So Fantastically 50s

Not much "genealogy" along with this image other than the fact that I'm currently a bit more focused on scanning in several photo albums that belonged to my Grandma (Jennie Rock) LaPorte.  This image just caught my attention and held it.  There are so many iconic 1950s elements here:  the baggy bottomed jeans that my father is wearing (far right) along with his (non Chuck Taylor) black canvas high tops.  His brother's (Andy's) suspenders on the jeans.  My Great Uncle Clayton (Rock Jr.'s) cuffed, pleated slacks and knit short sleeve collared shirt, not to mention the hair cuts on all the men.

This Day in Family History

So, the other day, I thought of adding a "this day in history" for this blog.  Since there were nearly 10,000 individuals in the tree, I figured that there would be some birth, marriage, death, or other event on any given day that I could blog about.  I also thought that Family Tree Maker would make my life easy by just filtering the day in using its pretty powerful database tools.

Such was not the case on a number of levels. Mostly, the filtering doesn't really exist in an easy format (easy for how I wanted to use it).  I could filter in once on birth, once on marriage, once on death, etc.  This would give me a list of individuals.  But there wasn't a good way to see which of those vital facts existed on a given day.  I've not given up yet, but I think that it is likely going to be a much more limited endeavor.

In any case, in "this day in history" in my extended family tree, at least one item of particular note:

Today, June 27th in my very extended family history (in 1939), Patrick Joseph Eagan was born in Rochester, Monroe, New York, USA. (Hopefully my Uncle Pat is proud of that proper citation form including City, County, State, and Country). Patrick Joseph Eagan is my mom's older brother. They are the children (along with Kathleen and Maureen) of Austin Eagan and Mary Frances Maloney Eagan.


"U.P." as I've been referring to him is on one of his many trips.  He is on a cruise in and around Norway -- as he described it: "fourteen days along the Norway Coast and in a number of its fjorrds and then we will be back here [Amsterdam] and then to Prague."


Here he is, back in the post-Marines, IBM days.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Pat!

Henri - Trainman

I never knew my great Grandfather, Henri Andrew LaPorte.  He died in 1955, long before I was born.  According to my dad, he like his work (or didn't like hanging out with his wife - or, some combination of the two) to the extent that even after two heart attacks, he returned to work on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, where he had his third, final heart attack.

Here he is with some of his colleagues doing the job that he loved:

More Great Photos of Biking Relatives

I wish I could push the bike-o-philia back another generation or two, but for now, I've got to be satisfied with the last couple.

That's my older brother Dave on the back of my dad's step-through.  Sweet safety feature covering the spokes in back.

I've been scanning a lot of old photos lately and not as focused on tree building or on searching for info.  But there's been some of that and I'll share some soon, including a rape/murder that I uncovered involving a VERY distant relative (by marriage) Joseph Centreville, as well as a Hatfield vs McCoys type of family feud on the Rock side of my family.