Sacred Sunday posts highlight the churches, reverends, historical movements, holy days, and religious documents that have helped shape my family. Read Part 1 here.
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Sacred Sunday posts highlight the churches, reverends, historical movements, holy days, and religious documents that have helped shape my family. When I was trying to think of something I could post for Sacred Sunday, I had a memory come back to me. Quite a few years ago, I had come across a notebook that my Granddad had of his father's. In it were a few sermons he had preached and I decided to type them up for posterity. I had all but forgotten until this morning. Luckily, that Word document survived a few transitions between computers. Today, I'll share one those sermons.
My great-grandfather, Collins Stephen Cramer, worked on a farm in Brush Valley, Pennsylvania for most of his life. But at some point, he decided to take some bible courses and eventually became the pastor at the Gospel Community Church where he would retire after 40 years. But more on that and him later. I have decided to keep his words largely unedited, except for a few additions or corrections of punctuation. He was a country preacher and that certainly comes through. One day while visiting my Grandma Cramer, I asked her if there were any special desserts she remembers either of her grandmas making. She listed off a few specific bakes her German grandma made and one of those was a cottage cheese pie for which she said neither she nor her mom could ever find a recipe. Being a Millennial, I immediately whipped out my Kindle Fire and found a couple of potential recipes on Pinterest and wrote them down for her. She was so excited.
Lately, she and my Granddad have been taking turns at being hospitalized, so I wasn't sure if she'd actually be up to trying them herself, so when I was planning to visit her on her birthday, I decided I'd test out one of the pies. When I arrived, I found out that she had also recently tested out one of the recipes, but it hadn't been what she was looking for. Luckily we didn't pick the same ones and mine ended up being close to her Grandma Dembosky's. To me, Cottage Cheese Pie is not a name that would tempt me. I did try it, though and it wasn't too bad. Actually it tasted great. I'm just not a fan of the texture (but the texture probably would have been smoother if I'd used a blender instead of a mixer.) But the grandparents really liked it, in fact, Grandma had some the next day for breakfast. Below you'll find a link to the recipe. Guten Appetit! Cottage Cheese Pie (or Surprise Pie!) Family celebrations are a great time to bust out some genealogy. Weddings, birthdays, reunions—even funerals—are ripe for the picking. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity, along with my mom, to plan a baby shower for my cousin. The baby's due on St. Patrick's Day so I went with a rainbow theme (I hate the 'blue for boy, pink for girl' types of showers, so wanted something more universal and gender-neutral.) No matter the theme, I knew I wanted to attempt to create a Family Tree wall for the shower. After several tries at a traditional tree and realizing that it just wasn't going to work if I wanted to go farther than great-grandparents (I did!), I'd have to figure something else out. And then I had a stroke of genius. A family road map! I mapped it out (literally) on Paint, used a friend's Cricut (Baby's great-aunt on the other side, actually) for the cars, and streamers/crepe paper for the roads. Glue dots and transparent tape were used to stick it up. I wrote given names on the cars, surnames on 'road signs'. The colors were coded to represent family branches (of the grandparents), two car types were used to distinguish between mothers & fathers. It was insanely time-consuming, but it came out better than I had hoped. The result was rewarding and I kind of felt a let down when I no longer had a creative project to work on. Here it is in all its glory (plus some extra pics) -- Sacred Sunday posts highlight the churches, Reverends, historical movements, holy days, and religious documents that have helped shape my Family. Last Christmas, my maternal grandparents' Sunday School teacher asked them to submit favorite Christmas memories from their childhood. My grandparents were the only ones who submitted anything and she shared their stories with the larger church body and then presented my grandparents with something tangible from their memories. They know that I'm a family history nut and love anything vintage or Christmas-related, so they made a copy of their memories for me and my grandma even gave me the 'gift' that she'd been presented with. I thought I'd post their memories here.
I'm always looking for ways to incorporate genealogy into my everyday life, even more so at Christmastime. Though arguably the busiest time of year, Christmas puts genealogy at the forefront of my mind. The emphasis on family, memories of past Christmases, my curiosity about traditions from around the world . . . Most years it takes the form of gifts for my grandparents who are all still living (#TBTG) and gift requests on my own Wish List. This year it took the form of decorations and food. Old family photos aren't the only way to recognize your ancestry through your decor, especially during the holidays. Some of the ways my family has celebrated with the past in mind has been through traditional ornaments. Most notably German glass-blown ornaments. My dad's mom had expressed a wish to have one of the glass-blown birds. She loves birds, but she was also very close with her German grandmother and remembered these ornaments from her childhood. My mom's parents live near an impressive year-round Christmas store called Tis The Season and they have a substantial collection of ornaments of all kinds. My dad almost always buys a new German glass-blown ornament either for Grandma or himself whenever we've had the chance to stop there. The various birds being the first.
I'm always looking for ways to incorporate genealogy into my everyday life, even more so at Christmastime. Though arguably the busiest time of year, Christmas puts genealogy at the forefront of my mind. The emphasis on family, memories of past Christmases, my curiosity about traditions from around the world . . . Most years it takes the form of gifts for my grandparents who are all still living (#TBTG) and gift requests on my own Wish List. This year it took the form of decorations and food. I came across some picture frames, while browsing my local Salvation Army store, that I knew would pair perfectly with ancestral photos. I even had specific photos in mind. The next step was finding where to place them. I had already found a diminutive white Nativity scene that fit well on the first tier of our two-tiered 'coffee table', but the rest of it was bare. With a music box (picked up on the same shopping trip as the frames), a few figurines, and a rogue Christmas pick, I found a way to make it all work together. The photos I chose for the frame were 1) a wintry picture of my great-grandma Mae Montgomery (then Deem, née Viola Mae Thorne) holding my great-aunt Sara Ellen. Based on Aunt Sara's age I would date the photo as Winter 1931/2 and 2) my Granddad Cramer's uncle, Perry Cramer, with his Christmas gifts (what appear to be a harmonica, toy stagecoach, and slippers) next to a Christmas tree decorated with candles that are lit. The bottom half of one of his sister's is pictured in the background. I'd date it as one of the Christmases during World War I as Uncle Perry was born in 1907.
I'm always looking for ways to incorporate genealogy into my everyday life, even more so at Christmastime. Though arguably the busiest time of year, Christmas puts genealogy at the forefront of my mind. The emphasis on family, memories of past Christmases, my curiosity about traditions from around the world . . . Most years it takes the form of gifts for my grandparents who are all still living (#TBTG) and gift requests on my own Wish List. This year it took the form of decorations and food. My paternal grandmother's maternal grandparents, Johann Dembowski (John Dembosky) and Luise Schnittka Dembowski (Louise Dembosky) emigrated from Germany (East Prussia) to the United States at the beginning of the 20th Century. They had been on my mind since Thanksgiving when I had been translating some documents at my grandmother's that had been Johann's. This gave me the idea of making something that most likely would have been a Christmas treat for them during their Prussian childhood. I searched the internet for some suggestions and then Pinterest for the recipes. I eventually decided on this Pfeffernüsse recipe from La Fuji Mama.
Grandparents Day seems like the kind of holiday that should be celebrated on a blog about family history. So, in honor of the day, here are some pictures of my grandparents.
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About GoldilocksI love cats, books, Diet Coke, personality quizzes, and genealogy. My SurnamesCramer/Kramer/Kraemer
Morse/Moss Smith Deem/Diehm Wakefield Dembosky/Dembowski Dennis Thorn/Thorne Lower/Lauer Mack Thomas Schnittka Rogers Easton Keener Shuman/Schumann Clapper Brady Murphy Hanson Schwite Pitcher Roberts Lewis Weekley/Weekly Parks Archives
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