D.L. MacLaughlan Dumes
@dmacdumes
Retired web developer, focusing on genealogy, historical photography, books, gardens, cats. Genealogy: Gardening: Sixties music:
Tomatoes, first harvest of 2026: Sungold, Black Cherry, Gardener's Delight.
My great-aunt Elizabeth Bruns married Joseph Dowling in Chicago in 1916, who was witness to his brother James' passport application in 1921, which gives their birthplace: Wigan, Lancashire, England as well as their parents' names, Peter and Esther. James' photo is from his passport application.
Quite a stunning visitor! This is a House Sparrow, with its distinctive patches of black, brown, and grey. This species is new this year to our Bird Buddy feeder.
July is a nice month for a marriage. July 11 1690: this is our earliest known Bruns ancestor, Johan Brunes (as it was then spelled) with bride Geiske Henrichs in Visbek, St. Vitus parish, OLdenburg. Herm[ann] Griss and Henrich Thöle were witnesses. Nice ink, nice calligraphy!
Alva MacLaughlan (right), wife Marie in front, and his family Al, Tom, and Marie Jr., enjoy a beach visit near Chicago with his mother Catherine Mikkelsen (in the blue dress), Alva's half-sister Florence Mikkelsen Breetzke, and little Cathie Breetzke with her cousin (my aunt) Dolores, July 4, 1935.
July 2nd is Kitten Acquisition Day for us. Six years ago we went to the Bloomington City Animal Shelter to view these two orange and white brothers. As I walked near their cage, Phil's arm shot out and he snagged my sleeve. That's how you get picked out by a cat.
The more it opens, the more I'm amazed. The purple veining on this hosta blossom is a great attribute. This is its fourth year and it's really showing great style. Wish I could remember the variety name.
These Petersen siblings were Marie (seated), Margaret, Peter (seated), and Alfred (my grandfather), about 1901 in Chicago. Their parents were immigrants from Nordfriesland (Schleswig). They were all born in the USA, and thus citizens automatically as the Constitution, then and now, guarantees.
Plants can be intrepid. Last year I had some lavender petunias in this wooden planter. Somehow they dropped seeds, which overwintered throughout the snow, germinated, and situated themselves between the wooden slats, accompanied by this year's white pelargoniums and white and pink Bacopa sutera.
The west patio includes a fountain and benches for restful viewing of the garden, but the hostas this year have really done well. In past years the bunnies have treated this area as a salad bar but this year they must be dining elsewhere.
No way to know whether he was the piper as well. But here he is in 1940 being appointed as a meteorologist, Irish Indepdndent 14 Feb 1940 page 5. No death date found yet.
Could this be him? If he was born in 1903 it's about the right age for the degree: Irish Independent 9 Mar 1931 page 7.
Does your cat give you a tail kiss? My great-grandmother Catherine Petersen Mikkelsen's cat did! With her granddaughter Louise Schmidt, Catherine's cat (name unknown) wraps its tail around her leg in an affectionate embrace. Our cat Paul does the same thing to me. Must be a Petersen thing.
Plants in the south patio garden: coleus, impatiens, hypoestes, begonias.
Mary Ann Murphy (from our Irish Murphy clan who married into out Hasse/Gohr families) and fiancé William Hurley. Married in 1899 in Chicago, but as the Everly Brothers once sang, "You're happy now but that won't last." They separated about 1906 after having two children and went their separate ways.
A happy dad in 1908: Thomas Mikkelsen, sporting a clean-shaven look, with his baby daughter Florence. Thomas married my widowed great-grandmother Catherine Petersen in 1906 and Florence was born a year later. This home snapshot was taken outside their home on Loomis Street in Chicago.
In the early 1900s there was a photo style where the toddler subject held a whip. Not sure what this was meant to indicate. At left: Edgar Courtney Gadpaille, brother of Adelaide Gadpaille Jatho, New Orleans, 1900. At right: Marie Petersen, daughter of Hans and Catharina Petersen, Chicago, 1901.
My great-grandmother's older sister, Helena Müller Melchers, at right, born in New York City 1843. She married Theodore Melchers in 1860 in Charleston. The young lady (left) could be any of her daughters: Julia Virginia (born in 1861), Agnes Wilhelmine (born in 1863), or Kate Jenny (born in 1868).
My grandmother Marie Jatho MacLaughlan wasn't big into smiling for photos but here she looks so happy. She's with her grandson David Brewer, age two, about 1954 in Azusa, California where she and my grandfather owned and managed a trailer court.
I've seen bright gold, orange, red, and purple daylilies but 'Lullaby Baby' daylily buds into a mild orange and opens into a subtle ivory with overtones of light mango and pink. I'm going to plant more of these next year.
The Tiedeman siblings of Charleston c. 1902. Edith Elizabeth Tiedeman (1876-1922) studied music and literature, married and had two children. Robert Samuel Tiedeman (1885-1959) was a wholesale grocer with his father and married our cousin Maryliese Jatho in 1942 after being widowed twice.
A pretty portrait from c. 1884 in Charleston SC: Edith Elizabeth and Alice Emily Tiedeman, older sisters of Robert Samuel Tiedeman who married our cousin Maryliese Jatho. The photographer was a Mr. F. Shiffley who rented out a studio in the jeweler's shop of Carrington, Thomas & Co. on King Street.
Louisa Toombs DuBose (later Loulie, and even later Betty Lou) was my cousin Louis DuBose Quin's grandmother. She was born in 1857 and lived her whole life in Georgia. She married Hugh Pharr Quin in 1879. They had twelve children. A striking portrait from about 1877 in Georgia.
Charleston connection: This lovely portrait shows the family of Hugh Pharr Quin and Loulia Toombs DuBose Quin about 1900. The boy at left, Louis DuBose Quin, grew up in South Carolina, started the publishing firm The Quin Press, and married Olga von Oven Jatho, one of our Jatho cousins.
In the 1950s my dad converted our garage into a wood shop where he liked to wind down from his everyday job and create whatever he wanted. He made furniture and household items, well-crafted and useful. I had a table and chair set, a small wardrobe, and a dresser.
It's time for June replanting on the south patio garden: added begonias, hypoestes (polka-dot-plant), and lobelia. All set for a summer of reading and afternoon tea.