Categories
family life

Camping

We went tent camping last weekend. Our friends Duane, Chelsea, and family were sleeping in their new (to them) trailer and our other friend Wren and her daughters slept in their car. Cold weather and a new air mattress that needed to be refilled once every two to three hours meant that our sleep was pretty disrupted. That morning Ian woke up crying… or more like whining. At the same time, Wren’s daughter Kate opened her car door which made a screeching noise exactly like the sound Ian was making. He stopped abruptly, yelled out angrily, “Stop copying me!” and looked around to see who was mocking him. I told him that was just the car door closing and Kate yelled out, “Sorry Ian.” Luckily he took it in stride and laughed along with all of us.

Later that morning we were talking about how we slept. Duane said, pointing to his trailer, you’ve got to get one of these, they’re great. I said sarcastically “Oh, were you not freezing cold all night?” referring to our own sleep in the tent. He said, “Actually, at one point it was almost too hot”.

I guess we still had fun because we’ve decided to do it again in a couple weeks.

Categories
family

Sarah Ellen (Ella) Kinsman

My great-grandmother was Sarah Ellen Kinsman (AKA Ella Milner). Growing up, I didn’t know much about her except that her father Marshall Kinsman died in a logging accident and her mother remarried Joseph Young, Brigham Young’s older brother. Even my dad was too young to know my Great Grandma Milner — she died a year before he was born. I also remember hearing that Ella’s mother was born on the day of the Hauns Mill Massacre but I could never keep track of which relative these stories were about. Really the only thing I remember from my childhood about my great-grandmother was just that we would often visit her gravesite on our trips to Raymond, AB, so learning more about her has been really interesting.

I’m sharing her story for posterity as part of my collection of family posts. If you find this information useful please send me a note, I’d love to hear from you.

SARAH ELLEN KINSMAN, daughter of Marshall Corridon Kinsman and Sarah Jane Snow, was born 19 May 1857, at Provo, Utah. She died 25 May 1943, in Salt Lake City, Utah at the age of 86. She married Benjamin Franklin Milner on 9 June 1886, at Logan, Cache, Utah in the Logan Temple.

Sarah Kinsmen (AKA Ella Milner) — colour added by Jeff Milner 2023 in Photoshop
Categories
family Sport

Lucy Wardle Streeter – High Diving Record Holder

I came across this post about a men’s world record setting high dive and it reminded me about my mom’s first-cousin, Lucy Wardle Streeter, who in 1985 set the women’s record for high diving and still holds the Guinness record today.

From Stacey A. Morse’s biographical article in Easy Reader News (March 2022):

In 1985, Rancho Palos Verdes resident Lucy Wardle Streeter climbed the ladder of a swaying, 120-foot steel tower, built to her specifications at the edge of a pool in Ocean Park, a marine mammal amusement park in Hong Kong.

At the top of the tower, she stepped onto a platform barely as wide as her stance, and stood with arms outstretched, for 10 seconds. Then she lept, and executed a beautifully arched, backward flip. Three seconds later she entered the water at 71 miles an hour, knocking the wind out of herself.

According to the 2022 Guinness Book of World Records, the 120-foot, 9-inch [36.8m] dive remains the highest dive ever performed by a woman.

I met Lucy once while on a family vacation to Los Angeles. I remember seeing her world record certificate and a photo of her on the platform. Just today I discovered a video of the record breaking dive on YouTube:

Wardle’s dive of 120 feet 9 inches bettered the record of 109-4 set by another American, Debi Boccia, in Rome in 1982.

Categories
family Photography

The World of Colour

I’ve been restoring and colourizing some old black and white family photos in Photoshop lately. Here are some of my favourites:

My grandpa Milner and his basketball team. Circa 1922.
My great grandpa Frank Milner. Unknown date.
My mom in about grade 4. Circa 1962.
My aunts and uncles and Milner grandparents before my dad was born. Circa 1943.
My grandma and grandpa Scoville on their wedding day. Circa 1942

I’ll save the rest for another day.

Categories
family history

Benjamin Franklin Milner

My great grandfather, Benjamin Franklin “Frank” Milner is buried beside his wife Ella in the Temple Hill Cemetery1 near Raymond, Ab. I remember we’d always take the time to check out his gravestone whenever we visited there but even my dad is too young to have known Frank, since my dad was born 18 years after he died. It’s not surprising though because my Great Grandpa Milner was really old. For some perspective, he was born seven years before the start of the American Civil War and another full 40 years before Utah achieved statehood.

I don’t know too much about Frank except what I’ve read in the excerpt below from p.196-198 of Valiant in the Faith, with spelling corrections, notes, and links added by me.

  1. My grandpa Marshall used to jokingly call it Boot Hill. Boot Hill is the name or nickname of many cemeteries in the old west with reputations for the number of men that died with their boots on (presumably involving gun play or hangings). The Raymond cemetary was called Temple Hill because of the hope and plans by the folks in Raymond to have the first latter-day saint temple built there—ultimately the Alberta Temple got built in Cardston much to the multigenerational disappointment of the locals in Raymond. I guess a cemetery is the next best thing?[]
Categories
family history

Valiant in the Faith – Gardner and Sarah Snow and Their Family pdf

Valiant in the Faith – Gardner and Sarah Snow and Their Family by Archibald F. Bennett and Ella M. Bennett is a book of genealogy and stories about descendants of the Gardner Snow family of which I am one.

I’ve learned a few interesting things about the book. The author, Ella M. Bennett, it turns out, is actually my dad’s aunt. The other author, her husband Archibald Bennett, is a semi-famous genealogist. He happens to have worked as a school teacher at a couple of the same schools as me (Taber and Barnwell). My dad tells me they never finished the book while they were alive and it was their kids that did a lot of work completing it.

An interesting story shared in the book is that my Great Great Grandmother, Sarah Jane Snow, was born on the day of the Haun’s Mill massacre.

Categories
family

Goodwin Knight

After dabbling into my family’s genealogy, I learned that my Grandpa Marshall Milner was first cousins with former Governor of California, Goodwin Knight.(Which means he and I are first cousins 2 times removed.))

Goodwin is the grandson of John Brewitt Milner and Ester Elizabeth Yardley Thurman. (John B. Milner was the first Milner in my family to immigrate to the American continent.) his parents were Lillie (Milner) Knight and Jesse Knight. Jesse was the nephew of the mining magnate Jesse Knight who founded the town of Raymond, Ab.

My dad told me a story about how one time his parents, Marshall and Sarah travelled to California to visit their daughter Joyce who was on a church mission. It was at this time that Goodwin was the governor of California. They found themselves not far from the governor’s mansion and Marshall having never met Goodwin, wanted to knock on his cousin’s door. However, my grandma insisted that the governor was too busy and that it would be a bother to disturb him. They never did meet and everyone agrees, it’s really too bad.

Here is Goodwin at the opening of Disneyland in 1955.

Here he is again speaking after Walt just gave his opening speech. He has a look that reminds me of my Grandpa Marshall:

When it comes to Goodwin Knight, however, possibly more interesting to most is the fact that he was closely involved in the Warren Commission, officially titled The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. The Commission took its unofficial name—the Warren Commission—from its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren, whom Goodwin served under as the 35th Lieutenant Governor of California in the years before he became the Governor himself.

Goodwin died in 1970. See his New York Times obituary after the jump.

Categories
crime family

Scary Clown on Venice Beach

My sister and two of her kids were in Los Angeles over the weekend to watch the Premier Lacrosse League All Star Game. After picking up her rental car, first thing they did was hit up Venice Beach near Santa Monica pier. She was having a good time with her boys when four helicopters (at least one police) showed up, and surrounded what she described as a scary clown guy that had been in a slow-speed police pursuit. Although he attracted a crowd, my sister said it was frightening and she wanted nothing to do with the action. It took a while but eventually an officer followed the man onto the beach, waited for more officers to arrive and they arrested the man.

Full story after the jump.

Categories
baby family

Ian

Last week, we welcomed new baby boy, Ian, to our family. His stats: 9lbs (4.1 kg) and 20 1/2 inches (52cm). He likes snuggling, eating, sleeping, and processing food. Both mom and baby are doing great — most importantly… he’s a sweetheart.

Categories
family

Nesslin

Dear internet, I’d like you to meet Nesslin!

She was born at the end of May, weighed about 3.8 kg (8 lbs., 6 oz.), loves to eat (and then sleep), and has a lovely, gentle personality. Both mom and baby are home and after some temporary adventures with Andrea’s high blood pressure, both are doing fine. Nesslin is not a particularly popular name right now (It doesn’t even register on a Wolfram Alpha name search and less than 5 people have the closest match, Nessie). I’ve never been quite so content as when she fell asleep on my chest yesterday and we snoozed together on the couch for an hour or so — a little slice of heaven.