AWESOME

Earlier this week I had another post-op eye check. Still great news! My vision is still 20/20 in both eyes and the eye pressures are down to 10. It used to always be around 16 even with using eye drops every night, and even after having the glaucoma procedure. My doctor is very happy and said so several times. Maybe I am her star patient? I know I am well pleased so far. Time will tell how long the vision will stay this way but I am sure going to enjoy it while I can.

I worked a little bit on genealogy again this week. It has been at least 2 years since I did much with it and notes I had scribbled never did get organized. Whenever I found some information I would scribble on small pieces of paper that piled up. Using Word I started a folder for genealogy and have made pages for each person and add the notes to the right person as I go through them. That should give me a better picture of these people's lives, and I will have the information handy when I need it instead of searching through all the scribbled (sometimes unreadable) notes. Unfortunately, when I started working on genealogy I did not record where I found the information. I have since learned it is very important to do that. I think most of the genealogy websites will often have pictures of the original documents and I have downloaded those and printed them to put in the family binders. I have found that even documents don't always have the correct information for several reasons. I hope my kids and grandkids appreciate all the information on their ancestors some day. I would still like to find more information of the ancestors in Germany before the first one in the family immigrated to America. Unfortunately, many records were destroyed during and after the wars.

We are getting some very heavy rain as I write this. We really need it, too. I know some areas of the country have had way too much rain this year, but in my little corner of the world we have come up short in the rain department. I know farmers will be smiling wide today. Crops were beginning to show stress from lack of water.

MORE OLD THINGS

Some time ago I decluttered my jewelry drawer. I had forgotten about this small metal box and decided it should not be hiding in a drawer. It is actually darker than the pictures as I lightened them in order to see some of the design.

The above is just the lid. The lid was originally attached with a hinge to the bottom, but that broke apart at some time. I don't remember it ever being attached, so it must have happened before I came along. At least I am NOT taking the blame for this one!

Inside are a few pieces of old jewelry Mom had. I wish I knew more about the box and the jewelry. The could have been her mother's or maybe even a grandmother. I am also thinking the red brooch might have been her grandmother's, as well as the silver one. The red pin is covered with small garnets. The E pin is Mom's initial. I remember Mom getting the heart pin. This one of those 3D pins that were popular many years ago. I think Mom bought it at a home jewelry party.

My mom never knew either of her grandmothers. The only one she considered a grandmother is the second wife of her grandfather on her dad's side. Her other grandmother died when her mom was 2 years old, her dad remarried and then he died when she was 7. She was raised by the step mother and her second husband. Maybe  my grandmother was given her mother's box by her dad before he died? I guess we will never know. There are many mysteries. Some get answers if you dig long enough, but I don't think this one will.

There was another item in the box, but you will have to wait until the next post to find out what it is.

LAST SET OF GRANDPARENTS

I have shown you wedding pictures of many of my ancestors earlier on this blog, but this one was missing. This is my dad's parents, Aielt and Aleida. I had been asking other relatives if they had a copy and I finally found a second cousin that had this one.  It has had some damage but at least the faces show up in good condition. They look so young, don't they? So I had to look it up. She is 18 and he is 21. That is exactly the same age I and my first husband where we we got married!

A PROPER LADY. . .

A proper lady. . . wore hats.

It seems my grandmother thought so. The two portraits I have of her in later years have her wearing a hat.

I like this fedora looking hat.

She looks quite a bit older in this picture, and the hat is highly decorated.

After working on family history I have learned a little more about her. She had to have been a very strong and determined woman.

She gave birth to 7 children, and the 5th weighed 11 pounds at birth! That is according to a newspaper announcement. Unfortunately that baby died about a month later. He seems to be the only one that was born in a hospital. All the rest were born at home. Women had to be tough in those days. Her babies were born between the years of 1908-1923.

Learning more about Mom

In that box I showed in the previous post, there were three letters. Two of them Mom wrote to Dad, and one was from Dad to Mom, all written about 4 years before they were married. Mom attended what was called Normal School after she graduated from high school, in a town about 35 miles from home. She was home for Christmas and wrote Dad this letter:

Do you see how it is written? She dated it at the top of the paper, but started the letter on the side, then wrote around each side and continued around to the center! On the back she said, "I hope you don't think I have lost my -- my mind but I'm just full of such foolishness so don't think anything of it." Then closed with:

Love and ------

guess who?

This has given me a glimpse of what she must have been like as a teenager and young woman. Since she was 34 when I was born, by the time I could remember anything about her, she was close to 40 years old and was 'old' in my young eyes. So by then she had settled down and had been a wife for 10 years, and I don't recall seeing her being anything like this letter.

There was something else in that box that showed me more of what she was like back then. But you will have to wait until next time. . . . .

Family Heirlooms

You may be getting tired of hearing about my digging into the past, but that is what my life is all about these days. Did I say this was addictive??

Not only have I been digging online at ancestry.com and familysearch.com, and comparing the information on both sites, I have been going through some old photo albums that Mom put together, as well as some other memorabilia and heirlooms. In the process I have gained a little bit of insight about my mother when she was just out of high school, and dating my dad.

My parents had this little box. . . .

Age and bad storage over the years have both been a little hard on it. The leather straps on both sides have broken. I often wonder what the original intent was for this box. My parents stored a few old legal papers and some old income tax files from the early 1940's. Those are interesting to go through! Amazing what little money they made all year and yet able to live fairly well, even as my mother did not work outside the home. She did raise a huge garden, and they butchered their own meat so always had food to eat. From pictures I see they dressed well, too, though probably did not have lots of clothes like we tend to have today.

I remember looking in it as a child and there were still ration stamps of WWII. If I remember right, they were mine, but I was just a baby so several were not used, or else they had not been used before the rationing was lifted. Sadly, my kids seem to have destroyed or lost them as they are no longer in there.

Inside the lid there was obviously a snapshot at one time. I don't remember a picture there, but assume it might have been who used the box in the beginning. There is a shallow tray first, and the pictures show it first in the box and then removed and sitting in front of the box.

Some other papers found in here are a copy of Mom's step-grandmother's will and a copy of court papers showing that Mom's uncle was contesting the will and the final ruling, including the accounting of the estate income and expenses, and how much each heir received. The uncle got the largest sum, so he won. I find these some neat pieces of family history.

I also found some other things of interest but I am going to save that for the next post. . . . . . .

(I love serials, don't you?)

Look what I found

Today I have been scanning some old documents so that I have a record of them in case something happens to them. I also want to upload some of those to my family tree on Ancestry.com. I have my dad's baptism and confirmation certificate booklets, parent's marriage certificate booklet, and there are my baptism, confirmation and first marriage certificate booklets too.

As I was going through these, still in their original envelopes, I found another treasure. My mom had the foresight to insert a lovely letter from my grandmother - her mother - that she sent me for my confirmation! I did not remember it being there, or even receiving it. Isn't that sad? But that was way back in 1956.

I did not know my grandmother Ada very well. I had only seen her 3 times in my life since she lived in California and we lived here in Iowa. I went with my parents shortly after Christmas when I was 4 years old, driving of course. Flying was not done very much by the general public back then, probably because it was too expensive for the average person. And there were 3 of us. So we drove out there. I don't remember the actual trip, but I do remember Grandma and her house, and that she made me drink coconut water because I didn't feel very good. I had never seen a coconut before, other than shredded in a bag.

My second trip was with my mom and her sister from Illinois, and we rode the train. That was exciting and I loved the whole trip, and getting to eat in the dining car. I remember I ordered cold cereal for breakfast one morning and they brought rich cream to pour over it instead of milk! No, I did not like it. I grew up drinking whole milk but not straight cream. The next time we knew we had to order a glass of milk that we could pour over the cereal. It the cereal had been hot - like oatmeal or cream of wheat - the cream would have been okay. I think. I know it would be today but not sure if I would have liked it then.

And the last trip was with my parents and Mom's sister and her husband (from Illinois) in the summer of 1957. That was also a driving trip and I remember some of the towns where we spent the night in a motel along the way. I even found some pictures taken of those motels and I might share them in a later post. They looked a little different than the chain motels now.

But, back to that letter from Grandma. Here are the pictures of it. I am not sure you will be able to read it, but will try to make it large enough to read. She mentions sending some gifts. She loved to sew and would often send me some clothes she had made for me, and often sent doll clothes she made and a pieced doll quilt that my daughter now has. I gave it to her when she had her first daughter.

The letter means more to me now than I think it did at the time I got it. I was only 13 years old and barely knew 'this woman'. After I have learned more about her in doing the genealogy, I realize how awesome this woman was. I just wish I had the chance to know her much better.

I don't remember what gifts she sent me, and wish I did. Maybe I will run across a picture taken with them some day. Part of it must have been some clothing she made. I also think she sent me a hat - the kind that all proper ladies and young women wore to church on Sunday mornings - and wouldn't be seen dead in them today. LOL I don't know if there was one in the confirmation gift box though.

This has been a fun day of reminiscing for me. I hope you enjoyed it as well.

Plowing in Iowa in 1924

This is how it was done in 1924 - a pair of horses pulling a plow, with the man sitting on the plow seat, holding the horse reins. You can't get a very good idea what the plow looks like here, but I am guessing it is probably what was called a two-bottom plow. That means it had 2 blades that turned over the soil. You can get a little bit of an idea how deep they went.

What is interesting about this picture is that the plowing was taking place on December 22! That is really late in the year for this area of the country as the ground is usually covered in snow by this time, as it is this year. And there is a good possibility that the ground is frozen and impossible to plow, especially without the big machinery of today.

I found this picture of antique plows on the internet. I think the green one in the front row, right side is much like the one the man was using in the first picture. Also the next one to the left of the green one is close. Unfortunately, the seat is just out of the picture. They used the long lever to raise and lower the blades.

I don't think there is much plowing done today, unless they are breaking up new ground. Today most farmers do what is called minimum tillage which helps keep erosion from wind and water to a minimum. They use an implement called a disc. That is what it is made up with - big round, sharp discs that cut into the soil and cuts up the roots of the previous crop, preparing it for the next crop. This will often be done both after harvest in the fall and again in the spring to loosen the soil for planting the seeds. If the man in the picture were alive today, he would marvel at the huge farms and gigantic machinery that is being used today! You can see that the reason farms were small back then. The labor was intensive and slow, and there just wasn't the time or energy to work larger farms.

As farmers started buying more and more land to farm, the machinery had to get bigger and bigger. My dad picked corn with  a two or four-row picker. Today, corn is seldom picked in that way, even with a 10-row picker. Now it is done with a combine that has a corn head on it. I don't know how many rows that handles in one round. The combine not only 'picks' the corn but also shells it at the same time, which would also amaze the farmer in the picture.

I could go on and on about farming, even with my limited knowledge. These are just my observations over the years, of seeing what farmers are doing as I drive by. My basic knowledge comes from growing up on a small farm where my dad used both horses and a tractor for many of my younger years. He quit farming in 1959-60, if my memory serves right.

This is a small glimpse of the actual history of our land.

Have no fear. . . I'm still here!

Yes, I am still here, wallowing in clutter and undone work. After working many, many hours for 2 weeks on genealogy, everywhere I look I see things that need to be done, and have a long list in my mind of things that must be done and things I want to do. There just are not enough hours for me to do them all. . . . at least not for me since I don't move very fast. I wish I could make my body move as quickly as my fingers when I type.

My trip down Ancestor Lane proved to be quite interesting. I went much further back on some branches of my tree than I ever expected to. My dad's side bore the most fruit and was able to go back to the 1600's before coming to a dead end. There I discovered that I am not 99.9% pure German! First I found Dutch ancestors on both of my dad's side, and since I married a true Dutchman almost 25 years ago, and moved into a very Dutch county here in Iowa, I was tickled pink! No wonder I have always felt at home here and have enjoyed learning more of the Dutch-American culture (especially their foods).

Then, as I worked further back, I discovered I also had some ancestors that came from Switzerland. And the last ones really floored me. I have ancestors that came from Norway and Denmark!! I was even lucky to find a couple of short biographies of two many-times great grandfathers and one stated that he had been a wagon maker. I think these two men came from Norway, but will have to check back on that. There are so many facts and dates that I covered that I have not absorbed them all yet.

Now, back to the list of things that need to be done. Am I the only one who looks at all the work to be done and am rendered useless? I feel overwhelmed, and then just shut down. I end up sitting at the computer and playing games and/or checking Facebook. I haven't even dared to check Pinterest for a long time. I get so many delicious looking and sounding recipes shared on Facebook these days, along with craft ideas and quilting, etc. I believe Facebook has become the new Pinterest!

I have also been preoccupied with the state volleyball tournament and state football tournament games this week. I don't know who thought they had to schedule both tourneys during the same week! Some schools end up with teams at both events. How are the fans supposed to support their teams? They can't be in two places at once. For instance, yesterday afternoon two local schools played the championship games. One was a town 16 miles from here, in our conference, who played and won their championship game. And after that game, the other team was one of the Christian high schools in my town that played, but lost the championship game. An hour after the volleyball game started, a football game started with a good team from another town 20 miles away, and also in our conference. That was a semi-final game so they will be playing in the championship game next week. Another team in our conference, from a town 10 miles away, will be playing their semi-final football game later this afternoon. The football games are televised so I watch them. I think the volleyball games were on TV last year too, but for some reason were not this year. At least I was unable to find them, so listened to them on the radio. It just isn't the same as seeing them. Now, none of these games involved the same school but it was quite possible that it would happen since all of these schools have sent teams to state at one time or another for every sport, and some years the girl's basketball team and the boy's team from one school, plus their football team all make it to state the same year. Add in the volleyball team, speech team, and any other contest and chances are good that things will overlap.

I never had an interest in volleyball until my granddaughter played in high school. Then I attended most of her games and got to love it. We didn't have volleyball in the school I attended so many years ago. Those games can get really intense! I also love to watch them at the Olympics, both regular volleyball and beach volleyball.

This was going to be just a short post, but you know how the words keep coming for me even when I try to be short. I do have some other things to write about for other posts so keep checking back. They may be sporadic for awhile until I get things a little more back to normal around here. Normal. Just what is normal? I think inactivity is the normal for me, to be honest! But now I really do have to try and get some cleaning and putting away done before that football games starts, because I know I won't feel like doing much after that is done.

Catch you all later!

AWOL

I will be 'Absent With Out Leave' for a bit as I am busy digging for ancestor information during my 14 day free access, and I am finding a lot! And this is just the first day!

I am not sure if I will find time to write a post here during these 14 days, but you never know what will happen.

Wedding Pictures

My first wedding with the father of my children

September 2, 1961

These are wedding photos of my parents, grandparents and great grandparents on my mother's side. I haven't found any wedding photo for Dad's parents yet, thought I do have some of them years later. One of the reasons may be that my dad was the second youngest of 7 in the family.

I know that Mom's wedding dress was blue, because I used to play dress-up in it. Notice the difference in wedding attire through the generations.

Mom and Dad

February 10, 1932

Mom's Parents

Grandma Ada and Grandpa William

July 28, 1907

Great Grandparents
Parents of Grandma Ada
date unknown

Great Grandparents
Parents of Grandpa William
July 19, 1883

Down Memory Lane - Old Photo Album/ My Dad

Oldest photo album I have

I remember looking at this album as a child. The pictures were put in there by a Myrtle V.C. of Ocheyedan, IA, which is where I and my parents grew up. I do not know who she is, but I think I remember an aunt saying she was my dad's old girlfriend. I don't know why we had it, but as I look through it now, I see pictures of several of Dad's brothers and sisters when they were kids and young adults, as well as my dad. Some of the pictures are dated from 1922 - 26, but I think some of them have to be older than that. It seems this Myrtle went to the same country school as my dad and siblings went to.

I have scanned several pictures that have my relatives in them and will post them in groups. The first group is of my dad, and my dad and his girlfriend Myrtle, the one that put these pictures in the album.

Quite handsome I would say! He reminds me a little of my cousin Gene. I think Dad was the tallest one in his family, even at 5'11". If this was taken around 1924-25, then Dad is about 18 or 19 years old. He married Mom in Feb. 1932. I wonder what happened in those years in between.

Dad and his automobile. I believe it is a Model T Ford Coupe. The Model A didn't come out until later.

Dad and Myrtle, as far as I can tell. The picture is not labeled.

Dad and Myrtle at Silver Lake (Iowa). She even wore the appropriate sailor top. It has been fun to look at all the clothing and hair styles of the early to mid 1920's!

Is it just me, or does Dad resemble Sean Penn in this picture?! He has quite the attitude here. As I look at this picture again, I see where I get my big hands from!

Myrtle wrote "SWEET HEARTS" under this picture.

It looks like Dad has a hat on here. And he always loved dogs. I have no idea who the other girl is in this picture. I wish she had labeled all the pictures in the album, but thankful for some that are labeled or I would not have know they were my relatives.

Down Memory Lane - the Iowa homes of my grandparents

This is Mom's brother, Harold, pointing to the farm where he and most or all of his siblings were born. This was taken in July 1964. I wish I knew exactly where it is located. I know the general area as it isn't too far from the farm where I grew up, but further north east a few miles. So my grandfather was a farmer at that time. Later they moved to town.

This is the first house they moved to in town. It looks like it was on the north edge of town, north of the railroad tracks and grain elevators. Main street was further south. There were only a handful of houses on the north side of the tracks. You notice, there are no close neighboring houses in the picture and this was taken in 1964, long after grandparents had moved to California and after I was married. I don't know if the reason they moved to town was because this was the time that Grandpa left the family, and Grandma wasn't able to run the farm herself. Lots of questions but no one left to answer them.

This is the second house they lived in that was south of the railroad tracks, so closer to the business district. The back of the picture says they lived there several years. I think this is where Mom lived while she was in high school, as well as at least her two oldest brothers and sister. There is a younger sister that went to school in California. Mom graduated from high school in 1927. It is the same school I graduated from. I remember riding with Mom when she pointed out this house, but I could not take you there today. I think I know the general area it was in. Some day I should take this picture along and go to that town and see if I can find it. No guarantee that the house is still standing today though. I am intrigued by why they may have moved to either of these houses.

Down Memory Lane - Family Picture

An early family picture.

 

This is Grandma, Mom on the left, brother Robert on the right, and sister Clara on the lap. Mom is the oldest child. There are two boys and another girl yet to be born. Grandma looks so young here. I believe she is about 28 years old. I wonder why Grandpa isn't in the picture. Another question I haven't found the answer to.

Down Memory Lane - Opa and Me

 

Me and my cousin, Gene, with Opa

 

This was taken on our farm. I love that old bench and wish I had it today. I am holding my dog, Pal. The other dog must have been Gene's. I don't know what year this was taken, but am guessing around 1947.

Down Memory Lane - Grandma's car

Grandma Ada's Packard

I think it is pretty classy.

On the back of the picture, written by my grandmother, it says:

"The good old "Pack" itself. Taken from our front steps. You see the neighbor's house across the street in the picture. We will be in our new house for the winter months."

It looks like this picture was taken in August 1934.

This may be around the time my grandparents moved to California. I know this is not the street that I remember them living on, so maybe that is the house she was talking about moving to. It could be that they drove the "Pack" when they left Iowa. Wish I knew the story.

Anyone know what model year the Packard is?

UPDATE: This probably a 1924 Packard Single Six.

Down Memory Lane - Mystery Solved

Mystery Solved

Thanks to findagrave.com I was able to find my great grandmother's grave. I didn't know, or didn't remember, her first name so had no idea how to look her up in the genealogy sites. I had tried to find the grave where I remembered it when I went along with my mother to put flowers there on Decoration Day (what is now called Memorial Day). But walking all over the area I never came across it. And now I found a picture of it, with her name, date of birth and death!

And then, as I was looking through the picture album one more time, to find pictures to scan for the blog, I found this picture of her! Plus, today I found a picture of the gravestone in the book as well, but it is just of the large stone that has only the last name.

This lady is considered my great grandmother, but she is a step-grandmother to my mother. Unfortunately, I don't remember meeting her as she died a few months after I was born. She is the step-mother of the man in the picture below, who is my mother's dad. The man in the picture above is the husband of Grandpa's niece.

After finding great grandma's grave, I couldn't find a record of where my great-grandfather was buried, so that was another mystery. I think I found the answer today!! There is a small stone on the other side of the big one where great- grandmother is buried, but it just says "Father" above the dates. What threw me off was that the date listed on the findagrave.com site had the wrong birthdate. When I looked at the pictures again today I noticed the discrepancy and realized that was great-grandfather's birth date. So mystery solved! Goes to show that you need to look at information several times before things come together. This has all been very interesting but tiring as it takes so long. I wish I had a picture of great-grandfather. Maybe I will find one as I go through my pictures, but I don't remember having any.

One interesting fact I found by chance, is that this great-grandfather and several other Germans from Illinois moved to Iowa in 1883, and they started the country Lutheran church there. That church is about 3 miles north of the farm where I grew up. And, again thanks to findagrave.com I found the gravestone of his first wife, my grandfather's birth mother, is in that church's cemetery. She died in 1888 so that stone is really old and hard to read. I am so thankful that someone took that picture and put it on that site. I really had no idea where she might have been buried.

UPDATE: I have since learned my great grandmother's grave is not in the country church cemetery. Instead, she and an infant are buried in a very small cemetery less than a mile from the farm where I grew up! Most of the stones have been destroyed or disappeared, and it has been made into a nature preserve so it is not mowed. I didn't even know this cemetery was there. I stopped there and could barely see her stone from the road. I looked at a satellite view on Mapquest.com and I could see the shadow of the tower shaped stone!

I was able to find some of the census reports on a free website, and through scanning a lot of information I think I found my great-grandfather's middle name and the names of his parents. And I found the maiden name of my step-great-grandmother and the names of her parents. I haven't had time to look into that any further, but my mind is swimming right now. And time to end this. Several mysteries solved!