Roberta P. Beerbower Wertz,Sentimental Sunday: Family Ar

Gerard William “G.W.” Helbling and Anna May Beerbower- tintype, married 1904. Parents of Mary T. Helbling McMurray

➡ Beerbower Family, Helbling Family, Lee Family, Cooper Family, McMurray Family, Whitener Family

My mother always told me that I was here on earth because two people fell in love, but Brad Paisley’s hit song said it in a slightly more catchy way: “There ain’t nothin’ not affected When two hearts get connected…

Wedding Photo of Joseph and Helen Cooper, married 1901. Parents of Irving I. Cooper.

Every one of us is here All because two people fell in love.” John Brandenberger and Christina Funke, married 1854. Great-great grandparents of Robert “Bob” Eugene Lee.

The Brad Paisley song, “Two people fell in love” is delightfully sweet, whether one is a country fan or not. William Elmer McMurray and Lynette Payne, married 1899. Grandparents of Edward A. McMurray, Jr. c1950s?

Brad Paisley goes on to sing:

“I’m glad your dad could not resist Your mama’s charms and you exist All because two people fell in love.” John Newton Whitener and Ethel Emily Adiline Underwood, married 1925.

Take a look at the full lyrics here. They are very sweet- as are these pictures of ancestor couples.

Thank you, dear ancestors, for falling in love.

Have a love-ly Valentine’s Day!

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) “Two People fell in Love” by Tim Owens, John Lovelace, Copyright: Emi April Music Inc., Sea Gayle Music, Love Ranch Music- http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bradpaisley/twopeoplefel linlove.html

Portions of the lyrics posted for educational use only.

2) Photos from family treasure chests.

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Treasure Chest Thursday: Roberta P. Beerbower Wertz

Roberta Pearl Beerbower, c1920? Posted with permission.

➡ Beerbower Family, Helbling Family

Roberta Pearl Beerbower was the only child of Robert Warson Beerbower (1874-1900) and Anna Josephine Reiffel (1876-1965) who married 23 August 1898. Roberta was born 16 October 1900 in Indiana (likely Indianapolis) less than a month after her father died at age 26 in Colorado. Robert had gone to Denver for health reasons, and died of consumption there.

“Cousin Roberta” was a beloved older cousin of Mary Theresa Helbling. Mary looked up to her beautiful cousin and wanted to be like her. Roberta would have been 25 when Mary was born, which surprised me as I always thought they were closer in age, maybe just 5-10 years difference.

Recently I received a note from a Find A Grave member requesting I change Roberta’s middle name to Pauline on her memorial, as that was what Roberta’s daughter-in-law thought the name was. The family bible owned by her aunt, Anna May Beerbower Helbling, lists Roberta’s middle name as ‘Pearl’ so I am using that name here, but it needs further research. The new collaboration is wonderful though, as this researcher was able to provide the above beautiful portrait, and more information about Roberta and her marriage and family that I did not know.

Following are some photographs that Mary Helbling McMurray thought would be Roberta, or that were labeled with her name, and some of my notes. Please let us know if you have additional information or corrections. May (age 4) or Viola Helbling (age 2), possibly with Cousin Roberta Beerbower, Helbling home in St. Louis, Missouri, 06 June 1915.

This is Roberta per Mary Helbling; Roberta would have been 15 in 1915 so this is likely correct. (Note ‘G.W. Helbling Undertaker’ sign in front of the Helbling home in St. Louis, Missouri.) Possibly Roberta Beerbower with her mother Josephine Reiffel Beerbower? October 1910 From left: Viola Helbling, Edgar Helbling, May Helbling, and possibly Roberta P. Beerbower? October 1910

The above two photos could be Roberta, as she would have been 10 in 1910. Not sure about the date though, as Edgar was born in 1908 so 1910 for the photo cannot be correct if that is him with his younger sisters in the image. Will need to review photo album again. Maybe the girl on the right is another cousin? Maybe these are not Helbling children, though they do look like Edgar, May, and Vi, and were identified as such by their youngest sister Mary (but she wasn’t there as she was not yet born). Roberta P. Beerbower with her cousin Edgar Helbling. August 1920

Edgar would have been 12 in 1920 and Roberta 20, plus these people were positively identified in photo album, so this identification should be accurate. Roberta P. Beerbower with her paternal uncle Edgar Springsteen Beerbower. August 1920.

This photo was a game changer when I realized the date and the identification of the man with Roberta. The man was “Ed” per the caption in the album. Mary Helbling did not know if the man was her uncle, Edgar Springsteen Beerbower (1876-1940) or her grandfather, Edgar Peter “E. P.” Beerbower (1849-1916), both with the same nickname. Looking at the dates though, and the age of the man, lets us know it must be Edgar S. Beerbower, since his father (E.P.) died in 1916 and had been born 71 years before the photo was taken. So now we can use this positive identification for other images of this man. (Sadly, though, it means we do not have a picture of Edgar Peter Beerbower.)

Roberta P. Beerbower with her paternal grandmother, Anna Missouri Springsteen. Summer 1927

The photo album belonged to Anna May Beerbower Helbling, and her mother lived with Anna and her family in her later years. Love how cute ‘flapper girl’ Roberta is! No wonder that Mary Helbling, born in 1925, looked up to her glamorous cousin. About 1930- May Helbling on left with her sister Mary Theresa Helbling in front. Unknown girl on right.

It was thought the girl on the right in the picture was Roberta P. Beerbower but the age is not right- Roberta would have been 30 when this photo was taken because of the approximate age of Mary. Maybe it is the same girl as above that we are not sure about? Robert Eldon Wertz, son of Roberta P. Beerbower and James I. Wertz. August 1935, age 3 yrs 1 mo.

Robert Eldon Wertz was born 30 July 1932 in Indiana to Roberta and James F. Wertz (1895-1979). He was their only son, and he had no children with his wife, Halina Ulrych. He is such a cutie with that smile!

A special thanks to Shelley for sharing what she has to help us extend our tree.

Please do let us know in the comment section if there are any correction or if you have more information about these folks.

➡ Beerbower Family, Helbling Family

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Family treasure chest of photos.

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Sentimental Sunday: Family Artifacts From the Moon???

Civil War Drum of Abram F. Springsteen.

No, we sadly don’t have any family artifacts from the moon, but Neil Armstrong’s family does. See the article here about the treasures his widow found stashed in a closet. (See also the Buzz Aldrin video- he is a national hero, now in more ways than one.)

Our more mundane family treasures may not have been to the moon, but they have been other places, perhaps a Civil War battlefield or used daily by our ancestors, which makes them priceless to us.

Above is the actual Civil War drum that belonged to Abram F. Springsteen (1850-1930), one of the youngest drummer boys in the Civil War. Our family, of course, told the story that he was THE youngest in the Civil War at age 12 on enlistment, but there were probably others who were that young as well. Mary Theresa Helbling McMurray, the granddaughter of Abram’s sister Anna Missouri Springsteen Beerbower (1854-1859), remembered going to Indianapolis, Indiana on the train for her grandmother’s funeral, and seeing his portrait in the museum. For many years we wondered what happened to his drum.

Thanks to the internet and Ancestry.com, we finally learned what happened. We got in touch with descendants of Abram’s son, Perry Harrison Springston (note change in spelling of surname), and they had the drum in their home! The drum had been passed on to the oldest son of each of the next generations.

The passing of the Abram F. Springsteen Drum from oldest son of a generation to oldest son of the next generation. (Click to enlarge.)

Sadly, this drum is not the one that Abram used throughout the war to give battle commands to the troops and spur them on through marching and fighting, as that was captured by the Confederates along with Abram. He did escape near the end of the war, but without his drum. It was replaced by his comrades, and throughout his life, Abram used that drum in Civil War Veteran parades. He would also walk along the boardwalk in Indianapolis, beating his drum on the anniversary of his enlistment. He was a lifelong activist in Veteran Affairs, and worked for the federal government’s War Department.

We were ‘over the moon’ (pun intended) to find the disposition of the drum, and more importantly, the cousins we had not known about! So even if your family treasures are not the Data Acquisition Camera that filmed the landing on Tranquility Base or the Waste Management Cover of the Eagle Lunar Module, they are worth documenting and preserving properly.

➡ Springsteen Family, Helbling Family

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Secret stash of moon artifacts found hidden in Neil Armstrong’s closet:http://sploid.gizmodo.com/- secret-stash-of-moon-artifacts-found-hidden-in-neil- arm-1684449533

2) Family photos of the Springsteen drum kindly shared by cousins and posted with permission without names.

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“Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day” and Mary Theresa Helbling McMurray Mary Theresa Helbling McMurray, August, 1981

➡ Helbling, McMurray Family

I just couldn’t let “Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day” go by because it made me think of Mary McMurray.

First of course, who even knew there was such a day??? Not that we shouldn’t appreciate bubble wrap- it gives lots of people jobs to make it and sell it, and to wrap everything that ever gets mailed or moved. It keeps so many things from breaking, so I will admit a certain admiration for the product and its inventors, Marc A. Chavannes and Al Fielding. Back in 1957 they had devised a three-dimensional wallpaper, but had problems selling it. A trip on a small, propeller airplane caused the light bulb to go on in the head of Chavannes, as it seemed the fluffy clouds were cushioning the bumpy flight. He knew then that their hip wallpaper would be better suited to cushioning products being shipped, and the bubble wrap industry, now manufactured in 52 countries, was begun.

The need for a tactile, satisfying pop of the bubbles was probably realized very soon after, maybe even moments after the first of the bubble wallpaper was produced. Who knew it would also generate crazy things like a wedding dress made of bubble wrap, cameos in movies, a calendar to pop a bubble a day (thankfully, it does have additional bubbles if the user cannot stop at just one), or an app so that folks can pop the virtual bubbles on their computer or mobile device if the real thing is not at hand? There is even a book dedicated to it: The Bubble Wrap Book.

Bubble Wrap. Wikimedia Commons, Photo: Rainer Knäpper, Free Art License (http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en/ )

Which leads us to “Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day”- how did that come about? Well, on the last Monday in January, in Bloomington, Indiana some years ago, a radio station received a shipment of new microphones. The broadcast button said “ON” but apparently the staff was unaware. Instead of the rustling sound of unwrapping the microphones, listeners heard the station staff forcefully popping bubbles. Apparently the noise was pretty loud, and of course unexpected; a new commemorative day was born.

While that sound is aggravating to people like me, and I regret the waste of resources because it will no longer function as it was designed, (yes, I am one of those tree- hugger environmentalists, and sometimes it can be recycled but probably is not), science has proven that the popping of bubble wrap can reduce stress and tiredness. (That last one is puzzling.) Bubble wrap can lead to aggression too, as the psychologist who did the study reported that she had seen professional people fight over who gets to pop the sheets of bubbles when a new package is opened. And then there is addiction- as Dr. Kathleen M. Dillon admitted about herself: “I have to pop all the bubbles.”

And that brings us to Mary McMurray- she would “… HAVE to pop ALL the bubbles.” It did reduce stress for her, and she really loved that popping sound and feel. One year I gave her a small gift in a box with a lot of bubble wrap- the wrap did not last as long as expected, but while there was still air in those plastic bubbles, she enjoyed it probably more than the other gift.

It’s always good to make someone happy. And if you can gracefully leave the room while all the bubbles are being popped, so much the better.

So go out and find yourself some bubble wrap to pop today- you will be in good company on “Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.” Although, apparently, that would be ANY day.

!POP!

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Barron, James. “Celebrating Half a Century of Loud, Soothing Pops. ” New York Times, Jan. 25, 2010. Website. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/celebrat ing-half-a-century-of-loud-soothing-pops/?_r=1

2) Green, Joey, and Tim Nyberg. The Bubble Wrap Book. Harper Perennial, 1998. Print. Quite a collaboration of intriguing uses for bubble wrap from authors who wrote about many uses for Spam (Green) and duct tape (Nyberg).

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Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material. Motivation Monday: Get It All Down Before It’s Too Late

Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling with her daughter, Mary Theresa Helbling, 1925.

“Get It All Down Before It’s Too Late”

These are words family historians hear all too frequently, but all too frequently, we do not have the time to make that happen. Somehow we have to balance researching the past with the stories we are creating with current generations. The fragmentation of families and distance from loved ones make it even more difficult, but with all our high-tech tools, there are many ways we can make it actually happen.

I recently read a great article by Clay Jenkinson in the Bismarck Tribune, 28 December 2014. He kindly gave me permission to quote from his article:

“Every life is important, every life has mystery and astonishing adventures.

Every relaxed person can speak forth whoppers that will lift you out of your chair. We take for granted their stories, sometimes regard them as tedious, but then they die and that unique voice is lost forever, and those amazing stories begin to lose their authenticity and take on the rounded curves of safe family narrative and myth.

We must get it all down before it’s too late.”

The entire article may be found here. It is well written and a worthwhile read.

“Tedious“- an excellent word in this context. I think of the stories I found “tedious” as a child, and so wish I had listened better, or asked the family elders to write down those memories- they do not seem so tedious today. Today, I scour the internet and ask family questions trying to learn those tedious stories, but seldom am successful. I am, though, thankful for all that I did get down on videotape or paper, especially those names on the backs of photographs.

Mary Theresa Helbling, my first storyteller, captivated me with stories of her dear mother, Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling, and grandmother, Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower, who lived with them. One year we visited in June, but it had to be a quick visit. Mary was happy and healthy at age 80 (and didn’t seem that old at all), so we laid out plans to go through photo albums and family treasures and record memories when we returned in August. By the time we got there just two months later, however, the insidious tentacles of Alzheimers had strangled those memories, and they were lost forever.

I always expect too much in my New Year’s resolutions, so this year I am going to make two simple ones:

1) Talk more with the oldest members of the family, and get their stories recorded in some technology.

2) Convert the videotapes and audio recordings I have to today’s technology, so they won’t be lost forever.

I guess these are not that simple and will be time-consuming, but definitely worth the effort. And I did not set specific goals or use the overwhelming word “all,” so maybe these will get done.

I realized too that my own story is not really down on paper, and now I am one of the older generation. (That is SO hard to write! I still feel 30-something in my heart.) I do have some journals I have kept for our son of his growing up years, plus some from one college semester when we were required to keep a journal in English 101, but that is just a small fraction of my life. We do get the “so-tedious—you’ve-told-me-that-before” eye-roll when we tell stories to our son, but maybe I’ll put them down anyway, in case he is ever interested, or those grandchildren we hope to have eventually.

After all, every life is important.

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Photo from Helbling family photo album.

2) Family history: Get it all down before it’s too late- http://bismarcktribune.com/news/columnists/clay-jenkinson/fam ily-history-get-it-all-down-before-it-s- too/article_8a54f302-8b96-11e4-90b1-dbbf4b6e92ed.html

3) Clay Jenkinson seems like a very interesting person- check out his Amazon.com page (actually, sign up & use smile.amazon.com to have Amazon donate a portion of your purchases to a favorite charity): http://smile.amazon.com/Clay-Jenkinson/e/B001K7OX96/ ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

I love how he brings the humanities to (what some would call dry) history, and will be ordering a number of his books. (No financial interest, just excited about finding his work, especially since I am a Lewis & Clark groupie.)

4) P.S. I apologize, Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunts and Uncles, for those teenage eye-rolls. I really do regret them now- you were right.

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Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for anycommercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.

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