52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 3 Prompt - Organization

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 3

Prompt - Organization

The past several months  I have done very little research for my genealogy.  I have information and I need to get it organized so that I have it together in one place. I have a software program called Legacy. This program has all the bells and whistles that most genealogists could want for their family trees.  The only problem it has, is that it does not input itself!

Late last fall I started with myself and worked down, sideways and up my family tree.  Does that make sense?  The facts such as birth, christening, marriage, death and burial are the easy part.  What has become a mammoth task, has been putting in events for each individual.  An event is that thing that can put a person in a time and place.   For example, lets take The Canada Census which is available on line up to 1930 and in the United States up to 1940.   The 1921 census for Bill's grandfather, Arthur Jahnke, was enumerated on 21 Jun 1921.  At that specific time I am able to say that Arthur is a 27 year old male who was born in the USA around 1894.  He is married to Ida.  Arthur's mother and father were both born in Germany.  He immigrated to Canada about 1904 (actually it was 1903).  He resides in The Saltcoats area of Saskatchewan and to be specific;

Section Number 10

Township Number 21

Range Number 7

Meridian Number 2W

His occupation is farmer.  He owns his own land.   His household members include himself, wife, Ida and two year old Elsie Jahnke.  They are Lutheran.  Arthur can speak English but not French.

Thus from that one census I have events to include such as residence, occupation, religion etc.  I also remember that the census could be very unreliable for its information.   The enumerator often just guessed at the name as he heard it through heavily accented voice.  The person who gives the information may not be a reliable informant.

I have 70 plus events entered for Arthur Jahnke.  They span his entire life time.  They include things like the censuses, voters lists, confirmation, baptismal certificates, border crossings, school entries, gun registration, WWII registration cards etc. 

 Above is a partial page that shows me the events that I have for him.  The next step is to click on the individual event.  It brings up the next screen where I add a short sentence about the event. The reason for this step is that when I make up the individual reports for him, the events are in bullet form and readable for the report. 

 

All events should show it's source.   In Legacy I am able to enter it by following its templates for different types of sources.  All events have been individually entered into the source writer as above. 

Further I try to include a scanned copy of that source. Things like the actual census page or a marriage certificate.

It is at this point that I share the events with his family.  The census above was shared with his wife and daughter, Elsie creating an event in each of their pages.  By sharing the event I do not have to rewrite the event, source and photograph on their page.

It is seemingly complicated.  I have spent many months figuring Legacy out.  Well actually I have had it for several years but it has just been the past several months that I have added my information into some kind of organized chaos.

I started inputting entries with myself, then my siblings and parents,then my husband, his mother and father and now his maternal grandparents.   With each addition of a person or an expansion of a generation, the events become more intricate and it gets very convoluted to start sharing the events down, up and across the tree.  Also along the way I have discovered better ways to write the sentences or I change my mind on how to write a source for the information causing me to go back and rework the individuals and those who have shared the event that I have already worked on.  Round and round I go trying to get the information together.

I spend 4 to 6 hours each day on my laptop working on this genealogy.  And most of the time I find it enjoyable and rewarding.

I do this because I eventually want it to be a readable piece of family history and information for everyone to have.  Legacy is making that possible.

Here are a few examples of the reports I have produced for Arthur Jahnke.

 Page 1 of a 7 page Chronology Report. 

 

This is page 5 of a 20 page Individual Report for Arthur Jahnke.

 

This is how I try to organize the information that I have.  Legacy does the cute reports once I input the information.

 

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 2 Prompt - Favourite Photo

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 2

Prompt – Favourite Photo

My father, Jacob (Jake) Peters died on September 22, 1983.  He was 66 years old.  He died in his home (as was his wish) of Pancreatic Cancer with Liver metastasis.

My mother and father went on a Hawaiian trip in February of that year.  If my memory serves me, I believe that they came home early because dad was unwell.  None the less he went to the doctor and by March 17^th had exploratory surgery.  The surgeons found cancer that had gone beyond the ability to treat it in any way surgically.  I remember that it was March 17^th because when my mom called to tell me about the outcome of dad's surgery, she said; “the luck of the Irish has run out because dad has inoperable cancer.”  He died 6 months later.

The family came together and we buried dad on Monday, September 26, 1983 in Woodlawn Cemetery in Saskatoon.  All my brothers and sister and their spouses were present.  Our children were present. However some did not attend grandpa's funeral because of their age.  After a very long and sad day we gathered that evening at my brother and sister in law's home.  Somehow we managed to gather up our rather rambunctious children in an attempt to photograph them.

The first attempt was less than successful.  Did I mention that they were full of energy?

       Grandpa Jake Peters' 13 Grandchildren.  September 26, 1983.

Back Row: Gregory Peters is sitting on Glenn Olajos lap.  Scott Lutz, Murray Cuthbertson, Joelle Peters

Front Row: Jill Hoffart, Sandy Lutz, Cathy Olajos is holding Matthew Cuthbertson, Sarah Lutz, Sue Lutz is holding Jackie Hoffart and Benjamin Peters.

Jake Peters' obituary stated he had 13 grandchildren. These are his grandchildren as photographed on the day of his funeral.  Their ages ranged from 4 months to 19 years old.

These children are his legacy.

JAKE PETERS - 1982

 

God Bless.

Wendy

P.S. There was 3 more grandchildren born after he died; Trent Peters and Lynn and Michael Cuthbertson.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 1 Prompt - Beginnings

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

2021

Week 1

Prompt – Beginnings

There are those points in our lives where we can look back and say that is how it all began. In the case of my genealogy, I have to say that working on the family tree happened through a series of beginnings.

In my tween or teen years while visiting my grandmother McLaughlin, I admired the black and white photograph on her dresser. As it turns out it was her parents – Andreas and Maria Krikau. She told me they were born in Russia. And further she was also born in Russia. It amazed me.

The next incident happened when Bill and I were sitting in Pastor Guebert's office (a week before our wedding) filling out our marriage certificate. The pastor asked me what my mother's maiden name was. I was stumped by the question. The pastor was incredulous. Where was she born and at that time I wasn't sure. Hmm! This was a legal document and I wanted to get it right. I knew for sure she had not taken the name of her mother's second husband - McLaughlin despite everyone thinking that she was legally a McLaughlin. At that point I wasn't even sure whether her biological father was a Sullivan or O'Sullivan. It was complicated.

In January of 2006, I got together with some of my siblings and I started asking them pointed questions about our family. One weekend was hardly enough time but then I just needed to know what we all knew about some very easy facts.

It started with what was our mother's full name. I was recording their answers and no surprise we got Lydia Vivian (she went by her second name and we all knew that) and then stumbled on her last name. I was interested in her “legal” name. There was a consensus that she was not adopted by grandma's second husband, simply because my mother despised her step father. We decided it had to be Sullivan. But I wanted to set out and find out for sure. That was the hook.

From these seemingly little incidents, my passion and love of my family tree began.

Wendy

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 52 Prompt - Resolutions

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 52

Prompt – Resolution

Easy to make, but hard to keep! However in genealogy I will look at it as goals that I wish / want to achieve.

1. Learn more about DNA in genealogy. I have done the DNA tests and I have it on my Ancestry web site, but I have largely ignored it. I will start by using the ancestry webinars that are provided. I also have a book, The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy, that was given to me last Christmas. Time to start reading it.

2. Learn more about Robert Sullivan, my maternal grandfather. This past year through newspaper.com I located a small article regarding his trial for bigamy. So the family folk lore was true. This year; I want to find out how to get his records from Stony Mountain Penitentiary. Further I would like to know if the death certificate information I found for a Robert Wentworth Sullivan of Chilliwack, British Columbia is my maternal grandfather. The last Saskatoon Henderson entry I found for him was in 1936. If the death certificate is the right person, it states he had been in B.C. For 10 years before dying in 1952. Where was he between 1936 – 1942? How do I bridge that gap?

3. The program that I use to put together my genealogy is called Legacy. I am working on getting this filled in and detailed with the information I have on hand. There are gaps. Maybe it is time to send out to those individuals a global research letter asking for any further information that they can share.

4. My weekly blog. To be honest I am on the fence about continuing my writings. My writings do allow me to reflect on the information I have and whether it makes sense. Also it is a way of taking my information from my laptop and putting it out there for family and friends to see. After all what is genealogy if it is not shared?

5. I would love to repair and preserve the 100 plus year old documents of my grandmother. They are rolled up into the cardboard tubes. The paper is brittle and I fear they will fall apart very soon. I will have to consult an archivist.

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 51 Prompt - Winter

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 51

Prompt – Winter

Among the photos of Bill's Grandfather and Grandmother Jahnke are several black and white photographs of what appears to be taken in the aftermath of a significant snowstorm. In fact, Arthur Jahnke mentioned in his oral history that the snowstorm of 1947 was the worst Saskatchewan ever had.

I searched the Saskatchewan newspapers of the time and there on January 14, 1947 on the front page, the headline “Storm Plugs Saskatchewan Roads.

Saskatchewan is no stranger to cold, snowy and blizzard like weather. This particular storm was epic. It begun mid January, 1947 and was an intense 10 day blizzard in the middle of an early and stormy winter already going on.

 

 

 Fido seems perturbed about the snow around his dog house.  

Below is Clara Jahnke standing in front of their smoke house.

 

 

On Dec 15 2014, 67 years after the event, Jackie Campbell wrote this about the 1947 prairie storm:

 

“On January 15, 1947, the front page of the Regina Leader-Post read: “Province Just One Big Snowdrift,” with a story that detailed continuous blizzards, buried trains, and even towns from Winnipeg to Calgary. The snow started in December and hardly ceased, with blizzards that kept hitting every couple of days. On February 3, Regina set a North American record when temperatures reached negative 60 degrees Celsius. All highways in and out of the capital were blocked for 10 days, supplies in and out slowed, and people reportedly began traveling from their house to their shed via snow tunnel. Some rural roads and railways in Saskatchewan remained closed until spring.”

Apparently farmers had to cut holes in the roofs of their barns to feed the cattle and to get in and out to milk them. Food and coal supplies were scarce because no one was moving in the plugged up roads and railways. Cities closed down to ration the already scarce commodity of coal. Even the power plants rationed their power to conserve their supply.

In the Jan 15^th 1947 Leader-Post this was part of the article telling of their winter woes:

 

Archival photos of the aftermath of the winter storm of 1947.

I am writing this on a wintery day. 20 to 40 cms. of snow fell on Calgary overnight and into this morning.  Neighbors have been helping neighbors dig out from the blanket of snow. That is what people do on the prairies!

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 50 Prompt - Witness To History

 52 Ancestors to 52 Weeks

Week 50

Prompt – Witness To History

Reflections on COVID-19 in 2020.

I have always shown an interest in pandemics. In 2001, Gina Kolata wrote a book called; Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and The Search For The Virus That Caused It. She wrote a story of the great lengths that were taken to find the virus that caused the 1918 Pandemic which killed more people than both World Wars together. By the end of writing her book they still had not discovered the pathogen of The 1918 Pandemic. However in 2005 that they were able to discover that it was an H1N1 Virus.

Although there is no reason to believe pandemics happen every 100 years, we have heard rumblings of being prepared for the next pandemic because it was 100 years since the last mother of all pandemics occurred. In fact I believe that 1957, 1968 and the H1N1 of 2009 were all considered pandemics. None the less, exactly 100 years later the pandemic starts when a patient in Wuhan reports symptoms of a pneumonia like illness in December, 2019. This individual would be considered Patient Zero. By Dec 19; four cases were reported in an Hubei hospital as "pneumonia like illnesses of unknown etiology.” Sometime in February it was named Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID 19).

 Although the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that it had pandemic potential in mid February; it wasn't until March 11^th that COVID was announced as a pandemic. Astonishingly that is 3 months after Patient Zero. The wheels of bureaucracy seemed to move ever so slowly even though the disease did not. By this time close to 1000 people succumbed to COVID and Europe was becoming the epicenter of the pandemic.

On 13 March 2020, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director of World Health Organization initiates a campaign urging everyone to wash their hands regularly for 40 seconds to keep themselves safe and prevent the transmission of disease. Droplet spread became the way of transmission and mask were advised but not mandated at that time. It was determined that fomites, such as door knobs and counters could harbor the virus. Thus began the run and virtual disappearance of hand sanitizers and Lysol like wipes. But let us not forget of the first hoarding incident before hand sanitizers and wipes; the toilet paper hoarding for god knows what reason. I think it is the most iconic symbol of the 2020 Pandemic.

 

 

Also in the beginning their was also a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). We scrambled for face masks and gowns to protect our overworked nurses and doctors.

March 18^th, Canada went into lockdown. It was an emergency measure to keep people inside their own home mandated by government. Canada shut down its businesses, schools, public spaces, restricted travel, closed its borders, cancelled sports and concerts. The world went quiet. Only essential businesses stayed open such as gas stations, some stores and grocery stores. The gas prices dropped but then none of us had to fill up our cars because we were staying home.

This was the beginning of many videos, advertisements, posters of what we could do to stay safe. At times it was contradictory and confusing. We quickly learned that COVID 19 instructions were changing as we learned more about its transmission mode such as droplet transmission, Its incubation time – the length of time from getting the virus to symptoms – which is anywhere from 2 to 14 days depending on who you read.

Hand hygiene, self-isolation, elbow bumps and social distancing (which changed to physical distancing) were coined early in the pandemic as new words brought about by the Pandemic. We handled physical distancing by painting lines at entrance ways to buildings and marking lines distanced 2 meters apart on floors. Also some stores took this one step further by painting directional arrows in the aisles turning them into one way aisles. But did anyone really see them? 

Then there was "Flattening The Curve" which was the Holy Grail. We were asked to increase our vigilance in hopes of holding the virus at bay. We knew we couldn't stop it, but if we could decrease the number of cases per day and spread the number of infections over a longer period; we could give the medical system a chance to keep up. Essentially allow the medical staff and hospitals to work within capacity and not over.

We self monitored ourselves for any symptoms of COVID 19. We didn't want to be the person referred to as a superspreader. The occurrence of symptoms or close contact to those diagnosed with COVID meant we would be tested. Of course that meant long line ups at COVID testing sites. Besides the fact that there was a shortage of tests around the world, it resolved itself and testing continued. Now we were doing drive by testing. Who knew how efficient drive through testing could be. I still marvel at the fact that they can test 20,000 people in a day in Alberta. I can't conceive of how that is accomplished. Waiting for the results varied and because symptomatic and close contact individuals were to self isolate, most had to stay at home losing their wages.

The financial impact was immediate. Unemployment was a big thing. Government of Canada seemed to make daily announcements of financial bailouts and relief strategies regarding rent, loans and businesses. As would be expected the financial world responded with falling stocks etc. Not only were the people worried about getting COVID, but now they had to figure out how to pay the rent or mortgages, pay the bills and eat.

The Canadian Government introduced CERB or Canadian Emergency Response Benefit. It was for those individuals whose finances were affected by the pandemic. There were so many programs that I lost track. All I could think about was how are we ever going to pay back all of this.

The first wave petered out as spring turned to summer. It didn't go away but it was in a state of the flattened curve. We were introduced to the concept of bubbles, that is increasing your circle of close contacts. Visiting my in city family became easier.  Happily we could do a backyard get-together and of course physically distancing making the social gathering a thing to be savored and enjoyed as if we never got together before. My niece and her husband hosted many a weekend evening in their backyard around the fire pit. I liked to call the gatherings our fireside chats. Thank you Cathy and Darren. It will be an awesome memory of the COVID summer of 2020.

        August 28, 2020 - Backyard Fireside Chats!

Summer gave way to back to school and work. More people were indoors but supposedly with physical distancing. The second wave hit us like a tsunami. The government tried not to cause financial hardship to businesses by gradually adding restrictions to try to flatten the curve. At this point, the protesting Covidiots came out of the woodwork demanding the restrictions be lifted. I can't even deal with them without getting mad!

Gradual shutdown didn't work. In December our provincial closed schools for grade 7 to 12 and kids returned to on line schooling. It is my opinion that the cutoff at Grade 7 began because most were 12 years of age and legally allowed to stay home without adult supervision. Thus it did not cause any disruptions to their parents who continued to work without scrambling to find daycare. If employees could work from home (WFH) they were advised to do so. Restaurants, bars, gyms, spas and hair salons were shut down once again. Churches and Retail stores were not shutdown, but their customer numbers were restricted to 15% of their fire code number allowed. Our gatherings were restricted to the household only. All this and more was to go on for one month. 

 

Christmas is cancelled. No not really, but restricted to our own households. It will be a different Christmas celebration for many people. But then since March, what has been the same?

Return to normal is really not expected; but a new normal is.

At the time of this writing, Calgary has seen it's first Pfizer vaccinations given to health care workers in ICU's. A glimmer of hope is seen. The roll out will continue in some fashion of order determined by government. It is predicted that it will take until September, 2021 to get Albertans vaccinated.

COVID is not yet historical but one day we will look back on the pandemic of 2020 as a time history was made and the world changed because of it.

Wendy.

These are two of my favorite COVID Jokes:  

The World Health Organization announced that dogs cannot contract COVID-19. Dogs previously held in quarantine can now be released. To be clear, WHO let the dogs out.

What do you call panic-buying of sausage and cheese in Germany? The wurst-kase scenario.

 

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 49 Prompt - Oops

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 49

Prompt – Oops

I have to say that I have nothing!

From time to time, writer's block is real.

So I will leave you with this.

 

Manny Francisco-Manila; The Philippines

Wendy