"If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small." Proverbs 24:10 Above: Michigan death certificates for stillborn babies usually had a vertical line drawn down the middle. Below: This three-year-old Ludington girl died of typhoid fever in 1910. The family lived less than a mile from the Johnson home on East Melendy …
First, I’m starting to think there never was a Frank. Second, I’m getting irritated at the census taker who either: A) Wrote the name “Frank” on the 1920 census when he never existed, or B) Wrote the name of a kid named Frank who did exist but wasn’t John Alfred and Madge’s son. In the …
"My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother." Proverbs 6:20 March 21, 1954 I'm sure everyone remembers phrases their parents "always said". Later in life, we can "hear" them in our minds, and often we hear our own voices saying the exact same things, to our children or grandchildren, …
Wait, is that even possible? I guess it's all a matter of what you consider "too long". But I have discovered that spending too much time on Ancestry in one sitting can get just a bit frustrating. I may be able to speak for most people of Scandinavian descent when I say this: "Everybody in …
Continue reading You’ve Been on “Ancestry” Too Long When . . .
There was a time when the students at Augustana College, in Rock Island, Illinois, were living the typical 1917 college life. As a seminary student, my grandfather, Emil Johnson, was highly involved in the college experience. In this photo of the Augustana football team, Emil is in the front row, second from right. Sports and …
Christmas on the Western Front If you've read "(Not) Home for Christmas, Part 1", you've seen this photo, and you also know how Emil and the Augustana bandsmen had spent Christmas of 1917. Christmas, 1918 found Emil "billeted" with the Bougnot family in Doulaincourt, Hte Marne, with Theo Lenz as a roommate. The Armistice had …
Newspapers From the Past, Part 2 This is Stengrim and Charlotte Detlie, in a photo I can only guess is from the 1920s. You've seen their wedding photo in "Daddy and Some Babies" and "The Rest is History". Charlotte was my Grandma Edla Johnson's mother, and Stengrim was her stepfather. Edla's father Nels Nelson was …
So I decided to search "Christmas in Doulaincourt 1918"... At first I was excited to see the name Theodore Lenz in the first result that came up. Hey! Somebody else wrote about Theodore Lenz? This is too cool, I thought. I'm going to learn something more about one of Grandpa Johnson's army buddies. I was …
Grandpa's Book, Part 2 You may remember that at the end of "The Forgotten Bandsmen", I said there were interesting stories about quite a few members of the Augustana Band/123rd Field Artillery. Some of the stories are kind of humorous, like the one about draftee Frank Vasco, who refused to be told when to use …
"Grandpa's Book" Part 1 Most people in my family know that our grandfather, Emil Johnson, was a band corporal during World War 1, and that based on his letters, he was a prolific writer. Perhaps as a result of having been a reporter for the Ludington Daily News as a young man, he most often …
Nana's Whimsical World 