Kazoo's Gianunzio Pens WWII Memoir

Anthony Gianunzio, longtime composition and creative writing teacher in the Portage high schools (and occasionally at KVCC), has just published a book describing his experiences in World War II. That said, it is more than simply a WWII story. Tony often had the 8 pm to midnight watch on the fantail of the Coast Guard's USS Machias. During those still, peaceful hours when one is already prone to daydreaming it is easy to see how a thoughtful, young man could wax philosophic about his place in the universe. After all, the Pacific is a big place and Japanese ships and subs couldn't be everywhere. Mesmerized by the ship's wake and with endless stars for a canopy, how could one not think big thoughts?

The Last Romantic War is a series of these reminiscences. Just as Tony would sit on the depth charge rack with his thoughts drifting home the book weaves his time on the Machias with his impressions of growing up in America as the son of Italian immigrants. One moment he is in his hometown of Iron Mountain, Michigan hoping to play big league baseball, the next he is escorting troop ships to the south Pacific.

The Last Romantic War: A Blind Date With History follows Tony as he and his shipmates transform from idealistic boys (some more so than others) into men.

Warning: shameless plug ahead. If you're interested in reading Tony's book you can purchase it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Can You Can?

I canned some garlic dill pickle slices today and I couldn't help thinking that some of my female ancestors likely did the same. Many of “my people” lived on farms so I think it's not too much of a stretch to suspect they preserved some of their harvests once home canning techniques were developed.

I know for sure that at least one relative did some canning because it actually turned up in her divorce papers. Cora (Taylor) Saward Arnold Shellfish and her soon-to-be ex-husband were slinging accusations at one another in the divorce papers. He described some items that Cora took with her. She admitted that, among other things, she took “a small quantity of canned fruit which [she] had done up herself and which she thought she was justly entitled to.” [1]

You might find it kind of odd that canning products earned a mention in a divorce proceeding, but if you've ever done any canning you how much time and effort it takes.

1. Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Circuit Court in Chancery, divorce case no. 614, docket 17 (1919), Cora B. Arnold vs. Frank Arnold, Testimony of Cora Arnold (answer to the crossbill, p. 2), filed 2 Jun 1919, Circuit Clerk's Office, Kalamazoo.

Ancestor Collector

I've come to think of myself as an ancestor collector. This is not to be confused with the disdained name collector whose goal is to add as many names as possible to his/her family tree program. I imagine people like that troll online trees to find more people to add into their genealogy software. They may even congratulate themselves on a high tally. 

A few of the people I have collected, or at least, I would if I could identify them.

Then there are the people who claim they can trace their lineage back to Charlemagne or King So-And-So, almost always through an illegitimate child. I don't know how anyone could even begin to connect the dots on a story like that let alone try to prove it. From a tree I found online it's possible that one of my lines might lead back to the Mayflower, but I have never taken the time to seriously investigate the lineage. About all I ever did was to see if I could find any men who fought in the Revolutionary War (when Fold3 had some of these records free for a limited time).

I guess there are two reasons for this why I haven't spent more time trying to confirm this line. One is that if I didn't find the connection it's just not as much fun to trace because the mystery is gone. Second, I have much more fun looking into relatives nearer to me in time and for whom I have found more records (like newspapers, court records and Civil War pension files). A string of names is simply not very interesting to me. I want to know what made my people tick. Why did they move from New York to Michigan? Why did she marry five times? How did he feel when his business failed? With the documents I have access to it is easier to piece this together for my southwest Michigan people than it would be for long-dead New Englanders. Besides, those New Englanders aren't going anywhere. Someday I can seek out their stories too.

Speaking of stories, I don't know about other genealogists, but after I add people to my tree and start to think about their lives I begin to feel protective of them. They become “my people.” Not in the “MINE” sense like a toddler is possessive of a prized toy, and whose goal is to keep it to himself. Rather, I feel like once I bring people into the fold that it is my job to care for them. I would even go so far as to say that in some cases I feel almost obligated to tell their stories. After all, there may be no one else who will.

Colorizing Old Photos

Do you ever look at old B&W or sepia photos and feel like something is missing?  Do you wonder if your family would be able to better relate to the people in those photos if they were magically in color?  Well, I decided to try my hand at colorizing an old photo to see how it would look and how difficult the process was.  Here is the photo I started with.

Since I didn't want to pay for a fancy photo editing program I used the free program GIMP and found a helpful video tutorial to walk me through the process.  Here is what the photo looked like after I manipulated it.

I know it doesn't look perfect; the eyes, for example, look unnatural, but for a first attempt I don't think it looks terrible.  Perhaps, this was a poor image to begin with because there was not much contrast in the facial features, making it difficult to tell where the lips and eyes met the surrounding skin.  That said, I think this technique has the potential to refresh some of those old photos and bring them to life in a way. 

The process really wasn't that difficult, but it was time-consuming and repetitive.  However, if you just don't feel like thinking and yet you still want to accomplish something this might be just the task to fill the bill. 

Here are the basic steps I followed, though I'm sure there are many ways to achieve the same result.

1. Make a copy of the photo you want to colorize. Don't even think about using your original!
   
2. To make sure you can color your copy go to Image → Mode and select RGB.
   
3. In the middle of the Toolbox window, click on the set of boxes (one black, one white) to select the color you want to begin with. When you choose a color keep in mind that it won't look exactly like that when applied to your photograph. The program takes into account the pigment density (for lack of a better descriptor) in the area you are coloring. For example in my photograph, the folds of the dress have a higher pigment density and thus look darker blue.
   
4. Now go to Layer → New Layer. Name your layer, such as “skin” and make sure that you select “Foreground Color” before you click OK. Don't be alarmed when your photo is completely obscured by the color.
   
5. In the Layers box (if it didn't pop up, go to Windows → Dockable Dialogs → Layers and then pull the window off to the side so you can see the screen with your photo as well) right click on your new layer and select Add Layer Mask from the drop-down menu. When the dialog box comes up select “Black, full transparency.”
   
6. At the top of the Layers dialog box where it says Mode, click on it and select “Overlay” from the drop down menu.
   
7. In the Toolbox window select the pink eraser tool. Now you are ready to color. At the bottom of the screen with your photograph zoom in to 200%-800% so you can easily see what you want to color. Move your cursor over onto the image and you will see a dotted circle or something like it. That is the size of your eraser. On the Toolbox window there is a Scale slider you can use to increase or decrease the size of your eraser to suit the area you are coloring. I like to start with a larger tool to do the large areas of the same color and then decrease the tool size to go back and do the edges and any nooks or crannies. To color in the area selected by the circle click the left mouse button. Keep the left mouse button down and move your cursor around to color your selected section. Save frequently so if you make a mistake you can go to Edit → Undo and you won't lose a lot of your work.
   
8. Lather, rinse and repeat. Go back to step 3 to select your next color and so on until you have colored everything you want to.
   
9. When you are completely done, you will need to combine all of the layers so you can save it as a jpg to share with your family. To do this go to Image → Flatten Image. Now you can Save As and choose the file type (.jpg).
   

A few last notes on coloring images, based on my admittedly limited experience: Be careful at the edges where one color will meet another. If the colors overlap you will see a combination of the two and it will draw your eye to the boundary and look unnatural. You may want to start with something simple like the floor or the wall to practice using the eraser. I was excited and wanted to begin with the face first when I wasn't used to the tools and so I discovered the effects of unintentionally overlapping colors. When working in little areas zoom to the maximum size and use a smaller eraser so you have more control.

Good luck if you decide to try this out.  Remember to start with a very simple photo like the one I chose.  Believe me, you do not want to try this out on a photo with lots of details.  Then amaze your family with the results.

Just for the record, this photo is of Mary Jo Townsend who lived with my family (the Clemens) in Island Creek, Steubenville, Jefferson Co, Ohio in 1860. The photo was in the Flynn family bible belonging to my gg-grandfather, Edward Flynn and his wife, Sarah Clemens. The photo was taken in Steubenville, OH.

Estate Sale Photo Update

Back in April I described how I think I found a photo of a relative down here in Tennessee. (See: Is Estate Sale Photo A Relative?) I was telling my dad the story when he noticed one more detail in common between my estate sale find and the photo I already had of Fred Allion. The top button on the coat is different than the other button(s). While I'm sure people could argue over whether the deep-set eyes, mustache and nose look the same, the button difference is one objective point of comparison. While it is possible that having a different top button was a trend in the mid-1890s I suspect that wasn't the case. However, if anyone has evidence to the contrary, I would appreciate hearing about it.

The photo I found in Tennessee.

The photo I already had.

In an effort to identify any connection between the previous owners of the photo and myself I contacted the people who conducted the estate sale. The woman confirmed that the photo did come from the estate and that the family didn't know who any of the people in the photos at the sale were. I asked her if she would inform the family that I thought the photo was one of my people and that if they were interested we could try to identify the link. It has been a couple of months now and I have heard nothing. Consequently, I can only assume they don't want to pursue it or the estate sale people didn't pass along the information.

So, I did a bit of reverse genealogy to see if I could find anything that way. Using the address of the house as my starting point I was able to determine the names of the residents as they turned up on several people finder sites. Because ages were often included I guessed at their relationships to each other. I then looked for an obituary for the oldest male in the house who had an unusual first name. I found it and it confirmed the presumed relationships. Surprisingly, a 101-year-old woman was also living in the household (how current this age was I didn't know). I hypothesized that this was the elderly man's mother. A search in the 1940 census with both their names pulled them up in Nashville along with the sister mentioned in the obituary. So, armed with the names of both parents, I found a marriage license and a maiden name, though sadly no parents' names. Unfortunately, a quick search of census records failed to identify either of them in census records prior to their marriage. For one there were several possible families and for the other there were almost none to choose from. Clearly, tracking down a family connection will take more work, but at least I have enough information to start if I can ever find the time. Right now I have bigger genealogical fish to fry.

Three Rivers' Riverside Cemetery Map

Just today I received a map of the Three Rivers Riverside Cemetery so I thought I would share.  Before visiting Michigan last year I searched online for a map of the cemetery, but failed to find one.  I hope this helps someone else.  With about 10,000 burials, according to the city of Three Rivers website, finding a grave marker would be nearly impossible without knowing at least the section number.  If you plan to go this summer be aware that the signs indicating the cemetery sections are not currently in place.  They are being replaced and should be back up by the fall.

It's Swimsuit Season

In honor of summer I am posting some swimsuit photos from my collection. 

Based on other photos in this collection it may be from the 1930s, but I'm not sure.

Possibly circa 1910-1920.

From the mid-to late 1930s.

Unknown.