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The Thumb's Christmas

  Our daughter, Anne, was a prolific artist when she was young. Our refrigerator door was full of her drawings, paintings, and school artwork. She liked to create little books, too, as she was also a natural storyteller. One Christmas when she was about eight years old, Anne wrote and illustrated a Christmas story for her little brother, James. If memory serves, she drew her inspiration from a book she had recently gotten from the library by illustrator Ed Emberley. He wrote and illustrated The Great Thumbprint Drawing Book . In it, Emberley showed how to make a variety of animals and people using a thumbprint as a starting point. The creations are simple and charming. It's amazing what you can do with a blog of ink and a few black lines. It's art that's accessible to anyone. Anne's story is called "The Thumb's Christmas," and is based on our family. There is a thumb with glasses (Anne), a thumb with little hair (toddler James), a thumb with a mustache (Ji...
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FAVORITE PHOTO: PAST & FUTURE


I am occasionally participating in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, a writing challenge encouraging genealogy researchers to write about their ancestors. The challenge is hosted by genealogist, blogger and podcaster Amy Johnson Crow.

This week's prompt: Favorite Photo

By Nancy Gilbride Casey

The railroad tracks lead right up to the young man pictured here, my son James, at age three. As he pressed his face to the glass watching the model trains go by—an obsession at the time—he had no idea just how deeply his connections to the railroad—and his ancestors who worked on it—extended.

Could James have inherited some of his mechanical aptitude from his great grandfather Joseph John Gilbride, Sr. (1910-1990) who worked as a metal machinist in the Collinwood Railroad Yard in Cleveland, a short distance from the neighborhood where his mother, grandparents, and great-grandparents lived?1 Or could he have gotten that from Joseph's father, John Joseph Gilbride (1875-1937) who worked as a stationary fireman,2 and in the roundhouse?3

Perhaps my son has some deep ancestral memory of travelling from his great, great, great grandfather Henry Orlando Taylor (1865-1911), a well-respected conductor on the Midland Valley Railroad, which stretched from Kansas to Oklahoma to Arkansas.4

Or did James receive some of his drive from his 2nd great uncle Floyd Edwin Taylor, (1893-1914), Henry's son, who was a young conductor on the move with the same Midland Valley Railroad, before his life was tragically cut short in a rail yard accident in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was in his early 20s, not much older than James is today.5

Another great, great, great grandfather, Collostin James Davis (1844-1911), spent time as a hostler with the Santa Fe Railroad roundhouse in Newton, Kansas.6 He moved locomotives in and out of service facilities, and worked in the tool shed. He had only partial use of his right arm due to a gunshot wound, and chronic lung issues after suffering from the measles, both sustained during his service in the 12th Maine Infantry in the Civil War.7 Yet, Collostin found a way to be of use, and to provide for his family, with the railroad. Perseverance.

Could James' DNA be imprinted not only with the places his ancestors had lived, but also with who they were as well? 

With his wide eyes of youth, was James seeing both his future and his past?

Until next time...

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NOTES

1 1940 United States Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, Cleveland, Cleveland Ward 32, enumeration district (ED) 92-846, sheet 5-B, household 105, Joseph J. Gilbride; image, Ancestry (https://ancstry.me/2sZDvE9: accessed 11 Jan 2020); NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 03237
2 1930 United States Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, Cleveland City, Cleveland Ward 32, enumeration district (ED) 18-525, sheet 2-A, dwelling 29, family 32, John Gilbride; image, Ancestry (https://ancstry.me/2sjSto0 : accessed 11 Jan 2020); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1781.
3 1920 United States Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, Cleveland City, Cleveland Ward 26, enumeration district (ED) 492, sheet 12-B, dwelling 190, family 224, John Gilbridl; image, Ancestry (https://ancstry.me/35PSxcY : accessed 11 Jan 2020); NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1373.
4 Henry O. Taylor obituary, The Malone Farmer, 30 Aug 1911, p. 3, col. 2; image copy, NYS Historic Newspapers (http://bit.ly/2oGYoS8 : accessed 3 Nov 2019).
5 "Midland Conductor Crushed by Cars," Bixby (OK) Bulletin , 24 April 1914, p. 5, col. 4-5; image copy, The Gateway to Oklahoma History (http://bit.ly/39TX9Sm : accessed 11 Jan 2020).
61900 United States Census, Harvey County, Kansas, population schedule, Newton City, Ward 4, Enumeration District (ED) 88, sheet 15, house 401, dwelling 356, family 372, C.J. Davis; image, Ancestry (https://ancstry.me/2sctov0 : accessed 11 Jan 2020); NARA microfilm publication T623.
​​ 7 Collostin J. Davis (Pvt. & Corp., Cos. B & H, 12th Me Inf., Civil War), pension no. 308,563, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications, 1981-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Record Group 15:  Records of the Department of Veterans Administration; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
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