Genealogy by Social Media or

Sand in our veins 

What a great way to spend a couple freezing days in January!
A little backstory:
You should recall by now that Grandma Lizzy (Sand Hesch) had an older brother named Joseph, who lived in Saskatchewan, Canada.  Joe's wife Antonia was a Poser from Pierz. They were married in Buckman  January 14, 1908.  Eventually they had a son, Michael, two daughters, Mary and Agnes, and an adopted son, Erwin. Here's a (new) photo of most of them in the late 40s, tho we don't know what the occasion was.

I know you're wondering where this photo came from, right?  Well, yesterday and today on Facebook we had a genealogical identi-fest, as Christa posted a photo to see if collectively, we could name everybody in the photo. Here's that photo, and yes, we DID!

Right behind Sr Severine and Sr Teresita are their two brothers, Frank and Joe (both wearing suspenders ☺), and the woman sitting on the right is Veronica** (Vernie Sand Wintermeyer), so five of the ten sibs were together for a reunion in Shaunavon, Sask. in 1964.  I remember Gramma reluctantly deciding she couldn't go along.  I suppose it was partly because the car would have been really over-crowded with Frank driving, Catherine riding shotgun and Gramma, Vernie, and the two nuns packed in the back, tho I would pay to have seen it ☺.

Here's what we came up with: Joe standing and his wife Antonia beside Sr Teresita, Frank's wife Catherine behind Antonia. Mary and Agnes, back row, were Joe's daughters, and Rosa, next to him, was Mike's wife, so maybe the photographer was Mike or Pete.  SOME things should stay a mystery, right?

**That's Vernie Wintermeyer sitting next to Antonia, but Christa remembered that John Wintermeyer died in 1959, so that couldn't be him next to Vernie.

Hooray, Christa, and Thank You! 

This was FUN

Srs. Severine and Teresita, OSB

Two of Mike and Louisa's family became nuns--their eldest daughter, Mary (back row next to Joe and below, right) became Sr Severine, while the third youngest, Ann (next to her dad here) became Sr Teresita (that's her on the left, below).  

Christa wrote and asked St Benedicts for more information about them and they sent a one page summary on each sister, with photos of their respective grave markers, and these short narratives:



"Sister Severine was preceded in death by her sister, Sister Teresita.  Their parents had been the first couple married in the Buckman parish.  Sister Severine spent many years teaching, nursing, cooking, doing housework, and doing church work in a variety of locations.  She suffered from cancer and was noted for her patience and her resignation to her illness" and "Sister Severine always wanted to be a sister from little on and to dress like one. "

 (Rank must mean family birth order ☺).

"Sister Teresita was at St. Cloud Hospital recovering from a broken foot when she died very suddenly.  She had been a grade school teacher for more than 50 years, serving the longest at Bluffton, from 1925 to 1945.  In her later years when her sight failed, she could be found praying the rosary, "that God's will be done."  Her sister, Sister Severine, survived her".

 Wow, a young Sr Teresita!

I really liked both these women.  They were good, gentle souls who laughed easily.  I wasn't aware how either of them died, or from what.  I really wish I'd known them as an adult, 

or better yet, now, when I understand a bit more about life.

The interesting mind of a devoted researcher

One evening last winter, Larry showed me something curious he'd found online about missionary nuns among the Ojibwe in Northern Minnesota.  We'd been talking about Sr Laura, my dad's aunt.  He found an article in a Minnesota Historical Society magazine that was digitized online.  One faded photo from that article fascinated us both--a classroom with a band of children, and a nun covering her ears ►

Well.  One of us kept the pic in her file for awhile, and the other of us kept hoping to find the original photo.  It stayed in the back of his mind all this time.  He knew they wouldn't have used a terribly faded photo, and that our copy was probably just a digital distortion, but still!  There had to be a story there...lol

Last night we realized that MHS had to have the original, or they wouldn't have used it in their magazine.  So, while one of us was blathering away by herself on instant messenger, the other of us was searching the Minnesota Historical Society's collection of photos.

Voila!

It's labeled "Childrens band, Drexel Indian School, White Earth" in 1910 or so, and it's a much clearer photo, taken outside, with five serious kids, two adult musicians, one placid nun, and one laughing, with her ears covered.

YAY, Larry! ☺

Here's another Pierz connection that Larry found lately--a nun I didn't know, but possibly you might.  He found it on CORBISIMAGES  just in case you want to buy it.

Anybody remember Sr Alphonsetta? And, geez, do they still make those shoes??

Nun so fair

It's too bad that becoming a nun detached a person from her birth family and attached her to a convent family. She was given a new unrelated name, and her family name seemed to be re-attached only when she died.
In my parents' families, we have Sr Laura OSB, Sr Teresita OSB, Sr Severine OSB, Sr Kunigunda OSF, and Sr Lazara OSF.

Just so it's recorded somewhere:

Sr Teresita was Anna Sand (daughter of Mike Sand & Louisa Rausch)...she was the skinny, small one, with a great sense of humor and most often a coif that was askew (left in picture)...lol

Sr Severine (middle in picture)was originally Mary Sand (daughter of Mike Sand & Louisa Rausch)...she was built more like Grandma, and looked like her too.

Sr Laura (on right in the picture) started life as Theresa Hesch (daughter of Paul Hesch & Mary Otremba)...lots about her elsewhere on Hesch History.

Sr Kunigunda was mom's aunt Anna Janson (daughter of Joseph Janson and Franziska Fuchs)...did we kids ever meet these two sisters? The Franciscan order took the "poverty" vow seriously, so when mom sent them pictures of us, they weren't allowed to keep them. In a few days, a letter would arrive full of holy cards...and the pictures.

Sr Lazara was another aunt, Sophia Janson (daughter of Joseph Janson & Franziska Fuchs)...Sr Lazara was wheelchair bound in later life. I think this photo was from c 1935-40.

Click SISTERS for a link to other pictures from the Milwaukee Convent.

Evidently, there was no standard way to record teaching nuns on censuses--a school convent with a few nuns would sometimes be just their religious names, not even "Sr.", and other years, it might be "Severine Sand", so it's impossible to trace them unless you know where they were stationed, in what years. And now, even their own mother houses don't list them, at least not online....but how hard would that be?

(36 days)