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Carolyn
George Williams
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This is Carolyn's paternal grandfather, George Williams
(1863-1946). The back of the photo says 1884, but this picture was more likely taken
between 1915 and 1920. He was baptized to the Mormon faith on Feb. 25, 1882, in the Well
of St. Anthony at The Forest of Dean, England. In 1885, he emigrated to America and took
the train to Salt Lake City. In Logan, he was reunited with his sister, Julia Louise, and
many friends from England. Later that year, he was able to send money so his wife
Elizabeth could join him from England. Already, in 1878, the town of Pocatello Idaho had
been born along the northern rail line. George and Elizabeth moved to Pocatello in 1887.
George found work in a rock quarry; he also did prospecting. In 1896, Elizabeth drowned
after slipping off a footbridge over the Portneuf river, leaving behind five children. In
1898, George married Maria Botilda Hokman, known as Tilda. Over the years, they had nine
more children, the third of which was Carolyn's father: Emmons. George Williams is most famous for being elected mayor of Pocatello in 1915. He engineered many improvements to the city, but he also made enemies. He lost a reelection bid in 1917. |
Tilda Hokman Williams
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Tilda (1874-1958) was Carolyn's paternal grandmother. Born in Malmo, Sweden,
she was the last of nine children of Nils (1825-1903) and Maja (1828-1893) Hokman. Her
family had only a modest means, so the children were encouraged to leave Sweden for
Germany and Denmark. Two brothers eventually emigrated to America. In the summer of 1891,
at age seventeen, Tilda herself left her homeland for America. She first went to
Liverpool, where she boarded a steamship full of like emigrants, all hoping for a better
life in the New World. Upon reaching Quebec, Tilda boarded an immigrant train for Minnesota. Along the way, she saw a man milking a cow, which was woman's work in Sweden. In Minneapolis, she was reunited with her brother Louie, and she got a job at a dressmaker's shop, which she quickly left. Instead, she took a job as a housekeeper to facilitate the learning of English. Soon, she joined her brother in North Dakota, but she did not like the cold, so she decided to join a cousin, Nils Berg, in Salt Lake City. After a mix-up upon arrival, she eventually found her cousin in Richmond, but she soon had to return to Salt Lake City, because she had contracted typhoid fever. During recuperation, Tilda was introduced to the Mormon faith. She was baptized in December 1894 and received her confirmation on her twenty-first birthday in January, 1895. She found work with a well-to-do family, but she soon left for Pocatello, to join her cousin at his new home town. Tilda soon prospered and even took some schooling at the Utah State Agricultural College in Logan. In May 1898, she was married to George Williams at the Logan Temple. It was a busy year for Tilda in 1915. George was elected mayor of Pocatello, Tilda accompanied a group of girls to Sand Diego and San Francisco for the World's Fair and Pacific Exposition, . and the family moved to a new home in Pocatello. Tilda was a good mother and loved her own children and her step-children equally. The family was grief-stricken when George's older daughter Laura died in the influenza pandemic of 1918. Though hard-of-hearing, Tilda was active in her community and her church for the rest of her life. She especially enjoyed traveling by airplane to visit her children in Northern Idaho, Washington, and Utah. |
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This is a picture of Carolyn's father, Emmons (1903-1984) taken during the celebration of his 80th birthday in 1983. Seated is Carolyn's mother, Margaret Ellen (1910-2002), holding Briana, the eighth and last of her brother's children. |
Dennis
| Members and relatives of the Pernaa family began to
emigrate from Finland to America in the late 1800's. Besides the Pernaa's, this included
the Koski's, the Palo's, the Aalto's, and the Eskola's. Dennis' Grandmother, Lempi
Järvinen ( or Jarvela?), came over in 1912. The departure of the Titanic was a big deal
at the time; fortunately for her, all the space had already been taken. Lempi's brother
Walfried also emigrated about this time. Once in America, he shortened his name to Jarvi. Dennis' grandfather, Kaarlo Pernaa's parents were Johan Pernaa (1850-1930) and Liisi Palo Pernaa (1849-1918). Many details are very sketchy. Kaarlo emigrated from Vaasa, Finland, to Massachusetts, where he met and married Lempi. Kaarlo was a Lutheran, while Lempi was Greek Orthodox. Since Lutheran men were taught to read and write, the Finnish emigrants had an advantage not enjoyed by most other emigrants. Like many able men of the time, Kaarlo left to work in the mines at Red Lodge, Montana. This is where Dennis' father was born. Kaarlo contracted Tuberculosis in the early 1920's. In 1923, he supposedly went back to Massachusetts to die. Dennis' father was told he had died about 1925, but it was a lie. Lempi moved to Washington State in 1923, because her brother Walfried lived there. There she married Tom Hemmingson, also from Finland, who was a brutal, unsociable man. In all fairness, Tom too had probably been the victim of abuse in his youth. While Tom was an abusive step-father to Dennis' father, he did not treat his own favorite son, Rudolf, much better. Lempi divorced Tom early in the marriage. Tom's next marriage was extremely brief. Lempi is buried in the Pioneer Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Renton, Washington. It is unusual that her gravestone says WIFE, and the matching adjacent gravestone for someone named Adolf H. Jarvi (1893-1941) says HUSBAND. We do not know who the man was, though he was probably a relative, but he was not her husband. Walfried had two daughters: Sonja and Gertrude. Walfried died about1959. Dennis' father's maternal line carried a certain intolerance to the new American style of living, because the the combination of smoking, drinking, and fatty foods led to deaths in middle-age. |
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This is a picture of Dennis' father's mother Lempi Aina (Järvinen) (1895-1946), Dennis father, Kaarlo (1918-1990),and Dennis' father's father Kaarlo Pernaa (1891-1941). This picture was taken in late 1918. Dennis' father's parents split up (for reasons that are not clear) in 1923. Dennis' father suffered abuse from the Stepfather from Hell when his mother remarried. Dennis' father had a half-brother, Rudolf, who died in 1958, in a manner not unlike many unloved homosexuals addicted to alcohol. |
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Pictured here are Dennis' grandfather, Walter (1903-1974), Dennis' mother, and her mother Ellen (1904?-February 1928) along with her sister Donna. This picture was taken about 1927. Dennis' mother's mother died of complications due to childbirth. It is not obvious that Dennis grandfather was over fifty percent Native-American. Due to bigotry early in the century, this information was strenuously suppressed. |
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Here is Laina Pernaa of Ashby Massachusetts, a distant cousin of Dennis, at the grave of Dennis' grandfather, Kaarlo Pernaa, in Ashburnham. |
Last modified October 2, 2004