My Paternal Grandparents

I have been trying to do more family history work lately.  When I got on the new Family Search website, Alex showed me how you can add photos to your family tree.  I pulled out my old hard copy files I have had for years and found these photos of my paternal grandparents, Alma Joseph Von Niederhauser (affectionately know as AJ) and Violet Bindrup.

 

Grandpa's parents came to the United States from Switzerland before he was born.  Grandma's father was from Denmark and her mother from Switzerland.

  

They were wonderful grandparents.  They always remembered my birthday.  I think they came to pretty much every one of my piano recitals.  That right there is true love.  We used to go to their home in Clinton every Sunday evening.  All the Niederhauser cousins would be there and we would have a blast playing in the barn or in their office.  We played with Grandpa's old adding machine until we finally broke it.  Grandpa was a builder in his younger days.  He also raised and sold Shetland Ponies.  Grandma made the best homemade rolls I have ever had.  At Christmas she always gave us something she had knitted or crocheted.  She had such good taste in clothing and home décor.  To me she was an elegant woman.  But she wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty.  I remember going with her out to their hen house to collect eggs.  I remember they had a row of bottles and black nipples by the sink that she would wash out and use to feed the baby lambs.  She loved animals. In her later years she fed many a stray cat because she couldn't bear to turn them away. 

 

This picture, taken in 1979, is how I remember them looking for most of the time I knew them.

Grandpa is on the far right in this picture.

This is AJ and Violet when they were first married.

I believe this was Violet's high school photo.  I remember her telling me she used to love to ride horses and also was one of the few girls at her school that could do a back handspring.  She had spunk.

I love this photo of her with her siblings.  She is on the top, right.

I am guessing grandpa took this photo.  They had six children.  My dad, in the suit, was the second oldest child.

Here is their whole family, sometime in the late 1950's.

I am loving being able to connect with my past.  It gives me a greater sense of who I am.  I am so grateful for my wonderful heritage.