Saturday, March 01, 2008

Postcard from Sophie ALMLIE to Randi LERFALD, 2 Aug 1908

Here is the third and last of the 1908 postcards I found I had scanned out of date order.


(front)


(back)

Source: The Westaby-Lerfald Postcard Collection. Privately held by Troy Midkiff, Vancouver, Washington.

I've been puzzled by this postcard ever since I read it. Dated 2 August 1908 from Baltic, Minnehaha Co., South Dakota, it is written by Sophie ALMLIE to her cousin Miss Randi LERFALD of Baldwin, St. Croix Co., Wisconsin, care of "S. LOKKE." It appears to have been postmarked 3 August 1908, but Rena has written "Aug 8," probably misreading the 3. Originally, the postcard was addressed to Woodville, also in St. Croix County, but as you can see, the city name was crossed out and Baldwin written instead. In fact, it appears that "Baldwin" and "c/o S. Lokke" were written by a different person than Sophie, as if it had been mailed to Woodville and someone there (the postmaster, a relative?) had readdressed it. The card reads:

Dear cousin,

Its a long time since I sent you a picture but I havent herd any about it so you must write tell me. we are all well from,

Sophie Almlie

I simply have no idea who Sophie nor Randi are, nor why Rena had this postcard in her possession. Rena did not have any siblings named Randi, and I cannot find any of her cousins with that name, although it is entirely possible, since the information on her family tree is incomplete enough that I could be missing many relatives. Rena did have an older sister named Sophia, but she married an Alpha LINE, so ALMLIE was not her last name. I can't find any cousins with the name Sophie or Sophia, either, and no one with the last name LOKKE. You'll notice the English grammar and punctuation aren't very good, so it's possible that Sophie was a native speaker of Norwegian. I'll have to do some digging in the census records to see if I can uncover some answers, and perhaps future postcards will reveal more clues to help me solve this little mystery! The next group featured will be from the year 1909.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi, I know this is an old post but I Just recently found your blog.
Sophie Almlie was my grandmother, She was born Ragna Sophie Almlie in 1892.
Her Mother was Regine Lerfald daughter of John Nilsen Lerfald. Regine was married to John Almlie in 1885.
Rena was her cousin. Rena also went by the name of Randi in her early years