Tag: almy

52 Ancestors Week 7: Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day to those of you who celebrate 🙂

The topic for this week is very fitting for some lovely treasures I inherited after my grandfather passed away: his mother’s school Valentine’s! I love vintage Valentine’s and absolutely adore that she kept these cards all of her life! I swear, that woman knew that one day someone like me would come along and want them.

Here are my great-grandmother’s Valentine’s Day cards from the 1910’s. Enjoy your day!

Fearless Females: Prompt 3

The Fearless Female prompts were created and posted at The Accidental Genealogist

I’m a bit late to the game for this but figured I’d post a few this month anyway!

The first two prompts ask about a favorite female ancestor and for a picture of a female ancestor. I’ve discussed my favorite female ancestor, Lillie McLeod a bit before, and shared a possible picture of her so I figured I’d skip those two.

The third prompt asks: Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.

My first name, Nichelle, is a bit unique but doesn’t come from any ancestors in my tree. Although I love to say it came from my mom’s love of Star Trek, that’s not true. She just had a friend who had a daughter with it as a middle name and loved it. I didn’t actually like having a unique name growing up (no personalized key chains/mugs/pencils/etc. for me) but now I love it, even though my name always requires a bit of an explanation.

It’s Nichelle, just like Michelle, but with an N like Nicole

Interestingly, with my unique first name, my middle name is NOT unique. I would bet many women have it – Marie. So where did it come from?

Erma Marie Almy's graduation picture

Erma Marie Almy’s graduation picture

My beautiful great-grandmother! Erma Marie (Almy) Witherell.

Before getting married, I had debated a few things with my name:

  • Doing the traditional thing and taking my husband’s name
  • Keeping my maiden name
  • Putting my maiden name as my middle name, dropping Marie

As a genealogist, my maiden name means quite a bit to me. I have a history with that name after all, so losing it to have my husband’s name was something I had to think about. I had considered keeping it as my middle name but that meant losing Marie unless I wanted an incredibly long name (I didn’t). Again, as a genealogist, I also knew where that name came from.

Considering all I knew about my great-grandmother, I decided to go the traditional route and simply take my husband’s name. My great-grandmother was quite a woman and I wanted to keep my middle-name in memory of some of the fascinating things I knew about her: her love of motorcycles, her love of travel, her incredible fashion sense, and her love of her family.

I don’t regret doing that in the least 🙂

Wordless Wednesday: A Last Picture

005 Last Picture of M. Almy 1919

My great-grandmother, Erma, wrote on this picture. From left to right: Nancy (Abby) Almy (Erma’s grandmother), Arthur Almy (Erma’s father), Margaret (Hagerl) Almy (Erma’s mother) and unknown. This was taken in the first half of 1919 as Margaret died in July.

Wordless Wednesday: California Tunnel

507 g-grandma in Cali

At the top: the woman holding one of the boys is Aunt Lanie. Her full name is Delaney (Almy) Wiltse. Those are her two sons in front of her, Ivan and Walt. Erma Almy is in the glasses and next to her are her sisters, Arlene with Margaret, and the two boys are her brothers, Kenneth and Cliff.

The boards in the back are supposedly a blocked up tunnel that goes through whatever mountain they are on in California in 1921.

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