 |
| Photo by Patrick Jones. Downtown LA. 1 Mar 2024. |
A set of photos of the infamous Oceanwide Plaza, also currently known as the graffiti towers of Downtown LA. These towers sit across the street from the home of the LA Lakers, Crypto dot com Arena. News out of LA indicates a buyer is emerging from the bankruptcy sale, which might lead to a clean-up and completion for the stalled project.
 |
| Photo by Patrick Jones. Oceanwide, 1 Mar 2024. |
 |
| Ancestry. Warren County, KY. 1860. |
Back in August 2012, I wrote about the parents of Thomas Whitley (my 2nd-great-grandfather), Robert J. Wheatley and Melissa Catherine Grinstead. They were married in Warren County, Kentucky on 15 September 1860, and signed the marriage bond the day before on 14 September. The entry misspells Robert's last name as Whitney, and Melissa is spelled Malissa. The record above was shared on 3 Mar 2020, but not the one below.
 |
| Ancestry. Kentucky, US County Marriages. |
A new to me record found with FamilySearch Full Text search is from Warren County, Kentucky's Circuit Court in November 1860. This shows Robert and Melissa's father Thomas Grinstead had entered into a $90 note with John Sweeney. The administrator of Sweeney's estate brought an action for payment.
 |
| FamilySearch. Warren County, KY. 1860. |
Melissa died sometime after giving birth to only son Thomas, likely before she turned 20 years old.
Looking on FamilySearch reminded me there's a large set of Grinstead records that I haven't spent much time reviewing. I need to pick up the trail on the Grinsteads once again. A larger set from the Warren County Court shows that Thomas Grinstead did not die in Kentucky, but followed his children in later years out to Missouri. I'll pick this up in another post.
 |
| Made in Ideogram. Harry in the French Quarter. |
Here are two imagined scenes of my great-grandfather Harry O'Brien, performing in a New Orleans club about 1906. I used an actual photo (below) of Harry when he was with Bohumir Kryl's band, and uploaded it to Ideogram.
 |
| Harry O'Brien. |
 |
| Made in Ideogram. Harry in New Orleans. |
 |
| Times-Democrat, 15 July 1906. |
The marriage announcement above describes the scene for the evening summer wedding between my great-grandfather Harry O'Brien and his first wife, Marguerite Barba, in July 1906 New Orleans. Marguerite's sister, Leonora, hosted the reception afterward. The clipping notes that they took a short honeymoon trip to nearby Mississippi City. I previously shared a copy of the marriage license from 7 July 1906.
Harry was 21, Marguerite was about to turn 21. He was in New Orleans to attend Soule Business College, but it looks like he also spent his time as a musician in the many jazz clubs of the French Quarter. She was a vaudeville actress at the time, and Harry was renting a room in the boarding house operated by her mother at 708 Carondelet. We were able to walk by the house during our October 2023 visit to New Orleans.
 |
| Photo by Patrick Jones. 700 block Carondelet. 27 Oct 2023. |
Harry filed for divorce in 1911. Meanwhile Marguerite remarried briefly, and Harry then married my great-grandmother Blanche in February 1912. She was working as a stenographer at Bankers' National Bank in Evansville, and perhaps met at one of Harry's performances in the city.
 |
| Photo by Patrick Jones. Alexandria. 21 Feb 2023. |
Resharing a photo from three years ago this week. Early spring then, and we're ready for it now. The forecast calls for a winter storm tomorrow into Monday. Hopefully this is the last one of the season.
Posts over the next few weeks may be really random, jumping from family group to another, topic to another, and generally all over the map. Partly that's because some of these posts are pre-loaded with travel coming up. In the first part of March I will be in India. I'm also following virtual RootsTech on a time delay. Anyway, this is to share that 1) I'm ready for this long winter to end, and 2) travel in the beginning of March is going to make some of my posts appear to be "off" or pre-loaded. And they will be.
