Thoughts & Information

We are starting the countdown! Only 2 more weeks and we will be in the MTC. The time is going quickly now that are talks are history.

I can't decide whether to add to our old mission blog for our going and comings at Cove Fort or just post here. Any preferences? ( I was sad to see my wallpaper had disappeared from the West Indies Blog.)

We will go down to Cove Fort a week from tomorrow and return on Tuesday. We still have several things to take down. It will take Kim's car and trailer to get us back home in November.

We were surprised at the strict rules...

In your call letter, President Monson made the following statement, "You will be expected to devote all your time and attention to serving the Lord." Please plan to observe those instructions faithfully. Do not ask for special favor or time off except in a dire emergency. Your family should be advised that you will not be able to attend baptisms, weddings, or temple sealing, if it requires you to miss your missionary duties, or to leave the mission.


We had thought we would attend Eric's graduation, but I guess not.

Addresses:

May 7-15, 2012

Elder George Wellington Ross
Sister Eva Peters Ross
Utah St. George Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

May 15-Nov 7, 2012
Elder & Sister Ross
Cove Fort Historic Site
HC-74 Box 6650
Beaver, Utah 84713

Go, Durango!

The 6th best small town in America. Sorry, Page.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/The-20-Best-Small-Towns-in-America.html?c=y&page=7&navigation=next#IMAGES

To my AMAZING family:

Thank you for supporting us at mom's memorial services. It meant a great deal to me for all of you to be there. My brothers were appreciative of your support as well. The services went better than a couple of them expected. It was good for them to feel of your spirits.

I should have had one of you do the program. I checked it several times through the past few weeks and I still didn't see two major errors. Francis is not spelled with an e and mom and dad were not married on Aug 21 but on Aug 19th. I also left her brother George off the obituary notice. Yes, as you suspected, I am getting old and forgetful. Too many things like that happening these days.

It has been a tender mercy to not be reporting to the MTC on Monday as was the plan for 3-4 weeks. Sorry John to have rushed you in getting the 5th wheel in place only to have the date revert to May 7. You can't believe how much we appreciate your sacrifice on our behalf. We now have a couple of weeks to get the trailer organized and ready for occupancy. We will make at least one trip down and stay a day or two.

Thanks again to each of you and the part you played in the success of a memorable day for everyone who was in attendance. A special thanks to Kim and Steve for the food and the atmosphere. It was incredible.

Dorothy Amalia Buck Peters

She was born February 7, 1918 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Francis Morgan Buck and Ellen Louise Pederson Buck. She married Ralph Peters on Aug 19, 1940. They were the parents of five children: daughter, Eva Ross, and sons, Leon, Alan, Orin, and Westley. She was a successful wife, mother, and business partner with her husband, who preceded her in death. She died January 3, 2012. She was 93 years of age.

She is survived by her five children; 14 grandchildren; 27 great grandchildren; and four great, great grandchildren. 

Seattle IT IS:)

Okay folks, I believe we will be having the reunion on the beautiful Island of Bainbridge in the middle of the Puget Sound. We are very excited!!! We will be back in SLC next year as I understand from Kim.

The Dates have a slight change to Wed, Aug 1st thru Sun, Aug 5th. We will have organized activities Thur- Sat and would love for you all to attend church with us on Sunday at 10:00AM if you can.

I will have more details a little later.

This is really the prime time to visit (knock on wood) as the Northwest ends her summers on beautiful notes of Sunshine. It's January thru the end of June-urary that is the problem time.

Reunion Preferences

We're looking forward to the Seattle option for the reunion. We're thinking that we could spend 2 days travelling up, 3 days reunioning, and 2 days travelling back. We'd hope to swing by important sites like Mt. St. Helens either on the way there or back, plus some other sites along the way. You'd hate to travel all those miles and not see anything in between!

We are planning to rent an RV for the trip. It is something we've been talking about for a couple of years with the kids and they are excited to try it. It is expensive, but I think it will be worth the investment. Anybody else thinking of RVing up?

We still haven't heard back about our Education Week commitment from Aug. 13-17, but we need to be sure we have a travel buffer around that. The other week that we already have a reunion for Keryn's family is July 13-15. We are teaching a class on June 7-8 and 28-29.

If we end up in SLC for the reunion, we won't complain. Maybe we'll plan a shorter trip up to Seattle in the off-season to save a bit on the RV rental.

We are so excited to host

The 12th Annual Ross Family Reunion in WA,

on Bainbridge Island.

We were thinking August 8th thru the 12th.

It should be a ton of fun.

Here is a little taste of what our little Island is like.

KPS_Bainbridge FULL // Final from KOMO Production Services on Vimeo.

We are planning a lot of adventure, wonderful food,

laughs and relaxation.

SO, come and ESCAPE to our home.

We would love to have you any time:)

Ross Reunion 2012

Could we choose a date for the RR12? Just post any taboo dates and then Skip & Laurene can schedule the time and post it for us. (Time to register for EFY, vacations, and summer camps is here!!)

We may be going on a six month mission in March or April. I will probably have some stitching time in the evenings. I would love to make a stitched quilt for each family. I have several Crab-apple Hill patterns to choose from for your quilt. No promise as to when they will be completed, probably at least a year. You can go to the Crab-apple Hill web site to see the patterns.
I have these:
#413 Twas the Night Before Christmas 58x73
#263 Snow Days 66x66
#316 Over the River and Through the Woods 51x57
#418 Snowmen A to ZZZZ 48x72
#408 Winter Wonderland 64x71
#320 Which Witch's Boot 40x32
#313 Hocupocusville 68x68
Other options are possible, suggestions welcome.

What a wonderful quilt! I will always remember my 70^th birthday because of all the work put into this heirloom. Can you find yourself? You are there, all 35 of you! This quilt is special because it gives me a way to remember each of you and how choice you are in my life. I can’t begin to express my admiration and my love for each of you. You bring richness to my life that is beyond description. I married the perfect person for me. My children married amazing companions to assist them through this life. Heavenly Father sent the choicest spirits to each of those eternal units. I love each of you so much. Thank you for being you.

Researching the Ross Line

Keryn was kind enough to help me do a little family history research today. It gets really confusing with all of the George Wellington and Daniel Andrew Rosses, so I started writing things down as I found them. Mostly, I found data that was already in FamilySearch or in mom's records.

Following are my notes. A few things to notice. We don't have really good records about the marriage of Daniel A and Mary J Daniels. I have a microfilm number that I'm going to look up in the Family History Library to see if I can find their parent's names since we can't go back any farther than the two of them on that line.

In the 1870 census, Mary is listed as Maria, as is her daughter.

In 1860 and 1870, Daniel's birthplace is listed as Canada. In 1880, after Daniel has remarried, his birthplace is listed as Michigan. Keryn theorized that his new wife (did you see how young she was!) just didn't know what to tell the census taker and made something up.

I wanted to find information on Jennie McDonald, the wife of George, but I didn't have any luck there. Ancestry.com things that her last name is Morey. Maybe that is based on the fact that a brother-in-law of George, named Frank Morey, was living with the family in 1900. That doesn't mean that her last name was Morey for sure, but I can't tell where we're getting McDonald in our records either.

It is funny to note how things aren't consistent from one census to the next, either for spellings or dates or locations. But I guess it can be useful for clues!

·      Daniel Andrew Ross (1835)

o   Michigan Marriages

§  Daniel A. Ross, Mary J. Daniels, 1 May 1857, Wayne, MI

§  Original data: Wayne County, Michigan Marriages, 1851-69. County court records located in Detroit, Michigan or Family History Library microfilm #1377620-1377622.

o   1860 Census

§  D A Ross (25) (b. ~1835 Canada)

§  Mary J (25) (b. ~1835 Illinois)

§  Nettie M (3/12) (b. ~1860)

o   1870 Census

§  Daniel Ross (35) (birthplace Canada)

§  Maria Ross (33) (birthplace England abt 1837)

§  Nettie Ross (10)

§  George Ross (7)

§  Fredric Ross (4)

§  Maria Ross (2)

§  Isabella Ross (24) (teacher)

o   Ancestry.com

§  Mary J. Daniels (d. 10 Oct 1878, Detroit, Wayne, MI)

o   1880 Census

§  Daniel A. Ross (45) (birthplace Michigan, parents b. Scotland)

§  Lola N. (23) (b. ~1857 Michigan, parents b. New York)

§  Nathalie N. (20)

§  George W. (17) (b. ~1863)

§  Frederick C. (14) (b. ~1866)

§  Mary (11) (b. ~1869)

·      George Wellington Ross (1863)

o   1900 Census

§  George Ross (35)

§  Jennie Ross (38) (Apr 1862)

§  Donald Ross (15)

§  Katinka Ross (13)

§  Frank Morey (18) (brother in law)

o   1910 Census

§  George W Ross (47)

§  Jennie M Ross (47) (immigration 1884)

§  Katrinka M Ross (23)

§  Frederick C Ross (45) (brother)

Thanksgiving Project

Jebb's Musings

Yesterday Jebb and I were riding alone together in the car. This rarely happens and we were talking, just the two of us. He asked me if I knew how old Papa Ross was. I told him and he said, "Good, so probably he won't be dead when I turn 12." (Sorry if that sounds rather abrupt...) I replied, "No, I don't think he will be. How come?" "Well, when I am 12 he will make me a treasure chest." He paused for a minute then added, "But really soon he will make me a CTR sign." I reminded him that Jackson didn't get his plaque until he was 8. He thought about this and said, "Well, I hope he stays alive for a while."

Thanks Mom and Dad for all you do for our kids! They love and think of you even when they don't see you. :)

Happy Veteran's Day

Thanks for serving, Dad.

Mom, thanks for posting those great memories. I love this blog.

Today in our office, we're having a 11-11-11 Veterans Day lunch at 11:11am. What a fun date for a party.

Grandma Peters

Walking

I visit with Mom almost every day. During those visits she has shared many of her memories of living at 248 W. 1^st North (N. Temple), Salt Lake City, Utah. She lived close to everything. Her elementary school was farther than West High school which was around the corner and up a couple of blocks, and West Jr. High which was across the street. She and her brother George walked to school together each day. They came home for lunch most days.

Here are a few of those memories:

Grandpa Buck loved to walk over to the Assembly Hall and sit on the bench by the pond and watch the fish. Grandpa enjoyed visiting with the gardeners about the plants. Mom would go over to the tabernacle and listen to the organist practice. They could see the Salt Lake Temple lit up at night. She loved to see the Walker building lit up a Christmas time.

When her dad was in the LDS Hospital, she and George would walk five to six blocks down North Temple and up C Street eight blocks to visit with him. I think they could take a short cut by going through City Park but that was still a long walk. Grandma wasn’t able to walk so she took a taxi once a week or so to visit him. Grandpa’s job as a machinist caused him to end up in the hospital. One of the jobs he frequently did was to clean the parts of the train engine in a liquid cleaner,(I assume a degreaser). He sat down to do the job and the liquid would splash on him as he worked. In 1936 he ended up in the hospital for almost a year. This from Mom’s book: “He lost all the skin on his arms from the elbows down to the tips of his fingers. Then it showed up on his legs from his knees to the tips of his toes. The doctors tried all kinds of treatments, but he almost lost his legs to gangrene anyway. The doctor put maggot eggs on his legs then put bandages on his legs and the eggs hatched and ate away the dead flesh so the new flesh could grow. One day when the doctor came to see my dad he told the doctor that he felt bugs crawling on his legs. They removed the bandages and there were worms all over his legs but the legs looked better. The doctor said the maggot procedure was an old remedy he had learned in France. My Dad’s legs healed just fine and he learned to walk again. George or I would go the LDS Hospital and help my dad to walk and exercise. We lived at 1^st North still between 1^st and 2^nd West and we would walk to the hospital where my Dad was and then walk back home. When winter came we still went. Snow used to get quite deep so we had to stay on the walks where snow plows had been. We didn’t have any high boots. We had long underwear to wear but nothing warm like people have today. I helped my Mom take care of my Dad before and after school after he came home from the hospital.”

Mom had a babysitting job in the Avenues that often lasted until 10:30 pm. If she missed the last bus home, she would walk the 9 blocks to catch the bus to her house.

Another comment from her history: “We would walk and pull a red wagon to 4^th North to the state run facility where they gave away food. We would get rice, flour and I don’t remember what else now, but it was always more than we could carry home.”

Tracking the Past: Dorothy Buck Childhood in SLC

Keryn and I spent a luxurious couple of days in Salt Lake City this week to celebrate our 10th anniversary. While there, we dropped in on the new Church History Library. We took the short tour where they show you a video and walk you through the public stacks. As we wandered through the stacks, our guide pointed out some old Salt Lake City directories dating back to 1900.

Thinking of Grandma Peters, I thought I'd like to see if we could find her family. I pulled up Family Search on a computer to remind myself of the pertinent names and dates and then fetched the 1923 and 1939 directories. In the first one, I found a promising entry while looking for Francis Morgan Buck.

That photo shows Frank M. Buck. His occupation is listed as machinist for the Oregon Short Line and his residence is at 248 W. 1st No. Those abbreviations are all explained at the front of the directory. 1st North is the same thing as North Temple.

We flipped through to the 1939 directory and found this entry.

You'll notice Frank M. and Ellen L. are listed together this time, which confirmed that we were looking at Francis Morgan Buck and Ellen Louise Pedersen Buck. No occupation is listed, and this is a year before his death, so that may be accurate. I didn't notice the other entry on this page until I got home. You'll notice, at the same address, Dorothy A. Buck. I don't have Dorothy and Ralph's marriage date handy, but knowing that mom was born in 1941, this must have been shortly before she got married. How cool that she made the directory separately!

From FamilySearch, I could see that Ellen's father and mother had also died in the Salt Lake area in 1910 and 1918 respectively, so I went to an older directory to look for them. I found the following entry in the 1908 directory.

There is Lars E. Pedersen, occupation shoemaker, at 27 W 17th South in Murray. His business and residential address were the same. I think this matches what Michelle told us at a family reunion, so I think this is the right person. Michelle, I'd love it if you'd post that story to the blog if I'm remembering right. I couldn't find any reference to Charlotte Amelia Andersen Pedersen in the directory, even after her husband died. I wonder if she moved in with someone else right away and thus doesn't show up as a widow (like Jensine above) in the directory.

Knowing that Dorothy had lived so close to the library where we were looking this up, Keryn and I decided to walk over and see what was there now. While we were walking, we called mom and she told us that grandma had been mentioning the house at 248 recently. How funny. Mom didn't remember that the house was on North Temple.

When we arrived at the location, we could see that it was right across the street from a large parking lot. That parking lot was where they had the medals ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympics. There was no more 248 W. There is an (apparently pretty new) apartment building at 230 W. When we looked at this address on Google Maps, there was a differently shaped apartment building in the same location, so apparently the house has been gone for a long time now. In the photo below, you can see the current apartment building. The left edge of this building is at the center of the block and is probably where the old house stood.

I took a quick panoramic video shot to give you a sense of the currently location. Sorry about the wind noise on my cell phone camera.

Mom, while we were on the phone, you mentioned some of the things Grandma said she used to do. I'd love it if you'd pen a quick post with some of those memories!

Halloween 2011

Ezra's Baptism

Ezra is turning eight in a few short days!  He is very excited to be baptized, and would like to invited everyone to his baptism on November 5, 2011, at 9:30 am at 1150 E 1240 S, Spanish Fork, Utah.  After the baptism, we will have a brunch-type-party at our house!

We know that it is not possible for most of you to come, but we want you to know you are invited if you want to!  We love you all.

Turning… no, “Turned” 70

Turning 70 was my most interesting birthday for many reasons. Turning 60 wasn’t traumatic because I was still working and being productive. It was just another year, another birthday. It indicated that I was nearing retirement age but it was still a long way off. Sixty five came and went surrounded by similar feelings, but I began to savor the experiences knowing it wouldn’t be long before my life would change. However, I had a mission to plan and prepare for and a new home to think about.

Then 70 hit. I realized that I was really OLD. I was no longer productive like I was a few short years ago. I was retired. I was on Social Security. I don’t get much done in a day. I was finally really OLD and OVER THE HILL.

I tried to enjoy this momentous birthday. In preparation I went shopping and bought myself some clothes and yes, some fabric, and a chair for my sewing room.

It was awesome to have a party to celebrate it. I can’t express how great it was to have all my children in attendance. I appreciate the sacrifice everyone made to make it happen. I have such a wonderful family. I have all that to savor as I sit in my rocking recliner.