Throwback Thursday - The tree in our backyard

In May we had our tree in the backyard taken down.  It was very sad for me.

We bought our house in the Spring of 1973.  That Summer Paul and his Aunt Judy dug up three small maple trees from her property in Granby, CT.  We planted two trees in the back yard and one in the front yard.  The one in the front is the only one still standing.  One of the trees came down in a bad thunderstorm years ago when the kids were teenagers.  We came home from church Sunday night and the tree was down.  Luckily it fell right between our pool and the carport with no damage.

Last fall we started noticing that the base of another tree was black.  Paul thought it might have been hit by lightning.  Our landscaper said it was from ants and put down something to kill the ants.

This winter we noticed that pieces of the bark were falling off.  In the Spring Paul called a tree service and they said that the tree might last another year but then it would be harder to take down.

This picture was taken in the summer of 1973 soon after the tree was planted.  Kristen was almost a year old.  My thought was that I would take a picture of her every year on her birthday next to this tree.  It lasted one year, ha ha!

These are pictures of the tree coming down.

Our Wall of Fame

These pictures are on one wall in our family room.  It all started when we had our first family picture taken for a pictorial directory for our church.  My in-laws, and also my grandmother and my aunt Dot had their pictures done too.  An idea formed in Paul's head to put these pictures on the wall and then add some of our relatives.  His plan was to go back to our children's great-great grandparents on both sides. Included are 13 of our children's 16 great-great grandparents.

Over the years I have forgotten who a lot of these people are.  Paul seems to remember them and I have been after him to write down all of the names and how they are related to us.

This winter we did just that.  

From top - left to right by row:

1. Charles T. Sanderson II, Irma Beatrice Sanderson’s brother. He ran a bulldozer in Plymouth, MA

2. Ray Lee Higgins and his mother Laura E. Mann, father and grandmother of Jean Martha Higgins

3. William Ross Harper, grandfather of Jean Martha Higgins

4. Nelson Bessete, father of Lucien (Lucy) Agnes Bessette

5. Grace Greenwood, mother of George Herbert Ramsdell, Sr.

6. Charles William Ramsdell, father of George Herbert Ramsdell, Sr.

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7. Helena Pillkuhn, mother of Edward August Radtke

8. Bernard Ferren Wait and his descendants (see color coded picture with names in Family Tree Maker) at 25 Pine St., Greenfield, MA

9. Berta Dill, mother of Frederick Ferdinand Radtke, and her mother Lousise Wilhelmina Weinberg, brother Wilhelm Dill, and sister

10. Lucien (Lucy) Bessette and her mother Linda (Clarinda) LaBarge

11. Johann Friedrich Dill and his wife Lousise Wilhelmina Weinberg, parents of Berta Dill

12. Edward August Radtke and his wife Berta Dill, parents of Frederick Ferdinand Radtke

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13. George Herbert Ramsdell, Sr. and his wife Irma Beatrice Sanderson, with children Priscilla Grafton, George Herbert, Jr., Marjorie Ellen, and Robert Trenchard

14. Bessette sisters, baby Lucien (Lucy), Aldora, Sadie, and Marion

15. Lucy Agnes Bessette and Dorothy Margaret Wait

16. Mark Edward Radtke and Kristen Anne Radtke

17. George Herbert Ramsdell, Sr. riding an Indian motorcycle in front of the Indian Motorcycle Company, Spfld MA

18. Donald Merz Wait and his wife Lucien (Lucy) Agnes Bessette with their children David Reed, Dorothy Margaret, and Esther Ruth at Esther and Bob Lundstrom’s home in Norwich, CT

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19. Charles Trenchard Sanderson, father of Irma Beatrice Sanderson

20. Donald Merz Wait in Western Union truck

21. Priscilla Grafton Ramsdell and Frederick Ferdinand Radtke

22. Paul Frederick Radtke and his wife Deborah Jean Waite with children Kristen Anne Radtke and Mark Edward Radtke

23. Edward August Radtke and Ferdinand (Nante) Radtke in WWI

24. Eleanor Harper with her children Jean Martha Higgins, Lee Higgins, and Ross Harper Higgins

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25. Eleanor A. Radtke and Nancy Jane Radtke at Priscilla and Fred’s House, 25 Yale Ave., Feeding Hills, MA

26. Bernard Ferren Wait in Florida

27. Dora Louisa Merz, wife of Bernard Ferren Wait

28. Irma Beatrice Sanderson, wife of George Herbert Ramsdell, Sr.

29. Donald Merz Wait and Lucien Agnes Bessette, Mohawk Trail State Forest, MA

30. Ellen Eddy Pierce, wife of Charles Trenchard Sanderson and mother of Irma Beatrice Sanderson

***Update - For Christmas 2017 Paul and I made a Chatbooks book for Kristen and Mark with info on all of the people on this Wall of Fame.  We tried to include everything that we knew about these people, not just their names and how they are related to them.  I was so happy with how it turned out.