Welcoming a New Child

The newest addition of the family tree

This week my family welcomed our third child and first daughter into our home. This will be our last child. These days a family with three children is a little bit unusual. This is especially true in Japan (where I live currently). Japan has a birthrate of only 1.44, as opposed to 1.8 for the US. Combined with a healthy and growing aging population, this low birthrate is a big problem for Japan. 

Looking back through my family tree it's also interesting to see the difference in birthrates from generation to generation. For various reasons, religious, cultural, mortality rates, etc. earlier generations of my family had a lot of kids. My great-great-grandfather John E. Feero was one of 11 children, all by the same mother! (Understandably considering the times, three of the children died when they were very young) I just can't imagine how physically, emotionally, and financially taxing many children would be. 

Also, as romantic as it is looking back on family history I certainly wouldn't want to back to those times, especially in the case of medical safety. In this latest childbirth, my wife lost a lot of blood but thanks to the doctors and the hospital everything ended up okay. I hate to think what would have happened in she was giving birth in Skagway, Alaska in the 1800s. 

Grandpa's Interesting Memento and Hindsight

Yesterday was the end of President Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate with the President being acquitted by a Republican party that was never going to convict a President from their own party. This seems as good of a time as any to share an interesting memento that I came across while going through my grandfather's things while cleaning out the house a few years ago. Grandpa Hennessy was my mother's father and his family originally came from Ireland before immigrating to Canada and then Michigan. Unfortunately, I was never able to meet him as he passed away a couple years before I was born. By all accounts, he was a stand-up, straight-laced guy who was an Army veteran and a postmaster after World War II. He was also apparently a Republican who was in favor of the Vietnam war. That's where the memento comes in. By the looks of the letter, my grandfather wrote then-President Nixon in support of the Vietnam war. The President (or more likely, his staff) was gracious enough to write back and thank him with this card. In hindsight, it's easy to see that both the Vietnam war and Tricky Dick were wrong for America but this is still an interesting piece of history to have in the family. I don't judge my grandfather for his choices at that time but I do wonder what he would think of the Republican party now.

All the Way From Sweden: Great-Grandfather Karl Larson

Karl and Edith Larson, 1907 and 1945.

Karl Larson (1882-1962)

It's hard to imagine what my great-grandfather went through before he made it all the way to the small goldrush town on Skagway, Alaska. Karl Larson was born in the small town of Ingatorp, Sweden. From there, at the age of 19, he made his way to New York, arriving on April 1st, 1903. Eventually, he ended up in Skagway, where he met my great-grandmother Edith Feero. They got married and had four children (Velma, Rainy, Stewart, and Ellen). (Not to be forgotten, Edith and Karl also adopted Phillip Olsen when his mother died shortly after giving birth)

In Skagway, Karl made his living as a car inspector for the White Pass and Yukon Railroad. Handy with tools he never turned down a neighborhood kid you needed their bicycle fixed. According to my Aunt (his grand-daughter), Karl was a quiet Swede who loved to tease her by blowing his pipe-smoke into her face. He also taught her how to eat peas with a knife. My father remembered him as a very loving grandpa who was able to build and assemble a crib without using nails. When the children needed shoes he would even make those. He was also protective of his family. He wouldn't let his alcoholic former son-in-law take his grandchildren (my father and aunt) away from his daughter Rainy. I can also thank him for my height. According to my father, he was much taller than Edith (who was around 4'11"), perhaps around 6'2". They must have been quite a pair.