Strong Women

Week 10's prompt for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors is Strong Women.

I feel I have been surrounded by strong women my entire life.  My grandma, Iris, helped my grandfather open a market and continued to run it after he died.  My grandma, Phyllis, returned to the working world after losing my grandpa to be able to provide for my uncle who was only 16 at the time.  My mom has taught me love, family first, and work ethic.  My aunt, Char, raised her kids alone on her teacher's salary and has always been an inspiration of strength to me.  Many immigrated to the US, some with their parents, some without, looking for a better life.  My great aunt, Grace, helped to raise almost every single one of her younger brothers and sisters.  Many of my ancestors had many children and worked the farm.  Not an easy life. But one story of a strong woman in the family is that of my great grandmother, Caroline.

Caroline Charlotte Mickelson was born July, 1890 in Hanley Falls, Minnesota.  Her father, Lewis, was a farmer.  Her mother, Rakel (Ree) had immigrated to the US at the age 29 with her sisters.  She was the middle child of three.  He older brother, Melvin, was two years older and her sister, Josie, was four years younger.

Caroline, far left, and other women she worked with

By 1920, Caroline had left her family in Hanley Falls and moved to Minneapolis, where she was working as a telegrapher.

In February, 1924, Caroline married Ambrose Lewis.  Their son, Roger (my grandfather), was born in November of that same year.  The marriage did not last long.  By 1930 Caroline and Ambrose were divorced and she was raising Roger alone.  Ambrose was a soldier in WWI and rumor has it that he was gassed during the war, causing him to get angry and sometimes abusive.  He lived the rest of his life in and out of VA Hospitals.  If they knew then what we know now, I would guess he had some form of PTSD.  He was not really a part of my grandpa's life.

Caroline was a master seamstress.  She worked making dresses in a department store.  She owned her own home in Minneapolis and boarded out rooms.  I recently met a granddaughter of Josie's who told me she remembered she had a large home and a fancy car.  My dad does not remember a fancy car.  He remembers when he and my uncle Craig would spend the day at her house, she would walk them down the street to a hobby shop and let them pick out a model car that they spent their days working on.

Caroline passed away in April of 1959.  I never had the pleasure of knowing her. But I figure to have the strength to leave your husband and work in a time when that was not always common for women, she must have been a strong woman.  She raised a good man, who loved his wife and children and worked hard to provide for them, on her own. 

Where There's A Will...

The prompt for week 9 of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge is "Where There's A Will...".  I struggled with this one for the past week (that's why I'm a day late in posting).  I don't know much about reading wills and the legal jargon.  The only will I knew of at the time was written by my 5th great grandfather in 1852.  

Nicholas Speak was born March 1782 in Charles County, Maryland.  In 1804, he married Sarah Faires.  They settled in Rose Hill, Lee County, Virginia and had 11 children together, seven sons and four daughters.  Nicholas was a pastor, who had donated one acre of land for a meeting house to be erected.  The meeting house later became the Speak s Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church.  Nicholas died in 1852, Sarah 13 years later in 1865. 

His will can be found on Ancestry.com and I have also received copies from a couple distant copies (thank you Dolores, Carol and Lola-Margaret).  The writing is sort of difficult to read but what I gathered from his will is that everything would be left to his wife if he passed before her as long as she remained a widow and did not remarry.  If she remarried she would be "endowed of my estate as though I had made no will".  At the death of his wife, 150 acres of land, including the mansion house and out buildings, were to go to his daughters, Fanny and Rebecca, and their heirs.  Another 150 acres was given to his sons, Samuel, John, and James and their several heirs.  To his son, Jesse and his heirs, he left 93 acres.  It was written that if Samuel, John and James could not agree upon lines of division for the 150 acres they inherited that the Court of Lee County appoint three commissioners to lay off lots as nearly equal in value, quality and quantity being considered and then the sons would need to decide ownership.  There was one condition upon the land he gave to his sons, they had to pay in a sum of $750 - from that money $150 was given to daughter Sarah (Speak) Bartley, $150 was given to the children of his deceased son Charles to be divided equally among them, $150 to his deceased son Joseph's heirs to be divided equally among them, and $150 to the heirs of his deceased son, Thomas, to be divided equally among them.  The will was written in 1852...I found it difficult to understand but I believe these were his wishes.

Nicholas and Sarah Speak's "mansion" house

Last night, while trying to work on this post, I started digging through a box I received from my uncle shortly before Christmas.  Inside I found the wills of both my grandfather, Roger Lewis, and my great grandmother, Dora Bartley.  These were much easier to understand - pay funeral expenses and any debt, the remainder to my grandmother or divided equally among my dad and brothers if my grandma passed first.  My great grandmother's was the same - pay funeral expenses and any debt, the remainder to be equally divided between my grandmother and her brother. 

While there wasn't a lot to be learned by finding the wills of my grandpa and great grandma, there were some other amazing finds in that box.  But those are for another day!!

Heirloom

Week 8 of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompt is Heirloom.

On February 11, 2010, I lost my grandmother, Phyllis Ann Bartley Lewis Gieseke. Her health had been failing for the previous few years and we knew the end was coming but losing her was still one of the hardest things I've been through in my life.

At the funeral a couple days later, my uncle handed me an envelope with my name on it and said my grandma wanted me to have what was inside. Inside was my grandma's wedding rings. My grandma had horrible arthritis for years so she melted down her wedding band from her first marriage to my grandpa, Roger, and her band from her second marriage to my grandpa Stan. I cried and cried but it meant so much to me to have her rings.

Growing up I loved my grandma and grandpa's oak bedroom furniture. We got to go help clean out her room at the nursing home, including her bedroom furniture. I also took the tray she always had sitting on her dresser with her hand mirror and perfume bottles. I have it set up the same way in my bedroom, with her reading glasses as well.

I also received an old candy dish that sat on her couch side table in her living room my entire life. Before my grandma, it belonged to her mother.

I was fortunate to have had my grandma in my life for almost 40 years. I have so many memories. It's nice to have these things to remind me of her as well.

My Valentine

Our wedding day - March 25, 1995

This week's prompt for Amy Johnson Crow's  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is "Valentine". 

My valentine for the last 25+ years has been my husband, Don.  I feel like, especially now-a-days, 25 years together is kind of a big deal.  We've been through a lot of ups and downs.  We've had three beautiful daughters together.  We've started a business that fortunately has survived 20+ years.  We've built two houses.  We've lost loved ones.  We're far from the "perfect" couple.  We fight and make up.  Through it all, we have always had each other's back.

We have great role models who have taught us how to love and the importance of family. I thought I would celebrate this Valentine's Day by sharing photos of those that have left a loving legacy for Don and I, and hopefully our children one day.

 

My mom and dad
Scott Lewis & Cindy Dorf
Married 48 years in May

My in-laws
Karl Hansen & Sherry Matzke
Married a few weeks short of 45 years when Karl passed away.

My paternal grandparents
Roger Lewis & Phyllis Bartley
Married just shy of 28 years when Roger died in 1972.

My maternal grandparents
Ken Dorf & Iris Kersten
Married 25 years when Ken died in 1973.

Don's maternal grandparents
Don Matzke & Fern Carson
Married 48 years when Fern died in 1987.

Don's paternal grandparents
Karl Hansen & Anna Dahlblom















As my girls would say ...  #goals

Favorite Name

This week's prompt for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge is "Favorite Name".  While I don't necessarily have a "favorite name" in the family,  there were a lot of men named John, James and Samuel, lots of woman named Sarah, Hannah and Grace.  I'm sure back in their day you were named for your father or your mother, and aunt of an uncle, your grandparents.  There is one name that does sort of stick out to me on my tree - Emmeline.  There are a couple actually (the Bartley family is big!!).  I know some went by Emma, I'm not sure if they all did.  But I like the way it looks and it is a pretty name.

When I had my own daughters, we chose their middle names to represent their family.  My oldest daughter has my middle name - Christine.  My middle daughter has the female version of her dad's name - Dawn.  For my youngest, we named her after both of her grandmothers - Kaylee...Kaye being my mom's middle name and Lea being my mother-in-law's middle name.  I'm kind of hoping the girls will continue this on with their children one day.  We'd have done the same thing if we would have had boys - Robert after my husband and father-in-law and Scott after my dad.

When I was expecting my oldest daughter we chose the name Jordan.  My grandma sent me a letter one day and ended it with "PS.  Have you ever considered the name Emilie?  It was my grandmother's name".  I lost that letter in a move years ago (I cried for hours!) but it still makes me smile thinking about it.  And no, I never considered it.  She is so not an Emilie!!

In The Census

1900 census - Hancock County, Tennessee

This week's prompt for Amy Johnson Crow's #52ancestors challenge is "In the Census".  At first I thought I would write about a significant find on a certain census.  I couldn't narrow it down to just one thing so I decided to write about the different ways I have used the census reports and some interesting finds.

While I know that census reports often included incorrect information, I find it to be a great starting point.  The 1900 census is my favorite!!  The addition of birth months and years is obviously helpful.  Spelling out the relationship of everyone in the house is nice.  Number of years married can be another answer you may not have had before reading this census and may lead you towards another document to search out.  I find the number of children born/number of children living to be very interesting, and often times heartbreaking.  Birth places of the individual as well as his or her parents birth places can be hints or validation.  Immigration year, years in US and Naturalization year are nice starting points if you're not lucky enough to find your ancestors came through Ellis Island.  Occupation is nice to know as it helps to put the flesh on the bones of your ancestors. 

When I first started looking into my family history I started with the Bartley side of my family...my dad's maternal side.  I was fortunate enough to connect with many distant cousins who were willing to share info with me.  But when I started digging into the census reports, I felt I was finding things for myself.  I started with my 4x great grandparents, then I started working on their children, and then their children and so on.  I would match up the info I found in census reports with other cousins trees on Ancestry or I would check the info I found with the cousins I was talking with.  On the 1900 census for Hancock County, Tennessee, I find my 3x great grandparents living with their 31 year old daughter and 25 year old son.  Their 11 year old grandson and 10 year old granddaughter are also living with them.  My 2x great grandfather had lost his first wife nine years earlier.  I confirmed with cousins that the youngest two children were sent by train to live with their grandparents.  The older boys were on their own by then and the older girls were living with their father, his second wife and their three sons in Dallas, Taylor County, Iowa. 

On the 1920 census in Cat Spring, Austin County, Texas, I find my 2x great grandmother widowed and living with her 11 year old daughter.  Her 12 year old son is living as a boarder, also in Cat Spring. Her 9 year old son (my great grandfather) is living in Cleveland, Austin County, Texas with his grandmother and aunt and uncle.  Sad that the boys were not living with their mother.  But the thing I found even more interesting is that my 2x great grandfather was still alive!!  He is living in Burleigh, Austin County, Texas.  His marital status shows "M" for "married" with an "S" for "single" written over it.  I have heard it was common for woman to say they were widowed rather than saying they were divorced or separated.  I am unsure if they actually were divorced...still a lot more researching to do on this branch.  I do find that my 2x great grandfather died in an accident in 1925.

On the 1870 census in Rose Hill, Lee County, Virginia, I find 8 year old, Rachael, living with my 4x great aunt and uncle.  She is not on the 1880 census.  Of course, the 1890 census was lost, which is extremely annoying!!  The 1900 census shows that Eliza had 8 children, 7 of which were living.  My records show she had 9 children.  The 1910 census shows she gave birth to 13 children, 7 of which were living.  It can be assumed that Rachael died between 1870 and 1880.  I cannot find a newspaper story in regards to her death.  And I have not found a death certificate online. Without making a trip to Lee County and seeing if they even have records going back that far, I may never know for sure.

Maybe the most interesting census I have found is for my great grandfather, Ambrose.  On my first visit to the Minnesota Historical Society I pulled his death certificate.  His parents were listed, George Lewis and Sue Lyons.  I find them on the 1880 census in Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Kentucky (where my great grandfather was born).  The curious thing is they are listed as black, every document I have of my great grandfather lists him as white.  My great grandfather was born in 1886, his brothers in 1884 and 1888.  Of course the 1890 census is missing.  By the 1900 census, I find George still living in Nicholasville.  He is widowed and living with his 16 year old son.  His 12 year old son is living two houses down with a cousin.  They are all listed as black.  Ambrose cannot be found on the census.  In fact, he cannot be found on any census until the 1920 census, when he is found as a soldier at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He is listed as white.  He is listed as white on his military enlistments.  He is listed as white on his death certificate.  I have read articles on black or mulatto people that "passed" as white back then and lived lives separate from their family.  I am unsure if this is the case here.  This family is my brick wall!! 

May need to plan a road trip to Kentucky...but for now I'll keep researching census reports to see what I can dig up.

Invite to Dinner

My Grandpas - Roger & Ken

I've been thinking all week about who I would like to invite to dinner.  I miss my Grandmas both like crazy and oh, what I wouldn't give for another day with either of them.  But I was fortunate to have had forty some years with both of them,  So instead I decided on my grandpas - Roger and Ken.  My grandpa Roger died only a month after my second birthday.  My grandpa Ken died only six months later.  I've often wondered how my life would have been different if my grandpas had been a part of it longer than those two years.

My grandpa Roger was an only child.  I would ask him about his parents.  His dad was not really a part of his life but I'd ask what he did know about him and what memories he had of him.  I'd ask about his time in WWII where he was a pilot.  I'd ask how he met my grandma and how he knew she was the one.  I'd ask about my dad and uncles as children.

I'd ask my grandpa Ken about his childhood.  He grew up working on his brother's farm and money was always tight.  At some point he moved away to Texas.  I'd ask him how he met my grandma and what made them move back to Minnesota.

Mostly I would just listen.  To anything and everything they had to say.  I have been to visit their graves and felt a little sad when I did...I know I missed out on having them in my life.  So I would just soak it all in!!