Below is a story, written by my father – his own biography. This is a story of a guy named Joe. Joe, that’s me. I was born on April Fool’s Day in 1932. I was born in a small hospital in a small town called Whitinsville in the southern part of Massachusetts. When I was born, I…
I was the daughter of a military man. That meant we lived where the US Air Force decided we’d live. As such it was never anywhere near where my mothers’ parents were, they lived in Los Angeles, CA or my father’s parents, who lived near Boston, MA. That being said, I knew and remember my grandfathers. We would occasionally…
Meinte Gerben Vierstra was born on August 7, 1863 in the town of Sneek, Friesland, the Netherlands. He migrated to Kathaus (Koontz) Germany. This is a small town near the city of Trier on the Mouselle River. From Germany, he came to Canonsburg, PA United States of America. He died in Whitinsville (Northbridge), Massachusetts on…
Week 11’s theme is “Fortune.” Merriam-Webster gives several definitions for fortune: A large sum of money; prosperity attained partly through luck; or destiny, fate. Here’s my story. Finland has a long and often confusing history. It fell under Swedish realm in the 1300’s. During the 1700’s Russia terrorized the people of Finland and was eventually ceded to…
As I sit here and contemplate the hint for this this week which is “Name is the same” I was drawn to my ancestor Charles Brown. When I started researching him, I found him in a small town in Iowa called, funny enough, Charles City. However, there were actually two Charles Browns who seemed to…
I have twin cousins, Toni and Teri. Everything you hear about that special bond between twins was certainly true in these two. They would finish each other’s sentences or reply with the same comment simultaneously. They even would find out they both purchased the same article of clothing or piece of jewelry. They even married brothers and went through…
Lee comes from a long line of Barneys in the United States. The Barney’s originally were Quakers living in England and came to America in the late 1600’s. Jonathan Barney, Lee’s 3rd great grandfather, was an early settler to Johnsburg, NY prior to 1807. It is possible he was influenced by the persuasiveness of John Thurman…
While in the Navy, I received orders to Spain. Before I left, my grandfather gave me an old letter from a cousin of his who lived in the Netherlands. My grandfather, or Pake, was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to the United States in 1912 with his family at the age of 4. As an adult, Pake…
Week 6’s theme is “Valentine.” From Amy Johnson Crow….Do you have any Valentines from any of your ancestors? Or maybe you have an ancestor named Valentine. (I remember when I was little being surprised to learn that Valentine was a “boy’s name.”) How about an ancestor that you wish you could exchange valentines with? Have…
This recipe for Olikoken is from my Beppe (grandmother in Friesian) Mary (Vierstra) Dykstra. Mary Ola Vierstra was born on September 4, 1908, in North Strabane, Pennsylvania, to Antje (Anna) B. Boersma and Meinte Gerben Vierstra, recent immigrants from the Netherlands. She was the last born of 6 children and the only one born in…