• Who were your aunt and uncle?
F: That’s my mother’s sister, Amanda Zellar. And there were twelve children in her family, so if you get that family straight you really got to be something.
M: What was their last name?
F: Berquist was their name. She had married this Swede named Lewis Berquist and they had five children and they came to live with us in our house and while she was there she had another baby, so there were six children in their family and three in ours, that made nine children in the family and the two fathers and the two mothers and the hired girl. So we had 13.
M: All in the same building?
F: ...all in the same house. But we had a great big sleeping porch and that took care of all the extra people. And we needed that hired girl, believe me, ‘cause there was a lot of work, but my mother...
64, pp 4-5
• 1880 Census: Whitehall, Muskegon, Michigan. Age 3, b MI. Listed as Amanda Seller.
284• 1920 Census: Park Ridge, Cook, Illinois. Age 42, b MI. Parents b Germany.
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