Yesterday I climbed into the attic to find the photos of my ancestors who owned the necklace. In a box full of my Mom's keepsakes, birthday cards and high school yearbooks, I found two binders containing her paternal and maternal family tree. I have seen these binders before and remember my Grandma gathering information to share with those interested. Thanks to "Who Do You Think You Are?" (I love that show) and because I have contributed to this family tree by having my own children, I am drawn in the details included in the pages of these binders. My Grandpa's family tree can be traced back to Germany in 1773, and my Grandma's family is traced back to Germany in 1665. My necklace once belonged to Amanda Sandmann (my Grandma's Grandmother)who gathered and saved all the information of her family tree in a scrapbook. When she died in Fairbury, Nebraska in 1948, the scrapbook was packed away in a box and taken to the family farm where her daughter (Carrie) lived. It remained in the attic until Carrie's death when it was taken to the farm of my Grandma's sister Carol. When Carol died, her son sent the box to my Grandma here in California. My Grandma has taken a lot of pride in continuing to research her family history as well as my Grandpa's. This information is a rare precious gift. Very few details are listed about these ancestors, mostly just names and dates of births and deaths. There are photographs and greater details about Amanda's family. She and her husband Paul had 6 daughters. They owned two farms, 500 acres near Harbine, Nebraska and 100 acres not far away in Fairbury. In the summer of 1921 Paul had finished building a house on the farm in Fairbury, where it still stands today. On December 23, 1922 Paul was hauling corn in a lumber wagon pulled by a team of horses from his farm near Harbine to his farm in Fairbury when an automobile full of college boys headed home from Lincoln for Christmas struck the wagon which overturned on Paul fracturing his skull, he died that day at the age of 64. At the time of this accident their home in Fairbury had been quarantined for Scarlet fever. Because there are so few details about the rest of the names in the pages of these binders, I find these specifics heartbreaking and I long to learn more.
Paul and Amanda Sandmann in front of their home on the farm near Harbine, Nebraska.
Paul, Amanda and four of their daughters; Elzina, Minnie, Elizabeth and Carrie.
The Newspaper account of Paul's accident.
and his obituary.
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