty crap. But I’ve only played five times (yeah, in just two nights, it’s addictive). But I haven’t just been playing board games (not a euphemism) this week. In fact, in the last 72 hours I’ve been buzzing all over the city, and have crafted my own TtR-esque route maps to show you just how much ground I’ve covered:

Route 1 - yesterday: Wall St. to Sixth Ave/45th to 34th St. to Union Square to 92nd St to Wall St to Fulton St to Wall St.

...but winner of the longest continuous route is...

Route 2 - Weds - Wall St to Sixth Ave/45th St to Grand Central Post Office to Union Sq to 577 Grand St (the ends of the earth!) to Sixth Ave/12th St. to Waterside Plaza to Wall St.

I'm tired.

Just a had a scan down and realised I haven't posted any pictures on this thing since I fell in love with the Audi back in April. I don't carry a camera round the city documenting my New York life, so instead, for a bit of a change, here are some never before seen pictures from recent travels. To my long term readers I offer a challenge to identify as many of the locations as you can. There's a prize in it for whoever can name the most.

Found this rock formation near land my family owned 150 years ago. It amused me to think they probably also stopped and stared, wondering how on earth such a ridiculous looking thing was formed
My favourite place to eat ice cream in the dead of winter

Red flag to a badger

Why do all children collect pebbles in their pockets?

My tomb should be so fancy

There be coal in them hills

The sound of rushing waters

Seriously, there really is a prize.

Wait Until Dark

Since I finished reading my Audrey Hepburn bio a couple months ago, we've been running an unofficial Audrey film season here at 45 Wall. Viewed so far, and following no particular order: Sabrina, Robin and Marian, Paris When It Sizzles, My Fair Lady... and tonight... I was feeling a little woosey at work, so evening plans were cancelled and I came home to a quiet apartment. All the flatmates were out. The perfect time to watch Wait Until Dark.

I don't as a rule have much patience for damsels in distress, and I'm a terrible armchair heroine - grumbling at the characters poor decisions under duress, shouting at the tv telling them to run the other way or just phone the blasted police already! But once Audrey took back contol, smashing out the lights, dousing nasty Alan Arkin with petrol and threatening him with matches, then acquainting him first with her kitchen knife and then a sideboard full of crockery. Ok, then I started to rather enjoy it. Almost makes one want to take on one's own band of sadistic crooks, though I'd rather just outsmart them than have to turn them into shish kabobs. Regrettably, New York is so safe these days...

One of my favourite comedians, Jeremy Hardy, is writing an account of his own family history explorations. The publisher claims it will be "part family memoir, part enquiry into the world of genealogy and part comic adventure - full of detours, wrong turnings and unexpected encounters with strange and interesting people". I can't wait! I love books about genealogy and family stories - I'm currently reading The Lost - and I'm a huge fan of Jeremy Hardy's Radio 4 appearances such as the The News Quiz - listen to the latest episode. I think this is going to be great. He just better hurry up and write the thing.

I've read a few other books that involve family histories like Tracy Chevalier's The Virgin Blue and most recently The Thirteenth Tale. If anyone can think of other similar books - fiction or non-fiction - please let me know. I've got at least another fifty years to keep myself happily entertained...