George Masa before founding GSMNP

[WingedMonkey]

This may be a long rambling thread. If GSMNP history is not your interest, feel free to skip.

Several years ago while collecting ancestors and their decedents for my genealogy studies I was recording some cousins living in the Asheville area in the 1920 census.

Theses are clips of those original records. The first being the parents and then their children listed on next page.
1920 pg 1.jpg

1920 pg 2.jpg


As I recorded the information it all made since for who they where and where I expected them to be.

The LDS translation of those records is :

Household Role Gender Age Birthplace
Oscar Creasman Head M 37 North Carolina
Effie Creasman Wife F 36 North Carolina
Blanch Creasman Daughter F 18 North Carolina
Blake Creasman Son M 15 North Carolina
Ruby Creasman Daughter F 11 North Carolina
Doris Creasman Daughter F 5 North Carolina
Lela Presley Niece F 15 North Carolina
George Jiynka Boarder M 29 Japan

I had no idea who this was living with them from Japan and left it for later research.

Then last year while browsing photo records at the The North Carolina Collection at Pack Library in Asheville I found the family album donated by daughter Jeanne Creasman Lance (she was born five years after the above 1920 census.

The albums are full of photos of the family and George Masa and of photos taken by Masa.

This solved the mystery of who the boarder from Japan was. Born Masahara Izuka, transcribed in 1920 as George Jiynka apparently he was already using the name George but not yet Masa as a last name.

More research has shown that he lived with this family from about the time of his arrival in Asheville around 1915 into the 1920's. He later operated a photo studio with their son Blake who was 15 in the 1920 census records.

Most pictures of Masa show an older and aged (beyond his years) man. I though folks might enjoy seeing him in a younger and more family style stage of his life.

Masa seated on go cart.jpg
Riding homemade go cart

Blanche Creasman and George Masa with two calves.jpg

Masa and Blanche Creasman

Blake Creasman and George Masa.jpg

Masa and Blake Creasmam

Masa Blanche Creasman and Lelia Pressley.jpg

George Masa with Blanche Creasman and Lelia Presley

Family shot.jpg

Masa and Creasman family at home



OK, that's a lot to upload maybe more later?

[rocketsocks]

I enjoyed that, thank you for posting it.

[mad4scrapping]

So the Creasemans were your cousins? And Masa was their border? How cool is that? Awesome.

[Rain Man]

Truly fascinating! I've seen Masa's photos in other AT and GSMNP books/articles, so seeing him in his own earlier setting is ... neat!

RainMan

.

[Gambit McCrae]

Great research look for more to come!