What Happened That Year?

For the past few weeks, I've been thinking a bit about how our current attempts to slow down a 

pandemic will influence us in the future. 

I am a nurse. I still go to work every day, not knowing when or by whom I may contract an illness.

This is not new for me, but this virus is different.

No one is immune to it.

No one, except for the people who already have it.

Everyone my age knew people who lived through The Great Depression, but unless you realize that, you don't quite understand why your grandma washed and reused aluminum foil or why your dad kept such detailed lists of his bills year after year. The Great Depression made people very careful with their money in ways we can't fully understand. We didn't live through it.

How will the 2020 global pandemic affect our lives?

Our "pop" or popular culture? 

Will there be more movies about pandemics?

Will people write books about social distancing?

Will video games have characters competing 

for toilet paper? 

Time will tell.

Honestly, some of the things I have seen are a bit concerning, but it's not the virus that worries me the most. 

I am worried about our children.

They are watching our reactions.

They watch people hoarding to the point that others can't get the things they need.

They are watching over-anxious adults unable to cope, or angry adults who are defying the recommendations.

We need to teach them to stay calm.

We need to teach them to be helpers.

We need to teach them to care about the more vulnerable in our society, even if it involves personal sacrifice.

I learned in a literature course that fantasy becomes more popular during times of economic recession or depression. It's a great distraction. Think about the things we've seen since 2008's Great Recession:

The Walking Dead, the Twilight series, True Blood, tons of superhero stuff - just to name a few.

My grandpa, Chester Paul Aden, was born in 1919.

This was the year after the pandemic flu that killed millions of people, many of them young, healthy adults.

Did that pandemic affect what people were doing when he was born?

Chester Paul Aden  1920

Here's a bit about my grandpa, who was born the year we were fighting the 3rd wave of the 1918 flu pandemic.

Lucille Holland Aden - My Granny

When my Grandpa Aden died in 1993, Granny (Norma Lucille Holland Aden) was 71 years old. One of my favorite memories of her came a few years later, after she had moved back to St. Louis from Poplar Bluff, Missouri.  She was living in a condominium that she bought, and one of her neighbors was a nice old man named Tom Waggoner. They became quite close.

My mom said it felt "weird," but we all embraced Tom as part of our family.
Once we asked Granny if she and Tom were ever going to get married.
Her response:  "No! I never want to wash another old man's underwear again!"

I've often thought of her answer. It makes me smile.
She was, obviously, happy living on her own.
In fact, she told us that sometimes she'd act really tired just to get
Tom to go home so she could be alone.

I heard something else in her reply, though:
Women are just fine on their own.

Granny was born in Mill Spring, Missouri on July 8, 1922.
She was the oldest child in a large family.
They were poor. 

In 1940, she and my grandpa, Chester "Check" Aden ran off to Arkansas to get married. Her parents were pretty angry. She was just 18.

Check and Lucille soon had three children, and he spent some time serving in the
U.S. Army during World War II.

They both worked hard to support their young family in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
I don't know everything they did, but I know they were in the real estate business.
My grandpa drove a dump truck, I think, for a short time, and they owned a laundry.
They went to Oregon for a bit and there were some job prospects there, but according to my uncle, they didn't stay because Grandpa missed his mom.

When they moved to St. Louis, in the early 1960s, they both worked for the Missouri School for the blind. Later, Grandpa got a job at the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District, and I don't believe Granny had to work anymore after that.
It really wasn't until their children were married that I think they were comfortable financially.

Chester Paul Aden, Norma "Lucille" Holland Aden, and their granddaughters Valerie Ann Kienlen (on Lucille's lap), Elaine Margaret Kienlen (on the left) and Leslie Diane Kienlen (me - on the right)   1970

Granny lived from 1922 to 2007.

She started off her adult life as a married 18 year old, worked hard, and ended it content to be living on her own.

Just before Granny was born, women in the United States gained the right to vote.

The year after she was born, the first Equal Rights Amendment was proposed. It said, "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction." It never passed.

In 1928, when she was 5 years old, Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic.

In 1960, women gained (illegal) access to birth control, which allowed them to plan their families. (It was approved for married couples in 1965. Single women had to fight for this a bit longer.)

Women could get credit cards without their husband's approval in 1974.

In 1975, women were no longer banned from serving on juries.

President Reagan appointed the first woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981.

By 1983, we had our first female astronaut, Sally Ride, in space.

So much changed for women during Granny's lifetime.

It must have been frustrating to have been denied so many things that we take for granted now. 

How many men (and probably women) fought against the rights we enjoy today?

Strong women spoke up.

I like to think that she would have supported the changes that her female descendants enjoy today.

I sure wish I could ask her! 

I hope she would want us to keep up the fight.

Nancy Strader and her Million Children

I have 64 4th great grandparents.

We all do.

I know who most of them are, thanks to years of research. 

One very special ancestor is Nancy Strader.

She is straight up my maternal line.

She is the earliest one in that line whose face I know. I don't see her in my face at all, but I know she's there. She looks a bit sad in her photo, like she's had a hard life.

She probably never even realized that she was creating a strong, thriving, female line.

I have one granddaughter, three daughters, and two sisters. My mom had one sister, and her mom, my grandma, had five sisters. I honestly don't know how many women have descended from Nancy since I haven't researched all the lines of descent, but in my tree there are currently 31 in just my direct line of nuclear families (not counting cousins, etc.). That's certainly a wealth of women!

Here's how this line goes:

Leslie Diane Kienlen (me) b. 1965 in St. Louis County, MO.

Sharon Eileen Aden b. 1942 in Poplar Bluff, MO; d. 2007 in St. Louis, MO.

Norma Lucille Holland b. 1922 in probably Mill Spring, MO; d. 2007 in St. Louis County, MO.

Nelle Naomi Hartman b. 1901 in probably Texas County, MO; d. 1990 in Poplar Bluff, MO.

Mary Naomi Estep b. 1877 in Kilbourne, Mason County, IL; d. 1948 in Ozark, Texas County, MO.

Mary Elizabeth Elmore b. 1848 in Tice Station, Menard County, IL; d. 1922 in Hugoton, KS.

Nancy Strader b. 1822 in Green County, KY; d. 1908 in Tice Station, Menard County, IL.

Nancy came with her parents, John Conrad Strader and Elizabeth Miner, to Menard County, Illinois from Green County, Kentucky. I believe they came with a group of people whose surnames are Strader, Miner/Minor, and Elmore. It has been a difficult task trying to sort out these families, especially the Elmores. But they all came from Green County, Kentucky.

Nancy married James Elmore sometime around 1844. 

They had five children.

Their daughter Mary Elizabeth Elmore was my 3rd great grandma.

James died in December of 1855.

Nancy remarried a few years later, to William K. Million.

Nancy and William had three children: James, George, and Jane Million.

I bet Nancy used to tell people about her "Million children."

I sure would have!

I haven't done any research into the Million children.

I should. We share DNA.

Researching the Million children may give me more information about Nancy. Maybe they have other photos. Maybe they have one where she looks happy. I would like to see that.

Did her daughter, Jane Million, have daughters too? 

How many of us could be out there?

If we count male descendants, are we close to a million yet?

Maybe someday, Nancy will have her million children.

William died before 1870, and by 1880, Nancy was married to John T. Smith from Scotland.

Nancy and John had no children.

Extra-Curricular Activities: Richard Leroy Kienlen and Sharon Eileen Aden at School

I was 9 when the Little House on the Prairie television show started, and I, of course, read all of the books. So when my mom told me she went to a one-room school house, that's what I would think of. I still do, but as an adult I know it couldn't have been the same. She went in the 1950s. I need to ask her brother about it, but in some ways I don't want to change the images I've imagined. She, along with her older brother Tommy and younger sister Diana, grew up in the town of Poplar Bluff, in southeastern Missouri. "PB" as we called it. After elementary school, she went to 

Poplar Bluff High School and graduated in 1960. 

My dad's education was different. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, a big city compared to Poplar Bluff. He attended Siegel Elementary School and then McKinley High School. The high school was just down the street from from the four family flat where he lived with his parents. He was an only child. He loved to travel around the city on the street cars. He used to talk about going off 

on his own, just to explore new places. 

Both of my parents were involved in extra-curricular activities in high school. My mom was the librarian for her Future Teacher's of America organization. Although she never because a teacher officially, she was an involved mother.

My dad was in the Chess Club. He taught me how to play chess, although I haven't played since I was a kid. He also tried to teach my oldest daughter. I'm not sure how far they got.

Dad was also in the Camera Club, and eventually became a photographer. He used to have stacks and stacks of photography magazines in our basement, tied together with twine. Photography magazines and National Geographic magazines. Both magazines were full of beautiful pictures. 

No wonder he wanted to keep them.

Richard L. Kienlen: Famous Pigeon Photographer?

Richard L. Kienlen . . .

Famous Pigeon Photographer?

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 16 Theme: Out of Place

Generation 3

My Father

Rigsby, Kienlen, Aden, Thompson

Researching close family is a strange process. 
I was close to my parents. I thought I knew them, but surprises are 
out there just waiting to be discovered.

As I mentioned in a previous post (HERE), 
my dad loved to travel. He also loved photography and science. 
As a photographer for Ralston-Purina, he was able to incorporate the things
he loved into his career. I once asked him why he chose that career instead of one where he could make more money. 
He told me that it was more important to enjoy the work you do than to have money. 
That was such an important lesson, one that I passed on to my children. 
My girls may never be rich, but they are doing what they enjoy, which makes me happy. My dad would be so proud!

On Thanksgiving day, 2014, I lost my dad. 
It's a strange feeling when both of your parents are gone, and I am so
thankful to have two wonderful sisters. We got each other through those difficult times. Doing my dad's final tax return was a horrible experience. 
I sent it in and prayed it was right. With his final refund we did what my dad would have wanted us to to. We took a sisters trip.
We couldn't decide where to go, so we each put three locations into a cup and drew one out. I don't remember what won, but we realized 
that we had all put in Charleston, South Carolina so we decided to go there.
My dad had taken us to almost every state, but not South Carolina.
It was a fitting choice.

Kienlen Sisters in Charleston

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in the Charleston Historic District. Every day, several times a day, we walked by The College of Charleston. 
Every day. Several times a day.

Sometime after our trip, I decided to Google my dad. I entered 
"Richard L. Kienlen" photograph.

Guess what! 
In the Wendell Mitchell Levi Papers, at the College of Charleston, 
there is some sort of reference to my dad.
The College of Charleston.
The one we passed by every day. Several times a day.

As it turns out, Levi put together an encyclopedia of pigeons and used
some of my dad's pigeon photographs. I didn't know he took pictures
of pigeons, but it makes sense with him working for Ralston-Purina. 
After further research, I learned
that some of my dad's pigeon pictures are in science textbooks.
I don't know if he knew that. Liking science as he did, he
would have been thrilled. 

I have lived in St. Louis all my life. So did my dad and his parents and grandparents before him. 
Never in a million years would I have expected to 
find information about my dad in Charleston.
It seems so out of place.
Luckily, my sister is going back there this summer.
I hope she'll stop by The College of Charleston and
pick up some records for me!

Frank J. Aden

Frank J. Aden

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 12 Theme: 12

Generation 6
My Great Grandfather

Rigsby, Kienlen, Aden

This week's theme is "12". One of Amy Johnson Crow's suggested interpretations of this theme was to write about the person 
who is #12 on an ancestor chart. 
This is your mother's father's father.

I don't know much about my great grandfather, Frank Aden, but that's okay.
It reminds me that I need to call my Uncle Tom to get some stories out of him.
Anyone who knows Uncle Tom knows I'll have no problems doing this!