In a previous post, June & Milton decided that they wanted to move to an area on Kyushu Island that was in greater need of missionaries than the city of Kokura. For some historical context, this post transpires from late in 1949 through 1950. Japan was still very much in recovery mode from World War … More Beppu and our first home
(First of some posts on grandmothers) In prior ancestry themed posts, both Milton & June talked about their parents. Their accounts were full of details about each of their father’s side of the family but much less information for their mothers. My goal is to fill in some of that missing information and to start … More Grandmothers
Milton: We were so poor in Kokura city that once when my mother sent a book to me, she rushed it over, using Air Freight which turned out to be more expensive than regular Air Mail. I could not pay the delivery fee. June talked to the man at the front door while I slipped … More The short time in Kokura
The last blog post chronicled how June & Milton felt led to move south/west to Kyushu and miraculously received money to pay for the trip just at the right time. This next story takes place starting on April 5th 1949 when they start the long train journey. This was long before the comfortable and speedy … More The train ride to Kyushu
June & Milton’s arrival in Japan in two previous posts (Hello Adventure & The Big Box Adventure Continues) highlighted how their ship came to Tokyo and they got the contents of their big box into a small house. Many prayers were answered and that theme continues. They were living day to day completely turning over … More Tickets to Kyushu
The story continues from the Hello Adventure – Big Box post where June & Milton arrived in Kobe, Japan with their massive box with all their belongings. Their destination was Tokyo/Yokohama and by a miracle the ship continues up there instead of dumping them in Kobe, where they had no contacts. At the end of … More Big Box Adventure continues
Depending on where you live, you may have noticed a wine label named 19 Crimes. (Pictured above). It features a convict sent to Australia on the label. If you download an app and face your phone in front of the label, it will start talking and telling you about the crime that sent them on … More Our Convict Story
Warning! Get in your comfy chair – this is a long post. In addition to Milton’s eloquent words about Fiji we are also treated to the memories written by his sister, Loma. And admittedly I had to inject some of my own memories of visiting Fiji with Dad and Mom about 25 years ago. Dad … More The Island Paradise
(Subtitle: Family Connections!) This post is about cousins….bear with me as this blog post could be also titled Nerd Alert. Recently as I was doing more in-depth research on the Ancestry site for the Furner Branch of the Wayne tree, I encountered someone who had posted lots useful sources, such as ship logs and newspaper clippings. … More Winnie & Luke
June & Milton’s missionary stories are full of answers to prayer. Their December 1948 voyage to Japan is a prime example. They both wrote about this event in detail. Dad titled that chapter “Hello Adventure” with a subtitle ‘Feeling the mystic power of God’. Mom titled her chapter “Our Big Box”, The two seemingly disparate … More Hello Adventure (or Our Big Box)
We barely scratched the surface on Milton’s ancestry in a previous post and will come back to it soon as there is more interesting details. This post is to introduce June’s paternal ancestry. The next paragraphs are Mom’s words and then following her story, I’ve have added more details. June (Furner) Wayne My ancestors were … More The Furner Story
June and Milton got married in early December of 1946. With that anniversary date in mind, I wanted to launch this blog and dedicate this first post to the story of how they met and fell in love. Mom and Dad both wrote about this important moment in their own words and those paragraphs will … More “What you do for love”
In their later years, June and Milton both expressed an interest in digging a little deeper into their heritage and the stories that had been passed on to them. Back in 2013, I signed up for an account with Ancestry.com and was able to confirm for them some of the things they already knew as … More In our DNA
From the Land Down Under to the Rising Sun 