Monday, May 30, 2011

Janson news from 1955 and this weekend ☺

Last summer, I got an email from Sebastian's grandson Tom.  We compared notes, answered questions each of us had, and decided we should get together with Tom's cousin, Glenn, since we had so many stories to compare. (Tom is Dick's son, and Glenn is Joe's son). 


We finally got together this last Saturday (!) at Tom's house and had a wonderful time.  What made it even more fun was Glenn's wife Bev and Tom's mom, Pauline (Bev is the real genealogist of that cool couple, and Pauline, at 93, actually knew a lot of the people we were talking about...including mom, who she said I looked like ☺).  So, we talked like crazy, and shared pictures, documents and stories.  


I'm waiting for copies of old photos from Tom (Got em, THANKS, Tom!)  and new ones from Bev, (got em--THANKS, Bev!) but here's a really cool story we pieced together in the meantime.  It's amazing, I promise:


In 1955, grandpa Anton Janson had a heart attack and eventually died at the home of his brother Wendelin, in Los Angeles.  As Wendelin sat watch over Anton that night, he wrote an angry letter to Mom and Uncle Reinhard.  He said he'd seen this coming, Anton should be at home in Minnesota not in California, etc...but that "We can not let this thing end up like Dan Janson ended up in Sacramento"......"I'll tell you again, we just can't afford to let this end up like Dan Janson we just can't".


When Larry and I first read the letter, we'd never heard of Dan Janson, but we've done considerable research since then.  Dan's parents left Horrenberg when the other two families did, but sailed later, and settled 17 miles from Buckman, in Rice, Minnesota.  


We still don't know what happened with Dan/Wendelin, but on Saturday, Glenn told us about accidentally finding another Glenn Janson, in Spokane, Washington.  Evidently, the two men wrote back and forth, and when MN Glenn had occasion to fly to Washington, he arranged to meet WA Glenn. MG said that as he came off the plane and glanced at the people waiting there, he picked out WG right away.  MG said they tried for an hour and a half to find relatives in common, but failed.  But as MG got up to catch his plane, WG asked if MG had ever heard of Rice, Minnesota?  Evidently, WG had relatives from there, but our Glenn didn't know of any Jansons in Rice....


So now, Bev and Glenn intend to call Washington Glenn and make the connection, and maybe ask about the infamous Dan.  Isn't that COOL?
  
Of COURSE we'll let you know what they find out, ok?

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