Family Nibbles

The past stories have brought the Teplys and Jarvises up to the 1930s. Mel Jarvis and Don Teply are coming of age. Their lives will soon be disrupted by World War II. After the war, they will marry and raise families.

Before we tell their stories of war and peace, let’s introduce the women that will become the spouses of Don Teply and Mel Jarvis. We’ll explore the stories of these spousal families so we can bring them up to 1940.

Then we’ll explore the experiences of all of them through the 1940s.

Gallagher and Riley

Kathleen Gallagher was born in 1923 in Sedalia, Missouri. She graduated high school in Junction City, Kansas in 1941, just a few months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Her parents were Tom Gallagher and Catherine Rose Riley.

Cheney and Maninger

Mary Cheney was born in 1921 in Salina, Kansas. She was attending Mills College in Oakland, California when the war began. Her parents were Ralph Cheney and Emily Maninger.

The Power of 2

The mathematical expression x = 2ⁿ is often applied in science, engineering, and computers.

x is a number resulting from the exponentiation (n) of the number 2. As the exponent (n) is increased by 1, the result (x) is doubled. For example:

• 2⁰ = 1
• 2¹ = 2
• 2² = 4
• 2³ = 8
• 2⁴ = 16

Don’t worry. We’re not going to get into math. But we can use The Power of 2 to determine the number of direct ancestors we have. For each past generation, the number of grandparents doubles. Let’s look at the equation again, with a view of generational ancestors.

• 2⁰ = Generation 0, one and only you
• 2¹ = 1 generation ago, 2 parents
• 2² = 2 generations ago, 4 grandparents
• 2³ = 3 generations, 8 great-grandparents
• 2⁴ = 4 generations, 16 great-great-grandparents

In our past family stories, we’ve researched our ancestors back 10 generations or more. Ten generations back, we had 1,024 grandparents.

• 2¹⁰ = 10 generations back, 1,024 grandparents

Who have we written about?

We’ve written stories about many of our ancestors, but not about every grandparent in every generation.

The focus has been on our Jarvis and Teply paternal lines. We’ve written about each generation of Jarvis and Teply male ancestors since the 1600s.

In each generation, our Jarvis and Teply male ancestor had a spouse. Each spousal line has its own ancestor branches. That’s how The Power of 2 results in so many grandparents.

In Family Nibbles research and stories, we’ve typically explored only one or two generations of each spouse’s line.

So our story coverage has looked like this:

What’s next?

In this series, we’ll share stories of the families of Kathleen Gallagher and Mary Cheney.

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Sources:

• Photographs of Don Teply and Mel Jarvis – Jarvis and Teply Family Photographs
• Photographs of Kathleen Gallagher and Mary Cheney – Jarvis and Teply Family Photographs
• Family Tree diagrams – Ancestry.com and Mark Jarvis