Many thanks to Karen Ancester Soup for the Ancestor Approved award! What a delightful surprise! The award came a few days after I put the blog on sabbatical. So, belatedly, I am responding.
It’s my job, now, to “list ten things I’ve learned about any of my ancestors that has surprised, humbled, or enlightened me, and to pass the award along to ten other bloggers whom I feel are doing their ancestors proud.”
1. At age 18 John Brenner, my gg-grandfather, left Adelshofen, Baden, to cross the Atlantic Ocean. A few years after arriving in the U.S., he answered President Lincoln’s call for 100 day troops to fight in our Civil War.
2. Judson Brenner, my great grand-uncle, is reported to be the first one to turn in his civil service exam when that test was first administered in Cleveland, OH. While he qualified for a civil service position, he chose not to take one. He was the first individual, not a professional coin dealer, to serve as president of the American Nusmismatic Society
3. Great aunt Kate Bode was an accomplished poet.
4. Kate Welk (Brenner) bore 15 children. Nine of them lived long and successful lives; six died in childhood or as young adults.
5. Great Aunt Clara Mieding (and her fiance Wilson “Bobo” Willock) gave up their plans for a future together so she could care for her brother’s ailing wife and their daughters… and so that he could care for his ailing mother.
6. Gg-aunt Julia Brenner was the first woman to serve as ‘truancy’ officer for the Youngstown, OH, school district. She also helped establish a number of organizations for young women.
7. G-grandfather Edward Mieding was reported to have the toughest hands in town. He worked in a lumber yard, moving thousands of board feet of lumber without a splinter.
8. Gg-grandfather John A Smith was one of the first house movers (perhaps, the very first) in Dayton, OH.
9. G-grandmother Mary Ellen Cole was expected (by her parents and the Firestones) to marry Harvey Firestone (later the founder of Firestone Tire & Rubber). She, however, had her eye on Lloyd Brenner. Her brother, Nate, would serve as a lookout while Mary Ellen and Lloyd met. At least, that is how the story goes.
10. The Cole family (my great-grandmother was a Cole) lineage extends back to a couple of knights in England. (I have not yet verified this.)
Early in April, this award seemed to appear in a large number of the blogs I follow, and ones I would have passed it on to. Because I know that the award has been passed on to a great number of bloggers (and because I am a month late) I’ll not pass it on. I will however, add it to my Fireplace Mantle.