For the past 20 or 30 years, my family history has taken up some of my spare time, as I search for the actual place in Ireland that my Kelley ancestor came from – and just as important, why did he come to Washington County in the 1700s?

Along the genealogy trail, there have been many discoveries and side trips. I’m intrigued by the journey my maternal grandmother made, and since it’s almost Mother’s Day, a story about this particular mother seems appropriate.

My great-grandparents came from Denmark to Canada on the promise of free land if they successfully cleared the forest and planted crops with a good yield. This worked for some, but others failed and returned to Denmark. These immigrants were mostly dairy farmers, but the land they came to in New Brunswick was all forest, a big disappointment. They named their village New Denmark.

My grandmother was born in New Denmark in the late 1800s and by 1900 had traveled to Windham, Maine. I asked her once how this happened before trains, cars or roads in many areas.

“Covered wagon,”was her reply.

She told me her family came through Augusta on July 4 and there was a parade, fireworks, etc. Her father made an agreement with a man in Windham to purchase some farm property to be paid for partly in cash and partly in hay. Just imagine cutting hay before any mechanized equipment was available.

She went to elementary school in Windham and although her native language was Danish, she got all A’s on her report card. The school was on the corner of Swett and Gray roads, about a mile from her home on the corner of Chute and Montgomery road.

She and her family traveled by horse and buggy to Westbrook on Sundays to attend the Lutheran Church, organized by other Danish immigrants. About 1900, she married a neighboring man and moved from her parents home to a farm down the road, which abutted her grandfather’s property. She had four children who grew up, including my mother. When my mother was 13 or so, my grandmother left her husband and the farm and moved to Fryeburg, where she worked as a cook for the family of the headmaster of Fryeburg Academy. She stayed in that area most of the rest of her life. My mother graduated from high school in Bridgton and settled in Windham after marrying and raised a large family.

I remember my grandmother coming to visit, traveling by bus from Bridgton and walking to our house from the bus stop on Route 302 near Pope Road. She always wore an apron, the bib type; she always had packages of Beechnut gum in her black leather purse; and she always kept her hair in a close-fitting hair net. She loved to read detective magazines and used to cook something called “sweet soup” that was made from apples, raisins and I think cardamom.

My memory of her is a short, solid woman, always laughing, with her apron bib safety-pinned to the shoulder of her dress and treats in her pockets.

I hope readers will take a few minutes and write about an older relative – it doesn’t have to be a long story, you’re not getting graded – but they’re worth the time.

Kay Soldier welcomes reader ideas for column topics of interest to seniors. She can be reached by email at [email protected], or write to 114 Tandberg Trail, Windham, ME 04062.