Christmas Gatherings

Our family is three members short after the past two years. My son's step-grandpa passed away, my step dad and my uncle. We plan to carry on the tradition of humor that these three people brought to the family gatherings. The step grandpa always sang a Danish song, my uncle played the banjo or guitar and my step dad had funny jokes. This year we are going to find old pictures (like the Dead Horse Investigation photo in Colleen Fitzpatrick's book) and put captions on it. We did this for stress relief when my step dad was in the hospital last year before he died...it was a crack up. We thought it would make a great Christmas Game for this year. How on earth do you judge something like that for prizes? A laugh-o-meter or who makes you laugh until you cry? My favorite photo is one of my ancestor "Ada Wescott" (nee. Coon) wearing a "bird" hat. Their caption was "How do you like us?". These hats were not just feathers but an actual stuffed bird. That is about as appealing to me as a real fox stole that women used to wear. EWWWW! I will look around at the Dead Fred website and see what else I can find.

William Edward Friend photos

I am trying to place two photos one is of William Edward Friend and the other is of his wife Fanny Friend (nee Hunter). They both appear in the 1910 census and 1920 census, in both years they lived on Vine Street in Riverside. I just placed pictures from the Banta family with the Sonoma State University archives and wonder if William Edward Friend and Fanny Hunter are related in some way to the Banta family. I am seeking to donate the photos to a descendent in the direct line of William Edward and Fanny nee Hunter Friend. I emailed one person from RootsWeb whose information matched what I discovered on the Friend family.