The Ties That Bind - Nominated in Family Tree Magazine for Top 40 Genealogy Blogs

Family Tree Magazine is running a contest for the top 40 Best Genealogy Blogs in 10 different categories. There are over 130 bloggers competing in the competition and they are all outstanding and well worth reading. Footnote Maven has done a wonderful job outlining all

the blogs and categories in the competition on her blog, so if you aren't familiar with all the nominated blogs, you'll find a very helpful list of all the nominees and links to them at footnoteMaven's blog.

I am honored to be one of the nominees in the "Personal/Family" category 10. To be nominated with so many fabulous writers is more than I could have ever hoped for when I began my blog last December! Thank you to all my readers for this honor - I'm on cloud nine!

You can vote as often as you like here and you'll notice that you can vote for more than one choice in eight out of the ten categories.

Saturday Night Fun with Randy - Favorite Music

"It's Saturday Night - time for some Genealogy, and Family History, Fun!Here is your assignment for the evening - if you wish to participate in the Fun (cue the Mission Impossible music):1. What is your all-time favorite song? Yep, number 1. It's hard to choose sometimes. If you made your favorite all-time Top 40 music selections, what would be #1?2. Tell us about it. Why is it a favorite? Do you have special memories attached to this song? 3. Write your own blog post about it, or make a comment on this post or on the Facebook entry." Here's mine:

Well Randy has come up with another idea to tax our brains! It's very difficult to pick my number one song of all time. There are so many categories that my favorites fall into - but this evening I choose one that brings back happy times from my childhood. Johnny Horton's - The Battle of New Orleans. I had a small turntable that was in a box much like a suitcase. I don't know what ever happened to it. I'm actually surprised that I don't still have it! ha ha - I was a silly little 7 year old when the song first came out in 1959. My girlfriends and I would sit on the stoop and play our 45 records all afternoon. Maybe some of you don't remember 45's? We must have played that recording a gazillion times. We thought it was so so funny when Johnny would sing - "we grabbed and alligator and powdered his behind" - of course at 7 we thought that meant they spanked the gator. I still have that old 45 - those were the days my friend - those were the days.

You can listen to the song by clicking on this link to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxB42cjHTGg&feature=related

"Searching - The Habben/Ufkes Families"

The publisher has made all 320 pages of my family history book titled "Searching - The Habben/Ufkes Families" available for viewing. I hope you'll take a moment to glance at all the beautiful photographs of my ancestors from the 1800 and early 1900's. Just click on the "Searching" preview badge to the right on this page.

If you are wanting someone to put your family history and photo's into a quality bound book keep me in mind.

You Can't Get Rid of That - Continued

I also brought home a small box filled with goodies. Most of the things in the box were just little mementos of vacations that my folks had taken. A couple itineraries and hotel confirmations from the 1980s and'90's, and some post cards they picked up on their travels. But, there were also several old old pairs of glasses. Mom had always planned to make a shadow box to display the glasses. But, like all of us, there always are so many projects that we want to do that we just can't get them all done. (Maybe I'll have to do that now.) I thought of Footnote Maven when I was looking at the glasses as I know how much she loves the “ladies in glasses”.

One of the pairs was in a little wooden shipping box. The wires for the ear piece is so thin it's amazing that they lasted. The glasses were packed in tissue paper in the box and as I removed the paper here was an envelope marked Riggs Optical Company, Manufacturer's Jobbers Importers. Apparently the glasses had originally been shipped to a Dr. N. T. Johnston in Upland, Nebraska for my Great Grandmother. I tried to do a little research on both Dr. Johnston and the Riggs Optical Company but haven't found anything so far. Another pair is in, what I thought was a stiff cardboard or plastic type tube case. But, when my Hubby was examining it he seemed to think the case was made from dried leather. The third pair of glasses has round lenses and the frames appear to be made of sirocco.

There was my great grandpa's money purse – and yes I checked it to see if maybe my Great Grandpa had left any money in it – and there was! Don't get excited, it was just a penny – but the date on it was 1919. I'm not sure but it looks like this penny might fetch as much as 14 cents. It only took 90 years for it to be worth 14 times what it was when it was minted.
There was a small little envelope and in it was something only a Mother would keep. A note from me to her written when I was about 7 years old.

Oh dear, what drama!

And lastly a box filled with my Dad's Air Force uniform ribbons and pins. My Dad retired from the Air Force in 1962 with 21 years of service. I can still visualize his dress uniform with all the ribbons on it and the “U.S.” pins on the lapels. A little blue box held his World War 2 Victory Medal which I had never seen before. Oh dear, where did all those years go?

I brought home a lot of things that I probably didn't need and a few things that are part of my heritage. Someday, when my stepdaughters are cleaning out all the things I no longer need, I'm sure they will wonder, why in the world I've kept so many things. But, I'll bet they will haul them all home to their houses the same as me – and they will say – You can't get rid of that! – I'll take it home with me.............

You Can't Get Rid of That! I'll just take it home with me.

Last year my folks decided it was time to downsize. So the process began – and I do mean process! During the course of sixty-seven years of marriage you are bound to have quiet a collection of things. And believe me when I tell you my folks had a lot. The storage room shelves were filled with gadgets – some given by us kids at Christmas time as the latest and greatest new thing. Great if you can figure out how to use it! Ha ha! There was an array of cookware used only during the holiday – after all how often does one use a casserole bowl big enough for a 20 pound turkey or a salad bowl big enough to hold 6 heads of lettuce? But, when you need it, that stuff comes in real handy. Then there was the shelves filled with beautiful Christmas decorations and craft supplies. Oh my – what to keep? What to surrender?

Then there was my Dad's office where every drawer was filled with supplies. I'm telling you – enough to open his own office supply store. Boxes and boxes of pencils of all types, index cards and paper clips – oh my. I won't even try to tell you about his supply of tools – but does anyone need an electrical current detector manufactured somewhere around 1940?

Upstairs there were blankets and linens galore. Towels that I remember using when I lived at home 40 years ago – but, really still in good condition. Did I mention that my Mom is meticulous? I think it comes from being raised during the depression when what you had was so hard to come by – so it was treated very carefully. If something had a small tear it was repaired before it was ruined completely. Because you may not be able to get another.

Well Mom spent literally months sorting things. The things she wanted to keep were packed and the things that she intended to get rid of were sorted into various piles. Craft supplies to the Church, and some for friends that could use them in one pile. Blankets, towels and cookware to be donated to charity in another pile.

As the move to their new town home grew closer I started going over to help her pack. And that's when it happened. One look at the “get rid of piles” and my attitude of - “You can't get rid of that – I'll just take it home” kicked in. It all went kind of like this:

“Mom – you can't get rid of that pan! After all it's the pan you've made our traditional Christmas cookies in for the last 50 some years”. Oh I can just taste them now – a delectable maraschino cherry cookie bar with coconut – I'm telling you – just to die for. I remember my brother would find the jar of maraschino cherries in the fridge and scarf them all down, so she would have to hide them. The cookies are one of those things that unless you have them at Christmas time – well, it's just not Christmas! She kept the pan.

Then there were the blankets. “Mom – some of these blankets are brand new – and aren't those over there ones that are hand made?” And she would answer - “Yes, Terri, but I don't need them and I have no use for them.” To which I would respond - “Well we can't get rid of those – I'll just take them home with me. After all some of the hand made quilts have pieces of our pajamas in them – you know the ones – flannel with cowboys or ballerina's on them. Not only that but they were made by my Grandma – that makes it a heirloom. Towels? - Oh don't get rid

of all of those old towels – we can always use those when we wash the car. I'll just take those home with me. That big pile of throw rugs – well I could use some rugs – I'll just take those home with me. The boxes of mechanical pencils and other office supplies – Yep you guessed it – I took those home too!

Do you see the pattern that is emerging here? Every time I would bring another load of things home, my understanding hubby, would just shake his head and ask - “Now where are you going to put that? I really hadn't thought that far. My own store room is already bursting at the seams with stuff. There are boxes in there that I don't even remember having – but there's always the possibility that I will want to use again. Right? Come on, agree with me! Right? In 20 years or so the grand-kids will probably need it for their first place. Well – maybe?!

I also brought home a box full of special............

To be continued...

Saturday Night Fun with Randy - Trading Cards

It's Saturday Night - time for some Genealogy Fun! Each week, a number of devoted Genea-Musings readers accept a Mission Possible - if they choose to. We have had over 60 entries some weeks!For this weeks challenge, please go read Sheri Fenley's blog (The Educated Genealogist) post Trading Cards, Get Your Trading Cards and then:1) Make your own Trading Card(s) on http://bighugelabs.com/deck.php . It's easy to do, but you need a head shot photo of your subject.2) Post your Trading Card on your web site, your blog, or on your Facebook account (or some other account where you can upload a JPG file). 3) Can you think of other uses for these trading cards?

This was great fun!

Traditional Irish Blessing - E-Water

Traditional Irish Blessing - E-Water

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Willow Valley

Traveling on a gravel road always gives me a sense of home. I think the feeling comes from my youth when the sound of the gravel hitting the underside of the car meant we were close to Grandma's house. On a recent visit to Minnesota my husband and I traveled down a similar road to visit the graves of his grandparents, Victor and Lizzie Paavola. Just a short distance from the intersection of Township Highway and the old Chisholm Road in Willow Valley is where you will find The Willow Valley Cemetery. Nestled in the woods it's a quiet and peaceful place. There are no large statues or marble monuments, just the simple headstones of those that rest there.


As we walked towards Victor and Lizzie's graves I noticed some very unusual mushrooms. Living in a dry climate we only see your basic brown or beige colored variety. These mushrooms reminded me of something you would see in a fairy tale. In fact, when we got home and I downloaded my photo's something totally unexpected appeared. There under a mushroom, that reminded me of an umbrella, was an angel praying.

(OK – I know you don't believe me – and yes I did manipulate the photo.)

Victor, who was born in 1877, emigrated to the US from Finland with his wife, Lizzie. They raised 11 children in a two room house in the back woods of Willow Valley. They never had electricity running water or indoor plumbing. What a challenge it must have been to clear out the timber that was so thick you could barely swing and ax without hitting another tree. Not to mention dealing with bugs so thick you couldn't help but breath them in. And winters of 40º below 0 with only the wood you chopped to keep your babies warm. It certainly makes you wonder what on earth would make them want to live in such wilderness. But, they owned their land and like most immigrants that was everything to them. During the depression Victor went to work for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) digging ditches along the roads . Sleeping in the ditches at night in the damp and cold ended up crippling him to where he had to use two canes to get around. Neither of them ever learned English, but, living in a Finish community they never really had to. Victor and Lizzie had 40 grandchildren and they called them “gimpy-fadde” (crippled old man) and MuMu (old lady). Of their 11 children 5 were boys. All of their sons enlisted in the service and fought in the European theater during WWII. All five sons returned home safe and unharmed.

Returning Mid-August

The Ties That Bind blog will be returning mid-August. I miss all my geneablogger friends and hope that you will again join me as I share my adventures. I will have some surprising and exciting up-dates to share with you when I return.

Happy 4th of July!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!

"We hold these truths to be self- evident,

that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator

with certain unalienable Rights,

that among these are

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Can you imagine the excitement in the air on July 8, 1776, when our newly formed country celebrated the signing of the "Declaration of Independence", on July 4, 1776?! It really must have been something to witness! The church bells all over town were ringing, canons and guns were being fired into the air, people were singing and hugging in the streets. But, it wouldn't be until 1783 that Great Britain would recognized the United States as an independent nation. The Revolutionary War lasted 8 long years (1775-1783). The American military death toll was around 25,000 men, with an additional estimated 25,000 men that had been wounded or seriously injured.

So please, when your eating your hot dog and shooting off your fireworks - take a moment to remember those who fought for your Independence and the freedom that we enjoy today. And all those who have fought since.

Celebrate Freedom!

Early 1900's - July 4th Celebration - Hildreth, Nebraska.

The car pictured here belonged to my great grandfather, Rolf Habben, and was decorated for the fourth of July parade. I'm sure his daughters played a big part in all the decorations - I don't think they missed a spot to decorate! It must have been a great day, with everyone gathering in town. If you look in the background of the photograph you can see the big tent and picnic tables. I'm sure all the wives were busy cooking that day.

(photograph is privately held - do not copy without permission)