Hello Folks, I'm Back--Ohh I've been lazy!!!! Yes But----

          I have no real excuse for being absent from the blog for so long--lazy?  No, I think it had to do with the lack of  responders to my output. It's hard to know whether any one is reading the thing or not. I have a lot of  information, and I mean a lot, on the many families and different family lines that make up our heritage. Over many years of research  I have accumulated an enormous amount of data that I want to pass on to other family members. So, I thought of using the Blog format to do that. I had hopes that other family members would add additional information as we went along, but that didn't happen. I know, it's my thing not the reader's, so I should quit belly-aching and get on with it or wrap it up. But what  excites me, is the potential for adding so much more knowledge of our families history through OUR communicating, that I just can't quit.  So if you have taken a peek back to see whether there has been any activity since you last visited, nope, but there will be soon. So I hope to see you soon--and to hear from you.
     Undoubtedly the most difficult thing in writing a family blog is to keep the follower's interest as  the expanse  of family lines that occur within a few generations is mind boggling. If I move back just three generations, to the parents of  my great grandparents, of whom there are eight, my family lines have now expanded to sixteen different family lines. And I have several lines back at least ten generations.  Even my first cousins, the children of my aunts and uncles, couldn't give a hoot about eight of those family lines. They aren't related. So how do I write across this spectrum of  my, our, ancestry and still keep you interested enough to visit the blog  to read about our  ancestors on a regular basis?  I don't know, but I'm going to give it a try. I look forward to your regular visits. Drop in and let me know your thoughts. Lets make this our family blog.

BRRRRrrrrrr! 16 Last Night

OOOPPPS!!!! I wrote that little bit below on the weather about ten days ago. Since then we've had a touch of snow and more cold weather. Nice today though, February 22nd.  

     It's not easy to keep coming up with things to write about our ancestors but there is more out there to be had than you think. For instance, I learned that William Holt, an older brother to our ancestor Thomas, lost his wife, Mary Means, to Rabies in 1788. She was just twenty five years old. I can't imagine such a tragedy.
    
      It was 9* night before last and my water line froze) Guess what, it's still frozen. It's now 11:05 and still only 26*. Yesterday it reached a high of 25---Brrrrr. I was out digging a little this morning but dedided to wait until it gets above freezing at least.  Still no water in the house. Ahhh, 2pm, not even a trickle but temp is 38, maybe by dark---I hope.

     YIPPEEE, I have a volunteer for Beaver County Gravesites for my Gravestone picture taking project. I just tried to add it to my blog but it disappeared. At almost 85--4 more months---I'm not the most accompolished character with the computer, but I'm trying so stick with me.  As soon as I find it I'll add it. Thank you for volunteering. We can have a lot of fun with this project. I'll get busy now and get my site set up---lets hear from volunteers anywhere, we have long-gone relatives all over the place, not just Beaver County, Pa. This could be fun and also informative as too where our roots are. Any of you out there who read this can send pictures of Gravestones of their ancestors graves to be added to the file whether I ask for them or not. In fact, that would be great. Also, any family stories about any of our ancestral lines that you have would be great. I'll publish every one I get. Be sure to give me permission to publish the pictures and/or story when you send it.

Back At Last, also, with a "FIND A GRAVE" proposal

I haven't the foggiest notion whether there is anyone still visiting my blog. I hope there is as I'm finally back---for awhile anyway. Part of the long delay time was the computer and part was just plain laziness on my part. And, part on my reader's shoulders. It's not easy to keep coming up with family data. I'm using what I have and had hoped to get a few followers to participate to enlarge the info about our collective families.
      I've come up with a thought as to how you can participate. My wife, Genie, has begun working as a local picture-taker volunteer with an outfit called "Find a Grave." Upon request by "Find a Grave" she takes photos of  the requested gravestones  in cemeteries locally which are then published on the "Find a Grave" site. It's a large national organization. It's all done on the Internet.  I had a brainstorm the other day: why didn't I do the same thing but getting my blog readers---you know who---take pictures of gravestones of our own long-gone relatives and publish them on my blog site, or on another site with a link to my site as well as a link to the picture providers site if the picture provider so chooses. Crazy? Maybe. But could be interesting and informative.
     It would work something like this: One of you, anyone reading  my family blog, would request a photo of a grave of such and such ancestor who is buried in this or that cemetery in "anytown." Any blog reader who is in the vicinity of that grave site would take a photo of the grave and send it to me on the Internet for publication on the blog.  
     I'll be back real soon with another ancestral family data item. Boy it would be great to have pictures of  at least some or even one of their gravestones to go along with the history. By golly, I have pictures of a few of our ancestors' graves. I'll do one so you can get the idea of what I'm after. I'm not after you to write a blog, although that would be nice. I want to set up an affiliated site with family photos and photos of graves of ancestors---some who passed away long before photography was even invented.
     Let me know what you think.

Computer Problems

This is not an excuse for tardiness, this is actually happening. I'm not sure what's wrong but my computer has been going wacky lately so if the young lady that keeps the thing going can take it, off it goes for a check up.
     With a little luck I'll be back to you in a few days. I know you can hardly wait---hmmmnnnn!!!!!
  To do this upsets me no end, especially with the holidays coming up. Be back as soon as I can, Bob

Christmas Just Around The Corner

It's hard to believe the year is almost over. It's even harder to believe that this will be my 84th Christmas. It seems that it was only yesterday when we kids trooped down the stairs in wild excitement to see what Santa had left us under the tree. Ohh those wonderful tree's. Color beyond belief and packages galore spread everywhere under the heavily decorated branches. Such wonderful memories. Ahh, but there is always a negative side when you are old, you remember those who where there then but are no longer with us. You know though, it's nice to remember them and renew your love for them.
    
I've been pondering about what to put in my blog to commemorate those wonderful  Christmas's past. I'm open to suggestions.   My sister Virginia, Sis, and I are the only two remaining of the immediate family who participated in those wonderful Christmas mornings there at Holtdale so long ago but yet so fresh in my mind. I am working on my memoirs and have put a section in them on those wonderful mornings. I may just use that.

I get quite a few visitors to the blog but very few comments. I'd hoped to work up a dialog with those who are remembering along with me in the blog. Unfortunately and to my great disappointment that hasn't happened. I suppose I'm partially to blame by not being more prompt and prolific in my submissions. I'm going to try and do better next year so stick with me.  Maybe I'll somehow entice you to join me verbally. I hope so.  Bob

"Values, The 30's and Now"

Winter, summer, fall or messy spring, one particular treat we used to enjoy when I was a kid in the 1930's was going to the movies. It was usually always the Saturday afternoon matinee. Mostly we went to either the Beaver theater, the Majestic (dubbed the “Bucket of Blood”) or the Oriental in Rochester. We were usually given $0.16 cents, $0.11 cents for the show and $0.05 cents for a hot dog or ice cream cone afterward. The movie was either a “shoot-em-up western,” “Tarzan and Jane,” a spook thriller with “Boris Karloff’s fangs leering hungrily at his intended victim,” “Our Gang,” Shirley Temple or the Three Stooges, but always the good guy wins. Rochester and the “Bucket of Blood” was most often the choice. Besides, Grandad Holt had his Dental office just across the street from the “Bucket” and frequently worked on Saturday, so we could get a ride home after the movie. Otherwise, it was a five mile walk each way.

Because of the enormously increased violence and the apparent sea-change, negatively, in the moral values in our society these days, I have tried to think reflectively in comparing the entertainment for young folks then with now. Yes, we certainly were exposed to violence in the movies then, but no where near as violent, sexual, vulgar and graphic as that viewed today. Even when someone was shot, which was rare and even then always the bad guy, and he was usually only wounded. Indeed, sort of roughing up the bad guy was usually the extent of the violence. We practically never saw blood, never heard even mild cursing, the sex act was rarely even vaguely alluded too, even in adult movies.

Today, shooting, stabbing, bloody murder, unspeakable violence and sex are explicitly performed not just publicly in the Theater but on the television screens in our homes.

The only comparative conclusion one can come too is that our society has coarsened enormously over the eighty-four years of my lifetime along with the concomitant weakening of our all important moral values. And at the risk of being thought of as just a negative, old bellyacher, I don’t see positive change on the horizon anywhere. In fact, just the opposite, it appears to be getting worse. I saw an extremely disconcerting statistic just this last week, “ in just slightly over 48% of families with children are the parents married.” And even where there is a marriage, the parents aren’t always living together.

I submit that such a society cannot long endure. And unless we begin acting immediately to repair our sorely damaged moral values, even my generation’s grandchildren will not ever see or experience the wonderful, vibrant nation we were up until about forty years ago when the downward spiral began. Even our music has degenerated into nothing more than two and at most three instruments, a drum, guitar and maybe a violin. It consists mostly of rhythm (drum) noise and gyrations by the performers. "Country Western" still has a little of the old values but even there the deterioration is evident..
 
Am I just an old man unwilling to change? I don't think so. I first became disturbed years ago by the deterioration of our music from the wonderful sounds of many instruments playing collectively, rhythmically together and frequently supporting wonderful singing voices, individually and or collectively. The sound was the important thing not their gyrations and costumes.

The children of Ralph and Agnes (Baxter) Ecoff, my Gr Gr Grandparents

      The genes of the long and illustrious line of the Ecoff family were brought to the Holt line by Agnes Baxter Ecoff when she married John Childs, and whose daughter, Agnes Gertrude Childs, married Frank Raymond Holt in 1898 in Beaver, Pennsylvania.
       Ralph Ecoff and his wife Agnes Baxter migrated from Harmon County, Maryland to Borough Twp, Beaver County, Pennsylvania sometime in the 1830's. Their son, Ralph (9 Sep. 1818- 24 Jan 1855) was the first of the line to marry in Pennsylvania when he married Margaret Alaman (15 Jun 1822- 18 Apr 1854) on 9 Dec 1840, in Borough Twp., Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Ralph's and Margaret's first child appeared on the scene not quite 13 months later when they were blessed with the birth of their first son, Samuel, on the 29th of Dec 1841. Five more children were born at  fairly regular intervals, starting with  Asa b 28 Nov 1843, Rochester, PA; John Henry, b 14 Dec 1848, Rochester; Agnes Baxter, b 28 Jan 1848 - d 22 Jun 1930, Beaver, PA; Mary Crawford, b 12 Nov 1851, Rochester, PA; and Margaret Alaman, 15 Apr 1854, Rochester, PA.  Unfortunately, the children's mother, Margaret Alaman Ecoff, died three days later on 18 April, 1854, probably from complications during  the birth of her daughter, Margaret Alaman. As an interesting aside, at least to me, my oldest sister Miriam, who lived just two short months in 1921, is buried on the grave of her Gr Gr Grandmother, Margaret Alaman Ecoff.
     My Gr Grandfather, John Worrell Marshall Childs, married Agnes Baxter Ecoff, the oldest daughter of Ralph and Margaret Ecoff, and their daughter,  Agnes Gertrude Childs, married Frank R. Holt, who were the parents of my father, John, and my Uncle Frank.
      Ecoff males served in every American War from from the War of 1812 through WWll. One may have served in the Revolutionary War, however, I have not been successful in my search for the immigrant Ecoff. The name Ecoff is reasonably common, historically, in Germany, Norway and Sweden but our immigrant Ecoff's country of derivation and when he arrived in America is still a mystery, at least to me.