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<blockquote data-quote="donna723" data-source="post: 194253" data-attributes="member: 1883"><p>Wow, Abbey! Your grandmother sounds so much like mine (my dad's mother), even from the same era. My grandmother was born in 1885 but always, even in her 90's, she told people it was 1886 to make herself one year younger! She even had 1886 put on her tombstone as her date of birth.</p><p> </p><p>I think most of us, even people my age who grew up in the 50's and 60's, have no idea just how good we really had it! I never knew much about my grandmothers background, other than that her parents had come from Germany. She never talked about it, at least not with us grandkids. Then, a few years ago, long after she died, I got a Christmas gift from one of my cousins. It was a inch-thick spiral-bound book giving the history of my grandmothers family, complete with family trees and lots of pictures, going back to two generations before they came to the US from Germany! It was put together by a very distant cousin (we have the same great-great-grandparents) who spent years doing the research. The strangest part - this guy who is a distant relative that we had never heard of - is a ringer for my dad and some of my uncles! The resemblance is amazing! This little book has filled in so many gaps, things I had always wondered about and thought I'd never find out.</p><p> </p><p>My grandmothers father traveled to the US from Germany with his parents and brothers and sisters right after the end of the Civil War - he was eight years old. The book even has copies of the handwritten ships passenger list with their names, ages and occupations on it and a picture of the ship itself! They docked in Baltimore (no Ellis Island yet) and traveled to Iowa by covered wagon. There is even a map of the covered wagon route! I can only imagine the things they must have seen, what was going through the mind of that little eight year old boy on such an adventure! They bought land, began farming, learned English, and actually became quite prosperous. </p><p> </p><p>My great-grandfather grew up and married another German immigrant and together they started their own successful farming operation. I always knew that my grandmother had grown up with two brothers (both of them gone before any of us came along), but actually she had <em>three</em> brothers and a <em>sister</em>! According to the family tree, the year my grandmother was five, they lost her sister who was seven and her year-old baby brother! I never knew they existed ... but can you even imagine being that little five year old girl and seeing two of your siblings die! It just gives the year of their death, not the exact date, so I don't know if they died at the same time from some disease or just in the same year. My father was my grandmothers oldest child and she named him "Edwin". He always hated that name! But now I know, "Edwin" was the name of the baby brother that died and she named my dad after him. I don't know if my dad even knew where his name came from. That's something most of us today don't even think about. But in looking at the family trees, it was a very rare family that didn't lose at least one child, sometimes more. And many of the women died very young, presumably in childbirth. Divorce was unheard of, but many of the men were married more than once after their wives died in childbirth. </p><p> </p><p>In 1904 when my grandmother was 19, the whole family traveled from Iowa to Missouri to attend the St. Louis Worlds Fair, and there she met my grandfather-to-be. Four years later in 1908 they were married. Check this out - hope it works!</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u246/donna723/MomPopWilhelmsWeddingPhoto.jpg" target="_blank">http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u246/donna723/MomPopWilhelmsWeddingPhoto.jpg</a></p><p> </p><p>Same picture a bit bigger - I'm still learning here ...</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u246/donna723/MomPopWilhelmsWeddingPhoto-1.jpg" target="_blank">http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u246/donna723/MomPopWilhelmsWeddingPhoto-1.jpg</a></p><p> </p><p>A year later my dad was born and over the next seventeen years they had five more children. They raised six kids with a lot of hard work and very little money and probably considered themselves very lucky that all six survived. They made it through the Depression and saw all four of their sons go off to fight in WWII, and thankfully all came home again. And even when they were quite elderly and didn't need to, they still had a big garden, raised chickens for meat and eggs, and canned most of their own food because that's what they had always done. So yeah, I think that most of us have absolutely no idea how fortunate we really have been! And how I wish that I had known all this when my grandmother was still alive so I could have talked to her about it! Imagine getting a first-hand account of the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair from someone who had been there!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="donna723, post: 194253, member: 1883"] Wow, Abbey! Your grandmother sounds so much like mine (my dad's mother), even from the same era. My grandmother was born in 1885 but always, even in her 90's, she told people it was 1886 to make herself one year younger! She even had 1886 put on her tombstone as her date of birth. I think most of us, even people my age who grew up in the 50's and 60's, have no idea just how good we really had it! I never knew much about my grandmothers background, other than that her parents had come from Germany. She never talked about it, at least not with us grandkids. Then, a few years ago, long after she died, I got a Christmas gift from one of my cousins. It was a inch-thick spiral-bound book giving the history of my grandmothers family, complete with family trees and lots of pictures, going back to two generations before they came to the US from Germany! It was put together by a very distant cousin (we have the same great-great-grandparents) who spent years doing the research. The strangest part - this guy who is a distant relative that we had never heard of - is a ringer for my dad and some of my uncles! The resemblance is amazing! This little book has filled in so many gaps, things I had always wondered about and thought I'd never find out. My grandmothers father traveled to the US from Germany with his parents and brothers and sisters right after the end of the Civil War - he was eight years old. The book even has copies of the handwritten ships passenger list with their names, ages and occupations on it and a picture of the ship itself! They docked in Baltimore (no Ellis Island yet) and traveled to Iowa by covered wagon. There is even a map of the covered wagon route! I can only imagine the things they must have seen, what was going through the mind of that little eight year old boy on such an adventure! They bought land, began farming, learned English, and actually became quite prosperous. My great-grandfather grew up and married another German immigrant and together they started their own successful farming operation. I always knew that my grandmother had grown up with two brothers (both of them gone before any of us came along), but actually she had [I]three[/I] brothers and a [I]sister[/I]! According to the family tree, the year my grandmother was five, they lost her sister who was seven and her year-old baby brother! I never knew they existed ... but can you even imagine being that little five year old girl and seeing two of your siblings die! It just gives the year of their death, not the exact date, so I don't know if they died at the same time from some disease or just in the same year. My father was my grandmothers oldest child and she named him "Edwin". He always hated that name! But now I know, "Edwin" was the name of the baby brother that died and she named my dad after him. I don't know if my dad even knew where his name came from. That's something most of us today don't even think about. But in looking at the family trees, it was a very rare family that didn't lose at least one child, sometimes more. And many of the women died very young, presumably in childbirth. Divorce was unheard of, but many of the men were married more than once after their wives died in childbirth. In 1904 when my grandmother was 19, the whole family traveled from Iowa to Missouri to attend the St. Louis Worlds Fair, and there she met my grandfather-to-be. Four years later in 1908 they were married. Check this out - hope it works! [URL]http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u246/donna723/MomPopWilhelmsWeddingPhoto.jpg[/URL] Same picture a bit bigger - I'm still learning here ... [URL]http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u246/donna723/MomPopWilhelmsWeddingPhoto-1.jpg[/URL] A year later my dad was born and over the next seventeen years they had five more children. They raised six kids with a lot of hard work and very little money and probably considered themselves very lucky that all six survived. They made it through the Depression and saw all four of their sons go off to fight in WWII, and thankfully all came home again. And even when they were quite elderly and didn't need to, they still had a big garden, raised chickens for meat and eggs, and canned most of their own food because that's what they had always done. So yeah, I think that most of us have absolutely no idea how fortunate we really have been! And how I wish that I had known all this when my grandmother was still alive so I could have talked to her about it! Imagine getting a first-hand account of the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair from someone who had been there! [/QUOTE]
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