My niece is busily archiving a vast pile of family documents to ancestry.com, and I periodically get these announcements that something new about long-gone relatives has appeared. This is a family portrait of the Westads in Fertile, MN ’round about 1900.
The stern bearded fellow seated in front is my great-great-grandfather Jens Pederson Westad, and next to him is my great-great-grandmother Marit Oldsdatter Solem Westad. The tall young man standing at the back is my great-grandfather Peter. He looks to have been about the age of the students I teach nowadays, which is a bit strange to me, since I remember him as a tall old guy with a great grey mustache. We all get old, I guess.
It just reminded me that I’ve got Peter’s pocketwatch (he’s not wearing it yet in the photo, he won’t buy it until 1908) out for repair and it should be ready any day now, and I do have his Talebakke Totenkniv (not worn in the photo, again it’ll be a few years before he buys it) on the desk in front of me. I always feel this odd thrill at seeing connections like this.
He seems to be wearing some kind of decoration. Like an award of some kind.
As always with very old photos it’s striking how the idea of smiling has yet to be invented. X-D
I always thought that people looked stern in old-timey photos because they had to stand still for the plate to be properly exposed and smiling was tiring.
They look to be a prosperous family. What did your GGGF do? Was he an immigrant or maybe a first generation American-born citizen?
I got to say, your great-great grandfather is your spitting image, PZ.
The beard helps.
It’s complicated. Jens was a 2nd or 3rd generation American, but every generation had a Swedish born bride. I guess pickings were slim in 19th century northern Minnesota.
They were a farming family. Peter was employed as a farmhand. The census records show that he moved about a fair bit between several counties to get work.
Not rich at all, probably pretty poor. Every family had one set of formal clothes that they’d wear to church every week.
Marit looks a bit stunned in the photo. I’m not surprised — she was born in Hedmark, Norway in 1859, had a daughter at age 26, found herself on a boat to America in 1879, and immediately upon arriving in the flat prairies of northern Minnesota was impregnated and gave birth to Peter. I imagine there was a fair bit of culture shock.
I had to lookup Talebakke Totenkniv. This article was the second hit on the results page. All the other hits were in Swedish? or maybe Norwegian? The internet is a weird place.
Talebakke was a famous knife maker from the Toten region of Norway. It was considered very fashionable to carry a stylish, rather ornate knife as part of your sunday-go-to-meetin’ get up, and it gave you something to do while idle — whittling. A whole lot of whittlers from that part of the world.
PZ @ 8
Thanks. I had guessed that Talebakke was a translation of tobacco and Totekniv was a knife that you toted around. I was close but no cigar. : )
@PZ: Your comment about Peter’s pocket watch is timely (ha!).
Coincidentally, this afternoon I’m due to pick up an almost-as-old family heirloom, a mantel clock that was a retirement gift in 1912. It’s been with me since 2008-ish, but it stopped working in December. The last remembered service was in the mid 1970’s so it has worked for 40+ years, keeping reasonable time.
There’s a big hole on our mantelpiece waiting for its return!
How many Ole Olesons do you have in your ancestry? I’ve got at least 2.