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Meet Me In St Louis
Once in a while, you get hints/ signs in life that is leading one’s self to a particular search. In my case, it had to do with family ancestry (what else right?!?) and it began on July 6, with my return back to The Redwoods assisted living facility in Mill Valley where for the past ten years, I have been visiting and playing word games with the residents.
On that first day, I was chatting with the residents about all the strange and unusual laws in each of our states. The activities director Betty suggested that I also use their computer to look up videos with lyrics so that the residents could sing state songs.
With the computer hooked up to the TV, the residents were able to look at the lyrics and sing along together as a group. Would you not know it but one of the first songs that I found was,” Meet Me In St. Louis” which comes from the 1944 Judy Garland film of the same name. It was also the movie that premiered the song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
That was hint/sign number one……
Friday morning July 9, I sit back down at the computer~something I can now do for longer periods of time! As you can well imagine, with our ancestry research, there are so many different family branches to look into, but for some reason I decided to go further back to the Bruemmer line of St. Louis.
I had already put in grandma’s husband, William J Bruemmer along with his parents and siblings, BUT decided to go a little further back and see what other information I could find on his father’s family.
As soon as I begun adding everybody’s name I not only got dozens and of both hints and leads BUT SEVERAL PICTURES AS WELL! ! In my eight years of doing this, I have found that sometimes, the older the ancestor the harder it becomes in finding an actual picture or two but not this time around!
That was hint/sign number two……
For those relatives not on Facebook, my July 9th posting showed this set of pictures below comparing the Bruemmer look that shows up in the men. You can see below the pictures how it has continue down the line starting with great grandfather’s family and his siblings to Uncle Bill, Uncle John and even cousin Lee!
Sunday Morning ,July 10, excited on how much I had found already, I went back to the computer. As shared on Facebook, every once in a while, I feel a cold chill on the left side of the table where I sit. Keep in mind that I have no a/c, no windows were open nor was there a fan nearby. Consider your niece/cousin the
Ever since I began this project in 2013, I do occasionally dream about great grandma Nell or grandma Bruemmer, but whether you believe it or not, there have been several and unusual occurrences that have happened to me. I sit at the computer and feel as if there is an ancestor floating behind me, urging me to continue on with my search. At times, I actually find what I am looking for and when the cold air disappears, I go onto something else.
On that particular Sunday, I felt someone behind me touching the top of head, brushing my hair down a bit. Of course with COVID my wild crazy hair (which has been cut just once instead of the usual 2-3 times a year) does look a wee bit wild even brushed out!! Whomever it was behind me, inspired me to continue with my search!That was hint/sign number three……
When mom came over to drop some stuff off later that afternoon, she was amazed at how much grandpa‘s brother Anton looked exactly like Uncle John!
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