Production Notes

I have realized the value of talking with older relatives about their lives, as all too soon they are gone and those questions just go unanswered.  In Gunther's reply to me about the Website, he said that he wants to sit with his parents this Christmastime and look at the Website together.  That's what needs to happen, so that the questions do not go unanswered before they are even formulated.  That's a big part of why I did all of this.

 

With you having grown up at an earlier time than me, you might know the answers to some of the following:

 

ESTHER HAMM:

Tell about your years in Paris after WWII

When did you go there?

Where did you live?

With or for whom did you work?

Did you know or know of any famous Ex-pats in Paris

When Katie announced to Esther that she would spend a semester in Paris, Es immediately offered to pay for it and told Katie to throw her books off the top of the Eiffel Tower and just have a great time there.

Can you talk about how, when and where you met Warren?

What was your courtship like?  Was it short or long?

Where were you married, as you came back to the US on the RMS Queen Elizabeth, married to him in June, 1948?

He was married and divorced before; what can you tell me about that?

Did he have any children?

Was it a good marriage?

Can you talk about how he drowned in the Potomac River?

Were you there?

Was he an alcoholic?

Was he drunk when he died in the river?

Where is he buried?

 

MARY HAMM:

Your boyfriend in the 1930's was Frank Butts.  Can you talk about him?  BTW Jim, I have Frank Butts' Obit from the Whg. paper.

He was a contractor; did he work with the Hamm Brothers?

Was he Bud's best friend?

Did he life near to the Hamm's on 16th St.?

How did he die?

You were 32 when he died in 1940; were you planning to be married?

 

GRANDFATHER SHARPE:

The Book of letters that you sent to me reads John Sharpe, D.D. on the cover and on the Synod of Ohio Certificate of Achievement as D.D.   The College of Wooster, Katie's College, in 1940 awarded him an Honorary D.D. Degree.  I just sent off a request for information to Auburn.  Martins Ferry High School came through with images of Mama's 1930 and 1931 Year Books.

I would ask Grandfather to talk about the various stages of his life:

In Dundee

His decision to come to America at age 17.

How was that received at home?

Did his parents support him?

Ancestry.com lists one of his sisters as Jane, and there is no sister named Jean listed in the many documents that record the Sharpe family; however the letter notifying Grandfather of his father's death is signed, "Your Loving Sister, Jean Moffatt.  This is confusing?

I believe that he returned to Dundee more than one time to visit.

When?

How long?

What did he do there?

Was he helping to support his parents

In America

With whom did he live in MA upon arrival.  The ship's manifest said he was coming to Holyoke.

How did he support himself through college and the seminary?

Did he have debt from his colleges?

Amherst

What did he study?

What did he do during the summers?

In Auburn

Where did he meet Edna?

Was there Hemingway family knowledge of their ancestry?

Did they know or know of the Chicago branch of the Hemingway family, including Ernest?

Did they know that they were related to President William Howard Taft?

When Edna died and after he left Jeanne and Madeline with his Mother-in-law and her other daughters, where did he go and what did he do?

After he returned to retrieve his daughters, did they visit often?  (There are photos on the Website of the time during the teens and 20's of Mama and Madeline visiting there).

Carolyn told me that her Mother said that when her Father returned, she didn't want to leave.  By that time, she was 7 and had grown very close with her Grandmama, according to Carolyn.

With Mary Adams, Mimi

Where did he meet Mary Adams?

Had Mary ever been married before?

What had she done in her life: home life, education, work, etc.?

What was her ancestry (note: we have found nothing on her or her ancestors)

Where was her birth place?

Who were her parents?

What was the meeting like when he and Mary returned to retrieve Jeanne and Madeline? (The photos tell some of the story)

Where did they go when they left Auburn with the girls in 1917?  In 1920, they lived in Cadiz. OH.