July 1, 1990: Greta had a birthday dinner. Rick, Mary, Nancy, Irene, Raymond, Marina, Helen, John, Dorothy Jo, Howard and I were there. Visited all afternoon."
Quite the birthday party, I would say. Grandma didn't say so, but I am sure Lester was there, too. I can believe with that group we did visit all afternoon. Bet there was quite a bit of laughing, too. This is probably due in part to the fact that the family left Fehmarn once upon a time.
I did some genealogy reseach last year and kept finding that Grandma Anna's ancestors on her mother's side were from different cities, but all the cities were part of Fehmarn, Germany. I knew people weren't as mobile way back then as they are now, but it was so curious that every single person was from this Fehmarn. I looked it up and found an easy answer to my question -- Fehmarn is an island.
It is between Germany and Denmark, very close to both. For being only 70 square miles is size, it has quite a history. Unfortunately the history is of conflict and war and slavery and burned ships and burned churches and torture going back to at least the 8th century. If I remember correctly, Grandma Anna's mother (who was born on Fehmarn) was not the cheeriest, easy-goingist person around. I forgive her completely. It seems that starting life on Fehmarn would have been sobering at best.
The photo above is of Mom when we were in Rhinebeck, New York for the old timey air show in 2008. She looks to be having fun and the air show hadn't even started yet.
Speaking of birthdays, my cursory peek at the one family history book shows that February birthdays include Aunt Margaret, Aunt Clara, Aunt Irene, Aunt Helen and Marjorie.
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