By Ellen | September 30, 2011
Terrence M. Cole’s book “Fighting for the Forty-Ninth Star: C.W. Snedden and the Crusade for Alaska Statehood” tells the story of how C.W. “Bill” Snedden, the long-time publisher of the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, used a small town newspaper to champion the fight for statehood. One of the most fascinating parts of the book is [...]
By Ellen | September 26, 2011
Over the weekend, the Alaska Historical Society (AHS) recognized the Lost Alaskans project with their Pathfinder Award. We didn’t know we were being considered so this was a wonderful surprise for a chilly Monday morning. The annual AHS meeting was held in Valdez. Here’s information on the award from the society’s website. The Pathfinder [...]
By Ellen | September 3, 2011
The Inmates of Willard: A Genealogy Resource This blog is in preparation of a new genealogy resource book soon to be published about the Willard Asylum for the Insane and the first generation of Willard Inmates. It was written with genealogy geeks in mind. It is for those who want to glimpse the past, enjoy reading historical documents with [...]
By Ellen | August 25, 2011
Nanwalek resident Nancy Yeaton contacted me wondering if we had information on her grandparents, Ivor and Nancy Johnson. She said that they had breakdowns after watching helplessly as two of their children died in a horrific fire in Nikiski. After the fire, Ivor and Nancy were sent to Morningside Hospital and the children (2 boys [...]
By Ellen | August 15, 2011
Morningside Hospital in the 1950s or 1960s. There were many other structures on the property, including patient housing and farm buildings. In 1968, Morningside Hospital was sold to the developers of the 205 Mall. This is what it looks like today.
By Ellen | August 13, 2011
Researchers Niesje Steinkruger and Meg Greene, both of whom are retired Superior Court judges, have made incredible progress is locating and documenting Morningside patient court records. Below are photos of some of the things they’ve found with descriptions provided by Niesje. This photo (L) is of a subpoena given to the Federal Marshall by [...]
Eric Cordingley and David Anderson, of the Friends of Multnomah Park Cemetery, have identified the burial places of more than 100 Morningside patients. They created a Virtual Cemetery site that includes all of the patients they’ve identified, pictures of gravestones, and other information on the patients. They are relying on two sources of information in [...]
By Ellen | April 29, 2011
Tom Ralphs contacted the blog wondering if we had any records indicating that his grandfather, Tom Shea, was at Morningside. When I wrote back that I didn’t find anything, he mentioned that his grandmother, Clara Simpson, was sent there in the 1940’s, and he had information on her life that he was willing to share. [...]
Oregon State Hospital tries to reunite families with cremated remains of past patients, but errors on list may make it difficult SALEM — The intent was to reunite families with the remains of their relatives, patients who died and were cremated at the Oregon State Hospital decades ago. But the list of names compiled by [...]
By Ellen | March 10, 2011
Aleksandr Hazanov, who lives in Finland, contacted us wondering if we had information about his mother’s cousin, Lubova Pontelaief. She was the daughter of Aleksandr Pontelaief, a Russian Orthodox priest who brought his family from Russia to Unalaska in the early 1900s. The photo to the right is believed to be the Pontelaief family in [...]
