Pictures of Arthur Thomas Daniels family

Ellen Otilla Alderson Daniels, Robert N. Daniels, Arthur Thomas Daniels.

Taken in Salem, IL 1943 during WWII

J. Daniels, Ellen Otilla Alderson Daniels, Arthur Thomas Daniels, Robert N. Daniels, John D. Daniels

Findlay, Illinois about 1952

(House in picture is not their residence.)

Robert N Daniels, D. Daniels, J. Daniels, Arthur Thomas Daniels, Ellen Otilla Alderson Daniels w/ N. Daniels, John D. Daniels

Findlay, Illinois about 1952

(All the pictures are in the posession of my grandma.  Scanned 7-09)

"Three Quarters"

I apologize for my family history absence. I've been a bit distracted these past few weeks and haven't done much in that area. I promised I would be better this week and then realized that today was Friday...

Josh was out of town Monday through Thursday. I really dislike being apart from him. With the help of great friends and some addicting books (the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer) I was able to survive his absence. Unfortunately the books took up all my extra time that I should have spent doing some family history.

I thought though, that I would share a picture that my grandma gave me a few years back. It is of myself and my maternal grandparents. My grandma calls it the Three Quarters picture because each of us in the picture has a quarter blood from some country. I am a quarter Palestinian Arab, my grandma a quarter Irish, and my grandpa a quarter English. The picture was taken in July of 1982 in Decatur, Illinois and hung on my grandma's wall from then until 2005 when she passed it on to me. I am grateful not only for the picture and the people in the picture but also the story behind it's history. It makes me so sad to go through the antique stores and see old photos of people who are now name-less and family-less with a price tag on them. If I could claim them as my own they would be priceless to me.

So amid all this rambling is my plea for you to do something to preserve and label your pictures. Not only the current ones of yourself and your family but also the old ones that are stashed away somewhere of your parents, grandparents, etc. There are so many ways to preserve them, do anything that works for you.

I am dying to get my grandma's pictures scanned and digitized. I cam across a site, mypublisher.com, last week that prints photo books. They have a special layout for vintage photos. You simply upload them into the layouts, adjusting as you desire, submit it online and they will print you as many copies as you like in a variety of formats. There are also other websites that will do the same thing. It seems like a great way to share all the photographs with multiple generations. That's my dream!

Freedom Fighters

With today being the Fourth of July and the day we celebrate the birth of the United States of America, I was thinking that it would be a good day to commemorate some of my ancestors that served in various wars to preserve the freedoms we enjoy. My grandma has told me on multiple occassions, and is very proud of the fact, that we have ancestors who have served in many of the major American Wars from WWII back.

• Joshua Bigelow fought in the King Phillips War 1675


• Redmond Condon, Richard Corwine, and John Day served in the Revolutionary War


• Samuel Corwine was in the War of 1812


• Daniel T. Short served during the Civil War on the side of the North


• John C Bigelow Sr served in WWI (pictured below)


• Robert N Daniels served in WWII along with my great uncle, John C Bigelow Jr.

I would have sworn I had more pictures in my possession to share, but I was only able to come up with one. (One thing I am finding by doing these Family History Friday posts is that my paper work is in horrible order! You think you know where something is until you go looking for it and can't find it!)

This picture is of my great grandfather, John Chester Bigelow (pictured on the right), and his brothers Harold (on the left) and Amerson (seated). They all served in WWI in 1918.This is the WWI draft card for John Chester Bigelow.

I am grateful for these men, and the many other men and women now and through out history, who have made sacrifices to serve their country and to preserve the freedoms we enjoy in the United States of America.

**Most of the above list is family traditon. I have only personally verified those who served in WWI and WWII. More fun work to do!**