Showtime! A Tale of Two Shows

Guest blog today by hubby, who was involved in shows presented at Cain Park, Cleveland Heights, OH and at Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, MA. He loved the shows so much that he bought the LPs, pictured here.

Annie Get Your Gun had already been a Broadway hit and a blockbuster movie when it was announced for a summer run in Cain Park, minutes from where hubby and family lived in suburban Cleveland Heights. Here's his memory of working that show as a high school student apprenticing with the crew:

"For Annie, I ran a follow-spot from a 20-ft-high brick tower beside the stage. During the action, Annie Oakley and her beau, Frank Butler, are sailing back from Europe. They get hungry, so Annie shoots into the sky (from center stage). Waiting up on the tower, I throw down a prop stuffed seagull. The audience couldn't see me up on the tower and it seemed like a bit of magic when the bird landed on the stage at Annie's feet. (The night it accidentally landed in the orchestra pit, the conductor handed it up to her.)

"On the last night of the run, an "accomplice" and I cleaned out the theater's prop room and brought all kinds of things up to the tower. When Annie raised her rifle and shot, we threw down six or eight different stuffed animals--a pig, a skunk, even a couple of birds. One of the actors took this in stride, ad-libbing, "That's some fine shootin', Annie!" as Annie and the others cracked up.

Years later, he played Lutz, the prince's valet, the only non-singing role in a Berkshire Community College production of Romberg's The Student Prince.

The director cast hubby as the valet because he looked more mature than the college students playing the other roles. And he had a beard (still does, matter of fact), which was important to the serious look of the character.

Leaving the cast party on closing night, hubby and his ex-wife met a woman who stopped them and commented, "I've never been kissed by a man with a beard." Hubby, being very obliging, leaned over to kiss her cheek...but she grabbed him, pulled him close, and kissed him full on the lips. The kiss went on and on and on. Finally he managed to break away. On the way out, his wife asked in an acerbic tone, "Who was that?" Hubby answered truthfully, "I've never seen her before in my life." Wife had the last word: "She seemed to know you!"

Tombstone Tuesday: Lucinda H. Bentley Shank

Gone but not forgotten is the inscription on the tombstone of Lucinda H. Bentley Shank and her husband, Jonas C. Shank. They're buried in Eldridge Cemetery, Elkhart county, Indiana.

Lucinda is hubby's 2d great-grand aunt, the older sister of Lucy E. Bentley, who married great-great granddad Brice S. Larimer.

Just three weeks ago, my query posted on Ancestry's Bentley message board put me in contact with a Bentley researcher who had traced more of the Bentley children, finding Lucinda and Lucy in Elkhart county and learning that the rest of their siblings had journeyed to California in search of fertile farmland and a bit of pioneering adventure.

At his suggestion, I sent for Lucinda's death record. Meanwhile, I also contacted the wonderfully knowledgeable and helpful folks at the Elkhart County Genealogical Society, who sent me the above photo (along with at least a dozen other photos of Larimer family tombstones from Elkhart County). 

According to Lucy Bentley Larimer's death doc, William Tyler Bentley and Oliver [sic] Morgan are her parents. Now we want to confirm by reading the names on Lucinda's death cert.

Military Monday: In Honor of Canada Day, More WWI Badges

Happy Canada Day! This post continues the series of photos of a WWI military belt given to the Wood family before 1925 by, we believe, Captain John Daniel Slatter of the 48th Highlanders Regiment of Toronto.

At left, a closeup of the badge worn by Divisional Cyclists Overseas. Military men on bicycles (who wore these from 1914-1916) were engaged in intelligence gathering and even participated in infantry activities.

And above right, the badge of the 21st Essex Fusiliers. Some members of this unit went to London early in WWI as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces.

Ancestor Landing Pages: Views But No Connections Yet

As you can see from this chart, my ancestor landing pages are being viewed. The bottom two pages were posted just a few weeks ago, so the low page views are no surprise.

I started using ancestor landing pages back in January, after reading a post by Caroline Pointer. 

The Birk and Mahler pages were among the earliest posted, so it makes sense that they're the most viewed. Even though the pages have not yet brought me new genealogical connections...I still have hope they'll lead to breakthroughs!

2022 update: I added an ancestor landing page for McClure, Donegal--and it's now the most viewed by far. 

Those Places Thursday: My Brick Wall in Crawford County, Ohio

Tod is that sliver of a town at far left of Crawford County, Ohio. And Tod is where one of my hubby's brick-wall ancestors lived. During the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in August, my goal is to blast this brick wall out of existence by doing research at the Allen County Public Library and in Bucyrus, the county seat of Crawford.

The brick wall's name is Jacob S. Steiner. He was born about 1802 (estimate based on Census data) and his occupation was tailor. Jacob and his wife Elizabeth (maiden name UNK) and their oldest child, William, were all born in Pennsylvania (Census again). Everybody else in their family was born in Ohio.

I know Jacob died sometime between the 1850 Census and the 1860 Census, because he's not in the 1860 Census. His wife Elizabeth is the head of the household in 1860 in Tod, and she has two of her adult children living with her, plus two of her teenage children, plus a two-year-old named Albert J. Steiner. Given Elizabeth's age, I have to believe that Albert is her grandson, but so far, I haven't identified who he belongs to. Elizabeth died in 1864 and is buried in Oceola Cemetery #2, in Crawford County.

So when and where did Jacob die? Who were his parents and where in Pennsylvania was he born? And the biggest question of all: Where in the Old World did the Steiner family come from? One family story says the Steiners (and another family in our tree, Rinehart), were Austrian. Another says they were Swiss. Well, we're going to do our best to track Jacob and family back through the 18th century and see where the trail leads! UPDATE: No breakthrough yet on Steiner and Rinehart origins, as of 2022.

Wordless Wednesday (almost): More Canadian badges from WWI

Members recruited from Canadian universities . . . formed in 1918

Based in Toronto, a unit in the Canadian Expeditionary Force

Unit organized in 1866, one of 107 Canadian infantry units in WWI

With Canada Day only a few days away, I wanted to post more of the WWI badges collected by (I believe) Captain John Daniel Slatter, long-time bandmaster of the 48th Highlanders Regiment based in Toronto.

Military Monday: Oh Canada! WWI Military Badges

Heirloom belt from WWI

I saw this wonderful belt for the first time on Saturday, when a family discussion about genealogy reminded the current owner that he had this in his possession. Hubby remembered seeing it in the attic of his childhood home many decades ago.

It was passed down by a Canadian relative--mostly likely Captain John Daniel Slatter of the 48th Highlanders of Toronto. Capt. Jack, as we like to call him, was hubby's great-uncle, one of three military bandmasters in the Slatter family.

Capt. Jack was very close to his sister, Mary Slatter Wood (who married James Edgar Wood in Ohio). We have a couple of photos of him: One, above, shows him at Camp Borden in Canada in 1917, where he trained dozens of military bands and 1,000 buglers.

According to the 48th Highlanders Regimental Museum, Capt. Jack's military record was:

1874-6    Training Ship Royal Harry
1876-81  Royal Fusiliers
1881-6    "A" Battery Royal Canadian Artillery (Quebec City and Northwest Battalion)
1916-9    Officer-in-Charge of Training Bands & Buglers, Military District #2
1896-1946  48th Highlanders of Canada (based in Toronto)

Because he was in charge of training, he would have been able to trade badges with many of the military men he trained.

Above and below are the first closeups of the badges on this incredible heirloom belt. More to come soon, leading up to Canada Day on July 1st.