Christmas Traditions

We all have memories of Christmas that are special just to us. These are a few of mine.

I always knew the Christmas season had started when Mom broke out her Burl Ives Christmas albums. She'd play these when we were decorating the tree or when she'd make the Christmas cookies with us (mostly my sister and I) helping her.

We were raised Catholic so every Christmas Eve, when we were little, after dinner, Mom would make us take a nap and then wake us up in order to go to midnight mass. Most of the time all six of us would go but sometimes Dad would stay home. Mom would say he was too tired from working to go with us. When we'd come home from mass and go past the Christmas tree, would you believe it --- Santa came when we were at church! But, Dad was tired and was in bed so we'd have to wait until morning to open our treasures.

Another Christmas tradition for as long as I can remember, after opening Santa's gifts we would take a family portrait. This one I think was taken about 1966. For those who say I never post a picture of myself, I'm the blonde.

Even now when I hear Burl Ives' singing “A Holly Jolly Christmas” I can smell Mom's cookies and feel the excitement of Christmas.

Korean Honor Roll

The next stop in the Honor Roll is the Korean Conflict and my Dad.
Jim served in the US Army. He was inducted on Oct 30, 1952 and was discharged Aug 25, 1954 at Ft Sheridan IL. He served over seas in Korea for 1 year and 4 months. While in the army he was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, United Nations Service Metal and the Purple Heart for Pyrone wounds he received on 14 July 1953. He was promoted to corporal (+) on April 16, 1954 and previous to discharge he was promoted to Sargent First Class. This is the basic story of his time in Korea. Here's some of what I've learned since gathering information for these posts. I started my search on the Korean War Project Site, looking for information on my Dad's injuries. I found that, plus a bonus find, one of my Dad's army buddies, “Frenchie”. Frenchie has been a great find, he's filled in a lot holes. One of the more interesting things, was finding out my Dad's group was hit by “friendly fire”. They lost three men and all of their possessions. Frenchie has told me that the 8219TH artillery was what they called a “Bastard Outfit” – “Just a bunch of Nomads wandering all over Korea scrounging for meals”. From what Dad told us, his unit was basically forward observers, Frenchie explained it like this: “Three crews went out every day (one in reserve) to different locations all over Korea depending on what Artillery Unit (U.S or Korean) had to be moved to a new location. We were told the night before what area we would be working in. The Metro Section would tell us what three mountains we were to climb and set up our equipment. This is what they called “Triangulation” so the Artillery Units would know the height of the mountains and distance to their targets. It had to be perfect or it could mean missing a target by a mile or so.” Several of Dad's friends from Korea, remained friends for life, Frenchie, Bill Borman (who one of my brothers were named after) and Harry Berth (who, along with his wife were my godparents).

In Memory
Pvt Rodney Forrest Graff, Pvt John J Jurmu, Pvt Robert G. Wight
(KIA 14 July 1953)

Honor Roll - WWII

The next people in my Honor Roll are all distant cousins, who deserve to be mentioned. It may seem a little odd, because two are American with German descendants (close family members) and the third is German, all three served honorably during WWII. You could call it my family's civil war.

Joseph Ahles – November 6, 1908 – Feb 15, 2011. Joe was inducted on October 7, 1942 for the duration of the war plus six months. At the time of his induction Joe was employed with J.P Seeburg; a manufacturer of jukeboxes. J.P. Seeburg promised Joe a job upon his return from his time in service. Joe's MOS (military occupational specialty) was forward observer and radio man, (his radio was mounted on a half-track). He was an expert with the light machine gun and a sharpshooter with his carbine. Joe was also the oldest member of his unit – the 7th Army 12th Armored Division 494th Field Artillery C Battery. The 7th Army was attached to Patton's 3rd Army and was an instrumental spearhead for Patton's march through France to the Rhine River. Joe earned the following citations: American Campaign Metal, European, African and Middle East Theater Campaign metal with three bronze stars (for Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and central Europe). He also received the World War II victory and Good Conduct metals.
This photograph that my Grandma had of Joe was taken in Aalen, Germany 1945. When Joe finished his tour in Germany and discharged from the army, J.P. Seeburg kept their promise and had a job waiting for him on his return.

Joesf Beck – March 15, 1922 – February 28, 2007
I learned of Joesf through my German cousin who found me just last year. I don't know a lot about Joesf yet, but this is what I've learned so far. This photograph was Joesf's military passport taken in 1941 when he first entered the military. The information I have on him came from my cousin's Grandma. Joesf entered the army at the age of 19. His stations were: Landsberg am Lech and Mittenwald (both in Germany) Then Russia, where he barely escaped the divisions, which were all killed. Joesf's wife talked about a kind of belt that closed and the ones in that belt all died. Then Joesf went to Greece, where he got malaria,and finally,many Eastern block countries, like Bulgaria and Serbia. While serving in Serbia during 1945, he was taken into captivity, and was not released until 1949, at the age of 27 years.

Bud (Jack Jr) Burger March 10, 1922 – September 1, 1981.
Bud was married June 22,1942 and inducted February 20, 1943 and was discharged in February 1946. Jack was in the dental corps during his time in the army. He spend his time in the service states side, his two stations were in Texas and at Fitzsimons Army Hospital, Aurora, Colorado; it was one of the Army's premier medical training centers and used very heavily during World War II to treat returning casualties. Bud didn't stay working in the dental field when he left the army, he went on to be a restauranteur in the Milwaukee area. Like a lot of veterans Bud didn't talk much about his time in the service.

HONOR ROLL

Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm Freiherr von Lützow

The first I heard of Ludwig was long time ago when I was talking to Grandma about genealogy. We were discussing her family, when she brought out manila envelope, in it was a term paper written in 1968 by a young man – Don Bridge. When Don researched his paper, he found my Grandma in his family tree. After completing his paper, he made a copy of it and sent to her with a nice letter saying he thought she would be interested in this story. I forgot about Don's term paper for many years until another person contacted me about the Luetzow family. Unfortunately she was just interested in being related to Ludwig and not about recording family history accurately.
This is Ludwig's story. Ludwig was born May 18, 1782 in Berlin, from the House of Mecklenburg. His father was also an officer in the Prussian Army. He entered military service in 1795, at the young age of 13. At 24 he was a lieutenant, but he didn't gain distinction until the siege of Kolberg. He retired the first time at the rank of major in 1808, angry over what he perceived to being a humiliating treaty of Tilsit. In 1811 he rejoined the Prussian army as a major, at the outbreak of the German War of Liberation. He received permission to organize a free corps which consisted of infantry, cavalry and Tirolese marksmen. These free corps, were known as the “Black Troopers” or “Black Riflemen”,because of the color of their uniforms. The free corps played a marked part in the campaign of 1813, but the wanderings of the corps had little military influence. While at Kitzen the corps were warned too late of the armistice of Poischwitz and the corps were all but annihilated. Lützow was wounded, and with his surviving men, he immediately reorganized and recruited new men. During the second part of the campaign the corps were more a part of the regular forces and distinguished themselves in several battles. Lützow is wounded again and is taken before Napoleon and is sent to France, on the way he escapes. His last campaign is in Denmark where he is wounded one more time. He retires in 1830 as a lieutenant-general. I have found no mention of a wife or children, his legacy has been in the way of warships named after him; including the SMS Lützow of WWI and the heavy cruiser of WWII. The 37th SS Volunteer Cavalry Division was also named after him.

Lützow's wild hunt

Veteran's Day

November 11th, Veterans Day, as most of us know started out as Armistice Day; a day dedicated to the cause of world peace and to honor WWI veterans. It wasn't until May 13, 1938, that it was amended to all veterans and renamed Veterans Day.
My family has a rich history in serving the armed forces of their lands, starting with an uncle in the Napoleonic wars and ending with desert storm. Not all of us served on foreign soil or in war, but a few of us did, and we all served honorably.
I started out writing about all of my relatives who have served in the armed forces, but it became too long to be fair to the veterans. So, I'm breaking it down into groups. The first two in my “Honor Roll” are Great Great Grandpa and Grandpa. Great grandpa, pictured to the left, volunteered and served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was a private. He was in the 45th Wisconsin Infantry, Company I, which was organized in Camp Randall, Madison on November 8, 1864. As companies of the 45th were organized, they were ordered to Nashville, Tennessee, where, they fought in the Battle of Nashville and served on garrison and guard duty there until July 1865. The regiment mustered out on July 17, 1865. It lost a total of 34 men during service, all from disease. Adam Gleitzmann mustered out in Tennessee and returned to his cooperage in Cedarburg,Wisconsin.
Pictured below is my Grandpa, a private in the US Army, served in World War I. He served from 28 May 1918 to 9 Feb 1919. I wish I knew if this photograph was taken here in the United States before he shipped over seas or if this was taken during his time in France. He didn't talk much about what he did there to any of us. He told two friends of mine that he that he was a general's driver, and told my cousins that his MOS was a truck driver. While serving in the army he severely broke his leg, it wasn't set well and never really healed. Grandpa never complained in front of us if it cause him any pain; because of this injury he drew a small disability pension from the army.

Fall Colors

I live in a state that has all four seasons. I'm asked from time to time which is my favorite season, I'm not sure if I have a favorite. Each season has something special to offer, but as I get older winter is the least appealing. Summer is nice because it's summer, green, warm and fun. Spring and Fall I think are the most interesting. Spring is the rebirth after the long cold winter, the dull and gray gives way to color and new life. Fall is the opposite of Spring. It's the ending of the growing season, shorter days and cooler nights, but it does have a lot in it's favor. It has brilliant colors, textures and a smell that you can't describe.

Every fall for as long as I can remember, my Grandma Beck would come and stay with us kids and my parents would go “Up North” with their two best friends from high school days and all through their lives – Nina and Bob. They would try and time these trips to get to the northwoods when color was at its peak. The four of them would sight see, hike, take photographs and just hang out. Bob was a professional photographer and would take most of the pictures, but Dad also took some of the photos. These are just a couple from their trip in 1971.

Arthur Charles Luetzow – b. 23 Dec 1876 d. 21 Apr 1912 . This doesn't really say much of my Great Grandpa. All references made about him state his name as Arthur not “Art” or “Artie”. He was the oldest child of Albert and Elizabeth (Meyer) Luetzow and the first generation born here in Wisconsin. He was my Grandma, Louise Luetzow Beck's, father. Grandma never spoke much of him, but I think it was more because she didn't really get a chance to know him. She was only 9 years old when he died of a massive heart attack at the young age of 35. The only things Grandma said about him was that he was a butcher in Cedarburg and that he didn't much speak to his father From this undated photograph this is what I know - it was right before the start of prohibition, maybe around 1910-11. Like I said I don't know much about Arthur Luetzow, I do know from the few photographs of him that he had a very kind face, although Grandma used to said that he was a stern father. This is one the few surviving photos of Arthur,and probably one of the more interesting ones. It makes you think, why a picture here on this day? Was it a special day, did someone just get a camera – a luxury item back than I'd think? Arthur is the gentleman in the white shirt, standing with the beer in his hand on the right hand side of the photo . Arthur's father Albert is also in it, but I don't know which man. Looking at their faces I think it's the gentleman in the foreground with the shot.

Jim "Muscles" Piekarski

I always knew my Dad like to golf, but I didn't really realized that it was a life's love. This is an undated photo, but from the newspaper clippings I found with it, I believe it was from 1948. Dad was about 16. When Dad was in Messemer High School, he and twelve other students formed the first Messemer golf club/team. There were several other newspaper clippings with this photo. Most of them were from when he was in high school. The reporters all referred to him as Jim “Muscles” Piekarski, because he was a long ball hitter - a power driver. One of the players in matches to keep your eye on. The only fault they mentioned was that he sometimes struggled with his putting. The clippings that he saved from the high school tournaments never listed him finishing lower then fourth place.
Now, looking back, I understand why my Dad, when I asked him to teach how to play, had me practice my swing for hours, before he'd take me to a course to play. Golf was more then a walk on the course, it was a challenge. It was playing the game the way it was suppose to be played. Unfortunately, we didn't get to play on the courses until I was an adult and he was a senior player. I would have liked to have played with him when he was a little younger and still had his full swing. Even as a senior, his drives were long and straight, rarely out of the fairways. His short game was good, but I think he felt his putting always needed work and it seemed liked he was always looking for the “perfect” putter.
So “Muscles” I'm sure you and Mom are playing golf as I write this, and that your playing a perfect round.

Grandpa Beck

This is one of my favorite photos of my Grandpa. On the back of this photo, Grandma wrote “John and his sunglasses – 1923 Cedarburg”. Grandpa didn't say much, but I thought he was one of the coolest Grandpa's ever. I “met” my grandpa when he was 69 yrs old. As I got a little older, I thought all grandpas were retired and didn't go to work. Like most families we got together over holidays, Thanksgiving at one grandparents home, Christmas at the others etc. Also like a lot of kids I'd spend sleepovers at grandma and grandpa's. When I was young and I visited Grandpa and Grandma, I just hung out and didn't do much at their home. If I did visited over Christmas break, grandpa would ask that I'd let him watch the bowl games. That's the only thing I remember him asking me to do. Other then that we just talked a little, but that was about it. After my family moved away, I started visiting them for a week every fall (it was a great way to miss the first week of school) . During the first few visits, Grandpa and I didn't do much together, we hung out in their living room, where he'd be playing solitaire or reading his bible and I'd be reading a book. Then during one visit, I over heard the two of them talking and grandma telling him he should do something with me. He didn't know what to do with me, so Grandma suggested taking me to the zoo. So he did. This became our time together and the best times for me. We'd go to the Milwaukee County Zoo early in the morning and spend the whole day there. We'd wander from animal group to animal group; of course always stopping by Samson's cage hoping to see him move and not just stare at you. Talking about nothing and just enjoying each others company. After taking the zoo train once, we decided that we only visit the zoo as long as Grandpa could walk and we could wander where we wanted. The last time we went was when he 94 and I was 25. From these trips to the zoo, we became friends, We'd talk about a lots of things, mostly about his love of flowers and gardening. He lived in apartments or flats in Milwaukee all of his life, so he never really had his own yard, but in Cedarburg by relatives he would help tend their gardens and grow gladiolus.

Father's Day

Father's Day is just a day away and it's the first one without him. Well not really last year was but that was just a blur because we had just lost him in May. Lost really isn't a term I like. He and other loved ones who have passed, aren't lost, I know where they are, they're in my heart, so they are not “lost”.
Anyway, back to my Dad. He was a typical dad from his time, went to work, got home late, did yard work on the weekends, and so on.
The things I remember best about him, were his love of pets, which is where I probably got it from, golf and fishing.
When we were younger, I didn't get to golf on a course with him, but he taught me how to grip the club and how to swing, so I practiced hoping I'd get to play with him. We didn't golf together until I was an adult and Mom had taken up the sport with him, and we'd play a couple times a year when they came to visit. He did take my oldest brother to the GMO(Greater Milwaukee Open) one year, my brother had a great time.
The times I remember best of all were the vacations with fishing. Dad taught all four of us how to fish, first with bamboo poles and then how to cast. There was one trip up to Canada, that's the picture, it's my brothers and my Dad after a day with a guide, Mom, my sister and me stayed back at the cabin and fished off the pier. Mostly the trips were up “North” to my grandparents cabin (his parents), where we fished from the wooden row boat. He'd motored us out to a spot, get us set-up remind us to watch what direction we were casting and fish. We catch mostly perch, sunfish and crappies with the occasional walleye or northern. Those were some of the best summers.
Happy Father's Day to all Dad's.

Grandma - Auntie Lou, Louise Luetzow Beck

I want to write about my Grandma, but didn't know how or where to start. So I asked the advice of a friend who is a writer, her advice was right. Those of you who know Grandma B., knew what a kind, gentle and truly wonderful person she was. She was born in 1903, the oldest of two children, she lived to be one hundred years old, but that doesn't really say who she was and why she made such an impact on my life. She was my best friend, always at my side, always in my corner, always letting know what I meant to her, never asking for anything in return. Grandma, didn't have a bad life, but it wasn't always easy either. She lost her father to a heart attack when he was only 35 and she was 12. She continued her education and helped her mother with the household and with her brother. She graduated from Milwaukee's trade school for young woman, she learned how to manage a household and learned the trade of millinery. Life went on and she married my Grandpa. Grandma, brought up to do what was right, brought her mother and brother into their home and her mother lived with them until her death (at 53) and her brother struck out on his own when he came an adult. Along with taking care of her immediate family she helped other family members, she found it in herself to help her brother-in-law with his children, when needed, and continued nurturing as “Auntie Lou” to Bud's children. I've been trying to think of a saying that Grandma used to use to inspire me, but I don't think she said any one thing. She used to “tsktsktsk” and kind of wag her finger at bad things. What I really took away from knowing my grandma, was honesty and gentleness. She really lived the saying “Treat others as you would want to be treated”

Walter

It all started with a photo from my cousin. It was labeled Walter Weber – 1912. So now I start thinking who is Walter, but I start looking at other photos he sent me and I forget about Walter. A couple of weeks later, while researching known relatives on Ancestry.com, I came across a census record where Walter is listed as a grandson living with one of my Great Grandmothers. I don't know a lot about Walter, he was born February 13, 1890, about a year before my Grandpa. In the next two census he was still living in Milwaukee, and had two totally different occupations, In 1910 Walter listed his occupation as a sheet metal worker, then in 1920 his occupation is listed as a druggist. This photo shows a young man reading or studying, if the date is correct he was about 22 years old. If you look closely at Walter, it appears he's wearing a wedding ring. Did he get married after the 1910 census? After 1920 I have not been able to find any information on him. Weber is a fairly common name, who did Walter come? Where did he live, did he stay in Milwaukee? Did he join a sister who moved to California?

Barbara Fleischmann Gleitzmann

My Great great Grandmother came to the United States from Bavaria sometime around 1853. She was about 12 when she arrived in New York with her widowed father and three brothers. I've been told that she passed the voyage by knitting long stockings and that other passengers were impressed by her dexterity for such a young girl. This past year I received a package of tablecloths and such from my Mom. Amongst the items in the package I found a pair of hand knitted stockings. From the other items with it I know these stockings are over one hundred years old, hmmmmm, could they be...
After living in the Grafton area for just a few years and eighteen years old, she meet and married Adam Gleitzmann also of Grafton, They married on November 27, 1859. They remained in Grafton for a short time before settling for good in Cedarburg. They enjoyed over sixty years of marriage and were blessed with nine children, seven of who survived to adulthood. Barbara and Adam were two of the oldest residents of Cedarburg. Her husband owned and ran the cooperage. The homestead still stands and is now a private home. Barbara was a friendly woman who would entertain people with her pioneer stories of traveling by oxen and Indians who passed through the village. When the first railroad was built in Cedarburg, Barbara boarded the employees. Then when her husband volunteered for service during the Civil War, Barbara showed what a strong woman she really was, while raising an infant son and her young brother, she not only boarded the employees of her husband's cooperage,but kept the business running and successful. She was remembered as a kindly and whole-souled women who was well respected by her peers and community. The only negative thing I have heard was a story from my Grandma. She told me a story of a feud between Barbara and one of her daughters. Grandma didn't have the complete story, just that one of the daughters got really mad at her mother and refused to talk to her until Barbara's death.
Barbara lived a long and interesting life and although I know a bit about her, I still have questions about her. The biggest questions I have are: Who was her mother? What was her life like in Bavaria? Why did her father feel the need to move his family to a new country? Did they have relatives in the Grafton area?

Connections

These may be unusual photographs to begin a story, but they have been a big part in putting new life back into the searching of my family roots . It began a while ago with two strangers finding out that they have a common relative through the website ancestry.com. They become genealogy pals compare notes and add members to their trees. My new relative, Phillip is involved with a project website. This project is called “Find a Grave.com”. Volunteers around the world go to cemeteries and photograph grave sites and add their photographs and information to the site. Phillip has been doing this for sometime now, and has put quite a few of our relatives online.
Recently a “new” relative from Bavaria, unknown to myself and to Phillip, came upon Find a Grave, and found my grandparents site. Curious, he emailed Phillip and asked if John Beck was his relative. Phillip replied, no, John Beck wasn't, but he knows one of John's relatives and gave Franz my email address. Franz, cautiously emailed me, not knowing how I would respond. It seems the stories he was told of our family were that of a father and a son not talking to each other, a father who did not acknowledge his son's existence. All I knew of our families was that Grandpa didn't mention his parents much and his father spoke German. In our first few emails exchanges, I found Franz to be a little cautious ; very polite and personable young man. He didn't want to be rude to me and over step his bounds, when asking questions about his American relatives, he never has. I eagerly look forward to his responses in order to learn more of my German family, I always look forward to hearing from him. Franz's reaching out has led me to get to know two more of my German relatives, one of his uncles and a cousin of his.
Franz's and the others emails have prompted me to go back to ancestry.com and renew my quest to find my roots and family history. Through these searches I've found three relatives – two new cousins and the reconnection with another.
Over a relatively short period of time, I feel that all of these people are friends and family, and that I am quite lucky to have them in my life.

Marie Obermeier Beck

This is my Great Grandmother, she had both a hard and interesting life. She was originally from Lipertshofen,Germany. Life started off hard for her and her mother. She was the illegitimate child of Wallburga Obermeier and Georg Nerb, which in the 1800's meant that you were an outcast. Her mother could not even have her baptized in her home village she had to travel to Ingolstadt in order to find a priest who would perform Marie's baptism.
The next part of her story has Marie grown up and working as a domestic or servant before knowing her future husband. This is when the stories get both interesting and fuzzy. Leonard gets into a serious physical fight and has to leave his village in fear of being incarcerated. My cousins and I remember stories from my grandpa saying that Leonard was disowned by his family because he was in love with a domestic and wanted to marry her. So was the fight Leonhardt was involved in because of Marie?
Was he fighting over his love of a woman who was both illegitimate and beneath his station in life? This question may never be solved, all but a couple of people who knew the answer are gone. After leaving Germany in order to start a new life, my great grandparents ended up in Milwaukee, where they raised their family of five children. My grandpa was the second child and the the oldest son. He didn't talk much of his mother to me, but he always talked about he love of flowers, especially lilacs, roses and gladiolus. I can't help but believe that this love came from his mother. One of the few surviving photos of her is the one above standing next to one of her lilacs, the others are from my Grandpa's wedding day and show her in a wheelchair. The last chapters of her life were painful. Her health took a turn for the worst when she and Leonhardt went back home to Germany around 1913, it seems that the entire Obermeier family had tuberculosis, my Great Grandmother included. This trip I've learned from my newly found German relatives brought out the disease and she was never truly healthy again after this trip. She also suffered from extreme rheumatism arthritis which had her in a wheelchair by the time my Grandpa married my grandma in 1923 . She finally succumbed to breast cancer and died in 1926 at the young age of 55.

Karebauer – The family farm

Karebauer is the nickname for my family's farm in the Village of Lippertshofen a suburb of Ingolstadt. With the help of a new found cousin, we know this picture was taken in 1913 when my Great Grandpa Leonhardt Beck traveled back to his homeland.
He left his home village around 1888. I would like to say that he left his homeland as a young man in search of a great adventure in a new country and a new life, but that isn't the story.
He did start a new life in the United States, in Wisconsin to be exact. His story to get here was not a happy one. The details are sketchy to say the least, Leonhardt got into serious trouble with the local law, which made his father angry. This is what caused him to leave his family farm. He then went and lived with another relative for some time and then left Bavaria to come to New York with his bride to be, Marie. They arrived in New York on October 18, 1888, they married the next day and moved to Milwaukee.
He went back to see his family and make amends with his father. This was the last time he went home. He did try to stay in contact with his family over the years, but the relationship with his father never healed.
My cousin and I believe that Leonhardt took the picture as he is missing from it.
I would have loved to say that these people are my relatives, but I can't, only three are, Mathias Beck, his oldest daughter Magdalena, and his wife Walburga. All of the others are local villagers, it was the early 1900's and visitors from America were rare. So there was a lot of excitement.
The farm is still in the family, and hasn't changed much over time. The building that my Great Grandfather Leonhardt Beck was born in is still part of the family farm and so is one of the barns. Buildings have been added to the farm, but it remains largely the same.

Uncle Ray's Photographs

Grandma wrote on the back of this photograph: “Ray's first photo - 1923”. Ray was my Grandma's only sibling and younger brother. While showing me this photograph, I could see Grandma remembering that day and time with her new husband. I believe the location for this picture is one of the parks in Cedarburg. She and Uncle Ray were raised in Cedarburg and then moved to Milwaukee with my Grandpa after they married. When My Grandpa and Uncle Ray didn't work, they would spend a lot of time in Cedarburg on the weekends, because Grandma and Grand Uncle Ray still had family there.

I think this second photograph was taken at my Great Grandmother's home.
This photograph was, also taken by Uncle Ray and, dated 1923, but Grandma had choose not to show it to me when we were going through the box of pictures. After finding it recently in one of the many boxes of photos, I'm curious as to why she choose not to share it. It obviously meant a lot to her because it is the only picture I've found that was laminated. Could it just have been her modesty of showing a racy photo of her and my Grandpa? I know from the dates of these two pictures that my uncle had taken photographs of the newlyweds. Those were different times then ours, public signs of affection amongst proper young people just didn't take place. Was my Grandma too embarrassed to show her granddaughter a photograph of her and my Grandpa kissing or or just an over site on her part? Those are questions I would have liked to ask her.

Beginings

“So, the whole genealogy thing...it's a complicated story.”
Ok, so, I borrowed this sentence from a friend who is also tracing her family. I hope she doesn't mind.
I guess my story starts with my Grandma. When I was little I would go and visit her for a week, it was always the best week of my year. This tradition went on well into my twenties. When I was young Grandma and I would go to the Milwaukee Museum and the Mitchell Park Domes. Most of the time we would walk to where we needed to go, but occasionally we would take the buses. This is where the curiosity begun. We'd ride past some of the cemeteries and Grandma would just mention “That's where my Grandma is, so is your uncle..”. I'd listen not really thinking about it, but filing it away. Grandma and I continued our tradition until she moved in with my uncle. Then it became too hard for her to get downtown. So instead of walking and seeing things, we talked. One time while talking she brought out a box of photographs. This is where the quest to get to know my family actually started.