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| oldnewgreenredo I signed up for a creativity for the elderly program with the Mather Institute located here in Illinois in Evanston. Open to Illinois residents over the age of 55, a box of craft supplies and directions arrived in September, and once a week classes began early in October. |
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| oldnewgreenredo |
I will have to go out and buy an iron to show you the results of the first three projects, each a form of dyeing and fabrics. The dyes need to be set with heat.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Determined to see if I could follow directions, I had mixed results, but it was fun to visit with others on zoom and to experience the process of three different types of dyeing.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
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| oldnewgreenredo |
The fourth project was a weaving project on a simple cardboard frame. It was supposed to be an aspiration weaving, where we wrote on strips of paper things like, I am worthy, I am beautiful, I am....yada, yada. At the age of 75, if I don't have my ducks of worthiness in a row, it's too late.
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Old card from Pinterest, from a location near my family's homes in Denmark. Typical fisherman attire in the late 1800-early 1900's in Denmark.
The day before I had resurrected an old email account, and linked them into my current email. I received an email from an old genealogy account I had done for my mom on Family Search. The night before the weaving, I found my/her Mom's family. My grandmother Nellie had died at age 27 when my mom was 5. She had married my grandfather at age 19 and immigrated to the USA from Denmark.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Nellie and Grampa's Immigration photo after marriage in Denmark 1919.
When searching for her family---I had kept hitting brick walls, I found her mother and her father, but that was it, due to script records that were basically illegible. Denmark has records going back to the 1400's through their church parish system as well as a centralized system of regional governments. Meticulous records were kept. The parish my grandparents were from was established in 1011...seriously 1200 years ago. I knew my (Nellie's parents, my great grandfather and great grandmother were buried together in the church cemetery some 43 years apart. My great grandmother had died in childbirth in 1903, when my grandmother Nellie was 2.
Another family tragedy, young mothers with children left behind. From there the records were confusing, misspelled and translated only to confusion. It seems my great-grandfather was born into a large family and the common use of Jensen (son of Jens) was not the main surname of his family, but may have been changed before Nellie was born in 1901.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Great Grandfather's family farm early in the 1900's. He had at least 8 living siblings in 1908.
The updated information on both families opened a huge window...all the way back to the 1500's. We always thought my grandmother as a baby was farmed out to a family (common in N. Denmark) and perhaps abandoned by her young (21years old) fisherman father.
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| oldnewgrenredo |
Nellie probably her confirmation 1913- or14.
Not true, a family where we thought she was a servant, was actually a huge family of Aunts, Uncles, and cousins, on the paternal sides as well as having another huge family on my great-grandmother's side. An altered spelling of GGrandmother's name had led to a dead-end back in the early 2000's. But, because the multiple surnames for all the children in the census, that was also so confusing.
On Nellie's mother's side what was in the church records, was not the name in the regional records or census'. A letter in her first name, and two in her middle name were altered resulting in the confusion. The Danish government finally required consistent family surnames for both men and women in the early 1900-1910's. Prior to that a woman was her firstname and then her father's first name and dotter (daughter)---ie. Ingrid Andrea Andersdotter. (daughter of Anders)
All the sen's at the end of male surnames---meant their father's first name and 'sen' or son such as Anders Jens Andersen- meaning Anders son. The change to standard surnames really messed up some records, as families---with too many of the same name, some family members chose an entirely different surname from perhaps a favorite person, or a deceased past relative. Not all these things were updated in church records or noted in census records. Property papers were more accurate---but property was passed usually to the eldest son or occasionally to a surviving spouse, but only if specified.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
With this revelation---which I need to follow up on in the future, there are so many generations of relatives to explore and try to find.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
I believe these are cousins---which I had earlier believed a sister. Nellie had a sister (Aste) who died after childbirth and her mother's death.
I have Nellie's immigration trunk, and a small box of memorabilia and photos of their early marriage. This was all put away in the attic in a small box along with some jewelry typical of northern Denmark....and forgotten, when my grandfather remarried in 1930.
My mother never dealt with anything having to do with all of this..it was like a locked lost chapter. When my great aunt, my grandfather's youngest sister was near 100 she finally told the truth that Nellie had died from a stroke at 26 and not from a jaw infection as we had all been told.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Looking at Nellie's photos from her years of marriage and 2 children, she may have had severe lack of thyroid. The problem with not sharing proper medical information is both my mom, my aunt, and myself have had thyroid issues. Nellie may have had low thyroid which led to weight gain, high blood pressure, all risks for strokes. I was luckily diagnosed in my early 30's and have been on medication since then, but the weight has always been a battle and blood pressure at times hard to control.
Looking at the NOW expansive family trees of 1/2 of my medical heritage, I'm a bit relieved to see few deaths other than early childhood deaths, but MANY long lives for the location and times. Phew!
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| oldnewgreenredo |
After all this, the next day I began my weaving class----and listening to the instructor but, all my thoughts were on Nellie. She was worthy, she was surrounded with love,
She was memorable.
Nellie was almost like an empty vessel, was now filled with family love in my mind.
I scribbled her name on one of the pieces of affirmation paper, then my grandfather's, my Mom and my Aunt and where they all lived as a family for the seven short years before she passed.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
I had dyed a spare piece of Danish fabric, a very old stained fabric mat, woven with floss in a pattern that also included tiny Danish flags, weeks ago. I knew it had come from my grandfather's home (built in 1922), and was very old. Nellie had lived there until her death. I had already attempted to remove the probably 80 or more year old stains. There had been left over dye...so I dipped it here and there in the different colors, blue, yellow, red. I had also dyed common cotton string. All the dyeing was done before my finds about Nellie.
While the instructor was talking I started to rip that little piece of hand embroidered linen into strips to use in my weaving. I pulled some dried grasses out to also use, similar to the grasses from the dunes on the North Sea of where Nellie she grew up. Since the emphasis was to not have a plan, but just go with the materials and things you personally added to those included in the kits.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Now I had affirmations.
Nellie existed, Nellie was a Mother, daughter, niece...
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Nellie was loved,
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| oldnewgreenredo Now, Nellie is remembered. |
Though this small weaving is completed, her story will continue. I will fill in the pieces and hopefully find some ancestors of these families. I'm sure no one is alive that remembers anything, but you never know, some family stories live on... and on.
The important thing is now I know and remember.
Have you every found out about Missing Family?
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