Woohoo--Jansons from Germany!

It's incredible...after YEARS of investigating, the blog actually paid off this week😄.  I'm only sorry Larry's no longer here to appreciate it.  Here's some background, you'll recall:

Cousins Josef and Johannes Janson and their families left Balzfeld, Germany in 1883 (125 years ago!) and settled in Buckman, Minnesota.  Josef luckily became my great grandfather via his son Anton and his grand-daughter Orlinda (my mom).  The farm they settled on is still the Janson farm, a mile west of Buckman.

 Last summer, cousin Dave Janson and his family toured Europe.  They visited the Balzfeld-Horrenburg area (a few miles south of Heidelburg), where they met another lovely Janson family--Kai and his wife and two sons.  (The connection was thru Diana Jung, a wonderfully friendly local woman I met online when I found Balzfeld-Horrenburg on Facebook 😊).  The party truly was a reunion, hosted by Roger and Janice, there on the farm.

So, why do we think we're connected to Kai and fam (besides the name)?  Ha--Kai and both sons have middle names that are "family names":  Kai Otto Janson, his wife Kathrin, and sons Marvin Daniel and Leon Sebastian...plus Kai is just as obsessed with family history as I am.   

We talked as fast as we could.  Kai had a printout on the wall of the Janson family as far as he knew it.  But of course his research goes as far as his family now, but doesn't include many of those who left, while my research goes up to when Josef left Germany in 1883, but misses those who stayed in Europe.  We didn't actually find the connection, but we will!  

Kathrin brought the definitive story on the "Zum Wilden Mann"--but I don't have a working scanner, so I'll have to type it out.  The internet is a little weird tonight, too, so I'll type that for the next post. 

HOORAY that we got to meet Kai and family--  

Das leben ist gut!

Larry Robert Royston (1960-2017)

In the spring of 2005, I answered a question posed on a blog called "Love and the Happy Cynic".  I was flattered when I got an answer--I mean, bloggers were BMOC, with thousands of followers, right?  But this guy actually wrote back, and wanted to talk.  Turned out he lived in a little town in Georgia with his wife Jan.  He'd grown up in Hawaii, knew tons about history, was well read and very funny, and had young-onset Parkinson's Disease.

That was Larry, the co-author of "Janson" (and "Hesch History").  We emailed and chatted most days, tried to make each other laugh.  We often discussed books or the news, as you do, and one day he asked what I knew about my ancestors.  I vaguely recalled a story about a great grandfather who fell out of a wagon, and a Janson grandpa who came here as a 3 year old. That was about it.

So started an adventure that kept us both interested for years.  HH  began in January 2009, and "Janson" that September.  This post is the 300th here.  We tapered off in the last year, partly because of Larry's PD, but mostly because we ran out of new sources to tap.  He was an inspiration, zeroing in on small facts that turned into days of fun research (about local people and the history of Buckman and St Michaels, among many other topics).  Because of Larry, I went to Europe to find the places we discovered (and because Marion persuaded me ☺).

It's been a wonderful twelve years, knowing Larry.  I'm heartbroken that he's gone.  I've lost a dear friend, and as I've said before, he knew way more about us than you do. 

Rest in peace, dear friend.

I'll miss you always

Aunt Jeanette turns 90

This last Saturday we celebrated Aunt Jeanette Janson's 90th birthday.  It was an open house at the Pierz Ballroom (the Funhouse 😊) and a ton of people came to wish her a HBD.  She taught school in the area for 42 years, so there were former students and lots of neighbors, friends and family. It was great.
Here are some old and new pics of the last 90 years...
(Thanks to family Facebook pages for most of em).

 This photo was taken at the party--most of my wonderful family and two of my sisters.  Can you pick out Kathy, Marion and me?  ☺  

AJs crown was perfect on her, don't you think?

 (Just a side note: remember how, at weddings when we were kids, the whole hall would be hazy with cigarette smoke?  Well, at the party on Saturday, a friend of the family was telling a joke and needed cellophane for the punch line.  He asked the smokers in the crowd to bring a pack to the stage--and NO ONE had cigs!  (Or, no one wanted to admit it) but even 10 years ago, there would have been plenty of packs to choose from...now, not even one.  Truly remarkable!)

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?