Day of the Dead with Jacob Mehren

We celebrated our little Hendrickson version of Day of the Dead today.

At our home, that means I tell my kids about one or two of their ancestors while we enjoy our traditional Day of the Dead gingerbread skeletons.  'Cuz traditions are always more fun if yummy food is involved.

This year, I told the kids about Jacob Mehren, my mom's great-grandfather.  Jacob was born in 1857 to German immigrants who lived in Chicago.  He was an electrician and inventor who held nineteen U.S. patents, mostly for improvements he devised for the city's fire alarm system (Chicago hired him to manage it a few years after the famous fire destroyed about a third of the city).  Jacob spent a lot of time tinkering in his basement after work, often inviting his kids to work with him on his projects.

Here he is with his wife Elizabeth and their twelve children.  My mom's grandpa Clarence is the little boy in the dark suit on the front row.  As I've shared stories about our forebears with my kids these last few years, I've been deeply indebted to my dad, who compiled short biographies of numerous ancestors when I was young and shared them with our family.  I have about seven left that I haven't shared with my own kids yet.  I guess that means in seven years I'll need to either persuade my dad to write some more, or dust off my history major skills and learn how to create them myself.