My Grandmother Maa’s Christmas Card Collection

Thinking of Christmas Past, I looked through my grandmother Maa’s (Edith Tanner Hutchison) Christmas card collection and came across this lovely card.  It was sent by Isabel Crim Martin and her husband Willis Martin to Robert “Bob” Hutchison and his wife Edith Tanner Hutchison in 1969.  The relationship – Isabel Crim was the daughter of Palmer Crim and Robena Hutchison Crim.  And, Robena Hutchison Crim was the sister of my grandfather, Robert “Bob” Hutchison.  That makes Isabel Crim Martin my first cousin once removed.  In the personal message Isabel mentions the death of “Baba”.  This is my great-grandmother Isabel Wilson Hutchison, who died 11 December 1968, at the age of 101.       

A Blessed Christmas to all,

Pam Garrett

Rejoice, Christ our Savior is born!!

  

Personal Message:

Dear Uncle Bob and Aunt Edith –

It was so good to see you last month although we could wish it had been on a different occasion.  I cannot help but be thankful that our dear Baba is out of her misery though.  You were sweet to let me have your car and I do appreciate it.  It made the trip for mother and me much easier.  We have just returned from a glorious Christ – Mass week in New York.  We visited our dear friends the Broburgs.  He is an Episcopal priest and it was quite an experience living in the rectory for a busy High Holy Season.  Willis is in bed again this week with a second bout of the flu.  Hope you have a blessed 1969. 

Love, Isabel

Card Text: 

God grant these gifts to you: His Star to lead you on your way; The joy, the faith, the friendship;That come with this glad day; And ever in the New Year; Like an answer to a prayer, The light of peace to bless you; And guide you everywhere!

Willis and Isabel Martin

Epiphany 1969 

Photo:  This card was published by Washington Cathedral in Washington DC.  Visitation of the Magi by P Cloes, contemporary, Belgian.

Our Family Stories Database is Growing

This Family Stories Blog was established to share with family, friends and fellow genealogists some of the stories I have gathered during nearly thirty years of family history research.  It links with my companion website, Family Stories, pamgarrett.com, that houses my genealogy database and an extensive collection of documents, notes, biographies, and photos.  I’m delighted to announce that my database website is growing!

This week I have added about five hundred new family members to my online database, along with significant details about many of their lives.  These are my paternal ancestors and their families: Hutchison, Wilson, Faulds, Tanner, Smith, Jones, Mouser, and Dunaway.  Over the next few weeks I will blog thumbnail sketches on these families and invite you to visit their personal pages on the database website to learn more. 

Researching my paternal ancestors has been an adventure.  My great-grandfather, Robert Hutchison, was an immigrant to the United States in 1880.  He seems to have traveled alone, leaving his mother, step-father, siblings, and half-siblings in his birthplace of Ayrshire Scotland.   He worked in the coal mines of Missouri and Oklahoma.  So far, all of my Scottish research has been accomplished online, in libraries, or via books, but I am hanging on to my dream of visiting Ayrshire someday. 

My other paternal great-grandfather, Wyatt Tanner, has been harder to track.  With the help of my sleuthing partners (Mom and Dad) I have placed him in his butcher shop in Wapanucka Oklahoma, and then moved him backwards through Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri.  A determined effort finally connected him to parents and a likely grandfather, but earlier ancestry remains a mystery.    

I’m excited to introduce these ancestors, and to share a few of their stories.  I hope you will join me for the fun!