Wistful Wednesday : Cousins

I have been working on many different branches of my family and Far Guy’s family.  A few bits and pieces are coming together.

This is a photo from Cousin Verniel, she shared many old photos and obituaries from long ago.  Eventually the obits will all be entered at Find A Grave.

Like Verniel says this is the only photo of Grandma Margaretta or Gretta (my Great Grandmother) with darker hair.  Isak is her husband, full white beard and head of hair makes him highly recognizable. He is my Great Grandfather.

“Many of their sons”  would be my Great Uncles…my Grandfather Samuel’s brothers who will probably remain a mystery…my Dad was just two when this photo was taken.  I see some family resemblences …or do I imagine them?

I believe this photo was taken just outside the original building that Great Grandfather Isak built for his wife Gretta and their five children back in 1896.

With the info from Verniel we can now push back to the1750’s in Kittila Finland for my Great Grandfather Isak’s family.

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I got a packet in the mail from Far Guy’s Cousin David.  The Abbott family is fully researched back to 1747 to Daniel Abbott born in England. (From the Northamptonshire area).  I made copies for each of the Grandchildren.

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An email came from a cousin of Far Guys from his maternal grandmothers side of the family.  He found me through a blog post that I wrote about the Lemon family several years ago.  Another cousin (Joyce) did research on the Lemons and compiled a booklet back in 1983. I updated some information and have  made a copy to send off to Tom in San Francisco.   Whilst updating I also updated some info at Find A Grave…and discovered that one cemetery in this area is really short on information and photos…so that is a project for next summer.

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Thank goodness for cousins who share and are sharing their family info…I am encouraged.

I have asked Cousin Geraldine to begin a project to collect information from the newest generations that are not included in our Yliniemi family booklet.  It is a big project…but if everyone pulls their information together with names, birthdates and place of birth… town, county and state and marriage dates and to whom… in no time at all we could have up to date information.

Wistful Wednesday: Generations

This is a photograph that was taken 58 years ago, in the spring of 1952.  From left to right, me and my Mom, my Grandpa, and my Great Grandma Hatwig or Hattie.. A four generation photo.

This is the oldest photo that my Mother has, it may have been taken in Germany.  The children are the twin sisters Hatwig and Elsie photographed with their Mother who would be my Great Great Grandmother. From my work with old photos, this is a remarkable image from 1880, 1881 or 1882.  Part photograph and part drawing.  The twins were born in 1878 and they came to the United States to Missouri when they were four years old in 1882.  This photo may have been taken in Germany before they left for the United States.  Can you imagine another Grandma in Germany having only this photo to remember her grandchildren by?  How sad she must have been to see them get on a ship.  Times were different then, I guess that if your children had no hopes of owning their own land you would want them to move and go wherever they could make the lives of your Grandchildren better.

I fixed this photo for my Mother, it had many dark spots that distracted from it's beauty.   I know nothing of this Great Great Grandma..not even her first name.  We did not know that this photograph existed until a few years ago, my Mothers sister had it, it was among the things that was cleared out from my Grandparents home after they died.   She kindly shared it before she died.  I suppose that one of her children have this photo now..I wonder do they know who it is..will they appreciate it..or will it end up in a box in an antique shop someplace? Thank goodness I was able to copy this photo before my Mother returned it to her sister:)