One more of our ancestors who got caught up in the Salem Witch Trials. Samuel Wardwell married our 6th great grand aunt, Sarah Elizabeth Hooper. They were both accused of witchcraft in 1692 and held in jail while their young children were left to fend for themselves at home. Wardwell was convicted and executed with 7 other people on September 22, 1692. Sarah was later released and sent home. Click on his picture below for the story of him and his family.
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My mother, Evelyn Faith Jones Easton, would be 100 years old today. To mark the occasion, I thought I would offer a portrait of her life.
Edward and Sarah Jones were married April 10, 1920, in Cleveland, OH. The family moved to Wickliffe, OH, for a few years before settling in a succession of different rented houses on 40th Street in Cleveland. Her maternal grandmother, Jennie Dunn Brooks, lived with them and she and her granddaughter Evie were very close. Nine more children were born between 1921 and 1938. They all attended Sunday School at the nearby Old North Church. Her father was a machinist in a factory. Mom quit school in 10th grade to help her mother with the house and the younger children. Her height topped out at 4’11”, even though she told everyone she was 5”. Mom had a couple of different jobs before her marriage. She was a sales clerk for Fanny Farmer candy store on the corner of Public Square in downtown Cleveland and had to learn the to tell the flavor of each piece of candy by the markings on the top without looking at the signs. She also worked as a nurse’s aide at St. Vincent Charity Hospital where she met her best friend Theresa Radovic, who worked in housekeeping. Old photos that we have acquired in the last few years show that she was quite stylish in her younger years with hats and nail polish that we don’t remember her wearing. One night, she went to the movies with Theresa and met John Crawford Easton (“Bud”). He approached her and asked for a date. They married on June 14, 1942, two months before her 21st birthday. Dad enlisted in the Navy on April 15, 1943, and their first child, Gale Evson, arrived on July 16. The story Mom told many times was that when the ambulance arrived to take her to the hospital as she went into labor, the EMT told her to watch her head getting in. She said, “I don’t care about my head. I just want to have this baby!” Dad had given her a $100 bill for the hospital bill and she came home with change. She lived with her parents when Gale was a baby and Dad was in the service. At one point, she worked in a factory making cardboard boxes. One of the products they made were promotional cardboard Santa Claus boards 5 feet tall. The employees were each given one to take home. That Santa stood next to our Christmas tree every year, even as it was falling apart and needed tape to keep it standing. Many Saturday afternoons were spent catching two buses from our house into Cleveland to visit our grandparents or one of her sisters who might be hosting a birthday party or a baby shower. How she loved the 1986 reunion with almost all her siblings there! And how she would have loved the 2017 and 2018 reunions at Donna Goins’ house to know the tradition had been continued! Two daughters followed Gale: Bonnie Marina on July 25, 1948, and Holly Belinda on September 28, 1956. After Dad’s death in 1975, she discovered her love for bus trips. We went to New England in the fall, Washington, DC, for cherry blossoms, Eastern Canadian cities, Atlanta, New York City, Chicago, and Virginia to see Williamsburg and Monticello. We finally coaxed her on an airplane for trips to Hawaii, to California with side trips to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, and to her last trip before her illness to Dallas to visit Holly. Scenic car rides on the weekends always ended with a stop for a hot fudge sundae. The last 3 years of her life had her confined to a wheelchair due to several major strokes that took away her ability to walk and much of her voice. She died of renal failure on September 23, 1990. Holly and I were reminiscing this morning. These are some of our memories. Her potato salad and her ball cookies. We still make them today. She said she never drank or smoked, so an occasional Pepsi was her only vice, Christmas was always special with all our family traditions, like pumpkin and a mince pies, turkey and stuffing, hundreds of cookies that we counted as we put on the cookie sheets and then ate any broken ones out of the oven, stockings, and a Christmas trees with colored lights. Her love for the color red was legendary—red roses, red plaids, red clothes. Holly bought her a tube of red lipstick every Christmas. When she visited someone’s house, she came with a treat in hand, like chocolate chip cookies, a favorite candy, or Fanny Farmer suckers for the little kids. I learned how to bake from her—cookies, cakes, or pies, Particular favorites were banana cream, cherry, peach, and apple. She loved her soap operas, starting with Search for Tomorrow and Guiding Light in the 1950s to General Hospital and Days of Our Lives, Watching her soaps was her lunch break and don’t bother her when they were on. Falcon Crest in the evening was another favorite. Her favorite music was the old big band sound of Glenn Miller, the Andrew Sisters, the Mills Brothers, and Lawrence Welk. Her favorite songs were Ramblin’ Rose by Nat King Cole and He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands by Mahalia Jackson. She loved writing letters in her beautiful handwriting. A lucky niece or nephew might get a birthday care with a $1 bill in it. She got her hair permed every few months. Some were done with a visit to her sister Betty’s house in Mentor. Mom never left the house without applying powder and her red lipstick and putting on her watch and her wedding and engagement rings. She loved old movies and old musicals. We took her to theaters for musicals on stage occasionally. We spent Sunday afternoons at Summer Stock productions in Akron Most importantly, we remembered her unconditional love and her devotion to her parents, her brothers and sisters, Aunt Bess, and her own family. Lady Margaret Plantagenet & her FamilyYikes! Being a member of the royal family can be dangerous to your health.
Margaret , our first cousin 15X removed and a niece of 14X our great grandfather King Edward IV, was the daughter of Edward’s brother George, Duke of Clarence. George resented his big brother’s position and ended up being executed as a traitor. Margaret and her younger brother were shuffled from one relative to another until her marriage. Her little brother was, like his father before him, also executed as a traitor. Glad we didn’t live back then? Life was politics. Read Parts I and II below in the articles below to discover Margaret’s fate. Spoiler alert: it’s a family curse. So every time I think I have found everyone of interest in this family tree, another pops up. This week, I found Sir George Bruce of Carnock (1550-1625), our 12th great grandfather in the Shaw line. Born in Fife, Scotland, he developed new techniques in coal mining drainage and automated loading of the coal onto ships. The mine even earned him a visit by King James VI in 1617. He was also a merchant in addition to being an engineer.
He and his wife, Margaret Primrose, had five sons and three daughters. Our line runs through his daughter, Dame Nicolas Bruce of Carnock. Oh, and just in case you thought we already have enough royalty in the family, Sir George is a descendant of King Robert I of Scotland (known popularly as Robert the Bruce) (1274-1329) who reigned from 1306-1329. Click on the picture for his story, |
Bonnie EastonHi! I am a Jones cousin, daughter of Evelyn Jones Easton. Since retiring as a reference librarian after 20 years, I have become a genealogy addict. Our ancestors want to tell us their stories.
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