A belated posting of this blog, which I wrote a few years ago...
Well this 75 year old me (Barbara Rogers Heym, divorced all of 48 years from Doug Heym) remembered someone was named Faxon, (about 3 years ago now) and wasn't he/she on the family tree which I've been putting together for my Heym sons...over on Ancestry.
So I did some playing, and Gertrude E. Shultz Hillyer didn't have a maiden name, so I put in Faxon for a trial, and sure enough, that's who she was from early census reports. AND that gave her Faxon parents into the tree as well.
Today's search (3 years ago) was only 15 min. but I added about 6-7 facts, changing a birth year when I got a complete birth date here, and adding a lot of cousins there...but it would have gone on and on, so I know it's time to quit.
I wish I had the Heym Family photos with Rick's comments together, but somehow I've got original sheets from the photo albums, and I wanted to use one that has a tractor from the Faxon farm in Clinton MI...which is why I started today's search. Got it.
"A Bit of History and The Heym Family Photo Album (by Rick Heym, 2012)
"This album collects the photos kept by our grandmother, Gertrude (Gammie - gah-mee) Faxon Hillyer and those maintained by our mother, Mary Margaret Edtha Hillyer Heym, and father, Norman Francis Heym: the first relates to early history of the family farm and their friends and also includes images of the Heym family as it grew;
the second chronicles the Heym family and our lives, first in the midwest up until 1945 and then in Connecticut.
"The Hillyer farm was purchased by Francis Faxon in 1831 according to a deed authorized by President Martin Van Buren and was passed from Francis to his son John and thus to his daughter. Gertrude Faxon was raised in nearby Owosso, MI where she studied art and music. This lead her to Boston, MA to study at the New England Conservatory of Music. At some point she met Louis Schultz and toured in vaudeville for a number of years. The name Schultz did not play well in theater, so Louis chose to use his mother’s maiden name, Hillyer, which seemed more acceptable. They were married in 1906. Our mother, Mary, was born in New York City, NY in 1907; it was
not until at least two years later that the couple left the theater to relocate to the family farm.
"Our mother was first educated in a one-room schoolhouse near the farm (see map next page, corner of Ohlson farm) [not included] and then in Owosso where she also studied dance, then for two years at Michigan State University where she studied Interior Design and taught dance before heading to NYC for work in the theatre and to dance professionally. After some time she returned to Michigan and took a job at the Hudson department store where she was working when she met our father, Norman. They married in 1932 and moved after my birth in 1934 to Cleveland, OH, where my sister was born in 1936; they moved to Owosso shortly afterward. Our brother, Doug, was born there in 1939.
"The farm was sold upon the death of Louis in 1954, after which Gertrude returned to Owosso, where she died in 1959. We have had a recent photo of the house at 6494 East Colony Road in Elsie, so the family homestead, ‘The Maples’ still exists although much modernized and without the outbuildings. See inside back cover for photo. [not included here] Our father had four brothers who appear in the album on various pages - Earle, Hal, Ray and Carl - and I will try to give bits of their history as I move through the album.I am sending a CD of this album to the broader family in case anyone wants to make a copy of their own."
The photos of album pages look like this before I spend a while cropping and saving each individual photo digitally. I haven't don't many yet.
2018 June: Since I wrote the earlier part of this blog a couple of years ago, I've updated my Ancestry family tree which I've made for my Heym sons. It is visible to other Ancestry members, and Doug asked to have the background for their connection to the Mayflower from it. I was pleased to include him as an editor of the tree, after all it's his family. So he's been doing a little with it. And I only am doing my other families research at this time. Thus I'll go ahead and share this to my blog, rather than keeping it in draft form like I have for all this time.
It's wonderful that these photos and comments have been saved. Thanks to those who care enough to take time to comment while it's in their memory, in order to share with generations to come. Most of them may not care at all, but some of them probably will!
"This album collects the photos kept by our grandmother, Gertrude (Gammie - gah-mee) Faxon Hillyer and those maintained by our mother, Mary Margaret Edtha Hillyer Heym, and father, Norman Francis Heym: the first relates to early history of the family farm and their friends and also includes images of the Heym family as it grew;
the second chronicles the Heym family and our lives, first in the midwest up until 1945 and then in Connecticut.
"The Hillyer farm was purchased by Francis Faxon in 1831 according to a deed authorized by President Martin Van Buren and was passed from Francis to his son John and thus to his daughter. Gertrude Faxon was raised in nearby Owosso, MI where she studied art and music. This lead her to Boston, MA to study at the New England Conservatory of Music. At some point she met Louis Schultz and toured in vaudeville for a number of years. The name Schultz did not play well in theater, so Louis chose to use his mother’s maiden name, Hillyer, which seemed more acceptable. They were married in 1906. Our mother, Mary, was born in New York City, NY in 1907; it was
not until at least two years later that the couple left the theater to relocate to the family farm.
"Our mother was first educated in a one-room schoolhouse near the farm (see map next page, corner of Ohlson farm) [not included] and then in Owosso where she also studied dance, then for two years at Michigan State University where she studied Interior Design and taught dance before heading to NYC for work in the theatre and to dance professionally. After some time she returned to Michigan and took a job at the Hudson department store where she was working when she met our father, Norman. They married in 1932 and moved after my birth in 1934 to Cleveland, OH, where my sister was born in 1936; they moved to Owosso shortly afterward. Our brother, Doug, was born there in 1939.
"The farm was sold upon the death of Louis in 1954, after which Gertrude returned to Owosso, where she died in 1959. We have had a recent photo of the house at 6494 East Colony Road in Elsie, so the family homestead, ‘The Maples’ still exists although much modernized and without the outbuildings. See inside back cover for photo. [not included here] Our father had four brothers who appear in the album on various pages - Earle, Hal, Ray and Carl - and I will try to give bits of their history as I move through the album.I am sending a CD of this album to the broader family in case anyone wants to make a copy of their own."
The photos of album pages look like this before I spend a while cropping and saving each individual photo digitally. I haven't don't many yet.
2018 June: Since I wrote the earlier part of this blog a couple of years ago, I've updated my Ancestry family tree which I've made for my Heym sons. It is visible to other Ancestry members, and Doug asked to have the background for their connection to the Mayflower from it. I was pleased to include him as an editor of the tree, after all it's his family. So he's been doing a little with it. And I only am doing my other families research at this time. Thus I'll go ahead and share this to my blog, rather than keeping it in draft form like I have for all this time.
It's wonderful that these photos and comments have been saved. Thanks to those who care enough to take time to comment while it's in their memory, in order to share with generations to come. Most of them may not care at all, but some of them probably will!
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Looking forward to hearing from you! If you leave your email then others with similar family trees can contact you. Just commenting falls into the blogger dark hole; I'll gladly publish what you say just don't expect responses.