Pilgrims and Pioneers: February 2010

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!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

I Won This Basket! Come Look!!

A few weeks ago I entered a drawing at The Prmitive Peddler. To my delight I won! I won the great basket pictured above. It is from www.basketsbyrose.com
Pay her visit and see her other great baskets!!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

THe call of the Wild!!

I was watching the Olympics when I heard a screeching noise- a noise I had heard before. Thinking it was some of the stray cats that hang around I lifted up the blinds to tap on the window and there stood a fox- I wrtapped some more and it ran off. I went outside and I could hear it screeching about a half a block to the East. I have 2 stray cats I have been feeding- hopefully they will be waiting for me in the morning!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

White Wednesday

I am so proud of myself! I got something done for White Wednesday!
It is different than I usually do but, I like it!
I traced around a widemouth jar lid for the round base and used a heart cookie cutter for the heart shape. The base is muslin and the heart a cream star print. After I added the lace I gave the entire pinkeep a coffee bath and then it was baked. Pioneer women did have some treasured fancy things!!

Memories From Long Ago ca. 1905

These pictures are of my Swedish ggrandparents, my grandfather and my great uncles.
Peter & Nellie came from Kristianstad, Sweden in 1881.
The bottom photo shows them in 1920. The top photo back row:
August, William, Nels, John
Front row My ggrandfather Peter, my grandfather Arthur, my ggrandmother Nellie.
In the bottom photo it appears that my ggrandfather has a white collar on- actually it is his beard grown on the neck only- the top photo shows the same style beard. I am assuming this is some type of Swedish tradition to grow the beard this way.

Friday, February 19, 2010

I Have Finally Gotten Over the Brick Wall!

Several years ago I stopped finding information on my Great Grandparents that came from Sweden in 1881.
I knew my ggrandfather had twin sisters Anna & Inga and a brother named Johannes- but I had no idea what had happened to them as adults.
A few days ago I once again posted an inquiry on a message board about them and then kind of forgot about it.
Today I recieved an email from a woman in Sweden that had seen my post.
She gave me new information- Anna had married and emigrated to the USA before my ggrandfather had. She also told me about two more brothers I had not known about, one had also emigrated to the USA a year before my ggrandfather. She also gave me the dates my gggrandparents died.
I am so excited to have gotten this information- I am forever in her debt!!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

White Wednesday

I have wanted to take part in White Wednesday for quite a while- but it seemed everytime that Wednesday rolled around I didn't have anything- so today I was te,ted to cheat and took a picture of our homemade potatao soup we had for lunch ( which was absolutley yummy by the way!) and then I realized I did have a White Wednesday creation from a few weeks ago!
My Antique babay shoes!
I promise I will have a new creation for White Wednesday next week!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!!

To all my blog followers and any other reader's of this blog!!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Tarnished and Tattered

You just have to see the wonderful creations on this blog!
http://tarnishedandtattered.blogspot.com

Saturday, February 6, 2010

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I decided I would do some family research tonight and in doing so I once again found these pictures. I never tire of looking at them. They so fascinate me as these were from a time I never knew. It is hard for me to imagine my grandmother and my dad as they were in these photos. No one knew at the time that the little girl with banana curls would grow up to be such a beautiful woman and give birth to the young boy in the photo that would grow up to be my dad.

She was born in 1897 and I have wondered who she looked like- was it Mourning Lewis Adams her 5th Great Grandmother that was born in 1694 in Olde Virginia- or her 8th Great Grandfather Eduaod Bompasse that lived at Plimoth Plantation in 1621 after making the voyage from England on the ship Fortune- or did she look like her great grandmother Anne Dickerson who married three times and ended up going West to Oklahoma dieing in Indian Territory? Alas I will never know- I guess she is a combination of all of these people and many more I have not mentioned.

She died when I was 4 years old so I did not get to know her as well as I would have liked to but I do remember her with some very good memories and since her daughter - my Aunt is still alive I have learned much more about her.

I know that she was a tall,kind, gentle woman who quilted, rug hooked, crocheted, needle punched, sewed, embroidered, and wove rugs on a big wooden loom that my Aunt still has.

Of course in her day she had to learn these skills as there were not many stores on the Illinois prairie back then.

She was the victim of many illnesses that took her life early- she was only 60 when she died.

Her first husband died when my dad was 3 years old so she lived for 4 years as a single Mom
before she married my dad's brother.

I have not learned to do all the things that she did but as I age I have a deep appreciation for her strong will and talents.

I love you Grandma!!