shugg – Sheetar.com

Sepia Saturday 289: Hotels, Illustrations, Design

By Sheetar 4 August 2015 4 August 2015

I’m a few days late getting my entry together for Sepia Saturday, but better late than never, right? I didn’t have anything quite as lovely as the hotel postcard from the prompt image, but I thought a postcard of a lovely palace in Germany. The Schloss Philippsruhe is located in Hanau, Germany where Gordon Shugg was stationed in the Army. Gordon Thomas Shugg married Alberta “Bessie” Lee Efird December 13, 1952 in this very palace as per the postcard which reads,

19 June
Dear Olga –
Think I sent you a card from Englind. Back in Germany again now. Visited with Aunt’s in England and saw the queen. This is a picture of the castle where we were married Dec 13 “52”
Love
Bess & Gordon

The postmark indicates this was sent June 21, 1954 from the Army Postal Service. Gordon Shugg was in the Army during WWII and afterwards, finally retiring as a CWO4. As for the rest of his life story, he was born to Bessie (Battin, sister to my great-great grandmother) and Arnold Shugg on 10 Jan 1905 in Plympton, Devon, England. In 1911, he arrived in the USA with his mother, brother, and father. Gordon is listed as married and living with Bessie and their 4 year old daughter, Mary, on the 1940 census, so I’m not sure why they say they were married in 1952 in Germany. Perhaps there’s a good story there that I haven’t found yet! Gordon and Bess returned home from Germany in 1955, though their daughter doesn’t show on the passenger manifest. I suppose it’s possible Mary stayed home with other family while her parents were away. Gordon died young, at age 56, on 2 Oct 1961 in Virginia. My postcard from Bess and Gordon isn’t nearly as old as the pictured hotel postcard, but it brought me a bit of genealogical data and a new mystery to work out!

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 255: Children, train sets, crafts, silhouettist, dogs, family groups

By Sheetar 22 November 2014 18 November 2014

For many of the prompt images for Sepia Saturday, I see the image and immediately think of a photo that fits. This one was a little more difficult. I have no artists like Eveline Maydell in my tree (that I know of) and no photos that jumped out at me as having the same feel. The one below kind of came close to the feel of the photo, even though mine is a perfectly posed family photo. It’s a bit of a departure from the prompt image, but it’s still Sepia and Saturday!

The image is just about an 8×10, mounted on heavy boad with the photographer’s studio name embossed in gold, “Lipp Studio,” in Philadelphia, PA. The studio doesn’t exist anymore, but even without that hint, my great grandma Olga labelled the photo, “Mother’s sister, husband, Maurice & Gordon, Shugg Family.” Bessie looked much the same throughout her life, so it’s been pretty easy to pick out photos that she’s in anyway, and this is no exception. Bessie Battin was born in Lawhitton, Cornwall, England in 1870. After marrying Arnold Shugg in 1900, she came to the US with her husband and two children in 1911, almost 20 years after her sister (my 2nd great grandmother Jessie) arrived. They settled in Philadelphia, PA about a 5 hour drive away from where Jessie and her family lived. The sisters appeared to have kept in close contact, exchanging photos over the years, and Jessie’s daughter Olga even visited Philadelphia to see Maurice Shugg and his wife, Mildred Pruden. Marurice (the older boy in the photo) and Mildred never had children, but Gordon (the younger boy) had a child, Mary, who married Joseph Delphidio. I don’t have a lot of information on the descendants of Bessie and Arnold, but I apparently have a few fourth cousins floating around somewhere, related via Bessie.

As for the book Bessie is holding, all I can make out is that it says, “Record,” on the front and is very well worn. As far as a date goes, Gordon was born in 1905, and they arrived in 1911, so something like 1915 sounds about right. If you happen to stumble across this photo and are related to the Shugg family, please get in touch!

Genealogy

A House in Plympton

By Sheetar 23 December 2012 23 December 2012

A house in Plympton was all I knew about the photo above before I started doing some digging. The photo had fortunately been labelled with an address, so it at least gave me something to go on. First, I went to Google maps to see if I could look up the address and see if it’s still there on street view. 9 Moorland View, Plympton, UK, resolved to 9 Moorland Ave and the houses on the street all looked about the same, and beyond that it looks like the street had been reunumbered at one point. GREAT. One of the houses had a little plaque with “1899” above the door which helped me a little more. If the homes were built in 1899, it’s likely that the 1901 or 1911 England censuses would be able to tell me who those two children are on the front steps.

The 1901 census pretty much told me the address didn’t exist then. Okay, fine, on to 1911, which found the 9 Moorland Ave address via the address search on the census page. I went to ancestry.com to check out the census images and sure enough, 9 Moorland View, Plympton, UK was the home to Bessie (Battin) Shugg and her sons Maurice and Gordon Shugg in 1911. Bessie was the sister of my great-great grandmother, Jessie (Battin) Powis. This was likely taken around 1911, before they left for the USA. Bessie’s husband, Arnold Shugg, left for the USA in 1906, so he doesn’t show up on the 1911 census.

I’m counting this find as a small victory because I had a pretty large piece of information to go on – the address. Still, it’s neat to be able to link the photo to a house that still exists, and the people who lived there.