A Letter From M. George Allen

M. George Allen (1924 - 2001), was Richmond descendant through his mother, Addie (Powers) Allen, his grandmother, Addie (More) Powers and then his great-grandmother, Cynthia (Richmond) More. He shared with me how and why he move from Flint, Michigan, to Los Angeles, California and then to Rough and Ready, CA. He also included information about his paternal Bostwick ancestry.


In a letter addressed to me (Cathy Palm) from M. George Allen dated August 1, 1995, excerpted above and transcribed below:

First let me answer the question of what are we doing out here. I came to Calif. in 1941 via Uncle Ward's home in Phoenix. Ward's son James, a friend of Jim's and I thought we would like to live in Los Angeles so the friend's car brought us to LA and we found jobs in the "Baby Line Furniture Co." and rented an apartment. As I was just 17 my parents didn't think I should be away from home so they got word to me to get back home or they would come after me. Therefore I returned to Mich., my dreams dashed and destroyed. When I was in the service (11-42 to 8-45) I was shipped to Los Angeles to attend B25 school at what is now LAX International Airport. At that time it was the air base for aircraft factories. Anyhow my folks, thinking I would be shipped out, they and my fiance came to Calif. to see me. While here they, my folks, made up their mind they would move as soon as possible, which they did (1944?). When we got out of the army I returned to Flint and went back to work in the Chevrolet factory. That lasted four weeks and I (we) decided to move to Calif. Southern Calif. got so crowded and smoggy that we decided to move to Northern Calif. which we did in 1959. Rough and Ready is a very small town now, used to be thick with miners, hotels and saloons. We are in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains at about 1600 ft. Lake Tahoe is about 80 miles and Reno 100 miles. Sacramento 50 miles and San Francisco 140 miles.

I will include a copy of a picture I have found of John and Mary Powers. Also a copy of a letter from Kezzie you might find interesting, and a copy of my ancestor chart as far as I have now. Number 19 on the chart, Anna Bostwick, I can trace back to "Osmer" owner of Shipbrook, Davenham, Bostok, Audlem, Crewe all in Chester (Cheshire) County, England as entered in the Doomsday [Domesday] Book, year 1080 as having held these places at time of conquest by William of Normandy. This is in the Bostwick family geology [sic] book which lists names to 1896 and my father's family is listed (and Father).

From an earlier post:

Marion George Allen found the genealogical chart (Page One) below in a family Bible several years ago and sent a copy to me. It was my template for researching the descendants of Thomas & Laura (Backus) Richmond, including Cynthia (Richmond) More.

The chart does not list any children for #13 Ward B. More (& Jean Lamond More, his wife), #14 Charles More, #15 Addie More (my great-grandmother whose descendants are listed on Page Two) and #16 Mary More.