52 Ancestors in 2022 - Week 13: Sisters

It's Week 13 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. We are a quarter of the way through the year! Even more amazing....I've kept up so far this year! I've tried this challenge four times in the past, and I've never made it past week 9 without taking a break! So I'm feeling pretty accomplished about getting through week 13!

This week the prompt is 'Sisters'. My grandmother had 3 sisters, but I only ever met one of them, her youngest sister, Elizabeth. So today I'm am going to tell you a little about sisters Elizabeth and Janco.

 

Elizabeth was the youngest of seven children. She was the only one of the Janco children born in the United States. An older sister Mary was already married when the family came to America. She remained in Europe. Another sister Elizabeth died as a young child while the family was still in Europe. The younger Elizabeth Janco was born on May 12, 1912 in Peoria, Illinois. Her older sister Susie had recently turned 11. When their mother died a few months later, Susie was the oldest female in the household. She became the caretaker, and a 'mother' to Elizabeth. My grandma often told us that her education ended early. She wanted to graduate from high school, but her father pulled her out to be a housekeeper to the family.

I don't know what happened in the intervening years. By 1923 Susie was living in St. Louis, Missouri. Elizabeth was living on her father's farm in Branch, Michigan. Elizabeth was 11 and served as a housekeeper for her father. She attended school only sporadically when her father did not need her at home. It was not an easy life to Elizabeth, as the clipping below indicates. 

Ludington Daily News, Ludington, Mason County, MI, 6 Jun 1923, Page 3, Michigan Newspapers, 1817-2009, MyHeritage.com [online database], Michigan Newspapers, 1817-2009
MyHeritage.com [online database]

 This is a just a small clip for the article. You can read the complete article on MyHeritage. 

 

Susie made a trip to Michigan in 1923 to visit the farm. She hoped to convince her father to let Elizabeth return to St. Louis with her. Sadly, he refused to let Elizabeth leave. The sisters did keep in touch. Elizabeth grew up and relocated to South Dakota. The sisters visited back and forth through the years. I can remember meeting Elizabeth at least once. She'd traveled by train to visit my grandmother. She was probably about 50 years old at the time. 

 

This photo of Elizabeth was taken in 1950, when she was about 38 years old.