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In the spring of 1982, I went to stay a long weekend at my paternal grandfather’s house in Santa Clara.  I had my driving permit, and Grampa let me drive all over the place with him that weekend.  He picked me up from school in Palo Alto on a Friday and I drove us to his apartment.  He told me that he just got this thing called, “Cable TV” and that there was a music channel I might like while he put dinner together.  That was when I watched my first video.

I must have watched for hours and hours that night and the next.  I remember Duran Duran and the Flock of Seagulls and Boy George.  I remember seeing videos I’d heard the songs of before and videos where I hadn’t and just becoming mesmerized by the plethora of music coming at me.  That weekend changed things for me.  It opened my ears to sounds and my eyes to fashion.  At my own home, we lived up in the hills and there was no such thing as cable or really much television at all.  Radio was on at my house- not television, so this was new and exciting.

I will never forget that weekend.  Not only did Grampa have me drive to Sacramento on Saturday to spend 45 minutes with my maternal grandma and then drive back, but I watched that new MTV every moment I could.

Over the years, it turned into many channels and most of them… not great.  Lots of game shows of the reality TV variety. I hadn’t watched it in decades, but on 12/31/2025 they officially stopped even pretending to be music.  I will admit that it was a sad realization for me.  I got to watch it come in like a storm, change the world, and then go out like RuPaul’s Drag Race.  All in my lifetime.

Here is a photo of me that Grampa took that night while I sat on the floor basking in the warm glow of MTV on that television set.

Debbie sitting on Grampa’s floor watching MTV

MTV first went on the air almost a year before I knew about it.  August 1, 1981 the words, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll” were spoken followed by The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.”  MTVs music videos influenced music, culture, and fashion, as well as becoming a bit of a training ground for film directors (see Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry).  Within a few years, they began their non-video programming with The Real Word (one of the first reality TV series) and now the flagship MTV channel continues in that realm, with music videos officially no longer part of MTV.

Without irony, “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the last song played on December 31, 2025 on the MTV Music channel.

Sources:

History.com Editors, “MTV launches | August 1, 1981,” History.com, published November 13, 2009; last updated July 31, 2025, accessed January 3, 2026, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-1/mtv-launches

MTV’s Music Channels Shut Down — Fans Mourn ‘End of an Era’, Yahoo Entertainment, published January 2, 2026, https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/music/articles/mtv-music-channels-shut-down-054226117.html

“MTV officially shut down its 24-hour music channel,” Reddit, r/BeAmazed (January 2, 2026), https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/1q1qzrr/mtv_officially_shut_down_its_24hour_music/

And Grampa’s old Polaroid camera

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I’m not really a “New Year’s Resolutions” kind of person, but I do enjoy goal setting.  I do this year-round, though, as I complete one goal, I add another.  Last year, I did not have any personal genealogy goals for myself.  I had goals for this blog and my local genealogy society commitments, but nothing for my own personal genealogy.

In honor of 2026, I will set some goals for my own genealogy this year:

• Write up my grandfather’s CCC records.
• Transcribe my third great grandfather’s Civil War file (Miles! From Monday!)
• Order homestead records for my second and third great grandfathers
• Develop my proof records for joining Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War

I’ll be sharing my progress on these (and other goals) here and I’d love to hear about yours.

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I’m jotting down the things I know about my 3rd great grandfather to try to piece together where he came from.  He will be a big focus of mine in 2026, so I thought I’d share here.

Miles Price was born on 21 Oct 1837 in Catawissa, Columbia County, PA as noted in every record: enlistment paperwork, marriage certificate, pension paperwork, death certificate, obituaries and newspaper articles.  On his death certificate from 23 June 1916 in Russell, Lucas County, IA, his son Asa Price listed Miles’ parents as Jacob and Rebecca (note: this son got his mother’s parents wrong in her death certificate, so…).

Miles is not with his parents in the 1850 census, but rather as a 15-year-old with the Kastenbauder family in Franklin, Montour County, PA.  The county lines moved multiple times throughout the years and, upon visiting the Kastenbauder farm personally, I can attest that it is next to Catawissa.  Prior to my visit to Pennsylvania, the Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society assisted me with a library and courthouse search for any reference of Miles or possible parents in orphan files.  No records were found, other than the 1850 census.

Miles pension record makes no reference to parents, but does note that he went from PA to IL and then to IA with John C. Davis.  Mr. Davis was a farmer in Franklin, Montour County, PA in the 1850 census, the same area as Miles.  John was 23 with his wife, Rachel and three children: Lloyd, Eunice and Agnes.  Notes from the Davis’ family history say that they went by covered wagon in 1856 from Franklin to IL where the Davis family (and Miles Price) settled for 20 years before moving to Lucas Co. IA in 1876.

In IL, Miles farmed on Asa Bement Markham’s farm and met his daughter, Emmaline.  They were married in Quincy, IL on 13 Jan 1861 while Miles was serving in the Civil War.  Their first child, Celia Sylvesta, was born just six months later on 3 Nov 1861.  When Miles returned from the war toward the end of 1865, they had eight more children in IL and IA.

The next mention of Miles Price in PA is this newspaper article:

The Public Opinion
Chambersburg, PA
October 10, 1912

HAD NEVER SEEN BROTHER 

Clark Price of Bloomsburg and Miles Price of Spring filed, Iowa, brothers, who never saw each other, met last evening in Bloomsburg.  Clarke is 54 years old, had not been born when his brother, who is 75 years old, left for the West. – Ashland News

These men are brothers of Adjunct William Price of the Salvation Army here.

Although Miles never lived in Springfiled, IA (that I know of) he was in IA and he was 75 in 1912.  As the timing of the move and the state and the ages are correct, I’m assuming this is my Miles Price.

To trace the family of Clark Price, I began with the census records moving backward.  The 1910 census, has a James C. Price living in Bloomsburg, PA with his niece, Rebeccah Evans.  Further research on Rebeccah shows she is the daughter of Abby Price, sister of James Clark Price.

Continuing back, the 1900 census has him as a boarder in Bloomsburg.  The 1880 census shows him also in Bloomsburg with his brother-in-law and two sisters:

• Elizabeth (b. 1843)
• Abby (b. 1854)
• Clark (b. 1859)

With this information combined, I’m able to place Clark (James Clark Price) into the Jonas and Rebecca Price family of Catawissa, PA and, therefore, Miles Price, as well.

Doing the same, though, with William Price (listed in the article as being with the Salvation Army), I find in his obituary that he has siblings: Ralph, Annie (Myers) and Alice (Berger).  Tracing their lines, I see they all have parents listed as William and Susannah Price.  This would mean that the article is incorrect in saying that Miles, Clark, and William are brothers.  However, it could be that Miles and Clark were brothers with William Sr.  William Sr. in the 1850 census is also with another family, like Miles.  More scrutiny needed.

With Miles placed into the Jonas and Rebecca Price family, we now see that they live next door to John and Barbara Price, who are the right age to be Jonas’ parents in the 1850 census.

I feel like so much of this is assumptions without proof, but I also feel like there is too much coincidence for this to not be at least Miles’ family ADJACENT.  I’m currently (and have been for many years) obsessed with Miles and I’d love to write his story in 2027.  I’ll be transcribing his Civil War pension file and records this year.  Maybe there will be some hidden secrets that I missed the first 200 readings…

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