My AncestryDNA Ethnicity Inheritance Results

My Ancestry DNA results were updated recently. This update included a new interesting feature called Ethnicity Inheritance. This feature "estimates which regions" I inherited from my father and my mother.¹ Initially, the inheritances were labeled Parent 1 and Parent 2. I was able to edit those labels to Maternal and Paternal. In my case, it was pretty easy to see that Parent 2 was my father, Jan Albert Iverson, because the ethnicity regions for Parent 2 only came from Sweden and Norway.

My father's maternal grandparents, Carl Albert Gillberg and Maria Hilda Carlsson were immigrants from Sweden. My father's paternal grandparents, Christopher Iverson and  Anna Christopherson, were children of Norwegian immigrants.

The rest of my ethnicities come from my mother, Maria Elizabeth Webster, who was born in Brazil. From her I inherited ethnicities from Portugal, Sweden & Denmark, England & Northwestern Europe, Indigenous Americas--Mexico, Indigenous Americas--Yucatan Peninsula, Wales, Spain, Senegal, Basque, Northern Africa, and Northern Italy.

My mother's mother, Sarah Vasques Madeira, was born in Brazil and was mostly of Portuguese ancestry. My mother's father, Debs Warren Webster, was also born in Brazil. Debs' father, Frederick Emory Webster, was born in Ohio, USA, and Debs' mother, Esther Matus Villatoro, was born in Arriaga, Chiapas, Mexico.

Here is my ethnicity inheritance from both of my parents.

Sadly, both of my parents have passed away. I sure do miss them. My dad never took a DNA test, but my mom did take one before she passed away.

I am the manager of my mom's Ancestry account and have been able to access her DNA ethnicity inheritance results. I have been able to differentiate between Parent 1 and Parent 2 in my mom's results based on the known ethnicities of her father and mother. I will share those results in a future post and compare them with mine.

Have you been able to differentiate between Parent 1 and Parent 2 in your Ancestry DNA ethnicity inheritance results?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana Last

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1 ”Ethnicity Inheritance,” Ancestry Support (https://support.ancestry.com : accessed 13 July 2022).^↩

I Found My Dad in the 1950 US Census

The 1950 US Census was released two days ago on April 1st. Thank you to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for making this census available and for the ability to search the census. The search ability was made possible through optical character recognition (OCR) and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning so the search function may not be accurate. I was able to find my dad, Jan A. Iverson, by searching for his stepfather, Wayne Crawford. ¹

Here's the page of the 1950 census showing my dad living in the household of his stepfather, Wayne Crawford, and his mother, Ingrid. The family was living in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon. I highlighted my dad in a red box. My grandmother, Ingrid, was one of the people on this page who were asked additional questions. Her answers were included at the bottom of the page. They are also highlighted in a red box.

Here's a close-up of my dad's family:

Information about my dad:

Address: 6925 N. Amherst

Name: Jan A. Iverson

Relationship: Stepson

Race: W

Sex: M

Age: 14

Marital Status: Never married

Birthplace: California

What was this person doing most of last week? Other

Did this person do any work at all last week? No

Was this person looking for work? No

Does this person have a job or business? No

And here's the bottom of the census page with answers by my grandmother highlighted in red:

Additional information about my grandmother, Ingrid:

Was she living in the same house a year ago? Yes
Was she living on a farm a year ago? No
Was she living in this same county a year ago? Yes
What country were her father and mother born in? Father: Sweden, Mother: Sweden
What is the highest grade of school that she has attended? S2
Did she finish this grade? No
Has she attended school at any time since February 1st? 30 or over
Last year, in how many weeks did this person do any work at all, not counting work around the house: None
Income received by this person in 1949: None in each category

If I had not already known that Ingrid's parents were from Sweden, this additional information section would have given me that information. This section also provided information that she had lived at the same house and in the same county in 1949. It was also interesting to see the highest grade of school that she had attended. The code was S2 for her. At the bottom of the page the codes are explained. The code S2 was within the elementary school codes. I am surprised to learn that her highest grade level may have been second grade in elementary school. I have to wonder if that code was incorrect. Interestingly, in her vocal history Ingrid said, "mother did not start me in first grade until I was eight years old."² And in her Book of Remembrance, Ingrid wrote that when she was fourteen years old her family sold their home in Salt Lake City and moved to Los Angeles, California due to the Depression.³ She also said, "I worked there at a home as a mothers helper" and that "because of finances" she and one of her sisters were not able to finish school. The family history memories that she wrote in her Book of Remembrance were written in cursive. Because of this, I believe she must have had more than a second-grade education. I am so thankful that she wrote about her life in this Book of Remembrance and that my dad interviewed her in 1977.

To search the 1950 US Census at NARA, click HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2022 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

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1 1950 U.S. census, Multnomah Co., OR, Portland, ED 37-566, sheet 16, household 192, line 23, Jan A. Iverson; U.S. National Archives, _1950 Census_ (https://1950census.archives.gov/search/ : accessed 1 April 2022).^↩

2 Crawford, Ingrid (Gillberg), Antioch, California. Interview by Jan Albert Iverson, 11 July 1977. Audio and transcript. Privately held by Jana Last, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Clovis, California. 2022.^↩

3 Crawford, Ingrid (Gillberg), Blue Book of Remembrance, Privately held by Jana Last, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Clovis, California, 2022. ^↩

Genealogy Treasures in Great-Grandpa Carl's WWI Draft Registration Card

My paternal great-grandpa, Carl Albert Gillberg, was from Sweden. He immigrated to the United States in 1909. According to his 1924 Declaration of Intention, he arrived on 18 September 1909.

Nine years after arriving in the United States, Carl filled out this WWI Draft Registration Card. 

This draft registration card contains some amazing genealogical information:

Name: Carl Albert Gilbert

Permanent Home Address: 367 So. 11 East, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah

Age in Years: 36

Date of Birth: January 8, 1882

Race: White

Alien: Non-declarant

Citizenship: Sweden

Present Occupation: Baker

Employer's Name: Vienna Bakery

Place of Employment or Business: 732 E. Fourth So., Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah

Name of Nearest Relative: Hilda Maria Gilbert

Address of Nearest Relative: 367 So. 11 East, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah

Signature: Carl Albert Gilbert

Height: Medium

Build: Medium

Color of Eyes: Gray

Color of Hair: Light

Has person lost arm, leg, hand, eye, or is he obviously physically disqualified? (Specify): First joint of 2 finger on left hand off.

Date of Registration: September 12, 1918

In this registration card, Carl signed his last name as Gilbert instead of Gillberg. In various documents, I have seen Carl's name as Gillberg, Gillbert, and Gilbert. On a passenger list during his immigration to the United States he was listed as Carl Gillberg. On Carl's 1924 Declaration of Intention he went by Carl Albert Gilbert. In his 1939 Declaration of Intention and Certificate of Naturalization he was back to Carl Albert Gillberg. I don't know why he switched back and forth between the different spellings of his name.

His occupation was listed as a Baker. It's really cool to have the name and address of the bakery where Carl worked at that time. Years ago I wrote a blog post about my grandmother's recollection that Carl would bring flour sacks home and his wife, Hilda, would make clothing out of them for their children. She also made quilts out of the flour sacks. If you'd like to read about that, here's the link to the post ~ Matrilineal Monday: Flour Sack Dresses–Ingrid Anna Gilberg

In this draft registration card it also states that part of Carl's finger is missing. His WWII Draft Registration Card and his 1924 Declaration of Intention also mention this fact, although they describe it as his left forefinger off or missing.

Carl's nearest relative listed in this document was his wife, Hilda.

I love these old documents. They are genealogy treasures full of interesting and valuable information.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2020 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

Fun New Feature on FamilySearch ~ Compare-a-Face

There's a fun new feature on FamilySearch. It's called Compare-a-Face. And it's really cool. It compares photos of you with photos of your ancestors.

Here's what the feature looks like on my FamilySearch home page.

Simply click on "Try Compare-a-Face"

and you will see the next screen where you can upload your photo, or photos. As you can see, I uploaded several different photos of myself.

Here are some of my results with two of the photos I uploaded:

Comparing photos with my maternal great-grandmother, Esther Matus Villatoro.

Comparing photos with my paternal grandmother, Ingrid Anna Gillberg.

Comparing photos with my maternal grandmother, Sarah Vasques Madeira.

Comparing photos with my Mom.

Comparing photos with my Dad, Jan Albert Iverson.

See the ancestor photos at the top of the page? To compare with another ancestor, just click on one of their photos.

This shows my photo compared with the photo of my 3rd great-grandmother, Amanda Melvina Carlisle.

See where it says "List" with the arrow at the top left of the page? Click on that and it takes you to a list of your matches.

You can also upload more photos.

It was fun and interesting to compare photos of myself with photos of my ancestors. If you'd like to give this fun new feature a try, click on the link below.

FamilySearch Compare-a-Face

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2018 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

When Did My Grandparents Vote In Their First U.S. Presidential Election?

Katherine R. Wilson's recent post titled My Grandparents’ First U.S. Presidential Election caused me to wonder about my own grandparents and when they may have been able to vote for a U.S. president for the first time in their lives too.

While doing research for this post, I found a helpful website called "270 TO WIN." The website includes a "Historical Presidential Elections" feature under the "Presidents" tab. You can see presidential election results from 1789 to 2012.

Arthur Harry Iverson

The first presidential election my paternal grandfather, Arthur Harry Iverson, would have been able to vote in was held in 1936. He was 25 years old at the time and was living in California. The candidates were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alfred M. Landon.

Ingrid Anna Gillberg

My maternal grandmother, Ingrid Anna Gillberg, would not have been old enough to vote in that election. Her first opportunity to vote in a U.S. presidential election would have been in 1940. At that time she would have been 27 years old and was living in California. The candidates were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Wendell L. Willkie.

Debs Warren Webster

My maternal grandfather, Debs Warren Webster, immigrated to the United States in 1952. He became a U.S. citizen in 1973, so his first chance to vote in a U.S. presidential election was in 1976. Debs would have been 63 years old at the time and was living in California. The candidates were Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford.

Willis Quillin

My maternal grandmother, Willis Quillin, (technically step-grandmother, but she is Grandma to me) immigrated in 1952 along with her husband Debs and their family. She also became a U.S. citizen in 1973. Therefore, her first opportunity to vote in a U.S. presidential election was in 1976. She was 56 years old at the time and was living in California. The candidates were Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford.

Did my grandparents actually vote in these U.S. presidential elections? I don't know. But these are the dates when they were first eligible to vote.

How about your grandparents? When was their first opportunity to vote in a U.S. presidential election?

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

Wordless Wednesday (Almost) ~ Carl and Hilda Gillberg - My Swedish Immigrant Great-Grandparents

I'd like to share this special photo with you today. It's a photo of my paternal great-grandparents, Hilda Maria Carlsson and Carl Albert Gillberg. It was included in my Grandma Ingrid's blue Book of Remembrance. Underneath this photo my Grandma Ingrid wrote the following:

"My parents of to-day. I pray that our Father in Heaven will let you stay with us for many more years. If it be his will."

I don't know when Ingrid wrote these beautiful words in her Book of Remembrance, but it had to be sometime before 15 January 1956. That's the date that Hilda passed away. Carl passed away on 3 May 1963.

I'm grateful to have my Grandma Ingrid's two Books of Remembrance and the photos and documents they contain.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ~ Swedish Style

This sweet Christmas card was found in one of my Grandma Ingrid's Books of Remembrance. I love that they took a picture of their home in North Hollywood, California for this photo card.

See all of the presents under the tree? I wonder which ones were for my father, Jan Albert Iverson.

On the right side of the card is a greeting written in Swedish.

En Glad Jul

och

 Gott Nytt År

Från de

Iversons

Translated, it reads,

A Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year

From the

Iversons

I'm so thankful for this time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I'd like to share this very special Christmas video with you. I hope you enjoy it.

As my grandparents expressed in their lovely Christmas card, I too would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2015 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Great-Grandpa Carl Gillberg's WWII Draft Registration Card

While I was exploring Ancestry.com's new website (which I really like by the way), I was surprised to find the WWII Draft Registration Card for my paternal great-grandfather, Carl Albert Gillberg.¹  By the way, the photo of Carl (above) is from my grandmother, Ingrid Gillberg's, pedigree chart. Ingrid was one of Carl's daughters.

Here is Carl's WWII Draft Registration Card.

This was new information for me. I had no idea Great-Grandpa Carl had registered for the draft during WWII. This draft registration was the Fourth Registration, also known as "the old man's registration."

Information gleaned from the front of this card:

Name: Carl Albert Gillberg
Place of Residence: 12306 Wicks St., Roscoe, Los Angeles, California
Mailing Address: Same as Place of Residence
Telephone: None [Well, that's interesting. They didn't have a phone.]
Age: 60
Place of Birth: Stockholm, Sweden
Date of Birth: January 8, 1882
Name and Address of Person Who Will Always Know Your Address: Jack McElroy - Same as 2 [Jack McElroy was Carl's son-in-law.]
Employer's Name and Address: Unemployed (Baker)

And of course, I love that I have Carl's signature on this document!

Here's the back of Carl's draft registration card.

It's wonderful that a physical description is included in these draft registration cards.

Information gleaned from the back of this card:

Race: White
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 180 pounds
Eye color: Blue
Hair color: Gray
Complexion: Light
Other obvious physical characteristics: Glasses, left forefinger missing
Date of registration: April 26, 1942

I already knew that Carl was missing part of his left forefinger because this fact was stated in Carl's two Declaration of Intention documents and in Carl's Certificate of Naturalization. In my post titled "Left Forefinger Off" I shared two photos of Carl that show this interesting characteristic.

Here's the link to Ancestry.com's database in which I found Carl's draft registration card ~ U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942. You may want to check it out to see if your ancestor is listed there too.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

 

© 2015 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

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1 "United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 June 2015), Carl Albert Gillberg, serial no. 3047, Local Draft Board 177, San Fernando, Los Angeles, California, citing The National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri; World War II Draft Cards (4th Registration) for the State of California; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147.^↩

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Carl and Hilda Gillberg

Last month, my husband and I traveled to San Diego, California for vacation. On our way there, we stopped at the cemetery where my paternal great-grandparents, Carl Albert Gillberg and Hilda Maria (Carlsson) Gillberg, are buried. I wanted to visit and take a picture of their grave marker. 



As you can see, Carl and Hilda share the same grave marker. They are buried at Glen Haven & Sholom Memorial Park in Sylmar, California.

Glen Haven Cemetery is located off of Lopez Canyon Road. Here's a Google Map image showing the cemetery.



Carl and Hilda's grave marker is located in the Roselawn Section, Plot 46.  The star in the image below is where the Roselawn Section is located.



And this is a picture of me standing behind Carl and Hilda's grave marker.



Carl and Hilda's grave marker is not too far from a tree and is close to one of the roads in the cemetery.



The links below are for Carl and Hilda's Find A Grave memorial pages.

Carl Albert Gillberg

Hilda Maria (Carlsson) Gillberg

I'm so glad my husband and I stopped to visit my great-grandparents' grave marker on our way to San Diego.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

52 Ancestors: #18 ~ Grandma Ingrid's Grade School

This is part of the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" Challenge begun by Amy Johnson Crow, author of the blog No Story Too Small.



My paternal grandmother, Ingrid Anna Gillberg, was a wonderful family historian. She put together not one, but two, Books of Remembrance. Inside one of these books is this photo of where she attended grade school when she was a child in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ingrid's parents, Carl and Hilda Gillberg emigrated from Sweden in 1909 and 1910, respectively. They first settled in Salt Lake City, where Ingrid was born. Later the family moved to the Los Angeles area. Ingrid was born on 5 November 1913.

This is a photo of Ingrid taken in 1923 when she was about 10 years old.



Isn't this a fun photo? I wonder what the occasion was for having this picture taken. See how she's holding the skirt of her dress? Perhaps her mother made this dress for her and wanted to get a photo of Ingrid wearing it.

Whatever the reason for the photo, I'm glad it was taken. This photo is also in the same Book of Remembrance as the photo of Ingrid's grade school. It's so fun to see Ingrid at the age she was when she attended grade school. Can't you almost picture her skipping along on her way to school?

I think the name of Ingrid's school is Donlas Grade School, but when I did an online search for this school in Salt Lake City, it didn't show up in the results. Either I'm not reading my grandmother's handwriting correctly, the school's name has been changed, or it no longer exists.

If any of my readers have heard of this school, or can help me find any information about it, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

My AncestryDNA Results Are In ~ Some Surprises

I received my AncestryDNA test results the other day. They arrived a lot earlier than I was expecting, which was awesome. And, they revealed a couple of surprises too.

AncestryDNA  Test Results

The AncestryDNA test results provide some very interesting and helpful tools and charts. Here's my Ethnicity Estimate Chart.




In case the chart above is difficult to read, this is the percentage breakdown for my Ethnicity Estimate Chart:

North Africa – 5%
Native American – 10%
Scandinavia – 34%
Europe West – 20%
Great Britain – 9%
Ireland – 8%
Iberian Peninsula – 7%

I didn't include the Trace Regions. According to AncestryDNA, they may or may not actually be part of my ancestry.

A Really Cool Feature

This is what happened when I clicked on Scandinavia. A bar graph shows up and on the right side of the screen some interesting information about Scandinavia appears. I've blurred the map because of copyright issues. You can also see that they've included a bar graph that  shows how my average ethnicity percentage compares with a typical native Scandinavian.

This is a screen shot of the top portion of the page. As I scrolled down the page, additional information such as genetic diversity and population history can be found. You can see portions of those sections in the next two screenshots.







No Surprises

I'm not surprised by the Native American result. Last year I took the Family Finder (autosomal) DNA test with FamilyTreeDNA. I shared those results here on my blog. It was quite exciting to see these results because they showed that I have Native American ancestry, specifically Mayan ancestry. This verified something that my mom's stepmother had told her a long time ago. She said my mom had Mayan ancestry, and she was right. My maternal great-grandmother, Esther Matus Villatoro, was born in Arriaga, Chiapas, Mexico. The Mayan people inhabited parts of Chiapas and other areas, so this could explain the Native American result.

Esther Matus Villatoro

I'm not at all surprised by the Scandinavian result. My father, Jan Albert Iverson, was Swedish and Norwegian. His maternal grandparents, Carl Albert Gillberg and Hilda Maria Carlsson, emigrated from Sweden to the United States in the early 1900's and his paternal great-grandfather, Iver Iverson, emigrated from Norway to the United States shortly before the U.S. Civil War.

Jan Albert Iverson

Carl Albert Gillberg and
Hilda Maria (Carlsson) Gillberg

The Family Finder DNA test I took last year didn't include Scandinavia in my results. But, it did include North Africa. My maternal grandmother, Sarah Vasques Madeira, was Portuguese. Some of her ancestors came from the Azores and the Island of Madeira. I'm wondering if this accounts for the North Africa ethnicity result. The Island of Madeira is quite close to Morocco, which is in North Africa.

Sarah Vasques Madeira 

The Great Britain and Iberian Peninsula results also don't surprise me. My Webster and Waterman ancestors are originally from England. And the Iberian Peninsula includes Spain and Portugal. As I already mentioned, my maternal grandmother, Sarah Vasques Madeira, was Portuguese. So, this could account for the Iberian Peninsula result.

Surprises

The ethnicity results that surprised me were the Ireland and Europe West results. They did not show up in my Family Finder DNA test results.  And I don't have know of anyone in my family tree from Ireland or the countries represented in the Europe West region.

Matches

The Member Matches feature of the AncestryDNA test is really awesome. I have lots of matches. At the top of the list is my 1st cousin one time removed. She and I had already been in touch with each other. There are some great features included in the Member Matches including lists of shared surnames, a map showing birth locations that appear in both your family tree and your potential cousin's family tree, and even a shared ancestor hint feature.

Conclusion

I'm really glad that I took the AncestryDNA test in addition to the FamilyTreeDNA tests I've taken. I also took the mtDNAPlus test with Family Tree DNA. But, I haven't shared those results on my blog yet.

I love the Member Matches feature on AncestryDNA. I have a long list of matches to look through. And hopefully, I will be able to make new cousin connections soon.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

52 Ancestors: #12 ~ Happy Birthday Dad! We Miss You!

This is part of the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" Challenge begun by Amy Johnson Crow, author of the blog No Story Too Small.

Yesterday was my dad's birthday. He would have turned 78 years old. He passed away almost five years ago.

Jan Albert Iverson ~ 2 Years Old

My dad, Jan Albert Iverson, was born on March 23, 1936 to his parents, Ingrid Anna Gillberg and Arthur Harry Iverson. He was the second of four children born to Ingrid and Arthur. Jan had an older sister named Joan and two younger siblings. His younger siblings are still living, so I won't give their names here for privacy reasons. His older sister, Joan, passed away in 1993 from cancer.

This is a picture of my dad at his home in North Hollywood, California. I love that this picture of my dad shows the inside of the home that his father, Arthur, built with the help of others.



My dad spent the first ten years of his life in the Los Angeles area of California. When he was ten years old, his family moved to Portland, Oregon. This was after his mother, Ingrid, had remarried following the death of my dad's father, Arthur. Ingrid and her second husband, Wayne, had three children. One of Ingrid and Wayne's children, Pamela, passed away in 1972 at only 24 years of age. She had leukemia. Their other two children are still living, so again, I won't give their names here for privacy reasons.

My dad loved sports and played basketball, football, and track during his sophomore year of high school.

This is a picture of my dad when he was 15 years old.



My dad served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the East Central States Mission from May 1956 until May 1958. This is a picture of him taken in 1956 before his mission. He was 20 years old at the time this photo was taken. In his Mission Journal, he mentioned living and traveling in the following states: Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Mississippi, and Maryland.



In the summer of 1958, my dad was inducted into the United States Army. He went to Basic Training at Fort Ord, California from August 1958 to October 1958. This photo of my dad was taken in October of 1959.



After he completed Basic Training, my dad served at the Presidio in San Francisco, California. While he was there, he met his future wife (my mom). Her name is Elizabeth.

They became engaged in the spring of 1959. Then came news that my dad was being sent to Korea. In August of 1959 he left for Seoul, Korea and served overseas for eleven months. He and Elizabeth wrote letters to each other while they were apart. They even sent tapes to each other. My dad was a wonderful artist. He loved to draw and paint. We have a cartoon that he had drawn showing himself sitting at a desk listening to one of the tapes Elizabeth had sent to him. I will be sharing that cute cartoon in a future post.

After his return to the United States, he and Elizabeth were married. This is a photo of my dad and mom on their wedding day.



My dad was a wonderful husband and father. He loved his family. He also had a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He served in many callings in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during his lifetime.

He worked hard to provide for his family. He worked as a computer programmer for many years.

My dad had a love for genealogy and family history. He served as the Family History Center Director at our local Family History Center for about five years. My mom served as an Assistant Director alongside my dad.

It was while my dad was serving as a Family History Director that he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He hadn't smoked during his life. The suspected cause of his cancer was acid reflux that he suffered from for years. He bravely and patiently endured the trials that went along with his cancer diagnosis. He had major surgery to remove the cancerous portion of his esophagus and then had chemotherapy and radiation treatments.



On April 29, 2009, a year and a half after being diagnosed with cancer, my dad passed away. He is very much missed by all who knew and loved him. But, we are comforted by the knowledge that we will see him again someday.

Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved