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Showing posts from 2016

Rest In Peace ~ Letty Arvada "Vada" Carnes

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b. July 7, 1946   d. June 10, 2016 On June 17, 2016 we attended two celebrations of life. One was for Vada. I have known Vada and her husband almost as long as I have been married to my husband. Vada's husband worked with my husband. Vada was always happy, she had a smile which made you smile too, even if you weren't in the mood. She was always truly happy to see you, you could see her eyes light up! After I first met her, I tended to see her mostly at the cleaners where she worked. Later on we would see each other at our husband's functions with work. Occasionally we would run into them around town, mostly at a restaurant. The last time we saw her, several months ago, was indeed in a restaurant! We caught up with each others family and also quickly learned she had some health issues. Vada and her husband had two children, a son, a daughter, and 5 grandchildren. They were dedicated to their family. Along with raising their own children, they helped rais

Rest in Peace ~ Benedito "Ben" John Chianfichi

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b. Jan 15, 1929 d. May 18, 2016 Ben was married to my aunt, Julianne Lundberg for 52 years. She passed away in April 2008. They had three children, my cousins. Ben was in the National Guard, he was a cook. He enjoyed good meals and after graduating college with a degree in business, he became the owner and operator of Radder Dallas Food Brokerage Company. He loved to golf and belonged to the Buchannan Fields Golf Club. My father, Duane Lundberg also belonged to this club. I can only image the fun they had together out on the course! Ben and I met for breakfast one morning after after my aunt passed away. It was a great visit, and I am so glad we were able to do that, it leaves me with good memories. Before he moved to live with his daughter and granddaughter, I used to call him once in a while to see how he was doing. Ben's services were June 10, 2016 in a catholic church in the town where he had lived. The highlight for me was when his granddaughter sang a song

Rest In Peace ~ Francis "Lynn" Block

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Francis "Lynn" Block Jan 25, 1949 ~ May 1, 2016 Lynn, as she was commonly called, has been a family friend from day one. Our daughter's grew up together, went to the same High School and played softball together. As time went on, most of our daughters were married, and proceeded to have their own families.  My husband and Lynn's husband went to High School together (which happens to be the same High School our daughter's attended years later). They played sports together and attended major sporting events. In fact, they bowl together now! Lynn worked as a dental hygenist for several years but eventually started a home day care, and was always busy! My grandchildren were blessed to have been a part of this day care. She was so great with the kids and truly cared about them. As the kids have grown, our grandsons now play baseball in the same league.  Lynn loved to quilt. She had a great group of family and friends she quilted with on a regular

Rest In Peace ~ Ronald Lester Knott

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b. April 11, 1946 d. April 15, 2016 Lifelong Livermore resident Ron Knott passed away, at the age of 70, after a hard-fought battle with esophageal cancer. Ron will be remembered as a kind, gentle man, a beloved father and a loving husband- the kind of person you come across once in a lifetime.  Ron graduated from Livermore High School, earned his Bachelor's degree from San Francisco State University and served his country as a pilot in the United States Naval Reserve, receiving an honorable discharge in 1969. Ron approached his roles as husband, father, and grandfather with a steady love and tenderness that, while unassuming, knew no bounds. Ron will forever be loved by his wife Pam, his children Adam and Jessica, step-daughters Dana and Jill, his grandchildren Olivia, Michael, Adrian, Elijah, Emmy, and Zoey, siblings Don and Kay, as well as countless friends and family members. Ron graduated from Livermore High School, earned his Bachelor's degree f

Are the Söderlunds Related To The Lundberg's?

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Some time ago I learned Erik August Söderlund was buried not far from where I live. If you remember this is the man who raised my grandfather when he came to the United States as a boy. I do not remember exactly when or how I found out about where Erik was buried, but I believe it was from my cousin Jan in Sweden. It has taken me a lot longer than planned to head over to the Cemetery to see his grave site. A couple of weeks ago my husband and I decided to take a nice, relaxing ride in the Corvette to Modesto, Caifornia. Our intentions were to stop at a sporting goods store (for him) and go to the cemetery, Acacia Memorial Park (for me). I must say, out of all the corvettes I have owned (5) this one has the nicest ride, ever! We made our stop at the sporting goods store and purchased what my husband was looking for. Then we headed to the cemetery. We found it on the left side of the road, it was hugh! So many entries and exits throughout the property. When we reached the e

Sweet Reba

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May 2nd sweet, sweet Reba crossed over Rainbow Bridge. She was blessed to have the most wonderful vet, Dr. Nick at Blackhawk Veterinary Hospital. Reba was also blessed to have my daughter, Jenn, a vet tech and manager at Blackhawk Veterinary Hospital. Because of them she had a comfortable life even though she had health issues. My husband and I were blessed to have her and give her a comfortable and loving home for the last couple years o f her life. She first came to our home for a doggie vacation (I was the doggie sitter) for for a week.  About a year later, she needed a home. She was 12 when she came back to our house as a Foster dog. She never left. She became our sweet dog "furever" more!  She required a lot of meds and I quickly found that feeding her 4 times a day was best because food wouldn't stick with her. She couldn't get up off the floor on her own, so for three months I stayed downstairs with her, and lifted her hind end when she needed it. O

Birth Places Of My Ancestors

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Thank you to  J Paul Hawthorne , a fellow family historian, for the idea to list the birth places of our ancestors in a chart! It is fun to see in this format!  Notice that I have three "Sweden" boxes with a question mark. My great grandfather's name was not on my grandfather's birth certificate and his father seems to be a mystery. I am however working on uncovering this with the help of DNA!  There are a couple of possibilities at this point which would place each in Sweden, but no concrete proof, yet. But I do have Scandinavian roots, don't I? Thanks for stopping by!   Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts!  Copyright © 2016 Cheryl Palmer All Rights Reserved

A Birthday Gift To You Dad

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Richard "Larry" Fleming March 18, 1936 ~ August 26, 2015 June 21, 1966 The days are tough since you have gone.  Last night I was at a birthday dinner and one gentleman who sat across from me reminded of you. Of course, knowing today is your birthday, I listened to him and watched him even more. Memories came flooding through me. Wonderful, loving, and funny memories.  The family misses you more than you could ever know. You were, and still are, superman to me. You never "told" me what to do, you would say a few simple words, let me make my own decisions and watch me grow. I'm forever grateful for the life and trust you have always given me. During one of our last conversations, I mentioned I wasn't happy with my weight (I hadn't been for many years). In your own typical way, you simply said, "Then why don't you do something about it?"  Period, the end, off to another subject. Of course, coming from you dad, that

Family Tree DNA ~ Lundberg & Westby

Unless you live on the East Coast, how many have heard of a little town in Maine named Bath? If it weren't for my sister and her family moving there (my brother in law became a professor at the college there), I probably wouldn't have ever been aware of Bath. This past year I have been speaking with my husband about visiting the family and seeing this little town on a vacation. The photos I see are absolutely gorgeous! Last month, I received notice that the DNA testing showed a new cousin. I went in to explore, finally, but not a name rang a bell to me.  The cousin supposedly was a 3rd generation cousin, but I do not see family meshing, yet. This is ok, as I have another cousin who was found through the same DNA testing who lives in Finland. He has sent me his tree but I have not find a connection. The problem with that is, my grandfather's father is unknown, so I can't go very far in my tree to find the connection. I did read cousins may have been involved

A Wonderful Surprise!

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My mother was not one to save much of anything. If it was not used anymore, off it went to the trash and further to the dumps. There are many items I wish I still had today, and have felt this was  before I became involved in genealogy. Recently I was removing photos from those ugly sticky photo albums of the 70's that belonged to my mother and father. I thought I had scanned and seen most all of their albums when my mother passed away in 2001. Upon my father's passing last year, several photo albums of theirs came to the surface. When I picked them up, I realized I needed to get the photos out of these albums ASAP. I have my own albums I still need to remove photos from also. I enjoyed pulling them from my parents albums as I had not seen some of the photos before. I spent three and a half hours removing photos from four albums while listening and taking notes from a webinar. (Get in everything I can, make every minute count!)  When I reached the end of the thi