Long Lost Relatives

Meet Ron Osterberg who lives in Connecticut. He is our second cousin and he's quite a writer and he writes from his heart!

      http://www.bhosterberg.com/Ron/

If you want to contact Ron, there is a place to do that as well. Enjoy! Below is how Ron and I connected just a few short days ago.

A while ago, I said I was doing some genealogy work on my mother's side of the family. I wasn't having much luck!

My brother, Doug, had seen a tv show about DNA testing few years ago, and he said he would really like to do it -- but it was very expensive. Then somehow I discovered that 23 and Me was doing genetic testing for $99, and that there was more information available for males in a family than for females. I sent Doug the information and told him that if he was still interested, I would pay for half. I was hoping it might lead to relatives of my mother's grandmother on her mother's side as we knew so very little about her parents. All we knew about her was that she had my grandmother, and immigrated from Sweden. Her husband remarried 3 years later -- and my great-grandmother disappeared. My great-grandfather's name was Nels Nelson from Sweden (and that's all we knew -- any idea of how many Nels Nelsons there were in Sweden -- it's like how many Jones families are in America!)

Since then, I've connected with two of my mother's father's relatives in Sweden and they've been sending me information and doing research for me, verifying what I've got right and what I've got wrong.

Then I connected with a granddaughter of my maternal grandmother's half-brother, and she gave me what little information she had and I shared photos of her grandfather that I had in my possession and told her what I knew. And nothing happened for months.

In the middle of last week, somebody copied one of the Nelson photos in that family and I recognized the name as the husband of another member of the Nelson family. I sent a message off and was informed that he would send the information on to his wife by email. To make a long story short, Debbie, who is the daughter of a first cousin once removed, contacted me and we exchanged information -- her dad was a little skeptical because he didn't remember me. This changed when I sent them a photo of his father, my mother, and him; along with everything I knew about my maternal grandmother's family. Her dad and her mother went to the Negaunee cemetery and collected dates off of the stones. So more of the family information came in.

Then another family tree came up with information about Grandma's sister Aunt Ida's family, but our Great-Grandparent's name was spelled Aquist instead of Ekquist. I sent her a message that if she was having problems finding information, that was why.

Doug sent me information last week about relatives that 23 and Me said were second cousins. Turns out one of them was Ron Osterberg, the grandson of Aunt Ida Osterberg; and the other was Dale, the grandson of Roy Krans, and the son of Rita.

The Krans relatives are getting together for lunch tomorrow in Green Bay -- but it's 4-1/2 hours one way and I don't have anyone to ride along with me, so unfortunately I won't be there. I have found more information in a book written about Krans relatives in a book about Aurora, and I will be sharing some of this with you soon.

Information has started to explode from all sides of my large wonderful extended family. Information is coming at me so quickly from all directions. it's difficult keeping it all straight and trying to make sense of it all.

And all this leads up to -- I would like to introduce you to Ron Osterberg who lives in Connecticut. He is our second cousin and he's quite a writer and he writes from his heart!

      http://www.bhosterberg.com/Ron/

If you want to contact Ron, there is a place to do that as well. Enjoy!

Slideshow!

Experiment to see if I can add a slideshow of all the photos on the blog. Enjoy!

More Cousin Reunion Photos

Joan sent me (and a lot of others) the link to Lin Dishaw's photos of the cousin's reunion. I've never seen these particular photos before and thought somebody else out there might want to see them as well.

Lin's photos can be located here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/109144211305198786817/albums/5770455971479797873

After you look at the photos, you will also have a chance to see Paul's photos!!!!!

Eugene and Alice, Norene, Doug and I enjoyed brook trout, wonderful salads, and rhubarb dessert on Sunday, all brought to Norene's by Eugene and Alice. The topic of the reunion came up, and we all agreed what a wonderful time we had -- and we are all hoping somebody decides to plan another one.

Norene is doing wonderfully well after her last surgery and will begin chemo again in the second week of August.

So Many Things I Haven't Thought About Before

This morning I found information in Familysearch.org about other immigrant ships coming into Baltimore, and reading, found the following paragraph:

     "The passenger arrival list was used by legal inspectors to cross-examine each immigrant during a legal inspection prior to the person being allowed to live in America. Only two percent of the prospective immigrants were denied entry. The information was supplied by the immigrant or a traveling companion (usually a family member). Incorrect information was occasionally given, or mistakes may have been made when the clerk guessed at the spelling of foreign names."

This explains how Anders Anderson became Andrew Lundwall, and how Anders Ekekvist became Andrew Ekquist. If you are looking for other ancestors, don't forget to use as many different spellings of names as you can imagine.

Have you ever wondered what our ancestors needed to come to America? Did they need a green card? What did they need to come to America?

I looked for the history of immigration and found this at:
        http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-green-cards-citizenship-121159749.html

                                          HISTORY: DOING THE WAVE

The U.S. is in its fourth and largest immigration wave.

First came the Colonial era, then an 1820-1870 influx of newcomers mostly from Northern and Western Europe. Most were Germans and Irish, but the gold rush and jobs on the transcontinental railroad also attracted Chinese immigrants.

In the 1870s, immigration declined due to economic problems and restrictive legislation.

The third wave, between 1881 and 1920, brought more than 23 million people to the U.S., mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe, aided by cheaper trans-Atlantic travel and lured by employers seeking workers.

Then came the Great Depression and more restrictive immigration laws, and immigration went into decline for decades.

The fourth wave, still underway, began in 1965 with the end of immigration limits based on nationality. Foreign-born people made up 1 in 20 residents of the U.S. in 1960; today, the figure is about 1 in 8.

___

HISTORY: HERE A LAW, THERE A LAW

Until the late 1800s, immigration was largely a free-for-all. Then came country-by-country limits. Since then, big changes in U.S. immigration law have helped produce big shifts in migration patterns.

Among the more notable laws:

—1965 Immigration and Nationality Act: Abolished country-by-country limits, established a new system that determined immigration preference based on family relationships and needed skills, and expanded the categories of family members who could enter without numerical limits.

—1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act: Legalized about 2.7 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, 84 percent of them from Mexico and Central America.

—1990 Immigration Act: Increased worldwide immigration limit to a "flexible cap" of 675,000 a year. The number can go higher in some years if there are unused visas available from the previous year.

—1996 Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. Expanded possible reasons for deporting people or ruling them ineligible to enter the U.S., expedited removal procedures, gave state and local police power to enforce immigration laws.

—Post-2001: In 2001, talk percolated about a new immigration plan to deal with unauthorized immigrants, guest workers and violence along the Mexican border. But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks of 2001 put an end to that, amid growing unease over illegal immigration."

============================

All our ancestors needed to legally immigrate was the decision to come, save enough money for the boat, and the courage to board the boat to find a new life in "Amerika."  

Ward Elwood

Baby Ward

The scowl on his face was the same his entire life!

Baby Ward?

The above is a photo that I thought of Grandpa and Marlin, and I found a duplicate of it in another pile of photos with Ward's name on it. Looking at Grandpa, he does look younger on this photo than he would have been when Marlin was born. ??? Although Ward was the oldest boy, and Marlin was the youngest, their features had a lot of similarities..... but it still looks like Marlin to me.

Not sure if this was taken in Commonwealth or Caspian!

Another one of those AP photos of the Negaunee Snow Storm of 1937!
This one with Margaret's handwriting on it.

Nancy after move to St. Paul the first time.

Nancy, Margaret holding Norene, Ward
on Norene's Baptismal day in Hibbing
taken when we lived in the apartment in back of Ward's Grocery Store.

Ward, Lloyd, Teckla, Marlin with Nancy standing on steps

Doug, Nancy and Norene

Nancy's Graduation Photo

Nancy and Norene

Nancy

Margaret and Ward when they were Swedish Dancers at the American Swedish Institute

Norene's Graduation Photo?

Doug

Ward, Bob, Nancy in back, Margaret Seated,
with Suzanne and Germaine Reis in front

Cheryl Reis Malluege Senior Picture

Bob with Randy behind him. Funny, I can't see Randy's face in this photo.

Christine, our youngest at Graduation time

Germaine, my oldest grandchild, and her sister Suzanne

Ward -- I think this cemetery may have been in Sweden.

I was going to add more photos, but this post has been waiting a long time -- so I will post it now.

Cute Cousins Photos!

Joan sent two photos that I want to share with you today! Enjoy.....

The photos appear to both have been taken in Trout Creek, and the first one is dated 1952.

From left to right
Front: Joan, Marie; Middle: Eugene, Ted, Roger and Ronnie;
Back: Davie and Steve

On the porch at Trout Creek: from left to right, Doris, Marie, Joan, Nancy and Cathy!

And here is one from Chicagoan Lake!

Left to right: Ruth Ann, Marie, Joan, Cathy, Janet Jean, Carol Susie with Paul in front

Thank you so much for sharing these, Joan. It is greatly appreciated!

Grandpa Roberg's Sausage Recipes Updated

I received the following in an email today -- let us know if you try any of these and how it went! Norene has Grandma Teckla's recipe for potato sausage that we use each year at Christmas time.

From Mary Ann:

I sent this to my brother, Bud.  Thought you might be interested in these.  They were my grandpa Roberg's recipes when he had his butcher shop.  He sold the shop to the Bakers and gave them the recipes.  

My classmate, Jeannie Baker (the one who used to work part time at Baker's Store), sent me the recipe for grandpa's potato sausage and a couple of others.  The amounts are large, but they can be cut down.  Jeannie also said that she did make the potato sausage at one time but had a difficult time stuffing them.  She also said that if one makes patties of them and fries them, they turn out really good.  In fact, she said she likes them fried better.  She said her mom used to fry the leftovers.  Anyway, here's the recipes: 

POTATO SAUSAGE 

10 lbs. potatoes

6 1/4 lbs. ground pork and beef (1/2 and 1/2, not too lean)

1/2 cup salt (5 oz.)

2 TBS black pepper

2 TBS (scant) ground allspice

1/2 lb. onions (1 large & 1 small)

Grind meat and potatoes, mix well with other ingredients.

PORK SAUSAGE

15 lbs. pork

5 oz salt (1/2 cup)

1 1/4 oz pepper (5 Tbs.)

1/4 oz nutmeg (1 Tbs rounded)

1/4 oz sage (3 Tbs)

Optional:  1 TBSP garlic powder

BRATWURST

12 1/2 lbs. pork

12 1/2 lbs. beef

8 oz. bratwurst mix

1 oz salt

1/2 oz pepper

6 eggs

1 quart milk

(I have no idea what the heck bratwurst mix is)!!!!!  Anyway, one of these days, I'm going to try and make the potato sausage without stuffing them as I don't have a stuffer.  I'll try the patties fried.

Update:

Bud sent this re:  the bratwurst mix.

A lot of sites on the internet but the one with close tie near to home is the “Sheboygan Mix” by American Spice Company - As follows:

http://www.americanspice.com/bratwurst-mix-sheboygan-style/