#52 Ancestors Week 37 - The Big Six

Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has a weekly challenge to write the stories of your ancestors. This is week #37 and the suggested theme is  Large Families. While I do have a number of families that had 12 or more children and some with even more when there were multiple marriages. 


But the family that first came to mind when I saw the theme was my grandmother and her sisters.  It was a family with seven children, six girls and the youngest a boy.  The sisters were very close, born between 1892 and 1904, they did everything together as children. As they all married and raised families, they continued to get together at large family gatherings. 

There were gatherings for each of their birthdays, an annual Christmas dinner, and yearly reunions with the entire Bovenschen gang attending.  In the article above, it was the first time a gathering was missing a sister.  Grace had died in February of 1957.  Those reunions every two years continued through the early 2000's with grandchildren and great grandchildren carrying on the tradition.  

The reason that the six sister came to mind is because they called themselves the "BIG SIX."

Children of William and Gesena Bovenschen c.1950

Seated:  Bernice, Ruth, Grace, Helen

 , Standing:  Tress, Wayne, Anna

When I was young, I always enjoyed visiting my great aunts on their farms.  Food was always the center of attraction and each of them enjoyed cooking.  Years later we put together a cookbook highlighting the many recipes of the "Big Six."