Wednesday, December 30, 2015

ART OF THE MEMOIR, Part Three

My mother's family was much harder to trace for my brother. Her father's family name, Grieb, is clearly not their original name either. Her father, Clarence George Grieb was born in Syracuse in 1898, attended Syracuse University and eventually Columbia University to get a Master's in Architecture.

The oldest picture I have from his family is his mother's father ID as Grandpa Young in this picture. I have no idea what the uniform is. (Maybe the Masons?) His daughter, Elizabeth Young was my grandfather's mother. His father ran a construction business in Syracuse, which must have been fairly successful as both my grandfather and his brother, Lester, attended college and graduate school.(This is very different from the family my Dad grew up in).

Clarence (Chick's) real dream was to be a drummer (as I know I have mentioned before) but my grandmother would not marry a band member so it was off to graduate school. They met on the boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ where he was in a band.
My maternal grandmother's family came to the US via her paternal grandmother Ellen Jane Stewart in the mid-nineteenth century. Ellen came from Ireland where she was a lacemaker. She was eventually able to bring her two brothers over too. She met her future husband Thomas Morrison who had just come from Wales where he was a coal miner.
Ellen Jane Stewart's life turned tragic when he husband, Tom Morrison died suddenly of black lung disease, leaving her with two small sons: Thomas Jr. and John. They lived in Philadelphia where there was an institution called Girard College, which took in fatherless boys provided they were left in their care save for a Sunday visit. So her two small sons grew up in that institution. However, Girard College was a  progressive institution with social values and saw to it that both boys went on to college so the outcome was a good one. And my grandfather, Tom Morrison, also attended Temple Law School. He married Edith Craven around the turn of the century.

I will continue with my grandparents' story next week.

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5 comments:

jvnase said...

Nice Memories.
The last picture is of Edith Craven and the next to last has Ellen Jane Stewart seated.
Correct? Who is in the picture with Ellen Jane Stewart?

Unknown said...

I know next to nothing about my family history. I should've asked before it was too late.

George said...

I'm fascinated by your ART OF THE MEMOIR series! Keep the posts coming!

TracyK said...

I would be happy to know more about my mother's and my father's history, and anything I learned from them as a child has been forgotten. I also wish I had asked more about that.

Anonymous said...

What a fascinating journey, to look at your family's history! Thanks for sharing, Patti.