Remember the two Janson families who arrived in Minnesota in the spring of 1883? One was Joseph Janson, his wife Franziska, and their first five kids. They were our great grands.
The other was Johannes Janson, his wife Maria Anna Sauer with their first five kids. Joe and John were cousins, so the relationship is a generation farther removed, but they're still "our" Jansons, from Horrenburg, Rhine Nekkar Kreis, Baden, Germany.
John and Maria had 14 kids in all, but 3 of them died from a flu epidemic in November 1883. The surviving 11 grew up just fine. Some had families, some didn't, and one became a nun. Yup, the man in the pic up there was one of the 11, also named John. The photo was taken in 1955--John with his wife Anna Weires, and two of their daughters, Hildegard and Roseanna. Pretty cool, huh?
That's John William Janson as a kid (left)--maybe his First Communion or Confirmation?--and as a World War I soldier (right). He would have been 27 in 1918. He married Anna Weires in April 1920.
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The photo below was taken in May, 1956. By December that year, both Mike and Joe had died, so it was a pretty precious get together for them.
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These two pics are pretty faded, but it looks like John and Anna enjoyed their lives and their family.
Working up from the youngest kid shown, we have Albert, Roseanna, Edward, Hildegard, and possibly Bernard in back, next to John. We figure this was about 1944, since Roseanna looks about 10. We don't know who the grandma or grandpa is in the back there. Anyone know?
Ok, what else do we know about John and Anna? This is their eldest son, John Herbert Janson. I remember meeting him when I was a kid, at weddings and funerals, I suppose. He was born in 1924, so he was 9 years younger than mom. I remember him only as "old" and "nice".And look--here they are on the cover of a reunion booklet from 2004. Anna died in 1969, and John in 1979. Looks like they had a huge wonderful family, huh?
Thanks to Carrie Stave, Bev Janson, Larry and Ancestry.com--!
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