“Dear Cousin Mae, Just a few lines to let you know that I am still living now. How are you all feeling now? I trust this will find you all well now. Park Winship, Ellicottville, N.Y.” Posted to Mrs. Mae Cummings of Ripley, N.Y., in Ellicottville on August 12, 1918, at 10 a.m.

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Born in 1891, Park H. Winship was the son of Emory and Ida (Razey) Winship. His siblings included a brother, Howard, and two sisters: Libbie Ida Winship who married George Widrig, and Mabel Winship who married H.P. Reynolds.

Four years after this card was mailed, Park Winship married Miss Myrtle May. The report in The Patriot and Free Press of Cuba, N.Y., included this line, “Both bride and groom are deaf mutes. The ceremony was conducted through an interpreter, the brother of the groom, and the answers were given in sign language.”

This would explain why young Park went to school in Buffalo, N.Y., most probably to St. Mary’s School for the Deaf, and perhaps this is where he met Myrtle May.

The couple were married for 45 years; they had a son, Guy Edwin Winship, and late in life Park and Ida moved to San Diego, California, perhaps to be free of upstate New York winters, or to be closer to their two grandchildren, or very possibly both. Park died in 1967, and Myrtle in 1972.

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Park’s father, Emory Winship, was the son of Charles and Eveline (Starks) Winship; Emory had two brothers, Charles and Erastus,  the latter being my great-grandfather.