My Grandfather Was A Scrapbooker!!

My grandfather, Roy T. Johansen, was an avid scrapbooker. I remember watching him write on the pages in his scrapbooks. He always used a ruler. Placing the ruler on the page, then writing each letter above the ruler, but ending the word at the straight edge. If any letter needed finishing below the ruler's edge, he completed the letters after removing the ruler from the page. As a result, his writing was always perfectly straight and very legible.

Each scrapbook was given a title, a purpose for it's creation. Most often, the purpose for the scrapbook was to document a vacation both grandma and grandpa had taken. Consequently, the pages were often filled with photos, postcards, maps, napkins from restaurants, receipts for gas, hotels, and food. Some of the trips were not vacations, but were taken to attend family funerals or family weddings. Consequently, some of the scrapbooks contain wedding invitations, funeral service programs, and newspaper clippings for births, deaths, and marriages. We know of at least 18 scrapbooks that were created by my grandfather. A few of the titles are:

• Our Family Fun Times
• Trip to Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah
• Ada Curtis Family
• Dona and Reed; Brigham City; Jackson Hole; Hayden Lake; Crater of the Moon; Glenn Canyon; Monument Valley; Moab (The longest title of all the scrapbooks)
• Clayt and Mel
• 1961 Trip with Florence and Clifford
• 1965 Southern California Edison Company Retirement

Literally, thousands of photographs are in the scrapbooks. Grandpa did not write a lot of the details in the scrapbooks, but we could still piece together hundreds of stories based upon what he saved in each book. The maps he saved plot the exact route they took while on their trips. Grandpa was a map-maker and worked for the Southern California Edison Company. I'm sure that his profession was the reason he included so many maps. I also think his meticulous writing was a result of his work as a map-maker. Unfortunately, he did not write a lot in the scrapbooks and rarely were people in the photos identified. But I can still imagine what it was like for him to take a trip back home to his place of birth, a place he had not seen since he was four months old. I wish his thoughts and feelings were recorded in the scrapbooks about the places they traveled to and the friends and family they visited. My father and his sisters have helped identify some of the people in the photos, but not everyone. I've learned a lot about my grandparents, Roy and Ada [Curtis] Johansen from the scrapbooks. I'm grateful grandpa took the time to create each book and I'm grateful we still have them in the family. They are a treasure in our family that we will always cherish. Thank you Grandpa for taking the time to create your scrapbooks!

Johan Roy Tolve Johansen

 I wrote a story about my grandfather, Roy T. Johansen, in the third week of the "52 Ancestors" goal for 2014. This is the fourth week and I am writing another story about the same grandfather. He was born in February 1900 at Omaha, Nebraska to Danish immigrants, Johan Johansen and Juliane Hansen. He always wrote his name as "Roy T. Johansen" and on some records his name was recorded as Roy Thorvald Johansen.

In 1965 the whole story changed.

Grandpa was working for the Southern California Edison Company (SCEC) and in 1965 he wanted to retire. However, there was a glitch. He had to prove he was 65 years old. The story I always heard was that he couldn't retire if he couldn't prove he was 65 years old. The problem he encountered was that Nebraska was not keeping official state records of birth in 1900, the year he was born, so getting a birth certificate was impossible.

The story continued ...

Grandpa wrote letters to everyone he could think of that might have a record of his birth. He wrote to the schools he attended, the churches he attended, the places that he had worked as a youth. Eventually he found the little church in Omaha where he was christened as an infant and luckily they had the old record book where his name, birth date, christening date, and parents' names were recorded. I remember hearing that he obtained a birth certificate from the church where he was christened and that this certificate was used as his proof of age for his retirement.

Grandpa learned a lot more about himself as a result of finding his christening record. He learned that the name he had been going by his whole life was not the name he was given as his christening. Instead of being Roy Thorvald Johansen, he was christened as Johan Roy Tolve Johansen. When grandpa asked his half-brother Armand about his name, he was told that the "Tolve" meant 12 and he was given that name because he was his mother's 12th child.

12 children in the Johansen family? How can that be? Grandpa only knew of five children, including himself. The oldest was Armand, then Carrie, and Hans. The three oldest were grandpa's half-siblings. His biological sister was named Alma. That's the family that grandpa knew and grew up with. Where were the other seven children? Who were they? Boys, girls, who knows? No one knew the answers. Grandpa passed away never knowing the names of his 7 other siblings.

Last week in the "52 Ancestors" series I wrote about the scrapbooks that my grandpa Johansen kept. In one scrapbook he pasted all the replies he received from the letters he wrote to prove his date of birth. I searched every scrapbook for the "official" birth certificate he received from the church where he was christened. I asked every family member if they knew where the certificate was. No one had seen the certificate. We assume grandpa gave the certificate to the Southern California Edison Company when he applied for retirement.

In one of the scrapbooks I also found a birth certificate that I thought was a copy of a delayed record of his birth. However, it proved to be a form that my grandfather filled out, but never submitted to the state for official filing. It's no doubt that this is grandpa's handwriting. I would recognize his handwriting anywhere:

This little piece of paper is a short history of his family. At the time of grandpa's birth, the family was living "On South Vinton St. So. of R. R. Track in 3300 Block". His father, Johan Johansen, was born "near Copenhagen, Denmark" on 6 May 1871. He was a butcher and also a "Theatre owner from 1909" and the last time he engaged in this work was March 1934.

His mother, Juliane Hansen, was born at Ringkiobing, Denmark" on 6 Sept 1862. In the "late 1890's" she "ran Hotel in Omaha, Nebrs" and she was a housewife from 1900. The last time she engaged in this work was 23 July 1911.

Question 27 on the form asks the "Number of children of this mother (at time of this birth) and including this child. (a) Born alive and now living." Grandpa wrote the word "Five." "(b) Born alive but now dead." Grandpa wrote the word "Four." The last part of the question was "(c) Stillborn" and grandpa wrote the word "Three."

I think that my grandfather's retirement years were a little unusual. I can't imagine what it was like for him to learn at age 65 that the name he went by all his life was not the name he was given at his birth. I also can't imagine was it like to find out that there were seven other siblings in his family that he knew nothing about. We are still searching for my grandfather's other siblings. I'm so glad that grandpa loved to create scrapbooks because they are filled with stories and little clues about the genealogy research he did during his retirement years. In twelve days, we will celebrate grandpa's 114th birthday. Happy Birthday Grandpa! This story is for you!

(See grandpa's story on FamilySearch)

Minnie Steffen's Quilt Top

Quilt Top Made by Minnie Steffens Erskine

Minnie Steffens Erskine made this quilt top and it was given to my grandparents Aldred and Bee Erskine when Minnie passed away. Aldred was Minnie's son. The quilt remained in Bee's possession after her husband Aldred passed away. In 1976 when my grandmother Bee passed away the quilt top was given to my mother Dorothy. Bee's full name was Frances Berniece Hartley.

Minnie and her husband Charles Clarence Erskine lived in Burbank, California, in the same neighborhood as my mother did when she was growing up. Grandma Minnie always saved the chicken legs for her granddaughter Dorothy, who remembers "popping in to see her" grandma Minnie often.

My mother has always wanted to finish the quilt, add the batting and the backing, then the quilting. I'm not sure why the quilt still remains unfinished. Minnie was born on 26 February 1873 in Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa. She was living in Iowa during the 1880 US Census and on 18 November 1890 she was married to Charles Clarence Erskine in Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minnesota. Their first seven children were born in Superior, Douglas Co., Wisconsin, including my grandfather Aldred Erskine. The last three children were born in Fairview, Richland Co., Montana. Three of the ten children died in infancy. Eventually the family settled in California.

The quilt top makes me think about all the unfinished projects I have that are stored in closets and boxes around the house. Some of my finished projects I have taken out of frames, folded them up, and placed them in my cedar chest. Will anyone wonder about my unfinished projects or about my finished projects that are tucked away out-of-sight? I wonder about great-grandma Minnie's quilt top. Was the fabric for each doll taken from scraps that she used to make clothing for her ten children? Or maybe Minnie made clothes for my mother when she was young and the scraps were used to make this quilt top? Minnie's two daughters died before they reached one year of age. Was the quilt started in the hopes of giving it to one of her daughters? Maybe after the loss of both daughters, Evaline Dorothy and Minnie May, my great-grandmother could never bring herself to the point of finishing the quilt. Did the quilt bring all the sad memories of her daughters to the surface?

I will never know the answers to my questions about my great-grandmothers unfinished quilt. The lesson I learn from this is that I should record somewhere the stories about my own unfinished projects. There are reasons why I hang on to the unfinished projects I have stored in boxes and closets. Maybe the reasons for my unfinished projects can be turned into stories about me. Will my great-grandchildren in the future wonder about the stories related to my unfinished projects?

I think everyone might have at least one unfinished project and a story to go with it.