Week 13 Sisters

My grandmother, Frieda is the youngest in this photo. She had three more sisters, Gertrude 1890-1966, Mary 1891-1967 and Rosa 1902-1903 and three brothers William 1886-1939, James 1888-1951, and Fred 1904-1966. Their father was born in Germany and their mother was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. They were married in Blairstown, Iowa in 1885. I believe from birth records they lived in Blairstown for the first few years of their marriage. They moved to Tipton, Iowa between the birth of Gert in 1890 and Mary in 1891. In 1900 and 1910 they lived in Tipton, Center Township, Cedar County, Iowa. In the 1920 Census they are living in Belle Plaine, Iowa and stayed there for the rest of their lives. My grandfather was born in Belle Plaine so that is where my grandparents met.

The challenge this week from Amy Johnson Crow is Sisters. I decided to look at how newspapers helped me keep track of where all of these sisters were living.

This was one of the first articles I found that led me to Tipton, Iowa. Until that time I thought they had only lived in Belle Plaine. Turns out quite of few of the Siepmann’s are buried in Tipton. I made a trip there recently with two of my sisters who live near there. The Katie Siepmann in this tiny article is the Kate in the center of the picture above. Kate is also one of my grandma’s sisters who we would visit in Belle Plaine when I was young. She lived with her mom and her brother Fred when we went to visit.

This article is about a party that Kate attended at her Uncle’s home in Iowa City. P.A. Siepmann was a brother of Kate’s father F.W. Siepmann. I love how descriptive they were in the papers at this time. I wonder if someone in the family still has the cloth with The Last Supper that would now be 145 years old! It would be fun to see.

This article about Nelle visiting Frieda in Cedar Falls threw us for a bit. We had known that grandma Frieda went to college to become a teacher but didn’t connect it with this right away. It turned out Nelle was visiting her sister at school when Frieda was in college.

The wedding announcements are a wealth of information. They are always fun to find and I learn something new with each one. I had no idea that Nelle operated a beauty parlor for a time. The Mrs. Bernard Cook who attended Nelle was her sister Frieda, my grandmother. My grandmother lived with Nelle and her husband after my grandfather passed away. We got to know Nelle and her husband Lyman well when we went to visit grandma in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Mrs Lyman Marshall is Nelle and now we have added their sister Gert in the fun, along with her son James. They were all living in Cedar Rapids. I had Gert and her son James living with her parents in Belle Plaine in 1920 and hadn’t found her since that time. Now I had a new place to look. Well, in 1930 there was a full house in Cedar Rapids. Nelle and Lyman were living with his parents, so were Gert and her son James. I have noticed in my family, on both side, that multiple generations were nearly always living together.

This visit was before the marriage of Nelle and Lyman, but Nelle and Gert were already living in Cedar Rapids. Not sure if they were living with Lyman’s parents at this time or somewhere else but it was in Cedar Rapids.

This article shows Gert and a friend went to visit my grandmother Frieda in Boone, Iowa. They returned to Cedar Rapids and took my Aunt Jean for a visit with them. My niece compared the social columns of the newspapers from this time to Facebook of today. I just think it is fun to learn about their family life and how connected they all were.

This is another visit by Gert and a friend to my grandmother Frieda in Boone. I like this one because of this line “Mesdames Fitzpatrick and Cook are sisters.” It is fun to read through the old papers.

Final article, although I do have more, this one was after my grandparents had moved to Chicago. They went back to visit grandma Frieda’s mom, who would pass away in 1950, so this may have been one of their last visits. It pays to look around the news page a little farther. A few paragraphs down it mentions Mr and Mrs E. J. Walsh of Morning Sun, Iowa. This is Mary Siepmann. So, now I have another city to explore.

I guess my point is the local newspapers have much more information than you might realize. if you want to get to know your family explore those social news stories, you won’t regret the time.

I had to throw in a couple more sister photos just for fun. This is my mom, Helen, and her sister. Pippi Longstocking wasn’t written until 1945 so this photo predates the book but I feel it channels the spirit of Pippi.

This is my dad (the tall one) and his sister and brother. Bill and Jean were both born in Boone so I am assuming this photo was taken in Boone, Iowa. My grandfather worked for the railroad so trips were quite easy for them at this time and all of the towns where they lived were connected to the railroad lines. So, this may have been from a trip back to Belle Plaine.