Memory Monday 3

If you were here last Monday, I introduced you to myself Mary, my Aunt Mary, my Great Grandmother Mary, plus an Anne and two Sarahs. This week we are looking back at my paternal grandmothers. 

My dad's paternal family came here from Germany in 1870, his maternal family came here from Germany in the 1850's.  Both sides settled in the county to the west of us. More "stayers".  

My grandfather's family has kept up with the relatives in this country and in Germany to this day and actually has organized the family as a 501c3. Under that they have incorporated the family home, which is now a bed and breakfast, and the little church across the street which is used for family weddings. There is a reunion every summer, a quarterly newsletter, every other year there is a trip to Germany, the off year German relatives come here.  The family history has been published as a two volume set.  I am not joking.  

However my grandfather's father died when he was an infant and he was raised by his maternal grandmother. He never had any family photos of his dad's side of the family and was not active with the cousins, etc.  

My grandmother was part of a big farm family on the far side of the other county. When I joined ancestry I found that the big extended family all took DNA tests and there are very detailed family trees for everyone.  

Here are the photos, lol. 

This is my grandmother Mary (yes, another Mary) posing with my father. He was over a decade younger than his brothers who were in business with his dad. He was very close to his mother.  She passed away the year I was born. 

Here is another photo of my grandmother which was unmarked. 

This is great grandfather's mother who came here from Germany and her name is Johannette Katrina Christiana but was sometimes called . . . Mary! 

My grandfather's mother was widowed when he was 18 months old.  She and her father both died in the influenza epidemic and he was raised by his maternal grandmother Isabell.  Here is a family photo after his father's death, my great-great grandparents Isabell, and Jacob, my grandfather and my great grandmother Maud. Isabell's Mennonite family came to Ohio from Pennsylvania. 

And here is the only photo I have of my great grandmother Mary, mother of my paternal grandmother Mary.  I texted a member of the family who had done all the DNA testing to see if anyone had a photo (because photos are my favorite) and this was the only one they shared. 

This Mary's mother was Amelia Mary and her husband's mother was Maria, which counts as another Mary to me, lol. 

I don't have many photos from my dad's side of the family, but I will end with a funny one that I have shared before. It's my paternal grandfather with his two wives. 

His brother in-law Charles is on the left, my grandfather, my grandmother Mary and Charles's wife Helen on the right.  Charles died of cancer about two years before Mary died of a heart condition and about two years after that my widowed grandfather married his widowed sister in-law Helen.