Congratulations to Brian Herdeg and Gina Marzullo on their Wedding, By Pat Kinsella Herdeg, mother of the groom (!)

This past Saturday, June 25th, Brian Herdeg, son of Pat Kinsella Herdeg and grandson of Aunt CB, married his longtime high school sweetheart, Gina Marzullo.

The wedding took place in Brian and Gina’s hometown of Acton, MA—at St. Elizabeth of Hungary’s Catholic Church. The groom—our Brian-- was escorted down the church aisle by his parents, Pat and Glenn Herdeg.

Grandma (Aunt CB), Pat, and Grandpa ( Uncle Jack)



Pat and Brian and Gina and Glenn

The bride—Gina Marie-- looking stunning in her strapless beaded taffeta gown, walked down the aisle arm in arm with her father.

Alison Herdeg, sister of the groom, was a bridesmaid, while Brian’s brother, Nicholas, was a groomsman.

The reception was held at a nearby hotel convention center, and highlights included the great food, dancing-- several uncles were known to spend precious time teaching dance moves to the younger generation, and catching up between relatives.

One of the pinnacles of the night was the first dance, set to ‘Almost Paradise’, a song from ‘Footloose’, the musical both Brian and Gina acted in during high school. Beautifully choreographed by Gina, a longtime dancer and choreographer—even with her long bustled train and the weight of her dress, she and Brian were not deterred—many spins and jumps and fluid moves later, they ended the dance in a kiss.

The night ended with ‘Sweet Caroline’ as the group serenaded Brian and Gina to the Red Sox anthem.

We thank EVERYONE who made it to Brian and Gina’s wedding—it went off so beautifully, and aside from our kitchen faucet exploding the morning of the wedding—it was truly a day to remember in our hearts.

Beginning of the Kinsella photo--check back later for the real thing!

We have lots of photos still to see from cousins, family, friends, so send them along, and I will put them up in a link on the side of the blog.

As Glenn and I shared a glass after the wedding, Glenn toasted to our now four children—Welcome to the family, Gina Marzullo Herdeg!

Prayers for Josh Hart-Wood

Josh and Emma

Josh and Adin

We recently posted here on the cousins blog that Josh Hart-Wood--son of Chic Wood-- and Brandy Kapp welcomed little Adin into the world. His big sister Emma is already helping out with things.

Brandy posted yesterday on facebook that Josh was in a motorcycle accident and was in surgical ICU. She was on her way down to the hospital.

Late last night, she added:

Josh is still in a coma and they are trying to ween him off the sedation to wake him up. He has two fractures to the skull, facial fractures, collar bone fracture, bleeding on the brain, broken and fracture ribs. They are keeping him on the life support currently to help him breathe with all the chest pain. His vitals are looking great and we are just praying he wakes up tomorrow to slowly take him off the breathing tube! It will be a long road to recovery but I am going to be holding his hand each step of the way.Please keep him in your prayers. The kids are at home safe and sound with great family and friends. Please pray for them as well since Mommy isn't there to be with them. And many thankyous, hugs and kisses once again.

We here at the cousin's blog will try to keep you updated, but please do add Josh to your list of prayers!

Harold and Barb Taylor's House By Kathy, MaryLou, Ann and Judy

Our next installment about cousins’ houses! This time, the girls of Uncle Harold have written their memories of their terrific house in Waterloo--

Kathy writes:

We Taylor girls grew up at 2756 Route 96, Waterloo. But when I was in school our address was R.D. #3 Romulus Road. Of course that was fifty plus years ago.

One of my favorite memories was Christmas Day with Grandma and Grandpa Taylor in our living room. We’d get up before daylight (always) and come down stairs with orders of DO NOT LOOK IN LIVING ROOM AROUND THE CORNER GO STRAIGHT TO KITCHEN! Here we would have to wait until 8:00 am to have breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Taylor. We’d try to rush eating but that never worked.

When everyone was finished Dad would go in and set up his movie camera. We would walk in slowly to ooh and aah at the tree with all its presents. Opening presents meant one at a time which usually took all afternoon but we enjoyed every minute of it.

Of course I always had birthday presents wrapped in Christmas paper that got opened that day from one or another relative that could not come for my birthday .And that has never changed to this day.

Another memory I have was the year I think I was 12ish and decided to repaint my bedroom and furniture. My room was going to be lavender and my furniture white. Dad built me a bookshelf headboard for my twin bed. I painted my headboard, my mirror dresser and a five drawer dresser all white. Then I decorated it with my many stuffed animals. I collected a lot in those days (bad habit I still have today)-- I was very excited with the finished room.
Kathleen (Kat) Taylor Mills

Mary Lou writes:

I lived on Romulus Road as a kid in the house on the hill. Many memories come flooding in, but as a child I had a wander lust and roamed the farmers’ fields and spent as many waking hours that I could in the quarry behind the house on the hill. I would sing to the trees and make up stories about fairies in the trees. I was mischievous and adventurous and probably caused Mom all kinds of worry to where the heck I was. I would lose all track of time and sometimes did not come home till dark. It was a magical time for me.

Another memory is being dropped off by the school bus at the bottom of hill and walking up the hill to get home.

None of this should be a surprise to any who knew me. I am still a dreamer and still writing books in my head.

Love to all-----Marylou

Annie writes:

Well when Judy and I were younger we shared a bedroom. The older girls (Kathy and Marylou) had their own rooms. Judy and I would jump on the bed (even though we were told not to)-- then one time we broke the leg catch, were very nervous to tell what happened!

Another good memory was when I used to come down the stairway but was not always walking--I had a tendency to slip and make a loud noise flying through the door and land on bottom. Everyone always knew it was me every time!

Judy and I also had another memory of eating supper at kitchen table--eating LIVER!!! Mom would only give us 3 pieces to eat (not a favorite) but it would take us from 6:30 dinner time till almost 9 p.m. to finish eating them!

Girls should remember doing dishes and having wet towels that we would whip at each others’ bottoms with a snap!!! (Just missing Mom sometimes too). Also when we had pasta or lasagna dinners whipping the noodles at each other-- missing Dad a couple times coming home in back door....

Dad also used to have a workshop to the right of the barn that is there now (before the garage was built). Dad had oil pumps that I can remember in the building that I would check out, plus also other tools.

Also remember the family go-cart and mini bike that we all rode? Dad had built the go-cart and we drove on the road in the woods that Dad mowed for us to drive around! I also remember riding the mini bike with our neighbor and we fell and I burned my leg but covered it up so I wouldn't get yelled at-- bad blistered burn but I did put cold on it.

Judy writes:

I have great memories of tromping through the back woods along the trails that Dad made. They led us to the quarry that is just a bug-ridden pond with lots of pollywogs. It was fun to explore with the dogs. We always had a dog. I was never scared, we could hear Mom call out for us or hear the triangle bell she rang. I also remember when Dad would clear the quarry of snow and we could ice- skate.

I still love the outdoors-- The Pacific Northwest was a great wonderland to explore. Now we get to explore Florida, just as cool.

I so remember "the play-house" It was so much fun to have a place to pretend. We would make-up plays and be silly. The neighbor kids would come over. And of course the "cousins"-- time to hang out. A very fun time to think back on.

I also remember harvest-time and our garden! Wow, as a kid I thought it was as big as a football field. I was in charge of picking beans and cucumbers. Mom would get us up early and put on grubby shoes and bug spray. Out we would go with our buckets. I can remember the assembly line of tomatoes and corn with Mom telling us what to do!!! HaHa, it was a lot of work but the reward of eating the canned veggies was the best.

My love to all, Judy

June Events on the Cousins Blog

Paul Kinsella, son of Tim Kinsella, ran his second marathon on Sunday, June 5th. He ran in the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon and finished with the terrific time of 3:37, taking 20 minutes off of his first marathon time. What a terrific accomplishment! Way to go, Paul.





Paul and Angela Kinsella



Chuck Lochner reports that he just completed a major renovation on an apartment –a two year project—and even in this economy, managed to rent it at premium price. Great job, Chuck!

Patrick Kinsella, son of Chris Kinsella, recently had his First Communion at St. Rose of Lima in North Syracuse.



Patrick Kinsella

We have four graduations to proudly trumpet:


Joe Kinsella
Joe Kinsella, son of Chris Kinsella, graduated June 15th from Kindergarten Prep.


Alex and Sue Kinsella

Alex Kinsella, son of Sue Kinsella, graduated from The Bay School of San Francisco on Friday, June 10th, and heads off to Stanford this fall.




Ted, Brian and Judy Lochner
Brian Lochner, son of Ted Lochner, graduated from David Prouty High School in Spencer, MA.


Ali ( on the right) with two friends
Ali Herdeg, daughter of Pat Kinsella Herdeg, graduated from Dartmouth College on Sunday, June 12th and will begin work at Rand Corporation in Washington, DC later this summer.

Congratulations of ALL of our June Event Makers!!

We are so proud of you all.

Jane Livingston Carson By Pat Kinsella Herdeg and Aunt CB

Here is another look back at one of our amazing ancestors. Jane lived a long and varied life filled with tales of wonder and tragedy. I wish I had known her.

Jane is my great great grandmother on the Taylor side. Jane Livingston married William Carson and their daughter, Emma, married Bryant W. Taylor. My grandfather, Lloyd Taylor, is their son.

Jane, daughter of Adam Livingston and Jane Russell was born in Northern Ireland. She had five brothers and five sisters. Of her ten siblings, William and Letitia ended up in Illinois; Nancy, Martha and Elizabeth went to Glasgow, Scotland.

Jane Livingston was twenty years old when she left Northern Ireland with her brother, William to come to the United States. In 1854, this voyage took five weeks. She suffered from seasickness and every day in fair weather her brother William carried her up to the deck to lie in the sunshine.

Jane spent two years as a maid in New York City before moving to Groveland (near Geneseo, NY) where she again worked as a maid—this time for the Lattimer family. It was in Groveland she met her husband, William Carson. They discovered that, as kids, they had grown up only miles apart in Northern Ireland. One year later -- in 1857 -- they were married.

Jane Livingston Carson and her husband, William--probably their 50th Anniversary picture

William Carson, her husband, came to the United States at age 22 to work as a farm hand in Geneseo, NY. After he and Jane married, they rented land in the area. In 1875, with seven children, they moved to a farm in the Oakfield, NY area where they became active in the Presbyterian Church. They became good friends with Daniel and Cordelia Taylor, and it must have been at church that their daughter, Emma, met the Taylor boy, B.W.

In 1880, Jane and William Carson bought a larger farm they named “Rural View” in West Bethany, NY. The huge horse chestnut tree still standing in back was planted by Jane Livingston Carson.

Jane and William had eight children:

--Albert Livingston Carson was a wanderer. He settled, for a time, in the Chicago area and married.

--Our Emma was next—as we know, she married B.W. Taylor and had an eventful life in
Oakfield, NY. She died at Woodlawn at age 55 after suffering a stroke.

Rural View

A Carson Reunion, Jane near middle

--Mary Elizabeth Carson was the next oldest. Reading through Emma’s journals, Libbie was her favorite sister. She relied heavily on Libbie to help her when her children were born. At age 36, Libbie died of a burst appendix.

--Theodore William Carson married and had two children. At age 43, he was living at Rural View and working it for his parents. He became very sick with pneumonia and after taking too much laudanum (by accident or not?), he died.

--Anna Margaret Carson married and had three children. Her mother Jane lived with her at the end of her life.

Rural View

Jane out in her fields

--George Grant Carson married and lived in Batavia.

--Edward Everett Carson married and had four children. He also farmed in West Bethany. At age 44, suffering many hardships on the farm, he shot himself and died.

--Harry Hayes Carson was the youngest. Again, reading his sister Emma’s journals, I think she always saw Harry—seventeen years her junior—as her kid brother. Harry married and had one daughter. They lived in Cincinnati, but when he came down with tuberculosis, he came back to Woodlawn in Oakfield, NY to ‘cure’. Unfortunately, the cure did not take, and Harry died at age 36.

Our Jane lived a long life, dying in 1921 at age 87. Her husband had died ten years earlier and of her eight children, she buried five of them. Aunt CB, aka Mom, also has eight children. Little wonder that she often brings up Jane and talks about what heartaches she must have known.

2846 St. Paul Boulevard, By the Kinsellas

We’ll start the cousins write up of our family houses by highlighting our family home, 2846 St. Paul Boulevard, in West Irondequoit, a town with Rochester on its southern border and Lake Ontario on its northern border.

Mom and Dad moved from ‘2846’ in 2007 after living there for more than 45 years.

Mom writes many memories of 2846—here are a few:

--Sue, packing her clothes in a brown paper bag, and moving to the dog house in the back yard to live, after some words with me—she was nine or ten.
--Chris, curled up on the love seat in front of the living room window, immersed in the bird book that he got for Christmas. Two day later, he came up for air and was an expert!
--Tim, his driver’s license barely in his pocket when he got a ticket, right in front of our house.

Kitchen

Living Room

Sue remembers: I loved the pantry off the kitchen when we first moved into 2846. It was long and narrow and filled with cupboards. The cupboards, lovely wood with glass windows, filled the upper walls, with matching cabinets along the bottom wall. Among the cabinets was a bin that pulled out at a 45 degree angle. Mom called it a flour bin.

There were secret doors to the outside—one was the milk box that in older times, the milkman must have opened from the back yard and put in orders of milk bottles. This door saved us many times when we left our house keys in the house—the smallest was always pushed through the tiny opening.

Dan writes: We lived on St. Paul Blvd., but we hung around with the ‘Seville gang’ the kids who lived on the street to one side of us. They were scared of the ‘Thorndyke gang’—kids from the dreaded Thorndyke Street on our other side. I guess they must have been a year or two older than us, so felt bullied when we ran into them.

We would regularly have ‘wars’ with them. These wars were primarily raids with us running over to where they were playing and pelting them with pine cones, or vice versa. I know for a while we stockpiled paper bags full of pine cones up in the top of the garage at 2846, because we didn’t want to take the chance of getting caught without our supply. For all I know, they may still be there!

Beth writes, calling hers ‘Ghost Memories’—
--In the front yard, underneath the big fir tree, making ‘rooms’ by clearing spaces in the pine needles and using pine cones to outline ‘doors’
--In the back yard, learning to skate backwards, being careful around the roots of the big tree at one end
--In the downstairs hall, Tom and I jumping from ever higher stairs until we got scared and stopped. I wonder what stair we stopped at?
--In the living room, peanut hunts during birthday parties, marathon Monopoly and Risk games while we listened to just about every Beatles record ever made
--In the kitchen, making pies and cookies with Grandma Kinsella, coloring Easter eggs, and around the counter, everyone liked best the seats where you could rest your feet on the radiator
--In the basement, watching ‘Dark Shadows’ and eating Charlie Chips chips, consulting the Ouija board and scaring ourselves silly

Tim writes:
It will be sad at Christmas time not to be there to open presents, have a dart gun war, and take a nap on the living room floor after a wonderful turkey dinner.

Jim writes:
The house I grew up in was HUGE. The house I returned to as an adult looked identical...just smaller.

The nice thing about an old house is all the stories that have left their mark on it:
1) The scratch marks on the basement door from our dog trying to get out when we were away.
2) The hammer marks on the banister from my brand new 'kids' hammer I was testing out Christmas afternoon
3) The cracked glass mirror over the fireplace...blamed on our neighbor for years until one of us 'fessed up.
4) The notes and drawings on the ceiling in the attic written by siblings over time.
5) The 'hidden compartment' over our clothes-chute that had secret papers in it
6) The water-stain on the hall ceiling from the bathtub overflowing when we were too rambunctious in the tub above

Like scars left on a body, they record the passage of time, and bring a smile to those who remember.

Dining Room where many a Thanksgiving and Christmas feast were eaten!

Library

Tom writes:

I’m sitting in the backyard of my house at 20 Hobart Avenue. It’s a nice backyard. But it holds none of the memories of the backyard at 2846. No trees that I jumped from into leaf piles. No ghost trees of plum and pear. No basketball court with cracks for shooting foul shots and three pointers. No garage with an attic to play in as a child. No tent trailer, sleds, hockey sticks, no windows broken.

Paul Kinsella writes:

I remember—Breaking the garage windows…a lot (editor’s note—LOTS of hockey got played there). I guess I knew it was bad when I broke one and then told Grandpa. He came out to fix it and just pulled a fresh window from a pile in the corner of the garage. When you have a reserve stash of three or four garage windows at all times, it’s never a good sign.

--Dart gun wars at every major family event!!! I remember explaining to my friend in elementary school how I couldn’t wait to go to Christmas so I could have a dart gun war with my uncles.

The Attic as we kids never saw it--empty!

And, in 1993, when one of our family newsletter questions was ‘What is your Favorite Room’, almost everyone answered, ‘our attic’, although everyone had different reasons for loving it so.

Chris writes: One of my favorite rooms was the little room behind the sliding door with the Confederate flag in the attic. To get to the room, you had to open the sliding doors and open a small door into the room. It was a small room with a slanted roof. It contained several old chemistry sets, one of the broken down televisions and Jim’s astronomy magazines. This was Fred’s (our cat) favorite room as he ripped all the insulation down with his claw.

I’ll end our memories of 2846 with what my niece Kristin wrote about her favorite room when she was thirteen—such wisdom, Kristin!

“My favorite room is the attic at Grandma’s house. It’s my favorite room because it has a lot in it. It is so crammed with stuff, you’ll never know what you might find. The closet door in the outer attic is prominent in my memories, because of the height marks penciled in on it. I like to see what my height is compared to my dad, aunts, and uncles at the same age.

I really like the attic, and when I get my own house, I want one just as full of memories as Grandma’s is.”

Massachusetts Tornadoes By Pat Kinsella Herdeg and Ted Lochner

My, were we surprised by the tornadoes--very strange--we do not get many here, and although apparently we do get two or three a year, they are very weak.

These were very strong—EF 3-- and tore up houses, etc, just like you see in the middle of the country. You could hear it in the voices of our television reporters covering it--they are not used to seeing this destruction here in our state. One reporter was already out in western Ma reporting on the first batch of tornadoes live on television. A trooper called to her to look over her shoulder and suddenly, another tornado was on its way. She told us later--'I kept filming, but I thought to myself, at what point do I stop and run?' She stopped and ran. Amazingly, a third round of tornadoes hit again later--by this point, she was sheltered in a nearby basement.

Parts of Western MA look like Joplin, MO did--entire buildings gone, bulldozers and buses picked up. One terrific video shows the tornado twirling right along the Connecticut River and dropping all sorts of debris onto cars on the bridge.

We did have warnings, but I am not sure how many people paid attention--we do get them from time to time, but they are always weak and nothing comes of them.

The tornadoes kept hitting the same stretch--three batches--touching down in the same group of towns, each leaving certain towns in between untouched!

We here in Acton on the morning the tornadoes hit got hail the size of pennies. My two cats went wild--did not like that at all. Then, in late afternoon, we did not get tornadoes but the winds and thunder and lightning was amazing--I was convinced trees would fall, but none close to us.

Plenty of people without power in western MA, and lots of cleaning up to do, but so far, only three people dead. People all over the state are finding bits of papers from the affected towns—books, bills, brochures—some have managed to travel eighty miles away!

And, Ted Lochner, almost in the tornado corridor, emailed me today:

“Everything is fine here. We are located in between the two tornado paths, one about twelve miles to the south and the other about 20 miles to the north!! The devastation in the towns of Sturbridge, Brimfield, Monson, Wilbraham, & West Springfield is unbelievable. I am trying to institute a plan to gather together a team of Home Depot employees to go down there to help those poor people that lost everything they owned. God bless their souls.”

So, that’s it from now sunny and calm Massachusetts.

June Birthdays, By Pat Kinsella Herdeg

June—a month of sunshine, flowers and weddings (my son Brian’s wedding is later this month). And, a month of Terrific Birthday Kids!

Kathryn
Three generations of Woods celebrate the month of June--Kathryn Wood Barron ( daughter of Gladys) , Kathryn’s daughter-- Kayte Barron Langstaff, and Kayte’s son --Gavyn Langstaff.

Kayte, Gavyn and Spice

Also, Jennifer Ann Wood (daughter of William and Jessica Wood, grand-daughter of Nancy, great grand daughter of Chic Wood and so, Great Great Grand daughter of Gladys Wood) will be one year old at the end of June. Aunt Gladys must have loved this month of birthdays for her clan!

Jennifer, from last July

Elsewhere on the Baker side, Carol Ann Arnold ( daughter of Linda, daughter of Sylva)is a celebrating her birthday this month, as well as David Wendell Henderson ( Wendell and Joyce’s son). David Henderson

Heading up the ‘ancestors group’, Bryant Waller (B.W.) Taylor, Jane Livingston-- mother of Emma Jane Carson, and Adin L. Baker all were born in this month.

On the Taylor side, Jonathan Taylor (son of Barry and Cathy Taylor), and Charles C Doran (son of Florence Taylor Doran) celebrate birthdays.

In Uncle Harold’s family, Thomas Baley Jr. (Yvonne Baley’s husband—she is grand-daughter of Uncle Harold), and Daniel Taylor Spear ( Mary Lou’s son) blow out candles.

Yvonne and Tom

In Arnon Taylor’s family, James Lee Taylor ( Arnon’s son) , Jim’s daughter--Erin Louise Taylor, Diana Maria McCarty ( Arnon’s daughter), and Michelina Paige Letourneau (Cynthia's daughter, granddaughter of Nancy Taylor Wright) all have June Birthdays.

Jim and Bob Taylor, 1984

Diana and Aunt Maria

Mickey

Doris Hawke’s family has Janis Harvey Hawkes ( Mickey’s wife) as the Birthday Girl.

Ruth Maney’s family celebrates with Jonathan Paul Maney , and Karen Kalke Maney (Dan’s wife).

John and Jill Maney

Congratulations and Happy Birthday to all!