Memories and Musings

 My Generations Cafe challenge for this week is Favorite Photo. I have thousands of photos! How can I pick one as a favorite? 60 years of photos-35mm, Polaroid, 4 x 6 prints! Lucky me- they are all digitized. When we were living full-time in the RV I spent many long hours scanning slides and pictures. I'm so glad I completed that project. As I think about this collection and about a photo that is meaningful from an ancestry point of view,  my mind keeps coming back to this one. That little girl is me, about 5 years old, and that's my Dad, Jim McDearmid. We lived on a little farmette of 5 acres in Gurnee, Illinois. This was nearing the end of WWII and my parents were striving to provide all they needed for our family following the guidelines  of Five Acres and Independence , a popular book at the time. It was kind of like Noah's Ark with a few of each animal to provide the food we needed, along with a Victory Garden. We had the goats for milk and cheese. I hated goats' m...

 When Otto Edward Weise was born in 1886 his Grandfather, Edward Gottlob Weise, came to see him. Grandpa took one look at the baby and declared, "Otto iss no good name for baby! Ve call him Chim." And thus began the line of Jims (James)  that extends to my Grandson. But wait, maybe that started with my hubby's maternal Great-grandfather born in 1838, and Grandfather, who were both named James Leckie. Of course my husband was named James! And then there is my side. My father, James Gardner McDearmid, was named after his Grandfather, James Gardner, born in 1839. I avoided marrying any Tom, Dick or Harry and found myself a Jim. We married in 1959. Our first baby was a girl so luckily we didn't name her Jamie. But of course we had to honor the ancestors so our son is James Gardner Weise. Not wanting to break with tradition he named his son James Douglas, after two Grandfathers. If old Edward Gottlob were living he would probably say, "Vas dis? Dere iss too miny Chim...

 I thought a lot about who or what would qualify as a family legend for the Generations Challenge. Then I looked up the definition. "A legend is someone who leaves behind an unforgettable impression on others." My maternal Grandmother, Iva Mae Lane Quist, immediately came to my mind. I'm sure my 27 cousins who called her Grandma would agree. Grandma Quist (Iva) was born in Iowa in 1899 to Elmer Lane and Myrtle Lovett Lane (more about her later). The census records say that Iva lived on a General Farm. She was one of 14 children. Lots of farmhands to do chores!  When Iva was 18 she married Carl Quist who was supposed to be watching out for Iva while her boyfriend, Carl's brother John, went off to war. Iva must have been a "hot" gal but but she was also a tough woman.  Carl was a coal miner. As the story goes, Iva was worried about him doing this kind of labor which was dangerous and not steady work. So after the birth of 3 girls she got the family moving to ...

 I've signed up for a 52 Week 52 Ancestors challenge with Generations Cafe. The goal is to write about my ancestors using the "word for the week" as a  prompt. This first week the prompt was BEGINNINGS. I chose that to mean beginnings of families so I collected a few stories about how some family couples met. I'll start with Grandpa Carl Quist and Iva Mae Lane. Carl emigrated from Sweden when he was about 16 along with his brother John. They landed in Iowa in the Des Moines area. Maybe they were taken in by other Swedes. Around 1915 they could be found working on a farm where Iva Mae also worked. One thing led to another and John and Iva were courting. Then John decided to enlist in the Army and headed off to WW1. As he left he asked Carl to watch out for Iva.  I guess Carl did a good job of that because he and Iva married in 1917. Ahhh....those sexy Swedes. One of Carl's 12 children was Anne Louise. She was born in Ankeny, Iowa in 1920, the third of seven daughte...