Nonnie's Pumpkin Pie

My pumpkin pie is based on the recipe that came from my paternal grandmother.  We called her Nonnie.  

Gotta have a generous helping of whipped cream with pumpkin pie.

Seems fitting, with pumpkin puree on hand (made with the instructions in THIS post) that we whip up a pumpkin pie using Nonnie's recipe (which is the best that I have ever tasted ... even folks who say that they don't like pumpkin pie have admitted that this one is delicious.)

Nonnie and me, in 2004, when she was 103.

Nonnie's Pumpkin Pie

1 lb. of fresh pumpkin puree (or one 15-oz. can of pumpkin)
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt (can reduce this, if you want, to as little as 1/2 tsp)
1/4 tsp. ginger
1-1/2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk the pumpkin, eggs, sugar, and spices till blended.  Add the milk and stir.  Pour into a 10" pie shell.  Bake for 90 minutes or more, until center of pie is set.  I err on the side of allowing more oven time when I'm not sure if the pie is done.  

(Can also be baked in a 9" pie shell for about an hour, but you'll have a bit of leftover filling.)

Serve with whipped cream.  Refrigerate any leftovers.

Enjoy!!

********************
Jessie Louise Toalson Stamp Stevens.  Born November 14, 1901.  Only child of Elmer Thomas and Pearl Mettie (Crowley) Toalson.

Nonnie gave me this locket, with photos of her parents, and her mother's wedding ring.

Nonnie lived a very long life.  She married twice, had four children (my dad is the youngest).  She lived many places as a young girl, then as an Army wife, finally settling in California, where she died in 2007 at the age of 105.  She is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Long Beach, California.

Nonnie as a young girl, with her mother and grandmother (Susan Todd Crowley)

The American celebration of Thanksgiving is upon us.  It is a time to be grateful for what we have, whether it's a bountiful harvest or the faces of our loved ones around the table sharing together as a family.  Let's all take a minute to reflect on our blessings ... and eat pie!

Coming Face to Face With My Ancestors

I was skipping around the Internet the other day, looking for things and trying to find inspiration for the program that I am writing about Hollywood Cemetery.  One thing led to another, as it always does, and I found myself on a blog that I had never visited before.  The writer mentioned something about Googling her ancestor's name and finding newspaper articles (or was it court records?).  I have a few ancestors with unusual enough names, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I typed a great-great grandmother's name into the search box, Tranquilla Ann Brady.  I was practically blown out of my chair when I clicked on one of the search results.  This is the page:

Link

I clicked on a photo, one of Tranquilla and her son Arnold (my great-grandfather).

 

Each person in the photo is tagged, and the tags are on a menu on the right of the screen.  Clicking on Arnold's tag gave me a drop-down menu, and I selected 'Photos and Stories'.  This brought up a page with photos of him, like the one I found with Tranquilla's photos.

There was a photo of Arnold and his new wife, Augusta Martina Amundson,

and a photo of their house!

Back on Tranquilla's photo page, there was a photo of her house, too.

Here is a photo of Tranquilla and her first husband (my great-great grandfather) Ransom Abraham Stevens.

Following the link to photos of Ransom Stevens led to this gem:

I could have sifted through this stuff all day, but I had to force myself to stop and get back to the real work at hand. 

FamilySearch.org is from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It is free, though you have to register to use the site.  FamilySearch.org has come a long way since I last visited there.  These must be user-supplied photos, but I couldn't find any indication as to who may have uploaded them.  (I didn't look too hard for this info right now, but you can be certain that I will later.)

I started researching and recording my family history when I was 16, and I have traced most of the lines of my family through the last two centuries.  Most of this was done before the convenience of the Internet, using old-fashioned resources like pencil and paper, telephone calls, snail mail, and countless hours looking at microfilm in dark library basements.  When it was launched, I subscribed to Ancestry.com, but I let the subscription lapse when I had done all I needed to at that time. 

This new resource, with the potential for stories and photos, is going to be a great way to discover new info on ancestors ... and I can't wait to have time to waste to see what else there is out there for me to find.