Big news

August 7, 2002:  Am trying to reorganize some of the cupboards.  Finished the bottom layer in the "pantry", the cupboard in the hallway.  Attended Book Club in evening.
August 8, 2002:  Myrtle called this morning.  Her voice sounds real good.  Tom came this evening.  He did the laundry, I showered, we ate and then played Rummikub.
August 9, 2002:  Went to Dolores' this p.m. and played Cribbage.  Mary, Mitch and Anna came after supper and we played Rummikub, SevenUp and then visited.  A most enjoyable evening.

I am glad, and wholeheartedly agree, that Grandma had a most enjoyable evening on August 9, 2002 -- we always had a grand time over at her place.  But, I cannot be overly distracted by that bit of past good news in this post -- there is just a bit too much going on here in 2013.  Stuff that Grandma would most certainly be delighted with.

As previously mentioned, Mom submitted her DNA sample to Family Tree DNA.  She got her results yesterday.  I am proud to say the two of us muddled through the online report over the phone together without toooo much trouble.  Of course, we were excited enough that we pretty much disregarded the guided tour they offered and just plowed right in.  Somewhat disappointingly, the report did not break down how much Danish she is compared to German or gypsy or anything else.  It was a big shock to both of us to learn she is 100% European! -- just kidding.  The map they highlighted to show this European-ness missed all of Scandinavia, but I read further and that particular part of the site is still being tested and developed.  We know our people came from Scandinavia, so it wasn't a big deal, just a bit of a puzzlement.

We got over that rather quickly when we came to the part where Mom was matched with people sharing a decent part of her DNA.  There was one lady that did not provide her family tree, so we are not sure how we (I say we -- even though it was Mom's DNA -- to mean all of our family, Grandma included) are related, but the information she did give indicated a strong Swedish background. I emailed her asking if Ola Svenson Brogren was our common ancestor and gave her the basic details we know of him.  I only emailed her yesterday afternoon, so it is not surprising that I haven't gotten a reply yet.

However, the bigger news is that we are related to a 95-year-old lady in Montana and her son in Washington State.  From the family tree they had posted, I can see we are related through Grandma's father's (William Andersen) grandmother.  I really did not think through the import of that association when I emailed these two cousins.  I got a response from the son very quickly.  I do not have a lot of details yet (we are going to email and work through the questions/puzzles I run in to) but he said we are surrounded by family in this part of Nebraska and he has a photo of William Andersen's grandmother from when she was still living in Denmark.  He also has, or at least had, contact with a cousin still in Denmark, related even further back on the family tree.  Needless to say, this is very exciting.  Since we knew so little about "Bill" -- Mom and her siblings have trouble calling him Grandpa since they never knew him as such; he died when Grandma was 8 -- to have any kind of information or contact with that part of the family is something really neat.  I have to believe that Grandma would agree.  I wasn't there to hear it, but I was told she wondered in her last days if she would get to see her dad after she died -- a 93-year-old woman still had that little girl inside her that always missed her "Papa".

Back to this distant cousin -- I recalled after a bit that I had some old letters Grandma had received from a different cousin in Blair.  I found them (quickly, I might add with some surprise) and in the first one I read, the writer mentioned these newly-found Montana and Washington cousins!  It is fun when things pull together so quickly, even though I have to work hard to keep the names and relationships straight.

More excitement -- when Mom was looking for another old letter (more on that in a future post -- this one is getting rather long!) she found diaries of Grandma's from before she was married.  I am ready to suspend 2002 and dive in to those for a change of pace.  She also found the little papers Grandma had saved from her bridal shower.  The guests wrote down pieces of advice for the new bride.  Grandma showed them to me when she was still in Winside.  I mentioned them awhile back, wondering where they had ended up.  Since Mom found them, I can use them in future posts as well!  This is too much, I better go sit back in the recliner and absorb it all.  I will say in closing, that the evening of August 31, 2013, like the one in August 9, 2002, was most enjoyable.

There's William Andersen in the middle.  His brother, Chris, is on the left.