Today would have been my maternal grandmother’s 100th birthday! Elise Gegenheimer Haberkern was born on 28 February 1919 in Ittersbach, Baden-Württemburg, Germany. I wrote about her origin store here. Oma, as she was known to us, married my grandfather in 1942, they arrived in the United States in 1952, and she died in 2010 at age 91. She lived a long life, full of energy, and devoted to her family. Below are a few of my favorite pictures of my beloved grandmother. Happy Birthday Oma!
I honor of this day of love, I searched around my family (and hubby’s) for Valentine’s records, marriages or pictures … nothing! Lots of marriages in December and January, but not much happening in February! I did find this clipping in the Cubbage Family Bible … I wonder which family member clipped it from the newspaper?
So no Valentine’s marriages or love letters, but here are some of the oldest pictures that I have of family couples:
c. 1902, Jackson “Jack” Draper and Sarah Pierce in Bedford, Virginia, married in 1894.1915, Elizabeth Linnemann and Frank Speck, Monessen or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, taken around the time of their marriage.1934, Mary Simko and Michael Petrun, Male Zaluzice, Slovakia, taken around the time of their marriage.c. 1939, Elise Gegenheimer and Adolf Haberkern, on a date near Stein, Germany, married in 1942.1938, Agnes Speck and Art Cubbage in Monessen, Pennsylvania, married in 1939.
I wish that I had more older pictures, but I am very thankful for those that I do have of our families. Do you have any Valentine’s marriages in your family? How about your oldest family pictures?
A good friend is a connection to life – a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. ~Lois Wyse
I am fascinated by the stories of our women ancestors, and those Fearless Females in our family trees. We think of them as mothers, daughters, grandmothers, aunties … and also girlfriends.
As November comes to an end, and after the last week’s day of Thanksgiving, I’ve been thinking of how grateful I am for my girlfriends. Through every season these women have shared insight, laughs, feedback and love.
I wonder if my ancestor’s girlfriends were just as important to them? They had sisters, neighbors and friends. And it certainly “takes a village to raise a child.” In very different ways than it does for me.
These women took care of their families, lost children and husbands to death and illness, had sons (and husbands) go off to war, moved across the state (or the world). I would imagine that they absolutely needed that network, and that women’s friendships were just as important to my ancestors as they are for me today.
I have always wished for a journal or diary of one of my ancestors. One that might tell me about their lives. But alas, I do not. Still, I can guess a little about their girlfriends from these pictures.
My great-grandmother, Elizabeth Linneman Speck, circa 1920. She is flanked by two friends and they appear to be dressed up for something. At the top her daughter wrote “cowgirls? or cowboys!”My 2nd great-grandmother Barbara Elizabeth Linneman. She looks so serious, but had been through a lot (I’ll post on her later); her friends had to have been important. She’s with “Mrs. Paul” a neighbor in Monessen in the 1920s.My grandmother, Agnes Speck mugging for the camera with girlfriends, circa 1937.My grandmother, Elise Gegenheimer Haberkern, having fun with a friend in 1961.Agnes Speck Cubbage with neighbors Irene and Virginia in New Providence, 1955.Elizabeth Linneman Speck, with her daughter Agnes and fiends. The back of the photo has “Neptune Cottage 1939” written on it.
Treasure your girlfriends and the power of women’s friendships.
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