Merry Christmas!

(just click on each page to zoom in)

An Old Letter

I don’t know if this would be interesting to many of you other than my mom and my grandma and maybe a few other relatives, but it’s interesting to me, so I thought I’d post it. While we visited my Grandma Bev in Missouri this summer I found and photographed quite a few genealogical papers and some old family photographs. And my mom and I spent some time this week reading through some of the old letters I found there. Most of the letters were from Charles Dick to his mother while he was serving in the war – Charles was my great, great grandfather’s brother. But there were a couple older letters from other relatives. One that I found especially interesting was from an Elenor Stewart (I recognized the surname Stewart, but had not heard of Elenor before), written in 1865 to her sister, a Mrs. Giffin (who I suspected was Lucinda Stewart Giffin, my fourth great grandmother). The letter talked all about Elenor’s first husband, who died leaving her with four young children, and then about her second husband who went to war and then died of typhoid fever, leaving her with three more young boys. I really wanted to find out who she was and how she was related to me, so we went to the census records. I didn’t have much luck finding an Elenor Stewart (but I didn’t know when her husbands had died or if she had remarried a third time, so I didn’t know what her last name would have been at the time). But I finally found the family by looking up the name of the youngest son, because it was a rather unusual name – Ancil Mino Stewart – and all of the other family members fit in just right with the information from the letter. (Elenor was listed as Ellen on that census, which is why I hadn’t found her right away). Anyways, after finding the family on several different census records I happened to check the family tree records that have been submitted by other people about their ancestors on Ancestry.com, and I was very excited with what I found. Not only had several people submitted information confirming what I had found on the census records, and showing that Elenor Stewart’s second husband, Thomas Stewart, was the brother of my 4th great grandmother, Lucinda Stewart Giffin, but also several pedigree charts showing ancestors for Lucinda Stewart Giffin going back quite a few generations on some lines – some going back to Scotland, Wales, and England. It is not often that you come across so much information with so little research in original sources, so I was very excited. I still have to go back to Ancestry.com and type up all the info I found, since it was about 1am when I found it and I had to go to sleep. I just had to share that little success.

I typed up the letter from Elenor Stewart, and am attaching it here for any family members who might be interested in having a copy. This letter was old and had torn along all the creases in the paper, and it seems like there was one section of the letter that was missing, which I noted with ‘. . .’ when I typed the letter. (I did not correct any of the spelling or other errors from the original letter).
Enjoy!

“August the 20th 1865
Pratt office Shelby Co Ohio

Mrs Giffin
Dear Sister i Seate My Self this Sabbath Morning to Converse with you by way of pen and ink in the first place we are all well hoping those few Lines May finde you and family well and All of the friends the Same
I receive your Cind and Welcome Letter it was thankfully receive and read with Pleasure i was truly glad to hear from you Alltho Strangers to me but i hope we May become a quainted it is a . . .
i reading them it Seems to pass away My Lonesome ours as you may imagine they are Many you Stated in yours you had Lost Seven of your Children well i Can Sympathise with you altho i have not lost a Child [I] know it would be a greate trial to Lose One of Mine but yet i have waded through Severer trials you know ive Lost two kind Companion My first Husband Diede Leaving Me with four Little Children one Girl and three Boys the youngest was a babe Nine Months Old i was a Widow over four years When i Marraide Thomas he was Cind [to] Me till Death
after the war Comnced he felt it his Duty to go and help to put Down the Great Strugle but i pervaild on him not to go as his health was rather Delicate i told him he Could not Stand the hardships of a Souldier Life . . .
[ve]rry Mutch a gainst My will i thoug[ht] their was plenty of young Men to go he thought he Could Endure as Mutch hardships as the young Men but poor Man he Could not Endure all they [___] to pass through he Caught a Heavy Could witch Setteld on his lungs he was verry unwell when he Came home the typhoide fever Set in and when the Docttor was trying to break the fever he Said he was working a gains his other Disease we had too Doctors Call they Councild together but with all they Could do and all of the good Nursing i Could do we Could not restore his Life Thomas was gone four Months in the Army he Live five weeks after he arrive Thomas was So glad when he got home and we was all glad to Se him but Sorry he was Sick
i am Left with three Little Boys the youngest was three years years old . . .
Son Milliard fillmore next Ancil Mino the youngest
Dear Sister i must tell you that all of my Souldier Boys is home now Safe and Sound as i had three of my Sons in the Sirvis and Lutter is the 4th you may immagine my feelings i feel thankful they have got home there is Several of our C[___]ection that is filling Souldiers Grave
Mr Giffin is a cguainted with Mr Dodds he has too Sons a filling a Souldiers Grave they fell before Atlanta poor [___] how we miss them
our Cropps is pretty Good the Corn Look well their was wheat injured by the wet wheather the Oats is good i will Leave you for this time and if you think this worthy of answering pleas do and i will try and do . . .
Give My Love to all Enqiuirings friends if any their be
Lucy is well and the babe is also
Henry is not verry well
_________________________
Ma[_]vans family is well as far as i know poor W[_]L is not home yet
_________________________
your friend
Elenor Stewart”

Christmas Letter

So, I finally finished our Christmas letter for this year and got it sent out to everyone. Since we can't afford postage to mail it to everyone, we just sent them by e-mail this time. (If you didn't get one from us it because I don't have your e-mail address -- so please give me your address if you'd like me to send you one). Anyway, here it is:

December 2007

Merry Christmas! We hope you and your family have had a wonderful year. Our year has certainly been exciting, busy, and fun. Our most exciting event this year was the recent addition of our new baby, Isaac Steven Bradshaw, on 23 October 2007. Isaac came one week before his due date and ended up being the second smallest Bradshaw baby boy so far, weighing in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and measuring 21 inches long. Stephanie had a good, quick delivery, but the day after Isaac was born we found that he was having some trouble breathing. He was diagnosed with Congenital Nasal Pyriform Aperture Stenosis, an uncommon condition where the nasal airway is too narrow. When Isaac was two days old he had surgery to remove some bones and put tubes in his nose so that he could breathe better. After a rollercoaster 18 days in the neonatal intensive care unit, Isaac was able to join the rest of the family at home. We were pleasantly surprised when the NICU staff told us that we would be able to bring him home without any monitors or suctioning devices, which they had previously thought would be needed. One week later at his follow-up appointment with the ENT doctor who had performed his surgery, we were told that the surgery had been successful and that Isaac should be treated like any other baby his age. We are very grateful for Isaac’s full recovery and continued good health.

Isaac is such a good little baby. He spends a good part of each day and the majority of each night napping and sleeping in his swing. He loves to be swaddled in several blankets to keep warm. He is very content to be held, and he loves his pacifier that we brought home from the hospital. And all of our friends tell us that he looks like his big brother, Camden – his dimples are starting to show up as he smiles more often, his eyes look like they will probably stay blue, and his hair is the same color as Camden’s was as a newborn and already looks like it might be a little curly.

Camden is now 14 months old, and he is such an adorable little guy. We constantly get questions about where he got his dimples and blonde curly hair. Camden started walking a few months ago (to Stephanie’s relief, who was dreading the idea of having to carry two babies around). And in the last month he has perfected his climbing skills, conquering chairs, couches, dressers, kitchen tables, and even standing on chairs in order to reach objects on high shelves. Camden is a big boy – he weighed 26 pounds at his one-year check-up and is also quite tall for his age – he rivals some of his two-year-old friends in size. He is an affectionate baby, offering us frequent hugs and wet kisses. He is starting to be able to keep up with his big brothers, and we think that the three older boys will be great friends, especially once Camden starts to talk and is old enough to play pretend with Kolby and Eli. Camden is becoming a great big brother too. Although he didn’t seem too interested in the baby at first other than to give him an occasional hug or kiss and then bat at his head or ‘point to’ (poke) his eyes, Camden has recently started to give Isaac his pacifier and help mommy hold his bottle. And for the last few months Camden mostly only used his favorite word, ‘Hola,’ [‘Hello’ in Spanish], which he used to tell us ‘hello,’ ‘goodbye,’ and ‘I want some food.’ He has recently started to increase his vocabulary, which now consists of ‘bye bye.’ ‘por favor’ [‘please’], ‘mama,’ uh-oh,’ and a three-syllable sound that somewhat resembles ‘I love you.’

Eli is our little sweetheart. His favorite thing to do is dance along with music playing on the radio or a movie. It makes us laugh to see him kick his foot in the air and spin around the room as he dances, but the best part is the huge grin he has on his face because he is so proud of himself and he knows we enjoy watching him dance so much. Eli is two years old, and he is looking forward to turning three next month so that he will be old enough to attend preschool classes with his big brother and start a new swim lesson class without his parents in the pool with him for the first time. He is a little fish – you have never seen a two-year-old who loved the water as much as Eli does. He likes to jump into the water to us, do ‘bobs’ (dunk his head under the water), blow bubbles, and float on his back with help. Eli has learned to recognize letters and can count, which is due to the fact that Kolby has been learning these this year and he hears them so often. Eli likes to play with puzzles, have stories read to him, and listen to his favorite tape of animal songs on car rides. And Eli’s favorite thing to do is play with his big brother, Kolby.

Kolby turned four on October 31st. He is getting old enough now that birthdays and holidays are becoming more exciting for him, and he was eager to dress up for Halloween. We had quite a little pack of wild animals this Halloween: Kolby was Tigger, Eli was a dinosaur, Camden was a lion, and Isaac was a teddy bear. Kolby also started to comprehend the idea of Santa Claus for the first time this year, and when asked what he wanted for Christmas, he told us that he wanted Santa to bring him money so that he could buy some toy trains. Kolby has really been enjoying his preschool classes at the YMCA. He takes a class in a classroom setting followed by a class in the gym three mornings a week, and he is so excited to bring home art projects and tell us about his teachers and friends and the games they play. Kolby also likes his ‘sunbeam’ class at church and he constantly surprises us with his understanding of gospel topics. Kolby is so creative, imaginative, and he loves to learn. He likes playing trains with Eli, asking us how to spell words, singing songs, playing with puzzles and board games, and playing his own version of chase/peek-a-boo with Camden. Kolby recently got his first big boy (spiked) haircut, and is very proud of it.

Michael and Stephanie have both enjoyed this fourth and last year of Michael’s medical school. Although some rotations have had very difficult schedules that keep Michael away from home a lot, most months have been quite nice this year compared to his third year rotations. Our family has had the opportunity to sample some of the fun things that Milwaukee and the surrounding areas have to offer including making good use of our zoo pass, swimming at Lake Pewaukee, playing at the children’s museum, driving to the temple in Chicago once a month and trading babysitting with our friends on these trips, enjoying the numerous parks and playgrounds near our home, swimming and going down the water slides at the YMCA in Menomonee Falls, taking advantage of the ‘kids eat free’ nights at Dennys, and attempting to get five or more children to sleep in our three-bedroom apartment in order to have fun game nights with our friends. We are thankful for the close friends we have been able to make in Milwaukee while being so far from family these last few years.

Stephanie has kept busy with her family history work, taking Kolby to preschool and attending swim lessons with Kolby and Eli, editing and organizing our family photographs on the computer, going on walks and enjoying the outdoors with the boys during the summer, planning birthday parties for the kids, attending church activities, attempting to build our family’s food storage, organizing our apartment, working on a family website, and taking care of our four little guys (a full-time job in and of itself). And Michael has done a good job of balancing his monthly rotations for school, studying, spending time with his family, church responsibilities, and having fun with friends. His research paper was published a few months ago and he was accepted into Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), a competitive national medical student honor society.

This year Michael finalized his decision to pursue a career in dermatology. He is interested by the patient continuity, surgical procedures, and the breadth of knowledge necessary for this specialty (and Stephanie was glad that Michael was interested in a specialty that should eventually allow for a ‘family-friendly’ schedule). Although dermatology is currently a competitive specialty, we are grateful that Michael has been offered several invitations to interview with residency programs around the country. It will be a challenge to rank our top choices of programs because most of the places he has interviewed so far are very appealing to us. In March we will find out where we will be moving for the next four years, and on 16 May 2008 Michael will graduate from medical school and he will officially be a doctor. We are grateful to all our family and friends who have supported us through this process so far. We hope that you will have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Our thoughts are with you and your family this holiday season, and we would love to hear from you too.

Love,

Michael, Stephanie, Kolby, Elijah, Camden, and Isaac Bradshaw


(414) 258-7901
Michael: mbradsha@mcw.edu
Stephanie: stephanielbradshaw@hotmail.com
http://www.bradshaw-family.blogspot.com/