In 2008, I made a FERMAZIN family scrapbook for my grandson, Peter, my sister, Mary, and my cousin Karen and, of course, myself. I'd like to share some of those pictures with you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did making the book. In my post I have tried to remember some of the stories and vignettes that accompany the pictures. I love scrapbooking especially hybrid and digital. My first family scrapbook was all digital, but since then I have been doing mostly hybrid scrapbooking. I dedicate these pages to my mom, Grace Lorraine Worthing Fermazin (1917-2001).
Left: Mom and Dad [Robert Fermazin 1916-2005 and Grace Worthing Fermazin 1917-2001]; Karen Lambert and Nancy about 1946; Mom, Dad, Nancy Fermazin in front of Grandma and Grandpa's house about 1945.
great-great-grandfather, Friedrich Fermazin, lived before coming to the USA.
Schubin, Posen, Prussia.
Back row: Roy, Carl, Jean, Harry; Top row: Irene, Lottie, Minnie, Bill Fermazin.
Fermazin Family Tree starting with my dad, Robert Fermazin and including Fermazin; Linden; Waggoner; Pluecker; Herbold; Pott, Bivier.
I wrote a poem about my FERMAZIN Family History and it was published in Everton's magazine in December 2008. I have also placed the entire poem on my blog.
Pictured are Robert (Roy) August Fermazin, son of Charles Fermazin and grandson of Friedrich Fermazin and his wife, my grandmother, Mary Linden. I loved my Grandma and Grandpa and miss them terribly. We moved to California when I was a senior in high school in 1959. Grandma and Grandpa came every year to visit. Grandpa died in 1960 and Grandma died in 1968. Grandpa had the largest coin collection in the state of Illinois and founded the Aurora Coin Club. Grandma was a seamstress (made my cheerleading outfits), a gourmet cook, a famous flower gardener with pictures of her flowers in the Aurora Beacon News society page every Spring with the headlines: " We know it's Spring when Mary Fermazin's flowers are in Bloom." Her flowers adorned St. Therese Catholic Church and Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Aurora for many years at Sunday Mass throughout the spring and summer. She was famous for her peonies, lilacs, and roses. Grandpa made birdhouses for the yard. He was an electrician, a farmer, a carpenter, a journeyman machinist and a coin collector. Wow! What people!
My great-grandmother, Minnie Pluecker Fermazin who was married to Charles Fermazin lived in Lakefield, Rost Township, Jackson, Minnesota and Aurora, Kane, Illinois. She was widowed at age 27. She had seven children. The youngest was 13 when her husband Charles Fermazin died. After his death she turned their home in Aurora, on Liberty and Claim Streets into a boarding house to raise money to support the family. My grandfather Roy and his brother Carl continued to provide financial support even after they were married. This helped her keep the house and raise the children still at home. Minnie had a rough life. She grew up in Aurora, married an immigrant German, and moved away from home and family to Lakefield, Minnesota, for 13 years to farm with her husband and then uprooted life on the farm to move back to Aurora about a year before Charles died. Possibly he was ill and they wanted live closer to family.
Wilhelmina (Minnie) Pluecker
Birth: 6 JUN 1868 in Aurora, Kane, Illinois, USA
Residence: 1910 Aurora Ward 6, Kane, Illinois
Death: 17 APR 1952 in Aurora, Kane, Illinois, USA
Burial: 21 APR 1952 Riverside Cemetery, Aurora, Illinois
School days in Lakefield, Minnesota.
Individual pictures of Harry, Lottie, Willie and Irene.
Classroom picture with Charles Fermazin, the 5th person in the top row. To the right is the class list for the years 1904-1905.
Public School No. 74 for Des Moines, Belmont, Hunter and Heron Lake Townships, Jackson County, Minnesota. By the 1904-1905 school year Grandpa Roy (Robert August) Fermazin was already out of school and farming with his half- brother Reinhart in Lemon, South Dakota.
Public School No. 74. for Des Moines,
Belmont, Hunter and Heron Lake Townships in Jackson County Minnesota which includes the official Roster for School Year 1904-1905.
Left: Grandma Mary Linden Fermazin and her aprons. These are not Grandma Mary's aprons but I liked them so well I put them on the digital scrapbook page to tell the story. Grandma was famous for her seamstress achievements, making delicious pies, especiall strawberry and apple, growing lilacs and peonies, and for just being Grandma, Mom, Wife etc.
Left side of page is Grandpa Roy (Robert August) Fermazin in his car. Grandpa was a Lutheran until the day he died. He married my grandmother and raised his children Catholic. This is the car he used to drive the nuns from Sacred Heart Catholic School for shopping. Sacred Heart Catholic School is where my dad and his sister Lola attended grade school, before East Aurora High School. This was the "French" Catholic School. Dad learned to speak French when going here besides the German and English he spoke at home. Father Simard (sp) was the Priest at the time my dad attended school here. Dad always spoke highly of Father Simard. The car on the right-hand side is my dad's first car that he bought with $ 5.00 he earned during the Depression. He always said it didn't run when he purchased it but Grandpa got it going. I used Graphics 45 paper for this layout.
On the left is a collage of the house my Grandpa Roy built at 942 Sixth Ave, Aurora, Illinois.
Grandma called it the "schack" and even wrote that on the back of the picture. In front of the house are Grandma, Mary Linden Fermazin, Uncle Nick Linden (Grandma's brother), my dad, Robert, and his sister, Lola. The page depicts the house in 1924, 1945, and 2004. The house is still inhabited and is across the street from Phillips Park, which is still a nice neighborhood after all these years. I always remember the house when it was brown shingles. The people living there now bought it from my grandparents and moved the house up to the street. Prior to this there was about a half acre in front and back. In front and along the driveway was where my grandma grew her flowers. In the back yard were Grandpa's work house/carpenter house and a big old apple tree. At the bottom of the picture are my dad, mom, and I about 1945. I remember playing in the day room on rainy days with my sister Mary, cousin Karen and Grandma, when we cut out paper dolls from Vogue and Simplicity pattern magazines. On the left are my dad and his car on a map of Aurora, Illinois. I just think that old car is NEAT!
Remember these? We had so much fun playing paper dolls on Grandma's sun porch. Aunt Lola brought home the pattern books from work and we cut out our paper dolls. We always had many Simplicity and Vogue pattern books to chose from.
I would be remiss if I did not put my sister Mary in any of the pictures. On the left is a favorite picture of mine. Nancy Fermazin age 6 and my sister Mary Fermazin age 3, about 1949. On the right is the picture of my sister, Mary's, First Holy Communion at St. Therese Catholic Church, Farnsworth and Coolidge Avenues in Aurora, Illinois. The picture to the right of Mary is Karen Lambert Mahrenholz, my cousin and my dad's niece [Lola Fermazin daughter] and Grandma Mary Linden Fermazin and Nancy Fermazin [me] at our Confirmation in 1956 at St.Therese Catholic Church. I think the picture was taken at 251 Hillside Avenue, Aurora Illinois.
My tribute to Aunt Lola Fermazin and Uncle Theron Lambert on their 50th Wedding Anniversary. This was taken on January 28, 1993. I don't have any copies of their wedding pictures. They were married in North Carolina where Uncle was stationed before he was sent to the European Theater to fight for our freedom in WWII.
I started a vintage scrapbook for my husband. Above is a picture of their family home in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. It is a red brick house on Cherry Street, on the left side coming off of Easton Road. On the front porch is seated Bill's dad, Everhard (Harvey), with his brother, Richard to the left of Dad and Bill sitting on his lap. The photo on the right is Richard, Barbara pushing her doll baby carriage, and Bill. Barbara looks so proud. Richard looks bored with the whole thing and Bill is a happy kid smiling. I think they posed for that picture.
Written for the 96th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Scrapbooking Your Family History
© 2010, copyright Nancy Fermazin
This is fabulous and enough to ignite at least a spark of interest in even the most uninterested family members! Thank you for sharing. Now if I could just figure out how to make such beautiful pages...
ReplyDeleteNancy, this was almost like being invited in to meet the family. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWe must be relations. I am the great-granddaughter of Carl and Margaret Fermazin (of Aurora). Their daughter Marge is my grandmother- she is still living and celebrates her 90th birthday in January of 2011.
ReplyDelete