This past week has been an adventure in life to say the least.

We received the phone call that none one wants to get on April 26, 2012 that one of my mothers younger brothers had passed from this life from a short illness. Although for those involved I am sure it was a very long and hard experience and my heart does go out to them with love.

 Chester Niles Terrill Sr. was born on 8 February 1943 in Cleveland Ohio. He is the second son of Walter I. and Arleen L. Beach Terrill. Chester grew up in Kirtland Ohio and attended Kirtland Sr. High School and graduated from there in 1961. He then joined the United States Navy. He served honorably from 1966 to 1971.

The stats are just part of this mans life. I am proud and blessed to call Chester my uncle. I can tell so many stories, but a few that really stand out in my memory. I remember the ride he took me on in his Vet………vrooooooommm, I think that was the only time (snicker) I ever went over 90! Half scared to death and yet so excited that I was going that fast and in a vet with my Uncle!

OH and there was time when we were living with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Chester was still at home and I was small. The family had tried and tried to get me to tie my shoes, I think they knew I could do it, but just didn’t want to. Uncle Chester was working in the basement, one needed to wear shoes down there, and I had bugged him to let me come down stairs with him. He came up stairs and made a bargain with me. If I would tie my shoes before he got down stairs I could come down with him. I remember the challenge and I remember getting my shoes tied and I remember  getting to spend time with my uncle down stairs, but what I don’t recall is what my mother told me, I had my shoes tied before he even got to the landing going to the basement. I guess they were right I knew how to tie my shoes I just didn’t want to.

There are many more memories, that will keep me company when I think of Uncle Chester. He was laid to rest on May 1, 2012 in Kinsman Ohio. He will indeed be missed.

On May 5 finds us again in North East Ohio, this time in Geneva on the Lake, Ashtabula Co. For a much happier occasion.
The marriage of my cousin David M. Terrill  (second son of Chester and Sheila Terrill) and his lovely fiancé Jessica Thompson.  It was a wonderful time spent with family and friends. They picked a wonderful venue for a wedding. They ceremony was on the Lake Erie water front at the Geneva Lodge. It was a beautiful sunny spring day, although it was rather blustery, the white caps made it seem as if they were at the ocean front.

The reception was great and a good time was had by all.

I wish them a life full of joy, happiness and most of all the courage to stick to each other even when the times are hard and they don’t see a way out. There is always something better after the storm and to share it together makes them stronger as a couple.  Congratulations and God Bless you both!

With all of this traveling back and forth, living in SE Michigan as I do, and thinking about family we thought we needed to do a bit of genealogy too. So Mom and I decided we needed to get photos of her great grandfathers home in Geneva Ohio. We were told that it still stood, but no one knew were exactly it was in Geneva, just that it is rumored to still be standing. At the wedding we were thinking, that we probably would not find it and it would just be to daunting of a task to drive the streets of Geneva trying to find it. Mom does have a photo and remembered what it looked like, but things have changed in Geneva much in the last 100 yrs. So we kind of gave up and went to bed, figuring the only trip we would take was to the cemetery where her parents and my dads parents are buried to get photos of their stones.  I woke up about 5:30 am and thought well silly if you find them in the census it should have a street name! So that morning we checked out ancestry.com to find grandpa Wesley Beach. We found him in the 1900 Census, another road block, we couldn’t read the street it was all black . So we got directions to the street prior to theirs on the census. When we got to town, we turned on Main Street and then we were to turn on Chestnut Street, and guess what we found on Chestnut Street!

Wesley L. Beach Home Geneva, Ohio

Mom said STOP that is it! So we stopped and talked to a couple working on their yard across the street. Then the woman of this house came out to find out what was going on. She told us that her home was actually the Carriage House from the big house two doors down that was moved from the back of the property and converted into a house in 1929. I don’t know if it remained part of the property at that time or  as a new lot and home. So this is where grandpa kept his carriage(s) and horses. So now with new excitement we walked down the street to check out the larger house that was the homestead.  Mom checked it out and said it looked very much like the photo that she had with the family on the porch, but that this one now did not have the ginger bread on the eaves and it is side and the porch was now covered.

To the right is the picture of the front of the house, I have checked into the stats for this house. It is now a multi residential dwelling with four bedrooms and two baths and over 2,000 sq feet. It a beautiful home and it looks like it has been well-loved and taken care of.  How fun it would be to own an ancestral home such as this!  What a thrill it was to stand where family once lived and raised a family.  To sense the closeness of family one never knew.

This indeed was a week of family some sad and some very much fun!

Mom and I in front of Grandpa Wesley’s Home Geneva Ohio

Happy Hunting!