Advent Calendar - Other Traditions - Eggs!

My mother was proud of her Swedish Heritage. Her grandparents came to Iowa from Sweden in 1890.

At Christmas time and for special occasions Mom remembered her mother making coffee at Christmas, brewed in Swedish tradition with eggshells to achieve a silky appearance. The eggshells were put directly into the coffee grounds.

I do not recall any other traditions in the family.

Happy Holidays

Advent Calendar - Christmas Gifts for the Sisters

Living in Singapore during our teenage years, my sisters and I went to a dressmaker who sewed our dresses. You would pick out a dress you liked from a magazine, buy the material and take it to her. She would wonderously make up the dress for a very small charge. Usually in just two or three days. This lady made all of our formals for the banquets we attended. It was awesome.

So.........one year I decided to have dresses made for my sisters! Three of them to be exact. I poured over some magazines to find the perfect dress for each of them. Then off to "People's Park" I went, the place where you buy material. There were vendors on two huge floors with ton's of fabrics to choose from. I bought material and embelishments for each of my sisters and took them to the dressmaker with the pictures, telling her what dress is for what sister. Since she had the exact measurements for each sister it made a perfect surprise! Wah-la! Dresses for the sisters.

The best part was when they opened their gifts and saw their new dresses. What fun!!!! They were shocked. What made it even better is the fact they liked the dresses and wore them regularly!

Advent Calendar - Grab Bag - The genealogist dream gift to give

This is a true story that happened only last Christmas. Christmas of 2009. This was the most rewarding thing I have ever done with genealogy and to top it all off it was a gift given!



An Unusual Christmas Story


On the Friday before Christmas, 2009, Nanette Ringering and I planned a gift wrapping party at my house. She, along with Heather and Rachel and me wrapped and wrapped. Lots of ribbons and bows, wrapping papers scotch tape and bags. We had Christmas music playing during this festive time of the year and of course the Christmas tree lights were twinkling on the tree. It was fun to watch Rachel looking and ooohing over the packages. (10 months old)

The mail arrived and in it was a package from my sister Nancy Kyte that included some old photographs of our ancestors. After exclaiming over them and sharing them with Nanette, she teared up and said “I’m so happy for you Mary, but I’ll never have that.” Nanette had been adopted by our familyi at the age of two weeks.

Six months earlier Nanette – from now on I’ll call her Sis – asked me to look for information on her birth family. She had given me the name of her birth mother, Dana Stygar, and where she was born. At that time there was not much to look up. I found some items of interest but had a hard time confirming them. It looked like the maiden name was Young and her mothers maiden name was Judd from old census reports. I put the information aside.

The Sunday before Christmas my Dad, Mel Lyon invited my family, Mike & myself, Kirk, Heather and Rachel, and even Sis and Steve Ringering to meet with him and his wife Phyllis at the Hometown Buffet for a good meal. Good it was indeed. We had a great time.

While I was getting some food at the buffet Steve Ringering came up to me and stated "the best gift you could ever give Sis would be to find out about her family." I told Steve I would find my information from six months ago and see what I could do. Sis had told Steve about the pictures recieved from Nancy.

The next day, three days before Christmas eve, I worked on it. You will be amazed at what I found on such short notice! Upon checking out Ancestry.com of which I am a member, I found a family tree that mentioned a photograph from 1939 of Dana Stygar. The birth and death dates totally matched! Since the tree was set to private I could not look any farther. So I sent out a message to the creator of that tree mentioning that I had a sister in law had who been adopted, and gave the name of Dana Stygar and her statistics. Sometimes on these things people take awhile to look at their messages on a board like that.

On this same day, I googled Dana Stygar. The name popped up on Facebook and I thought, no way, Dana Stygar is dead, but checked it out anyway. The profile picture of Dana Stygar gave me a shudder. It was a profile picture, and the eyes, cheekbones and nose looked very familiar to me! No way! I sent this Dana a message as well and hoped to hear form both her and Barbara Stygar – the creator of the Ancestry tree soon.

The next morning I woke up early. 4:00 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. So I got up and headed for the coffee and settled down at the computer. Oh my……..BOTH ladies replied to me! Barbara Stygar it turned out would be Sis’s sister in law. Barbara said this was interesting because she tried to find out about the girls, but was told she needed to get a court order from Sacramento to open up the records. What? Girls? I imediately went back to Ancestry and sure enough there was a Elizabeth born the same day as Sis with the same mothers maiden name. Oh my – this was exciting. Barbara sent me some photo’s of the mother and siblings of Sis that confirmed she was Sis’s mother. We have been in contact every day since! I sent Barbara a photo of Sis as well and she was shocked at the resemblance of her mother-in-law.

From Dana, I found out she was named after her Grandmother! Only two years ago she took back her maiden name (Stygar). She is the daughter of Sis’s Eldest sibling so she is 41. I never would have found her if she had not changed her name. Then – I found out Dana lives in Gresham! After conversing with her via e-mail now, I sent her the photo of Sis in which she replied “She looks just like my Grandma!” Dana and I met at Coffee’s On and spent one and a half hours together on Christmas Eve morning! She was a tall lady, big, but had those familiar features of Sis’s. It was amazing!

The day before I had taken the photo’s of Sis’s bioligical Mom and brothers, gotten 5x7 prints for them and frames for Sis. I also made copies for Dana that she loved. Plus, a total list of all the siblings. Sis’s birth mom had a total of 12 children and I was able to put them all in order of birth thanks to Barbara Stygar down in Modesto, California.

Here is what happened Christmas Eve. The Hellman’s all arrived at my house between 5 and 5:30pm for our Christmas celebration. Food was everywhere. We were all digging in. Then the doorbell rang and Dana, her friend Troy, their 5 month old son Patrick and Dana’s 17 year old first son arrived. They came in giving me a box of chocolates. The Hellman’s all thought is must be someone from the church and did not pay any attention really. Then I slipped Dana “the gift” and I asked everyone to cram into the family room. I asked Sis to sit down which she did reluctantly. Dana went to her and said “Nanette, Christmas time is a time full of surprises and family, and on behalf of my family I would like to present you with this gift.” Sis was understandably nervous. She opened the box and the first thing she saw was a listing of “The Children of Dana (Young) Stygar” with Dana’s birth and death date. Sis was the last, and a twin. The tears started falling, then she saw a picture of her Mom holding her first born with a huge smile. Sis’s dimples, eyebrows and nose for sure. I asked Sis if she knew who that was and she said through tears “no……my mom”. Then I told her Dana was her niece and they both cried and hugged and cried and hugged, and we pretty much all were a mess.

Dana and her family stayed for about 45 minutes. Dana is excited to have an Aunt that lives nearby because she has never lived close to any family. Dana and Barbara are in contact with each other again through this, and she has spoken with her Dad Joshua who remembers being in the military and hearing his Mom adopted out a girl. Her twin is a mystery.

As for myself, I must say this has been the most unbelievable and rewarding gift I have ever done for someone. To think that all of this information came down just a few days before Christmas is unreal. We now plan to try and get those court records open.
by Mary Hellman, 2009

Nanette Ringering, Dana Stygar, Christmas Eve 2009
Postnote: Sis and Dana have been in constant contact through this year. Dana's father Joshua passed away this year unexpectantly.

PLEASE HELP! If you or someone you know was born on April 11, 1961 in Los Angeles, California and had been adopted out please contact me! The adoption would have been a private one and not through an agency. The birth name would have been Elizabeth Stygar. It would be awesome to find Sis's twin!

Advent Calendar - Christmas Cookies

Who does not like Christmas Cookies? My sisters and me would make a tipical sugar cookie recipie but the most fun was decorating them with frosting and sprinkles. As teenagers, we made cookies with these cookie cutters. The snowman and the tree were the most fun to decorate. We always had a lot of fun and giggles as we saw how each other decorated the cookies. More great memories of "sister time."

As young children and living overseas I do not recall making Christmas Cookies. I'm sure we must have made them but it does not stick out in my mind.

What does stick in my mind are the Sour Cream Drop Cookies my Grandma Lyon used to make and send to us. I remember these cookies when we were very young before going overseas. When we came back to the US she would mail some to us.

In the 80's I specifically asked her if she would send me her recipe

and and few days later I received this in the mail from her in her own handwriting. I think it is a treasure now. She has been gone for many years now. (Eleanor Fahl Lyon)

Ancestor Approved Award

Wow! What a surprise when I received an e-mail from Cheri Daniels of Journeys Past who awarded me the Ancestor Approved Award. I am excited, shocked, surprised and amazed since I consider myself new at blogging. Thank you Cheri! I will consider this a birthday present. (I'm a December child)

This award comes with the requirement that you pay it forward the following two ways.

1. List 10 things that you have learned about your ancestors that surprised, humbled or enlightened you.

2. Pass the award to 10 other genealogy bloggers.

So here are the 10 things I have learned about my ancestors.

1. Even though my great grandpa (Andrew Davis) is a brick wall I have been able to figure out where he was born from his Civil War Military papers, that he was wounded in the war, and that he was a flag holder in the Grand Army Parade. His parents are still a complete mystery.

2. My great grandparents who came from Sweden had a child that died before she was two years old. It was a thrill to visit all of their gravestones in Crown Hill Cemetery, Ruthven, Iowa.

3. I was amazed to learn from the obituary of my great great great grandmother (Anna Quivey) that sixty teams (of horses) followed the procession to her burial in Hazelwood Cemetery, Grinnell, Iowa. This is a cemetery I visited and was able to actually stand beside her gravestone. It is an amazing feeling to stand where so many ancestors stood mourning their loved ones.

4. It was thrilling to actually see a photo of my great great great grandfather Linus Quivey. This came from a fourth cousin I found. He was on a horse!

5. The new cousins are fantastic! I just love finding the cousins and comparing information. Three new ones cropped up this year.

6. It was a mystery how my great grandfather David H Quivey died at the age of 30 years old, leaving five children and a wife who never remarried. He died of typhoid fever. This coming from a dear fellow genealogy lady in Iowa who did some research for me.

7. Another great great great grandfather John Merritt, came to Iowa and staked his claim on a parcel of land by tearing off a big chunk of bark from a tree and writing his name on it. He then went back to New York to bring his family to the newly discovered land. It is awesome the bark and claim was still there, waiting his return. This information came from a new cousin who had really done some fantastic research. I will post about this later because it is such a cool story.

8. It is fun finding relatives even my father has never met from different sides of his family and am able to tell him about them.

9. I enjoy sharing the finds with my sisters, who are thrilled they are not the ones doing the research, but love hearing the stories.

10. I love finding out where my ancestors are buried and especially if I can get a picture of their gravestones. Future generations will not have that option since so many people are cremated these days and their ashes scattered.

Whew!

Here are the blogs that I chose to pass the award to.

1. Branching Out Through the Years

2. Heritage Happens

3. Genealogy How To

4. We Tree

5. Genea's Genealogy

6. We Tree

7. Destination: Austin Family

8. Mountain Genealogist

9. Roots'N'Leaves

10. Gen Wish List

Advent Calendar - The most unusual ornament!

Ornaments

When Mike and I got married - way back in '75 - we hardly had any money and lived in a little shack on his parents 10 acre property. The shack came with the property when they bought it and the in-laws had not yet moved out there as they were waiting to put a mobile home on it to live in.

Anyhow - the first Christmas season - Mike took off one day with an axe. It was cold so he chopped down the first doable tree he found. It was a scrawny little thing, but it did fine for our first Christmas. We did not have ornaments so we put lights and a whole bunch of tinsle on the tree. It was missing one thing. A topper. What were we going to put on the top of the tree?

Mike had a great idea. He took some cardboard and cut out a perfect star that was about 5 inches in diameter. Then he covered it with tin foil. It looked great, but how was he going to get it on the top of the tree? Then the most hilarious idea popped into his mind. He took the round cardboard part from a tampax tampon and pasted that on the back and wa-la - it slipped perfectly on the top spike of the tree! He even put a hole in the very center of the star so we could put a little light in it.

The weirest thing of all? This year will be the 35th christmas we have used this star! Wow!

Advent Calendar - Holiday Foods with Cranberrys

Christmas tradition food.

At Christmas time we always remember and serve Grandma's Cranberry Salad. It is supposedly a Swedish recipe perhaps from Grandma's mother who came from Sweden. We really enjoy it and most of us girls make it every year for our families. Here it is.



Grandma's Cranberry Salad
1 lb ground cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 can crushed pineapple
1/2 lb marshmallows
1/2 pint whipped cream

Mix - Set - Done!