A New Year, A New Challenge! Heather here, and this year I'm going to travel to Iowa (no, really!) and turn my focus to my paternal grandmother's Dutch lineage. As it turns out, I know even less than previously thought. While both her mother and father's lines are fairly well-documented, and I have a fair number of photos, anecdotes and family stories are few.
There are perhaps a few reasons for this. I grew up over 400 miles from my grandma's childhood home and the home county of her parents, brothers and most of her extended family. In addition to physical distance, my great grandmother passed away when Grandma was pregnant with my dad, her oldest. I'll never know what kind of stories may have been passed to her daughter or her grandchildren.
Another reason may be that as the Dutch stereotype of being quite taciturn certainly holds up in my family. My Dad is fond of saying "I AM smiling" while scowling quite heavily for photos, and in return we heckle the Dutch smile.
So I'm left with a brief anecdote from both of my grandparents:
Grandpa grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, but Grandma moved there between 1930-32. They attended Sioux City's Central High School together. While they both told me that they didn't know them incredibly well, they did share the school hallways with a pair of twin girls, slightly younger than themselves. The twins had twin names, Pauline Esther "Popo" and Esther Pauline "Eppie" Friedman. You probably know them as Dear Abby and her sister, Ann Landers.
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