Family History #10: The Miller Sisters

THE MILLER FAMILY
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS
~ picture posted previously ~

My Great - great Grandparents
Henry Wise Miller
(May 27, 1834 ~ October 29, 1915)
&
Elizabeth Birkinbine Miller
(February 28, 1938 ~ March 28, 1925)

& their children, standing back row L to R:

Alice Elizabeth (1866 - 1946), Henry Kitzmiller (1860 - 1933),
William Birkinbine (1859 - 1893), Anna Mary (1862 - 1923),
between his parents is the youngest, Jacob George (1870 - 1936)
& not pictured is eldest sister Celestial Rebecca (1858 - 1936)

Celestial was already married and stayed behind when the rest of the family relocated from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Lyon County, Kansas. Her younger sisters, Anna Mary and Alice, spent the rest of their lives living not far from their mother, but for Celestial, visits were few and far between. She sent long letters to her mother and sisters, and to her niece Rovilla -- Anna Mary's daughter / my grandmother.

For example, 108 years ago this very week, she wrote:

Lititz [Pennsylvania]
September 29th, 1918

Dear Mother,

I received your letter all right. It found us all as usual. We had a delightful autumn day. This morning we were both to church and this afternoon to Sunday School rally services. This morning's service was for the Veterans; this evening it will be Harvest Home. This afternoon, John and I walked out to the cemetery . . .

[then, a few sad paragraphs of funeral updates and family illnesses]

I must come to a close for tonight. I am getting so sleepy and John is laying on the couch. I send my love to you and all of Alice's family.

~ From Your Celestial

Just a few months before her death, seventeen years later, she wrote to Rovilla:

November 17, 1935

. . . It is now time to close and say good night. I am alone and so I can read and pray and no one interferes. Someday I will be with my loved ones who are waiting for my coming. It will soon be 6 years since John left me. I will never see you here but will meet you in heaven.

~ Your Aunt Celestial

******************

Celestial and Husband John Krall

Celestial's Family

c

Anna Mary and Husband William Michael Heideman

Anna Mary's Family in 1911

Seated are my great - grandparents:
William Michael Heideman (1855 - 1931)
& Anna Mary Miller (1862 - 1923)
with their children, standing, L to R:
my Grandmother Mary Rovilla Heideman (1891 - 1966)
and her brothers
Melville Miller (1896 - 1966) & Harry Louis (1887 - 1940)

Alice and Husband Nathaniel Reider

Alice's Family
The Reider Cousins

Parents: Nathaniel (1860 - ) and Alice (1866 - 1946),
Seated on either side:
Edna (1889 - 1967) and Willie (1895 - )
Standing:
Nina (1891 - 1966), Little Alice (1902 - 1978), Ruth (1892 - )
Inset: Nathaniel's ornate calling card.

*********************

A Poem for the Sisters

Alcott's verse may seem trite at first, but reading it alongside Celestial's letters makes it seem somewhat less sentimental and rather more true to life . . .

To Anna

Sister, dear, when you are lonely,
Longing for your distant home,
And the images of loved ones
Warmly to your heart shall come,
Then, mid tender thoughts and fancies,
Let one fond voice say to thee,
"Ever when your heart is heavy,
Anna, dear, then think of me."

Think how we two have together
Journeyed onward day by day,
Joys and sorrows ever sharing,
While the swift years roll away.
Then may all the sunny hours
Of our youth rise up to thee,
And when your heart is light and happy,
Anna, dear, then think of me.

~ Louisa May Alcott ~

*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #11
Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Family History #9: The Reider Cousins

A LIST OF COUSINS & FRIENDS
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

My Grandmother Rovilla's early girlish handwriting,
on a tissue - thin paper napkin or placemat.
I wish I knew what this list represents --
maybe school chums or a Sunday school class?

I recognize the first three names:
Rovilla's first cousins:
Edna ~ b 1889; Nina ~ b 1891; Ruth ~ b 1892

[Their mother -- Alice --
and Rovilla's mother -- Anna -- were sisters.]
This family of cousins featured prominently in the memories that Rovilla (1891 - 1966) passed on to my mother and me. I was only nine years old when my grandmother died, yet I had already absorbed numerous stories of these cousins who were close in age to her and lived nearby in Emporia, Kansas

[Pronunciation tip: both "Nina" & "Reider" have a long "i"]

Ruth ~ Rovilla ~ Nina
as noted by Rovilla, in her later,
more sophisticated cursive

Further annotation from another cousin --
different handwriting

Here is the eldest, Edna, on her wedding day
October 3, 1907
Notice the fishbowl!

Nina

Ruth

Little Sister Alice

Brother Willie

In the recent novel The Correspondent, author Virginia Evans takes a curiously bleak view of the staying power of family photos, placing them a distant second to written correspondence:

"Perhaps if you have children . . . grandchildren, they . . . may keep some old photos in a book on a shelf, and perhaps two or three times in a lifetime may turn the page and find your face and think, Ah, yes, doesn’t Jimmy resemble this great-great-grandfather Mick, and continue to turn the page, and so that will be what is left of you, nearly erased, in fewer than three generations, and your life, the life you see from the inside, right now, as monumental, will be reduced to the blood in their veins and perhaps, if you are lucky, a distant namesake . . . (46)"

Only "two or three times in a lifetime"? Given my own experience, I'm not so sure about that. My son Ben agrees with me:

"Sounds like Evans needs to watch Coco again!
Just in time for Halloween!"
In this Pixar classic (2017), young Miguel goes to great lengths, even descending to the underworld on Día de los Muertos, to honor the memory -- and the photographs! -- of his ancestors.

As for my grandmother's cousins, I have been looking at these dear faces for decades and continue to pour over them, like returning again and again to a beloved novel, bringing all the characters to life in my mind's eye, piecing together whatever I can of Grandmother Rovilla's life before the brief time that I knew her -- and those before her whom I never knew. The thing about Rovilla -- she was a born archivist! Looking through all the letters and photos that she saved for posterity, I can see now -- 60 years after her death -- that it is going to take me the rest of my life to keep up with her.

I was recently re-reading Rovilla's obituary (June 14, 1966) and among those listed in attendance at the funeral, were "Edna and Will Morgan." I was nine years old that summer, but I was completely oblivious. I wish I could go back in time to that day and be more aware and retain a conscious realization of meeting Cousin Edna. I don't have that, but I do have her high school music books:

So, as you can see, these folks are not unknown to me. I knew that my grandmother's favorite childhood doll was named after Nina, and I knew that my Great-grandmother Anna Mary (known to the cousins as Aunt Annie) had hand sewn Nina's fabulous wedding dress in 19~~:

Here is the dress today, lovingly preserved
by Nina's granddaughters -- my third cousins!
How grateful I am to have met several of them,
thanks to the miracle of blogspot & facebook!

To be featured again soon,
The Reider Family

Front: Alice (1866 - 1946), Little Alice (1902 - 1978),
Nathaniel (1861 - 1921 )

Back: Nina (1891 - 1988), Edna (1889 - 1976)
Ruth (1892 - 1968), Willie (1895 - 1982)
*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #10
Monday, September 28, 2026

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Family History #8: Us Six Kids

SIBLINGS
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

MY - NESS
"My parents, my husband, my brother, my sister . . .
I delight in being here on earth
For one more moment, with them, here on earth,
To celebrate our tiny, tiny my-ness."

~ Czeslaw Milosz (1911 - 2004) ~
Polish poet, translator, Nobel Prize Winner

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The family, that dear octopus
from whose tentacles we never quite escape,
nor in our innermost hearts, ever quite wish to.

~ Dodie Smith (1896 – 1990) ~
From her play Dear Octopus

Eldest Brother
David Joel Carriker
Backyard Decor
Marion's Magnifying Locket
Marion's Blue Dishes
Pie Safe
Eye Contact
It's Magic
Thanks Dave
Magic Everyday
Such a Boer!

Eldest Sister
Peggy Linn Carriker Rosenbluth
Happy Birthday Coyote!
Artistic Flair
Not in Kansas Anymore!
Peg's Mosaic
Russian Straw Dolls
Sharing Horizons That Are New To Us
We Had Fun, Didn't We?
The Usual Selves That I Have Known
All the Little Animals
Be a Loving Friend
Guest Blog: HiyaKiyah

Twins in the Middle
Bruce Lindsey Carriker and Kitti Beth Carriker
Just a Little Social Distance
From the Grade School Archives
Thanksgiving Turkey
Earth Day Perspective
Christmas Shomily
Pre - Election & Post - Election
"Beautiful and terrible things . . . "
AI Is Easy
The Only Day
Twin Cousins
9 / 11 -- Bruce's note in Comments Section
Heading to college in our first car

Younger Sister
Teresa Diane Carriker Burrows
Happy Five Audacious
Blessed
Rosemary
Leap Day Nephews and Nieces
Di & Aaron in pjs / flower photo by Tom

Younger Brother
Aaron Blaine Carriker
Blue Eyed Bear
O Christmas Tree Unchanging
Cubs
The Gray Lady
Silverware Drawer

Our Tiniest Sister
Rest in Peace Baby Hope
A Snowdrop and Fair

Only Known Photograph of Entire Family of 8:
Mom, Dad & Us 6 Kids ~ March 1977
(& Baby Jerrod, Peg's firstborn ~ in Di's arms)

Eight People Without Issues!

Holidays & Reunions
Post Thanksgiving
Reunion 2009
Blessings
Hygge
Christmas Eve ~ So Fair a Fancy
This Old Nativity
Boy Doll & Wish Book
Straw to Gold
Halloween Costume Ideas from Days of Yore
A Scarf for Mom

Group Chats
Carriker Barrel
Serendipity and/or Synchronicity
Synchronicity? Oh Baloney!
Not to be Devoured
Leap Day Wizard Dreams
Our Town Redux
Andy Griffith & Touchables & Martian Melody

Just Us Girls
Pretty Enough For All Normal Purposes
G.R.I.T.S.
Tastes Like Chicken
Tomatoes & Gravy
Coyote, Goth, Ramrod
Sparkle Plenty
Paper Dolls: Twiggy, Shirley Temple, Granny
Mom's Little Dishes
Great-Grandmother's Majolica

*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #9
Monday, September 14, 2026

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Family History #7: Ancestor Photo Collages

THE OLDEST HOMES & ELDERS
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

Wish I could go back in time and see inside these houses,
where my great-great-great grandparents lived in the 1800s!

ABOVE
~ Top Left ~
The Lindsey Homestead ~ built in 1832
in Antrim, Ohio
(Guernsey County, Madison Township)

Photo taken by Homer Reed
(a distant cousin - in - law)
sometime before 1920
Known: house was occupied on July 13, 1971,
when it sustained porch damage during a tornado.
Unknown: the specific street address
and whether or not it is still standing.

Built by
Samuel B. Lindsey (1789 - 1883)
Martha B. Work Lindsey (1794 - 1877)
Married September 6, 1814
(my Great x3 Grandparents,
pictured directly below house)

~ Top Right ~
The Haddix Homestead ~ on the Old Haddix Road
in Osborn, Ohio (Greene County)
Unknown: if it survived the flooding of 1913
and whether or not it is still standing.

Built by
John P. Haddix (1791 - 1888)
~ see him, by the fence ~
Sarah Elizabeth Cox (1798–1860)
~ no photo available ~
Married March 29, 1817
(my Great x3 Grandparents)

~ Lower Right ~
portrait of their daughter
Sarah Elizabeth Haddix (1826 - 1861)
(My Great-great Grandmother,
pictured directly below house)

***************

BELOW
Row 1:
 James Sankey Lindsey (1846 - 1921)
Grandson of Samuel & Martha Lindsey
(pictured above)
James is the only son of their eldest son Robert;
sadly, no photo of Robert available,
nor did Robert inherit the Lindsey Homestead,
which went instead to their second son, John.
Unknown: the story behind that outcome.

My maternal grandfather
Paul Jones Lindsey (1891 - 1983)
Son of James & Sarah

Sarah Elisabeth Hartman (1856 - 1937)

Row 2: 
Paul with his mother Sarah, after World War 1 

Paul & Rovilla, late 1920s

Map of the Homestead Farms
in Madrid, Perkins County, Nebraska,
where James & Sarah had a property
(marked by " * stead X"}
as did Sarah's father, Charles Gordon Hartman
(marked by "Grand Pa X")
(sketched out by Wayne Wallace Lindsey,
older brother of Paul)

See arrow -> "School Mother Taught"
where Sarah taught school,
very near the Lindsey Homestead.

They farmed on the homesteads
through the hard times of 1887 - 1895,
then returned via Oklahoma,
in a covered wagon, where Paul was born,
delivered by his Grandfather Charles,
and settled outside of Caney, Kansas.

***************

BELOW
1.

17 Oak Street
Emporia, Kansas
built shortly after 1880
standing until sometime after 1915
demolished to make way for the railroad
Rovilla standing near center,
with her Grandmother Elizabeth near left edge
The home of my Great-great Grandparents

2.
Henry Wise Miller
(May 27, 1834 - October 29, 1915)
and Elizabeth Birkinbine Miller
(February 28, 1838 - March 23, 1925)
photo - approx 1900

3.
Sitting in front of their house
a few years later

4.
Their daughter
Anna Mary Miller
(December 29, 1862 - January 3, 1923)

Shown here on her wedding day
(March 9, 1886)

to
William Michael Heideman
(June 3, 1855 - December 18, 1931)

4a.
Anna Mary & William Heideman's house
400 North 19th Street, Independence, Kansas
(no longer standing)

Anna Mary standing in front, to the left,
with grand-daughter #2 Mildred Della (b 1917)
near the middle is her daughter-in-law
Ethel (Harry's wife)
and grand-daughter #1 Ila Maxine (b 1913)
based on the girls' heights, maybe 1920

***************

BELOW
1.
Paul during World War 1
Rovilla as a teenager

2.
My maternal grandparents,
Paul & Rovilla, 1960s

3.
Twins, Bruce & Kitti Beth (me) in 1960
Our grandmother & our mother:
Rovilla & Mary Beth

4.
Elizabeth ~ Anna Mary ~ Rovilla ~ 1919

*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7

Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #8
Friday, August 28th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Family History #6: Lindsey & Carriker

MARY & WILLARD
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

1960

1965

1973

"We are never done with thinking about our parents,
I suppose, and come to know them better
long after they are dead
than we ever did when they were alive."

~ May Sarton ~

*********************

Pulling together all previous posts about my parents . . .
Mary Elisabeth Lindsey Carriker, 21 January 1931 - 15 June 2020
Willard Marvin Carriker, 18 July 1923 - 27 June 1987

Siblings Day
My mom and her brother John

Earl's Birthday
My mom's brother Earl

Uncle Rudy & RFK
My dad's brother Rudy

Unforgettable Uncle Gene
My dad's brother Gene

Amelioration: Earth Day
Uncle Gene & Aunt Elaine

Loos'd of Limits: The Open Road
Uncle Gene's photography

My Father's Birthday
My dad's sister Frances

Father's Day
Dad's Printing & Cursive
some inspirational advice

Books My Mom Suggested
a few of her old favorites

Thunderbird
car culture

Dodge Dart & Station Wagons
some family car stories

Time Traveler & Summer Belvedere
Rest in Peace Dad

Sunset and Evening Star
Rest in Peace Mom

Blogs after Mom Died
We Hardly Knew Ye
Lament
An Inheritance of Ephemera

******************

Birthdays & Holidays

Teach Your Children Well
My mother's birthday

German Chocolate Birthday Cake
My dad's birthday cake

Home Made Ice Cream
One of our best & most delicious family traditions

Family Cookbook
All the time - honored recipes

O Christmas Tree Unchanging
Mom's Childhood Christmas Art

Third Sunday of Advent
Dad's Childhood Christmas Poem

This Old Nativity
Vintage & Reissue

******************

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Carriker

Les Vieux

Vintage Thanksgiving

Going For a Walk

Persimmons

Dashing!

Boy Doll & Wish Book

Birthday Cousins

Grandparents Day

*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10
Friday, August 14th

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #7

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Family History #5: Heideman & Lindsey

ROVILLA & PAUL
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

In the 1920s

In the 1960s

All the Paul and Rovilla Stories

Ancestors: FN & QK
Paul, Rovilla, and Others

Rovilla
Rovilla's Birth

Cousin Rovilla
Quilt made by Rovilla

Belonging to Rovilla
purse, billfold, and another view of the quilt

Sewing Box Lost Forever
Sewing box, quilt, and doily

Pink Kitchen ~ Blue Kitchen
Rovilla's childhood teacups

Mantelpiece
Rovilla's Lily of the Valley plate

Nina (rhymes with China)
Rovilla's childhood doll

Bonnie & Barbie
more hand-sewn doll clothes

Reach Out and Touch the Hem
Rovilla's childhood dress

Pie Safe
Rovilla's pie safe

Goodbye Old Brown Furniture
Little rocking chair made by Paul

Side by Side Secretary
More furniture from Paul & Rovilla's house

Steamer Trunk
emptied of vintage treasures & restored

Green Beans, Grandmas, and Air Conditioning
Rovilla's Jewel Tea ceramics

Descent Into Kansas
old newspaper clipping from Rovilla

A Moment of Silence
Rovilla notes the death of JFK

Two Fine Families
Heidemanns & Lindseys

A Bright Posterity
In the 1920s

My Shadow and Me
clever shadow pic of Paul

Tuesday Afternoon
Wedding Announcement

The Least Important Day
An "Our Town" Memory

Our Town Redux
If only I could hear her voice again . . .

Grandpa Lindsey
The Favorite

Vintage Boxing Day
Grandpa's Christmas Cards

Tools For Everyday Use
advice from Paul

My Ain Countrie
Paul and the old-time songs

Back When Kansas Was the Wild Wild West!
Lindsey Brothers

Dalton Gang
Dalton Brothers

Leap Day Wizard Dreams
A dream about Grandpa Paul

Day of the Dead
cemetery memories

Signs, Symbols, Souvenirs
funeral memories

Parallax
Funerals on Bloomsday

Transportation Has Undone So Many
RIP ~ tragic train & car accidents

*********************

MORE FAMILY STORIES TO COME
in the meantime . . .

Lots of Family Pictures: Calendar 2024
Calendar 2025: #1 ~ #2 ~ #3
Photo Ablums: Gravestones & Grandparents

There's no vocabulary for love within a family,
love that's lived in but not looked at,
love within the light of which all else is seen,
the love within which all other love finds speech.
This love is silent." ~ T. S. Eliot

ENTIRE SERIES:
Family History #1
Family History #2
Family History #3
Family History #4
Family History #5
Family History #6
Family History #7
Family History #8
Family History #8
Family History #9
Family History #10

Next Fortnightly Post: Family History #6
Tuesday, July 28th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blogs
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com