Winding Down 2021

 Dear Family and Friends,

We are ending another year with the usual ups and downs. In spite of COVID that seemed to influence every aspect of our lives, we have many things to look back on this year and to look forward to next year. 

We lost family members--LaVonne Pliner Linn Halligan, Beverly Linn Sturtz, and Sidney Peterson. 

We have welcomed a new family member--Penny Belle Young.

There have been surgeries and visits to specialists, some of us have started to watch our diets and start exercising regularly. Some of us need to work on that!

Some of us have moved and changed addresses and are adjusting to life in a new location, making new friends.

I hope that wherever you are, you celebrate this Christmas and upcoming New Year with wonder and expectation and thankfulness for our ancestors who braved the many, many changes in their lives as they left their homeland to settle in a foreign area with no knowledge of the language or culture. 

In this final post of 2021, I want to share just a few photos and short stories about some of our distant, and not-so-distant, family.

Ivan D. Linn

The Linns are quite the musical group. I have photos of Peter Linn playing the "fiddle" and the mandolin, still remember Maude Linn playing her honky-tonk music on the piano, Ellis who is still wowing people with his piano talents, and so many other musicians. Ivan is certainly no exception. While Ivan and his brothers performed locally around the Dayton area, Ivan was meant for stardom.

When Ivan was in the Navy, he beat out 242 others to compete on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. If you have never seen the video that Ivan has, you should talk with him. What a talent!

The following news article taken from "The Tester", a local newsletter from the US Naval Air Test Center in Patuxent River, Maryland, dated 11 September 1953:

LOCAL SAILOR ON TV SHOW TOMORROW

"A 21-year old bluejacket with rhythm in his toes, Ivan D. Linn, is all set to appear on a nationwide TV talent show tomorrow night in New York City. The show may be seen locally on WNBW, channel 4 at 8:30 p.m.

I. D., better known as "Fuzz" to his shipmates, left Wednesday for Manhattan and rehearsals after a phone call from officials of the Ted Mack Amateur Hour earlier in the week.

The popular young sailor has appeared in numerous revues with the Stan Miller troupe and was also featured in the Pax Follies of 1953 early this year.

A native of Des Moines, Iowa, "Fuzz" first attracted the attention of Ted Mack scouts while attending a Navy school at the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Norman, Oklahoma. Entering a contest in Oklahoma City, "Fuzz" was chosen as the winner out of a group of 235 contestants.

His appearance on the nationwide televised Mack Show will not be his first TV appearance. Previously he has appeared on WDTV in Pittsburgh, Pa., and during the summer accompanied a group of local personnel who appeared on WMAL-TV in Washington, DC.

A naval reservist who expects to return to civilian life in early December, "Fuzz" appeared with his brother's musical aggregation in the midwest before being called to duty with the Navy in January 1952. His brother, Ellis, is at present serving Uncle Sam also, wearing the khaki of the Army and is stationed at Camp Kilmer, NJ." 

Marget Persdotter Barquist and Anna Margeta Barquist

Marget Persdotter is my 3rd great-grandmother, married to John Barquist, Sr. Marget and John are the parents of my second great-grandmother, Maria Barquist Olofson.

The photo below is interesting, mostly because it was taken before 1890 when Marget died. It's one of the earliest photos I have of any of our family. 

Anna Margeta Barquist was the youngest in the family of 6 children, born in 1857 in Sweden. Just a couple of months after Anna was born, the family left for America.

While I cannot tell exactly when the photo was taken, with Anna born in 1857, she can't be much older than 10 or 12, can she? That would mean that the photo was taken around 1867-1869. A very early photo.

Marget's daughter Maria, my second great-grandmother, is pictured below:

A beautiful woman, don't you think? My guess is that this picture was taken for her wedding to Olof Olofson in 1865. Perhaps the two photos above were taken at the same time. If so, 1865, just after the Civil War ended, would make these photos very early. 

I plan to continue posting to this blog next year as I discover more photos and stories of interest. Please let me know what you are most interested in so I can try to address more topics. I learn every time I explore more of our ancestry and appreciate your comments and questions and support.

God Jul (Merry Christmas)

Diane