Wednesday, September 3, 2014

An Obituary - Wishful Wednesday

My wishes are usually small, inconsequential, of no great importance.  They would not impact the world, the community, the neighborhood, or even my living family.  That's so for my wish today. 

I wish - oh, how I wish! - that I could find a published obituary for Elizabeth Gerner.  It wouldn't need to be front page news -- just a tiny few lines would do -- but since I'm wishing, I might as well wish big.  My wished-for obituary would include the information below.

     Elizabeth [last name - not included here so someone can't add misinformation to a family tree], wife of Christian, died yesterday, [day and date], in [location].  Elizabeth was born in [town/city], [country], on [date].  She and Christian married on [date and location].   They had [number] children, [names of children], before immigrating to Butler County, Pennsylvania, on [date], where they settled with their young family.  [Number] more children were born to them while living in [name of town]. 
     Elizabeth's parents were [father's and mother's names including mother's maiden name].  Her siblings included [names].
     Surviving Elizabeth are [names of children with spouses' names along with living locations], [and anyone else of importance, especially family members].
     [Some detail about Elizabeth's personality, character, traits, etc.]

That's this Wednesday's wish.  In the scheme of worldly events, it's nothing.  To my family history research, it would be a great step forward.

But you know what they say:  "If wishes were horses...."

Image courtesy of Image Chef.

--Nancy.

Copyright © 2014 Nancy Messier. All Rights Reserved.

15 comments:

  1. Love it Nancy and hope your wish comes true! I also love the newspaper image and its front page headline - how did you create it?.

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    1. Thanks, Dara. The image is from imagechef.com. It offers a selection of images with the option to add your own words. There are several categories with a dozen or so images in each category. To be honest, there are only a few of their images I would use on a family history blog but this one seemed perfect for this post.

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  2. Hi Nancy!

    A very creative post!

    I too am curious about how you made the newspaper headline image. I could see using such a tool myself. How about a post on creating newspaper headline images for the uninitiated such as Dar and me? ;-)

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    1. Thank you, John. I told Dara that the newspaper images comes from imagechef.com. The site has a selection of images in which you can type the words you choose, then save the image and use it how you will. Most of the images are fairly modern - I found just a few that I would use with a blog post about my ancestors. I don't know how often they add new images.

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  3. What about "and she was predeceased by her children [name and name] who died [date]...

    Great post!

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    1. Oh, Elizabeth, how could I have forgotten that sentence! That information would add greatly to my research, and I would add location of death, too. Thanks!

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  4. Oh if only..........I have some of the same kinds of wishes!

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    1. I suppose most of us do, Michelle. I just keep working away but in the back of my mind, the wishes continue to grow. Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.

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  5. Look at you being funny AND creative AND sharing a fun little site for creating a headline! But I agree -- this is NOT too much to wish for.

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    1. Well, the funny and creative parts just happened because I was cleaning out old emails. Maybe someday, somewhere, a newspaper will appear online with an obituary. Chances are it won't give me all the information I want but it at least names Christian as Mary's husband, I'd be thrilled.

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  6. Hello Nancy, all your posts are so beautiful written & I learn something every time I visit. I have my fingers & toes crossed for you – if we all wish hard enough your wishes might come true. Barbara.

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I appreciate your comments and look forward to reading what you have to say. Thanks for stopping by.

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