When I was in my teens, I went down to California with my grandparents and participated in something I would later learn was the first Family reunion for Nana's family. My great-aunt Marilyn called it Danskfest. I got to meet many relations I'd never met before, though as young as I was, I don't remember most of them. But I'm so glad I got to go. I'm so glad I got to see how connected Nana's family were to each other.
Nana is the eldest of three children. Her sister Marilyn was a few years younger, and they had a younger brother, Torben. Then, in 1929, when my Nana was 9, they lost their mother to pneumonia. It definitely affected their choices in life. Nana ended up going to a boarding school to get away from home and her new stepmother, whom she did not get along with. And after finishing school, she went off to join in the war efforts as soon as she was able to enlist. She even went to Europe after the war was over to help out over there, where she met and married my grandfather.
After her mother's death, Nana and her siblings kept a close relationship with their father's brother and his wife, seeing them almost as secondary parents, and so they had a very strong connection to their father's side of the family. But they lost touch with their mother's family almost immediately after her death. The one sibling their mother had in the states vanished from their life, and so they had no knowledge of their mother's side of the family growing up. After their father's death, Marilyn felt the need to seek out their mother's side of the family, to reconnect and find out more about where their mother was from. It's because of her that I have so much of that side of my family tree. She and Nana and their brother found what info they could on their mother, and then Marilyn wrote to the area they thought their mother was born. It was from this letter that we got the knowledge of her parents' names, and her siblings names as well. This led to a trip to Denmark, where Marilyn met their mother's family still living there, and so much more knowledge.
But I think the ultimate outcome of all this family searching was the idea to hold a family reunion. She invited family from all around the country, and even extended invitations to family across the ocean--both in Europe, and even in one case, Australia. It lasted until her house burned down in the early 90s, though I think there were some attempts to reinstate it, I don't think it ever quite managed. Still, for a time, we had a family gathering because of her. And because of her, the connections she and her siblings had to their extended family stayed alive a little longer. Even more, because of those gatherings, I know so very much about my family tree.
So thank you, Aunt Marilyn, wherever you are, for helping me learn so much about our family, and keeping us all so connected.
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