K: So, first of all, the spelling on Mijanou. 

G: M-I-J-A-N-O-U

K: Okay, fantastic just wanted to make sure, my computer thought it was wrong and was wondering if there was another way to spell it. 

K: Your dad’s middle name? 

G: Hendrika. H-E-N-D-R-I-K-A

K: What about Grandma Irene’s middle name, and I don’t know her maiden name either? 

G: Her middle name is Sophie—Sophia, yes Sophia I believe. Her maiden’s name is Thiess. 

K: Okay, and then where were you born? 

G: I was born in Saratoga which is like Santa Cruz. 

K: Where did you get married and then when too? 

G: Married in Citrus Heights on September 2, 1989. 

K: Oh, and do you know Dad’s? When was he born and where?  G: I think that he was born in Roseville. 

K: Do you know Papa’s middle name?

K: Or Grandma Bunny’s? 

G: Alexander, and he’s the second: Richard Alexander Brening Junior. 

K: Does Grandma Bunny have a middle name?  G: Barbara. 

K: How do you spell Cami’s middle name?  G: R-O-C-H-E-L-L-E.

K: And we were all born in Roseville? 

G: Yes. 

K: What year was Cami born?  G: 1995

K: That makes Ashley’s ’96? G: Correct. 

K: I called your parents on their house phone and I am hoping they’ll call me back—do you think they’ll be able to get back to me? I want to talk to both of them. 

G: I think you called during nap time, try them again tomorrow at a better time. I can help answer questions about them too, though. 

K: Okay, how did Grandma Irene and Grandpa Henry come to live in Newcastle? 

G: Umm, they lived in the Bay Area and would take weekend drives up to look for property and kind of fell in love with Newcastle. 

K: And there were no other family members in the area, right? 

G: No.

K: And you said they lived in the Bay Area, correct? Can you be more specific? 

G: Yes, sorry they lived in San Jose. And you might just say that was where I was born too, I don’t know. 

K: Okay, got it. 

G: They really didn’t want to raise kids in San Jose, so they started looking for property.  K: Do you remember how they met? 

G: Yes, they met at a party. My Mom was on break from boarding school and went to a friend’s house for spring break and my dad was in the army and so they met at a party in Germany.

Weirdly they met at a party. 

K: Oh yeah, I remember Grandpa was in the army do you remember what position he was in or anything? 

G: He was an MP, Military Police. 

K: Okay great. Let’s see…Were they religious? I don’t remember if that was Dad’s side of the family or yours? 

G: Mm, no. 

K: Okay, so there was no family religion or anything of that sort? 

G: My mom’s family was religious—I mean she had to go to religious boarding schools. But my parents never put any religion on us, they were just like you do what you want to do. We never went to church, nothing. 

K: Do you remember what kind of religious boarding school grandma went to? 

G: I’m going to assume they were Catholic? 

K: Okay, and then are there any family traditions that I don’t remember or know about? Like specific holidays, birthdays, dinners, traditional food—that sort of thing? 

G: You mean on my parent’s side, or?

K: Yeah, I can answer Dad’s side for the most part with all the Swedish stuff because that was so engrained, but I didn’t think there was anything specific on your side like that right? Other than maybe shuffleboard. But I don’t even know if that is necessarily a tradition. 

G: Yeah, I don’t know if that would count as a tradition. One thing is we would celebrate Christmas Eve growing up. Umm, it’s hard because the things that we did growing up we didn’t do them after my grandma died. Like she would send us certain things from Austria for Christmas, like these little chocolate hazelnut ornaments. But once she passed away, we didn’t have those things, so we didn’t do those traditions anymore if that makes sense. 

K: It does, that’s super sweet. Let’s dive in there then because I was going to ask about the family tree too. I have a very weak recollection of the order; can you go over everything quickly? 

G: My mom is easy she is an only child. 

K: Yes. 

G: Her mother—Well Grandma is from Austria. And her mother is I think French and Austrian? And then her dad is I believe Austrian, and he was a famous author. I don’t think they got along well—my mom’s mom was always traveling. They always put my mom in boarding schools. And then she barely knew her dad, like not very well. She was alone. 

K: Fantastic, well, not fantastic but that is good information. Umm, okay so then this was the grandmother who would send you chocolates. 

G: Yes, her name was Mutti, M-U-T-T-I. That’s what we called her. It’s a pretty common German/Austrian name. I only met her three times. We went there once she came to us twice.

K: And what about Grandpa Henry’s side? 

G: So, Grandpa Henry was one of seven. They are from the Netherlands or Holland at the time.  From the Netherlands but they immigrated here when my dad my dad was 14 when his family came here from the Netherlands. His dad Peter was a contractor its why grandpa is so handy and can build sheds and stuff. 

K: Ah, that makes sense. 

G: And his mom Susanne—I don’t think it was Susan, I think it was Susanne. We called them— It was Oma O-M-A and Opa O-P-A. Yeah so, he has three brothers and three sisters.  K: So where is he then? G: Right in the middle. 

K: Okay let’s see…Do you remember any like family anecdotes or stories? I know that’s super vague. The Christmas thing from earlier was a good one.  Do you have any more from his side or your mom’s or just anything? 

G: Um…

K: Any family story from anytime or anyone. Any like tiny tidbit that you can give me?  G: So, we used to all get together for like birthdays and because there were seven brothers and sisters, I had a ton of cousins and so we would all hang out in the garage because we thought it was so cool all just tools that he had. He had like a grinder that we could make sparks with. 

K: In Opa’s garage? 

G: Yeah, and then there was a store down the road like a little corner 7/11 which I always thought was so cool because I was little. And because we had older cousins, we would be allowed to go do this. 

K: Like Chaperones? That’s cute. 

G: And honestly like, here’s the reason we loved it: the food was always terrible. And so, we would go buy candy. 

K: Were they terrible cooks or was it because the food was traditional? 

G: They were they terrible cooks. Well okay I don’t know how you play this in, but they grew up super super poor, they were super poor. They weren’t that way when I was with them, I mean they weren’t wealthy by any means but think about a contractor supporting seven kids, right? They always had their freezer packed, and this is gross, but I am pretty sure they got it from like food from the grocery store would throw out. Like “we can’t sell these bananas anymore” or you know just the expiration date thing. So, they would just stick them in their freezer. And at a certain age we all realized we were eating hot dogs that were getting tossed out of stores. So, the soup we had was made of hot dogs and vegetables that were going bad.  K: So, you would go to the corner 7/11 store? 

G: Yeah, it was always like a treat to go for a walk: “Can we just go walk around the neighborhood?”. And we would all you know buy candy to eat. The other thing I remember is they would always—they were tea drinkers—they would always come for tea. Or we would have tea there and they would always use the sugar cubes. Sugar cubes will always remind me of my

Grandma Oma that’s for sure. 

G: Oh, and I got a good one! Family traditions, we all played Dutch rummy. It’s a card game. It’s really Rummy but I think they sort of made a few of their own rules but so we still to this day call it Dutch Rummy—which I don’t know if that is actually a thing. So, any family thing, anytime the grandparents came over, cousins and came over we’d all play Dutch Rummy.  K: Yeah, that is a really good one. I’m going to have to look that up, I want to play too! Do you still know the rules? 

G: Pretty good, my dad certainly would. But yeah, I do, I do know the rules I would be a little shaky on my how many cards you get and stuff but yeah that’s why when I play this sort of

Rummy game with Eric’s family—they have like their own Brown family rules—and I’m like that is not how you play Rummy! And he goes “No you play Rummy wrong”. So, I can hold my own with the Brown card sharks because I grew up playing Dutch Rummy. 

K: Okay so moving on, do you know the history of the family surname at all? Were there changes in spelling when they came to the U.S.? 

G: I don’t know about the surname, but I do know that all of my aunts and uncles, and my dad, changed their names or shortened their names. So, my dad’s name was Hendrika, which he made his middle name and then took Henry. Like my aunt vena? She was Venika—which I think was

V-E-N-I-K-A. I don’t know all of them though, I just know some of them that stood out.  K: Could you actually go over them? All seven of their names? 

G: Yeah, I could. A lot of them have super simple names because they shortened them to something easy. Okay so let’s see. I think I am going to be pretty good with the order, but you might want to double check with my dad.  K: Okay. 

G: Aunt Lena is the oldest. Then I think it’s Jerry—Uncle Jerry, Uncle Tony, my dad, Aunt Anna, Vena, and then Gervin. 

(At this point we are interrupted, and the interview must end but I am able to get the remaining questions answered later)

K: Are there any family artifacts, heirlooms, newspaper clippings, jewelry, etc.?  G: Yes, I have jewelry from my grandmother. 

K: Oh yeah, that’s true I remember you showing me that last time I was home. It was like rings?

G: there’s kind of a lot.  K: An assortment. 

G: Yeah, there’s an amethyst broaches, there’s rings, there’s a gold necklace and bracelet.  K: And this is from grandma Irene’s side? 

G: Yes, Grandma Mutti. There are also two paintings, portraits that were done. I don’t know what it’s called—it’s not an oil painting, it’s not pencil either. Paintings, I guess. There is one of Mutti and my mom when my mom was maybe 5, Mutti is maybe 30 something. And there is one of just Mutti. 

K: Who has that? 

G: Oh, and my parents did have an oriental rug, but I believe it’s by the wayside here. 

K: No! Wait, the one in their living room? 

G: Well two–the big one from the living room is being cleaned but the one from the dining room got damaged so they got rid of it. The one from the living room is from her travels in Turkey, at least I think it is. She was a world traveler, she went everywhere.  K: I know you have to leave but is there anything else you want to say? 

G: the only other thing I could say is that my parents never taught us their languages. They wanted us to be American and did not want to—I’m so envious all my cousins can speak Dutch and we got nothing. 

K: Yeah, I was surprised, I was wondering why you never became a dual citizen either.  G: great question, I don’t know. I guess part of it was always about the money because we could never afford to go there. And my grandmother died fairly young, my mom and she weren’t that close. I don’t think she ever forgave her parents for all the boarding schools for shuffling her off to boarding schools all her life. But I did ask them one time: “Why didn’t you teach us how to speak?” And they said, “We wanted you to be Americans”. And my mom worked really hard to learn the language she credits Sesame Street for learning the language to this day. 

G: Alright? 

K: Yes, thank you very much for your time and answers!