Nuts From the Family Tree: Sentimental Sunday: Happy 95th Birthday to Mom!!

Happy 95th Birthday!

Virginia Williams Kelly on her 21st birthday!

My Mom turns 95 years young July 29th! She's happy and healthy, thank goodness, and enjoying life. She follows this blog so here's another birthday wish to her!

Mom was born just at the close of WWI. She was born in July and the war ended in November of that year. Her family all lived in the little mountain town of Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland, and that war must have seemed far, far away, but not so far as to reach out and touch her family and town. One uncle suffered from the aftermath of nerve gas. The coal mining industry that employed almost every man in the area took a hit as coal prices fell when war time demand lessened. Yet it was a very happy childhood, as Mom tells it. No one had much but they all pretty much had the same. We were poor but everyone was poor, so we shared, she often says.

Mom as a baby with her parents,

Cambria Williams (1897 - 1960) and Emma Whetstone Williams (1897 - 1956).

Mom, right sporting a big hair bow and blond hair, with her sister Dorothy Williams Conrad.

Mom and Dad both graduated from the same high school but he was two years ahead of her. It was the last years of the Great Depression but work was to be had in local factories. They worked hard, saved, and secretly married. Each lived at home and more money was saved. But you know how small towns are: soon everyone guessed! An apartment was found and family life began in earnest.

Mom and Dad, an attractive couple.

Mom. Always did love a nice hat. Still does!

Mom at Dad's new office, early 1960s, Ohio.

Kids came along, we all moved to Ohio for better work opportunities. The kids, three of us, all grew, enjoyed college educations, found mates, and lived happily ever after. The doctor (PHD/ JD sister), the lawyer (JD brother) and myself.

Mom got interested in genealogy in the 1970s. Of course as you know, that was before computers. I look at her stacks of family group sheets and all the rest and am glad I waited to jump in until the convenience of the laptop! Mom is as sharp as a tack and remembers stuff I marvel at daily. Genealogy keeps her young, she says. She spent many years hiking over graveyards, climbing stairs in court houses and archives, walking to index remote cemeteries. If she finds anyone over 80 who is not on the internet, she gives them a good scolding!

Mom in the 1980s at the National Library of Wales.

Mom's most recent project is writing up stories of her life. It's an ongoing project and will take a while. First, she is transcribing her handwritten notes from a bunch of those old steno books. (Remember those?) She has always liked writing and this will be another fun project for us! I'll add photos to her writing and get it printed.

Mom: I want to be her when I grow up!!