3.17.2008

First mails between Cullen Coates and Marisa Polin

27-sep-2007
Marisa,
By chance I happened on your write-up on Polink regarding the Polin family in California. My Grandmother was one of the Polin daughters who moved from Wisconsin and my mother, an only child, was one of Elsbeth Polin's favorite early models. We have a lot of information and many original copies of her photography - she was one of the first women photographers in California. I am trying to find the time to collect it and put it into some web publishable form. Glad to see what you have done.
Best Regards
Cullen

27-sep-2007
Marisa
Some few memories:
1. My grandmother Magdalena was the lost "infant" in the census
2. When I was young cousin Julia de Tapia came to visit from Acapulco I believe and brought me a wonderful battery powered red model car - I am forever indebted to her and have wonderful but vague memories of a very warm and delightful woman
3. My Mother was Magda's only child and she became the older "Sister" of Martin, whom I last saw when he came to my Dad's funeral in 1981. He borrowed a copy of the plans for my Mother's house, moved to Tasmania and built a replica of it.
4. My grandfather Roscoe Leslie was a mining engineer and met Magda in Mexico CIty - I was told that Joe's wife was a sister of then General Obregon (don't know if that's true) and they lived in the palace in Mexico City - and my grandmother was the governess to all the children. My Mother and grandmother moved to Salvador for many years when she was young and thus they both spoke Spanish fluently .
5. I think the article about Elsbeth was in a Union OIl magazine and I think we have a copy of it. My Mother ended up with a large collection of Elsbeth's work.
6. I am currently look ing at my copy of one of the many Romansch bibles that were in the family - my sister has another one and I believe that the library at UCCLA in Los ANgeles was given two of them by other cousins.

I am thinking of enlisting all members of the family to bring all of this material back together and give it to some historical society that will preserve and display it for all our offspring - and today we could have a lot of it on the web.

I have three long articles that I have not yet published:
A> A long letter by Martin Polin written to his son during our CIvil War.
B> An article that my Mother wrote about her life with Elsbeth - she spent every afternoon in her studio as a youth
C> A write-up that my Mother did describing her life and experiences growing up in San Luis Obispo

Best Regards
Cullen

27-sep-2007
Cullen,
I am a bit confused about all the names. Julia died like 9 years ago, she was indeed lovely. Was the sister of my grandfather Roberto. Sarita was indeed Obregon's sister.
Plenty to talk about...

Regards,
Marisa

27-sep-2007
Marisa
We should talk when you have more time. I last spoke to Julia many years ago and met her when I was about 4-5 and I am currently 61 -
Best Regards
Cullen

15-okt-2007
Marisa,
I hope your show went well. I had another question about the Polin family. I have a collection of original photos of Elsbeth Polin - do you happen to know what happened to her original collection of photos/negatives/plates?? Do you think Rose might know? Also do you know if Martin is still living and do you happen to have any contact info on him?

I am going to see if we can get the family bibles back into a single collection and perhaps Elsbeth's photos and then see if there is an historical society here or in Switzerland that might be interested in them. Given the possibilities with digital reproduction we can reproduce them and distribute them to the families.
Best Regards
Cullen

15-okt-2007

Dear Cullen,
I am glad you write back.
The exhibition went really well (220 people on the opening afternoon!)

We have a lot to talk about.
1 About the bibles: I remember my aunt Rose McKeen (nee Polin) from San Luis Obispo who showed me at least two very old bibles bound in leather. As you may know Joe Polin, was more of a traveller so I think he never brought anything from California except the long talked about Banjo. So on the Mexican side you wouldn't find anything as bibles or Elsbeth photographs. My aunt Julia, had an informal genealogical book about the Polins and she was the one who knew the most of the stories and history. My aunt Olga kept her belongings. After her it was my father who continued with the interest and he gaved it to me. My father Manuel died 8 years ago. My little nieces in Monterrey ask me all I know, so there are many of us who would enjoy and be happy to know more and give it to the younger generations. I would love to see one of those Bibles again!
2 it seems to me that more information on the photo's could be collected in San Luis Obispo. Rose's son had also some interest. And they had some objects. It was thanks to Rose that I got to know more about the family. She went once to Switzerland to Zillis (I had been there twice, very little to find! I am afraid that is possible that Rose is rather old now.
3 I am still not sure who are you talking about of "Martin"? My father'sa uncle (Roberto's brother) who died in an plane accident. His son also Martin, and looked incredible like my father I have not seen him in many years. He is I suppose around 70 years old. I always liked him a lot. His daughter I think she just found me on internet about a year ago. Any way this is not the Martin you are talking about because he had never moved to Tasmania. Could you explain me who are you talking about?
4 I wouldn't count on a society in Switzerland I think it must be USA-Mex, because that is were most of them live. As far as I know only me and my nephew Jessef (son of my brother Manuel, living in Nice, France) are the only ones living outside the two countries.
5 Years ago I found another Marisa Polin, from La Jolla, Cal. I know she lives now in New York, do you know anything about Polins in La Jolla?
6 I would like to work together and recollect stories, facts and objects, and descendants of the Polins.
I will go to Mexico in December so it may be a good time to collect info. My grandmother Emma (Roberto's wife) is 93, but there is nothing more to ask her. She doesn't rembember much.

All my regards,
Marisa

15-okt-2007
Marisa
Many thanks.
Attached are pics of my bible - it's the best I can do on short notice - also a picture of me so you can see to whom you are "speaking".

Martin would be about 80-90 now I think as my Mother would have been 100 in 2006 and he was about 10 years younger. I would like to call him again. He was in Tasmania (if it's the same Martin) as there is some sort of animal sanctuary there that he funded. They gave me his contact info but I never heard from him. I will give Rose a call in the next day or so - I spoke to her some months ago. I think he was the one who also supported the library in San Luis Obispo. He was a major property owner around San Luis Obispo and moved to Tasmania for awhile to get away from the nuclear power plant in SL. (He didn't realize that there is more danger from sunlight radiation in Tasmania than from the power plant in SL) I spoke to him years ago when he was living in Tasmania.

My current plan is to:

1. Scan the old Polin pictures
2. Finish (finally) the articles etc. that I have had around for years about the Polin family - and add in the pictures.
3. Figure out the best way to pull them together - I was thinking of a website with digital copies of everything so everyone could have access. (Some of the new collaborative web sites might work - or perhaps Google - but I haven't looked yet) Yahoo groups is another possibility.
4. Ideally have a way for family members to "register" so that people could communicate if they wanted.
5. Figure out who has what "artifacts" and try to bring them back together. I think the California Historical Society might be interested - but the important thing is to figure out who has what things so that they are not lost.

Best Regards
Cullen

November 08, 2007

Marisa
I have made contact with Mark Polin who lives in Utah. He is Martin's son. Martin was one of Oscar's children. He is going to put together a list of descendants as he know them and I will try to put something together to share. Apparently Martin died a couple of months ago. and Rose McKeen has also passed away. I'll let you know more as I gather it
Best Regards
Cullen

Februay 7, 2008

Rosemarie
Wonderful to talk to you the other day. My apologies for the delay in sending this. I am also copying Marisa so you have each others email addresses. (Marisa - Rosemarie is your Aunt Rose's daughter - Rosemarie thinks she met you when you were a child in Mexico.) I am also copying my sister Barbara Tuffli so she can see what we are discussing.

To recap some of the things we discussed - as I recall:
1. You will send me contact details on Robin and/or James Gray
2. You will contact the curator of the San Luis Obispo historical society to discuss bringing together as many of the family artifacts as we can manage into some sort of exhibit - question of whether it would be of sufficient interest to make it a permanent public exhibit of some sort.
3. We will try to bring together as much information and as many of the original photos of Elsbeth Polin as possible and perhaps Karen can help with her research on her life as one fo the first women photographers in california. WE will also create high quality digital copies of all the photos with subtitles
4. I will complete the stories I have with pictures of 1, Martin Polin's Civil War letter (It would be great to have a picture of the original letter to include) 2. My Mother's story of their life in Salvador with pictures and 3. I will send along the document my Mother put together on Elsbeth - question of whether it's the basis for the Union Oil Magazine article.
5. Perhaps Robin or James can confirm that the UCLA library was the recipient of two of the bibles - if so I will contact them and see if they want to have more of them. Either way we will try to find a safe and permanent home for them - question of how many there were r- I know of 4 of which my sister and I each have one. We will also create digital images of at least the first few pages for a digital family archive.
6. We will put as much of this as possible into a digital archive for distribution to all the family
7. We should put together a family tree with contact information of as many folk as we can gather - there are ways to keep all this online - which we might do - but frankly it would be important to ensure that there is a way to export all the data in case the online group goes under. - So perhaps simply keeping it in excel might suffice
8.It would be nice if someone could prepare some sort of family history based on what we collect - perhaps Marisa could see if members of the family in Mexico have stores, artifacts etc. to contribute (marisa I think you said you could be the focal point for contact with the extended family there??) Do you think karen might be interested in this task??

Anything else??

Best Regards
Cullen

No hay comentarios.: