My Grandfather, Anders Anderson, came to America from Norway in 1904. Anders was a sailor who lived with Gustav Englehart when he was not at sea. Gustav frequently sponsored young sailors when they first arrived from Norway.

This post card was a birthday greeting to Anders (Andrew) from his Grandmother, Olava Jorgensen, for his 25^th birthday on September 16, 1908. It is a post card of his home town. She was trying to coax him to come home.

The back of the post card indicated that Andrew is receiving his mail “in care of” Gust Englehart. Andrew is working currently on the Great Lakes Steamer known as the Geo King so this card was forwarded to him on the ship. The ship captain of the Geo King was Captain Thomas Wilson.

Sixty four years later, Andrew’s Granddaughter, Janet Smith married Captain Wilson’ s Great Great Grandson, Gary Tietz. Ninety years later I started this journey into my family history. One hundred and two years later, I had all my grandfather ‘s postcards translated by Norwegian researchers that I was working with. At that time I began to investigate Andrew’s sailing years and came across this “unexpected” discovery ! I would never have known that Grandpa Anderson worked for Captain Thomas Wilson and that the paths of our family crossed so many years earlier.

On a side note, it is totally amazing to me how much information this old post card generated about my family.

Happy Hunting, Jan

#52ancestors