Tieman/Marshall Family Blog

Friday, October 23, 2015

Nancy's Parents:
Frederick James Marshall b. 11 Feb 1925 d.24 Jan 2008 m.21 Aug 1948 to Janet Alma Ormandy b. 20 Feb 1928 d. 7 Mar 2000

   Frederick James "Jim" Marshall, DMD, was born Feb. 11, 1925, to Les and Bertha Marshall in Vancouver, B.C. He was joined by brothers Bob and Don and sister Jane. One of Jim's claims to fame was that his mother, Bertha, and his grandmother, Elizabeth, survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. His life was shaped by family, hard work and the love of boating on the family yacht, the "Jaro."
    In grade 11, he joined the Seaforth Cadets and later went on to Canadian Army camp and then to officers training at the University of British Columbia. Jim was sent to Great Britain in World War II and was on leave at home when VJ Day was declared. After the war he attended dental school in Portland, where he met the love of his life, Janet "Jan" Ormandy. After only six weeks, they were "promised" to each other and married in 1948. Jim graduated from dental school in 1949 and they moved to Vancouver, B.C., where Jim joined his father's dental practice.
    In 1957 with a wife, four kids and a dog, Jim went back to school at the University of Illinois for a master's degree and in 1959 began a long and successful career as an educator and mentor to dental students at the University of Manitoba, the University of Pittsburgh and the Ohio State University before finally coming full circle to teach at the Dental School in the Oregon Health Sciences University in 1972. Jim retired in 1990 but continued to work a half day each week at the school. Jim was a leader in his field and a member of numerous dental societies.
    Jim lost his beloved Jan eight years ago but has been active in the Kiwanis Club and his church, has traveled the world, bicycled the back roads, indulged his life-long passion for learning and knowledge and enjoyed his family and friends.
    Jim died Jan. 24, 2008, fiercely loved and respected by all who knew him. He is survived by his daughters, Barbara and Nancy, and their spouses, Arthur and Michael; sons, Gordon and Stephen and their spouses, Karla and Connie; nine grandchildren, Leslie, Erin, Heather, Katie, Emily, Luke, Carver, Rowan and Bailey; seven great grandchildren, Isabell, Eli, Max, RJ, Jackson, Connor and Alexis; his brothers, Bob and Don; and the extended Marshall and Ferguson families. Jim was a loving patriarch to his family, friends and colleagues around the world and he will be profoundly missed.

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And in the beginning ...

My quest for Nancy and my history, or roots, began innocently enough, Christmas, 1982.

Nancy's grandmother, Dede , gave us a book for Christmas titled The History of Our Family. A book of empty pages with headings like: Our Children, Husband's Parents' Family and Where Our Ancestors Have Lived. As Nancy and I started to fill it out, we found that we knew almost nothing of our family from before our great-grandparents, and my family when I asked, would tell me nothing.

I am an artist, and artists are a curious lot by nature and we love knowledge. So, there it is, I was hooked.

First, my quest was who were my great-grandparents and where did they come from? All I knew was that they came from Prussia in the early 1800's and that because they were of German decent living in the U.S. during two great wars, the past was never talked about. I then took it upon myself to try and fill in the blanks. First, I talked to my parents, and great aunts, as no one else would tell me squat. I began to fill in names of ancestors, and some questionable dates. As time went on, I spent many hours in the archives and library of the Mormon Church. I was lucky that we lived in cities that had local libraries of the main church.

Back then, I had to search actual books and newspapers and hundreds of rolls of film, searching out our ancestors and records of birth and census' and maybe even a parish record. It took a long time back then in the 80's, and money as I had to order the loan of papers and actual records and books from the Mormon Church archives in Salt Lake City. Which I could only look at in their library. Anything I wanted copies of, I had to pay to copy and get their permission. Their genealogical library is extensive, the largest in the world, and in the case of Prussia, they had the only info as most of it was destroyed in the wars.

My list of ancestors started to become impressive. Then I asked, "Who were these people?" I started to collect stories from our relatives about the families. Oh, the stories I heard when the family finally decided to share. Some info turned out accurate as I researched, others, not so much. Like all families we were descended from kings and leading scholars and vice presidents and famous inventors. Or, so the stories went on that were handed down.

Then with the stories, I became interested in the towns and farms and countries our ancestors came from. What was Millom, England like in the 1600's when Nancy's ancestors lived there? So, I looked into the town histories, and when was Prussia a country, country histories, and maps of the periods when our ancestors lived. Plot maps where I actually found our famiy names. Curious more, what did my ancestors wear and eat in the 18th century on their farms and what did they grow? What church did they attend and why were there no birth record in a particular period of the 1600's but there were baptism records instead? How did the my family name change from Thiemann to Tiemann to Tieman?

Because of that book and asking who was the great-grandfather I never knew, this project has now over 4300 people in our two families, over 1500 source documents dating back to the 1600's (some originals pre-19th century), and a collection of over 2000 original photos some dating back to the beginning of photography.

I hope you enjoy reading and searching this project of mine, this labor of love.

When my friends have asked my why I do this, why am I so interested in the past, that only the future is important? I ask them to tell me about their grandparents, and half way through their memories, they begin to understand that their stories and memories of their families might die with them, and that I never had any.

Please contact me if you have information to share or want to see what I have. mlt438@gmail.com

The Tieman Clan 1902

Friday, October 23, 2015

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