I'm writing this as Mom is preparing to send sympathy cards to my Uncle Hermie and Aunt Joann, and to my cousin's wife Robin. It's been a week now since Hermie passed away following a battle with cancer. I think neither of us wanted to take that final step of acknowledging the death of one so close in our family. For Mom it's almost like losing her own child. For me it's losing the first cousin in my generation of the Passley-Swiney branch of the family tree.
Hermie was born and raised in the Southwest corner of Missouri. He never lived anywhere else. He enjoyed forty years of marriage with his beautiful bride Robin. They raised their sons Travis and Drew, and Hermie lived long enough to see his grandchildren. Yet he was only 57 when he died.
He worked for Tamko Building Products, then for the City of Webb City Missouri Public Works Department. He always had an interest in sports, from high school wrestling and football to support of youth sports to sports memorabilia collecting to his love of the Kansas City Royals.
He was active in his community, particularly with the Webb City Elks Lodge #861. It's somewhat telling that he requested that in lieu of flowers, contributions should be made to the Cerebral Palsy of Tri-County Development Center or the Webb City Elks Lodge Scholarship Fund. Even at the end, his thoughts were with his community.
R.I.P. Cousin. May God's peace rest with your family.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Sunday, May 14, 2017
My FGPC-Jennie Jackson (Olson) aka Berntine Johanna Jakobsdatter
Today has been a nice celebration of Mother's Day. Rick came over after church and took Mom and me to meet Sara and Bri for dinner at the Silver Spoon restaurant in Covina. It was nice being there, because Bri's boss asked her to start work earlier than she had been scheduled. She just started working for them a couple of weeks ago in their original location in Glendora, but this one just opened on Friday, and is walking distance from home for her, so it's all good. She also got to see Rick's new motorhome, which is nice since she may not see him again before he begins his retired life on the road.
Speaking of Rick, he's counting down the days til his retirement at the end of the month. Now that he has his motorhome, he'll be gone by early next month. With one sister moving to Idaho and another moving to Texas, this year has been one of enormous changes for my family. Mom and I are simply surfing those waves of change.
One thing that hasn't changed is my interest in family history. I've made great strides in my research since I retired at the end of February --oops, another change for 2017! I have found more cousins and more ancestors and more info about known family.
The most spectacular find involved my paternal great grandmother Jennie Olson (nee Jackson). as with her husband Sivert, I knew she was born in Norway and came to this country as a child, but not much else about her life before she married Sivert. Then one day a couple of months ago, I happened to recheck her findagrave memorial to confirm her burial info, and what should I find, but newly entered biographical information about her birth and parentage in Norway, including her Norwegian birth name! I had acquired some of this data from a cousin last fall, but this was more detailed. I saw who the contributor was, and emailed her. It turns out that she was descended from Jennie's older brother. Cari had made the leap to the other side of the pond in her research, and was kind enough to allow me guest access to her Ancestry tree. Since that time, I have expanded my knowledge of Jennie and her family.
Bertine Johanna Jakobsdatter was only a baby when her father died in 1872. By 1879, she came to America with her widowed mother and her siblings. She gave birth to her first child the year before she married Sivert. They had three more children, including my grandfather Martin. The young family homesteaded the farm near Brainerd MN now known as Pine Ridge Farm. She was eighteen years younger than Sephanias Olausen, which meant she had more energy as a pioneer wife and mother to raise the kids and work the farm. Even so, it was perhaps not too surprising that she died at the relatively young age of 52. She truly deserves to be honored on this Mother's Day!
Speaking of Rick, he's counting down the days til his retirement at the end of the month. Now that he has his motorhome, he'll be gone by early next month. With one sister moving to Idaho and another moving to Texas, this year has been one of enormous changes for my family. Mom and I are simply surfing those waves of change.
One thing that hasn't changed is my interest in family history. I've made great strides in my research since I retired at the end of February --oops, another change for 2017! I have found more cousins and more ancestors and more info about known family.
The most spectacular find involved my paternal great grandmother Jennie Olson (nee Jackson). as with her husband Sivert, I knew she was born in Norway and came to this country as a child, but not much else about her life before she married Sivert. Then one day a couple of months ago, I happened to recheck her findagrave memorial to confirm her burial info, and what should I find, but newly entered biographical information about her birth and parentage in Norway, including her Norwegian birth name! I had acquired some of this data from a cousin last fall, but this was more detailed. I saw who the contributor was, and emailed her. It turns out that she was descended from Jennie's older brother. Cari had made the leap to the other side of the pond in her research, and was kind enough to allow me guest access to her Ancestry tree. Since that time, I have expanded my knowledge of Jennie and her family.
Bertine Johanna Jakobsdatter was only a baby when her father died in 1872. By 1879, she came to America with her widowed mother and her siblings. She gave birth to her first child the year before she married Sivert. They had three more children, including my grandfather Martin. The young family homesteaded the farm near Brainerd MN now known as Pine Ridge Farm. She was eighteen years younger than Sephanias Olausen, which meant she had more energy as a pioneer wife and mother to raise the kids and work the farm. Even so, it was perhaps not too surprising that she died at the relatively young age of 52. She truly deserves to be honored on this Mother's Day!
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