Shelby DeVere Stephens

December 27th, 2012 § Comments Off on Shelby DeVere Stephens § permalink

As the saying goes, We only see family at funerals and weddings.  And that is the way it is going with my family. It was not always this way. In fact, and correct me if I am wrong, the Delk-Worden family reunion used to be a huge shindig. There are newspaper articles about how big it was. I was told that people, who were not family, would show up and get in the food line, and that was okay, because in the end, we are all family. It just wasn’t family reunions, there was Thanksgiving and Christmas, and other occasions when the brothers and sisters of Charlie Delk would get together just because they were family.

I remember a few golf outings with Shelby, and he tolerated this teenager who had a temper. I am sure he did not enjoy playing with me, but I enjoyed my time with him. I know I enjoyed my time with him during the holidays when he and his wife Marge opened up their house to the whole clan. There I was, the youngest of the first cousins, pestering him for something or other and being redirected toward the cookie table. If anything, I should of learned patience from him to apply to my own children, but that is another story.

Shelby will be missed. As well as those who have passed before him. Our family will grow smaller, and admittedly, I will not recognize a cousin or two if I pass them by at the grocery store. Hopefully I will see them more at weddings than at funerals, but sadly that will not be the case.

Have a wonderful New Year and stay in touch,

Brian

Franklin Delk and Gretel Neimann

October 31st, 2012 § Comments Off on Franklin Delk and Gretel Neimann § permalink

Franklin  was stationed in Germany during World War One, and apparently had  started a relationship with Gretel Neimann. We have had two postcards translated from old German style handwriting and I have posted them along with some photos of Gretel on Franklin’s webpage. One of the postcards disproves the belief that they were married, but in her mind they were. She is truly heart broken. Will post more if we find anything.

Brian

About time…

October 22nd, 2012 § Comments Off on About time… § permalink

The thing about family history is this; while researching the past, the present keeps adding to it. Good or bad, family history has to be experienced, which is why I have been so slow to add new material. But there is now more documents and photos up, most of them having to do with Charles Wesley Delk and his immediate family. Keep checking on the photo and document  logs, I may sneak stuff in without announcing it.

Until next time, Brian.

Small Change/Big Returns

September 4th, 2012 § 1 comment § permalink

I have now added the three surviving children of Charles Wesley Delk, onto this site. While that may seem small, it opens up the door for more photos and documents to be posted. In the coming month I will be putting up photos of Charles and Bernice Delk’s children, some that may have not been seen since they were developed, locked away in some of their photo albums, forgotten about until now. Also, I will be slowly adding the rest of Ethelred’s descendents, at least the one’s I have verified. By doing this, I will be able to connect people in the group photos.

I will up date the Photo log and Document log when items are added before I add more post, so I would look there before here for updates.

Brian

Poems Update

August 14th, 2012 § Comments Off on Poems Update § permalink

There are now sixty pages of poems from Martha up on her site. As I mentioned in the last post, I am a slow typist. So, with poem 19, I started scanning them and just making them images. You will see a difference between the new poems and the earlier ones, but who’s counting. Coming up is the Delk annual picnic. I will not be able to attend this year due to a conflict, but I like to give a shout-out to everyone who does make it. If you have anything you would like to share, please pass it along to my Dad and he will make sure it is posted.

Until next time,
Brian

Poems

July 8th, 2012 § Comments Off on Poems § permalink

While waiting for my father to gather a few more documents and letters, I thought I would add six more pages of poems from Martha (Maitlen) Delk. There are many more to come. The only thing really holding me back from adding all of them at  once is the sheer number of them. I am a slow typist, so bare with me. Not only that, but these poems, while being little ditties, also represent times in her life. For example, Page 13 has a poem about one of her children who had died as an infant. In modern times we are given medication to help us cope with the hard times, a hundred years ago, my great-grandmother had her poems.

Stay cool in this summer heat.

Brian

Graphic Tree

May 8th, 2012 § Comments Off on Graphic Tree § permalink

Just playing around and made this graphic of the Delk family line. Probably not a complete representation of the family line since I have not updated my Gedcom file for a while. Still working on getting some more poems and letters added to the site, and I made a nice connection with a distant relative who lives close-by. She was kind enough to share some photos of some gravestones. I will add them to the site next week. As always, comments are always appreciated…

Brian

Documents done

April 15th, 2012 § Comments Off on Documents done § permalink

I was able to get through the documents a lot quicker than I thought, mainly because I had been a little more organized with them. The list for them is located here. I am working on a timeline for the site. It will display the birthdays and deaths of everyone through Charlie Delk. Should be interesting to look at once everybody is in place. It will show a broad picture of the goings on in the family.

Until then, enjoy.

Brian

Minor changes, more to come

April 11th, 2012 § Comments Off on Minor changes, more to come § permalink

While I have been waiting for some new material from my father, who was out spending my inheritance. I decided I should better organize myself. In doing so, I have changed all the photos to the jpeg format and have internally renamed them. I would say 90% of the photos have been updated, and with the jpeg format comes the ability to save the tags that I have embedded within them. I have also watermarked all of the photos. Why did I watermark the photos you may ask. Because I am tired of people taking them and posting them on Ancestry.com without permission. I know that technically I do not own the photos, but, if I take the time to scan them and clean them up, plus pay for the web hosting, I should at least get some credit. Ancestry.com is a paid site that is supported by advertising and membership; they make money off of the members who put legit photos on their site. Please do not steal, but if you want a copy please let me know and I will email you a higher quality scan without the watermark.

With that said, here is a link to a list of all of the photos on this site. The xx’s indicate that the photo is actually up on the site for each individual person. The documents are also going to be treated the same way. I will also be trying to get the my cousins listed and linked so I can start adding even more photos and documents. Until then, enjoy.

Brian

Photos, documents and letters

December 30th, 2011 § Comments Off on Photos, documents and letters § permalink

In terms of my family line, I know where I came from. I can show who was my Grandfathers’ Grandfather. I know some of the basic facts of there lives. What I do not know is who they were. But I am finding out. And that is what this website is about. I may have never known my Grandfather Charlie Delk, but I do know he played cribbage and he taught my Father, who taught me and who has taught my son. I am learning more about him through the letters he wrote home to his parents during WWI. I know that his Mother was distraught over the death of her children and wrote poems to get through the tough times. And lucky for us, her daughter Mary May saved almost everything, and now we are able to share that with you. And getting to know who our family was and what their lives were like is just as important as the 1900 census. The story of our family starts to develop as we gather the photos, letters and documents that were left behind. We begin to learn that Russel Delk was at Camp Dodge on Thanksgiving day in 1917 and that his brother Frank was getting to know the women in Germany. Charlie was at Camp Pike, while his future wife Bernice Butler was studying to become a teacher at Drake University. There are new photos, documents, and letters for all of these family members, and as we uncover more, we will get to know who they were. Have a safe and prosperous 2012. Brian

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