Tim Hammond (timothy.hammond.330@my.csun.edu) via gmail.com
6:49 PM (0 minutes ago)
to leta.chow
Subject: I hope this goes to the right person
Hello, Ms. Chow:
To explain my subject heading, I just need to vent about my experience in Psych 320 (11767) this semester, and I am unsure who to e-mail about a complaint. The Administrative Support Coordinator seemed like the right title. If I should have e-mailed this elsewhere, I beg you to forward this e-mail to them, or reply with the correct e-mail addresses of the people who should be alerted.
My name is Tim Hammond (ID# 103244490), and I took Psychology 320 with Maria Perser during the Fall 2011 semester. The reason I need to vent is because I know for a fact the grade I will be receiving is not the grade I would have deserved had some things gone differently. Most specifically, the homework/exam turn-around time. To give an example, our first homework assignment was due September 7th and we did not get it back with a grade until the end of November when we came back from Thanksgiving break.
Since the beginning of the semester we've had homework due almost each class period, be it textbook or lab homework (which I expected, I'm not complaining about that). After Thanksgiving break she gave us our chapter 1 through chapter 5 homework back graded. In that time, we underwent three of four exams. Due to the fact our homework was not returned to me in a timely manner, I had no clue as to whether or not I was doing the homework properly. Indeed, I had been doing a lot of problems incorrectly as shown by my failing grade of 28/50 for exams one and three. I got a 48/50 on the second exam because she made it a take-home exam. I also received a 43/50 on the fourth exam because she allowed us to have a "cheat-sheet": a one-sided, 8.5x11 sheet of paper filled with whatever notes we could fit.
As for the lab assignments, none of those were ever returned to us. As of today, Tuesday, December 13th, no lab grades have been posted on the Moodle website either.
Earlier in late-October when it had began raining, I decided to not attend CSUN that day because I take three freeways to get there: highway 14, the I-5, and I-405. I e-mailed her telling her of my absence, and her reply e-mail felt very condescending. She told me that I did badly on the first exam so it was important for me to attend classes every day because I needed to improve. I admit that my getting a bad grade on the very first exam should be reason enough for me to try harder, but since our exam had been a month prior to this, I wasn't expecting the exam back anyway. After that incident I went to her office hours before class time to get some homework advice. Long story short, instead of telling me the correct way to perform the equations, she would just point out what I did wrong in a very harsh tone. Much of the other students in my class agree with me when I say she is EXTREMELY unapproachable. She really does know statistics well and is very enthusiastic about teaching, but imagine taking a statistics class where you couldn't ask the teacher a question. You can't ask verification on a concept. If you did, you were talked down to.
Throughout the semester she made several things vocally clear. One of which was that her work at Pierce College had been piling up because of her teaching six other classes besides ours. Speaking of Pierce, she also made it clear that she was catching up on her work there, but not her CSUN workload. This felt very demeaning as a student; it made me feel as though so many other things were more important than grading our homework. Other points she made vocal was how much more we needed to study, how much more she knew than we did, and how if we [the class], "...think this is bad now, wait until you get to graduate statistics. It only gets harder! I'm preparing you for graduate school." While I do agree with what she said about it getting a lot harder, not every student in that class was going to continue on a path where a further statistics class was required for their career. Besides, even if we were planning to go to graduate school, couldn't we worry about that when we get to graduate school?
One last gripe before I let you go on about your day. I do know that outside studying is required to do well in any course, but it gets especially difficult when only half of each chapter is taught. The early chapters were fine; they were short reviews of terms and equations we learned in lower division statistics. As the chapters progressed however, things got really, really tough. That coupled with our inability to ask her questions made learning statistics a job. One that any one of us would have loved being laid off.
She recognized this though, and she urged us to read, read, read the textbook. Everyday was, "Read the textbook if you have questions." This is fine, I believe this is why we have textbooks in the first place. The analogy I think works best here is one of a regular person and a toolbox. It isn't logical to give a person a toolbox full of tools and expect that person to become a mechanic. If a teacher-mechanic taught the regular person all about the ratchet and how it's like a socket wrench that you don't have to remove, certainly that regular person will now know the basic uses for a ratchet. Unfortunately the teacher-mechanic failed to teach the person about extenders in case there's a bolt he couldn't reach. Or that the direction in which the socket turns could be reversed by changing the dial on the back of the tool. Or that some bolts are metric and how those bolts need special tools in which to work.
Much like a person can't be given a box of tools and expect them to become a mechanic, I can't be given a statistics textbook and be expected to get an "A" in this class. The textbook was more of a teacher than Ms. Perser was, and that's not a good thing.
I don't know if this rant will accomplish anything or not, but I just needed to vent. Either way, thank you so much for reading this far and I do apologize this took up as much of your time as it did.
Sincerely,
-Tim H.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Fresh general update.
I haven;t updated in a while because there's really nothing to update. I sent out for Bessie Hibbs' death certificate, we'll see if Jersey decides to let me see it. Right now, I'm really just waiting for that.
I did find out some more cool stuff though. My grandma's birthday was on the 21st, so my mom called to tell her Happy Birthday. However we lost her number, so we had to call her daughter--my aunt--Penny. Turns out Penny had a crapton of information about my grandma's mother, Helen. The information is in the mail so I should get it soon.
I also went by the church to get my Ordinance # to get access to the website, and I was successful.The bad news is I marked my grandfather's wife as his mother, not my grandmother. I have no idea how to fix it. Oops.
I did find out some more cool stuff though. My grandma's birthday was on the 21st, so my mom called to tell her Happy Birthday. However we lost her number, so we had to call her daughter--my aunt--Penny. Turns out Penny had a crapton of information about my grandma's mother, Helen. The information is in the mail so I should get it soon.
I also went by the church to get my Ordinance # to get access to the website, and I was successful.The bad news is I marked my grandfather's wife as his mother, not my grandmother. I have no idea how to fix it. Oops.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
G-Pa Tom Update #8: COMPLETELY SOLVED...
If you've been following my updates, you'll know that Neva divorced Thomas LaVere, so her name was then changed to Condron (her maiden name). However she died "Neva Hammond". So who did she marry?
John Mark Hammond. That's where I get my last name from. Mystery solved.
I went to another Family History Library right here in town. The guy that was helping me, Harry, was so knowledgeable about this stuff. He pointed out things to me that I never noticed before. He showed me a new program only accessible at the FHCs that was spectacular. It's Mormon-specific, meaning the only people that update it are Mormon volunteers, and we pride ourselves on being genealogy freaks.
Now I get to research this guy and see what I can find. And maybe get some documentation providing a link between John and Neva.
One mystery down, one to go.
John Mark Hammond. That's where I get my last name from. Mystery solved.
I went to another Family History Library right here in town. The guy that was helping me, Harry, was so knowledgeable about this stuff. He pointed out things to me that I never noticed before. He showed me a new program only accessible at the FHCs that was spectacular. It's Mormon-specific, meaning the only people that update it are Mormon volunteers, and we pride ourselves on being genealogy freaks.
Now I get to research this guy and see what I can find. And maybe get some documentation providing a link between John and Neva.
One mystery down, one to go.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Great G-Ma Bessie Update #2: Well... I guess I found one good thing...
As I mentioned before I didn't really find anything at the Mormon LAFHL, and that's the truth; I found nothing that answered any of my questions. However, I realize now that it was a 100% bust. Maybe about 95%. Here is what I did find:
Check it out.
That is the marriage announcement of Bessie Hibbs and John Edward Ristow. I know the type is basically gone, but if you look at the third line you can plainly see "Edward" and the surrounding type looks like "John" and "Ristow". The important thing about that is that article is a snippet from the April 24th, 1920 newspaper the Trenton Evening Times. Now I at least have a year pertaining to Bessie.
But even I sent in a request for the marriage certificate, what would it tell me? All the marriage certificates I've seen only mention:
1) The people getting married
2) Those people's parent's names (sometimes)
3) The date of the marriage
4) The reverend conducting the ceremony
5) ...
6) profit
Nothing about birth dates, nothing about when they died (obviously), not a piece of information I need. It would be awesome to actually have the marriage certificate, but it's $25.
Also, I've found on the 1930 census that John Ristow is already married to his other wife, Beulah. My grandmother was only 9, not 10 like she first told my mother. But this begs the question: if Bessie died when my grandmother was only 9, how long did it take for John Ristow to bounce back and get remarried? It appears it took not long at all.
I'm still incredulous to the fact that there's NOTHING in any of the Trenton papers about Bessie's death. I wonder if the crash was so bad the faces were unrecognizable so the bodies remained unidentified. Well no, that wouldn't work either because John Ristow would still know that it was his wife and child in the car that crashed. I wonder if the bodies were identified after the newspaper article ran. That way there wouldn't be any names in the article.
There's simply GOT to be something somewhere...
Check it out.
That is the marriage announcement of Bessie Hibbs and John Edward Ristow. I know the type is basically gone, but if you look at the third line you can plainly see "Edward" and the surrounding type looks like "John" and "Ristow". The important thing about that is that article is a snippet from the April 24th, 1920 newspaper the Trenton Evening Times. Now I at least have a year pertaining to Bessie.
But even I sent in a request for the marriage certificate, what would it tell me? All the marriage certificates I've seen only mention:
1) The people getting married
2) Those people's parent's names (sometimes)
3) The date of the marriage
4) The reverend conducting the ceremony
5) ...
6) profit
Nothing about birth dates, nothing about when they died (obviously), not a piece of information I need. It would be awesome to actually have the marriage certificate, but it's $25.
Also, I've found on the 1930 census that John Ristow is already married to his other wife, Beulah. My grandmother was only 9, not 10 like she first told my mother. But this begs the question: if Bessie died when my grandmother was only 9, how long did it take for John Ristow to bounce back and get remarried? It appears it took not long at all.
I'm still incredulous to the fact that there's NOTHING in any of the Trenton papers about Bessie's death. I wonder if the crash was so bad the faces were unrecognizable so the bodies remained unidentified. Well no, that wouldn't work either because John Ristow would still know that it was his wife and child in the car that crashed. I wonder if the bodies were identified after the newspaper article ran. That way there wouldn't be any names in the article.
There's simply GOT to be something somewhere...
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Great G-Ma Bessie Update #1: Santa Monica Mormon FHL
In an effort to try and get some newspaper articles or something about Bessie's car accident, I went to the Santa Monica Mormon Temple, home to a big Family History Library. On their website it boasts:
Three guess as to how much information I got: NOT A DAMN THING. It was unbelievable! Basically the largest family history library outside of Washington D.C. and I couldn't find anything. I drove 25 minutes there, drove an hour and twenty minutes back (405 traffic from Santa Monica. Those who get it, get it.) and I didn't find a single new piece of info.
I think right now my only lead is to try and get Bessie's death certificate from the same place I got my grandma's birth certificate: Trenton, NJ. I think while I'm at it I'm going to apply to get her marriage certificate to John Ristow. The biggest thing I have to remember is I have to write "Bessie Hibbs -OR- Bessie Ristow" on the death cert request form.
I can't believe I can't find a damn article in the newspaper regarding her death. She, and her toddler son, died in a car accident. There's gotta be something that I'm missing...
- 86 networked computer workstations
- 18 film reader machines
- 1 microfiche reader machine
- 56,000 rolls of film
- 40,000 microfiche
- 6,058 books
- Seasoned volunteers
- Regional experts
- Rare book collection
- Calif. death records 1905+
Three guess as to how much information I got: NOT A DAMN THING. It was unbelievable! Basically the largest family history library outside of Washington D.C. and I couldn't find anything. I drove 25 minutes there, drove an hour and twenty minutes back (405 traffic from Santa Monica. Those who get it, get it.) and I didn't find a single new piece of info.
I think right now my only lead is to try and get Bessie's death certificate from the same place I got my grandma's birth certificate: Trenton, NJ. I think while I'm at it I'm going to apply to get her marriage certificate to John Ristow. The biggest thing I have to remember is I have to write "Bessie Hibbs -OR- Bessie Ristow" on the death cert request form.
I can't believe I can't find a damn article in the newspaper regarding her death. She, and her toddler son, died in a car accident. There's gotta be something that I'm missing...
Hystery of the Bessie mystery
With the "Who Neva Married" mystery on hold, I can move on to the other mystery in my family: who was my mother's mother's mother.
Here is literally all we know ('we' being my mom): my great-grandmother's name is Bessie Hibbs. No that name is not made up. Her and my grandmother's brother--name unknown--died tragically in a car accident. She was married to John Ristow. Bessie died when my grandmother was 10.
And that's it. Anytime my mom asked questions, my grandmother shot her down and didn't answer anything.
I have my grandmother's birth certificate that lists Bessie Hibbs as the mother, so we know she existed at least. I have a letter written by the husband of a woman named Mildred Hibbs who went by a shortening of her middle name "Betty". However the only connection is the last name; it could all just be a giant coincident.
I found absolutely nothing at FamilySearch.org except crap about the woman John remarried Beulah. Beulah Ristow is not Bessie, damn it...
What sucks is that the birth certificate of my grandmother had literally no other information other than her birthday, the day the certificate was filed, and her parent's names. It's nuts, I can't find anything.
My mom thinks that my grandma never talked about it because it was sort of a cursed topic. Not only did her mother die when she was 10-years-old, but her husband died when my aunt was 10-years-old also (my mother at the time was only 2).
However, since we know that my grandmother was 10 when Bessie and my grandmother's brother died, and my grandmother was born in 1921, we can assume that the car crash occurred somewhere around 1931. New Jersey Vital Statistics has it set up where it costs $25 per certificate, with an additional $1 for each year to be searched.
I suppose I'm not above spending $70 for a death certificate :-( ...
Here is literally all we know ('we' being my mom): my great-grandmother's name is Bessie Hibbs. No that name is not made up. Her and my grandmother's brother--name unknown--died tragically in a car accident. She was married to John Ristow. Bessie died when my grandmother was 10.
And that's it. Anytime my mom asked questions, my grandmother shot her down and didn't answer anything.
I have my grandmother's birth certificate that lists Bessie Hibbs as the mother, so we know she existed at least. I have a letter written by the husband of a woman named Mildred Hibbs who went by a shortening of her middle name "Betty". However the only connection is the last name; it could all just be a giant coincident.
I found absolutely nothing at FamilySearch.org except crap about the woman John remarried Beulah. Beulah Ristow is not Bessie, damn it...
What sucks is that the birth certificate of my grandmother had literally no other information other than her birthday, the day the certificate was filed, and her parent's names. It's nuts, I can't find anything.
My mom thinks that my grandma never talked about it because it was sort of a cursed topic. Not only did her mother die when she was 10-years-old, but her husband died when my aunt was 10-years-old also (my mother at the time was only 2).
However, since we know that my grandmother was 10 when Bessie and my grandmother's brother died, and my grandmother was born in 1921, we can assume that the car crash occurred somewhere around 1931. New Jersey Vital Statistics has it set up where it costs $25 per certificate, with an additional $1 for each year to be searched.
I suppose I'm not above spending $70 for a death certificate :-( ...
Sunday, August 28, 2011
G-Pa Tom Update #7: Neva's Death Certificate.
Well I got the death certificate in the mail, and to my surprise/dismay it didn't list Neva's husband's name. It does however say "Widowed," so that tells me he passed first (obviously). Any little clue helps. Turns out Neva died at her place of residence: Chandler Convalescent Hospital.
Instead of a husband's name, as the 'Informant' it lists a daughter's name, Patricia Russell (apparently my grandfather's step-sister). The address of her home is also in Glendale; where Neva died.
The thought crossed my mind to go and visit this address to see if Mrs. Russell's family still lives there. That way I can get a ton more information, and that would seriously make my day. However Neva died in 1980; that's 31 years ago. Chances are slim the family is still living there.
Plus I don't know how weird it would be if some 6'6 tall stranger showed up asking questions about their family.
Unfortunately, unless I actually do that, I have no more leads. I have absolutely no idea how to figure out what "Hammond" Neva married. At first I thought about visiting the hospital where Neva lived, but again, it was 31 years ago and I'm not sure how far back the patient records go. Plus I called there already and the lady I talked to didn't really understand what I was asking and told me, "Try calling our North Hollywood location."
Thanks, Esquella.
Instead of a husband's name, as the 'Informant' it lists a daughter's name, Patricia Russell (apparently my grandfather's step-sister). The address of her home is also in Glendale; where Neva died.
The thought crossed my mind to go and visit this address to see if Mrs. Russell's family still lives there. That way I can get a ton more information, and that would seriously make my day. However Neva died in 1980; that's 31 years ago. Chances are slim the family is still living there.
Plus I don't know how weird it would be if some 6'6 tall stranger showed up asking questions about their family.
Unfortunately, unless I actually do that, I have no more leads. I have absolutely no idea how to figure out what "Hammond" Neva married. At first I thought about visiting the hospital where Neva lived, but again, it was 31 years ago and I'm not sure how far back the patient records go. Plus I called there already and the lady I talked to didn't really understand what I was asking and told me, "Try calling our North Hollywood location."
Thanks, Esquella.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
G-Pa Tom Update #6: MISSION (almost) ACCOMPLISHED!!
I've done it... I've actually done it. So excited...
I received Thomas's birth certificate in the mail today. I thought I would get another failure letter back, but I actually got the document. Check it out.
And there we have it. An official document linking Neva Levere (neé Condron) to Thomas Levere born 2 Feb 1922. It even has his father's name on there: Thomas Levere Sr. Those are the two people on the marriage certificate I uploaded a while ago. It all matches up.
I can't believe it. I finally solved the mystery about the "Levere" last name. That seriously has been like a 30-year mystery. Now all that's left is to wait for Neva -Hammond-'s death certificate. Hopefully it says Hammond at least, and extra hopefully it'll have a spouse's name. I applied for the certificate in-person on August 16th, so it should be here before the first week of September is up.
If it ends up listing the spouse's name as "Thomas Hammond", I'm gonna throw a damned fit.
I received Thomas's birth certificate in the mail today. I thought I would get another failure letter back, but I actually got the document. Check it out.
And there we have it. An official document linking Neva Levere (neé Condron) to Thomas Levere born 2 Feb 1922. It even has his father's name on there: Thomas Levere Sr. Those are the two people on the marriage certificate I uploaded a while ago. It all matches up.
I can't believe it. I finally solved the mystery about the "Levere" last name. That seriously has been like a 30-year mystery. Now all that's left is to wait for Neva -Hammond-'s death certificate. Hopefully it says Hammond at least, and extra hopefully it'll have a spouse's name. I applied for the certificate in-person on August 16th, so it should be here before the first week of September is up.
If it ends up listing the spouse's name as "Thomas Hammond", I'm gonna throw a damned fit.
Friday, August 19, 2011
G-Pa Tom Update #5: Tim(e) marches on
So, nothing really happening lately. Here's all that happened in the past few days.
I went to Van Nuys again to try and obtain Neva's death certificate. On the form I put "Neva Condron -OR- Neva Hammond" so here's hoping they actually do search for both names. I waited in line an hour because quit literally about 60-70 people were ahead of me. Most were couples because--as the man behind me pointed out--this was the line for "Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates". Those are the same thing I guess, right? When I got to the front of the line it cost $12 to get the form, so fingers crossed.
And next week I expect to get the letter back from Cleveland about my grandfather's death certificate. Because now I know (think) he really was born Thomas Earl LeVere. Not Condron or Hammond. All the other dates are right, but I also messed up on the parent's names because I think I still put Luella Moxley as his mother, but now I know it was Neva Condron.
That's really it for now. I found a crap-ton of information on that FamilySearch.org website. I found Thomas LeVere Sr.'s family on the 1910 Census. Printed out a lot of things about them; just names and dates, not personalities or pictures unfortunately. It's pretty interesting stuff.
It's gonna be a real bitch updating the family tree with all this info though...
I went to Van Nuys again to try and obtain Neva's death certificate. On the form I put "Neva Condron -OR- Neva Hammond" so here's hoping they actually do search for both names. I waited in line an hour because quit literally about 60-70 people were ahead of me. Most were couples because--as the man behind me pointed out--this was the line for "Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates". Those are the same thing I guess, right? When I got to the front of the line it cost $12 to get the form, so fingers crossed.
And next week I expect to get the letter back from Cleveland about my grandfather's death certificate. Because now I know (think) he really was born Thomas Earl LeVere. Not Condron or Hammond. All the other dates are right, but I also messed up on the parent's names because I think I still put Luella Moxley as his mother, but now I know it was Neva Condron.
That's really it for now. I found a crap-ton of information on that FamilySearch.org website. I found Thomas LeVere Sr.'s family on the 1910 Census. Printed out a lot of things about them; just names and dates, not personalities or pictures unfortunately. It's pretty interesting stuff.
It's gonna be a real bitch updating the family tree with all this info though...
Friday, August 12, 2011
G-Pa Tom Update #4: Too excited for a title.
I don't even know where to begin. I guess I can start out by saying I found a website called FamilySearch.org. Basically it's like Ancestry.com, except you can actually get the information off of the forms--you just can't see the original documents, but that's okay.
I don't even remember how I started out. I put in John Carlton Condron's name (my grandfather's father as per the SSI-5 form) just to see what came up. There was actually an entry on the site for the 1920's Census. I clicked on that, and...
I found this.
The first awesome thing is that his wife's name is listed as "Luella Condron." That means that on the SSI-5 form the name isn't "Lomella" like I thought, it looked like an 'm' because of that stupid blank line. So my grandpa's mother's name is "Luella Moxely."
But then if you go back and look at the names on the death certificate the mother's name says, "Neva Unknown." So if the 1920's census says my grandpa's mother's name is "Luella Condron", who the hell is Neva?
Direct your attention to the very last name on the '20's census form: Neva Condron.
Holy shit! My first thought was John Carlton Condron and Luella Moxley were his biological parents, but Neva was more of a mother figure. So he simply told everyone that his mother's name was Neva. Never mentioning a last name, just saying "Neva," because that was no one knew that she was actually his sister.
I brought this to my Writers' Group that night and showed the genealogy "expert" (she's just been doing it a long time, and she's writing a historical fiction novel) and together we came up with 2 possibilities:
1) Neva is the biological mother, but she birthed Thomas someplace else because of the shame of having a 17-year-old female in the early 1900's get pregnant and give birth.
2) My original theory above: Neva was his sister but was more of a mother figure to Thomas.
Unfortunately I couldn't find anything about this family in the 1930's census. I'll do some more research on that later. Unfortunately further,
I did a little more search on Neva Condron's name, only this time I widened the search years. And lo and behold, I found a most interesting marriage record.
BINGO! So Neva (who was apparently 2 months pregnant at the time) married some guy named Thomas Earl LeVere (I found out his name after some more searching), gave birth to my grandfather (Thomas Earl Levere II) somewhere in Ohio.
But what, there's more.
After some more searching, I found a death record for a girl born in Ohio on Sept. 2, 1904 (Neva's birthday) whose name is "Neva Hammond."
!!!!
So right now here's what I'm thinking. My grandfather was born a Levere. Later on Neva and her husband split up cuasing Neva to go back to her maiden name Condron. Her son (my grandfather) followed suit and changed his name to Condron, and that's why he put "Condron" down on the SSI-5 form. Later on, Neva found some guy with the last name of "Hammond", married him, and my grandpa Tom again followed suit and changed his name to Hammond.
There are a few things I still have to do before this mystery is completely solved:
1) I need to find some sort of document linking Thomas Earl Hammond to Neva Condron. Everything I've found so far is circumstantial. All the dates match and all that, but it still isn't enough.
2) I need to verify Neva's death certificate. Even though the dates and the place of birth matches, it says Neva died in 1980 in Glendale, California. That's quite a ways away from Ohio or Illinois. Where the name Hammond came from is still sort of unexplained. It'd also be nice to get the divorce record of Thomas Earl LeVere and Neva Condron.
More to come.
I don't even remember how I started out. I put in John Carlton Condron's name (my grandfather's father as per the SSI-5 form) just to see what came up. There was actually an entry on the site for the 1920's Census. I clicked on that, and...
I found this.
The first awesome thing is that his wife's name is listed as "Luella Condron." That means that on the SSI-5 form the name isn't "Lomella" like I thought, it looked like an 'm' because of that stupid blank line. So my grandpa's mother's name is "Luella Moxely."
But then if you go back and look at the names on the death certificate the mother's name says, "Neva Unknown." So if the 1920's census says my grandpa's mother's name is "Luella Condron", who the hell is Neva?
Direct your attention to the very last name on the '20's census form: Neva Condron.
Holy shit! My first thought was John Carlton Condron and Luella Moxley were his biological parents, but Neva was more of a mother figure. So he simply told everyone that his mother's name was Neva. Never mentioning a last name, just saying "Neva," because that was no one knew that she was actually his sister.
I brought this to my Writers' Group that night and showed the genealogy "expert" (she's just been doing it a long time, and she's writing a historical fiction novel) and together we came up with 2 possibilities:
1) Neva is the biological mother, but she birthed Thomas someplace else because of the shame of having a 17-year-old female in the early 1900's get pregnant and give birth.
2) My original theory above: Neva was his sister but was more of a mother figure to Thomas.
Unfortunately I couldn't find anything about this family in the 1930's census. I'll do some more research on that later. Unfortunately further,
I did a little more search on Neva Condron's name, only this time I widened the search years. And lo and behold, I found a most interesting marriage record.
BINGO! So Neva (who was apparently 2 months pregnant at the time) married some guy named Thomas Earl LeVere (I found out his name after some more searching), gave birth to my grandfather (Thomas Earl Levere II) somewhere in Ohio.
But what, there's more.
After some more searching, I found a death record for a girl born in Ohio on Sept. 2, 1904 (Neva's birthday) whose name is "Neva Hammond."
!!!!
So right now here's what I'm thinking. My grandfather was born a Levere. Later on Neva and her husband split up cuasing Neva to go back to her maiden name Condron. Her son (my grandfather) followed suit and changed his name to Condron, and that's why he put "Condron" down on the SSI-5 form. Later on, Neva found some guy with the last name of "Hammond", married him, and my grandpa Tom again followed suit and changed his name to Hammond.
There are a few things I still have to do before this mystery is completely solved:
1) I need to find some sort of document linking Thomas Earl Hammond to Neva Condron. Everything I've found so far is circumstantial. All the dates match and all that, but it still isn't enough.
2) I need to verify Neva's death certificate. Even though the dates and the place of birth matches, it says Neva died in 1980 in Glendale, California. That's quite a ways away from Ohio or Illinois. Where the name Hammond came from is still sort of unexplained. It'd also be nice to get the divorce record of Thomas Earl LeVere and Neva Condron.
More to come.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
G-Pa Tom Update #3: Part 2
I would just like to add how depressed this has made me. Honestly, it makes me feel like I'll never find out about this guy.
If this next letter from Cleveland gets nothing, I'm hitting up Los Angeles County because that's where he was when he filled out the SSI-5 form. There's gotta be something somewhere...
G-Pa Tom Update #3: More fail. FML.
I contacted Cleveland, OH late July to try and get the man's birth certificate. That would hopefully give me another--more truer--look at his parent's names and I could go from there.
I'm not even gonna bother to scan the letter I got. It said this:
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In regards to your request, we did not find a bc [birth certificate] on this person. Another issue is that we do not release a bc without mother's name.
Thank you,
Rosa V.
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Included with that two-sentence letter I got the form I filled out back, plus my money order.
Here's the thing though. I based the information I had off of the SSI-5 form that was sent to me. Before I got this letter, I received G-Pa Tom's death certificate, and that says he was born in 1922. That makes more sense because according to the death cert, he was 83 when he died, and he died in 2005. Subtract those and you get 83, not 82.
I'm gonna send out the same form with the mother's name (apparently it was "Neva") an with a new birth year: 1922. Cross your fingers for me.
G-Pa Tom Update #2: Did he even exist?
Got the man's death certificate in the mail. My eyes went right to the Parent's names. Look what I found:
Epic fail...
This immediately told me one thing. On the same form somewhere lists his "surviving spouse" as someone named June Hammond. Not even June knew his parent's names. I understand that older people in relationships really have no need to talk about their parents, but seriously? No record of it at all? Anywhere?
It was at this point where my mom said out loud, "You know, I bet he made up the whole 'Lavere' story." After that was seeded in my head, coupled with the "Condron" on his SSI-5 form, that idea grew into agreement...
Epic fail...
This immediately told me one thing. On the same form somewhere lists his "surviving spouse" as someone named June Hammond. Not even June knew his parent's names. I understand that older people in relationships really have no need to talk about their parents, but seriously? No record of it at all? Anywhere?
It was at this point where my mom said out loud, "You know, I bet he made up the whole 'Lavere' story." After that was seeded in my head, coupled with the "Condron" on his SSI-5 form, that idea grew into agreement...
G-Pa Tom Update #1: My grandpa Tom "Hammond".
So as mentioned in the introductory blog post, the story of my grandfather's father changing his name was basically all we knew about him (and all we knew about grandpa Tom).
I saw that ad on TV for ancestry.com saying crap about the two-week free trial, so I figured, What the hell, and signed myself up. Long story short, regarding Tom Hammond's ancestry, I didn't find a damned thing.
Also I should mention I signed up for the two-week trial about a year ago.
Last month, I found out a friend of mine was a full ancestry.com member, and she offered to help me out. Long story short, she found grandpa Tom's social security number. Not only that, but she told me about this form I could fill out (an "SSI-711" form) and request a copy of an "SSI-5" form, which is the form that was filed out when a person wants to file for social security income. According to the government website, that form has the person's social security number, birthday, the father's full name and the mother's maiden name; precisely what I needed!
I filled out the form, paid the money, and got a response back in about a week and a half. Here is what I got (edited for security reasons):
Thomas Earl Condron
Now, besides the last name not being "Hammond" like it should be, here are some other interesting things to note.
1) According to that my G-pa was born in 1921, and he filled out that form in 1938. It even says on the form that he was only 17 when he filed for SSI. That seems pretty lame until you learn that my G-pa was blind. Apparently he was born with full sight, but it got progressively worse. So worse I guess that he couldn't work.
2) The form has his father's name, as well as his mother's maiden name. No first name unfortunately. Again, precisely what I needed.
3) CONDRON?! What the $@*(. So it wasn't my great grandfather that changed his name, oh no. It was my grandfather himself. That means the story he told my mom when she asked him was a lie. What the hell is this guy hiding? What happened that made him want to change his name? Unfortunately he passed in 2005, so unless I find something else on my search later down the road, no one will ever know.
So there you have it. No Lavere at all apparently. My name should actually be Tim Condron. Sounds a little too close to "condom" for my taste, but whatever it still sounds cool.
The Hystery of the Mystery
Hopefully I remember to update this blog regularly with the progress I make with my family history. I just recently got into genealogy and am becoming more and more interested in it. Along with the interesting things (which aren't really that interesting to talk about) comes the mysteries that get uncovered as I dig deeper. One mystery is about my father's father's father, and the other mystery is about my mother's mother's mother.
Great Grandfather:
As the story goes, my great-grandfather, in an effort to escape his past, changed his name to Hammond. It was said he didn't do this legally, he just started calling himself Hammond. His born name was "Lavere." Everything else about him was unknown: birthday, first name, potential wives, everything. At this point, the thing I find most strange is that my mother asked my grandfather about this, so it was her first time hearing any of this. Also however, it was my father's first time hearing this as well. That means my grandfather hadn't mentioned this to anyone before. What was he hiding?
Great-Grandmother:
This is the story about Bessie Hibbs. I 'm lucky enough to have a mother who is also interested in genealogy (as mentioned in the story above), so my mom accumulated a lot of information already; but not nearly enough. See my grandmother's brother and her birth mother both died in a car accident when my grandmother was about 10-years-old. On top of that, my grandmother's husband died when my aunt was also 10-years-old, so we think it sort of haunted my grandmother, resulting in her never talking about it. We don't know anything about Bessie or her son (my grandma's brother): where they were born, when the accident occured, anything.
This is the story of my quest to solve these mysteries.
Great Grandfather:
As the story goes, my great-grandfather, in an effort to escape his past, changed his name to Hammond. It was said he didn't do this legally, he just started calling himself Hammond. His born name was "Lavere." Everything else about him was unknown: birthday, first name, potential wives, everything. At this point, the thing I find most strange is that my mother asked my grandfather about this, so it was her first time hearing any of this. Also however, it was my father's first time hearing this as well. That means my grandfather hadn't mentioned this to anyone before. What was he hiding?
Great-Grandmother:
This is the story about Bessie Hibbs. I 'm lucky enough to have a mother who is also interested in genealogy (as mentioned in the story above), so my mom accumulated a lot of information already; but not nearly enough. See my grandmother's brother and her birth mother both died in a car accident when my grandmother was about 10-years-old. On top of that, my grandmother's husband died when my aunt was also 10-years-old, so we think it sort of haunted my grandmother, resulting in her never talking about it. We don't know anything about Bessie or her son (my grandma's brother): where they were born, when the accident occured, anything.
This is the story of my quest to solve these mysteries.
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