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Familiar Faces on Museum Poster

Yesterday, I went over to the museum where I will be presenting my hat program this Saturday.  The main objective of this trip was to look at the area where I will be presenting and to discuss logistics of conducting the program.  As I entered the museum, to my right I saw out of the corner of my eye this large poster on this board advertising my program.  “Oh…Grandma!” I said to myself at my initial glimpse of the familiar face of lady on the right in the top photo.  I had already been sent a .pdf file of this advertisement, but seeing the enlarged poster of my maternal grandmother’s face on the message board of the Isle of Wight CountyMuseum was a true delight.  As if this were my first time seeing this poster, I stopped to look at it on the board.  To the left of my grandmother is Sister Odell Hayes who was a member of our church as well as one of my Sunday School Teachers and this photo was taken around the 1950s.  The lady below Grandma and Sister Hayes is Anna T. McPhillips, a family member Thomas MacEntee and her photo was taken around 1923.  The photo of the two adorable little girls dressed in their Easter’s finest during the 1960s is of Heather Wilkinson Rojo and her little sister.  These are all lovely representatives of “Hat Queens and Princesses” and I look forward to the presenting of my third hat history program this year.  It will be a year next month since Grandma passed awat and my family and I miss her dearly.  But despite that she has left this earth, her spirit still lives on through her teachings and her HATS!

Contributing My Research to a Worthy Cause

I've been busy working all week on an application to the National Park Service (NPS) to nominate the James A. Fields House for inclusion in the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program.  This project was initiated by one of Mr. Fields' descendants and I'm helping her to get the application completed by adding the historical research which I've done on her ancestor whose historic house is in my community. We are both thoroughly excited about this joint endeavor and expect positive results from our submission. As a genealogist and family historian, I am thrilled to be able to contribute my research to such a worthy cause.

Hat History Program

I am pleased to announce that I will be doing another Hat History Program later this month at the Isle of Wight County Museum in Smithfield, VA (Home of the Virginia Ham).

Thanks to Thomas MacEntee and Heather Rojo for use of your hat photos.

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