My condolances. She must of been a neat lady.
deb in mi.
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Debbie Bert <debbiebert(a)dundee.net>
***********************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Byron [mailto:byron@voyager.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 9:29 PM
To: INMIAMI-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: [INMIAMI-L] FW: Miriam Fredrick's passing Oyler / Orpurt Family
During the past couple of weeks there several of the researchers
have talked
about their Oyler connections. My great Aunt Marian, who stared
researching
the Oyler family many many years ago passed away on Tuesday, just
months shy
of 100. One of her favorite research locations was the Allen County
Library, though she spent a great deal of time in various courthouses.
Her mother was an Oyler.
Byron
-----Original Message-----
From: Curt Gamble [mailto:w0alc@mindspring.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 3:47 PM
To: Byron
Subject: Re: Miriam Fredrick's passing
Byron,
to our immediate knowledge there will be a memorial service
sometime in the
future at Timbercrest. Olive, Miriam's daughter cannot leave Germany for
several months
so those plans are up in the air!
go ahead and post the msg on the web sites. Miriam was born in
Miami county
as
you know! She was extremely weak and you could hardly hear her voice the
last
couple of weeks. Curt
Byron wrote:
> I am sorry to hear that Miriam has passed away. What are the
arrangements?
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Curt Gamble [mailto:w0alc@mindspring.com]
>
> To All,
>
> Miriam Orpurt Fredrick co-author of our family history book "North
> Carolina Oylers and their Descendants" passed on yesterday afternoon
> less than two months shy of her 100 birthday. Carol & I with our
> daughter and grandchildren last saw her about 3 weeks ago and we
> knew her time here was short.
>
> We enjoyed spending countless hours with her analyzing our genealogy
> finds
> from
> libraries, court houses and also from many cousins close and quite
> distant. Carol and I learned a lot from her and thought of her more
> as an aunt than Carol's first cousin once removed. She was without
> a knee joint after failed replacement surgery but never complained
> and enjoyed life to it fullest.
>
> During our forays we many times used cramped 2 person elevators in
> small libraries and courthouses . Once to visit a relative in Peru, IN
> I pulled her backwards up steep grassy bank in a wheel chair while
> her eyes got as big as saucers.
>
> While it was lots of work for me taking along a wheel chair and/or her
> electric
> cart which each trip I disassembled and re assembled many times I
> thoroughly enjoyed taking out someone so appreciative of Carol & I. Over
> the
> 8 or so years we did research together we made almost 60 trips of one
> sort or another with her and many other distant trips without her for
> the books research in our quest to find all the needed information.
>
> As sisters Miriam's Oyler mother married an Orpurt while Carol's Oyler
> grandmother married a Gilbert. In addition Miriam lived with Carol's
> mothers Gilbert family during her teen years in order to attend
> school in town at Peru, Indiana. Hence she has always been a close
> cousin to Carol.
>
> Having an interest in genealogy since the 1930's Miriam also did
> research
> on the DeMuth, Kinsey, Orpurt & Wissinger lines and being almost 100
> yrs old knew many of the relatives we researched and wrote about in our
> book.
> Many of her remembrances of the old days are preserved in the Oyler
> book. Of the dozens of first cousins of Sarah Wissinger and Henry
> Oyler's 14
> children there are now only three left. The youngest is 78 and the
> oldest is also 99 with Carol's mother in the middle at age 87.
>
> Our goal was to complete the book while Miriam was still alive and for
> that
> we are thankful as she got to enjoy it her last year. Last fall at age
> 99, we took
> a very frail Miriam back to see her old church in Mishawaka, Indiana
> where she had
> been a member of the board. She was able to tell us the route from her
> head
> for the 1-1/2 hour drive which to me was amazing for someone in their
> 100th year.
> Miriam was however finding it difficult to accept the changes that had
> taken
> place in the churches physical building over the 10+ year period since
> she had
> moved to the Brethren Retirement Home in North Manchester, Indiana.
>
> I once saw a sign that said "When a person dies we lose a library". In
> Miriam's
> case we have preserved as much of that as we could in our Oyler
> family
> history book. All the cousins are blessed for her abilities and early
> efforts to document their genealogy from times past.
>
> For the cousins receiving this email letter we have plenty of books left
> for $32 so contact us for one.
>
> Sincerely, Curt & Carol Gamble