Stribling Stuff

These are photos from some pages from a book I have on the Stribling family. I was completely foxed as to who they were and what their relation was to me and my family until just a couple of weeks ago. Now that I know Stribling was the maiden name of my great-great grandmother, it all makes sense.

Of course, HER mother's maiden name (my great-great-great grandmother) was Williams. I like that. It is the English form of my husband's name, Wilke. I wonder - are we more closely related than I want to think?? Yikes! LOL!

I must find this book again - it's around the house somewhere - and see if I can find a photo of my great-great grandmother in it. 

Happy Birthday Grandma Katie

On this day in 1891, my great-grandmother Katie Hays was born.

It's really amazing to think that she was born before the turn of the 20th century, and she died in 1982 - just 1 year into the space shuttle program.

When she was 18 years old, in 1909, she could not vote. That right would not enter her life until she was 29 years old. I do not know if she ever did register and vote. When I knew her, her focus was on God, not politics.

She lived to see two World Wars, and I know that one of her two sons (my grandfather) served in one of them. I think her other son, my great-uncle Jim, may have served in the Army but I'm not 100% sure.

I do have one photo with her in it on my computer; it shows her talking to my mother, with my father standing between them, at the reception following my parents' wedding:

I think Mom told me that Katie was welcoming my mother into the family, and naturally that went over really well with Mom.

That picture was taken inside this house:

Some changes have been made to the house and property - the landscaping is more open now, a driveway was added, and the front porch enclosed - but otherwise it's the same little house she lived in, and where I used to go on my way to school when I attended Woodside Elementary in Silver Spring (located at the top of that hill where the house sits).

I was only 12 when Katie died. I wish I'd been more inclined to ask her questions about her life and experiences growing up. I'm sure she would have had some really interesting tales to tell.

Forni Headstones

This is the headstone of one of my late cousins. She was the daughter of my great-aunt Mary Forni and her husband Chuck Forni.

My dad knew her. He didn't speak much of her, but he did say she was quite lovely indeed.

I'm not sure I know why she died so young. I thought I'd heard she'd died of fever or rheumatoid arthritis or something along those lines, but then I found this...

This is the headstone, in the same Rockville cemetery, of Mary Lou's parents Chuck and Mary Forni.

I think I see why (as I was told) Mary just wasn't the same after 1955. She lost her child on June 3rd and then her husband on July 15, just a few weeks later. 

But she was good to my father and me. 

When it came to my mother, not so much. She supposedly once told my mother that she was a "nobody with nothing from West Virginia." Mary always denied saying such a thing. 

Well, now they're ALL past this nonsense....I think....