Henry Naber Obituary from 1888

Hooray!  Another connection confirmed: yesterday, I got a delightful email from Judy, who, you'll remember, is descended from Henry Naber, our G G Grandfather Gerhard's brother, who farmed in Bremen township, Delaware Co, near Dyersville, Iowa.  To refresh your memory, he's the middle oval on the tree below.  You're welcome.

By today's standards, all three brothers died young--63, 65, and 59--but they all had families, and descendants, some of whom are currently trying to piece together their stories.
Judy wrote to the Dyersville Historical Society asking for Henry's obit.  It's short but gives a lot of info--altho it doesn't completely clear things up, since every generation seemed to have multiple variations on the name John Henry! (The photo might or might not be him, but the vintage seems possible)...

Judy writes: "My current theory is this:  There is a B.H. Naber and Anna Marie Tegla Naber, presumably husband & wife buried at the cemetery at New Vienna according to Find a Grave.  According to Find a Grave, J.H. is their son.  There's a bit in the St Boniface Centennial Book of 1995 about John Herman (J.H.) that confirms his middle name and also that of his father: Bernard Herman Naber.  I'm thinking I can also tie this information in to the B.H. Naber and 3 sons: Theodor, Henry (John H) & Gerhard (John G) that immigrated into New Orleans that you have previously found.  According to a marriage record of the son Bernard D - he was actually a Bernard Theodur!!!  The only thing I've had trouble resolving with that is Gerhard's age.  There seems to be a discrepancy of birth year between what was on the ship manifest and what was on his tombstone".  

See?  It's complicated! 

🌺THANKS, Judy 🌺

Pauline B Janson (1916-2016)

  Our family and the world lost a special person last week.  Pauline Schwieters married Dick Janson, who was great uncle Sebastian's son.  She knew some of the Janson family stories and discretely shared them if we asked.  I liked her a lot.

 Pauline  B. Janson, age 100 of New Munich, died Thursday, November 17, 2016, at the Tree of Life Assisted Living in New Munich, Minnesota.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m., Tuesday, November 22 at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in New Munich, with Rev. Daniel Walz officiating. Interment will be at the parish cemetery following Mass.

Visitation will be at the Patton-Schad Funeral Home in Melrose from 4 to 8 p.m. on Monday, and from 10 to 11 a.m. Tuesday at the church in New Munich. Rosary will be at 5:00 p.m. on Monday by the St. Anne's Christian Women and Immaculate Conception Catholic United Financial.

Pauline was born on February 16, 1916, in New Munich, Minnesota, to Ferdinand Schwieters and Mary (Niehoff) Schwieters. She was united in marriage to Alphonse "Dick" Janson on July 24, 1944, in New Munich.

She was a member of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, St. Anne's Christian Women, Little Flower Mission group, Immaculate Conception United Financial, and Schanhaar-Otte VFW Post 7050 Auxiliary.

Survivors include her son Joseph (Kathryn Palmer) of Austin, Texas, her daughter-in-law Lorraine Janson of Loveland, Colorado, her son Thomas (Martha Risch) of St. Joseph Township, Minnesota, five grandchildren, Elizabeth (Mick), Tara, Katherine, Michael (Angela) and Holly, and 4 great-grandchildren, Caden, Patrick, Anders-Erik and Elise.

Pauline was preceded in death by her husband, daughter Mary, son Dennis, and brothers, Paulin, Claude, Conrad, Raymond, Casper and Al Schwieters, and sisters, Ida Timmer, Mary Stahlboerger, Eleanor Altmann, Alma Wiener, Lorretta Athmann, and Theresa Ehlert.

No flowers or memorials. Instead, please consider a donation to your local food shelf.

The original log cabin, maybe?

At the reunion last MONTH (sorry it's taken so long), I happened to be talking with Aunt Jeanette, Kenny and Gary.  The subject was the Janson farm house.  Did they think the original log cabin was incorporated into the brick house?

Now, this often happened--as the original building got too small, people would add extra rooms like a kitchen or bedrooms, and then eventually, a basement and an upstairs.  (That was true of the house we bought northwest of Royalton in 1970--since they built extensions on it, that small room became a walk-thru on the way to other rooms, but it was too main floor to be used as storage).



Aunt J and Gary said no--the house, built around 1890, was "stick built" and planned, even tho it seemed oddly laid out when we were kids.  (I suppose the house was finished before they realized an indoor bathroom was desirable.  Seems like it was carved out of the main floor bedroom and a closet).
Anyway, AJ mentioned an old shed that sat east of the house when she was first married..."they kept pigs in it, I think".  But wow, maybe the original cabin was still there in the late 1940s?

Well, they wouldn't have taken pics of it, right?  It was a shed by then--useful, and not bad enough to tear down, plus the land gently sloped away to the north right there--perfect for a pasture behind it, but not the best place for a permanent house.

Okay, it's a theory, but a sorta charming one, I think ☺

Johannes Janson Family Reunion

Hooray, it's supposed to be nice on Saturday--see ya in Gilman, ok?

A new Naber (descendant)

If you've looked around the Janson blog before, you'll remember this family tree we posted in October 2009 (so pretend you remember, mkay?) It's a Naber family tree I found in mom's stuff.  Since posting it, a couple people have found it and figured out where they fit, the latest being this week ☺
Judy figured out she's descended from great grandpa Gerhard's brother Henry (JH) there in the middle.  She knew her gg-grandmother, Anna, had a brother named Bernard (1860-1926), and that he lived all his life in Iowa.  She knew, too, that Anna married Johann Wilhelm Erdmann June 16, 1876 in Petersburg Iowa, and that they eventually moved to Texas where they stayed.  Their youngest son was Judy's grandpa.  Isn't that just neat?  
Welcome to this end of the family, Judy!

We met another Janson ☺

Early in April, a bunch of Jansons sat down together and talked family ☺.  It was great fun, and I'm sorry it's taken me this long to post about it, but I knew I'd need to do a little research first.
Part of the fun was the WHO part of it: Tom, Glenn, Bev, Gary, Bob and me.   Bob is a descendant of Johannes Janson, the cousin and traveling companion of Josef Janson on their trip to America in 1883.  He first emailed about the ship our two families arrived on, the Zeeland.  That was December 2014.  So, how does he connect specifically?  His mom was Bette, the daughter of Sophie (Janson) and Nick Daniel.  Sophie, of course, was Johannes & Marie's daughter.
(The rest of us at the meeting were descendants of Joseph's via Sebastian and Anton, but you knew that, right?)

Bob's been doing research into his family that connects to Joseph and Franziska, too, so he's read this blog to see if we have any family stories in common.  One, of course, is How They Left Germany .  Bob questioned it!
Now, Larry and I've found a few dubious stories over the years we've been researching the family, but usually there's something true in a story, even if it's not the WHOLE truth.  However, it sounds like mom's story of 4 adults and 10 kids leaving by night in a rowboat was only true in that they did leave Germany together.
According to Bob's research, they left by...train.
Still, I think I heard the story once, not over and over.  I don't know how old I was, but I recall being thrilled imagining the romance and danger of the river, with dark woods and towering castled promontories along the way and towns that needed avoiding.  Of course it stuck in my head.  In reality, they had to leave because 9 of those 10 kids were boys, and subject to the draft in a few short years.  I imagine tales of America's opportunities were pretty irresistible, too.

Another fascinating question we discovered is this strange photo.  Bob couldn't figure out how it fit with other pics of the John Janson house--it's configured totally wrong to be that house, and yet, the people in the photo are definitely John and Maria and four of their adult kids.  Gary picked it up and recognized the house he grew up in, before the porch was added.  The windows and door configuration, the lean-to on the back (right side, which was gone by the time we knew it; only the cement slab was left, remember?)  So, if the two families were at odds after John moved 4 miles south, why were they sitting here?  Certainly, the original cabin on this spot was long gone, so it couldn't have been nostalgia. (By the look of John & Marie, it was around the time of their 50th wedding anniversary).
It's another cool mystery for us to ponder ☺ **

** Hmm, going thru Pierz Journal clippings today (May 1), I found this puzzling auction bill, from 1921: it was published just days after Reinhard was born.  There was a follow-up note in the paper saying that Anton Janson got good prices for his stuff at the auction (they said that about all the auctions, but it means that the event was actually held).  Since Reinhard, Mom and Loretta grew up in that house, and Reinhard's family after them, what was grandpa doing having an auction?? Still, it might have been an opportunity for John's family to walk around in the yard, then.  OR...did they stop at the farm when they knew Joe and Franziska were not home?  Wow, that's possible, too.

We may never know.....

Here's Bob, by the way--5th adult from the left--white hair and glasses. 

 ☺

THANKS for traveling to Minnesota, Bob.

Meeting you was interesting & fun!