Altengeseke - plus the house and Mom as a child

Here is a photo from Google Earth of the village in Westphalen, Germany, where my mother was born in 1897 and lived for the first six years of her life until the family emigrated to the U.S. in 1903. You can't find it on a map any more...it was incorporated with the town of Anrochte in 1975. But you can see it on Google Earth. It lies across farmland just a little south and west of Anrochte.



And here is the only photo I have of Mom as a child--perhaps she's 10 or 12? I'm guessing the two other kids are her sister's or brother's children. My brother Gene looked a lot like Mom here when he was young. The little blonde sitting in the chair looks like my brother Bob did as a very young child, too. And several of my brother Bob's children had that white-blonde hair, as did my son Tom, when they were very young.



Here is the photo of Mom's family home in Germany. My brother Paul emailed it to me today. [Thanks, Paul!] Paul says, "The house on the left is the Redder house. The house next on the right is the Pieck (sp) [Piek] house, and I believe the building on the far right is the mill and bakery...Grandpa Redder not only farmed, but also stored, milled, and baked for his neighbors with their own wheat." Note the pile of stuff in the front yard. I used to think it was manure, but now it looks more like grain to me. Paul also says that Mom, as a little girl, used to long to have butter for her bread, but all the butter they made was sold. Perhaps this kind of economizing is how Grandpa raised the money to take the family to the U.S. Not only did he have $1000 (worth how much in today's dollars, I wonder?? In 1903, a new Ford automobile cost $850) in hand when they arrived, but he'd also had to pay ship's passage for the whole family. That's a lot of butter.

My mother's funeral in 1975 was the first time I saw my grandparents' photographs, also belonging to Father Ray. My dear niece Susan did make copies of these before she returned them, and they're around here somewhere. I'll add them when I find them.

I do have my grandmother's missal, one of two items my mother had from her life in Germany. (I have the other item, too: a little wooden toy shaped like a fat little man that "walks" down an incline.) The brass binding on the back cover is broken, and the purple cover has faded, but it's very old. The church calendar inside on page xi begins at 1873--133 years ago, when my grandmother was 16. Maybe she got this for her confirmation or for her wedding.



Inside the missal are several holy cards, and this lacy one is my favorite because it has her delicate handwriting on the back. The front of the card says "My Jesus, Mercy!" Then it says "Jesus [something and something] of hearts, Make my heart like your heart!" (Babelfish did not recognize the two words, either!)



I need a magnifying glass to read the handwriting on the back, but even then I can barely make it out...The only clear words are at the end of the second line: "St. Louisa."