(Foss) Foss, William & Lulu (Great-grandparents)

As promised, I will make every effort to keep living family members from appearing on this blog without their explicit consent.  I have also removed the other side of the family off this graphic, for the sake of trying to keep it simple.

Foss, William & Lulu (Great Grandparents)

I don't remember as much about this side of the family. I don't really know if we just didn't spend as much time with them or if it had more to do with where we were spending time with them. I was never comfortable at the old farm house where they lived.

I firmly believe the house is haunted and it made me uncomfortable to be there, whether we were in the house or out in the yard. It was once the site of the old County Poor House and insane asylum. There were once outbuildings in various spots on the property...near the sandbox where we played and other areas close by the house. Even though these buildings were no longer around, the energy remained.

I wrote about the house for my investigative reporting class in college and I'll scan the story and add it to the blog. 

In any event, through talking with my Mom and going back over the family tree notes my grandma created, I've learned a few things:

Lulu had twin sisters. I remember Marguerite...she lived in Wisconsin and we visited her about once a year (she and her husband lived about a 4 hour drive away). Her twin, Marjorie lived in Florida and, if I ever met her, I don't have any recollection of that now. 

My great grandmother and her siblings (there were 6 of them all together) lost their mom to tuberculosis when Lulu was 6. Her father sent all the children off to live with relatives until he remarried about 6 years later. All 5 of the single children were sent off on their own to different family members. The twins were sent to the same family together. By the time of the 1920 census, all the children were back home under the same roof.

William was part of the generation "too young for WWI and twoo old for WWII" and he lists himself as not being a veteran of any war on the 1930 census. 

My mom said she remembers him not getting along with his only sister, our Great Aunt Helen.  they fought a lot. She thinks it could have something to do with the fact that Helen and her husband eloped, but we don't know that for sure. They had another brother who died as a baby. 

William passed in 1969, a few months after I was born. Mom said he died of a tumor in his brain. They tried to remove it but couldn't get all of it. Doctors drained it, but he died soon after. 

They were farmers all their lives, although Lulu spend a short time as a teacher before she and William married. Both were born and raised in Wisconsin.