THE BEGINNING.

I was born on June 15, 1957 to Donald Leon Ashley and Edna Mae"Jeri" Murphy in Sacramento, CA at Mercy General Hospital. They took me home to 4777 Mead Avenue where we only lived for a few months before packing up and moving to Anchorage, AK. It was to be one of many moves in the next few years, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Why I'm here started along time ago. As you read the following pages, the highlighted words will lead you to a picture, document, map, etc. to help you visualize and also prove some of the story. Also click on any image for a larger version.

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ASHLEY

Who knows exactly where we came from in our family history because face it, in the 1600's you could disappear to a different city or country and change your name from Smith to Jones and start all over. Of course DNA has helped prove or disprove our roots along with a paper trail of records. So as time goes on I might add or change some of this story as more and more information becomes available. So here goes with what we have so far! On my Father's side, John Ashley my 3rd Great Grandfather came over from England to St. John's New Foundland in the early 1800's. He married Ellen McCarl who was born in New Foundland. Their son William was born in St. Johns December 24th, 1840. The earliest document I have found so far is the marriage of my 2nd Great Grandfather, William Ashley to Bridget O'Dell sometime between 1861 and 1868. William was a lumber sealer as stated on his death record. The record also confirms his Father John was born in London, England and his Mother Ellen was born in New Foundland. They had 6 daughters; Catherine, my Great Grandmother Helen, Elisabeth, Anna, Bridget and Hannah. In 1882 William and family immigrated to the States and by the end of the 19th century were living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the city of Cheboygan.

Looks like my 2nd Great Grandmother Bridget got to see some of her children get married and have children but she died in 1909 at 56 years old. My 2nd Great Grandfather William is living with his oldest daughter Cathrine and family in the 1910 census after Bridget died. In the 1920 census he moved to Aberdeen, WA with my Great Grandmother Helen. William returned to Michigan and died six years later at 85 years old. Because My Great Grandmother died 2 years before him in Aberdeen, it left my Grandfather Kenneth and Great Great Aunt Elizabeth the only ones on the West coast.

My Great Great Aunt Catherine married Charles LeGear and they had two children, Mary and Edward. They were living in Muskegan in the 1900 census and as you saw above in the 1910 census they still lived in central Michigan and husband Charles is a railroad conductor. As we know, none of my family can stay put so in 1920 the LeGear's are now in St. Louis, Missouri with Charles now being manager of a medicine company. Charles died in 1928 so Catherine moved in with her daughter and family shown in both the 1930 and 1940 censuses as a widow. She died in 1946.

My Great Grandmother Helen was briefly married to Fred Moses in 1897 as this birth record shows, with my Grandfather William Kenneth being a Moses. By the 1900 census Fred is not with them but the census shows they are still married. At this writing, I don't know where she was in 1910, but in the 1920 census my 2nd Great Grandfather, Great Grandmother and Grandfather are all 2100 miles away living in Aberdeen, WA! My Great Grandmother Helen was the owner of the Strathcona Hotel at 409 1/2 Wishkah Street as her DEATH CERTIFICATE shows. It is a parking lot for a furniture store as of today. She passed away in 1924 at 50 years old and is interned here at the Fern Hill Cemetery along with my Grandfather Kenneth.

Next is my 2nd Great Aunt Elizabeth who never married. In 1910 she is living in Aberdeen, WA. Was she the first to go out there? I haven't found the 1910 census for my Great Grandmother Helen who was there by 1920. Elizabeth wasn't though. She had moved to Tacoma by the 1920 census and was a housekeeper. In 1930 at 53 she is not working and by 1940 she is raising my Father in Tacoma, WA after both of his parents passed. Elizabeth died in 1944 orphaning my Father who was 15.

2nd Great Aunt Anna married Emerson Pettit in 1905 and are living in Flint City, MI in the 1910 census. As you can see in the previous census and in the 1920 and 1930 census, Emerson worked in the auto industry his whole life. Looks like they were childless and by the 1940 census are still living in that area and Emerson is still in the auto industry. Anna died in 1948.

I haven't found much yet about my last two 2nd Great Aunts Bridget and Hannah. Only the Baptism of Bridget and Hannah living in Michigan as a purchasing agent in the1940 census.

THORSTONSEN

My Paternal Grandmother's side is descended from Russian fur trappers marrying Aleutian women in the early 1800's. My 2nd Great Grandfather Nicholaus Gregorief married Matrona Chimovitski and had six children of which my Great Grandmother Tatiana was the oldest. She married Louis Thorstenson and they show up on the 1900 census living on Chenaga Island, Prince William Sound, AK. My Grandmother Minnie shows up in the 1910 census showing my Great Grandmother living in Ellamar, AK as an Aluet and a widow because Louis, a fisherman drowned in 1909 around Hawkins Island, AK. In my mind I envision something along the lines of the TV show "Deadliest Catch"! He was just 50 years old. Tatiana died of "consumption" at 64 years old. In 1920 Minnie is still living in Ellamar a small mining camp in Prince William Sound close to where Louis drowned. The family (Gregorieff's, Thortonsen's and Anderson's) were more than half of the listed people on the census page. Grandmother Minnie was in a short marriage before she met and married Kenneth Ashley. Kenneth worked in a saw mill and had a hearing problem as shown on his WW1 draft registration. My father was born in 1929 in Cosmopolis, WA 2 years after his sister Juanita was born. In 1930 the family was living in Grays Harbor, WA. As the story goes, Minnie became pregnant with a 3rd child and it being the Depression, had an illegal abortion and she died just 27 years old. Kenneth too only lived to be 43 years old when he passed. Not a lot of longevity on my fathers side, huh?

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CRAIG

Now my Maternal Grandfather's side of the tree has alot of documented history. If all is to believed, I can go back 18 generations to James Craig born 1400 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 10 generations ago my 8th Great Grandfather John Craig and his son Archibald my 7th Great Grandfather came over on the ship Henry and Francis to New Jersey in 1685. There is a gap in documentation between Archibald and my direct decendent and 5th Great Grandfather David Craig born in 1756. He is shown in the 1790 census living in Ballston, NY which eventually became part of Saratoga County. David is listed as postmaster of "Craigsboro"in Sartoga County from 1832 to 1835. David and his wife Catherine are buried in Chatfield cemetery in Greenfield, NY. Their son John, my 4th Great Grandfather and Grandmother Elisabeth (Dake) lived their entire lives in New York as farmers. They had 12 children of which my 3rd Great Grandfather Sylvester was the 3rd in line. Sylvester married Mary (Stewart) and had 9 children.

FOURTH GENERATION

Sylvester Craig had 9 children

HENRY CRAIG 1832-1878 married Amanda (White) 1848-1927 in Nebraska and had 5 children, George, Lee, Eugene, Nettie and Alvin. Amanda remarried 2 more times and some records shows that Henry died in 1878 still in Nebraska and others show he died in 1915 in Toppenish. will take some more investigating.

DAVID CRAIG 1834-1905 married Mary (Crosby) 1842-1877 while the family still lived in Canada and they had 9 children. John, William, Sarah, Elisabeth, Mary, Emma, Alice, Adeline and Lorinda.

ELIZABETH

JOHN married Jennie (Brown) and had 8 children. DeWitt, Mabel, Birdena, Benjamin, Blanche, Daniel, Galen and Margaret.

WILLIAM married Hattie (Anderson) on February 7th, 1878. Hattie died 6 years later still in Nebraska after which William followed the family to Toppenish, Washington and lived until 79 years old.

FRANCIS in the 1861 census Francis (Frank) is listed by himself at 15 years old as a laborer. Not sure how or when he met and married Jennie (Elliott) but 7 years after the 1861 census, my Great Grandmother Mary was born in Canada the first of 10 children. See third generation below. Two years later in 1870, Sylvester and his family (including newly weds Francis and Jennie) were joined by his younger brother Davis and his family moving 800 miles further West to Harmony, Minnesota. For how long I am not sure but by 1880 they were in Republican City, Nebraska. At the time of this writing I'm not sure what happened between 1885 and 1900 because the 1890 census was destroyed. In 1900 he is living in Puyallup, Washington as a farmer and working part time for Ezra Meeker a pioneer who was part of the Oregon Trail Rememberance. Alot of the family is there with them too. In 1910 they are all living in Toppenish, Washington as farmers. Jennie passed away in 1919 and in 1920 Frank shows up living with his daughter Anna and Family in California. Frank died 4 years after Jennie.

WARREN married Inez Flora Hoag and they had 2 children, Benjamin and Bessie. In 1880 they were living in Cresco, Iowa

RACHEL was married 3 times, first to Matthew Elliot on 3-1-1864

MARY

Sylvester and family were the start of the Westward movement first moving to Waterloo, Canada in 1851. There was one more move for Sylvester and wife Mary and by 1885 they were in, Spink, South Dakota where both are interned.

THIRD GENERATION

Francis (Frank) Craig had 10 children

MARY AGNES CRAIG 1868-1944 my Great Grandmother Mary Agnes Craig got married to a Thomas Martin and had 3 boys Fern, Glen and Fay. Either they got divorced or Thomas Martin passed away but by 1900 she shows up in Puyallup, Washington with her new husband George Murphy, her 3 sons from Tom Martin and her daughter Hazel that she had with with George. Also her Mom Jennie, Dad Francis and siblings are there with them. George and Mary had 3 more children, William, John and Pearl.

AMOS CRAIG 1872-1957 apparently never married.

WILLIAM M CRAIG 1874-1954 married Ida (Filer) 1895-1985 in Yakima, Washington on January 13th, 1913. They had 5 children, Irene, Elsie, Alice, May and William. In the 1920 census are living at 302 N Date, in Toppenish, Washington and he is a farm laborer. Ten years later in the 1930 census, they have moved to the other side of town to 703 S Toppenish Ave. and William is a loborer on an oil rig. By the1940 census empty nesters William and Ida have moved to Oregon by his brother Calvin's ranch and he is back to farming. Back to Toppenish by the 1950 census.

JOHN GARNER CRAIG 1876-1946 married Bertha (Hughes) 1886-1950 in Yakima, Washington on February 16th, 1906. They had 7 children, Elva, Edith, Leona, Dorothy, Kyle, Gladys and Marjorie. In 1910 census are living in Twin Falls, Idaho and John is a farmer. In the 1920 census they have moved to Hazelton, East of Twin Falls and still farming. Still in the same area but moved South to Hansen in 1930. In the 1940 census they have moved again to Eden, Idaho and he has given up farming to do roadwork.

FRANK CRAIG 1878-1962 married Nellie Wysong 1886-1956 in Carrollton, Missouri on February 15th, 1905. They had 10 children, Lelia, Ethel, Mabel, Fay, Roy, Nellie, Nora, Lora, Ferrill and Ellen. In the 1910 census are living in Toppenish, Washington next door to his Father Francis (Frank Sr.) on Wapato Road. In 1920 They have moved and are living next door to his Niece Hazel and Husbund Art Patterson. Frank left farming moved the family to the city of Toppenish and became a a ditchwalker by 1930. They moved again by 1940 to 603 Madison Avenue, just a few blocks away from their previous home and moved again by 1950 to 111 S Elm Street with Frank retired by then. Frank passed away in 1962.

DAVID CRAIG 1881-1958 married Martha Hartley 1890-1974 in Yakima, Washington on November 15th, 1905. They had 4 kids, Louella, Amos, David Jr. and Marvin. David Sr. was a farmer and in the 1910 census are living in Toppenish, Washington. Still in Toppenish in 1920 but as of this writing I don't have the 1930 census to know if they stayed there. In the 1940 census they have relocated to nearby Harrah, Washington and still there in 1950. David died in 1958.

NORA CRAIG 1882-1944 married Andrew B Fletcher 1878-1951 in Seattle, Washington on August 17th, 1912. They were childless. Andrew immigrated from Scotland 1890 when he was 12 years old. They married in their 30's and lived in Seattle the rest of their lives. In 1920 they lived in the heart of Seattle near Nora's Sister Pearl. By 1930 and 1940 they moved a little closer to Pearl. Nora died in 1944. Andrew remarried and spent his whole career as Assistant Secretary for the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

CALVIN CRAIG 1885-1972 married Lou Elsia Pettijohn 1887-1935 in Yakima, Washington on February 14th, 1906. They had 5 children, Ben, Thelma, Thora, Dale and Eloise. They stayed in the area as farmers in the 1910 census and 1920. Calvin and family make their first move into Oregon near the town of Merrill, Oregon by 1930 census and 5 years later Lou has passed away after a short illness at 48 years old. I am not sure if it was Calvin's money that bought it, but in the 1940 census he has moved to the family ranch I know North of Prineville, with his son Ben as head of household. Not sure what happened yet, but in 1950 his other son Dale is now the head of household of the same ranch and it looks like Calvin has remarried. Calvin passed away in 1972 at 86 years old.

ANNA CRAIG 1886-1962 married Joseph Brownfield 1880-1957 in Toppenish, Washington on October 15th, 1902. They had 11 children, Theodore, Pearl, Everett, Opal, Oral, Roscoe, Elva, Wayne, Rolland, Allan and Alice. Still living in Toppenish eight years later in 1910 they are well on their way to 11 children with the first 4 showing up. Ten years later in 1920 they have moved to Northern California, added 3 more children and Anna's recently widowed Father is living with them. They were farmers and by the 1930 and 1940 censuses, they had 700 acres in the town of Corning, CA. As of 1950 they are empty nesters and living in Gerber, CA North of Corning. Anna died in 1963.

PEARL CRAIG 1888-1983 married Henry Bloom 1877-1944 on December 5, 1918. They never had any children. Henry was married before and the house that Pearl and Henry lived in 1920 is the same one he lived in with his first wife in the 1910 census in Seattle, Washington. I remember this house as a little kid, especially the concrete steps out front and the candy dish with all the hard candy stuck together! 1930 and 1940 both of them are still living in the same house but Henry is not working in 1940. He passed away 4 years later and by 1950 Pearl is a widow but still in the same house. Pearl passed away in 1983 at 95 years old.

SECOND GENERATION

MURPHY

I still don't have a lot of documentation on the Murphy side but I know for sure my 2nd Great Grandfather Green Murphy was born in Illinois, before becoming a farmer in Caldwell, Missouri where my Great Grandfather George Washington Murphy was born in Lamar, Missouri. Just like other families that lived in Lamar at that time, we had Jesse James as a family friend but of course no proof. So my Great Grandmother Mary Craig who had moved down from Canada, met and married George and they had their first child Hazel there in Missouri. As stated in the Craig story above, they show up in the 1900 census in Puyallup with her parents and other family. The two families were working for Ezra Meeker a famous pioneer. By 1910 they had moved to Toppenish where they too had a home built on Franklin Avenue. Bill, John and Pearl were born there. George and Mary helped raise Mom and Aunt Jan in their early years. Mary died in 1944 while George remarried before passing away in 1956, the year before I was born.

Mary Agnes Craig and Thomas Martin had 3 children and Mary Agnes Craig and George Murphy together had another 4.

FERN (MARTIN) 1889-1950 married Norma (Maynard) 1897-1974 on November 19th, 1912.

GLEN (MARTIN) 1891-1963 married Martha (Davis) 1892- on November 9th, 1918.

FAY (MARTIN) 1894-1980 married Vera (McCord) 1897-1974 on July 3rd, 1929.

HAZEL (MURPHY) 1898-1989 married Art Patterson 1896-1976 on July 2nd 1917. In 1920 he was a farm hand in Toppenish and by 1930 he was in his career job as a Ditch Rider. They also had 3 of their 4 kids by then. By the 1940 census they had their 4th child Mary Lou who my Mother and Aunt were close to as kids. By 1950 all the kids are married and out of the house!

WILLIAM (MURPHY) 1902-1959 married Margaret (Given) 1903-1945 on September 25, 1924. The 1930 census shows them living in Toppenish and William is a clerk in hardware store and in the 1940 census he is the manager. William and Margaret had a baby girl on December 31, 1925 but only lived 3 days. The 1940 census shows their daughter Rosemary whom Mom and Aunt Jan were also close to growing up. Margaret died of pneumonia in 1946 and William remarried a widower Flora (Brumback).

JOHN (MURPHY 1910-2002 (See JACK MURPHY below.

PEARL (MURPHY) 1912-2005 married Kenneth Paul Chissus 1907-1973 on November 23, 1937. The 1940 census shows Paul as a building contractor and them living in Toppenish next door to my Great Grandparents who were raising my Mother and Aunt at that time. Both of their children Paul and Mary Ellen are included in the 1950 census and Paul Sr. is still in the construction trade as a bricklayer. They lived on Fort Road in Toppenish a place I have visited on our 1962 vacation from Alaska.

GROSSNIKLAUS

My Maternal Grandmother's side comes from Switzerland and is the only branch of the family across the ocean that we have contact with. We can trace our family way back in time over there, but this is mainly our American story. My Great Grandfather John Gawiler immigrated to the United States in 1902 where his sister Elisabeth and husband Edmund Ruedi had settled in New Jersey the same year. After hearing of the riches to be made in Alaska being a gold miner, he worked on the railroad across to Seattle. There he met his friend Arthur Gloor who had been mining in Alaska the last couple of years and together they headed North becoming partners gold mining. In 1910 he returned to Switzerland where his father Anton was a customer at a resturant that Emma Grossniklaus worked at. After Anton introduced them I guess it was love at first site because when John asked Emma if she would like to return to Alaska with him she agreed. Getting married in Switzerland was a drawn out process and because of the short mining season in Alaska they decided to get married in the States. They sailed on the S.S. Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse from Bremen, Germany on May 3rd, 1910 and arrived in New York on May 10th. Emma and John soon returned back to the gold fields in Council, Alaska. John and his partner Arthur had a few men working with them while they did a type of placer mining. My Grandmother Margaret was the born there in Council. (Paul and Helen were born in Haycock.) . Arthur had married also and his wife Berti and Emma became fast friends raising their kids and making a homestead. Expanding their claims, they went to Haycock where on their way the barge capsized and they lost a lot of their belongings. Because the barge had other commitments, the familys were left there on the sand bar to recover as much as they could and wouldn't return to get them for a couple of weeks. After 10 years of pretty successful mining they decided to move back to the States for a little easier life. John rented a home in Seattle on 10th and 55th near the University and left them for 2 years while he went back to Alaska to sell their equipment and claims. One of his friends and fellow miner Mr. Gibb had bought 80 acres in Toppenish, WA and not knowing exactly what he wanted to do, John decided he would be a rancher/farmer too and bought 80 acres also. First they bought a few cows and thinking of selling the milk from them. That didn't amount to much money so they invested in chickens and that one did! John built quite the chicken farm with multiple hatcheries and through the Farmers CoOP were selling their eggs across the United States. He even patented a "Pecking Shield" to keep them from fighting and hurting each other. Their last child Ruth, was born there and sadly Paul at 13 drowned in a local canal.

JACK MURPHY

My Grandpa John Murphy met my Grandma Margaret Gawiler at Toppenish High School where they both attended. She married him at 19 years old. Their first child, my mother was born in 1931, followed by her sister Jeannette in 1933. Margaret couldn't cope with the stresses of life and was committed to a hospital after just a few years of marriage. Mom and Aunt Jan moved in with their Grandpa and Grandma Murphy while their father relocated to Seattle for a managing job at Safeway. There he met and married a lady Margaretta and had the girls move in with them. They soon moved to Bremerton where John Murphy managed a sporting goods store. He also was a game warden which caused him to be away for days at a time. While away, the "wicked" stepmother would force them to eat cereal with salt in it, food that was too hot to eat, she would beat them for no reason (Mom got the brunt of it) to the point where she went to school with black eyes. When the school tried to intervene, she was too scared to say much in fear of more beatings, so she covered for the lady. Mom even got hit over the head with pruning shears that resulted in the loss of sight in her right eye. Well it seems this lady was definitlely an early pioneer of child abuse. One day Aunt Jan at around 16 years old was fed up with it and ran away for a couple of days. She hid in a lean-to structure on the side of an upholstery shop. After the second night she snuck into the unlocked shop and seeing a telephone decided to call home and see who would answer. Well the police were tracing the phone calls coming in and soon found her hiding spot. She was taken to the hospital and after questioning and some further investigation the authorities knew what was going on and so did Jack. Finally they were done with the nightmare and got an apartment away from her. Believe it or not, now that Margaretta was exposed, Mom with her new found power, stayed with Margaretta for a couple of months just so she could torment her. She wasn't afraid of her anymore!

DON ASHLEY

So with both my Paternal Grandmother and Grandfather living short lives, my father at 18 months ended up living with his Great Aunt Elizabeth in Tacoma, while his sister Juanita was a foster child first and then moved to San Diego living with her Aunt Margaret Thortonsen. They did not grow up together and it would be over a 20 year seperation before they found each other again. Great Aunt Elizabeth died when Dad was 16 and for a short time he moved in with the schools principle and then with the Parish family as shown in this 1950 census. About this time he contracted Rheumatoid Fever which laid him up for a couple of months. Later in life this led to his dibilitating Rheumatoid Arthritis that he suffered from his early thirties and the rest of his life. Dad attended Stadium High School in Tacoma, WA and had life long friends there such as Carl Herzog and Claire Haycock of Haycock Petroleum in Las Vegas. A couple of other friends were Sam Baker who accidently kicked his front teeth out punting a football and Clara Bowe whose siste Rose ended up marrying Robert Stack. He told me the story that shortly after graduation, he and a couple of friends rode the trains to Arizona and buckarooed there for the summer. At 19 he was an oiler on the SS William Beaumont and made it as far away as Pusan, Korea. Coming back home, he became a radio dispatcher for the Washington State Police.

In 1952 he married Geraldine (Gerry) Tafoya. They had two children Marcella and Donald. Not sure what ended the marriage, but it didn't last long as he married my mother in 1956. He even squeezed in a brief marriage between them to a Mary Tulley. There was only sporadic phone and letter contact with his children and it was quite a few years before he actually saw them again. Dad ended up moving to San Francisco, CA and first working at a furniture store and then moving to San Rafael and worked at a grocery store with friend Freddie Boracchi who would play a key role in introducing my mother and him.

EDNA MURPHY (AKA "JERI")

Mom attended Kitsap High School where she blossomed and began to enjoy life without the wicked step mother. She worked in Bremerton at Triple X Drive-in where she was a car hop, then Bremer's Department store first as a switchboard operator then moved into accounting. Her Dad, John had moved to Alaska with his 3rd wife Alice Baldwin and was working for the Northern Commercial Company. He suggested Mom move up there, which she did and ended up working for the CAA the predecessor to the FAA. Living with her parents above the NC company she attended a party and met a life long friend Bea Walker who was a stewardess. When mom had enough of Alaska she moved back to Washington living with her Great Aunt Pearl and not long after moving there she recieved a letter forwarded from her Dad in Alaska and it was from her friend Bea. In her letter she spoke glowingly about Sacramento, CA where she was living and suggested she move there. Soon after she did just that and ended up working for a few different architechs, Charles F. Dean, then Satterlee Tomich and finally Nicholas-Tomich. Now both my father and mother who were born and raised in Washington are now living in California, just 90 miles apart!

JEANETTE MURPHY

During the same time period her Sister Jeanette became a receptionist at Velos & Yolanda's a dance studio in Bremerton, WA. The Manager George Farah caught her eye and after a whirl wind romance they decided to get married. They took off for Nevada with some friends but only made it to Oregon where one of the friends hit a bridge sending her and her significant other to the hospital. George and Jeannette ended up taking a bus and arrived late to the Minden Hotel in Minden, NV (It's still there) and the manager woke up the local justice of the peace who came over and married them! It was 1952. After the honeymoon they returned North to meet George's parents in Portland, OR before packing up and moving to Los Angeles, CA. Jeanette ended up working in a cleaners and George of course in a dance studio. (Arthur Murrays). Apparently George was a snappy dresser and enjoyed nice clothes for both he and Jeanette. Money was no object for the wardrobe budget but the rent budget not so much. After living one step ahead of landlords they ended up in Sacramento with Jeanette's sister Edna. This was the end of their marriage and after moving to Las Vegas, George was killed in 1960 in a head on collision before they could divorce.