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Welcome to... Circa 1860 to 1931		SITE CONTENTS About the Album Greetings from Charles Bliley Who is in the album? When was the album created? What condition is it in the Year 2000? How did the album get in to my hands? The album on CD-ROM Online Viewing & Downloading Instructions About Lula and Her Life Introduction Vital Statistics and Some Not-So-Vital Statistics Dawson's Corry Homestead Lake Erie College Trip to California in 1902 Christening of Daughter Josephine
Other Family History Sites Bliley Family History Bliley Electric Company--The Early Years 1930 to 1955 Chuck Bliley's Home Page The Bliley Network--Home to all of my sites.		Album Pages (Photos) Low-Resolution Pages (Downloads-10 sec @ 28.8 bps) Index: Cover to Page 26 Index : Pages 27 to 52 High-Resolution Pages (Downloads-40 sec @ 28.8 bps) Index: Cover to Page 26 Index : Pages 27 to 52

GREETINGS Welcome to the electronic version of my grandmother's family photograph album on the Web. The album was created by the hands of Lula Dawson Bliley, born in Corry, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America. She valued family and its history. This album is one of several family heirlooms she created during her lifetime. This Web site covers the contents of the album, page by page, with full-page images. Each page has a thumbnail view and a link to a full-sized image scanned at 144 dpi. To the right of each page image is a transcription of the captions on the page. When you have a moment, please read the background story on the album and how it ended up on the Internet. Please let me know if you can add any information to the people, events or history of Lula's family. Enjoy your visit. Charles A. Bliley May 2000

WHO WAS LULA BLILEY?  

First of all, she was a grandmother that I never knew. She died a year before I was born.

 

She was the eldest of three children born to Alzina Hall Dawson and Richard Pound Dawson of Corry, Pennsylvania.

 

Her father was a successful business man in the wholesale and retail grocery business with his brother for 25 years. Their firm was called Dawson Brothers. He also served as mayor of Corry from 1900 to 1906. Corry was a small town (pop: 10,000?) with big city goals. They had numerous retail, wholesale and significant manufacturing businesses with customers beyond Northwestern Pennsylvania.

 

Lula would be described as a child of the Victorian Era and part of an upper-middle class family. Their home on Washington Street had 12 rooms. It appears they lived comfortably and had a stable family life. She attended Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio for two years studying diverse courses. This was customary for women and was comparable to attending a "finishing school". Her brother Richard attended a military school. Her obituary credits her with teaching for several years in the Erie City Schools after her marriage to Frank A. Bliley.

WHO IS IN THE ALBUM?  

The album contains 75 photos of just about everyone in the Dawson family for four generations and with photographs from the very earliest days of photography. There are also pictures of Lula herself from birth to her twenties in increments of several years. What a treasure trove of material it is! It also has the names of each person, their relationship to her and frequently a personal observation or characterization in her own words.

WHEN WAS HER ALBUM CREATED?  

I can only guess at when the original paper album was created. From the range of photographs it contains, it would appear that the album covers from about 1860 through 1931. Most of the photos are from the 1800s. Most likely it was done when she was in her 60s and living in Erie, Pennsylvania her home since her marriage. From the age of the photos that are pasted or taped into the album, I would make a guess it was produced about 1931 following a Bliley family reunion. That date is determined by the last few photos that were taken with family members from states other than Pennsylvania and the dated caption on the next to last photo. Technically, this is only a guess.

WHAT CONDITION IS IT IN THE YEAR 2000?  

At the time of the creation of this electronic album, the album covers were in poor condition and the binding was barely holding things together. I took it to a book binder in Rochester, New York, to make an evaluation of the condition of the album and to determine if it could be safely rebound. The binder said that the album was "the finest example of a family album" she had ever seen in her professional career. She was not commenting on the calligraphy or the albums materials, but rather the organization, and the detailed and valuable captions. She said the paper was in great condition and must have been made of a top-quality acid-free paper. The photographs display few signs of deterioration. Even an album in such good condition can only be viewed by one person at a time. It is also not likely that the album would be passed around from family-to-family. In one regard it is truly one of the "family jewels".

HOW DID THE ALBUM GET INTO MY HANDS?  

That is a interesting story. In 1999 I began a quest to package what family information I had and put it into electronic form so that each of my children and other immediate family members could have a "copy". This work lead me to make a few requests of family members for artifacts that they would be willing to loan me to copy and scan into computer resources. One of the first persons I asked was my cousin George of Seattle, Washington. He was one of the first to offer some artifacts. He sent me a package filled with wonderful photographs and newspaper clippings of his parents (George Malcom Oldham and Josephine Bliley Oldham) and my father Frank Dawson Bliley. George's contribution really got me excited and I wanted to document what he had given me as quickly as possible.

After I had done some basic transfers to the computer, I decided to share the material with George by mail and personally with his brother Jim who was living in Erie, Pennsylvania only three hours drive from my home in Rochester, New York. Jim told me several times that he had nothing to contribute to the project, but he would be delighted to see what I had produced to date. While I was visiting with Jim, I told him of the genealogical adventure I had undertaken. I asked him once again if he had anything to contribute to the project. He excused himself from the room and returned with a photo album created by our grandmother Lula Dawson Bliley. I carefully opened the album and found the wonderful pictures you will see in this electronic archive. I was soon moved to tears; Jim had one of the richest family resources I have seen to date and expect to find. "Can I borrow it?", I asked. "Of course.", was Jim's response. I continued to cry tears of joy and sorrow. The book contains photos I had never seen of people that I had known and loved. What a joy to have such a book in my hands. And, Jim said that he thought he had nothing of interest to me!

My Cousin Jim, the current holder of the album, viewing the album during my visit in January 2001.

THE ALBUM ON CD-ROM  

Lula's album is also available on a CD-ROM with files of each of the pages and individual photos at resolutions up to 600 dpi. On the CD there are two versions of the album in the Acrobat PDF format. These are very large files (48 & 190 Mb) and are not practical to place on the Internet. If you are interested in receiving individual photos in either JPEG, TIF or Photoshop (.PSD), please send me a note (E-mail) and if practical, I will sent them to you as an e-mail attachment.

In June, 2001, I made a presentation to the Rochester Genealogy Society on the development of the CD-ROM version of the album. If you are interested in the issues I wrestled with and tools used in the development of the CD you can find it on this site. Click here, or on the CD photo, for further information.

The album site and associated CD-ROM were the inspiration for an article written by Larry Naukam that was published in the September/October 2002 issue of "Heritage Quest" magazine. Larry's article, "Making a Family Genealogy CD", parallels many of the recommendations and issues discussed on the CD development site.

Material on this site and CD-ROM carry a copyright. The copyright restrictions are few. Details can be found at the end of the CD's "Read Me" file.

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I am proud this site has received this award from an association of professional web site creators--The International Association of Webmasters and Designers--after a review by a committee of its members.

THE SITE'S CREATOR AND AUTHOR Charles Arthur Bliley 736 Bel Arbor Trail Webster, NY 14580 (585) 872-9155 K3NAU@AOL.com   You are visitor

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This site and associated pages are Copyright 2001, by Charles A. Bliley,. Webster, NY, U.S.A.