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Family Legends

June 14, 2024

Family legends are a fun part of genealogy. Many a genealogist has heard a story about a great-great grandmother who was a Cherokee princess or the three brothers who immigrated from Ireland together. One of them left to go West and no one ever heard from him again. There are all sorts of other stories involving ties to royalty and stolen inheritances that sometimes pop up in family lore.

 

New genealogists tend to accept these stories as true. More experienced genealogists have learned that many of the stories are based more on imagination than fact. They never accept a family legend unless they’ve proven it’s true. Not even if Aunt Maude swears that she heard it from her grandmother!

 

My great grandmother died long before I was born. According to family members she claimed she was related to the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh. When I began doing genealogy, I decided to check out the story. I thought there was a chance the story was true since my great grandmother’s maiden name was Lindberg. The name wasn’t spelled the same as Charles Lindbergh’s, but it was close, so maybe? Plus, both my great grandmother and Charles Lindbergh’s family came from Sweden.

 

As I delved into Swedish genealogy, I learned that Lindberg and Lindbergh are essentially the same name. Translated, the name means linden mountain. It was a common name of farms in Sweden. Many people took the name of the farm where they lived as their surname. Most of them were not related. That turns out to be the case with Charles Lindbergh and my great grandmother. They were from different parts of Sweden. They lived hundreds of miles apart. After pouring over Swedish church records, I could find no connection between the two families.

 

My research also shows that my great grandmother died in 1925. Charles Lindbergh didn’t make his famous flight until 1927. I doubt she was bragging about a relationship to a man who was an unknown at the time she died.  I suspect that the relationship between my great grandmother and the great aviator was a matter of wishful thinking by my grandmother’s descendants when Charles Lindbergh became so famous.

 

Even though I didn’t find out I was related to Charles Lindbergh, it was interesting to do the genealogy to debunk the legend. I suppose my cousins won’t be pleased to lose their link with a celebrity, but I’m working on another possible relationship to a famous person. According to another family story, we’re descended from one of the Salem witches. So far, it’s looking like that line is correct. Maybe my cousins will think being related to a witch is a fair trade for not being related to an aviator!

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Cemetery Peonies

June 7, 2024

The peonies all over town are in full bloom now. This is a good year for them, and it seems as if nearly every yard has a clump of the white, pink, red or yellow beauties.

 

Peonies have always been showy yard flowers, but they have also been grown for a purpose. Peonies flower once a year in late May or early June. This has made them perfect for decorating graves on Memorial Day.

 

In earlier times, folks planted these bushy flowers on the graves of loved ones. That way the graves would be decorated with their huge flowers in time for what was usually called Decoration Day.  Peonies can live for a hundred years or more. Folks felt they were planting a decoration that would still be on a loved one’s grave even after the family had died out or moved away.

 

In addition to planting peonies on graves, many people planted them in their yards. They were gorgeous in bloom, but they made an ideal cut flower to take to the cemetery. Placed in an old Mason jar with water, the flowers could last for a week or more.

 

Some people who really weren’t gardeners otherwise planted a row or two of peonies in their vegetable garden. I can remember my childhood neighbors who had two long rows of peonies next to their orchard. They were a beautiful pale pink and made a great show when they bloomed. My neighbor told me, though, that she didn’t plant them because they were pretty. She planted them so that she’d have something to cut to take to family graves on Memorial Day.

 

She wasn’t the only one to do this. My favorite peony memory is of my Uncle Wilbert’s flowers. Wilbert was my mother’s older brother. My mother idolized him. If she thought a man or a boy was handsome and a good person, she’d say, “You look and act just like Wilbert.” To her it was the greatest compliment she could give someone.

 

Sadly, Wilbert and his wife Helen lost their oldest child Larry in a traffic accident when he was nine. I don’t think they ever really recovered. Many years after his son’s death, Wilbert told me that he’d felt he had to do something to memorialize him. He realized that the only thing he could do was to grow flowers to put on the boy’s grave every Memorial Day. He planted a few peony bushes to make sure he always had flowers to take to the cemetery.

 

Over the years the peonies spread and Uncle Wilbert planted more. Eventually, he had a half an acre of nothing but beautiful peonies. The choicest blooms always went to Larry’s grave, but as the years passed, his parents, some of his siblings and even his wife joined Larry in the cemetery. Wilbert just kept growing his peonies.

 

The last time I visited with Uncle Wilbert we talked about his peonies. He was in his nineties and was still independent and still growing his peonies. His grandchildren helped him, but he picked flowers for Memorial Day every year.

 

Soon after that visit, Uncle Wilbert fell. He never recovered and died within a short time. He’s buried near his little son and the rest of his family. I don’t live in Utah now and rarely make it home for Memorial Day, so I don’t know if Wilbert’s family still brings peonies to the family graves. I hope they do.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

Cemetery Roses

May 31, 2024

June is the perfect time for visiting cemeteries. Most genealogists go to honor their ancestors and to add possible new names to their family tree. However, during this season there’s another reason to visit cemeteries – especially old cemeteries.

 

In the days before perpetual care, cemeteries were usually cared for by the families of those who were buried there. Caring for the graves of loved ones often included planting their favorite flowers near the graves. Most cemeteries are maintained by a private company or a governmental entity nowadays, and no one plants flowers by individual graves.

 

However, many flowers are long-lived, and in June roses, irises, and peonies can be seen flowering near graves in old cemeteries. If those graves are your family, it’s probable that someone who cared for the person buried there planted the flowers.

 

Even if there are no flowers near your family’s graves, the flowers planted in old cemeteries can give you a glimpse of the kind of plants your ancestors grew. Most of the flowers in cemeteries were tough and required little maintenance. If they couldn’t survive on their own, they disappeared. The flowers we see today have often been growing in the same spot for a hundred years or more. Even if someone tended them in the early days, they’re long gone by now.

 

Whether or not you have anyone buried in the old cemeteries in your area, they’re still worth a visit this time of year. Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins and Fairmont Cemetery in Denver are two that I enjoy. Although the irises and peonies are gorgeous, the stars of most old cemeteries are the roses. They’re worth the trip.

 

You’ll notice that the rosebushes at old cemeteries tend to be large. Many are six or eight feet tall and often sprawl for several yards in all directions. Thorns on these giant bushes tend to be sharp and prolific. Picking a blossom from these bushes can be dangerous since they’re so well-armored.

 

Unlike the modern hybrids that we grow now, the roses in old cemeteries only bloom once a year. They do, however, put on a major show for the week or two they bloom. Most of them are sweet-scented and perfume the air for yards around them.

 

Harrison’s Yellow is a good example of the type of rose that can be found in old cemeteries. Harrison’s Yellow is a rosebush that was developed in the early 19th century. It was tough as nails and transplanted easily so it went along with pioneers as they travelled west. It is often known as the Yellow Rose of Texas or the Oregon Rose since women carried starts of it to those locales.

 

Back then, nearly every house had a bush. With today’s smaller, more manicured yards, Harrison’s Yellow roses are seldom seen except in older neighborhoods and cemeteries. Because the roses were unusual as well as tough, they were many people’s favorite rose – hence their popularity in cemeteries.

 

I know that Harrison’s Yellow roses were my great grandmother’s favorite flower, and they still grow on her grave. Maybe they were a favorite of one of your ancestors as well. Take a ride to an older neighborhood or cemetery, and you’ll be sure to see their bright yellow blossoms.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society