Best @ 1024 W

The Wager-Smith Project
(& the Weeks, the Wager's, the Smith's & the Curtis's, the Eckert's, the Slaughter's & the Hiler's)

    Our Genealogy (View Larger Image)

Project History

(The Beginning)

What is The Wager-Smith Project? Simply put - it's "US", the Wager-Smith's (et alii). You, me and our relatives, the Weeks, the Wager's, the Smith's & the Curtis's, the Eckert's, the Slaughter's & the Hiler's. Not just the Wager-Smith's... It's all our history. What started out as way to make sure my children and grandchildren knew their ancestry, gave me the idea to contact other Wager-Smith's and see if they might be interested in learning more about himself or herself and other Wager-Smiths. But in order for this project to work we will need everyone to add a bit about themselves and, hopefully, pass the information back to the project manager. Not that I want the job, it appears at this time, that would be me, Joe Wager-Smith (Joseph Daniel Wager-Smith Sr., or JDWS12-05-1954 on the DVD's)... That's it.

I don't want this website or this DVD to be about only my side of the Wager-Smith family tree. I'd love to include information from others and accounts of others lives, if only others would have the courage to include bits about themselves for the next generation. If these unmentioned people were to die unexpectedly today, would tomorrow's children know they even existed? That's the point of this whole project and I'm sure the reason for D.R.W. Wager-Smith compiling the book in the first place. I suppose I could get a bit more interest in the project if I bought domain names corresponding with the other names in the book (the Weeks, the Wager's, the Smith's & the Curtis's, the Eckert's, the Slaughter's & the Hiler's), but I'd rather see one of these other "family" names start up their own project in parallel with this one.

Much thanks to D.R.W. Wager-Smith for compiling the book on  our genealogy  (Image)  in the first place for without him, the DVD I've put together would be a very uninformative collection! I hope you enjoy this new compilation and maybe have learned something from it but more importantly - In this fast paced, paperless, deleted email world, our ancestry is slowly slipping away. Once it's gone, we, or more likely our great, great grand children may never find out who they are or where they came from (see the  Charts  (Images)) .

What The Wager-Smith Project website isn't... It isn't really professional looking, say, like my simple and clean, yet professional looking websites, 1on1professionals.com and Wager-SmithPhotography.com. It could be. I'd like it to be. But right now, there's not enough information from others to make the leap from "homepage" to "pro" website. And so I'm sticking with this look and feel until such a time that I may stop including my personal crapola in here (like what I'm doing right here), and make it look like a professional looking family website for all the interconnected families in our genealogy book. Maybe with the next re-write I'll go the pro route. That is, if I get any feedback to do so.

NOTE: May 17, 2009. This website started out on JDWS.com. It was a domain name that an associate bought for me because he thought I would like it. Shortly thereafter I purchased the domain names of Wager-Smith.com and Wager-Smith.name. Since then I have also purchased Wagersmith.com (Wager-Smith sans hyphen dot com). All of these domains (websites) lead here to Wager-Smith.com

NOTE: May 16, 2009. I went through the trouble of switching over this website from HTML and Tables to XHTML (v1.0 strict) and CSS (level 2.1) in order to make it more compliant with the W3C specifications. If things look a bit different this is the reason. If you have ANY problem viewing these pages, please Thank you very much. I might also mention that at the same time I transferred the files to DVD I added a few lines to the website (above) and I rewrote or simply removed a few items on the DVD (and a bit here on the website) that were just plain too personal. Not that this whole project isn't suppose to be personal, however I was being overly personal for a collection such as this. When I have the time I may rewrite those remarks if I still feel the urge and place them into their appropriate directories.###

NOTE: May 15, 2009. If you're re-visiting here you should note this page has been edited from the original to switch the word CD-ROMs to DVDs as all compiliations have now been transferred to DVD.###

April 14, 2005 (This Is Part of A Note On The main DVD With A Bit Added Here And There)

Although most of this note is on the first and only, (so far) DVD of a  "one DVD-ROM set", (Details) , as time goes on and if this project comes together, one might benefit from starting at the last DVD in what hopes to be a multiple DVD set... That is if someone actually adds parts of his or her life to the (our) project.

In actuality there are 2 "sets" of these DVDs. They are all single DVDs. One is simply what I call the non-immediate family DVD. The other is a DVD, which is for my immediate family. This last DVD includes all the scans as well as a few extra text files for my sons.

(April 14, 2005 is continued below...)

April 2, 2005 [This section Updated May 15, 2009] (Some Personal Insight)

The reason I started putting this archive of our genealogy together is because when my mother, Vera Ruth Schuster, passed away (October 14, 1917 - June 21, 1994), I was in charge of her estate. Her estate consisted of nothing much more than a few almost worthless pieces of furniture and her dolls and of course her papers, and bag after bag of fabric (saved "sewing" material).

Personally, I'm the type of person that loves old things... old papers and clippings included. Probably something I inherited from my mother's DNA. She loved antiques and she loved dreaming of things she couldn't afford. It's a long story, which I hope to get into elsewhere in this collection of images and writings, but I'd have to believe that her love of old things reminded her of a simpler time. Maybe a time when she was young and dreamed of having nice things. By today's standards, she had little growing up in the way of money. She had to work for any little extra thing that she'd dreamt of. I too have dreamt of the things I long for. Thankfully, there was a time for me where I was in want of little. But THAT is another story.

My name is Joseph Daniel Wager-Smith, but I go by the name Joe, just as my father and grandfather did. My father was Joseph Bailey Eckert Wager-Smith. His father was Joseph Daniel Western Wager-Smith. My sons are (eldest to youngest)... Born Joseph Daniel Wager-Smith III (the reason for the THIRD (III) in his name should be discussed later) D.O.B. March 30, 1973. Daniel Paul (I think that is his middle name) Vandenberg * D.O.B. (Unknown to me but I believe sometime in early to mid 1979). And last (so far) but not least, Jack Daniel Wager-Smith D.O.B. January 7, 1980. Included in this archive and the actual reason I started compiling it, is what is a softbound book of our genealogy which I digitized. It is, according to it's  Cover Page  (Image);   "Some Genealogical Information About The Families of Weeks & Wager, Smith & Curtis, Eckert, Slaughter & Hiler, Wager-Smith. And Some 200 Related Lines. Compiled By D.R.W. Wager-Smith 1969." The copy I have is Number 9 of 15 copies bound and is a "Family Edition".

Since so few of these original compilations were put together and out of the fear of losing all this genealogical information to future generations, I decided to scan each page of the book (and most other images) at a high enough resolution to make it easier for professional reproduction if needed, whether it be the cover or simply a blank page, so that if the need be, someone in the future may reprint the book in it's entirety (Note: At present, reprinting of any part of the book is with permission only.) Depending on the image viewer one uses, ( I recommend an older version of ACDSee (http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=acdsee)  one might need to zoom in or out on the pages to read them or zoom out on some images to see them as a whole. I hope my corrections and additions will be included if reproduced. I am giving copies of this DVD(s) to my sons with the hopes that, in time, they might turn this over to my grandchildren, of which I now have five by my eldest Joseph Daniel III. They include... Taylor May, Bailey May, Christian James, Ezra James, and now Katherine May Wagersmith. Please note, this lack of a hyphen is not a misspelling. My son, Joseph, decided that since he put up with so much of a hassle in his life with a hyphenated name that he decided to do away with the hyphen. Since the state we live in and he was born in, cares not what last name you put on a birth certificate when a child is born, he was free to simply remove the hyphen. MUCH to my dismay. I feel the hyphen gives character! It helped me become the person I am today and I would not trade it for the world. I am not saying that a simple hyphen in ones name makes one superior, just the opposite (to me) if one reads between the lines. I'm only saying that the name helped ME get through my life and since I am here, and I am the forbearer of my offspring and the offspring of that offspring I feel the name should persist. The crap that my son had to put up with helped mold him in to the man he is today and I feel he is short-changing his children by letting them take "the easy way out".

You will note that..... if you get the DVD and if you're interested in genealogy, you should find this compilation amazing... especially the  Charts  (Images)  (family tree diagrams) toward the end. I suggest that while reading you flip back to the charts for reference. Imagine... Pocahontas, her father Chief Powhatan and of course John Rolfe, John Horton Slaughter, Mr. Joyce Kilmer (the author of the famous poem "Trees"), Someone in the Court of King Canute (Cnut the Great, also known as Canute or Knut ((c. 985 or 995 - 12 November 1035) was a Viking king of England and Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden). This Danish king of England, saw it necessary, in the eleventh century, to enact a law or ordinance consisting of the following words: - " We strictly forbid all our subjects to worship the Gods of the Gentiles, that is to say, the sun, moon, fire, and rivers, fountains, hills, and trees, and woods of any kind." ... and the list of famous people in our lineage goes on and on. It's really fascinating.

You should also note that I am not mentioned at all in the text nor, more importantly, in the charts. I can only imagine (to put it mildly) that my father never mentioned me, nor my mother to anyone in his family. This of course does not mean that my children and I do not exist. I suppose this is another reason I wanted to put this extended compilation together. I wanted to be counted... but even more importantly, I wanted my children to be counted [ Note: I have included a revision of  Chart #3 Revised  (Image)  to include myself, (as it should have been put together in the first place) and also my children/grandchildren - the original  Chart #3  (Image)  is left in place for historical purposes ]. I'm sure, if others participate in this little project there will be many, many more revisions to make to the chart(s). If anyone needs help with this, please contact me or whoever is coordinating the project at the time. Alas, when I looked up my relatives names on the Internet today, (May 15th 2009), there were 7420 instances of the quoted name "Wager-Smith" at  Google ** alone. This is up from 560 instances just a couple of years ago. I see important figures with much written about them and/or great deeds they have done. Scholars, writers, chemists and the like... I am none of these... However, I am a scholar of sorts in my own right, I do write, and I know how to make a few essentials should I be stranded on an island ... But nothing as featured as what seems the rest of the Wager-Smiths I've found. I'm fine with that. I have lived a VERY full and, albeit complicated, a very happy life. Throughout my life, my two regrets are that I did not follow my dream of writing novels and that I did not travel overseas ... anywhere, but most especially, to Great Britain - after looking over my ancestry, I think I know why I keep feeling a calling.

* On a side note. My details of Daniel Paul are sketchy for a reason. His mother, Mary Beth Vandenberg and I split up before he was born and she later married. I signed over my parental rights of this child after they were married in order that he would grow up, unlike myself, knowing only one father... And at least knowing a father in the first place.

** I wonder if... a hundred years from now... anyone will know what "Google" is? Google, for those of you that have never used a computer online, is an Internet Search Engine, which allows one to type in a word or phrase and display the results from which one may look at through a click of the mouse (button).

Now, I'm off to do some more sorting of the files contained on the DVDs. I shall most likely be adding text as I see fit to make things easier for the reader to piece together. In most cases the files have been named to a descriptive title (persons name, articles name, etc..). I have also opted to leave in what are sometimes very embarrassing items (possibly a few poor images here and there - a few unflattering remarks in letters and stories etc..) so as to make this an unabridged, more personal and interesting compilation. After all, the letters and stories contained in the original genealogy work are unedited, so to speak.

April 14, 2005 (Part of A Note On the main DVD Continued...)

Now then, while looking back on the contents of this DVD and besides the actual book of our genealogy it would appear I really don't have much in the way to offer other than scans of my mothers scrap books, some sketches, a few miscellaneous postcards and old pictures (which is great if you like looking at some very old and very interesting images)... a little of my really old 35mm amateur photography  (Images)   photographed close to  where I live  (Map)  while I was learning the art of making photographs... and some photos of my children and a few of my children's family photos. I've even included some old 35mm film footage of my mother and myself when I was a baby, now in Mpeg format. I would like to include more about us, but to my dismay, today we live in such a fast paced society that we discard things almost as fast as we get them. Letters, postcards and emails all seem to find their way to the recycle bin without a second thought. This is where putting down our personal experiences on paper, or in this case, on DVD is important. Please, if you are a part of this genealogy tree,  your thoughts and experiences and your mothers and fathers and your grandfathers and grandmothers experiences to the last DVD in the set. Please copy interesting old letters and postcards, etc., goods things, bad things, accomplishments, and mistakes... either by typing the letters in by hand or scanning them in (Don't worry about being embarrassed. My goodness if you get the DVD and read some of my stories you'll see I had to look past embarrassment for the good of the project). Then pass the newly created DVD back on to keeper of the archives (in this point in time, that would be me) so that they may update their compilation and enjoy the stories and lives of the others around them, near and far. It would be nice to learn more about our family and genealogy tree and possibly make new friends along the way.

As soon as this first DVD is ready to be distributed, I will be adding my thoughts and experiences as time permits. In order for this project to capture the history of the Wager-Smith's I shall include the good, as well as the bad. At first, I had made up my mind not to censor the material I decided to include; however since this is no longer something to be distributed just to my immediate family I have removed certain images and remarks that were really extraneous.

Joseph Daniel Wager-Smith 12-05-1954

Project History

(The Middle)

Friday, May 13, 2005 (The Wager-Smith Project First Went Online)

Since I am trying to do this in my spare time, I have not yet had the chance to look for other Wager-Smith's. I thought getting the project online was more important.

Now then, if you are a Wager-Smith or of possible relation (Weeks & Wager, Smith & Curtis, Eckert, Slaughter & Hiler), and would like to contribute your stories and/or information, or are simply interested in a copy of the DVD set, please contact me via email at  Your comments and suggestions are always very welcome.

With hope, I will be adding to this web site very soon!

UPDATE: Friday, April 14, 2006

I've had a couple of contacts so far, one of them being from a first cousin but, alas, I've not yet had the time to do much with this website as of yet. My work on my other (business) websites has kept me quite busy. I guess it just hasn't seemed worth it without more contact from other relatives. Please write, and I believe the input from you would force me to do more with this website.

END UPDATE:
____________________________

UPDATE: Sunday, August 9, 2009

I finally did a major change to the website. I moved this "Project History" page from the main page to it's own area. In the process I created a contents page in its place. I also added a few things that were not on the original site. If I recall correctly I added a "Coat of Arms" area, as well as an area explaining some of the places I look for clues to add to this website ("Project Work"). And I've just completed another category I call "Project Info From Around The World", for lack of a better name. It's an area set aside for miscellaneous items I've found while surfing the web, or items that others have sent me for inclusion on the website.

END UPDATE:
____________________________

EMAIL UPDATE: Saturday, November 11, 2006

From : Brian Wager-Smith
Sent : Monday, August 15, 2005 9:31 PM
To : Joseph D. Wager-Smith { }

Dear Joe,

Thanks very much for sending me your CD which I received the other day. A check will follow to help cover the expense.

It saddens me to say that your dad, my uncle, passed away on Saturday, August 13, 2005 in Santa Maria, CA.. He was quite ill but died peacefully in his sleep.

Joe preferred not to have a formal religious service so several of his friends and nearby relatives are gathering at a park in Santa Maria on Tuesday where memories of his eventful life can be shared by all.

If I can be of any further help on this sad occasion, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Brian


Brian Wager-Smith


xxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx
PO Box xxxx
Pine Mountain, CA 93222-5093

xxx-xxx-xxxx

Email Brain Wager-Smith:

END EMAIL UPDATE:
____________________________

EMAIL UPDATE: Saturday, November 11, 2006

From: Brian Wager-Smith { }
To: All@XXXXX.XXX
Subject: Richard ("Dick") William Edward Wager-Smith (1929-2006)
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 17:34:57 -0700 (PDT)

Richard ("Dick") William Edward Wager-Smith (1929-2006)

My father, Dick Wager-Smith, passed away in his sleep at 12 pm on Saturday 10/21/06 at his home in Coarsegold, California. He was 77-years old. We apologize that we haven't updated you more frequently but his condition progressed much more rapidly than expected.

Doctors believe the cause of death was Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a rare, terminal brain disorder. A month and a half ago, while still very active and in excellent health, Dick noticed a slight tremor in his left hand. At first this was thought to be just a minor stroke; however, his condition worsened in the weeks that followed.

Dick was born in Lansing, MI in 1929. He served in the Korean War and attended the University of Santa Barbara, CA where he majored in economics. After a successful real estate career in Simi Valley, Dick retired with my mother in 1996 to the Sierra foothills where he continued to pursue his interests in cycling and koi ponds.

Dick is survived by his wife June Wager-Smith, me (Brian Wager-Smith of Pine Mountain Club, CA), daughter Karen Wager-Smith, her husband Mark Mayford, and three granddaughters - Siena, Kiley, and Miranda Mayford, all of San Diego, CA.

Dad never did like funeral services so we won't be having one. He wished to be cremated. His ashes will be scattered atop Mt Abel, an 8300-foot high peak near my home that he loved to climb on his bike.

Thank you, everyone, for your thoughts and prayers. We will miss him.

(Memorial Page: http://www.Wager-Smith.com/DickWager-Smith.html)

-Brian


Brian Wager-Smith

xxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx
PO Box xxxx
Pine Mountain, CA 93222-5093

xxx-xxx-xxxx

Email Brain Wager-Smith:

____________________________

Joseph D. Wager-Smith { } wrote:

Dear Brian and Family,

I'm sorry it took me so long to reply to your news of your fathers passing. I truly liked Dick and was deeply saddened by your loss. May his ashes never rest, and may they continue to flow forever in the winds of Mt Abel, as will my memory of him.

I would like to ask your permission to add this email and your memorial page (copied and hosted on my server) to the work I've done with the Wager-Smith project. Note, the project is now available for viewing at a different domain, i.e. Wager-Smith.com (it is also bounced from JDWS.com and Wager-Smith.name).

With deepest sympathy and warmest regards,

Your cousin,
Joseph D. Wager-Smith

____________________________

From : Brian Wager-Smith { }
Sent : Friday, November 10, 2006 10:46 PM
To : Joseph Wager-Smith { }
Subject : RE: Richard ("Dick") William Edward Wager-Smith (1929-2006)

Hi. Thanks for your email. It's good to hear from you again.

Please feel free to use whatever you like for the Wager-Smith Project site.

-Brian

END EMAIL UPDATE:
____________________________

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