Unusual Source - Message from the Spirit World - Week 7 of #52Ancestors

-

My great grandparents Charles Joslin Call (1859-1939) and Elizabeth Ann Coe (1862-1956) were married for almost 55 years. They married on November 5, 1884 at the home of the bride's parents in Le Roy, Genesee County, New York, and remained together until Charles' death on June 12, 1939. 

Elizabeth Ann Coe (1862-1956) and her husband Charles Joslin Call (1859-1939)


I've been transcribing excerpts from Elizabeth's journals that she compiled in the 1930s and 1940s into books of  reminiscenses for family members. 

Elizabeth didn't talk much about her relationship with Charles before his death. And after his death, there were mentions of doing things alone for the first time. In December 1939, she didn't send out Christmas cards because it was something he always enjoyed - and mentioned how in the days leading up to the holidays in 1939, she had cried more than she had since his death. 

In early January, Elizabeth received a letter from her sister-in-law Sarah (1856-1941), wife of her brother Ezra Frank Coe (1853-1943), recounting information from their son Charles Albert (1890-1978). Sarah wrote: 

"I have been wanting to write something Albert told me about you. He knows a man who is interested in Spiritualism, and he has asked Albert to go with him a few times, but he is not interested in it, but this is what happened. The person asked Albert whom he had that had entered the spirit world recently. He told them he had an Uncle Charles who had gone recently. He said this uncle wants to give you a message for Elizabeth - they call her Lizzie. He said to tell her that he was happy, and that after a while she would come where he is, and that she was being looking after and would be all right." 

If you had asked me if I ever expected to see something about spiritualism from my great-grandmother, I'd have said - no way - based on what I know about her. 

I have to hope though, that the message from Charles sent through Albert and Sarah - brought comfort to Elizabeth as she continued on after his death 

And I suspect it did bring comfort to her - not only did she record it her diary in 1940 - but she also repeated the information in the manuscript she wrote for her descendants. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Long Line - From England to the United States - Week 3 of #52Ancestors

-
Image
This week's prompt for  Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project  is Long Line. I had a couple of ideas for this week and finally settled on the long line of extended Call and Joslin family members who immigrated from Devonshire to the United States between the 1830s and early 1900s.  I have to wonder if in 1851 when my great great grandparents Robert Call and Charlotte Joslin were both servants on the farm of Robert Reed in Chawleigh, Devonshire, England if they had any idea how many members of their extended families would immigrate to the United States.  As far as anyone knows, Robert and Charlotte met at the Reed farm. Within two years of the 1851 census, Robert had immigrated to the Boston, Massachusetts area. A year later, Charlotte followed and they were married in Fitchburg, Massachusetts on July 16, 1854.  1835 The first member of Robert's family to immigrate that I've identified was his maternal uncle William Paine . William (a
Read more

Charles Joslin Call's Business Ventures in Wichita, Sedgewick County, Kansas, 1889-1895

-
Image
My great grandfather, Charles Joslin Call (1859-1939), lived in Stafford, Genesee County, New York for most of his life, except for a few years when he and his family lived in Wichita, Sedgewick County, Kansas. I’ve always been curious about the family’s Kansas years, since my grandmother, Evelyn Clara Call (1895-1962) was one of four children born to Charles and his wife Elizabeth Ann Coe (1862-1956) in Wichita. Like many other families, the Call family went west in search of greater economic opportunities. According to Elizabeth, “In the Spring of ’89 Papa [Charles] went West to find a business to engage in. He went to Denver where Uncle Frank and Aunt Sarah were, but decided to go to Wichita and locate. We were very happy there, but business did not pay. We went Apr. 17, 1889, arriving the 19”. 1 Charles’s first business venture in Wichita was with the Wichita Steam Pipe Covering company. On 6 April 1889, C.J. Call of Stafford, New York was listed in a newspaper article as one of
Read more

So Far Away - Christmas Day 1887, Somewhere on the Atlantic - Week 5 of #52Ancestors

-
Image
I can't imagine what Christmas Day was like for my great-grandfather Wilhelm Friedrich Georg Schickler in 1887. What I do know is that he was 14 years old. His parents were dead.  He was on the ship Rotterdam a day out of the port of New York. And that he was traveling alone to a new life. Was he thinking of his family so far away in Stuttgart? Was he wondering how his younger brother Georg - his only living sibling - left behind in Stuttgart with their grandparents was doing? Was he remembering his father and five siblings who had died in recent years? Was he thinking about his mother who had died just a month ago on November 24? Or did he see the Statue of Liberty as his ship arrived? Was he looking forward to a new life with his mother's sister and her husband? Wilhelm was born on November 6, 1873 in Ludwigsburg, Wurttemberg, Germany, the son of Gottlieb Wilhelm Schickler (1848-1885) and Marie Frederike Haufler (1846-1887). He was baptized on November 23 1873. His pa
Read more