SENTIMENTAL SUNDAY

This is a picture of my parents and brother Tom and I. It was taken in our back yard. I am thinking it was the summer of 1951. Because my brother was born in November of 1950.

My thoughts now are, who took the picture and why are we both looking at my dad. He must have said something funny or crazy to get us to look at him like that.

My father always planted a large garden. He told me that his grandfather, also Thomas Dowd, always had a large garden and he would walk to his house and he would give him vegetables to take home.

Dad had two plots, upper and lower. In the lower he would plant tomatoes, green onions, beets, cabbage, lettuce, and beans. In the upper garden he had asparagus and raspberry bushes, and at the property line a line of Concord grapes growing on a wire fence. He also planted peach, apple and plum trees. The apples were made into apples sauce and plums were canned. The peaches did not seem to grow well, or there were not enough for canning.

They canned everything they grew. Mom and dad would spent a lot of time in the late summer and early fall in a sweltering kitchen preparing the vegetables, cleaning the bottles, and washing the rings for the Ball Jars.

In early fall we would go to a Farmers Market and buy a bushel or two of peaches, apples, pears and more tomatoes. I had the honor and privilege of working in the kitchen. I hated every minute of the drudgery.

I remember blanching tomatoes and peaches and taking off the skins in preparation for putting them in jars. A sugar syrup solution was made and put over the fruit. I guess boiling water was used for the vegetables.

They would cook them in a large water bath or in a huge pressure cooker. They knew which had to be sterilized in what cooker. After that was done for the day I would hear the lids of the jars popping as they permanently sealed.

We would have produce all autumn, winter and spring. Then in the summer the process would begin again. After my father died, I found homes for all that equipment. I think my friends really like what I gave them.

I do not do any canning myself, but my sisters do. I guess it is because I was exhausting from canning at an early age.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

NEW PICTURE

 

From the collection of Angelika Schonwitz.

This is a photo of my great grandparents Anna Meta Hackmann and Frederick Schridde.   My cousin said it was taken about 1890.   I thought perhaps it was a wedding picture, but they were married 24 September 1887.

It is a pleasure to see your great grandparents when they were young.

NEW SCHRIDDE INFORMATION

Another bit of information from my cousin ES. She sent me two pictures of her mother, and her mother does resemble my mother. Both women are named Gerda. She also was able to identify many of the people in my unknown picture, I had suspected that they were my great grandparents and my detective skills proved to be so.

According to my cousin the elderly woman is Anna Meta Hackmann Schridde, Freida Schridde Bordolo, next unknown, fourth is Hilde a woman who was helping at their house, fifth Lily Claussen, Rudolph Bordolo and Fritz Claussen and the elderly man is Frederick Schridde.

The children are Rolf Claussen, Fritz Claussen, Rudolph Bordolo, Liese Lotto Bordolo and Heinz Claussen. The picture was taken in 1928 when the first new car was purchased. Just like here everyone is interested in a new car. I wonder if the men lifted the hood and looked at the engine.

My cousin said that her mother was so happy to see the pictures, the pictures that she had were destroyed in the war.

It amazes me that two people living a half world away were able to share and identify family from long ago.

She also sent me a picture of my great grandparents taken about 1890. They look so young and happy. I will post it later since I can find it at the moment.

NOT MUCH HAPPENING

I think after the excitement of finding a cousin, who is researching in Germany, I have come to rest. Not rest, as in quitting, but rather, I have expended a lot of psychic energy the past few week and I am rather just resting.

I still have a lot of things to do. From ES (my cousin), I have found the name of Willis great grandparents. I have looked on the LDS site and found nothing. My great great grandmother's name is Anna Katherine Sophie Goetjem. I am thinking that perhaps the name is Dutch. Hamburg is close to the Netherlands so it is possible. More research has to be done on this line.

ES mother is still alive, by my calculation I think she was born in 1928, I have to check the numbers, but Gerda did not make the Gerburtstag list.
I sent ES a few question I hope Gerda can answer them for me.

Schridde Family

 

 

From left to right. 

Heinrich Theodore Frederick Schridde   b. 28 September 1862

Elsa Schridde Czitkowski  b. 15 December 1889   d.   June 1961

Anna Meta Margarethe Hackmann    b. 8 April 1868

Willi Schridde   b.  14 February 1898     d. 19 August 1937

Kate Schridde Schmolling   b.  26 December 1900

Emilie Schridde Beckmann  b. 24 September 1887    d. 26 March 1961

Frieda Schridde Bordolo     b. 25 March 1892       d.  November 1961

Lilly Schridde Clausen     b.  28 January 1896      d.  1977

MAJOR BRICK WALL CRUMBLED

My excitement has been realized.. My German cousin is official. Our grandparents are siblings and she identified the five sisters with their names.

This all was because she and I both joined My Heritage Family Tree. I had joined in the spring and she had joined in June. She told me that she was unaware that she had family living in the USA. I can honestly say that I knew I had relatives living in Germany, but I did not know who they were or how to contact them.

She also told me that her mother knew the Schridde Family History. I will have to ask her if her mother is still alive. Her mother would be eighty two, so, it is possible that she is living.

The interesting part is her mothers name is Gerda and she was named after my mother. Gerda, my mother, would have been five years older than her cousin.

More to come.