Wedding!

My stepson, Michael Jones, and his girlfriend, Danielle Anderson, were married last evening, September 16th. Here are some photos of the happy couple.

A young doughboy - Photo 2

My very first post on this family weblog included a photograph of my grandfather, Edward Kostal, in his Army uniform. Since then, Elaine Psota, my second cousin, sent me another photograph of Edward from the same session, but he is standing up. You can see the entire uniform of the day.

Jeanette Psota

In my earlier post, I mentioned that my Aunt Emma passed away in 1919 as a young woman leaving a husband and 18-month old daughter, Jeanette Psota. This is a nice portrait of my great grandparents with Jeanette.

James Kostal family

Back Row: Antonia (Tonnie) Helebrant Stanton, Lou Helebrant, Agnes Kostal Glodowski, James Helebrant, Anna Helebrant Smaha. Front Row: Albie Kostal Psota, James Kostal, Edward Kostal, Josephine Sladovnikova Kostal, Emma Kostal Psota.

My second cousin, Elaine Psota, sent this picture to me giving me an opportunity to play with it in both Photoshop and Picasa. My sister has a large copy of this picture in its original frame hanging in her parlor and I have a smaller version hanging in my dining room.

This is my maternal grandfather, Edward Kostal, and his parents and siblings. (My grandfather is the young boy standing in the middle of the photo.) I'm estimating this photo to have been taken around 1904. My grandfather was born in 1893. The young girl on the far left is my Aunt Albie who was born in 1899. (Albie is Elaine's grandmother.)

My great grandfather, James, came over from Czechoslovakia in 1880. My great grandmother, Josephine, came over from Bohemia the same year. At the time, she was married to her first husband, John Helebrant. They had four children together and they are standing in the back row. John passed away in 1887 and she married my great grandfather in 1889. They also had four children together. My Aunt Agnes was the oldest of the second set of children. She's wearing a ribbon in her hair and standing just to the right of my grandfather in the center of the picture. My Aunt Emma is the girl on the far right. Emma was born in 1896 and died in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-19. She was married and had a young daughter, Jeanette.

• Anna Helebrant Smaha (1881-1959)
• Antonia (Tonnie) Helebrant Stanton (1883-1964)
• Louis Helebrant (1884-1971)
• James Helebrant (1886-1955)
• Agnes Kostal Glodowski (1890-1985)
• Edward Kostal (1893-1967)
• Emma Kostal Psota (1896-1919)
• Albie Kostal Psota (1899-1978)

Josephine, who was older than James by seven years, passed away in 1923. James remarried a woman named Eleanor Vacek and he passed away in 1948. They had no children together.