Family History: Katie Hansen 3.8.13

Katie has always been interested in finding out about her past history. When she was younger, she used to ask her parents, "What countries did we come from?" During her ancestral research, she was able to take giant steps toward answering this question for herself. The most prominent ethnic group of her past relatives is English.  George Soule and Myles Standish were two distant relatives of Katie's who came over on the Mayflower during the "earliest days of the country I now call home."

 Paul W. Litchfield, Katie's great-great-grandfather, was born in Boston in 1896. He graduated from MIT where he worked various different jobs. He never expected to be famous and go down in history. When he was offered a job at Goodyear Tire, an infant company with no predicted direction, he took it. He worked his way up from practically nothing to becoming the president of the entire company. He established the "8-hour day" and "vacation days" during the Depression.

 Katie's great-great-grandfather, Albert Wallace Denny, was born in 1906. When he was young, his parents were divorced at t time when no one ever got divorced. A.W. also worked at Goodyear Tire. He fell in love with and married the boss's daughter, Edith Litchfield. Edith and A.W. were both licensed pilots. Edith gained her fame by becoming one of the first female pilots in the world and worked for her father's company, flying the Goodyear blimp!  A.W. had his blimp and pilot's licenses signed by none other than the father of air travel himself, Orville Wright.

 Joseph Kubiak, (another great-great) was a very experienced pilot who was known for the crazy stunts he would pull, such as flying in loops or even straight through a local barn. He met and married Hazel Shepardson.

 In 1936, Hazel and Joseph had a baby girl named Georgia. Her parents loved her very much, but unfortunately her story would not turn out to be a happy one. In 1947, Joseph died in a plane crash while flying home in the middle of a thunderstorm. To make matters worse, a short time later, Hazel contracted tuberculosis and had to be moved to a sanitarium far away from her daughter. Georgia was left alone to live with her aunt whom she detested.

Above, you can see baby Georgia with her mother, Hazel. Thank you, Katie, for sharing your family history with us!