Letter J: Tenth of twenty-six posts in the April 2016 Blogging From A to Z Challenge. Wish me luck and please join me on the journey!
Joseph A. Mimm, one of my maternal great, great grandfathers, emigrated from Baden-Württemburg in Germany to Gloversville in Fulton County, N.Y., in 1873.
My ancestor lived a good life in Gloversville — worked as a glove die maker for 45 years, married my great, great grandmother Eva Elizabeth (Edel) Mimm and had two daughters.

But when he was a widower and had been retired about 10 years, he decided to cross one last item off his bucket list — a trip back to Ellwangen, the town he had left 57 years before.
So to celebrate his 79th birthday, which occurred on 2 May 1930, Joseph boarded the S.S. Bremen for the trans-Atlantic trip. He was gone for the summer and set sail back to the U.S. on 7 August 1930.
Sadly, Joseph was taken ill on the return trip and later died at his Gloversville home. But according to his obituary in the 20 Aug. 1930 Leader-Republican and Gloversville Journal, he lived a last few months that many would envy:
While abroad he traveled extensively through the Rhine Valley and witnessed the Passion Play at Oberammergau going from there to his home in Ellwangen.
Most important of all, my great, great grandfather Joseph A. Mimm went out on his own terms and realized his lifelong dream of visiting his home town one last time.
Tomorrow’s post: Katherine (Gormley) Dempsey of Galway. Please stop back.
© 2016 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.