Recently my daughter Kristin and I have been working on genealogy for our family. There is something so compelling to find the stories of family ancestors before us. Above are pictures of Lonnie's great grandparents on his father's side. The top picture is Johann and Phillipina Jahnke, and the bottom is Johann and Albertina Leitow. I wish we had a lot more information about their story of coming to America, and then to Nebraska. Both families were homesteaders in our county, and they were some of the early settlers in this area. We still farm the Leitow family farm ground. When I am walking around the land, and the homestead place where the Leitow's began their American story, I feel a wonderful connection to them. I think about the fact that, at some point, they may have stood at the exact same spot that I am on. That they too enjoyed the beautiful sunrises, and sunsets around their land. Kristin is like a detective, uncovering facts, and maps, and bits and pieces to puzzles. We were extremely lucky to locate a box of very old photos with generations of pictures. What a wonderful find. Luckily most of the photos were labeled with names. Some of those photos tell their own story...like the story of the Great Great Uncle that we thought had never married. He actually was married to a "mail order bride". We have their wedding picture. Sadly , the union did not work out, and she left him. Amazingly enough, Lonnie remembered a story about that uncle that his Dad used to tell him.
While I have been truly enjoying all the fun stories, photo's and facts about these people, most of my enjoyment comes from spending time and sharing a common interest with my daughter Kristin. We will continue searching and hopefully finding stories. We recently spent some time at the local library using Ancestry.com. I think we were both overwhelmed by all the information available, but anxious to check it out again..soon.
