September 2007 – Edition 29

Hello!

My daughter and I moved from Oklahoma to Arizona this last May
and I may have missed some of your letters. I have always wanted
to tell you and everyone what a great job you are doing with the
Jerrems Journal.

Don’t you think it would be a good idea to make it into a book?
I have a friend in Japan who wrote of her automobile trips
through America and had it made into a book for her family and
friends. Unfortunately it is in Japanese, but I adore the
pictures.

Can you forward any I missed?

Allis Jerrems
=================
Ray’s Response:

Thoughts about a book. The idea of publishing the Journals as a
book is interesting, and would be well worth considering when
our research has slowed down. There is a precedent in the
family, Mark Healy (whose grandmother was Ann Jerrems)
has lent me a book written about his great grandfather Patrick
Joseph Healy.

Who is Allis? Some readers who read early issues of the
Jerrems Journal will remember her being mentioned on several
occasions.

Allis’s parents were Russian and her maiden name was Kamber.
She is the widow of Raymond Lee Jerrems (b1921 d1987),
who was in turn the son of Raymond W. Jerrems (b1891 d1950) and
Eileen Merryman. Raymond W. Jerrems’ parents came from New York,
but that is all I know about them. They were not from the line
originating from William George Jerrems, which accounts for all
the other Jerrems families in the US.

Allis is in her eighties and loves needlework (she has entered
her needlework in exhibitions). She has two children, Cynthia
(“Cindy”) and David.

How did I originally locate Allis?

This is an interesting story.

In 2003 I did a telephone search for all people named Jerrems in
the US, using the 1994 telephone directory on the Mormon’s
database (the latest directory they had at that time). I
gradually worked my way through it, finding that most people had
moved. Eventually I had one name left, an Allis Jerrems at
Grove, Oklahoma. But when I rang the number a recorded
message told me that the number had been discontinued. Not
another one who had moved!

Not long afterwards I found a reference to Allis, via Google, on
a Craft Show website. It showed her as living at Grove. Hmm, I
thought to myself, she must still live there, but where to from
here?

I looked up Grove on Google, looking for possible
avenues. Masses of information available. Situated on the Grand
Lake o’ the Cherokees (formed by Pensacola Dam), 76 miles from
Tulsa, population in the City of 5000, lots of facilities, but
no craft clubs listed. I toyed with the idea of ringing some
Grove craft shops but finally chickened out, thinking that they
would be unwilling to tell an Australian male anything. Perhaps
the postal authorities would tell me where she lived, so that I
could at least write to her? I chickened out again because there
was every chance that privacy laws would not allow them to tell
me.

I finally decided to email Jerry and Sue in Las Vegas to
seek their help. Within a few weeks I received the following
reply from Jerry:

I have spent some time on the telephone to Grove OK and
finally had success in getting in touch with Allis. I remembered
you said that she was involved with needlepoint exhibiting or
judging. After several calls to some very helpful people in
Grove who recognised her name, I was referred to the county
library in Grove. The chief librarian said she knew Allis
and would get my message to her.

About 30 minutes after our conversation, I received a call from
Allis, who said she was totally surprised to hear from another
Jerrems but was thrilled to be contacted. I told her about the
research you had been doing and how Sue and I had renewed family
contacts made possible by your efforts. We had a very pleasant
talk and she passed along her phone number and address.

Now that is what I call the “direct approach”!

Allis and I have exchanged emails occasionally. I found one of
her emails to be particularly rewarding. It concluded with “Its
nice to know that we are family”. Genealogical research can be
frustrating at times, but this sentiment has carried me through
my research on the Jerrems families in the US.

After Christmas my place in Grove Oklahoma had a terrible
ice storm and was without power for 13 days. The indoor
temperature got down to 49 degrees! I told my daughter, Cindy,
how terrible it was and she promptly put her condos in
Washington DC and Tucson and my house in Grove on the market for
sale. Her husband loved the climate in Tucson and had wanted to
retire there. They found a beautiful independent living place
there for me and bought a great house for themselves.

With all the chaos going on my son David was left behind
in Grove but we hope he will join us here next year when
everything is a little more settled

How kind of you to enquire about my needlework. Yes, I have been
wanting to cut back on my needlework but I am knitting every
day. I have a brother who loves my socks. If you send me the
length of your foot, standing up on a sheet of paper, from heel
to toe, I would love to send you a pair.

Thank you for finding me.

Fondly

This trade card was probably printed in about 1871 for use by
the San Francisco store of Nicoll the Tailor (Alexander
Nicholl, otherwise known as Nicoll the Tailor, was the great
great grandfather of many US readers).

Who is bowling the bomb, and why?