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Starting with my grandmother, Ruth Arlene Pollar/Neimi, these ancestors immigrated from Finland (FamilySearch.org) Grandma was born in the United States, but both of her parents came from Finaland.

Grandma’s mother, Emma Marie Johansdotter, was married once before to a man named John Oscar Pollar (photos privately held by Gail Hutchings (Spanish fork, Utah), 2025).

This is a picture of Emma and John. They had four children. John Oscar Pollar worked on the railroad and one day he was pinned between two uncoupled train cars. He died from his injuries.

Marianeimi, Emma and Henrick, photo privately held by Gail Hutchings (Spanish Fork, Utah) 2025.

Emma next married Henry Marianeimi (also spelled Marjaneimi). They had one child, my grandmother, Ruth.

Ruth Arlene Pollar/Neimi, photo privately held by Gail Hutchings (Spanish Fork, Utah), 2025.

You may have noticed that I write my grandmother’s last name as Pollar/Neimi. There is a story behind that. Every family has a skeleton or two in their closet and this is one of mine.

Henry did not like it here in America and wanted to go back to Finland. He took off and eventually made it back to Finland. He eventually passed away there. Emma was so angry with him that she took back her pervious married name, Pollar, and also gave that name to Ruth. This is why I write Ruth’s last name the way that I do. When Ruth was 12 Henry reached out to them to tell them he was established again in Finland and invited them to join him. Of course, they didn’t, for which I am glad because Ruth later met and married Alfred Walter Peters, my grandfather. I will share with you the marriage record of Henry and Emma below.

Certificate of Marriage, Iron Mountain, Dickinson County, Michigan, United States, record for Henry Marianeimi and Emma Pollar, privately held by Gail Hutchings.

my paternal line

On my father’s side I have ancestors who immigrated in the 1800’s. Here is a screen shot of my tree for context. My gr. gr. grandpa, Alfred Peters immigrated to America from England in 1887.

This is his immigration record. I suspected that this line of my tree might have been miners and I was right. Mining was a huge industry in Iron Mountain, Michigan.

Here is a bigger picture of the manifest. I could not get the whole record in the shot, but my gr. gr. grandpa is on line 14.

Time to introduce my maternal grandparents:

My mother’s father was Ellis Richard Brigham, but he went by Richard (or Dick for short). I never knew him. He passed away the year I turned 2 years old. My mother says he loved to invent things, some of which were pretty good. He only had a 6th grade education, but she tells me he was quite brilliant.

Grandma, Lula Elvera Edberg, was a sweet lady. She and my grandfather lived in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. They were both married to other people prior to being married to each other. Sadly, their marriage ended in divorce as well. My grandfather came from a rough family and he had a temper. In the divorce decree from his first wife, Clara, she states the reason as repeated cruelty. When I asked my mom why her mother married someone with a history of being cruel, she just told me that her mother was very much in love with him.

They had two children: my mother, and her brother, Vaughn. My grandfather developed MS, which was why he passed away at such a young age. Grandma passed away in her 70’s.

I don’t know a lot about my maternal great grandparents. My mother loved her grandpa, Earl Henry Brigham. I’m told he liked to do magic tricks. His wife, Dollie Belle Hills divorced him at some point and remarried. I am told that she died from cancer. My mother has a memory of her in her hospital bed crying that she did not want to die.

My grandma’s parents were Scandinavian. Werner Carl Edberg was from Sweden. Elise Bergithe Svendsen Hall was from Norway. They both emigrated here in the early 20th century. Werner died young too. He had a ruptured appendix and back in those days there wasn’t much they could do to save a person when that happened. Elise was left to raise 4 daughters and one son.

It’s too bad that I do not know more about this side of my family. For any who are reading this, I would suggest that you start now recording as many family stories as you can now. It’s never too late to start.

I’d like you to meet my paternal grandparents. A smart looking bunch, wouldn’t you say? Let me introduce them:

Top left is my great grandfather, Thomas Alfred Peters. His son, my grandfather, was Alfred Thomas Peters. The Peters line goes back to Cornwall, England. I assume they were probably miners. I did not know my great grandfather. My grandfather, though, was a cheerful old man who would likely kiss you square on the mouth if you didn’t forcefully turn your head to the side when he leaned in for a kiss (LOL!). He was born and raised in Iron Mountain, Michigan and worked for Wisconsin Electric his whole life (I believe). He was born during WWI, but I do not know if he ever served in WWII. My father was born at the early onset of WWII so my grandfather was probably exempt from going to war.

My great grandma was the only great grandparent that I ever had the pleasure of knowing. I distinctly remember one store that she liked to tell. On her first day of school she got lost and she could not ask for directions because she only spoke German. I never, in the time that I knew her, heard her speak of a word of German. However, her family must have retained their native language even though several generations were born in America.

My great grandparents on my grandma’s side were from Finland. Sadly, Henrik was not happy in America and he abandoned his family to go back to his native country. This created a feeling of hostility between him, his wife and their daughter that never died. Even when he wrote to them asking them to join him in Finland when my grandmother was 12, those hard feelings still existed and they stayed here in America. Grandma even took on the last name of her mother’s first husband, Oscar Pollar. This is why in my family tree I have her listed as Ruth Arlene Pollar Niemi.

Oscar was Emma’s first husband. They had 4 children together: 2 boys and 2 girls. Oscar worked on the railroad and one day he was squashed between two uncoupled train cards and died from his injuries.

After her second husband, Henrik, left, she never remarried.

Not all family trees are perfect, but all family trees are important to those to whom they belong.

My journey into genealogy (family history).

Hello, and welcome to my blog. My name is Gail and I will be your pilot for this trip. Let me first introduce myself.

I grew up in the upper peninsula of Michigan. People up there are called Yoopers (for da U.P.). I grew up 10 minutes from the Wisconsin border so I consider myself a Yooper by birth and a Cheese Head by association. I have since left the U.P. and I now live in Utah, but, you know what they say, you can take the girl out of the Midwest, but you can’t take the Midwest out of the girl.

My mother has been an avid genealogist since before it was cool. I have loved hearing her stories about all of the ancestors she has discovered and I am the happy recipient of her hard work. As she is aging and will one day pass, I have decided to “take up the mantle”. I have a bachelor’s degree in History from Southern New Hampshire University and am working on Family History certificates from BYU-Idaho through their online program.

I am the mother of 3 adult children (2 girls and 1 boy) and step-mom to 3 boys (2 of whom are adults). No grandchildren yet, but I’m ok with that. I hardly feel old enough to be a grandmother, even though I am actually old enough to be a grandmother.

This is my first blog, and, as you can guess, I am no spring chicken. I proudly claim that I am a Generation X girl. I’m just young enough to have a fairly good grasp on all of this technology stuff, and just old enough to struggle with it and have to ask my kids for help. So please pardon me if I mess things up a time or two (or three).

I hope to share with you my love of genealogy. My plan is to share the things that I am working on, my achievements, and my frustrations, but most of all, I hope to instill in you the desire to seek out your own ancestors. I would love to hear what you are working on and offer help and suggestions where you are stuck.

So let’s get started!

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