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My Father's Ancestors
My
Father's Ancestors:
Map and Photo Essay
One
of the reasons that I'm taking this trip is to research my family's history.
This
map shows how my father's ancestors moved across America, including:
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In
RED LINES, his father's ancestors (Leus) who came to
Ohio from Switzerland.
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In
BLUE LINES, his mother's ancestors
(Planes) who
came mainly to Massachusetts and New York from England and, possibly,
Holland.
My
Father's Ancestral Map (Click to
enlarge)
Photo Essay: My
Father's
Ancestors
 Above
left: The marina at Ipswich, Massachusetts, where my ancestors, the
Bradstreets and Chaplins, landed from
England in the 1630s and 1640s.
Above
center: My great-great-grandfather Ransom Myers (1842-1897) who, I
believe, was of Dutch descent. He fought in the Civil War
(see
Ransom Myers) and
married Hannah Chaplin. Their youngest daughter was Minnie May Myers, my
great-grandmother.
Above
right: At Ransom and Hannah's graves near Mayville,
Michigan. The graves of Ransom's parents, Solomon
and Charlotte Myers, are nearby.
 Above
left: Minnie May Myers (left) eloped at 16, much to her
father Ransom's displeasure. However, Minnie's husband, Everette
Plane, died
of tuberculosis when she was 28. Heart-broken, Minnie May and her daughter,
Minnie May Plane (right), who was eight years old, left
Michigan and went to Seattle in 1900. This
photo was taken around 1945.
Above
center: Minnie May Plane married George Leu in Seattle in 1912 and they raised
six kids. This is their family around 1929. Those are my
grandparents,
Minnie May Jr. and George in the back, with Minnie's Aunt Ida on the right.
My Dad is the one getting his head rubbed (front left).
Above
right: The Leus around 1932 at the Seattle Airport. The
Morrell Company offered a ride on the company plane to George, a prominent grocer in
Seattle, and his family. This was the Leu's first
plane ride and everyone went except for George,
who
was afraid of flying. My Dad, again, is front
left wearing a
spiffy suit, standing next to his brother Bill.
 
 Above
left: My grandparents, Minnie and George, standing on either side of their son,
my Uncle Bill, who was on the tanker U.S.S. Neosho at
Pearl Harbor during
the bombing. A few months later, the Neosho was attacked in the Coral Sea by a
Japanese dive-bomber and Bill floated on the listing ship for four days
before being rescued by a U.S. destroyer (read the whole story on my
U.S.S. Neosho Home Page). After the war, he became an engineer for
the Great Northern Railroad.
Above
center: My grandparents at Leu's Market in Skykomish,
Washington, around 1950. George moved his family here during
the Depression after his store in Seattle failed because of the credit he'd
extended to his customers. The family was desperately poor
during the Depression but, because of George and Minnie's hard work, they
scraped through it.
Above
right: Three generations at Leu's Market. That's my Dad and
Mom with their first child, Doti (my sister). This was taken
just before my Dad, who was a Navy Seal, went to China during World War II.
 Above
left: This is the
last photo taken of my grandfather, George Leu, sitting in a Rest Home near
Seattle in 1965, three months before he
died at age 78. His wife, Minnie, had died eight years earlier.
This visit, when I was 5 years old, is the only memory
that I have of him. Our family, living in Michigan, visited him each
summer and my Dad told me that George often cried when we
said goodbye.
Above
right: My grandparent's grave in Monroe, Washington. Minnie May died in 1957, a few years before I was born, so I don't
remember
her but people tell me she was a vivacious and wonderful person who loved to
travel. George was quieter, a hard worker, an avid
reader, and he loved kids and baseball.
Here are
a couple of related pages:
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