For Holly

You asked if I had photos of your 2xGGrandmother Henrietta Flaiz. I have passport photos of Francis and Bessie--separate and together, but none of Henrietta.

I know you've seen the group photo below of Francis Detamore's family with step-mom/aunt Bessie. But passports and marriage documents? Here's what I have in my gedcom on your recent ancestors. Why? Well, I knew Fordyce and "Grammy" having seen them several times as a kid. So I added their families to my tree. How I wish I remembered more of what my Aunt Gwen told about her "grands" and their travels! 


In the bottom left corner see Charles and Jennie's marriage license. Click once to enlarge, click once again to return to this page:


As a reminder of their birth dates:


See three images within this gallery concerning your 3xGGrandfather Flaiz:


Travel documents are terrific for researchers in that they help confirm questions of birth locations, full legal names, and dates. Exact dates! Love those dates. See Jennie and Charles Flaiz' data at the top of both these two pages:



And papers about Jennie Belle (Elder) Flaiz.



And now for Francis Detamore and Henrietta Flaiz:


And, here's a couple of items regarding Bessie Flaiz. Please read the paragraph entitled "Wedding Bells."


More passports:


100+ years ago your ancestors really saw the world! 




So Many Marriage Records Online

My day job involves scouring records. My favorite hobby also has me searching and occasionally finding records. I especially like finding a new database of marriage records.

http://familysearch.org/ is uploading thousands of records each week with the help of volunteers who both scan, upload and occasionally transcribe to prepare indexes. Best of all, Familysearch is a FREE site. It recently partnered with Ancestry.com (an awesome but NOT free site) on some projects. 

Index = One of my favorite words. Without an index one must pore through page after page looking for a keyword. FamilySearch doesn't always have indexes (yet) for their many databases. Luckily there is an index for California County Marriages - 1850 to 1952, which is where I've spent the last 90 minutes.

Here are a few copies of marriage licenses of my "kin" that I was thrilled to find.

Gwen Detamore Wiser (1929 to 2013)

My Aunt Gwen died recently just short of her 84th birthday. Besides her husband, she leaves a sister, two daughters, four grandchildren, and several great-grand kids. The world is somehow dimmer without Aunt Gwen.


In the print version of a dictionary you can find Gwen as a synonym used for two words: vivacious and upbeat. She was a dynamo who had traveled the world with her missionary parents, as evidenced by this wonderful photo taken 1936. She was SIX MONTHS OLD and would soon live in China. I love this photo! See her parents' eager faces? Ready to take on the world. Are you familiar with the political turmoil in China in the late 1930s? What a time.

I also found five-year old Gwendolyn on a United Kingdom immigration database, in May of 1935, sailing on a ship called Hamburg to New York, from Southampton, England. Knowing her, I bet little Gwen had fun running up and down the ship.

Gwen adored her father and spoke of him often. Here's Mr. Detamore's obit found online from The Atlantic Union Gleaner published June 24, 1980:


Thank you for popping by. I welcome your comments.