So this one's a little bit of a tricky one. We have several flowers that mean something to our family, but nothing big, and so I was struggling a little to come up with anything. None of my female ancestors have flower names that I knew--until a Danish friend told me that the Danish queen Margrethe (the Danish version of Margaret) has a nickname--Daisy, due to her British roots. And that's when this one came to me. It's a tenuous connection, but I couldn't resist.
My dad's mother was Margaret. She went by Maggie. She was named Margaret for her father's aunt Margrethe, who helped him out when he first came to this country. I believe there are several Margarets in our family line because of her.
My three-times great aunt Margrethe (tante for those who speak Danish) was born in Denmark in 1873. She was her parent's sixth child. My great-great grandmother Else was her eldest sister. She married Isak Isaksen in 1897, and shortly after, they had their first child. They had three all told, two boys and a girl. Sometime after their daughter, their youngest child was born, Isak emigrated to the US. Margrethe and her children followed soon after. They stayed on Long Island, and so they were there for several of their family members to stay with as they emigrated as well. Margrethe lost her husband in 1958, but she lived more than ten years more before passing in 1970.
It is because of her that Holger, my great grandfather, was able to find his way in the New York area. And it's because of her family that I have as much information on Holger's mother side of the tree, as her daughter was the one to write up that side of my family tree for my grandmother and her sister. I know my grandmother felt very close to her tante Margrethe, who came to take care of them for a time after their mother died in 1929. She was obviously very close to her Tante.
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| Tante Margrethe and Onkel Isaksen |
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| Tante Margrethe ca 1930 or so |
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