Just had a flash for an interesting page: photos of all the homes we've lived in. I have photos of Waianae, Dillingham Boulevard, Pahoa Ave, Maluniu Ave, Ohana St., and Havenside Dr. I think mom has photos of the Richmond Pen, and I may have photos of Barbican Road and Surbiton in Jamaica. If any of you have such photos, I'd love a copy - print or digital - to add to the collection. I think I'll do this for the Family History page in January.

Here's a transcription and translation of a postcard sent with a return address of "Anton Teissl, Bahnhof-Restaurateur, Attnang-Puchheim, Ober Österreich to Mr. Josef Schulmeister, Waianae - Oahu, Hawaii, Sandwich Islands. Anton was my grandfather's brother-in-law and ran a restaurant in the train station in Attnang. Hans and Toni were the sons of Anton and Marie. "Pepi" is a pet name for Josef.

Attnang, 25. / IX - 915

Lieber Pepi!
Dir und Lucy und Euren Kindern fröhliche Weihnachten und ein frohes Neues-Jahr! Wir Alle sind gesund! Unser Hans steht in Serbien. Toni ist noch in Brooklyn gibt seine alte Addresse! Unser Bruder Karl steht in Russich-Polen in der Front. Mein Mann ist daheim, ist vom Militärdienst befreit, unsere Eltern sind wohlauf. Sorge Dich um uns nicht! Schreib doch ofters! Grüße und küße Dich, sowie Deine Lieben Alle, Deine Schwester
Marie.


Attnang, 25 Nov. 1915
Dear Pepi,
To you and Lucy and your children, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are all in good health! Our Hans is posted in Serbia. Toni is still in Brooklyn, gives his old address! Our brother Karl is posted in Russian-Poland on the Front. My husband is at home, is released from military service. Our parents are doing well. Don’t worry about us! But write more often! Love and kisses to you, as well as to all your loved ones, your sister
Marie.

Here's a letter from grandfather Joseph Schulmeister's niece sent to him in 1925. I guess even then, Hawaii was a paradisical destination - I don't believe she ever went to Hawaii, and I doubt grandpa ever replied - that seems to have been his trademark. Translation follows; thanks to Hanne for her help with the hard words.

Wien, 30.XII,. 1925

Sehr geehrter, lieber
Herr Onkel!

Bitte sind Sie nicht bös darüber, wenn ich wieder mit einer Bitte zu Ihnen komme. Ich möchte Sie sehr bitten, & mir bekannt zugeben, ob auf Hawaii eine Verdienst -möglichkeit für ein Mädchen (gesund) als Kinderfräulein, Stubemädchen, Arbeiterin in irgendeinem Unternehmen ist. Ich kann nähen und auch sonst alle häuslichen Arbeiten. Und nehm jede Stelle an, bei der man etwas verdienen kann. Oder würden Sie mir raten, vielleicht z.B. einen Gebammen Kursus zu machen? Lieber Herr Onkel ich habe damals bereits an Sie geschrieben, wegen dem Hinunterfahren u. Hawaii. Und bis heute lässt mich der Gedanke nicht los. Ich wäre Ihnen mein ganzes Leben dankbar. Bitte wollen Sie die Gute haben und mir bekannt geben, ob eine Hinreise überhaupt gestattet ist und unter welchen Bedingungen. Ich bin jetzt 22 Jahre alt und gesund und mein ganzes Streben gipfelt von dem Gedanken von Wien wegzukommen.

Ich bitte Sie sehr um Ihre Meinung und Ihren gutigen Rat und danke Ihnen im Vorhinein für Ihre Mühe und grüss Sie als Ihre
dankbare
Nichte Frieda Edelmann

% Bitte auf untenstehende Adresse zu schreiben:
F. E. Wien I., Graben 14/15
% Fa. Josef Kober


Translated by Ann S. Owens:

Vienna, December 30, 1925

My very esteemed dear Uncle,

Please don’t be upset with me if I come to you with another request. I would very much like to ask if you could tell me whether there are any employment possibilities in Hawaii for a young woman (healthy) as a nanny, housekeeper, or a worker in any other occupation. I can sew and also perform all kinds of houskeeping duties. And I would take any position at which one could earn something. Or perhaps would you advise me, for example, to take a midwifing course? Dear Uncle, I have already written to you about coming to Hawaii. And even until today the thought won’t leave me alone. I would be grateful to you for my whole life. Please would you be so good as to let me know if such a journey is even possible, and under which circumstances. I am now 22 years old and healthy and all my striving culminates in the thought of getting away from Vienna.

I beg you for your opinion and your good advice and thank you in advance for your kindness and greet you as your
grateful
Niece Frieda Edelmann

p.t.o.

Please write to me at the address below:
F.E. Vienna I
Graben 14/15
c/o Josef Kober Family

I received an envelope yesterday from Mother containing postcards and a letter sent to my grandfather Joseph Schulmeister between 1888 and 1910. He must not have been a very good correspondent, because every one pleads with him to write back! They are written in in an old-fashioned German handwriting. I am slowly translating them, and will post contents as they are completed.

The handwriting example came from Genealogy.net's Alte deutsche Handschriften/Old German Handwritten Scripts.

Blitz
In 1967, our family went to visit my mom's family in Jamaica for the summer. We spent about a week visiting Uncle Rowley and Aunt Cicely at Temple Hall. Aunt Cicely had two Pekingese who weren't particularly enamoured of children; and there was also Blitz, a large Doberman Pinscher. Blitz made it his personal responsibility to watch out for my sister Mary, who is blind. He stayed by her side all day, and even took her for walks. She would put her hand on his back, and he would carefully walk her down the driveway to the gate, and bring her back again. We have had dogs for many years, but not one ever took such an initiative!

Sent by Carol and posted with permission:
"Dad does tell me that his great grandfather Hubert [Soutar], Simon's eldest son he remembers ( although I think it may be through his first wife which looks more and more like a mistress to me) to be the spitting image of Simon but heavier, he tells me that Hubert was more a controller of family finances and had his hand in his pocket not only for the rest of the family but also complete strangers. He worked and managed the wharf business, and even when the staff had no work and therefore no pay, he would dip into his own pocket and give them money to make sure their family had something to buy food etc. Once on a very stormy evening, he came home soaked to the bone, when his wife asked where was his coat or why he hadn't got transport, he had given it away to someone else who needed it because of the storm He was a very generous man, and very charitable. Apparently on his death he had thousands of people follow his coffin through the streets and there was a big write up in the Gleaner, as yet I don't have the dates and can't therefore find copies, hopefully i'll find a source or date soon."

I was talking to Mother the other day, and she said her mother kept in touch with a Mrs. Doris (Hunter) Stone in Richmond, VA whose father was related to the Soutars and was captain of a merchant ship. She visited her once in the 1940s and says Mrs. Hunter told her that a Soutar was the artistic director for the first four years of the Edinburgh International Festival, which also includes the Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle.

The June Owens' Outpost is up.

I've finally decided to re-name this blog "Ancestories" because it more closely describes what I'd like to see posted here. Its new web address is:
http://ancestories.blogspot.com

If you have any family stories you would like to share, send them to me by e-mail at asowens@ix.netcom.com and I will post them. If you think you would like to post them yourself, let me know, and I will add you to the blog member list.

Stories add life to the birth-marriage-death outlines constructed by facts, and help us see our families as real people in the times in which they lived. When distant relations share stories of common ancestors, a more complete picture of each personality emerges, and we gain a deeper understanding of who we are.

Well, the June Outpost is a little later than I wanted, but I hope to have it up by Friday night. I've been working on putting some of those old photos into a web page, and managed to wipe out the page already created with more contemporary photos! Soon as I rewrite that one, I can post the changes.

While cleaning out the coat closet last weekend, I moved out all the boxes and bags of old photos we have accumulated over the years. I came across a treasure trove of photos, postcards, and letters from my grandfather's family in Zwettl, Austria! The city itself has no website, but there is a well-known monastery there, the Stift Zwettl. They were all dated around 1907-1917. Some of the photos are labeled, but too many are not. Look for some of them on the June Owens' Outpost, which will be published around the 15th of that month.

Online Catalog of the National Library of Jamaica: NatCat - This database has over 13,400 records of materials created by a Jamaican, published in Jamaica, or created abroad about Jamaica. The collection dates back to the 16th century.

Perhaps if something in the library is identified as potentially useful, it could be requested via Interlibrary Loan, or a researcher could be hired in Jamaica to extract the information.

My intention is to provide a place where I and others working on the same family lines can share information, progress, sources, and suggestions about family history research. That way, we can all benefit collectively from individual effort.

Here's a start: Owens' Outpost will soon have a family history page with links to major resources for Hawaiian, Jamaican, Scottish, and Azorean research, as well as a link back to this blog.