Mariah Alvina Ecklund Kaski

I spent November and December focused on researching my Kaski line, specifically my grandfather, his parents, and siblings. The matriarch of this line is Mariah Alvina Ecklund Kaski, my great-grandmother.

 

Her youngest daughter, Elaine, described Mariah as having dark brown eyes, auburn hair when young, then dark with a natural white wing; height of 5'4 with a 14.5 dress size. She loved to garden and had lots of house plants [just like her great-great granddaughters]; she also read a lot. She was a very hard worker, who was very close to her sisters. Illnesses included rheumatic arthritis.

Mariah and Peter had a total of 9 children: one child died at birth. By 1930, the eldest child, Earl, had already moved out of his parent's home; the US census record from 1930 (screenshot below) is likely the only official record showing the Peter & Mariah family. My grandfather, Elroy M., was 3 years and 5 months old.

DNA Results

 I finally got curious enough and sent off my sample to get Ancestry to tell me what they think of my DNA. It basically aligns with my tree, aligning my Untiedt & Mann sides as Sweden & Denmark.

And here's how that compares to my family tree; below shows the regional background area each of my great-grandparents originated from, deriving 19% Finnish, 6% Swedish, 25% Norwegian, and 50% German. 

However, my German ancestors came from northern Germany. Right along the lines of Denmark, or in some cases, in places, that at various points in history were part of Denmark. As well, Sweden also conquered various parts of these same lands, and so, it is not surprising that my German ancestry is actually aligned with Swedish and Finnish ethnicities. Especially when you considered the vast number of blonde hair children our family has produced.

Elroy Merrill Stanley Kaski - my grandfather

My grandfather, Elroy Kaski, passed away when my dad was 5 years old, so all I know about him are the few stories I've heard, and the things I've found through my family tree journey. Here's a few of the finds I thought my father and aunt and cousins might appreciate.

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Can you feel the love tonight? My grandparents: 

Elroy Kaski & Delores Morud

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Phone Book, 1956

What's not to love about these old phone book directories?

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High school 1943

Can you imagine high school in 1943? How amazingly different his life must have felt to his parents who grew up in rural Finland and South Dakota. And how challenging a time, when the world was enveloped in the second world war. For my grandfather, his siblings were deployed and off fighting for the U.S. military while he, the youngest, stayed behind with his mother.

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Draft registration card, 1944

At the time he completed the draft registration card, WWII was a stark reality Elroy would have understood too well. 5 years in to WWII, my grandfather registered while still in High School: note the "Student" notation below.

He registered to serve for a country his father immigrated to only 40 yrs before. Though his father had already passed, by 1944 at a minimum Elroy's siblings Elma, Erma, Elmer, and Elton, were already deployed and serving. 

[My aunt Elaine would be so mad at me right now, because I probably missed naming 1 or 2 of the other siblings who also served; she drilled this in to me, but those are still in my paper notes. Guess I'll have to dig those up soon to update this post. She was so very proud of their service.]

Before, my favorite part of this draft registration was that I got see his signature for the first time. I've been working this research project for 30 years now, and was surprised to see he used both middle names. My youngest shares the fact that she also has two middle names, so I thought it was extra cool that he honored both of those names by signing both.

However, many months after I originally posted this message, I found a new favorite part of this record. I went back to Ancestry to see if I could find a better date range for when my grandfather completed this draft registration. In doing so, I came across the backside of the card. While the descriptions are interesting, they weren't surprising since I've seen pictures. But it was when I went to enter in the date, October 12, 1944, that I realized it was the day after my grandfather turned 18. 

But, what I love about family history is that one thread always unravels another in this complex quilt of our lineage. Why, if he registered right away, did he wait to enlist until September 1950? See the enlistment date in the next section below.

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Military details for his headstone

My father served more than 20 years in military, and will surely appreciate the enlistment details.

 

Yearbook pictures

 An entertaining new addition to Ancestry.com has been Yearbook photos. There's a lot of years out from a wide array of places. Imagine your worst yearbook picture living on in your family tree for generations? Yikes. Here's some of the yearbook pics I've found. 

New finds, June 2022

Morud line

 

Renee Bertrand, 1971

Ward Benson, 1976 (my 2nd cousin, once removed, through Martha Maurud Benson)

Mary Farrell, (wife of my 2nd cousin, once removed through Martha Maurud Benson)

New finds, April 2022

Morud line

Debbie Lambertz, 1967

     Matthew Larson, son of Debbie Lambertz, 1994

Brian Lambertz, 1967     

Kaski line

Diane Kaski (my 1st cousin, once removed), 1966

Leah Farkas (second cousin), 1995

Westbrook Teer (spouse of 2nd cousin), 1993

Jayme Halbritter (grandson of my great-uncle), 1988

Patti Robison McAvoy (1st cousin, once removed), 1973

Ralph Robison (1st cousin, once removed), 1976

Shore & Venegas lines

Earl Shore Jr (great-uncle of my niece)

Gayle Schaefer (grandma of my niece & nephew), 1970

Karen Jaramillo Shore (Nana to my niece & nephew), 1972 

Mary Lea Hutson (great-grandmother of my niece & nephew)

Robert Anthony Manuel Venegas (grandfather of my niece & nephew), 1958

Tim Shore (grandfather of my niece & nephew), 9th grade

New finds, March 2022

Untiedt line

Patsy Untiedt (my mother), 1969

Patsy Untiedt (my mother), 1970

Original post

Kaski line

Elroy Kaski (my grandfather), 1943

Untiedt line

Ann Scanlan Untiedt (my aunt), 1960

Howard Untiedt (my uncle), 1964

Barb Untiedt Spalinger (my aunt), 1968

James Alan Spalinger (my uncle), 1965

Lavonne Untiedt Schardin (my aunt), 1967

Tom Untiedt (my uncle), 1973

Tom Untiedt (my uncle), 1974

Jason Schardin (my cousin), 1982

Wayne Schardin (my cousin), 1st grade

Elizabeth Kaski Venegas (my sister), 1996

Scott Wells (my husband), 1983