Rozworld’s WebLog

YAKESH FAMILY REUNION

SATURDAY, JULY 12, 2008
Robert and Sandy’s Place - Cornell Lake

• Bring your Favorite Homemade Dish

• Bring your own Refreshments

• Time to eat will be 1:30 P.M.

• Donation Box will be out for whatever you wish to drop in to help Defray expenses of the chicken, plates, cups, ice, utensils, napkins, etc.

• Drawing will be held for a few door prizes to be given away, Please put your name & family members in attendance in the jar for the drawings.

• Let all your family members know about the place & date of this picnic.

Hope to see you there!

We have Gudrun Bergh’s family in our thoughts as they go through these hard times.

Gudrun Bergh

Gudrun Fredrikke Ager Bergh, 104, a lifetime resident of Eau Claire passed away on Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008, at the Syverson Home.

She was born Jan. 5, 1904, in the family home on Chestnut Street to Waldemar Theodor and Gurolle (Blestren) Ager as the second of nine children in the family. Gudrun married Milo Bergh on Aug. 14, 1929, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Red Wing, Minn. She began her schooling at the Norwegian School (located on Fifth Avenue and Hudson Street) for her first year of classes before attending the Eau Claire public schools. After high school she attended Hunt’s Business College in Eau Claire, and then worked for several years in the offices of Samuelson’s Dry Goods Store and the Midelfort Clinic prior to her marriage.

Gudrun lived independently in her own home past age 100, at which time she fell and broke her hip. She has since then been a resident of the Syverson Lutheran Home in Eau Claire. She celebrated her 100th birthday at a party given by her daughters at the Ager House, where she had been born 100 years earlier. Her hobbies included crafts, crewel embroidery, Norwegian needlework, reading, organizing photo albums and her Norwegian heritage. She thoroughly enjoyed a trip to Norway in 1983 with her daughter.

She was a lifetime member of First Lutheran Church and, in younger days, was active in youth groups, choir, ladies aid and church circles. She also had been a member of Luther Hospital Guild, Eau Claire Women’s Club, Order of Eastern Star, Sons of Norway, Nordmanns Forbundet, the Ager Association and the Eau Claire Camera Club. Gudrun is the last surviving member of her sewing club, which had about a dozen members and was organized when she was a teenager. The group retained close friendships throughout their lifetimes until 2000 when the last other surviving member died.

Gudrun is survived by her two daughters, Karren Bloom of Burnsville, Minn., Barbara (Fritz) Culver of Madisonville, La.; five grandchildren, Ray (LeAnn) Bloom of Eagan, Minn., Beth (Doug) Bitney of Chanhassen, Minn., Jeff (Stacey) Culver of Mandeville, La., Vicki (Jim) Anderson of Rockport, Texas, and Pam Culver of La Crosse; five great-grandchildren, Mariah, Kara and Hailey Bloom, Jack Bitney and Erin Culver; and four step-grandchildren, Teryl (David) Shields, Ashley (Nils) Hammerich, James Anderson, and Jason Anderson. Gudrun is further survived by her brother, Roald S. Ager of Barron; brother-in-law, John W. Best of Barron; two sisters-in-law of her husband, Catherine Bergh and Aza Bergh, both of Eau Claire; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Milo, in 1974; her son-in-law, John R. Bloom; seven siblings and their spouses, Eyvind (Inga) Ager, Trygve (Elvira) Ager, Valborg (Arnt) Oyen, Solveig Best, Magne Ager, Hildur (Albert) Nicolai, and Borghild (Richard) Derge.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 18, 2008, at First Lutheran Church, with Pastor John Yungerberg officiating. Burial will be in Lakeview Cemetery, Eau Claire. Family and friends may call one hour prior to the time of service Monday at the church.

Memorials are preferred to First Lutheran Church, Waldemar Ager Association or to the donor’s choice.

Lenmark-Gomsrud-Linn Funeral Home is serving the family.

To express condolences online, please visit obituaries at

www.lenmarkfh.com.

Yakesh Family Reunion

Saturday July 14, 2007

Robert & Sandy’s - Cornell Lake, WI

• Bring your favorite Home-Made Dish
• Bring your own Refreshments.
• Time to eat will be 1:30 P.M.
• Donation box will be out for whatever you wish to drop in to help
  defray expenses of the plates, cups, utensils, ice, etc.
• Drawings will be held for a few door prizes to be given away. Please
  put your name and family members in attendance in the jar for the drawings.
• Let all your family members know the place and date of this picnic.

Hope to see you there!

Inga Ager

Leader-Telegram Staff

Inga Louise Pederson Ager, 100, of 809 Grant St., Chippewa Falls, died Tuesday, April 10, 2007, at Luther Hospital in Eau Claire.

She was born July 4, 1906, in Running Valley, Chippewa County, to Helga (Ludvigson) and Andrew Pederson. She was raised on her parents’ farm in Running Valley, and baptized and confirmed at the North Running Valley Lutheran Church. She came to Eau Claire to work and met Eyvind B. Ager at the Vikings Lodge. They formed a friendship that led to marriage. Inga and Eyvind were married in Minneapolis, Minn., on August 18, 1927. They made their home in Eau Claire until 1948, when they moved to Chippewa Falls. In 1955, they moved to Milwaukee, returning to Chippewa Falls in 1970.

Inga joined the Sons of Norway in 1924, and has been an active member for 83 years. She was a charter member of Christ Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls, where she was involved in their women’s circle and quilters. Inga was also a member of the Waldemar Ager Association. She loved cooking and baking cookies for her sons and grandchildren; and Inga’s kitchen was open 24 hours a day and serving since 1927.

Survivors include two sons, Waldemar (Charlotte) Ager of Chetek, Frederik (Mariann) Ager of Arlington, Texas; one daughter, Borgny Ager of Chippewa Falls; 11 grandchildren, Roger (Gloria) Ager, Nancy Ager, Susan (Thomas) Avery and Lizbeth (Michael Persson) Ager; Lauren Ager, Linda (Brett Hart) Ager, Kristine (John) Bejin, Frederik and Daniel Ager, Kristina (Mark) Mabey, Andrea (Piqush Khare) Deger-Khare; 17 great-grandchildren; three great-great-granddaughters; three sisters, Clara Tweet of Eau Claire, Agnes Cieslik of Chippewa Falls and Ella Gough of Petoskey, Mich.; two sisters-in-law, Gudrun Ager Bergh and Barbara Peterson; three brothers-in-law, Albert Rehberg, Roald S. Ager and Dr. John W. Best. Inga is also survived by Beatrice Leer Ager Meyer of Chippewa Falls; and several nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Eyvind Ager on Aug. 11, 1998; one son, Roald A. Ager in 1969; her parents; three brothers, Emil Pederson, Harold Peterson and Alvin Peterson; four sisters, Hilda Rooney, Aagot Johnson, Bertha Boschette and Elfreda Rehberg.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, April 16, 2007, at Christ Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls, with the Rev. Mark Homp officiating. Burial will be in Lakeview Cemetery, Eau Claire.

Friends may call from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday at Pederson-Volker Funeral Chapel in Chippewa Falls, and one hour prior to the service Monday at the church.

Memorials in Inga’s memory may be directed to Christ Lutheran Church, to the Waldemar Ager Association, or to the donor’s choice.

Visit pedersonvolker.com to express online condolences.

I ordered a book called Images of America, Chippewa Falls Wisconsin from Amazon.com the other day and was amazed to find a couple interesting photos in there. One of which being a new family photo of the Meinen clan during Nickolas and Magdalene (Mayer) Meinen’s 50th Wedding Anniversary as described in the Chippewa Falls Daily Independant Article. All the children and Grand Children appear to be in the photo. This should also include my Great-Grandmother Anna Stoffel (the future Mrs. Felix Yakesh) who should be about 10 years of age, but I have not been able to positively identify her in the photo. I believe John Stoffel is the man with the mustache standing behind his wife Theresa Stoffel (holding Elmer, age 3?). This isn’t a very good scan so I would like to get a hold of a better scan. If any of you are members of the CCHS, that would be something to get! Let me know if you know who some of these people are.

I just finished a transcript that I’ve been working on for the last 4 weeks. The transcript is of an interview with my Great-Grandparents Eyvind and Inga Ager conducted by Tim Hirsch on February 27, 1998. Their thoughts, experiences, and a little bit of their wisdom is preserved here. My Grandpa gives a glimpse of what it was like to grow up in Eau Claire Wisconsin during the early part of the 20th century, while my Grandma gives an excellent account of Waldemar Ager’s last days and how she met Eyvind. Tim’s foresight to conduct this interview is greatly appreciated. Thank You!

I really wanted to make the information buried inside 1 hour and 43 minutes of video dialogue more accessible and searchable for future reference. So I decided to create a comprehensive text of the dialogue taken directly from the video. I used two computer programs to assist in this task, primarily, Pinnacle Studio 10.7 for replaying the digital copy of the video so that I could slow down the speed of the video. I also used Dragon Speaking Naturally 9 to assist in typing the words I would voice from the recording. Even with these two tools it turned out to be a bigger task than I initially thought. In most cases I tried to edit out a number of natural pauses in conversion if they did not contribute to flow of the conversation, i.e. the “ahhas”, “umms”, “huhs”, we say all the time. In the end, it was well worth the experience to get to know my Great-Grand Parents a little bit better.

Interview with Eyvind and Inga Ager

Our thoughts go out to the John and Rosemarie Yakesh family during this time. We remember Rosey as a bright and cheerful Aunt who loved family.

Rosemarie Yakesh

My Great-Aunt Jeannine Francis Halm (Shea) passed away on Thanksgiving Day and her daughter Julie put together a very beautiful memorial page for her.

Jeannine Francis Halm memorial page

You know you’ve made it when you get your own Wiki. I definitely have not, but my Great-Great Grandfather has an entry in the new online encyclopedia at Waldemar Ager. Wikipedia is the online encyclopedia where anyone with a little bit of “notable” knowledge can contribute to. The idea is that it’s a self correcting system, with the vast majority of contributors correcting any mistakes and vandalisms. So far the site boasts over 10 times the number of articles in Encyclopedia Britannica, (with 50 thousand being added every month), and independent research that concluded the number of mistakes are getting down to the level of Britannica’s. I didn’t add Waldemar’s entry, but I think I’ll work on it and fix some mistakes I’ve seen. Visit
Wikipedia it’s FREE!