Cindy goes Roots: Radiator Romeo, etc.

Welcome to all of our new subs and hello to all of the "old" ones

Hello everyone! First of all, I’d like to welcome all of our new subscribers this week, as I’ve ironically been taking a mental health break this week.

During this break, something pretty incredible happened. This may just be interesting to me because I am a history buff AND it’s my family history we will discuss.

I began cleaning out my storage this past week, and, in my personal family stuff, I came across this newspaper clipping that I had never seen before, and was never discussed by my elders, in my presence, at least:

My grandfather’s name was Harold Hulen (my mom’s maiden name, of course), but my Mamaw’s name was NOT Florence Hurlbut. I never knew my maternal grandpa because he and my Mamaw separated, but never divorced, in 1937 and Harold moved back to Missouri where he was from. I texted the article to my daughter and she found out that this event happened in 1937 and the Harold Hulen in this article was only 30 at the time. My grandpa Harold would have been 41 in 1937.

But the Radiator Romeo and my G’pa Harold were both from Missouri (where it seems all Hulens end up, or come from), so they had to be related, right? So I and my children have to be related to the Radiator Guy, right? Well, it turns out yes, but the Radiator Romeo story was national news in 1937, and there was a recent podcast about it, click the above image to listen to the podcast. Little did Radiator Harold know that many decades later, he would have a distant cousin who would be known to chain herself to a few things,

This one article sent me and my history buff daughter down a Hulen rabbit hole that lasted hours that night. We traced Radiator Harold, whose full name was Robert Harold Hulen and my grandpa Harold Austin Hulen back to a mutual Hulen, John Hulen, who was born in 1768 in North Carolina. Robert Harold’s line came from John’s son Ambrose Hulen and my Grandpa, Harold Austin came from a son, John Calvin.

The coolest thing we found was that a Hulen: Margaret Hulen Hopkins died in Elmira, Vacaville California (where we have lived since 1992). We traced Margaret back to a brother of John Calvin and Ambrose, William Hulen!

I even went to the cemetery where Casey Austin (Miller, Hulen) Sheehan is buried the next day and I found the monument and plot of Margaret Louisa Hulen Hawkins:

When the Sheehans packed up and left Southern California to settle in Vacaville in 1992, we had absolutely no idea our roots went so deep in this community. Vardaman and Margaret had many children and grandchilren and their surnames are on roads and other landmarks in this community. I am sure there are some living descendants and now I have a new hobby!

Again, little did we know when we buried Casey in the “new” part of Vaca-Elmira cemetery that he had many cousins resting in the ‘old” part. I love roaming old cemeteries and I have passed Margaret’s memorial a countless number of times never knowing that she was an ancestress of mine!

I know there are so many troubling things going on around us, but I always seek to ground myself in what is wonderful closer to me.

I just wanted to share this neato-speedo thing with you all.

What do you think?

Guaranteed that Dakotah and I will be back this Sunday with more smart and sassy analysis of the troubling junk.

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