Betty Dolores Huyler (52 Ancestors)

     I'm participating in the 52 Ancestors Challenge in Ahnentafel order, so week seven is about my maternal grandmother (Grandmama).

     Betty Dolores Huyler was born in Atlanta in 1931 to Very "Mack" Huyler and Ruby Lee Waters.  Her parents separated almost immediately after her birth, and Betty was raised in large part by her maternal grandparents, aunts and uncles.  She grew up partly in Atlanta and partly in Greenville, South Carolina, mainly in mill villages.  At some point in her childhood she was hit by a car and almost killed.  This affected her memories of her younger years.

     Betty married young, at only 15 years old, and did not finish school.  She was a homemaker, but she also wanted to work and help support her family when money was tight.  When her husband, Roy, was away working as a truck driver, Betty actually got a job a time or two.  But Roy would come home and find out and, at least once, actually when to her job and brought her home.

     She was a woman of many hobbies.  Betty often taught herself new crafts, such as crochet, gardening, and ceramics painting.  The homes of her children and grandchildren are now home to many of her creations.  She was also a fan of science fiction, in books, tv and movies.  She got her various children and grandchildren hooked on Dr Who, Harry Potter and Robert Jordan.

Wordless Wednesday

How I'm Looking for Grandmama in the 1940 Census

     The first person I want to find in the 1940 Census is my maternal Grandmother, Betty Huyler. I'm interested in finding her first for a number of reasons: this is her first census (she was born in 1931); I can't find her parents in 1930; she'll be living with her step-father, who I want to learn more about; I know her exact address in 1940; I really want to know where she was in 1935.

   Betty had an interesting childhood. Her parents were separated due to the Depression and a "search for work" that lasted 14 years. Her mother temporarily remarried and Betty's last name was Whitfield for a few years. She spent some time in an Orphanage and some time being raised by her Grandparents, Leverett and Louise Waters. As a girl she rode the street cars in Atlanta and was almost killed when she was hit by a car.  That accident caused her to lose many of her childhood memories and she was unable to provide details on many of the interesting aspects of her childhood.

     The key to finding Betty in 1940 is that I have her exact address from a 1940 city directory - or rather, her mother and step-father's address: 413 Central Ave SW, Atlanta, Georgia.  So this should be easy, right? Not necessarily. Atlanta is known for changing street names, both historically and still today. Often streets actually had multiple names at the same time, until they were standardized (see this map from 1895 of double-named streets).  Lucky for me, it appears that Central Avenue SW has maintained it's name since it was changed in 1901 from Lloyd Street.

     Knowing Betty's address is important, since there will not be a name index when the census images are released on April 2nd. Armed with an address, I headed to Steve Morse's One-Step website (please note that I had a hard to utilizing this website using Safari and had to switch to Firefox).

     I used the ED Finder Utility to find the enumeration district that Betty should be in (this tool is available for cities of 50,000 or more people). I did a search for Georgia > Atlanta > Central Av and came up with eight EDs, which is still a lot.  I checked the address on Google Maps to find cross streets: Alice, Pryor and Pulliam.  This brought my results down to two EDs: 160-14 and 160-17.

     Clicking the button for these EDs, I was then able to view details on the microfilm that this district appears on.  It looks like this area, 160-14, was part of Atlanta's 1st Ward and is part of Tract F-45.

     Click! This is a microfilmed image of the Description of ED 160-14 in Atlanta. I can see the names of the streets for each district - this is the original information from which the table above was extracted.

     But I still have two EDs to check. Is it going to be 160-14 or 160-17? They are both in Tract F-45.

     I next, used the National Archive's Online Public Access search to find a the 1940 Census Enumeration Map of this area. I searched for "1940 Census Enumeration Map Atlanta Georgia" and came up with the map of Tract F-45. You can see Central Avenue just to the left of the break in the middle of the image. You can also see Alice, Pryor and Pulliman - the cross streets I pulled from a modern Google map and used to identify this ED. Very faintly, you can see a 14 and a 17 written in the image as well. Those are the specific areas that I will be browsing through on the census to find my Grandmama. Based on this map, I think I will find her in 160-14.  I can't wait for April 2nd!

Wordless Wednesday

Ceramics Lessons

     My Grandmother was an artist, working in many mediums (read/listen to my mom talk about it in detail here). What I remember the most is her skill in painting ceramics. Below are a few examples of her work:



     I remember going with her to a ceramics show once. She often entered her pieces into contests, taking home blue ribbons, as seen below. I'm not sure if it's this event that I remember or another one.

     I remember being very impressed by the competition and everyone's art. I wanted to be able to do that! After the show, Grandmama let us pick a few pieces from her vast collection of un-painted pieces. Here's what I ended up creating:

     Hey, I was kid. I'm not sure how old... somewhere around seven or eight I think. These pieces are now two very cherished possessions that allow me to feel a deeper connection with my grandmother. I might not have continued to paint, but I can look back fondly on these memories.

Finding A Focus

     When I look at my family tree, I find that many of my families don't go back further than ancestors born around the late 1700s and early 1800s. Only three of my family lines cross the ocean and go overseas in the late 1600s and early/mid 1700s. Why? Because I've concentrated on the "easy" ancestors - the ones who appeared on the 1850 census or left behind common vital records. I've only spent a little bit of time in libraries, I've never researched in an archive and I've never requested film from a Family History Center. But, I think it's time for a change.

     I learned a lot from the recent Atlanta Family History Expo, and was really inspired to push myself and make some new discoveries. I have come to the conclusion that in order to do this, I should concentrate on one family line and stick with it for the majority of my research time.  This way, if I don't find a record right away, I'll look for something else for this family line, instead of jumping around all over my tree for something "easy."

Me and my Grandmama, Easter 2005

     So I asked my mom, what family should we concentrate on? Her response was immediate: the Huyler family. Her reasoning was that this was the first family that we had ever "broken down."

     My grandmama, Betty Huyler Albea, never knew her paternal grandparents. She didn't even know their names and always wished that she did. One of the first records that I ever requested was her father's social security application. This document provided the names of his father: John Willis Hyler and Ida Leaphart. My Grandmama didn't believe in crying, but she was very emotional upon seeing this document and finally learning her grandparent's names. It's one of those moments that you think back on and that make my research worthwhile.

     I'm going to start researching they Huyler family by creating profiles for each individual: what I know and what I don't. For example, every other generation seems to change the spelling of the name. Is it Huyler, Hyler, Hiler, Hoyler, Heyler, etc? What documents am I missing? Which resources have I failed to utilize? I want to challenge myself and accomplish something new. I'm confident that I can do so.

Monday Memories - From "Cousin" Sandra

My maternal Grandmother's cousin, Sandra, sent me a few memories that she remembered about my Grandmama, Betty Huyler Albea:

"As I told you, we were a close family and usually lived near each other. When we lived in College Park , Betty, Roy and the children lived just a few blocks from us. I was about the only one they would let baby sit. Betty couldn't drive, so we would load up the kids in the station wagon, go to a back road with no traffic and let Betty practice driving. Once in July I drove us to the drive-in theatre. It was a stick shift and I was so nervous trying to keep it from rolling back on the car behind me. We had to wait in line a while and we were all burning up it was so hot, then we discovered one of the boys had turned the heater on full blast !"

"I also have a sad memory of Betty. I was young when Aunt Ruby died, but I will never forget the day of her funeral when Betty came in and saw her mother. She fainted and Roy picked her up like a baby and carried her out."

SNGF - Look-a-likes

For this week's fun, Randy has given us a mission to use myheritage.com's facial recognition tools to see what famous folks we look like. I decided to use what is possibly my most very favorite of all my family photos, one of my Grandmama, Betty Huyler Albea.

I'm not sure why I love this photo so much. I never though of my grandmama as she appears in this photo. Here she is absolutely gorgeous in a very classic way. As a child, I never thought of her in terms of "pretty" - she was just grandmama. But now I can see her when she was young and see that she was beautiful.

She's also rather young in this photo, but is dressed up with makeup and stylish hair. I assume that this photo was taken after she was married (age 15). I know she once got in trouble with her grandmother Lou for wearing nail polish, so I don't think the lipstick would have gone over well either.

Also, I'm drawn in by the expression on her face. It's an expression that seems older than she is. She didn't have it easy as a child and was always a very practical, tell it like it is, don't ignore it because it's not happy, sort of person.

Also, she didn't like having her photo taken, so this is the only real portrait (non-snapshot) of her as an adult.

But I digress, the mission was to find famous folks who look like our photo. So, here she is (I think these are pretty good picks).

Monday Memories - Learning to make Biscuits

Mom: I was telling Valerie about, um, when my mom got married - um, really young - my mom got married real young. And so, she didn't know how to cook. So she had to teach herself how to cook. So, um, one day she was trying to teach me how to cook biscuits and I was not doing a very - I, I just couldn't understand it - I couldn't do it. And, the way your Grandmama would cook biscuits is she would take the flower, and she had it in a big bowl and then she'd make a little well with her hand. She's sorta stir it so you'd have this little impression there. And then she just put her ingredients in there and mix 'em up - with her hands. And with your Grandmama, whenever she was cooking, she didn't measure anything. It was just like she knew how much to put in there. And then she could feel when the biscuit dough was right. And so, whenever I tried to do it and she was trying to tell me, she just go so frustrated. And, um, because I was tryin' to do it and the dough was sticking to my hands. And she was tryin' to explain why. And so finally she just made the biscuits. And so, um - but she told me, uh I - I was frustrated and I said, "I'm never gonna learn how to make biscuits" - which I never did. But, um, she was saying how she had to teach herself how to make 'em. And I said, "Why didn't your, um, your mom teach you?" And she says, "Well one - one day my Grandmama was gonna teach me how to bake biscuits. And, uh, she - she told me to come home by a certain time 'cause she was teachin' me - gonna teach me how to bake biscuits. And she said, but, um, what happened was she come home and, uh, she washed her hands and she went to go help her make biscuits. And she had put on - she had been over at one of her girlfriends house and she'd put on finger nail polish. And when her grandmother saw that fingernail polish on her hands, she had a fit! And told her, "how dare she think she's gonna make biscuits in her kitchen with that stuff on her fingers. And just get outa there." And, uh, she never would teach my mom how to make biscuits after that, because she come home wearin' finger nail polish one day. She just thought that was shocking that she was gonna make biscuits with finger nail polish on.

Valerie: What about other food?

Mom: She, she didn't teacher her how to cook anything.

Valerie: What about her mom - did her mom teach her how to cook?

Mom: No, she didn't know how to cook anything when she got married.

Valerie: Not a single thing?

Mom: Not a single thing.

Valerie: Did she talk about what they ate when they first got married?

Mom: Your Grandaddy used to laugh and say she didn't even know how to boil water when they got married.

Valerie: So what did they eat?

Mom: I don't know! They didn't starve. I guess got - like I said she taught herself how to cook.
Well, you know, for a while - for a little while she lived with, um, they lived with Aunt Tootsie.

Daddy's sister in South Carolina. And so finally Mama got fed up with that. And one day she just told - she just packed up and moved back to her parent's house. And she told her Daddy - she told Daddy, um, my Daddy - that he could either find a home, provide her a home or, or do without her. 'Cause she wasn't livin' with people anymore unless it was her people. So, he got a job in Atlanta and, and they got a hou- an apartment. And that's when it started... [unintelligible] So, I don't know. She just - she just taught herself how to cook.

Monday Memories - Betty the Artist

Valerie: Ok, um, we're looking at a picture of Grandama. And she looks like she's at, um, some sort of, uh, ceramics show, and she's got a bunch of different pieces that she's done. She's got two blue ribbons and two white ribbons. And, um, I remember Grandmama always had all these different ceramic pieces all over the house that she had done - with their ribbons that she got awards for. So I was just wondering what you remember about Grandamma and her ceramics and that kind of thing.

Mom: Well, um, Grandmama really enjoyed doing ceramics. And that was somethin' that she started after I was grown. I had, uh, started goin' to ceramics with one of, uh, one of my friends. And I - I didn't go for a long time, but I did a couple of pieces and I really enjoyed doin' it. And then, um, I got Mama to go with me one day, and she really enjoyed it. And ceramics, you would go into the shop and they would have the different pieces of greenware, where they had poured the molds. And then it had dried and you would decide what you were gonna do with the ceramic pieces. And most of your Grandmama's pieces, she would paint. So you - what you would do is you would take the piece and you would clean all the seams off of it. Because where they put the molds together and poured 'em, there would be little, like, crusty edges or seams that you would clean off. And your Grandmama really, um, took to ceramics. She like to do a lot - a wide range of different, um, crafts and hobbies and so on. And embroidery and she croqueted and she did a lot of different things. So, with her ceramics she was very, um - your Grandmama was very detailed oriented, so she always took a lot of, um, pride in her work. She worked really hard and, uh, when she'd clean her pieces you couldn't even tell where the seams were. And then they would fire 'em, and then she would paint 'em. And she, um, she kept goin' to ceramics long after I quit goin'. I just got to busy with Allen - he was just a baby and I got too busy, um, taking care of him. But your Grandmama kept goin'. And then she started goin' to ceramics with your Aunt Marie, who was my Daddy's sister. And, uh, they would go. And for a long time, Mama went to ceramics and she did a lot of beautiful pieces. And I've got, uh, some of the pieces that she did.
You could also do under-glazing, which you would paint the piece with a special paint and then you would put a glaze over it. And they would fire it and it would be, um, that would give it this look...

Valerie: Like these birds up here?

Mom: The chickens - and hens and biddies. And she also won a ribbon for those too. She did several different kind. And, uh, but she always did really beautiful work. So the pictures in the ceramics [ceramics in the pictures], um, one of 'em is a book. And it's a biblical ceramic book, with a, uh, one of the three wise men on a camel. And you can see the other two in the background. And she put a lot of detail into all her work. And uh - but she eventually had to give up ceramics, because she developed an allergy to it. And it was, um, it was um, damaging - destroying her finger nails, so she had to give it up. So, she really missed it, but that was one of her hobbies. Um, whenever, um, you girls were - even, even after the girls were growing up, she would do pieces for 'em.

Valere: Um, what about this - the awards show. Did she go to a lot of those, or...

Mom: There were about three or four that she went to. And she always won a ribbon whenever she did that. And she - she would get really excited about it. And they would, um, sometimes the judges would write little notes on things she could improve on. But, she was very, uh, she was very detailed oriented and even finishing the inside seams and the bottoms of her pieces, making sure that they were cleaned really well. And, um, that was one of the things that she would just be so happy when they'd write somethin'. You know, she'd get these little notes, like, "beautiful piece" or "love the detail work." And she would paint her own eyes and, uh, just really studied a lot as far as how to get different techniques.

Valerie: And she did the, um, the women, with the dresses. How would she do that?

Mom: Oh, yeah! When she did the womens with the dresses. Um, my favorite one is the one with the lady and - the um, Southern lady in the black dress. And, uh, what you would do is, you would - she would paint it - the ceramic piece - and then you had fabric stiffener that you would add to the material - or the lace - and then you would add that on top of the ceramic piece. And then she also, um, would croquet little necklaces for chains and put little jewelry. And of the ladies had the little ring that she made, that she's looking at. So, um, those were, um, very beautiful pieces when she did that. So she was always lookin' for different techniques and styles that she could do with her ceramics.

Valerie: And you said she went out. So she always did this outside of her house? She didn't have, like, supplies at home or anything?

Mom: Well she had all her own supplies, because she, she had her supplies. She had her paints and everything. And she would work on-at 'em at home, but I think they had like a regular night, it was prob'ly a tuesday night, that they would go to ceramics together.

Valerie: 'Cause I know whenever we were cleaning up - like in this picture, you've got this shelf back here, so... I remember when we were sorta cleaning out the house, that there was just a lot of pieces left over.

Mom: Yeah, they were. And, uh, your Aunt June took those and, um, we.... Because I don't do ceramics now. So we, uh, the pieces that, uh, the greenware and stuff was old and so it really couldn't be used. But there were some pieces that had been fired and, uh, those we put in a garage sale. But she's prob'ly got - still got some pieces over - and 'cause a lot of the stuff went over to your Aunt June's. And, uh, of course we could go over there at any time we wanted to and use it. So, it was really hard for me to - for me when we lost your Grandmama and it was hard for me to go through her stuff. So a lot of the stuff just got moved over to your Aunt June's.
So, but I've got some pieces that she would give me. Um...

Valerie: Daddy said she made that box over there for 'im.

Mom: Yeah, there's a little ceramic box with a lid on it that has a piece - uh, uh winter scene with a deer on it. She also made, um, the steins that year. The Eagle stein that we have, your Grandmama made that. And it's probably, what, about 12 inches tall? It has an American Bald Eagle on it and - on the lid it's an eagle. And, uh, the handle is made out of - it made to look like drift wood. And, uh, that was another, um, technique that she would do. And um, because in ceramics you paint, but you could also stain and you could do, um, dry brushing. Which is, you get your paint on your brush, but it's really dry, uh, it's almost dry. You just have a little bit on there and you just brush it over the highlights and the texture in the ceramics and it picks up the paints. And you can build layers of colors, so she was really good at that.
And then, um, she's also added some gold, that you fire on there, so there's like this liquid gold that you could paint on there. And then, and then it would be fired and then you would do your painting. So all the painting are really acrylic, um, paints and - they call 'em stains but they're really acrylic paints. But when you fire your ceramics if you're gonna stain it or paint it you fire it at a lower temperature than you do if you're going to glaze it. So it's, it um, so that the paint'll soak into the ceramics more, but it seals it.

Valerie: Did she deal directly with the firing or was that a service she had done?

Mom: That was a service she had done. She had talked about getting a kiln, she wanted to get a kiln, um, and she had actually bought a couple of molds, but she never got that far into it before it started hurtin' her hands.
Yeah, and ceramics was one of your Grandmama's many hobbies. She was just really good at a lot of different things. Whenever, when Allen was a baby, she was crocheting a lot. In the winter time she would croquet afghans - and we've all got our afghans that, um, she made. But she would, that was what she would do in the winter time. Um, but after a while, the arthritis made it hard for her to crochet. Um she's - I remember, um, some of the projects she did when, um, I was a little girl. She sewed some pillows for the house and she made all these beautiful pillows. And she would get the patterns and, uh, but there was some where you could do smocking. Which is - it's where you make little pleats of material and sew 'em together in pieces so you can make a pattern out of it. And she had some pillows that she made that way, and she round pillows and square pillows and oblong pillows. And one time she re-apolstered a couch. Um, and uh, it looked just like somthin' you buy in the stores. She did an excellent job. Um, she um, embroideried and did some beautiful pieces with embroidery. Uh, she... She was just - you know, anything that um - she liked to do detailed stuff, things that you put a lot of detail into. And she really enjoyed doing different things. Um, just, um... created

Valerie: Where did she learn - where did she learn that stuff from?

Mom: She taught herself.

Valerie: All of it? The crochet and the sewing and everything?

Mom: Mm-hm, the uh... You know it's just like, even at ceramics, you go to ceramics and they get you started. You know, like they'll tell you, "This is what you do." But your Grandmama, um, when she started a new hobby, she would get - she would just get - she loved to read. And um, she would get all these instruction books and everything. And she taught herself.

Your Grandmama, she always felt like she wasn't very smart because she didn't graduate from High School, but your grandmother was just so intelligent. And, uh, she was very well read. Uh, she loved to read. Um, she loved to learn new things, um, and she was a great inspiration.

Grandmama in School - Wordless Wednesday

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