Sunday, May 18, 2008

So Long, Shad!

With three years under his belt as a member of a National Guard medical evacuation unit in Rapid City, South Dakota, Shad Tenold is about to “ship out” for an overseas tour of duty in Kosovo. It was only fitting that many family and a few friends would gather to help send him off. That gathering took place today (May 18, 2008) at the Perkins Restaurant in Spearfish, South Dakota.

Here’s Shad with his grandmother, Betty Jolovich. His parents are Gene and Jan (Love) Tenold, who ranch near Reva in northwestern South Dakota.

We’ve posted a few other photos from the gathering at So Long, Shad!

It's all John C. Derrick's fault

In shaking the family tree for information, relationships sometimes get a bit bewildering. A classic case is the relationship between the Derrick, Maiden and Miller families of western Nebraska, and it all seemed to start with this old guy.

John C. Derrick was probably born in Holland, although we’ve not been able to document it. We do know he married three times and that his second bride was Adelia Pamelia Kellogg. They had two children together – Walter Earnest in 1860 and Dora Ellen in 1862. While the family was living in Carroll County Iowa in 1880, Dora married William H. Maiden, whose family came from Tama County Iowa. They moved to Dawes County Nebraska, where their only child, William Joseph Maiden, was born in 1886.

Pretty easy, so far, huh? Continue to the next level: William J. “Bill” Maiden married Leota Irene Durham in 1915; they had seven children together – one of whom was Lettie, born in 1920. In 1938, Lettie married John Miller, whose sister, Marie, was already married to William Derrick, son of Walter Earnest and a grandson to John C. Derrick. So Lettie and Bill were cousins – as well as brother/sister-in-law.

Oh, did we forget about another son of John C. Derrick -- Albert? He was the son of John C. and his first wife, Martha Hulbert. Born in 1857, Al was just a few years older than his half-brother, Walter Earnest, and his half-sister, Dora Ellen. When he was 21 years old – living in Tama, Iowa – Albert took a bride, Martha Maiden. Martha was a daughter to Joseph Maiden – a half-brother to William H. Maiden.

Not yet confused? Visit the Maiden Genealogy web site and you’re bound to become even more disoriented. Happy hunting!

Warren Beamish and the Warren girls

Members of the Maiden family likely became acquainted with a Michagander named Warren Beamish when he took a job working on the Maiden place northeast during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was probably around the same time that they came to know the Warren girls -- Maude, Gladys, and Ellen.

Maude married a Pace, Ellen a Crowe, and Gladys married Warren Beamish. Some of the family may be just as surprised as we were, when we learned about the wartime heroics of the guy known simply as "Slim." That was a subject of this Tribute to Slim story that we wrote in 2007.