Chet Baker's Blind Grandmother Found Within An Hour on Saturday

[Sand]

More later...

[Sand]

from aftenposten.no paper edition today:

...Baker himself thought that it was his mother's father that came from Norway, but his widow, Carol Baker, later informed that it was his mother's mother....

...In less than one hour on Saturday morning a handful of skilled genealogists found via the Digitalarkivet that the blind Randi, who arrived in the USA at the end of the 19th century , and who married Salomon Wesley Moser, was born in Rennebu the 23rd of june 1870 as Randi Toseth. She arrived in the USA as a 2-year-old with her parents Iver Arntsen Toseth and Sigrid Arntsdatter in 1872.
Randi married Moser from Iowa and they had 7 children. The youngest daughter, Pauline Moser, was born in Yale, Oklahoma in 1910. Vera Pauline was Chet Baker's mother.

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All this focus was due to a 20 year celebration of the the very fine
"Blåmann! Blåmann!" by Jan Erik Vold and Chet Baker and other fine musicians.

I've noticed that it's available on emusic.

[Dr Dave]

And here I thought she was behind the couch...and really, really old...

[Sand]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

And here I thought she was behind the couch...and really, really old...

We don't know, if she has passed away. She should be 136 years ,or something like that by now.

[Bluebrew]

Wow that's pretty interesting.

[Gary Sisco]

I read yesterday that Iceland has very nearly complete genealogical records going back to the first Vikings. Apart from immigrants of recent times, people's geneaologies can be accurately recorded that far back, in all of the various branches.

[steve(thelil)]

It's a trick thread.

Being blind doesn't make you harder to find. If anything, it would be even harder to be good at hide and seek, even for hiders, let alone for "it"

[Sand]

We can now easily find out more about more about Chet Baker's forefathers and foremothers. Googling Vera Pauline Moser I found her father's relatives in Lambheim in Germany around 1710. They must have emigrated way back then.
It took me less than one secord to find Vera Pauline Moser We don't find anything about Chetney Baker here, Chet's father (I presume).

Do you find any of your relatives in there?

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Sand

We don't find anything about Chetney Baker here, Chet's father (I presume).

Chet & his father were both named Chesney.

This thread is a textbook case of the Norwegian sense of humor.

[Gary Sisco]

Blind Grandma Baker the blues singer?

[Sand]

Originally Posted by Pete C

Chet & his father were both named Chesney.

This thread is a textbook case of the Norwegian sense of humor.

Who should we trust - you or the info at rootsweb?

ID: I9863 Name: Vera Pauline MOSER Given Name: Vera Pauline Surname: Moser Sex: F _UID: A7C5DF442FEA5D489D381224F9D4259EE8E5 Change Date: 22 Dec 2007 Birth: 31 MAY 1910 Father: Solomon Wesley MOSER b: 6 SEP 1864 in Union Co, IA Mother: Randi THOSATH b: 23 JUN 1870 in Norway Marriage 1 Chetney BAKER

[Sand]

Chetney or Chesney?

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by IMDB

Born Chesney Henry Baker, Jr. on 23 December 1929, in Yale, Oklahoma, he was the son of Vera and Chesney H. Baker, Sr.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0048329/bio

Chapter One


The Christmas season of 1929 arrived just weeks after the stock market had crashed. But that December, nineteen-year-old Vera Baker got the gift of her dreams. In her little Oklahoma house, she gazed down at the infant in her arms, an angel with alabaster skin and hazel eyes. When he smiled at her, she saw magic. The child would surely lift her above the cold realities of marriage to a frequently unemployed alcoholic; more than that, he would bring meaning to her life, supplying all the tenderness and excitement that were missing. He was named Chesney, after his father. But with his chubby cheeks and dark hair, the child seemed like a tiny replica of herself. From the time of his birth, "Chettie," as she called him, was the center of Vera's universe.




Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker

By James Gavin

Alfred A. Knopf

[craigz]

You forgot "It was a dark and stormy night."

[Sand]

Originally Posted by craigz

You forgot "It was a dark and stormy night."

paraphrasing:

just weeks after the stock market had crashed