Gratitude & Little Henry

After somewhat of a drought this summer, I'm happy to report I've felt a :: RUSH :: of creativity over the last week or so, and have been busily working in my art journals, being open to the process and letting the creativity f.l.o.w.

I also attribute my continued affection toward art journaling to the amazing wealth of inpiration I find in my artist friends:

• Effy Wild
• Samie Kira
• Stephanie Gagos
• Tamara Laporte

..spending time catching up on their amazing work through their blogs, facebook groups and social websites on NING. Please take a moment to see the WEALTH of information, classes, youtube tutorials, workshops & private coaching that some of them offer!! 

And here's my latest spread about my 17 year-old father's favorite photography subject: his littlest brother, Henry and their family dog circa 1937 ~

Preserving History

This is another creative outlet that truly "speaks my name." In addition to taking pictures, I seem to thrive when editing/tweaking and especially restoring them! I'm certain part of that equation is the sentimentalist AND the preservationist in me.

I began to realize my affinity for restoration when I made the domino photo pendant, above, for a friend to give to her mom for Mother's Day, in May 2010. (This service is available through my Etsy shop)

As the self-appointed family genealogist and photo curator I've documented up to 120 ancestors on my family tree at Ancestry.com (always a work-in-progress), added 80 photos which include FIVE great-grandparents and restored over 100 photos. I'd love to share another very precious photo restoration completed today. A hand-painted photo on porcelin, of my mother, age 3 from 1926.

Farquhar Family: Julia

Our dear grandmother was an actress & a performer at heart, illustrated by her glamorous pose and the "come-hither" expression in her eyes. Having a great sense of humor, no doubt she was simply joking around for the camera!!

At her happiest on stage, julia was born in an era where good methodist girls did NO SUCH THING! And although I can easily imagine she had dreams of bigger stages, I am grateful that she was able to satisfy at least PART of those dreams by devoting as much time as possible singing in the choir, also as a soprano soloist, acting in church plays, performing piano recitals and even accompanying a silent film or two, I've been told.

PERFORMANCE was the breath in her body, the light in her eyes and the fire in her heart. Sadly she was tied down with 4 young children by the time she was 30 and dealt with much stress and strife in her homelife throughout the decades. I have a strong feeling there was alot more beneath the surface, a true ARTIST, if anyone took the time to really know her. I love her and acknowledge her bright spark and the creative juices that flowed through her veins.

Thank you, mimi, for that part of you... inside of me. XO

Butchers, Mummers & Baseball

...are all part of my family's legacy in the greater Philadelphia/NJ area specifically referring to my grandmother, Julia Kelly Cook's father (she eventually marries into the Farquhar clan) and her three brothers, all pictured below.

A copy of a copy, and still legible, is this article from an unknown Gloucester, NJ periodical of an unknown date, yet it's clearly one of my favorite pieces of family ephemera. Not because it's about an entire town's gratitude for my (paternal great-grandfather's) family's contributions - though that's certainly, quite SPECIAL - but because it gives me a clear sense of

who they were,
what they did,
and what they loved
... all in 1900!

Charles Sr, center, with a hat, surrounded by his family!

Charles Sr is absent from this photo but his three sons are here along with his daughter & his wife. Harry is in the bottom row, next to his sister (my grandmother, Julia), Charles Jr. is in the back row on the right and Martin is next to him. My grandfather, Joseph Willis Farquhar, their brother-in-law, is next to martin. Just behind Julia is Charles Sr's wife, Anna, mother of those amazing children!

(Cook is not only my father's mother's maiden name, of German origin & initially spelled K-O-C-H but also my married name, which is Romanian & spelled C-O-C-A.)

Proud to be an American circa 1858

During an annual visit to my favorite aunt (NJ sept 2009), I was able to photograph the document which granted American Citizenship to my great-great grandfather, Thomas Edward Farquhar.

The first few lines read, "BE REMEMBERED that at a Court of Common Pleas _ Camden, in and for the County of Camden, and State of New Jersey, in the United States of America, on the twenty eighth day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and fifty eight, Thomas Farquhar, a native of Ireland, exhibited a petition, praying to be admitted to become a citizen of the United States..."

Citizenship granted 28, Jan 1858

Laura Farquhar Reeve, self-portrait

This is how much I love her!

She has been the inspiration behind my passion for genealogy and, to date, I have 69 people in my family tree and a similar number of corresponding vintage family photos!

19th century sisters: augusta, alice and edna

a photo bycookievf on Flickr.

...also known as "GUS, PETE and TED!" The nicknames were affectionately given to these three sisters by their father ~ who was hoping for boys! Happily, after Alice came Bruce, then Scott and finally Helen.. and my great grandfather was pleased and to some degree, relieved. He now had two sons to continue the family's business of manufacturing wood lacquers and stains, which they did. So successfully in fact, that the reins were eventually passed on to the 3rd and 4th generations, becoming world-renowned particulary in the music business (guitar lacquers, stains & finishes) at the very same Philadelphia location, where it continued until 2009, for 135 years!

Alice, my maternal grandmother, lived 99 years and 10 months and has been my SPECIAL guardian angel watching closely over me since 1995.

A new chapter has been added to this wonderful McFadden family tree. In my quest to research family genealogy, I have just located one of Edna's granddaughters and we're sharing photos, stories. documents and are now linked with another 2nd cousin on Facebook!

Approx 1915 ~ my great uncle, Scott McFadden, with a company truck

Heaven Has A Special Angel Today

Alsace Region (Mulhouse, Neuchatel, Strasbourg, Bonne) and Paris, FRANCE. Bone, TUNISIA. New York City, NY. These are the places that my husband's grandmother, Margot, lived before a long, arduos journey with her family to America where they finally settled in Connecticut.

She was 99.

Her involuntary (and frightening) exodus began when Nazi Germany invaded her hometown in France and she had to make her SOLO escape on foot... ☆ PREGNANT ☆ and caring for her very young daughter, my mother in law! In her words, "I had to leave our home, everything, with a baby in my arms, a baby in my belly and a RUCKSACK on my back for milk and diapers!" This AMAZING WOMAN had to travel alone before she could be reunited, with the help of the Red Cross, meeting up with her husband in the south of france! Soon afterwards, they continued their terrifying journey to make the crossing to Algeria, quite possibly on one of the last ships leaving the country for an African destination.

In Bonne, Algeria near the border of Tunisia, they moved in with cousins and though his grandfather took on horribly demeaning jobs to make ends meet (grave digger & more), they barely had barely enough to eat. Another troubling story I have been told was when Margot's mother Alice (a Le Cordon Blue graduate who was employed as a chef by the author, Edna Ferber in NYC) sent them a shipment of basic food and necessessities. When the authorities destroyed the packages upon inspection, the family was forced to separate the dried beans and peas from the powdered soap by hand! A story that has been told and retold over 6 decades to her descendants!

It feels good to write about it here; to be able to release some of the pain and who knows how many untold stories, out into the world... to set it free as she has been sent home to her Creator <3>

Less than 20 years after they arrived, her husband died of heart disease/high blood pressure at the age 58. Happily, my husband was 12 years old and can still treasure MANY wonderful memories of his loving grandfather. Margot was often known to repeat "he was the TRUE LOVE of my life!"

While writing tonight, I asked my husband to recall some of his childhood memories and he just said "I was very close to my grandfather who loved to take me places and I often spent the night with them. Family gatherings revolved around food & cooking! This was central to the 4 women: my mother, my aunt, my grandmother and my great-grandmother who were always in the kitchen... for hours, preparing fine French dishes. Of course, this was followed by hours spent around the dining room table EATING!" He said, "I remember that my grandmother loved showing me off when out to dinner for my birthday because the waiters were impressed by my menu selections." He was under the age of 10!

I have to close these stories of family memories, food and love, by saying that as I was typing, my husband was IN THE KITCHEN cooking an incredibly delicious shrimp scampi for dinner! It's in the genes ~ lucky me!

Many joys and a long, rich life followed. Tonight we are saying a prayer for this family's deep loss. Kiss someone you love tonight ~ we are all only here for a short while XO

A Family's Pride for "Our" WWII Veteran

A little background history on naval aviation in the US:

By the end of WWI, Naval Aviation had firmly established itself as a premier fighting force for our country. At this time, approximately 100 pilots were being trained each month. As the nation entered into WWII, Naval Aviation and Pensacola was again called upon to produce the much needed flight crews to support the war effort. Naval Aviator production grew to over 1000 pilots a month and the Navy's aircraft inventory swelled to over 130,000 aircraft and during 1944, NAS Pensacola trained an all time high of 12,010 pilots that year. It is said that the War in the Pacific was largely won by the heroic actions of Naval Aviators aboard the carriers that wages war both at sea and during the island campaigns supporting the Marines and Army ground forces.

His story:

After college, my father joined the Navy and waited to be called. Upon graduation from Springfield College, with a degree in Phys.Ed., he returned to his hometown in New Jersey and taught the same while coaching Basketball. I recently learned that during this same time, in addition to teaching and coaching, he also travelled the short distance to Philadelphia and was a dance instructor (in his spare time) for Arthur Murray Dance Studio.

When dad was called up, he was selected for Naval Air Primary Flight Training Command, studying long and hard over the next 9 months, to become a pilot. He studied at some of the top universities on the east coast and was eternally grateful for what he called, "a million dollar education!"


Following several months deliberation, it was determined that dad's graduating class would not be needed for active duty, as our military successes increased and there was no longer a need to replace our downed pilots. My father would become a (fighter plane) Flight Instructor. Having gotten his wings, my parents could now go forward with their plans to be married. What a relief my mother must've experienced to learn her new husband would remain stateside and they could live off-base together!


... and they lived happily ever after, married for almost 60 years - xo

100 year old photo FOUND!

Happily digging through a "new" box of my dad's photographs and things, I unearthed another very special TREASURE! A large (9" x 5.5") Atlantic City Boardwalk souvenir frame around a beautiful, silver gelatin photo postcard of my

paternal grandmother.

If I'm correct, and Julia Kelly Cook is in her late teens or early twenties, then the date would be about 1910.

"J.A. Walk Studios"
Boardwalk ----- 834 Arch St
Atlantic City ----- Philadelphia

Happy Father's Day!

My father was a very special man.

Born 1920 in Brooklyn, NY, John "Jack" Charles Farquhar grew up in Gloucester and Haddonfield, New Jersey. His parents were well-respected in the community and founding members of the methodist church. They were second and third generation immigrants from Scotland and from Germany and those ancestors, like so many, worked their fingers to the bone to ensure that the successive generations THRIVED! For that I am eternally greatful.

In my father's family there was a shoemaker, a seamstress and several business owners: Philadelphia - a few butchers, a whiskey distillery, a textile dye house, a weaving mill for paisley scarves both here and in glasgow, scotland. New Jersey: a bakery in gloucester city, NJ, a grocery store and even a mayor, Samuel T. Murphy, who was also a member of the New Jersey State House of Assembly, Camden County in 1877. (my father's father's mother's father!)

My father was the middle child of five and quickly became a favorite son and brother with his sweet, easy-going nature. A much beloved child, he was filled with confidence and an extremely positive outlook which he maintained throughout the course of his lifetime, spanning 85 years. In addition to his great physical beauty, I can assure you, everyone who came in contact with him sensed his INNER beauty as well!

Dad was a star scout in the Boy Scouts, an accomplished gymnast, baseball and football player, popular with his classmates and voted Class President in his senior year at Haddonfield High School at the tender age of 16!

During the depression years, his parents scraped and saved so that he could attend Springfield College, MA as a Physical Education major. Dad was captain of the (exhibition) gym team, travelling extensively throughout the east coast performing highly stylized routines with a Triple Balance team and the team as a whole. Thanks to his "pack rat" nature, I have his scrapbook from college, his 16 year old Diary, dance cards, post cards along with BOXES of photos and have developed a clear picture of my father as a young man, of which I am extremely proud.

To understand why I have hesitated to write anything in any great detail about my father's life before today, take a look at this list of his interests/accomplishments:

knot tying, astronomy, camping, tree identification, gardening, growing roses, gymnastics, cub/boy scouts, acrobatics, senior HS class president, editor of HS/Camp/Church newspaper, cartoonist, crossword puzzle design, wordsmith, limericks, cloud patterns, Springfield College NEAAU - Tumbling Champion with a silver medal in 1941 and a gold medal in 1939, pilot, flight instructor, squaredance caller, dance instructor, lettered in both HS and college sports, camp counselor, circus acrobat, captain of college gym team, HS basketball coach, ballroom dancer, jazz aficionado, educational jazz radio show host (with parkinson's disease in his late 70's), competition badminton player, senior olympic SILVER MEDALIST (with parkinson's disease in his mid 70's), emcee, learned to ski at age 60, ski instructor to my brother and I (at age 61), spun records for college parties, jazz piano, big band jazz, classical music, "night course" teacher of Jazz Appreciation, son, friend, brother, father, husband, uncle, grandfather...

More pictures and stories to follow!

~ end of Part I ~

hiking near his home in VT with ever-present camera bag

I've been told...

....that I am a very sentimental person and, I suppose, that is why so many posts are reminiscences! Today is no exception!

June 2, 1945 my parents were married SIXTY YEARS AGO today. Even though my dad passed away in 2005, I still call my mom to let her know that I'm thinking of her and have told her I will always celebrate this day in my heart, forever!

They left quite a legacy of love that I'm blessed to be a part of.

I am back to more scanning/restoration of treasured family and ancestor pics. here's one from yesterday..

Treasure found! - I always WISHED I could find a pic of my parents dancing, and surprise! Both of them were "clear-the-floor" ballroom dancers in their day. An accomplished gymnast, Dad taught dance at sumer camp in Maine when he was only 19 years old. He also taught square dancing in the philadelphia area throughout my childhood. Mom, 86, recently told me there was NO WAY she was going to marry a man who couldn't dance ~ and boy, did he have the moves!! ♥

DECIDE that each day will be a good day and that you'll be in a good mood.

That's right, you can decide.

DECIDE that you'll sing, smile, laugh and dance more often.

DECIDE to make this a rewarding year filled with things and people you love.

Some of my happiest holiday memories:

HAPPY 2010 TO YOU!

treasures found!

Willis and Julia

Joseph E. Farquhar

The Samuel T. Murphy family

Julia Cook

Julia and Friends

Anna and Charles

The Family Historian: Me!

Meet my great-great grandparents:
Alice St.Clair & Winfield Scott Sterner -
born in 1840's. Pic taken approx. late 1860's



Some recent "Digi - Play!"

I have always been fas-ci-nated with my ancestors ever since I was a child.

what were they like?
where did they live?
how did their lives differ from mine?
what were their struggles?
whose NOSE do I have?
what was it like to live without electricity?
and why is great-grandmother's rocking chair SO SMALL?

I was a piece of work! (my poor mom)

At 3 years old I begged my grandmother to tuck me into bed with stories of what it was like when SHE was a little girl! Lucky me! So, whenever my brother and I came for a visit, she would lull me off to sleep while fondly recalling her childhood days! (The picture, above, is of her mother's mother) Born in 1893 in Lynchburg, VA, my grandmother Alice had 7 siblings, sadly 2 of them died when they were young, a few chickens and a nanny who cooked for the family and helped with all those children! "Nanny" as she was affectionatly called, remained with them for decades, until she retired. Grandmother's father was in the furniture trade, which is why he moved to Lynchberg with his young, but growing family. When Alice was still very young, his ambitions required them to move again and they travelled to Philadelphia where he became a very successful businessman. (see "freehand freedom" post for a link. His business still exists TODAY!) She told me wonderful stories of this large, happy family and two parents who were very much in love. Weekly dinners with extended family were their custom and because of that, my mother (now 85) can recall in vivid detail, many of Nanny's special dishes. Among them fried chicken, peas with fresh cream and bread pudding.

Random web pics: 1929 Packard all-weather Town Car. A house in my grandmother's childhood neighborhood - Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia, PA

Those memories along with stories of a lifestyle entirely foreign to me, such as, "How The Butler Was Caught Stealing Daddy's Liquor" (and how mother was horrified when she found out he fired him on the spot). "The Christmas That Daddy Surprised Mother with a Packard." And the ever popular "Why People Thought Mother Was A Catholic" (because her driver parked the car in front of St.Mary's while she was at the library.) I had the kind of bedtime stories that little girls dream about. I'm sure this laid the groundwork for my childhood dreams of fairy tales and princesses!

Standing in front of my grandparent's house - 1958.

Close-up of the inquisitive one! Middle name: Alice.

Namesake of the storyteller, my grandmother Alice

and of my gr-great grandmother, Alice - above.

The only reason I am in posession of such a TREASURE TROVE of information... is because I have always asked!