Old Family Photos...Bergstrom, Sibbald, Strauck and Weed

I was digging through my piles of photos and I ran across a number of old family photos.  I find it interesting to view family members who came before us... Life was obviously so much different! 

I've done two of the the genetic search options out there and I've learned that the British Isles and Ireland represent the largest portion of my genetic makeup...followed by a large Germanic/Prussian segment and a significant Swedish contribution.

What follows are just a few of the photos I've come across so far... I also possess a lot of information that was collected by my mother's sister, Jeane Weed Austin. 

The photo above is of my great grandmother, Selma Bergstrom. (DOB 1860) The following information about Selma was as remembered by my mother as it was related to her by her mother/my grandmother. 

 

"My father’s mother was Selma Bergstrom.  She was born in Northern Sweden, one of twelve children.  Her mother died and her father remarried while Selma was still young.  There were six boys and six girls in the family.  During my grandmother’s life the Laplanders came through with their reindeer herds every autumn.

When Selma’s father married the second time, the step mother was quite hard on the girls and she expected them to do everything.  In any event, Selma and her sister Wilma ran away to America.  Once in America shed earned her living as a seamstress in New York and there she met my father’s father, (Edward A. Weed), who was a married man. When he found that he couldn’t have Selma as a mistress, he divorced his wife and married my grandmother." 

I have a copy of the marriage certificate showing that Selma C. Bergstrom married Edward A. Weed in Sag Harbor New York on October 30, 1883."  Edward was 35 years old (DOB 1849) and Selma was 24.

This photo is of my Grandmother Estelle Sibbald Weed's sister Sadie (aka Sally), with her little dog "Punch".  My grandmother's other sister was named Elise, aka Elsie.   

I am unsure what my relationship is with Charles Weed...as shown in this photo.  He may well have been Selma Bergstrom's husband Edward A. Weed's brother.  I also have a photo of Edward F. Weed.  My mother labeled the photo "Uncle Ed" so he must have been my grandfather, Nathan's brother.

The Weed family arrived in America in 1630, with Jonas Weed (ca. 1605 - 1676) arriving in Watertown Massachusetts, where he was made a 'free man'.  Apparently he'd been an indentured servant or worker of some type.  There are a lot of Weed decedents in the USA.  Family records, notes and photos include Walter Harvey Weed Jr. and an Edward Franklin Weed, (Uncle Ed?), and many others.  

This is a photo of my grandmother, Estelle Sibbald, when she was a little girl.  The Sibbald family was apparently wealthy, although I can't find any information regarding his business or career.  Estelle was born on March 4, 1894 in New York City.  Her father was John Sheppard Sibbald and her mother was Elise Ferdinando Strauck.  When my grandmother was born, the family lived at 2635 Eighth Avenue in the city.  I know nothing about the Strauk family history...

This photo of Estelle Sibbald was taken when she was a teenager and before she was married.  I don't know the date that the photo was taken.  It wasn't fashionable to smile in the early days of portrait photography...

As a child and a teenager, Estelle lived the good life.  What follows are my mother's memories of what my Grandmother's told her about her early life in New York City.

"Estelle said that her parents socialized with many theatrical personalities in New York.  The family was regarded as being wealthy people.  She spoke of their drawing room which had hand-painted murals.  Another room was “papered” with watered silk.  The general elegance of her parent’s home, a brownstone in New York City, was remembered in great detail.

Her family were Lutherans, even though she was sent to Sacred Heart Seminary for her education.  When she was confirmed, her godparents were Jewish…her Godfather being Oscar Hammerstein I.  Estelle and her sisters all had piano lessons from Walter Damrosch, whom her parents had (supposedly) sponsored to come to America.  They took these lessons for almost 12 years.  Estelle also told mom about her father taking her out for tea with Winston Churchill.  Churchill was a young man and she was just a girl.  She was thrilled and she was the object of envy when she went back to school."

It is close to impossible to confirm these stories.  However, Oscar Hammerstein I (1846 – 1919) was a German-born businessman, theater impresario, and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America. He was the grandfather of American playwright/lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.  Grandmother Estelle Weed was born in 1892 so at least the time-line is consistent.  

Assuming that piano lessons for Estelle started when she was about 6, Damrosch (1862 - 1950) would have been about 36 years old. He was a German born American conductor and composer.  He was the director of the New York Symphony Orchestra and he did love teaching music.  

As for the Churchill story, he did visit the USA in 1900 when my grandmother was about 8 years old.  He was in his mid-twenties and he was on a book tour in order to make some money.  A luncheon or meeting with him would have been exciting.  After all, he’d been born in Blenheim Palace and he was a member of the British aristocracy as a direct descendant of the First Duke of Marlborough.  His father was Lord Randolph Churchill and his mother was an American-born British socialite.  By the time the luncheon would have taken place, Churchill had traveled much of the world and served in the military as well.  

Apparently Grandma Weed (Estelle Sibbald Weed) was always a bit rebellious and very stubborn.  She was the rock that held her family together.  She married Nathan G. Weed in New York City in March of 1912.  She was 18 and he was 28.  Worse yet, his father, Edward A. Weed had been embezzling funds from the family's bank.  Edward was banished to Texas where he died, supposedly penniless.  However, marrying the son of a disgraced member of society was a real problem, so my grandmother was for the most part, then cut off from her family.   

So, when Estelle and Nathan Weed were first married, they moved out of New York City, relocating to Liberty New York.  Nathan's mother, Selma Bergstrom (Weed) move in with them.  My mother, Elizabeth C. Weed was born in Liberty New York on January 3, 1916.

Estelle and Nathan later decided to move to Michigan.  From my mother's notes, "My father got a small house near Royal Oak that was not insulated and it was very difficult to keep warm.  Mother spoke of keeping me in bed so I wouldn’t get chilled.  She stuffed cracks with newspapers.  It was in Royal Oak that my sister Jeane was born in November of 1918."

From Royal Oak, the family moved to a farm near Walled Lake Michigan.  After 3 or so years on the farm, they moved again, this time to Pontiac, later to Drayton Plains and then, once again back to Walled Lake on a hundred acres, this time in a substantial home with a stone foundation and 2 stone fireplaces.  By this time, the family had grown.  I believe that the photo is from sometime in the late 1920s, prior to the Stock Market crash in 1929.  Estelle and Nathan are shown above with Elizabeth (my mother) at the left and her sister Jeane on the right.  I believe that Nathan Jr. is at the left center and his brother Jack is next to Jeane.  Jack died of complications from pneumonia not long after the photo was taken...

Enough family history for now.  My head is spinning from trying to sort and research the plethora of the information I have on hand.  

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...

Thanks for stopping by for some family drama!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave