A Danish Day in Elk Horn, Iowa

I have a relatively (ahem!) long list of genealogy road trips on my wish list. Many of them are one-day trips and yesterday I was able to visit the Museum of Danish America in Elk Horn, Iowa. If you have even an ounce of Danish blood in you, this is a museum and community you must visit as part of your genealogy journey. Elk Horn is a community of 662 people as of the 2010 census. It's about a two hour drive from my home in Lincoln, Nebraska, so I have been waiting for a warmer and sunny day to make the trip. My genealogy pal, Judy Shutts of Voices in Time, is always eager for a road trip and we were both ready for a getaway.

We left Lincoln about 8 a.m., which seems to come way too early since I've been retired. This month marks the third anniversary of my retirement from public service with the state of Nebraska. Wow, how time flies! That put us into Elk Horn about 10 a.m. and our first stop was the Museum of Danish America.

The Museum of Danish America

With the cold Iowa wind blowing, it was a bit chilly, so we quickly got some exterior photos of the museum as we left.

I'm looking forward to a return visit during warmer weather so I can see the 30 acres of prairie surrounding the museum in the Jens Jensen Prairie Landscape Park. I'm sure it will be an amazing experience, as compared with the windy 40 degree temperatures we experienced yesterday!


I really didn't have a huge expectation of what information I might discover about my Danish heritage. Mostly, I wanted to learn more about what motivated my people to immigrate to America. My Danes are the only line of my heritage that I've been able to track "across the pond" - mainly due to the exceptional census records available on the Danish Demographic Database. Because of these records, I've gone back to my fourth great grandfather, Povel Madsen, in the 1700s.

The flags of Denmark and The United States
of America fly proudly outside the museum.

It was pretty exciting a few years ago when I found my ancestors on a passenger list on Ancestry.com. One must always think outside the box when doing genealogy. My family came to the U.S. via Canada with the intent of settling in Waterloo, Black Hawk county, Iowa. Based on what I know about migration patterns, I still assume that there must have been someone they knew who had already come to Waterloo - or some reason that they knew that was where they were headed. I didn't get the answers on this research trip, but it continues to be one of the questions I'm pursuing in tracking my family from Denmark to the United States.

The Museum of Danish America is a wonderful museum dedicated to the Danish in America. The exhibits are well curated and provide a lot of history about the Danish in America. I often have the tendency to rush through the museums I visit, but I took my time in reading the explanations about immigration - I really wanted to learn more about why my ancestors came to the U.S. when they did.

Choosing a New Land

These explanations at the museum provided some background on what motivated the Danish to come to America.

The lower level of the museum includes a glass enclosed case of many family heritage artifacts, including the iconic blue plates (we had a few of these in the family at one time), knick knacks, musical instruments, china and household items, items specific to the Danish Brotherhood of America. There was no public access to view the items in the collection close-up. I imagine that it might be possible to observe these under the supervision of museum staff. I didn't ask.

The "cocoa set" that belonged to
my great grandmother Caroline Petersen

Among the heirlooms passed down to me is what my Dad referred to as a "cocoa set" which may also be called a "chocolate pot." It includes a tall pitcher, a bowl, four cups and four saucers. I currently display this set in my "family heritage center" in my home.

Judy and me at the museum

Here's a composite photo I made for Instagram of Judy and me at the museum and the signs at the genealogy center which is on Main Street, a couple blocks from the museum.

After our visit to the museum, we had lunch at Larsen's Pub. I only had to see that one could have a burger with Havarti cheese to know what I wanted for lunch! That's been one of my favorite cheeses for a long time, and knowing it originated in Denmark made it even more special.

After finishing lunch, Judy asked the proprietor where the genealogy center was located. This was a pretty good question in a small community. Immediately, he replied, "Right next door!" Wow. We didn't even have to move the car!

An afternoon of research

As mentioned earlier, I didn't have a lot of expectations of what I might find at the genealogy library. I had taken along some printouts of family group sheets with the information I have collected on this line of my family history. As an afterthought, I tossed my Kindle Fire in my bag, with the Ancestry app. Several times I had to refer to my family tree to get specific information on names and dates.

The ladies in the library were extremely helpful. As I read through books on Cedar Falls, Iowa and Black Hawk county, I found some information about what attracted the Danes to this part of America. It was the kind of information I had been looking for. After a while, the ladies showed me the original documents from Denmark they had discovered about my family! Not only had they found birth, baptism and marriage records, but also photographs of the churches where the baptisms and marriages had occurred. Part of the service they offer to researchers is to transcribe the Danish records into English. I really felt I had hit the mother lode of family history research! To say that I did the "Genealogy Happy Dance" is an understatement!

These are the original documents (in Danish) that the staff printed
and translated for me, as well as photographs of the churches
where the baptisms and marriages occurred.

I found this death record information about my 2nd great grandfather,
Peder Jeremiasen, in a book published by the Iowa Genealogical Society.

I didn't want to be on the road too long after day turned in to night, so we left the library about 4 pm. We still wanted to visit the Danish Windmill, so we stopped there on our way out of town.

The Danish Windmill

Danmark Sweatshirt and
some Carlsberg Elephant Beer

I've been wanting to get a red sweatshirt (without Go Big Red on it), and I found this at the Danish Windmill. I've never had Danish beer before, so I bought a six pack of Carlsberg Elephant Beer. The taste is quite similar to Corona. You've got to have Danish beer at least once in your lifetime!

What can I say? It is SO COOL to go somewhere where they know that your surname is spelled with "sen" rather than "son." !!! Rock On!

Kudos to Michele at the Museum of Danish America library for her exceptional help and the translations, and teaching me how to pronounce Jeremiasen properly! And to the other ladies who helped with my research yesterday. Yes, I will definitely be back! And today, I submitted my payment for membership to support the museum. Yesterday's Genealogy Road Trip far exceeded my expectations!

Michele asked to photocopy my Family Group Sheets so they could begin a file on "my people." It was a no brainer for me to oblige. I plan to compile a binder of the information I've gathered so far, with printouts and copies of documents. I want to leave behind some bread crumbs on my family line for future researchers.

I always thought that my Danish line would be the most difficult to track because of the patronymic naming system - changing surnames with each generation. Who knew that it was going to be the easiest and the first of my ancestral lines I would find "across the pond"?

My Nebraska - by Patricia Landon Kelly Petersen

Today I came across a long lost poem written by my mother, Patricia Landon Kelly Petersen, in 1968. This poem was also very special to me and it was read at her memorial service in 1983.

My Nebraska

Oh, you'll never know Nebraska
'Til you've seen her in the Spring,
Awakened by a gentle rain
And hear the robins sing.

Every green and growing petal
Has its face washed, oh, so clean.
If you've been here in Springtime,
You'll remember what I mean.

Oh, you'll never know Nebraska
'Til some summers you have spent
To hike, to swim, to fish, to sail
Or just be quiet and content.

If you've never heard the wind blow
Through those cottonwoods so tall,
You don't know what you're missing,
That's my favorite sound of all.

Oh, you'll never know Nebraska
'Til you've felt her winter cold,
Shared one of her White Christmases,
It's a splendor to behold.

And to see the little children
Bundled up from head to toe.
They ignore my shoveled pathway
To wade the deepest snow.

Oh, you'll never know Nebraska,
Come see her in the fall.
Then she really shows her colors
With the kindest touch of all.

I can taste that first ripe apple.
I can smell that bonfire now.
If I could ever be more blessed
I wish you'd tell me how.

And did you ever go away?
Get so homesick you could cry?
If I tell you that I haven't
Then I'm telling you a lie.

I wonder if you've played this game
When you're returning home,
To see who can be the first to spy
That long familiar dome.

copyright 1968 Patricia Landon Kelly Petersen

Scanning Through Time

Bill Kelly, Susan Petersen, Mabel Petersen, Otto Petersen
circa 1964

I've been wanting to scan the family 2 x 2 slides from the 1960s for a long, long time. Eight years ago I bought a scanner that scanned slides, negatives, photographs and documents. As happens, I've upgraded computers twice since then and the software no longer works on my new computers. HP no longer upgrades drivers for that scanner. On the recommendation of some folks in the Technology for Genealogy Facebook group, I tried VueScan software - a good resource, but again, it requires the HP drivers to work.

About a year ago, without reading all of the product details, I purchased a Wolverine slide scanner. It's a standalone scanner that does 35mm slides and negatives. I didn't catch the point that it was 35mm only. So that turned out to be a waste of money since I wanted to scan the 2 x 2 slides.

After reading a lot of product descriptions and reviews online and asking for advice from the aforementioned "TechGen" group, I went to Office Depot and got the Epson V500. Normally I buy nearly everything online, but I didn't want to make the 35mm mistake again. And it happened to be on sale last week. I asked the clerk to unpack the box so I could see the mattes used for slide placement. He even got a ruler for me so I could measure them. Finally! I have the slide scanning assembly line up and running.

Trip Down Memory Lane


What a delight it has been to go through these photographs from 50 years ago. But also very sad - of all of the people in the pictures, my Dad and I are just about the only ones still living. I think I had forgotten just how much time I spent with family during my teenage years. Most of my memories of the 1960s are of going to concerts and pinning up photos from TeenSet and 16 on my bedroom walls.

There are photos of me with all three sets of grandparents. I have two sets on my Dad's side since his parents divorced and remarried. The photo above was taken at Christmas, 1964, in our home. This is the only photograph of me with both of my grandfathers, Bill Kelly and Otto "Grandpa Pete" Petersen. What a treasure to discover this among the slides. I also see that we are eating from Grandma Kelly's china, a set I still have today.

It seems like a lot of our family gatherings revolved around either the dinner table or the outdoor grill and patio. It seems like our patio and deck were a focal point of our activities. I also noticed that when we took posed pictures, we stood in front of a fir tree in our front yard. It's interesting to see how it grew over the years.

In addition to photographs of special occasions, there are photos of everyday life - like when I won radio contests to get Perky's Pizza or Diet Rite Cola - there are pictures of me with the coupon and with the pizzas! Junior High and High School graduation events are captured in time, as are camping trips and boating adventures, and vacations to Missouri and South Dakota. Dad even captured a shot of me exiting the Varsity theater after watching A Hard Day's Night twice on opening day.

The photos helped me remember just how much I enjoyed hanging out with my parent's friends and the older adults, including my parent's siblings and Dad's aunts and uncle and cousins. I never cared much for the kids my own age or younger, I wanted to listen and participate in the grown-ups conversations. I remember how thrilled I was once I finally graduated from the kid's table at holidays to be able to sit with the adults.

Oh, how I wish I could turn back time and remember all of the stories they told. Mom's family were more storytellers - they loved talking about growing up in Greenwood, Nebraska, life on the farm, and the various injuries they inflicted on one another. Dad is definitely the storyteller in his family. I can ask him one question and the conversation will go on for two hours.

As I reflected on my day of scanning at twilight last evening, I teared up as I said to myself, "I miss my family." But it's so nice to still have those memories and love for them in my heart.

Ancestry.com: U.S. City Directories, 1821 - 1989

Source: Ancestry.com

Over the last several weeks, I've been so busy browsing and indexing 1940 Census records and doing volunteer work (is that an oxymoron?) for the Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society (LLCGS), that I haven't checked in at Ancestry.com.


During a bout of insomnia the other night, I was checking out the Ancestry.com app on my new iPhone (yes, I finally got with it and now wonder why I dragged my feet about upgrading). By following the shaking leaves and some hints, I discovered a much expanded database of U. S. City Directories covering the period 1821 - 1989.


For me, the beta version of this database and image set is a goldmine of information that may end up distracting me from indexing for a few days. My focus has been Nebraska city directories which are available for the following cities: Beatrice, Columbus, Fremont, Hastings, Kearney, Lexington, Lincoln, Norfolk, North Platte, Omaha, Scottsbluff and York.


The Omaha directories go back as far as 1866 and go through 1959. Of course, not every year is there, nor is every directory complete. But, there's enough of a selection that if your ancestors lived in Omaha, the odds of locating them are quite good.


Lincoln's directories range from 1883 to 1960. I've located my grandparents in several directories from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. I found my Dad living with his parents in 1947, having returned from World War II and now in the work force. I found Mom living in Lincoln in 1947 as a young single working woman. I checked out her two best friends from Greenwood and, as I expected, the trio of girls were roommates living at 1936 D Street. This was shortly before my parents were married in 1947. Dad recalled the girls living in a third floor apartment as that's where Mom lived when she and Dad began dating.

Patricia Kelly
Kenneth Petersen
circa 1946-47

This photograph of my parents was probably taken outside of Mom's apartment building. The tower in the background is First Plymouth Church, which is located at 20th and D Streets in Lincoln.


I also discovered my grandmother, Sina Bellinger, living with her brother Clifford and their parents, John and Emma, in Lincoln in 1910. Sina's brother, Harry Bellinger, was trackable in the Omaha City Directories for several years, when he was a fireman for the railroad, then later when he became a railroad engineer.


The Fitzgerald kin make several appearances in the Lincoln directories. John Fitzgerald's entry almost reads like a resume, with a long list of all of his businesses and affiliations. One of his sons, William Paul Fitzgerald, lived in Denver during the 1940s and 1950s. I was able to locate several entries for him as well. I'm still missing evidence of his death, but the city directories helped me move his life forward several more years.

I'm still on the hunt for Margaret Kelly Langdon, the sister of my great grandfather, Daniel Kelly. I've tracked her to about 1918 in Kansas City, when she was living with one of their brothers. I'm hopeful that a couple entries I've discovered for her will end up being a match.

Regarding the database, it is very easy to search and end up with some pretty accurate results. You can search the entire database or narrow it by location. I've discovered that many of the street addresses have been transcribed incorrectly in the database. In nearly all of the examples I've found, the first digit of the street address is missing. However, the images are clear and it's easy to make a correction to the transcribed index.

Search Ancestry'com's City Directories database - I'd love to hear what gems you find!

The link to this post is: http://longlostrelatives-smp.blogspot.com/2012/04/ancestrycom-us-city-directories-1821.html

My First Look at the 1940 Census

The news is out by now. The 1940 Census images were released on April 2, 2012. Due to time constraints, I wasn't able to do very much searching for my ancestors until this weekend. It has been quite an interesting journey with much more to come.

Since my Mom's family lived in a small town, Greenwood, Cass, Nebraska, I assumed they would be easy to locate in the census. I checked every page of the Greenwood village census and they weren't there. Knowing the family had lived in Omaha for a while in the 1940s, I thought they might be there. I wasn't quite ready to tackle a city of that size just yet, especially without an address.

I knew where my Dad's family lived in 1940, so using the tools at SteveMorse.org, I started looking for the Petersens in Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska. Can it get any easier than this? I found him on Page 6 (of 56!) living with his parents and his younger sister.

The Petersen family in Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska, 1940

Clara Laymon Pecht
her grandchildren
Kenneth Petersen
Shirley Petersen
circa 1940-41

This photograph of Dad and his younger sister, Shirley, was probably taken around the time of this census. Their Grandma Pecht died in 1941, so I think that's a pretty good estimate.

In the census, it looks like my grandfather, Otto W. Petersen, provided the information. He said that his wife, Ruby, was born in Nebraska, but all other documents indicate she was born in Kansas, just across the border from Hardy, Nebraska, where many in my family lived for decades (and still do).

I couldn't decipher the handwriting for Otto's occupation, but Dad picked it out clearly, "Fuel Foreman." We both agreed on the "Steam Railroad" part of this data item.

As I shared the census images with Dad, he started yelling out names of their neighbors for me to look up. I couldn't keep up with him! I found several and will definitely go back for a closer look. It was one of those unplanned moments when I wasn't prepared to start jotting down notes as he reminisced about the old neighborhood.

After my success in finding the Petersen family, I had to turn my attention back to the Kellys and see if I could find Mom's family in Cass County. After browsing the list of districts, "Salt Creek" jumped out at me as I knew I had seen "Salt Creek Precinct" on many other documents related to my Cass County kin.

The Kelly Family in Greenwood, Cass, Nebraska in 1940.

Without much of an effort, I found my grandparents, William and Sina Kelly, their son, "William Leroy Kelly, Jr" ("Jiggs") and my Mom, Patricia. In 60 years, I've never heard anyone refer to Jiggs as William, Bill or Leroy, so it's interesting that he is listed as LeRoy in the 1940 census. The two oldest daughters, Margaret and Helen ("Jerry") had moved out of the house by this time. Grandpa Kelly was a farm laborer. His family had been huge landholders and raised stocked until the Depression, so it would appear he may have been working for someone else as most of the family's land and assets were long gone by this time.

Mom - Patricia Kelly
My Aunt Jerry with her baby, Joe
Grandpa Bill Kelly

This photo would have been taken circa 1940-41 based on the birth date of Jerry's son. Mom looks like she was about 13 or 14.

As I read through the list of names of the people in Greenwood in the three Enumeration Districts, it was a very eerie feeling. I came across other relatives who I never knew other than by their name, as they had died before I was born. I recognized the names of the Landon family, my Sunday School teacher, the janitor from the school I attended from kindergarten through fifth grade. Most of those names I see only when I go to visit the Greenwood Cemetery.

The families in Greenwood had been there for at least three generations in 1940. My Mom's contemporaries were the parents of the kids I went to grade school with. Even though I was young, apparently I had a pretty good memory for people and their names, even if I'm not able to place a face to many of them.

These census records are some that I will go through several more times. I found Grandpa Kelly's brother, Paul and his wife, Elsie. And there was Grandpa Kelly's mother, Mary (Welch) Kelly, living with her other son, Francis. Her husband, Dan Kelly, had just died in February of 1940. After celebrating 50 years of marriage, she had to have been going through some transitions when the census taker came around.

I've since located my Dad's great grandparents, Jens and Caroline Petersen, in Hardy, Nuckolls, Nebraska, but I haven't found his other grandmother, Clara Pecht, pictured above, who was living in Beatrice, Gage, Nebraska in 1940. My other great grandparents, John and Emma Bellinger, were dead by this time.

Now comes the part of putting the stories together to go along with the records.

Finding Family in the 1940 Census

It is only 37 days until the release of the images from the 1940 Census. This census will mark the second appearance of my parents in census records. Both were under five years of age in the 1930 census, so by 1940 they were in their early teen years, just starting high school.

Patricia Landon Kelly
circa 1940

Clara Laymon Pecht, Shirley Jean Petersen
Kenneth Leroy Petersen
circa 1940

While I can't tie down these images specifically to 1940, they are certainly within about a year of when the census was taken.

I will be looking for my Mom in the census for Greenwood, Cass county, Nebraska and Dad will be in Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska.

Since the 1940 census images will not be indexed on the day they are released to the public, the first step in planning to find images is to determine the potential enumeration districts where your family members lived.

The search for this information begins at The National Archives. On the search page, I typed in "1940 census greenwood nebraska" (without quotes). The results gave me the following information:

NE ED 13-23: SALT CREEK ELECTION PRECINCT, GREENWOOD VILLAGE.

NE ED 13-24: SALT CREEK ELECTION PRECINCT OUTSIDE GREENWOOD VILLAGE.

I've now narrowed down the images where I need to look for Mom's family in the 1940 census. As I learn more about the process and locating my kin, I'll share it here on LongLostRelatives.net. I've also started "Spring Training" for indexing census records by indexing several batches of World War II draft registration documents. I'll write more about that in another blog post.

Thanks to Randy Seaver of the Genea-Musings blog - I followed his instructions for locating this information.

Other Ways to Honor Your Ancestors

Many of us spend quite a bit of our family history research time tracking down obituaries, death certificates and  walking through cemeteries. Perhaps your ancestors lived and died hundreds or thousands of miles away from where you live. Maybe they don't have a grave marker. There are other ways you can honor their memory without erecting a tombstone.

A few years ago, one of my favorite arts organizations, Friends of the Lied (supporters of the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska) sponsored a fundraising activity where patrons could purchase a commemorative brick which would then be placed on the grounds of the Lied Center. It was a tax deductible charitable contribution.

Maybe it was my ego, maybe I thought I would disappear into oblivion after my demise - whatever the reason at the time, I decided to contribute and purchased a brick. The inscription was just to denote the year of my graduation from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It seemed appropriate since the Lied Center is housed on the University campus.

I've heard from a few genealogists who have done something similar to honor their parents, grandparents or other family member. It's especially nice if the location or organization is a good match for one of your ancestor's favorite interests or charities. And it helps out a worthwhile cause at the same time.

With some of the horror stories we keep reading about the destruction and vandalism of cemeteries, this might be an inexpensive way for families to still have something concrete (pardon the pun) that will honor their life.

If you have done something similar, I'd like to hear about it. Please leave a comment below.

Military Monday: They All Came Home

War seems to have always effected American families. Several men in the Petersen family served during World War II. The five Navy men below include one son and four grandsons, plus a Marine, a grandson-in-law, of Jens and Karoline Petersen of Hardy, Nebraska.

From the collection of Joan McAllister

From left to right: Jess Petersen, son of Jens and Karoline Petersen; Leslie Eugene (Gene) Petersen, son of Elmer Martinus Petersen and Hilda Petersen; Kenneth L. Petersen (my Dad), son of Otto and Ruby Petersen; Ralph (Lodie) Salyard, son of Ralph Salyard and Emma Petersen Salyard; Edwin C. Henry, son of Hubert and Katherine Petersen Henry; and Carl V. O'Grady, husband of Doris Salyard O'Grady, daughter of Ralph Salyard and Emma Petersen Salyard.


Our family was lucky - all of the boys came home.

My Dad has his clipping framed and on display.

Dad's medals and dog tags from World War II

Sunday's Obituary - Margaret Petersen Henthorn

Margaret Petersen Henthorn

Death Takes
Mrs. Henthorn

Mrs. Earl H. (Margaret P.) Henthorn, 43, a Centralia resident, died Tuesday in a local hospital. She was born July 28, 1913, in Hardy, Neb. The family home is at 815 West main street.

Survivors, in addition to her husband, are her mother, Mrs. Petersen, Hardy, Neb.; four brothers, E. M. Petersen, Hardy, Neb., Jess Petersen, Lincoln, Neb., and Marvin Petersen and O. M. Petersen, both in Iowa, and three sisters, Mrs. Emma Salyard, Mrs. Joe Wyatt and Mrs. Hubert Henry, all of Hardy, Neb.

Funeral services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, at the Sticklin chapel in Centralia. Rev. Fred T. Lucas will officiate, and interment will be in Greenwood Memorial park.

Source: Daily Chronicle, Centralia, Washington, August 10, 1955.
Relationship to me: grand aunt (sister of my grandfather)

Errors in obituary: Her brother (my grandfather) was O. W. Petersen, not O.M. Petersen. He lived in Lincoln, Nebraska at the time of Margaret's death, not in Iowa.

Sunday Supper - Community Cookbooks Part 6 - Katherine Petersen Henry

Before tossing out any old and worn out community cookbooks, make sure that you look through them for recipes from your relatives! My Dad managed to salvage the 1950 Hardy, Nebraska American Legion Auxiliary Cookbook from my stack of cookbooks I had planned to donate to charity! Thank goodness he looked through them first! This cookbook included not just recipes from my family members, but also photographs of them.

CRAB APPLE JELLY
CRAB APPLE BUTTER
CRAB APPLE PICKLES

Relationship to me: my grand aunt, sister of my grandfather, Otto Petersen.

See other recipes on this blog

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History - Week 3: Cars - Part 2

While browsing through my photo archives, I found some more pictures to add to this topic. Unfortunately, I am not able to provide the make or model of the vehicles.

Daniel Kelly of Greenwood, Nebraska

Paul Kelly of Greenwood, Nebraska
son of Daniel Kelly

Sylvia Pecht Ralya and Claude Ralya
son Donald Ralya

A whole bunch of Petersens
Nuckolls County, Nebraska

About 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy: Amy Coffin of We Tree Genealogy has created a third year of blogging prompts for genealogy bloggers. The theme for 2011 is 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History. 

Read all articles in this series.

Sunday Supper - Community Cookbooks - Part 2 - Emma Petersen Salyard

Before tossing out any old and worn out community cookbooks, make sure that you look through them for recipes from your relatives! My Dad managed to salvage the 1950 Hardy, Nebraska American Legion Auxiliary Cookbook from my stack of cookbooks I had planned to donate to charity! Thank goodness he looked through them first! This cookbook included not just recipes from my family members, but also photographs of them.

Sea Foam

Relationship to me: Emma Petersen Salyard is my grand aunt, sister of my grandfather, Otto Petersen.

See other recipes on this blog

Sunday Supper - Community Cookbooks - Part 1 - Esther Petersen Wyatt

Before tossing out any old and worn out community cookbooks, make sure that you look through them for recipes from your relatives! My Dad managed to salvage the 1950 Hardy, Nebraska American Legion Auxiliary Cookbook from my stack of cookbooks I had planned to donate to charity! Thank goodness he looked through them first! This cookbook included not just recipes from my family members, but also photographs of them.

Quick Creamed Potatoes and Meat 

Relationship to me: Aunt Esther is Esther Petersen Wyatt, sister of my grandfather, Otto Petersen. About 20 years ago, Aunt Esther was my guide through the cemeteries in Nuckolls county, Nebraska and Republic county, Kansas, to photograph the graves of many of my ancestors.

See other recipes on this blog

The Jeremiasens - first look at my great-great grandparents

Today's email brought a very special treat - the first photograph I've ever seen of my great-great grandparents, Peder (Peter) Jeremiasen and his wife Elsie, with two of their children, Karen Marie and Peter Petersen. Denmark, 1885, three years before the family came to the United States to live in Waterloo, Iowa. The photograph is from the collection of Peter's granddaughter.

Those Places Thursday: Yancey Hotel, Grand Island, Nebraska

Lincoln Branch Banquet
Stanley Home Products, Inc.
Yancey Hotel - Grand Island, Nebraska
October 4, 1947

This photograph of the sales representatives for Stanley Home Products was taken at the Yancey Hotel in Grand Island, Nebraska on October 4, 1947. To my surprise, this company is still in business today and has been since 1931.

When my parents were newlyweds in 1947, they conducted home parties and sold the cleaning products to housewives in Grand Island and the surrounding communities.

The woman in the hat (with glasses) on the left is my father's mother, Ruby Luella Pecht Petersen (later Baker). The second man from the left, standing, is my father's father, Otto Petersen. My mother, Patricia Kelly Petersen is in the middle (I'm not sure if that's a foo-foo in her hair or if the guy behind her is holding a dusting product). My father, Kenneth Petersen, is to Mom's left, with glasses. All of the Petersens were selling Stanley Home Products in the 1940s!

The Yancey Hotel is not only still standing, but is on the National Register of Historic Places. Located at 123 North Locust Street, the building now houses luxury condominiums and KGIN television.

photo source: nebraskahistory.org

Sunday's Obituary - John Theodore Petersen, age 18

John Theodore "Teddy" Petersen
1906 - 1924

John Theodore Petersen, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Petersen of Nora, died Sunday night, June 15, at the Blue Valley hospital in Hebron, after an illness of four days. He was buried Wednesday afternoon. Funeral services were conducted at the home near Nora and later from Bethany Lutheran church. A great throng of people attended the funeral, one of the largest seen in this part of the country for a long time. "Teddy" was born April 1, 1906, and died June 15, 1924, thus attaining the age of 18 years and 2 months. He leaves to mourn his early death his mother, father, four sisters and four brothers, besides many friends. He was well known in the Ruskin community, having lived three miles south all his life up to the last year which was spent near Nora.

Source: The Nelson Gazette, Thursday, July 3, 1924


Relationship to me: grand uncle

Wordless Wednesday - Jens Petersen's funeral

Members of the Petersen family gather at the funeral of Jens Petersen in Hardy, Nebraska in August 1948. Jens was my great grandfather.

Not So Wordless Wednesday - a family of Petersens

Members of the Petersen clan
Early 1920s

This photograph is from my grandmother's photo album from the early 1920s. When I shared the photo with another relative, I learned that I had misidentified her mother and her aunt. This cousin is now looking through her photographs to determine if we can identify some of the other people in the photo.

Seated, front row, left, is my grandfather, Otto Petersen; my grandmother, Ruby Pecht Petersen Baker is third from right; far right is Otto's brother, John Theodore (Ted) Petersen. Third from the left is the relative's mother, Nelsine Petersen. Now to learn who everyone else is!

Thriller Thursday - attempted breakout at the Nebraska State Penitentiary

In recent months, one of my new found family treasures was an album of photographs that belonged to my grandmother, Ruby Pecht Petersen Baker. The photos were from her first marriage to Otto Petersen and included photographs of my father as a baby and toddler. So I've dated the photographs to be from the mid 1920s.

Among the photos of many family members and friends - the majority of whom are not known to me, were three photo postcards that seemed out of place in this collection of images of family gatherings.

Dummy Gun
Used by Fred Brown
In Attempted Outbreak

The text on this card reads: "Dummy Gun" Used by Fred Brown "The Chain Man" in attempted outbreak September 28, 1925. Nebraska State Prison.

Further research tells me that Fred Brown was a "notorious Omaha kidnapper" and that he and another prisoner of the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Roy Smith, attempted to break out of prison on September 28, 1925. Brown and a prison guard were killed. Smith and another guard were wounded. In earlier crimes, Brown's aliases were Gus Grimes and Ernest Bush.

Source: Lincoln Star, Lincoln, Nebraska, September 29, 1925, page 1.

The next photo postcard in my grandmother's album is one of Nebraska's electric chair. Between 1879 and 1913, convicted murderers who were sentenced to death in Nebraska were hanged. The first use of the electric chair in Nebraska was on December 20, 1920 when Allison Cole was executed. In all, 15 people have been executed in Nebraska's electric chair, including notorious mass murderer Charles Starkweather.

On February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court declared electrocution as "cruel and unusual punishment." On May 28, 2009, the state legislature adopted lethal injection as its method of execution.

Source: Wikipedia

Nebraska State Penitentiary
Lincoln, Nebraska

The third and final photo postcard of this series in my grandmother's album is of the administration building at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln.

The Lincoln Star
Lincoln, Nebraska
September 29, 1925

This post is not intended to solicit a discussion of the use of capital punishment. My curiosity centers around why my grandmother included these photo postcards in an album of family photographs. She was twenty years old and she and Otto Petersen were newlyweds, having been married less than one year at the time of this incident. Ten months after this incident, her first child, my father, would be born. At this time, I know of no known connection between the attempted prison break and my family. Perhaps it was just a representation of my grandmother's curiosity about a significant news event of the time.

Veterans Day - in honor of my Dad

Kenny Petersen
U.S. Navy

November 15, 1944

Dearest Mom, Dad and Sis:

Well it is 11:30 P.M. and I just got back from my last class. We had a movie, a lecture and some look out practice. Well I’ve got a few minutes before I will hit the sack so I am a writing again to let you know that I am thinking of you all of the time. I would a lot rather write to you than anyone because I like your letters so darn much. Well I have been trying to write you everything I can and let you know what I am doing, what it is like here etc.

Golly I sure do wish that you could see some of the places that I have seen done some of the things. Gee I’m not kidding you but I am really seeing the sights. Just think. Who would have ever thought 2 years ago that I would be in the Navy and see the Gulf of Mexico and now I am almost ready to be put on a big ship and see the ocean. It’s really something eh? Just think after this war of all the things that I can tell you. About the things that I have done, and where I have been, about the ocean, the big ships, the different ports. Golly!! Oh, I didn’t tell you one thing that I did while I was on liberty.

Now don’t get mad at me when I tell you. I wasn’t a going to tell you, but heck I can tell my folks everything that I do and not be ashamed of it. Well our whole gun crew got together and Saturday when we went into Gulfport we all had a tattoo put on us. ha ha. I didn’t get a very big one. It’s an anchor with U.S.N. across it. It’s really pretty and the scab is just about off. It’s on my left arm and you aren’t a real sailor until you have one. ha. So now I am a real sailor ha. It hurt a little while the fellow put it on but it don’t bother me a bit and it’s pretty nice. Now don’t get mad please. I’m not a going to get anymore but I always did want a small tattoo on me. ha. Here is what it looks like.

This is just a rough sketch of it but this is what it sorta looks like. haha. It looks really nice and I really look salty. ha ha. Please don’t get mad or bawl me out now. Will you. Write and tell me what you think about it though. I am writing to you and sucking on some of your candy. Boy is it ever good. I really like your life savers and that is the best kind of candy that you can send me. It’s really swell. Well it’s about time to knock off and hit the sack, so will close for now. Keep them swell letters a coming and good night and Lots of Love and Kisses.

Kenny

Note: Dad came home from the war with not just one, but three tattoos. He was just 18 years old when he wrote this letter home.