A Night at the Oscars!

Everyone is getting excited about the upcoming 83rd annual Academy Awards ceremony to take place on February 27, 2011! I know because I've spotted a number of invitations for my cone buddies come in the mail lately.


With the lovely Anne Hathaway hosting this year's show - I know I can watch it for hours and hours and hours... and root for my buddies to win!

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Mr. OCHA Sex

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Mrs. OCHA Sex

Best Animated Feature: OCHA Man

Best Animated Short Film: Cappy Says Hello!

Best Costume Design: There She Is, Miss America!

Best Foreign Language Film: Introducing Multo-Cone

Best Makeup: Kiss Cone Gene Simmons

Best Original Song: Cones, Glorious Cones!

Best Picture: The Birth of Little Iggy

Best Sound Mixing: Fat Bottomed Cones

Best Visual Effects: Cappy Says Hello!


Everybody is all abuzz about who will win an OsCHA award!

The Great Photo Reveal!

It took some head-scratching and some deductive logic and a couple plain guesses - but I think my lost cousin and my newly discovered lead have worked out nearly all of the whom is whom's in the 1911 photograph of my grandmother's family.


1) Thomas Sr. (my grandmother's grandfather)
2) his wife Mary

3) Thomas Jr. (31 - age at the time of the picture)
4) his wife Dorothy (they married in 1911)

5) Samuel (29) (my lost cousin's grandfather)
6) his wife Hannah and their son:
7) - Samuel Jr. (1)

8) William Spence (27) (my g-grandfather that was killed at the railroad crossing)
9) his wife Margaret and their children:
10) - Edith Anna (3) (my grandmother)
11) - William (1)
12) - William's twin Mary/Margaret (1)
Note: my Aunt Eleanor that lived in Chula Vista, California was not born yet at the time of the picture taken in 1911.

13) Margaret (25)
14) her husband Mr. Johnston and their children
15) - Edward (4) (we aren't sure which is which between #15/16)
16) - Charles (3)
17) - Herbert (0)

18) James (22)
19) George (19)
20) Edwin (17) (My newly discovered lead! Another lost cousin! - Robert McClurken's father)
21) Howard (14)
22) Raymond (10)

In all, Thomas McClurken had 8 sons and 1 daughter.

Now to work on this picture!

Forgotten Folks

Some of you may remember my quest to find some information about my great-grandfather McClurken's death at a railroad crossing that I wrote about here.

Today, I was pleasantly surprised when my lost cousin sent me this picture of my father's mother's family taken around 1912(?) or so. She and I are now trying to identify who is who (whom is whom?) and have pulled out all the stops to try to find out.


My grandmother's grandfather is the gentleman on the far left with the bushy mustache. His name was Thomas McClurken (1851-1928). Thomas was the first of his (many) brother's to come to America. He came to American about 1868 and was apprenticed to a tailor. He made several trips back and forth to Ireland.

His wife, Mary Spence McClurken (1858-1928) is the fourth person to his left. I believe my grandmother is the little girl with the big white bow sitting next to her. My great-uncle William was a twin - and I think he is the boy on the far right sitting in his father's lap (the father's name is also a William and he is the man that was killed at the railroad crossing, 1884-1924). The woman with very dark hair to the left of the both of the 'Williams' is the older William's wife, Margaret (1878-?).

Little William's twin, Margaret is the girl on the far left sitting in Thomas' lap.

G-Uncle William later married a Margaret - so you can see why it gets confusing. :)

So... who are the rest of this large lot?

Thomas and Mary had nine children -

Thomas Jr. (1880-?), Samuel (1882-1922), William Spence McClurken, Margaret (who married a Johnston) (1886-1928), James (1888-1958), George (1892-?), Edwin (1894-?), Howard (1897-?), and Raymond (1901-1958).

Going by age, I think the man seated on the floor is Thomas Jr. The man standing in the upper right is Samuel. Beyond that - I've nothing but unsupported guesses. Fortunately, today I discovered a lead on someone that might know! - so we are going to try to find out.

This is the first glimpse I have ever had of any of my grandmother's family beyond her siblings! My lost cousin promises to send me two more photos. I can hardly wait!

How Pittsburg got its "h" back...

Pittsburgh, named by General John Forbes in honor of Sir William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham (15 November 1708 – 11 May 1778), has officially ended in an ‘h’ since its founding in 1758 with the exception of the time period from 1890-1911.

In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison formed a committee to “normalize” the spelling of towns formulated the following rules – and that reulted in things we see today -

a) The avoidance, so far as seems practicable, of the possessive form of names.
(b) The dropping of the final “h” in the termination “burgh.”
(c) The abbreviation of “borough” to “boro.”
(d) The spelling of the word “center” as here given.
(e) The discontinuance of the use of hyphens in connecting parts of names.
(f) The omission wherever practicable of the letters “C.H.” (Court House) after the names of county seats.
(g) The simplification of names consisting of more than one word by their combination into one word.
(h) The avoidance of the use of diacritic characters.
(i) The dropping of the words “city” and “town” as parts of names.

The proud citizens of Pittsburgh, considering their town an obvious historical exception to this ruling, refused to give in to the Board's ruling and mounted a campaign to keep the traditional spelling. Twenty years later, in 1911, the Board finally relented and restored the 'h' to Pittsburgh.

To this day people remain confused.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is not the only Pittsburg(h) in the nation. There's even a tiny town in North Dakota that spells it with the "h".