Got Wilmotts?

I think I've got another bunch here.

I recognize Harry (back row, 4th from left) but the rest of them... I dunno.

Curiouser and curiouser

Yesterday I posted a photo of "Margaret & Charlie".

Last evening I heard from Aunt Eleanor who said she didn't know them. Fair enough. I thought some photos from my mother's side of the family had gotten mixed in.

Then this evening I found this photo of Eleanor, Margaret & Charlie.

Could be that these two are, indeed, members of my mother's family (Jordan) and this was merely a brief and forgotten moment in time.

Margaret & Charlie... ?

I have no idea who Margaret is and Charlie, this doesn't look like "Babe". Are they Wilmotts or Whitesels?

Sorry I can't find a reference for "Whitesel" so I don't know how to spell it.

I seem to be rather short on Beyer photos. I'm missing people several people, like Lucy and Gladys. For all the family legends regarding "Aunt Gladys" I should have, at least, a few pictures of her. But I'll keep looking.

In addition, I'm missing "Babe's" dod. My dad died in 1985 and his brother was only a few years later. 1988? I believe I had just moved to Pennsylvania and the news was a bit slow getting here.

Anyone?

Timeline: Angus A. Beyer

The photo above has a caption which I cannot improve upon.

It merely says, "This suit fits pretty quick".

Is he proud of this bike, or what?

Here's himself delivering the mail on Broad and Lafayette Sts. in Newark, NJ.

Me and my Grandfather.

From this moment on, he was always telling me something he thought I should know.

Today's mystery pictures are of...

well, I don't know who they are.

The child in the picture above appears in another photo which says, "Vivian" on the back.

I'm really at a loss on this one.
It must be a Beyer or a Wilmott since it came from the same box as all the previous pix.


These two ladies, if I had to guess, are Wilmotts.
The boys, of course, we know are "Bill" and "Babe".
Notice that "Babe" is once again at "Bill's" left side.
I know I've posted a lot of pictures in the last few days but I wanted to get a little ahead since I'm going to be quite busy for the next several days.

"Life is what happens when you'd rather be doing other stuff"

I wonder where these were taken?

I sure hope I'm not flooding anyone's inbox today but I found some interesting shots and I have some time today so...



What a nice photo of Lillian! Could this have been on Staten Island? I guess the meadows around Elizabeth and Newark, NJ looked like this back then too.
Does anyone know the name of the dog? He/she shows up in a lot of the photos from this era.

Here's my granny with my dad and Uncle Babe.

It looks like the same place and the same day.

Did Babe ALWAYS stand on Bill's left? You'll see why I ask this in future posts.

Here's granny and Aunt Eleanor during one of those rare New Jersey earthquakes.

It's amazing to me that this photo survives.

Lil & the boys.

I've just heard from Joe Castoral who was interested in Angus Jr's wife & children.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of everyone together. Does anyone have a shot of JUST the children, say... pre 1950?

I do have, however, this pretty nice shot of,

(far right) Lillian

(middle) Leslie "Bill"

(left) Charles "Babe"

I get the feeling Uncle Babe didn't like those shoes much.

Babe & Charles

or Charles & Babe... either way.

I've been in touch with my cousin Charles (the little one in this photo) and we've exchanged some interesting email. During the course of conversation I mentioned this picture so here it is.

Charlie, maybe this was taken in Metuchen. I'm quite sure you weren't yet 2 years old.

Wilmott quiz.

Meet the Wilmotts.

At least I think they're all Wilmotts.

There's no question in my mind, that little girl in the front row with that big ribbon in her hair is Lillian.

Can anyone identify some, if not all, of them?

I cropped this picture, cutting out some of the details of the porch they are on.

If anyone wants to see the larger picture just let me know.

It must have been...

summer when this was taken.

Only "1942" is written on the back of this.

I can't positively identify who is in the middle of Claire & Eleanor.

This looks like it was taken at a "campground" or something.

Remember the "Tourist Cabins" that used to be out on Rt. 9 in Bayville? You could see them from the back yard of granny's house. They tore them down to build the school, I think. Anyway, it looks like that kind of setting.

Now that we know...

Now that we know all the pertinent information about Susan, here's another one that's a mystery to me... though I do have a guess.
First, on the right, we have Lillian who, apparently, had tried a new shampoo that day. It sure made her hair look... different.
The lady on the left. Gosh, she looks about 30 years older than Lil but I have a feeling the age difference isn't that great.
Is this Gladys? (Angus Jr's sister)
You know, I only met her once, at my father's funeral, but she made an impression on me. This kinda looks like her.

Updates & Corrections 7/15/09

I spent over an hour on the phone with Claire on Monday evening. She had some good, first hand, information to relate regarding two earlier posts. First the post on the right. The lady on the right is "the step mother" whos name is vaguely remembered to be Helena, or something similar to that.
As for the rest of the people, yes, I had them correct but I was incorrect about the location. I thought it was Westfield. Nope. Turns out to be Cranford, NJ.. Well, I was still right about the houses. That whole part of the state has those "Dutch Colonial/Craftsman Era" style homes.


Now, for the lady below. She is Susan Archer-Beyer-Barry. Born 1867 - Died 1948 @ 81 and is, indeed, the mother of Angus Jr.. So, it would seem, her entry in the Castoral family tree is incorrect. Thank you Claire!



Now, this I never knew. Claire told me that our Angus's (is that the plural of Angus?) are actually Adolfus Angus Beyer, not Angus Adolfus Beyer as I always thought. Who knew? Well, he always called himself Angus so, I'll keep writing it the way he apparently wanted.

That's all the new information I have for now. Please keep me advised of anything that comes to mind about this.
I have everyone on the email list so you don't have to log onto the Blog all the time. So, you can either send me an email or go on the blog, click "post a comment" and tell everyone what you have found.

Claire & Grandfather Wilmott

This one's easy, it's identified.

H. Wilmott.

You see that several people were working out how old he was... or something. I guess there was a shortage of scrap paper at the time.

Where was this taken? By the bungalow? It appears to be near salt water, judging by the vegetation.

This is the spelling of Wilmott I see most often, but I've often seen it spelled with two L's. I think one L is correct.

Ridin' the rods.

My grandfather was a hobo?

Just kidding. This picture is the mate to Angus on the signal pole.

Many years ago, before my time, railroad box cars had these iron rods underneath. I don't know their real purpose but hobos would ride these rods just as Angus is doing here. Of course, this train isn't moving. What a terrifying prospect... fall asleep for a few seconds, lose your grip and it's all over.

I couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 when grandpa would take me for a walk up Sayre street, then up (I think it was) Cherry Street. We'd cross Westfield Ave. and right there a railroad ran parallel to Westfield Ave.. We'd stand on the Cherry St. bridge and watch the trains go underneath. I think that must have been the Central Railroad on NJ.

How perfectly I recall the smoke billowing up around the bridge when a steam locomotive would pass under the bridge. These had to be oil burning locomotives and I say that because of the unique smell of the smoke. I had forgotten all about the smell of that smoke till I moved to Pennsylvania and into a house with oil heat. Every once in awhile, when the burner starts up, I get a whiff of that same odor... and I think of my grandfather.

Sittin' on the beach.

There's no label on the back of this pic.

I've looked at it for a long time and just can't positively identify this child but it could be one of the Beyer girls.

What really caught my attention was the guy in the suit. I'm thinking, "who wears a suit & tie to the beach?" when I noticed there's ANOTHER guy in a suit behind him and a little to the right. Did everyone get dressed up to sit on the beach in those days or was this just a terribly exclusive beach? Wow, the local dry cleaners must have been raking in the dough.

Email Posts

I bet you think I'm an expert at blogging. Well, I have, almost, three weeks of experience so, you see, I'm learning too.
I've learned that, in order to fully participate in my blog, people need to have a Google (or gmail) account. Yeah, it's free and has not generated any appreciable spam in the year that I've had my account but, I understand that people are hesitant to sign up for stuff like that.
For the last two days I've been looking for a workaround and I think I've found it. I can send the posts to you via email if you wish. (This post is going to Aunt El and Ed in that manner) Let me know how this works out for you. Easier? Harder?
I'm not sure how/if you can post comments but, at least, you can reply to the emails and I can then post the information you report to me.
You'll get one more post from me today which will contain a picture. The picture may take a few moments to download on to your screen so don't think you've done something wrong.
I'm trying to make this a bit easier for everyone.
Les

Ed & Claire 1945

That's not the Ed you thought, is it?
The text on the back of the photo reads;
"1945
Eddie & Claire
(unreadable)
at (unreadable)
Me(unreadable)
bungalow."
This is my cousin Ed Rehm, son of my mother's sister Alice. He died about 6-8 years ago, in California.

Angus the signal man.

I can just imagine what he'd say if any relative of his tried this. Look close, it's him alright. The photo above is an enlargement of the one below. It's apparent that this picture was cut down from a larger size. I wonder what else was in the shot.

Just a darn minute here!

This doesn't add up.
The picture below is said to be Susan Beyer. According to the Castoral site, Susan was born 1871 and died 1908 at 37 years of age. Clearly the lady in the picture is over... 40 years old.
So now what? Did some family member mislable the photo, and that is not Susan or does the Castoral site have her birth and/or death date wrong?

Susan, I found you.

The hand written note on the back of this photo reads,

Angus & Glady's mother

Susan Archer-Beyer

Barry

The word "Barry" is written directly under "Archer" so I'm a bit confused about it's meaning. Was it "Susan Archer-Beyer-Barry" or was the author of the text named "Barry". I am also aware that we have relatives with the surname "Barry". Is Susan a connection between both the Barrys & Beyers? Wow... this kind of gives me a headache.
Note: I've spelled "Glady's" exactly as it's spelled on the back of the photo. I only met "aunt" Gladys at my father's funeral but I can't imagine she would tolerate being called "Glady".
Anyway... this would be my great-grandmother.
Somehow this picture doesn't look like it was taken prior to 1907, the year Susan was supposed to have died but, I have no evidence that she lived beyond that year.

Some I do, some I don't.

I believe the child on the left is my father (Leslie W.) and the child on the right is my uncle (Charles/Babe). I have no idea who the child in the middle might be. So, who is on the porch? Well, I guess it's not Susan (Leslie & Charles' grandmother). I rechecked the Castoral site and Susan died in 1908. Since my father was born after that year, I'm wondering if that is Lillian on the porch. It doesn't really look like her but it was a very long time ago so... maybe.

I'm very sure of who 3/4 of these people are. Right to Left is my grandfather, Angus (Jr.), then my aunts Eleanor and Claire. On the far left, I'll assume, that must be Angus (Sr.). I recall that he lived in Westfield, NJ and that sure looks like Westfield to me.

Going Left to Right this time, Angus (Sr.), Eleanor, Claire and... who is the lady on the right? I'll need some help from the girls in this picture.

Castoral/Hanson Family Tree

It was raining this morning here in Pennsylvania. I have a lot of work to do but most of it has to be done outdoors. So I spent a good part of the morning on the internet. It's amazing what you can find when you really start looking for something. Even though the sun is out now, I'm so excited, I've got to write this all down.
I tried many Beyer names (Angus, Charles, Lillian, Gladys, Leslie) on several different search engines and finally (a dark horse) "Bing" turned up this link for "Angus Beyer". http://familytrees.genopro.com/Castoral/
Well, I thought, there's some mistake. I don't know anyone by that name but I decided to poke around. I scrolled down a list of names that are related to the Castoral and/or Hanson family and, don't-you-know, there was BEYER. O-kay... I clicked on that and found everyone I was looking for up to my grandfather's generation (Angus A. Beyer Jr.).
Of course, his father was Angus A. Beyer, yes, I knew that but I don't know if I have a picture of him. His mother's name was Susan... did I know that? If I did I'd forgotten. I have several pictures of someone who might be Susan and I'll post them shortly.
Here's where my understanding of the Beyer family stopped... but I've learned more.
Angus Jr's grandfather was Charles Beyer (apparently no middle initial) born 1834 in Prussia. PRUSSIA? How did we, as a family, not know THAT? Of all the disjointed stories that grandpop told me, railroads, sailboats, the art of compost piles, NEVER did he mention Prussia or any word of his grandfather. How sad... maybe he didn't know him, there is no date of death listed for him.
I'm going to hunt up the pictures and I'll post them here when I can. If I figure out exactly who is in the photos, I may send them to the Castoral family as well... if they're interested.

Untied ties.

The ties that held this branch of the Beyer family became untied some time ago. I know a few of the reasons for this but, can I be the only grandchild of Lillian and Angus who wonder about the great-grandparents and further back? Am I the only one with copies of these pictures?

I'll start with this picture of Lillian sitting on the steps of a house with a little dog. Where was this house? Did she live there? Could this be the legendary house on "Reid" or "Reed" street that was the setting for so many family stories?

I'll leave this as is for now. I need to learn a bit more about how this blog thing works but I have many more pictures and questions... if anyone is out there.