Family Photo Project - Getting Started

I spent the long weekend over at my parents’ house to go through and scan photos and documents.  So, I have a lot of interesting things to share over the coming weeks!

I accomplished my goal which was to scan all the items on my maternal side.  I scanned about 500 photos – most of which we could identify but we do have a stack we need to examine and compare and see if we can maybe figure out who is who.

Mom & my uncle feeding a raccoon at Allegheny State Park
(Don't try this at home boys & girls!)

There were a lot of interesting and fun finds: my grandmother’s baby book, family letters confirming a theory I had, photos of some of my immigrant ancestors, my grandfather’s photos he took when he was abroad during WWII.

Lots of interesting stories from my Mom about food, family rumors, funny facts.

Carl & Dagmar Grann and Walt & Dorothy Grann

I think my favorite photo from this weekend is this one.  I also really, really like their hats!
It is a photo of my maternal great-uncles & great-aunts.  From left to right: Carl Grann & his wife, Dagmar Kallander and his brother, Walter Grann & his wife, Dorothy Walden.  I don’t have an exact date on the photo but judging from their clothes and ages it should be sometime in the mid-1920s. 

Carl and Dagmar were both born in Sweden (although married in the US), Walt was born after his parents immigrated to the US.

I find it’s funny how sometimes you can form an opinion or feeling just from photos.  For whatever reason, I have always been drawn to my great-aunt Dagmar.  She died in 1985 so I did meet her, but I don’t have any memories of her since I was young when she passed.  I don’t know, maybe it’s just her unusual name, or perhaps this photo below (which I just find fantastic).

Dagmar Kallander

I asked my Mom this weekend what Dagmar was like.  I asked if she was kind of spunky, because she looks like she would be.  Mom said that she did think that she was and always liked her (she was one of her favorite aunts).

One of the reasons I love genealogy research is creating these connections with my family (both living and not), discovering their stories and the different lives they have had.  I look forward to getting back into my family records & photos (we have bins full of stuff from my paternal side I still have to go through and scan) and helping to piece together more of these stories.

Family Recipe Project

Eunice Hunt Grann is my maternal great-grandmother.  My middle name is Eunice after her and I bear a great resemblance to her.  Seriously...when I found this photo and shared it with my family my brother thought it was me in one of those old-timey photos.

From 1978 - 1980 my maternal uncle, Bruce gathered and compiled a lot of the family recipes and had them typed up and gave them to members of the family.  My mom has always had a copy of the recipe book and I found my grandmother's copy when she passed away in 2015.  My grandmother, Betty is technically my step-grandmother since she was my grandfather's second wife, they were married in December 1979, but she is the only grandmother I knew on that side.  But, to keep us genealogists on our toes, both my biological and step grandmothers were named Betty.

Since I inherited my grandmother's copy, I also found this letter from Bruce to Betty in the cookbook:

"Christmas 1980

Dear Betty,
This project was started over three years ago and includes recipes from my mother's and grandmother's cookbooks, as well as sorted selections from other people.  Dorislee did the typing for a year and a half, and it's taken me another year plus to get the books put together.
Since this doesn't include the recipe for the one thing Dad can make - scalloped potatoes - I guess you'll have to execute any of the recipes if they are going to get done.  Since it's a loose-leaf book, I assume everyone will add their own favorites.  However, as I was folding all the pages and punching all the holes, I realized you'll have to annotate your contributions with Betty "B" Barber to make the distinction.
Welcome to the family!
Love, Bruce"

I do have to admit reading this that I am so grateful for modern technologies that make creating a recipe book for the family much less labor intensive (at least as far as typing on a typewriter and manually punching holes goes).

This recipe book has many recipes that have very basic (or no) instructions - mostly the ones from my great-grandmother.  Probably because most cookie and cake recipes tend to have similar assembly instructions so they just didn't bother writing down.

But, from a modern cooks perspective, these recipes can be very difficult to follow if you aren't familiar with some of those basics.  I know my mom has mentioned not making a lot of these recipes because she just wasn't sure what to do.

So, one of my projects is to create an updated family cookbook.  I want to update the recipes with some more detailed instructions as well as add some additional family recipes and like my uncle before me, distribute the cookbook to family members.  But, since it is 2017 - I can also detail my experiences online as well!  Again, reference above thought on modern technology!

So, for your first taste of my family recipes here is the recipe I have made several times for Spritz.  It's attributed to both Eunice and her daughter, Betty.

Since I've made this before, I did actually blog (on a different blog) this modern recipe equivalent so here is the link: https://recipebuster.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/swedish-christmas-cookies/

My mom remembers these cookies at Christmas-time and that is when I tend to make them as well.  They are a lovely soft, almond flavored cookie that uses a cookie press.

So, if you like vintage recipes, keep an eye on this spot for more.  I am actually cooking up a couple new recipes today that I haven't tried before so there will be another blog post soon on Danish Tarts!

Swedish Ancestors

Now that I've finished mostly with my major tree pruning, I want to move onto my next area of focus: my Swedish ancestors.

At RootsTech in February, I attended some sessions on Swedish genealogy and using the ArkivDigital website for searching Swedish records.  And now I am armed with a bit more information, I feel comfortable starting to gather records from Swedish sources.

I've also started using Evernote to try to organize my research, keep research logs, and basically just keep me on track.

So, my first steps are to organize the information I have for my Swedish ancestors into Evernote so I have it all in one place and I can start my lists of research questions.  Once I have that organized and questions ready to go, then I'll sign up on ArkivDigital to start gathering records there.

For some of my family members, I already know where in Sweden they came from, Sätila in Västra Götaland or Vetlanda in Jönköping, Sweden.  Others I am not certain, I just know from census records that they were from Sweden so that is going to take a bit more digging so I can figure out where to look in the Swedish records.

Here are my ancestors who I've identified as coming from Sätila in Västra Götaland (direct line ancestors in red text):

Anders Andersson Grann
Born: 20FEB1832 - Died: 26NOV1906
Born & Died in Sweden - did not immigrate

Married to:
Anna Johansdottir
Born: 09SEP1845 - Died: ?
May have immigrated?

Children of Anders Andersson Grann & Anna Johansdottir:
Alfred Grann
Born: ~1861 - Died: ?
May have immigrated?

Anders Grann
Born: ~1884 - Died: ?
May have immigrated?

Anna Maria Grann
Born: 27MAY1882 - Died: 01APR1966
Born in Sweden - Died in Jamestown, NY

Otto Ludvig Grann
Born: 13DEC1887 - Died: ?

Carl Oscar Grann
Born: 30NOV1875 - Died: 28FEB1953
Born in Sweden - Died in Jamestown, NY

Married to:
Mathilda Charlotte Svenson (Swanson?)
Born: 02AUG1874 - Died: 03JUN1938
Born in Sweden - Died in Jamestown, NY

Children of Carl Oscar Grann & Mathilda Charlotte Svenson:
Ivar (Evar)(Sven) Grann
Born: 03JUL1897 - Died: 28FEB1947
Born in Sweden - Died in Cleveland, OH

Carl Hjalmer Grann
Born: 19MAY1899 - Died: 07JUL1972
Born in Sweden - Died in Jamestown, NY

Axel Elof Grann
Born: 13MAR1901 - Died: 04MAR1972
Born & Died in New York (family immigrated before he was born)


Others I am fairly certain came from Vetlanda in Jönköping, Sweden.  These ancestors are:

Sven Peterson Rask
Born:15SEP1831 - Died: 10OCT1918
Born Vetlanda, Sweden - Died in Warren County, PA

Gustava Carolina Stark
26NOV1827 - 20OCT1905
Born Vetlanda, Sweden - Died in Warren County, PA

Children of Sven Peterson Rask & Gustava Carolina Stark:
Mathilda Christina Rask
Born: 03APR1859 - Died: 15FEB1939
Born Vetlanda, Sweden - Died in Warren County, PA

Carl Augustus Rask
Born: 10DEC1860 - Died: Before 1939
Born Vetlanda, Sweden - Died in Warren County, PA

John Sven Rask
Born: 22OCT1862 - Died: 02OCT1948
Born Vetlanda, Sweden - Died in Los Angeles, CA

Maria Sophia Rask
Born: 22FEB1867 - Died: 13MAR1945

Born Vetlanda, Sweden - Died in Warren County, PA

Anna Lovisa Rask
Born: 19MAR1865 - Died: 28APR1939
Born Vetlanda, Sweden - Died in Warren County, PA

Married to:
Charles L Ecklund
Born: 25SEP1858 - Died: 26JUN1918
Born in Sweden (unknown county) - Died in Warren County, PA

Parents of Charles L. Ecklund:  Nels S. Ecklund & Almask from Sweden (unknown county)

So, I have a couple areas that I know to look at and a few family lines so this should probably keep me busy for a little while.

If any of these folks above are also your ancestors, I would love to hear from you.  I am interested in chatting with cousins who also like genealogy.  :)

Tree Pruning

It's Family Tree pruning time!

It's a task I've been putting off for FAR too long.  I've known for a while that my Ancestry tree has a LOT of unconfirmed branches.  Since I've learned more over the past few years I've discovered I need to prune that unconfirmed information out and add it back in again if I can confirm with sources.

This is mostly the result of being "young and silly" when I first joined Ancestry and you get so excited with the little green leaves and other member's trees that you go a little...crazy.
And that craziness has led me to where I currently am.

So, I didn't want to completely lose all of the work I have done so I made a GEDCOM copy of the tree I had and saved that as a private tree (I don't want others copying off that tree since it's not confirmed - it's more my giant tree of hints now).  And I'm seriously pruning back my public Ancestry tree to those things I have some sort of sources for.

It's been a big pain in the rear (because I had a TON of branches that I couldn't confirm a link to) but doing this will give me a much cleaner base to run off of and I can use the private tree to help me with hints to hopefully find the source documentation to make the tree grow again.  :)

So, a few tips for new genealogists just starting out:

• Think before adding to your tree (I know this seems basic - but sometimes we get a little too excited and we need to slow down and really think if we just need to make note of a source to investigate further or confirm some other way to make sure they are a relation before adding to the tree)
• Remember that the little green leaves (or the hint features of your chosen family tree software/website) are HINTS.  They might have nothing to do with your ancestor.  Use them as a jumping off point for further research.
• Download a copy of the documents to your computer at home (don't just have the online link) because if you drop your subscription you might not be able to view that original document again until you subscribe again and that can be frustrating.  Plus, crazy things happen and the website might go down or out of business and you want to have copies of these documents.
• Other member trees - my personal belief now is to NOT add to your tree from other member's trees.  I will use them on occasion as hints to use if I am looking for sources for my ancestors but adding to my tree from other trees made my tree into the mess it became (duplications, unconfirmed info, misspellings, and just plain wrong info).

Good luck and enjoy!

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RootsTech 2017!

Goal #1 for 2017 - Stay out of the hospital (they're starting to recognize me there, that's not good)
Goal #2 for 2017 - more family history research & blogging about it

I had the opportunity this year to attend RootsTech in Salt Lake City, which was such an awesome experience!

I won a free pass to RootsTech which got me off my butt and travelling to SLC.  Thank you Shannon at the Trials and Tribulations of a Self-Taught Family Historian blog!

I had such a great time, was so inspired, and learned so much it's unbelievable that happened all in one place.

There were great general sessions including an incredibly moving speech from LeVar Burton.  Seriously, by the end of the speech everyone was crying.  Everyone.  It was beautiful and moving!

I attended a session on starting Scandinavian genealogy and did a hands on workshop with ArkivDigital.  I feel much more comfortable with diving into some of my Swedish ancestry now (I actually looked up my first household record for one of my ancestors).

There were so many great sessions I attended but I'm also really glad I attended the "100 Days to Better Family History" session so I could take all of the energy from the conference and make an organized plan.

RootsTech Selfie!

RootsTech Exhibition Hall

So, now I'm all motivated and one of my top goals is to regularly blog about what I'm doing with my family history research!  Stay tuned!

New Weekly Blog Posts!

While driving to work this morning listening to a new podcast, I had an thought for an interesting blog serial I could focus on.

I know I have totally not been posting like I had wanted this year.  Honestly 2016 has not been a particularly fantastic year for me, I won’t bore you with all the details but let’s say the hospital staff know me a bit too well.  So, I haven’t focused on posting or on doing ancestry research this year.

But, back to my idea!  So, this morning I was listening to a new (to me) podcast called Medieval Death Trip.  It sounds more ominous than it is.  It is a literary focused podcast examining various excerpts from medieval primary sources along with commentary.  I was listening to the prologue this morning where the author of that podcast (author, host – what is the correct term for that?) said he was inspired by the book, Wisconsin DeathTrip.  That book is a non-fiction work published in 1973 that is based on a collection of late 19^th century articles, photographs, narrations from Wisconsin – most of them kind of “news of the weird” but as a collection highlight the lives, thoughts, fears, etc. of the people living at that time.  I haven’t read this book, but I think I’m going to because that sounds fascinating.

So, after being inspired by a podcast inspired by a book, I thought of a weekly blog serial taking the ideas of using print media from the various locations and times of my ancestors to flesh out their lives. 

I LOVE looking at old newspapers!  While a great place to find a wealth of information in your genealogical research, it also is a unique glimpse into the lives of the people in that region and time.  Often our research takes us to the time before internet and computers, before Skype and email, and usually before TV or telephones or radio.  Local newspapers were the lifeblood of information.  It’s how you learned what was going on in your community, your state, your country and the world.  Not only are their articles about the main events happening, but also you find very mundane articles about who is having dinner with who. 

So, my plan is to have a weekly post called Old News - New Stories highlighting an article, excerpt, advertisement, photograph, etc. from a publication which is local to one of my ancestors during their time.  So, hopefully you will find it interesting and perhaps inspire some of your own research into the lives and times to help bring your ancestors to life (figuratively speaking).