Mountain Laurel & Coal

On October 16, 1908, my Great Grandfather Harry E. Phillians was visiting Connellsville, Pa. when he sent this post card to his future wife Miss Olivia M. Horner of Millsboro, Washington County, Pa.  I have a whole box of letters he wrote to her during their courtship. He was a widow from Delaware, Ohio who was in southwestern Pennsylvania looking for work as a barber. She was what they called, in the day, an Old Maid, who spent her days caring for her father George W. Horner of Millsboro. They married on January 28, 1909, in the Central Presbyterian Church in South Brownsville. He was 32 and she was 39. I will write more about these two at another time, but for now, enjoy this post card and the message H.E.P sent to Olive to let her know that he was all right and settling in Connellsville for the time being. My maternal ancestral line to Harry and Olivia Horner Phillians: 1. Randi Lee Ross 2. Roberta Lee Phillians 3. George Harry Phillians 4. Olivia Horner & Harry E. Phillians by

Here’s a lovely photograph of my Great Grandmother Mary Brown holding on to her friend Leota Nyswaner of Clarksville, Pa. I'm guessing this photo was taken in the 1950s. Leota was a dear lady who lived on Market Street, just a block from the home of Mary and her husband Isaac and my Grandparents Forest Vance and Ruth Brown Ross.  When we were young, my friends and I would visit Leota at her little house often. She would invite us in, give us treats, and tell us stories.  She told me about the day she sat with my Grandmother and helped deliver my father, Wayne Ross, who was born at home on August 13, 1942. She was very proud of this, but I was too young to think about asking any questions. Was she a midwife? Did my grandmother have a difficult time? Did the birth take a long time? Was my dad a big baby? Nope, I didn't ask a thing. I was about 7 years old, so I was probably thinking, “Wow, that’s interesting, Mrs. Nyswaner. May I have another cookie, please?”  I also remember the

It just didn’t make sense that Tim’s grandmother would have neglected to buy a headstone to mark her mother’s grave. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the case. In September 2020, my daughter Abby and I took the dogs for a ride and stopped by the Holy Resurrection Orthodox Cemetery on Ridge Road in Centerville, PA to look for the grave of Maria Kricsfalussy Postic Paroda, the mother of Tim's grandmother Julia Marodi. We found Julia's grave and the graves of his grandfather Alex Marodi, and uncles Mike and George Marodi. We even found his father’s second grave. (Yes, second grave - keep reading.) Then, not too far away, were the graves of some members of the Paroda family. Maria had married Charles Paroda after the death of her first husband and these were the descendants of that union. We poked around, but we didn’t find the grave of Maria or Charles Paroda. This bothered me because the records I had indicated that they had been buried in this cemetery. Tim's grandmother