I WONDER . . . .

I wonder what my great grandmother Johanna had to go through to get from Germany to America and on to Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and finally to Washington State.
Did she get sick on the ship?
Did her four children behave on the ship?
Was she pregnant with her fifth child - my grandfather - on the ship?
What did she do for diapers when she just got off the ship? Did she bring them along? How did she wash them? What about baby food for Ella, who was only two?
What did they do for money? Did they bring plenty along with them from Germany? Did friends and relatives help them? Did they use a barter system instead?
How did they manage to get from Ellis Island to Peoria, Illinois? Train to Chicago? Covered wagon?
What happened to get them to Grundy County, Iowa? Did great grandpa farm there, too?
How did he farm? Was he just a hired hand? What sort of equipment did they have? How many horses?
Who told them that the land around Rock County, Minnesota was beautiful?
Did they gather everything they had in a wagon and drive the horses 270 miles? How long did it take? Was there a train track close? But if they took the train, how did they get their horses, cows, machinery along?
Did they make enough money at each stopping place to get them further along the way?
In Rock County, did Johannah help build the sod house? Was she pregnant again during that time?
Were all her 10 pregnancies easy? Did she get morning sickness? Did she have heartburn?
Did she always have two or three kids in diapers? Did she have to wash them all on a wash board?
Did Theodore and Johanne Catherine (who were 10 and 8 by the time my grandfather was born) help with the little ones?
Did she start a garden right away? Did they buy jars and canning supplies in Luverne?
Did she have to take care of farm animals as well as the children? Did she do the chores when my grandfather was farming?
In the 23 years they lived in Rock County, did she ever have time to enjoy life?
How relieved was she and the entire family to be gone from the disastrous snow storms and floods of Minnesota?
Were Johannah's other relatives happy to see them safely settled in Tacoma?
Was her life in Tacoma easier? happier? lonlier? sadder?
Did being involved in the church make her life more meaningful?

I wonder..........