Who’s Who?

  

I wish I could positively identify everyone in this photo. The best I can do is a semi-educated guess – especially on the children..

Based on comparisons with other photos, I believe that my grandmother, Stella Schipp Ganas, is on the left, and her sister, Mary Schipp Fierstein, on the right.

My best guess is that the photo was taken in 1910 or 11. If was 1911, Stella also had an infant not pictured. The sisters lived next door to one another at 263 and 264 Upper Levee in St. Paul, Minnesota. Their parents, Michael and Elizabeth Schipp brought them from Poland to the US in 1887 and settled on the levee of the Mississippi river.

The levee was where many immigrants from many countries put down their American roots.  The location was less than ideal because of the frequent Spring floods as snowmelt raised the level of the river.  On the other hand, St. Paul was a busy steamship port for both freight and passenger travel. Grain milling, lumber and railroads provided job opportunities. St. Paul was a good place to be.

This link will take you to a page with some pictures of early St. Paul.

October Blog Party – Strange

I feel left out this month.

Elizabeth O’Neal’s October Blog Party asks about the strangest thing we’ve found in our genealogy research.  But my family research has found only typical, everyday kind of folks.  No witches or wizards. Scandals have been minor.  Very unexciting.  Poor me.

So the best I can do to contribute in the spirit of strangeness and Halloween is the image below.  It is a Google Street View image as shown on Your Daily Dish.