I'll duplicate my contact information from the bottom of this page for convenient access in case you have time to contact me either by email or telephone. Faye and I will be in Ecuador from 2/4 until 2/15, so we might be a bit difficult to contact during that time.
Jed Donnelley, Phone or text: (510) 207-5713, email: <>
I thought I'd share a few stories and photos to see if there might be some common interest. To start how about a story about how the Millard family came to move from New York state to Florida. I have no family history for the Millard name or ancestors, but one of my mother's aunts did some genealogical research (seemingly for Dauthers's of the American Revolution purposes) to track ancestries for the Gilbert and Kendall families. I admit to not understanding the historical details, but what it comes down to is that in the late 1800s a woman Sarah Kendall Gilbert married a man named Byron F. Ellis. I know almost nothing about the Ellis family except that we have this photo of the their "clan" that includes the Millards at the left:
and that our mother really loved her grandpa "Za Za", enough so at least to give me the Ellis name as my middle name. In the above photo (early 1920s?)I believe it is the Millards, Sarah Jessie Ellis (nee Millard) and George Robert Millard, standing at the far left (her behind). We have from one of Jean's sons that the girl leftmost in the front is Jean Hester (Millard). I believe to Jean's right is her little sister, my mother Rachael Donnelley (Millard). The older couple behind Rachael I believe are Byron F. (Za Za) Ellis and his wife Emma Kendall Ellis (Gilbert). I guess the location was New York state. I guess that the youngest Millard daughter, Leah, wasn't yet born. Lots of unknowns.
So, then the Millard family decides, for some reason (opportunity?), to pull up stakes and move to Florida. One amusing story from that time concerns the initial "log cabin" home that they occupied. Rather primitive, but it did have a front porch. My mother related that she usually liked to wake up early and explore the grounds. However, she often had to tip toe and squeeze past the Seminoles who had come to their porch to get out of the rain.
This next photo shows Sarah Jessie Millard (Ellis) in a Pierce Arrow (one of two we heard they had):
The little girl in the back seems likely to have been one of their daughters. Certainly not Jean. From the conspicuous comsumption it seems likely to have been Leah. On the other hand this photo was apparently sent to my mother, so it might have been Rachael.
In any case the shown Pierce Arrow was almost certainly garaged in the Millard-McCarty house garage.
Next perhaps a couple of blurry images from newspaper articles from the 1960s. Perhaps you have these or better versions of them even, but I thought I'd include them:
I believe the captions on the above speak for themselves. Back to the Millard-McCarty house, here is an image that we believe may come from the yard of that house. It shows Rachael Donnelley (Millard) posing doing the splits:
There are also some images of Rachael during the late 1930s in some dance poses that may be from the house:
I guess that's all I'll post for now. Maybe time for some checking. Certainly if anybody viewing this web page has any thoughts on corrections or potential additions, I'm an interested listener:
James Ellis (Jed) Donnelley http://www.webstart.com/jed/
2835 Benvenue Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705-2103
Phone or text: (510) 207-5713
email: <>