Great Aunt Lina

Lina Haubrich Wickham

Dear Ian,

When I showed pictures to everyone at Thanksgiving you asked some questions on the way home. You asked about this "rebel" woman in the picture. This is your Great, Great, Great Aunt Lina, the older sister of your Great, Great, Great Grandfather, Albert Haubrich.

Lina was born in Germany in 1891 and when she was just a baby was on a ship with her family on her way to her new home in America. She was the ninth of twelve children with three sisters and eight brothers. She lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin for most of her life, but in 1970 died in southern California where she was living at that time. She was there to be  near her one daughter whose name is Norrine, and still lives in California. Lina married a very kind and friendly man, named Morris Wickham. He died in 1963.

When I called her a "rebel," what I meant was that she was kind of a "free spirit."  She was a good lady, very determined and was always ready to do what needed to be done even if it was not easy or what others would normally do. She was sort of like a "mother hen" for the rest of the family.

For example, one of her brothers  had made a lot mistakes in his life, and was not always very trustworthy, but Aunt Lina would always be there for him and reached out to him to help him. Another time, after World War II when the United States defeated Germany, there were a lot of German people who were in need of help, like food and clothes and blankets. Some of those German people were our cousins and other relatives who still lived in Germany. Aunt Lina responded to their pleas for help and collected things from family members and others to send them. Aunt Lina also took the lead in taking care of her mother in her old age.

So, when I called Aunt Lina a "rebel" - well, that was a way of saying that she was a special lady and one of your more interesting ancestors. And by the way, learning about stuff like this and organizing it, is really pretty easy, and if I can do it, anyone can. It's like most anything - if you are interested in it and work at it, it will usually turn out pretty well.

You can ask me anytime about anyone or anything you want to know about your family. I would love to tell you about them.

Aunt Lina in 1961 with her husband, Morris (right)
and her brother, Walter (left)