MYSTERY SOLVED!

ANNETJE JANS

I can only imagine how uncomfortable that accordion choker collar must have been. And to think that was considered high style!

Several years ago, when my interest in our family history began to bloom, I visited several times with my aunt Pauline Banks and asked so many questions that she finally shouted, "That's enough!"

I was very surprised at her reaction but at the same time a little ashamed that I had not been very considerate. That's how it is when the genealogy bug bites you. You have the idea that everyone feels just like you, and will be happy to talk for hours about great-great grandpa and the time he served in prison for stealing a bee hive!

However aunt Pauline had some questions for me and one in particular, she asked several times.

In her high pitched voice (she was in her 80's then) she would ask, "One thing I'd like to know and that's just who is Anna Kajans?" Then she would tell my how this Anna was a very wealthy lady and when she died, she left money to all her descendants and pauline's dad even got a lot of it.

Keep in mind that Pauline's dad was born in 1885, so if he got a thousand dollars, that would have been a lot back then. Aunt Pauline even went so far as to whisper that some family members thought this Anna may have been a 'madam' or something to have made so much money.

My Aunt Pauline passed away before I was able to unravel this mystery, but I hope somehow her questions are all being answered.

A certain lady was born in Vleckere, Norway way back in the sixteen hundreds. She married twice and had about eight children. She and her first husband were given a large tract of land on what is now called Long Island, NY.

There is a lot to this story but for the sake of a shorter post I will jump ahead and say that there was a fortune won in a law suit concerning this valuable land many years after the lady had died. This money was divided equally among her living descendants, and my great grandma, Josephine Lydia Jones was one of the happy recipients.

The lady's name, Annetje Jans. (the 'tj' has a 'k' sound.

She was approximately my 8th great grandmother, I believe through my Jones line.

I can see how my English speaking aunt thought the Lady's name was Anna Kajans.

Another mystery solved in the world of genealogy!

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