Pilgrims and Pioneers: The Grandpa House

Welcome To Pilgrims and Pioneers!

After many years of researching my family geneaology I have been lucky enough to discover actual information about my relatives that lived in the Pilgrim Era and the Pioneer Era- while many people also have realtives from those eras- many do not know their names or where they lived- actually seeing the proof in print makes you much more aware of who they really were.
After discovering these relatives it of course made me curious to learn more about the eras that they lived in and what their lives were like as, the history I learned in grade school had long since been forgotten.
I decided to start this blog for others who are also interested in these eras.
Some of the information here will be actual facts about my realtives and some will be information about the eras in general that I have found on the web.
I hope you will enjoy traveling back in time with me!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

The Grandpa House

Kalona , Iowa is located 17 miles north of Iowa City, Iowa and is a big Amish community. While browsing their website for information I found this photo of the Grandpa House. It is a house that was created for the elderly in the family. Old order Amish families live together through out their lifetime- when a son gets married the original family house gets an addtion for the new family added to it. Apparently when the grandparents become elderly & need closer supervision an addition is built fo this also.

Note the traditional sparse furnishings.