Monday, November 18, 2013

Weekly Puzzle - A Tribute to Helen Margaret Trindle

Well, not quite weekly this time, getting a library catalog online took precedence, but here is a Trindle update and instead of a puzzle a tribute.

Thirty plus years ago, as I started thinking about doing my father's genealogy, my father-in-law gave me a pile of Trindle newsletters thinking I might also be interested in reading about the Trindle families ancestors.  After delving through those newsletters, the work of Helen Margaret Trindle, I was hooked.

On 10 Feb 1955, Helen started the Trindle Newsletter with a self introduction.  "Perhaps I can take this opportunity to tell you a little about myself and my immediate family.  I am the third child of George W. Trindle and Cora Farnsworth Trindle, born in Hansel, Iowa.  My brothers are James Carl now living in Charles City, Iowa and John Ralph living in Madison, WI.  When I was a year old we went to Kearney Nebraska for a year, then went to Mason City Iowa.  There we children went to school.  I took two years of college work there, then completed a BA degree at William Penn College in Oskaloosa Iowa. Then on to McCormick Seminary in Chicago for a MA degree in religious education.  I have worked as a Director of Christian Education in Bethany Union Church, Chicago; Presbyterian Churches in St. Cloud, MN and Salina, KS.  In 1940 I went to the Board of Christian Education working four years in the youth department.  From 1944-52 I served the synod of Indiana as a Director of Christian Education, traveling around the state, and doing a great deal of summer camp work.  Since October 1952 I have been at the Crerar Memorial Presbyterian Church in Chicago.  My mother now makes her home with me, and we have a small apartment near the church.  What time I can find for hobbies is spent on photography, sewing and now this genealogy."

Helen's newsletter continued on an annual basis until shortly before her death in 1976.  What started as "this genealogy"  became a collection of many Trindle lineage charts and pictures.  Helen, collected information into books which were given to some of the major genealogical libraries in the country.  Her work, William Trindle Family Data,  is available online. Helen's work was a great example for me, a budding genealogist.  While her goal was to find her early ancestors she never made a connection without adequate proof.  She, herself, never connected her earliest known ancestor to William of Cumberland County.

One hope I've always had, was that the chest of information she had gathered over the years would surface.  I was told at one point that it was sitting in the basement of a niece.  Whether there is anything more than what I have managed to gather, I don't know, but I'd definitely like to look.

So, on to the solution of a weekly puzzle.
University of Wisconsin graduate posted 22 May 2013.  Alice A. Trindle is the daughter of Helen's brother John Ralph. (answer supplied by her cousin once removed.

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