The cast of characters in this video are all related thru blood or marriage. You are related to them too -- by blood or by marriage. As the relationships are sometimes remote, it can be awkward when you don't have it quite figured out. Hopefully my little note here will save you from embarassment, and maybe even give you a few flickers of amusement.

Jos isn't coming to the cottage any longer, but his ghost flits about there, as it does wherever he left people he liked. You see him here in the last 6 weeks of his life along with a kayak that is still there for you to enjoy.

Let's start with the easy stuff. My father John has died but my mother Nory lives and seems to be the star of our video. My sisters Lorna and Janna are big players too.

Lorna has two unmarried sons, Gavin and Ross. Gavin is going to music college this fall. Ross will go to graduate school in Seattle. Lorna is moving from Cleveland to California.

My sister Janna has one son, Kevin, 27, married to Liz, who has two little daughters, Kate 4 and Clare 1, who are also stars in this video. Kevin works in a shop of 30 plumbers. A few years ago he joined the army to learn how to operate heavy roadbuilding equipment. Now he has gone indoors. He spends all day running the software that estimates costs of plumbing projects. In other words, he figures out what their company will bid on jobs. Easy to imagine an interesting future for Kevin. They live in Portage, Wisconsin next door to Liz's parents, about two hours away from the cottage. Kate seems to love the lake so we should see more of them next year.

My grandparents on my father's side were Issac and Fanny Claerbout. Actually, grandma's name really wasn't really Fannie. It was a Dutch name like Folkerje (j pronounced like y), difficult for Americans, so she called herself Fannie. Just like Yasuko might someday be Ya-SU-ko.

Around the turn of the last century my grandparents left Wisconsin to try life in Iowa where my father was born. Apparently life in Iowa was not as good as Wisconsin so they came back about 1907 and purchased a farm with one side on Lake Michigan. A story I heard this year was that they came back to Wisconsin on the train -- along with all their farm animals. Dad's brother Oscar rode with the animals but Dad was so little he had to stay in the passenger compartment.

Fannie and Issac had 5 sons and a daughter Katherine. Katherine and Fritz (the carpenter in Indiana who built the cottage with my dad) are still alive. Fannie and Issac both died shortly before I was born in 1938.

Dad and Oscar had side-by-side cottages. Oscar's daughter, my cousin Hazel inherited the cottage next to Dad's. In the video Hazel (married Phil VanDeWall) appears briefly and recounts baby sitting me 60+ years ago. They share their cottage with her daughter Ann (married Paul Koepe). Hazel also has a son Lee. Lee purchased a cottage about 5 doors down along the lake. Because of the age difference, as a child I never knew Ann; and I barely knew Lee. So, if you feel a little strange being with relatives you hardly know, I might know how you feel. Everyone is super friendly and physically nearby but we spend most of our time with brother/sister now, not cousins.

Now let me get to the really complicated part of the casting, Dick Soerens. Uncle Oscar had a daughter Maryalyce who died about 10 years ago. Her husband Dick then married my sister Janna (who was divorced about then). The children of Dick and Maryalyce (now Janna) play a role in this movie. Todd isn't here, but Allison and Shellie are. Allison is a nurse nearby so she sees Janna a lot. Shellie and Todd live near Chicago. Got that all? Whew!

Although my father's parents Fanny and Issac are ancestors to most everyone here you shouldn't feel like an outsider if they are not your ancestors. Three people here do not have them as ancestors. Who are the three? One from each of the older generations: my mother Nory, Janna's husband Dick, and Kevin's wife, Liz. All three have plenty of kids with ancestors Fannie and Issac.

I hope you and yours will all appear in the 2003 cottage video!