Category: Carroll
This is a main branch of my tree, John Carroll and Wannita Carroll being my grandparents. All ancestors of John and Wannita will be included under this category.
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Pictures from her Sister
After the war my Grandma Carroll’s sister Ada married John Maehl and they moved out to Los Altos, California. Ada was the closest sister in age to Grandma, 5 years younger. She had joined the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, a branch of the Naval Reserve) during the war and that’s where she…… Read more
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Marilyn Carroll
Today, July 15th, is the anniversary of the day the sister of my Grandpa Carroll, Marilyn Carroll, died in 2006. As far as I know my grandpa Carroll never knew he had a sister. He always insisted had no interest in speaking to or about his biological father, Patrick Carroll, who abandoned his mother when…… Read more
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They Shared Birthdays but Not Much Else
July 9th is the birthday of two of my great grandmothers. On my father’s side, Margaret Evelyn Thompson Myers Hounihan, mother of Dad’s mom, was born 9 July 1903 in Roodhouse, Illinois and on my mother’s side, the mother of my maternal grandmother, Bessie Hendricks Radcliff, was also born on July 9th but seven years…… Read more
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Oak Grove
The house my grandparents bought in 1961, the same house my father lives in today, was once part of a small town called Oak Grove. Built on the highest point in McLean County, a ridge overlooking current day Carlock, Oak Grove became a bustling center of commerce at a time when transportation was literally bogged…… Read more
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The Taylor Family Line
The mother of my maternal grandfather was Ruth Taylor. Ruth was born on the 4th of July 1897 to Anna Moeri and James Peter “JP” Taylor. Anna and JP were married in Peoria Illinois in 1895. JP worked as a barber and they lived at 506 Greenleaf Street, which today is a parking structure for…… Read more
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Ray “Cotton” Radcliff lost in WW2
Memorial Day seems an apt day to write about my Grandma Carroll’s brother Cotton who was killed during WW2. Raymond Radcilff was born on the 13th of December 1920 in Mackinaw, Illinois. The fourth of Elmer and Bessie Radcliff’s 12 children, he had bright white/blond hair and was thus dubbed “Cotton” for the rest of…… Read more
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Bessie
Bessie Hendricks Radcliff, my maternal grandmother’s mother, died at the age of 35 on May 14th, 1935 after delivering her twelfth child in two decades. Because her husband Elmer was an abusive alcoholic and unfit to parent, her surviving eleven children were soon scattered to the wind. The newborn died, a still birth. Wannita who…… Read more
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Remembrance of family I never knew
Ancestry.com reminded me tomorrow, May 4th, marks the 128th anniversary of the date when John William Phillips married Ida Velleta Reynolds. These are the parents of Elmer Radcliff, my maternal grandmother’s father. It’s an odd thing to consider. Their marriage was very short lived. The family took the time to report the wedding in the…… Read more
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Grandma Hendricks and Deer Creek
I drove through Deer Creek today, as I have hundreds of times, on my way to Washington from Carlock. I like to drive Main Street because I remember Grandma Carroll telling me her grandma, Grandma Nannie Hendricks, lived on Main St. Today I looked up the census records so I would know exactly which house…… Read more
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Killian/Killion
Martha Jane Killion, our 3rd great grandmother was born in Indiana but moved with her family to Mclean County and at age 21 in 1874 married James Thompson Phillips, a Pennsylvania transplant who worked as a day laborer and later a farmer. Martha had 6 children, including our 2x grandfather, John William Phillips. She died…… Read more