Clue Wagon

This Post Took Four Hours, Three Pop-Tarts, Two Cans of Pop and $146

Kerry Scott — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:25:53 +0000

The Challenge: Spend four hours researching someone from scratch, using only internet sources. See how far you can get. Post what you find.

The Setting: My office. 2am. I couldn’t sleep, and the beauty of the middle of the night is that I’m guaranteed a chunk of work time without interruptions.

The Tools: Half of a box of S’mores Pop-Tarts (my go-to snack for middle-of-the-night work). Diet Coke. Ancestry.com. GenealogyBank.com. NewspaperArchive.com. The Minnesota Historical Society’s online genealogical resources. The (fairly) new Minnesota Marriage Index. My trusty collection of DeLorme map books (I’m old school—I still like the paper maps—and these have both township and county lines clearly visible, so they’re perfect for genealogical research).

The Woman: Ferol Cora Wright, who was born in Verndale, Minnesota in February 1888. She grew up in nearby Staples,and married my great-grandmother’s brother, Allert B. Nelson, in November 1912. The couple probably lived in Little Falls for a time, and eventually moved to Minneapolis, where they lived when Allert died in 1921. Ferol died of cancer three years later, at age 36. They had no (known) children, and neither lived to be 40 years old. I know that my great-grandmother was close to Allert and Ferol, and I wanted to know more about Ferol’s family. I also wanted to know whether some of the photos of unknown people in my collection might be relatives of Ferol’s.

The Starting Point: Ferol’s obituary, which I pulled years ago. It’s from the Staples [Minnesota] World, Thursday 10 April 1924, page 5, column 6:

Ferol Cora Wright was born in Verndale, Minn, February 22, 1888. With her parents, she moved to Staples in 1890. Here she spent her girlhood days and attended the public schools. On November 27, 1912, she was united in marriage with Alert B. Nelson of Little Falls, Minn. Her husband was a telegrapher employed by the Northern Pacific railroad company and in 1919 he was transferred to Minneapolis, Minn. where they made their home until the death of Mr. Nelson which occurred April 5, 1921. Since the death of her husband, she has made her home with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.S. Wright of Staples, Minn. She leaves to mourn her loss, her father, mother, and five sisters: Mrs. J. P. Sawyer of Portland, Ore., Mrs. H. T. Malm of South St. Paul, Minn., Mrs. O.C. Lauby and Mrs. E. S. Lacombe of Minneapolis and Mrs. K.R. Seifert of Staples, Minn. The funeral was held at the Oakley chapel at Minneapolis at 2:30 p.m., April 2, 1924, Reverend Howard Vernon of the Judson Memorial Baptist church officiating. She was laid to rest in the Crystal Lake cemetery by the side of her husband. From the Reverend Don Frank Fenn, Rector of the Gethsemane Episcopal church of Minneapolis, Ferol Wright Nelson received the sacrament of Holy Baptism, thereby making her a member of Christ, the child of God and an Inheritor of the Kingdom of heaven.

The Research: I already knew that Ferol’s parents were Walter and Sarah Wright; they’re buried next to Ferol and Allert at Crystal Lake Cemetery in Minneapolis. I wanted to learn more about Ferol’s siblings, so I started by finding the family in the 1900 census and the 1910 census. I found the entire Wright family living in Staples:

Walter S., born in Iowa in August 1860
Sarah A., born in Iowa in May 1863
Bertha E., born in Minnesota in December 1882
Ferol C., born in Minnesota in February 1888
Muriel G., born in Minnesota in August 1890
Nina B., born in Minnesota in April 1894
Daisy D., born in Minnesota in May 1885
Vera M., born in Minnesota in May 1888

So now we know the first names and ages of Ferol’s five sisters. How do we match them up with the married names (Sawyer, Malm, Lauby, Lacombe, and Seifert) that appear in her obituary, so we know which sister married which man? I checked the Minnesota Marriage Index to see what I could find. It’s not perfect, and it doesn’t include every marriage in every county, but it’s a good starting point.

I didn’t find Bertha, Muriel, or Daisy in the marriage index (at least, not married to anyone with the names listed in Ferol’s obituary). I did find Ferol herself, along with Vera’s marriage to Edward Lacombe on 1 January 1921, and Nina’s marriage to Oscar C. Lanby (Lauby) on 26 September 1917. That last record rang a bell, and a few minutes later I realized why: I have a photo in my collection that is labeled “Nina and Oscar Lauby,” taken at with my 2-year-old grandfather at the site where his family’s new home was being built.

So that was exciting.

Now I knew three of the sisters’ married names. What about Bertha, Muriel and Daisy? Which of them married Mr. Malm of South St. Paul, Mr. Sawyer of Portland, and Mr. Seifert of Staples? For these, I checked the 1920 and 1930 censuses for clues.

I quickly found Karl Siefert married to Bertha E. Seifert in Staples, Minnesota in both the 1920 and 1930 census. Karl’s middle initial is wrong, and Bertha’s age isn’t quite right, but the other details are a fit, Staples was (and is) a small town, and errors are very common in census work (in fact a perfect record is somewhat rare). Karl is a railroad worker, and I know that Muriel’s father also worked for a railroad (as did Allert, Ferol’s husband). This couple is a good bet for Ferol’s oldest sister and brother-in-law.

John P. and Muriel W. Sawyer are also listed in both the 1920 and 1930 census, in Portland, Oregon. John was a truck driver in 1920 and a carpenter in 1930. Muriel is the right age to be our Muriel, and her birthplace and those of her parents are correct. They have a daughter, Arlene W., who appears to have been born about 1915-1916.

If we’re right so far, it means that Daisy, the remaining sister, must have been married to Mr. Malm. I found Homer and Daisy Malm in the 1920 census, in South St. Paul, right where the obituary said they’d be. They’re there in 1930 too, with two new additions to the houshold: Homer’s mother, Elizabeth, and a 10-year-old “son” named Daniel. Wait, what? Where was this son in 1920? And why does his mother’s place of birth not match Daisy’s? I suspected that Daniel was perhaps a son of Homer’s from a previous marriage, a nephew, or some other Malm relative. I went back to the 1920 census and found young Daniel living with another couple, Daniel and Esther Malm. Could this father named Daniel be Homer’s brother or another relative? The 1910 census provides a possible answer: a Malm family with a mother named Elizabeth, and (among others) two brothers named Homer and Danny. Perhaps this boy is Homer’s nephew, the son of his brother Danny. There’s much more work to do to prove this, but it’s a good starting point for further research.

Next, I looked up the census records for the sisters whose spouse’s names I’d already determined by using the Minnesota marriage index:

Nina and Oscar Lauby are in Minneapolis in the 1920 census; Oscar is listed as an “advertiser” for a drug store, and Nina works in a shirt factory. I didn’t find them in the 1930 census; there’s a couple that may be them, but there are too many details that don’t fit to be sure. I’ll know more when I’m further along in the research on this couple.

Vera Wright and Edward Lacombe weren’t yet married at the time of the 1920 census, but in 1930 they’re living in Odell, Oregon, where Edward is the proprietor of some sort of store (it doesn’t say what kind). There are no children listed.

So now we have a good sense of which sister married which brother:

Bertha married Karl Siefert

Muriel married John Sawyer

Nina married Oscar Lauby

Daisy married Homer Malm

Vera married Edward Lacombe

What became of these people? I started looking for death records and obituaries to find out.

Karl Richard Seifert was easy to find in the Minnesota death index; he died in Todd County on 21 February 1947. Bertha wasn’t listed in the index, so I went on to look for obituaries. Staples, Minnesota is a very small town, but nearby Brainerd is larger, and NewspaperArchive.com has the Brainerd Daily Dispatch for the time period I needed. I found tons of information on the Seiferts, including those fantastic small town mentions of who had a party last weekend, who was visiting whom, who wasn’t feeling well, etc. Karl’s obituary confirmed that he was married to Bertha, and that he also left behind a sister in Nashua, Iowa (but no children). A 1954 piece mentioned that Bertha was living in that same town in Iowa, so I went to look for her in the newspaper there (and if you have Iowa roots, you should definitely subscribe to NewspaperArchive.com, because their collection in that state is impressive). I learned from the Nashua Reporter that Bertha lived there for some time (and that her friends threw her a birthday dinner on New Year’s Eve 1959, which seems to fit Bertha Wright’s birthday, which was in December). The newspaper said she had a heart attack in February 1964, and in March it said that her sister, Mrs. Vera LaCombe of Odell, Oregon, had come to care for her. Vera didn’t have to stay long; Bertha died on 11 March 1964.
John P. Sawyer is listed in the Oregon death index; he died in on 11 June 1954 in Multnomah County. There are several John Sawyers in the index, but only one with the right middle initial…and that same one is also the only one in Multnomah County (which includes Portland). Then I went to GenealogyBank.com, which has over 100 years of The [Portland] Oregonian. There I found an obituary for John “Jack” P. Sawyer. It’s short and doesn’t include a list of survivors, so I’ll have to wait until the death certificate arrives to confirm that this is the right man. Muriel Wri[ght] Sawyer is also listed in the Oregon death index; she died in Multnomah County on 18 January 1975. Oregon restricts access to death certificates that are fewer than 50 years old, so I can’t get hers just yet, and GenealogyBank‘s images of The Oregonian stop in 1972. I’ll have to wait until they add a few more years to the collection before I can pull Muriel’s obituary. I did search for both of them in the rest of The Oregonian index, though, and found a number of mentions of Muriel Sawyer. She was apparently very active in women’s clubs and literary groups, and was at one point a columnist for the “Voice of the American Woman.” I’ll have to wait to get that obituary to see if this is the right Muriel, but if so, I can’t wait to learn more about her. She sounds cool.
Oscar Conrad Lauby turned up easily in the Minnesota death index; he died on 15 December 1970 in Hennepin County (which includes Minneapolis). Nina Beatrice Lauby died there on 11 September 1989. None of the databases I use have the Minneapolis newspapers for these years, but I’ll be taking a research trip to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s library in Madison soon, and I believe they have them. For each couple I also checked the Minnesota birth index with the surname and mother’s maiden name, to see if I could find any children. In the case of this couple I hit pay dirt: Beverly Nina Lauby was born on 9 February 1925, and Walter Wright Lauby was born on 7 January 1927. The Minnesota Historical Society owns this collection, and you can order the birth certificates and receive them instantly online (how cool is that?). Both certificates confirm that these are the children of Oscar Conrad Lauby and Nina Beatrice Wright. I’ve already found living descendants of these children. Yay!
Homer T. Malm was also in the Minnesota death index, which shows that died on 14 February 1947 (just a week before his brother-in-law, Karl Seifert) in Ramsey County (which includes St. Paul). Daisy D. Malm died on 18 March 1957, also in Ramsey County. I also spent a bit of time working on that mystery “son,” Daniel Malm, who was living with Homer and Daisy in the 1930 census. I ordered his birth certificate and got it instantly online; his name was Daniel Carl Malm, and he was born to Daniel Malm and Esther Paske Malm in South St. Paul on 17 June 1919. There’s a Daniel Malm in the Minnesota death index who died on 13 February 1936. His date of birth isn’t listed, so I’ll have to wait until the record arrives to see whether it’s the same kid. I also looked for his parents, Daniel and Esther. There was a Daniel Malm who died on 1 March 1922, and an Esther Malm who died a week later. Both died in Dakota County, which includes South St. Paul (the city where they lived in the 1920 census). If this couple is young Daniel’s parents, it might explain why he was living with his Uncle Homer and his wife eight years later. I’ll know more when the records arrive.
Edward S. Lacombe was listed in the Oregon death index; he died in Hood River County on 5 July 1964. Vera also died there, on 5 February 1980. Both are too recent to order death certificates, and I couldn’t find an online newspaper for Hood River County, so I’ll have to do some old-fashioned legwork to find out more about them.

So that was four hours well-spent. I’ve got some great leads here. I know a lot more about the Wright sisters, and I have $146 worth of vital records on the way, which means I can eagerly watch for the mail carrier every day for the next month or so. And all before 6am!

The Disclaimer: Internet research is a lot like Pop-Tarts. It’s delicious, and you can’t wait to have it, and you have a smile on your face when you’re done…but a steady diet of it will kill you. The meat-and-potatoes stuff comes in the form of real research, and that’s where you actually prove that these are the right people, and that they did the things you think they did. I won’t enter any of these people into my database until I’ve seen the vital records that tie them together. When I do, I’ll cite my sources. Then I’ll look for supporting documentation, like courthouse records, books, periodicals, WAY more newspaper research, cemeteries, yearbooks, correspondence with living relatives…lots and lots of stuff. That’s the difference between real genealogy and…well, Pop-Tarts.

Note: You can learn more about affiliate links like the ones above here.

Pop-Tart photo by Amy Loves Yah. The other photos are from my own collection.

http://search.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=6224&iid=ORT626_1942-1133&fn=Edward+S&ln=Lacombe&st=r&ssrc=&pid=109241371

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Do You Know How to Google? Maybe Not.

Kerry Scott — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:35:36 +0000

Last week I was talking with someone who wanted to search for something on my blog. He was telling me that the search feature here sucks, and I said, “Yeah, but you can just google the site.”

He said, “What do you mean?”

So I explained. I thought maybe he was just cluefree, but when I asked a couple of other people whether they knew this, they didn’t. I guess it’s a secret.

So, here’s the secret:

If you want to search a site that either has a lousy search function or none at all, you can use Google.

Go to the Google homepage.
Type in site:[name of site] [keywords] For example, if you wanted to search for mentions of Glenbeulah on this site, you’d type in site:cluewagon.com Glenbeulah.

Behold! Google has search the site you specified. This won’t work on a big database site like Ancestry, but it works on blogs and static pages just fine.

If you already knew this, you get a gold star. If you didn’t, try it. I almost never use a site’s native search box, because I prefer the consistent results of doing it this way.

Photo by dullhunk

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How Can It Be The Dark Ages When My Screen Is All Lit Up?

Kerry Scott — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 14:06:30 +0000

The genealogical community is abuzz over an article that appeared in the Mormon Times this week (yes, here in genealogy-land, breaking news comes from the Mormon Times). The gist of it is that Curt Witcher, a high-profile guy in genealogical circles, thinks that genealogy is entering “a new dark age,” because historical and vital records are being lost, and because people’s memories aren’t being preserved.

I confess: I rolled my eyes when I read it.

Witcher does make a very good point on the loss of vital records. Some people are dumb, and some politicians are even dumber. This abundance of dumb has led to a complete misunderstanding of how identity theft works, and many records are being made inaccessible as a result. At the same time, governments and organizations are struggling to make ends meet, and they’re not able to digitize or store records in the way we need them to. That sucks.

On the flip side, many areas didn’t even keep vital records 100 years ago. We don’t have all the records online that we’d like, but 100 years ago, we had none. We have far better flood and fire suppression tools available to keep the existing records safe. Things aren’t perfect, and we need to do far more, and good for Witcher for shining a spotlight on some shocking practices (Record sampling? Really? Who on earth thinks that’s a good idea?). But on balance, there’s good news along with the bad.

In terms of memory-preservation though, I couldn’t disagree more with Witcher. In fact, I’m drowning in memory preservation. Let’s compare my theoretical life 100 years ago to my actual life now:

THEN—I have around 20 photos of my children. A few relatives have copies of some of the photos. All of my photos are kept in an acidic box in the attic, in the delightful Wisconsin climate, which features blistering heat in the summer and subzero temperatures in the winter.

NOW—I have thousands of photos of my children. The photos are available online, where dozens of friends and relatives can see them, save them to their computers, order prints, etc. My other family photos are also online, where all of the other descendants can see them. I also have access to their photos, so I can see the ones I otherwise would have missed. The digital copies are backed up automatically, and the originals are in an acid-free box in a room with heat in the winter and air-conditioning in the summer.

THEN—A few of the more literate people in my family write letters. The letters are on paper, and they’re handwritten. The legibility varies with the quality of the handwriting. If I lose the paper, or there’s a fire or flood or I spill my coffee, it’s gone. I have the only copy of the letters; no one else in my family can see them unless they physically travel to my home.

NOW—Everybody under the sun has email and is on Facebook. I read a constant stream of thoughts from them all day long, on what they had for lunch, what they think of the President, what their love life is like…complete with photos (wouldn’t you love to see the Facebook page of some of your more elusive ancestors?). If there’s a fire or a flood or I spill my coffee, I can just log on from another computer and it’s all there. I can print perfectly-legible emails for my own files, save them to my computer (which is automatically backed up every night), and forward them to as many people as I want. Written correspondence is no longer one-to-one; it’s one-to-many. Additionally, I know these people much better than I would have otherwise, since I’m so involved in their day-to-day lives. I’ll remember them better when I grandchildren ask about them.

THEN—Many people don’t get to finish high school. College is for rich people. These people don’t create written records recreationally.

NOW—Most people finish high school. College is for far more people (not everyone, but not just the rich). People who might have been working on farms or in factories now create written records all day long, in the form of email, Facebook updates, tweets, and blog posts. There are more than 200 million blogs out there, and anyone can publish anything they want, any time they want. The number of people creating non-essential written records is far greater than ever before, and crossing all socio-economic lines.

THEN—Memories are recorded on paper. The paper is in one place. When it’s gone, it’s gone.

NOW—Memories are recorded online. Google never forgets (even when you want it to). Ask your kids how hard it is to get those pictures from college off the internet! Of course, it’s very possible that in 50 years those pictures, and lots of other stuff, WILL be gone. Some of it will still be there, though, and 100 years ago, we had none of it.

THEN—You are remembered primarily by the people who knew you in person…those who lived nearby or visited often. People who lived far away and didn’t visit were out of the loop. Families could easily lose touch in a generation.

NOW—Geography is irrelevant. I didn’t know my husband had second cousins living all over the country until we both joined Facebook. He hadn’t seen or talked to them since he was a small child, and he didn’t even know where all of them lived. Now I know them, I know their children, I know where they work, and I know what they’re doing this weekend. Those people would have been lost to us completely. Now they aren’t. In 50 years, I’ll be able to tell my grandchildren who their grandpa’s second cousins were, because I met them. Online.

THEN—I’m the family genealogist. I keep my files in a box. When I die, someone throws out the box.

NOW—I keep my files online. Dozens of other people have downloaded them. When I die, they live on. My husband can get on my computer, see all of the distant cousin researchers I’ve corresponded with, and send them the paper files I leave behind.

THEN—We go to the local library and look in phone books to find distant living relatives. We need to already know where they live, and we need to have a library that has that location’s phone book.

NOW—We google. We find them. We email them. We can get this done in the time it takes to make a box of macaroni and cheese (true story—I’ve done it).

Bottom line: This is not a dark age. This is a different age. Like every generation, we think all this change means the end. It doesn’t. Like every generation, we need to make an an effort to preserve history for our children. We need to back up those files, save those emails, and label those photos. That’s always been the case, but I think we’re up to the challenge.

All of this feels new and scary, but really, it’s just…different.

Photo by egorick

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How I Accidentally Found An Ancestor On eBay

Kerry Scott — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:10:21 +0000

This is an example of what genealogists call serendipity.

We moved into our current house four years ago. It was much bigger than our old house, and so had a lot of extra space to fill. We had just had a baby, so we didn’t have much money to spend on artwork. I decided to see just how cheaply I could fill the walls without resorting to ugly hotel-type stuff or posters from IKEA. I also wanted to see if I could incorporate our family history into the decor in interesting ways (i.e. something other than antiques and/or a wall of ancestor photos).

I had one small hallway that especially cried out for something different. I decided to find vintage postcards of places that my ancestors (or my husband’s) had lived. I already had a few, and I searched eBay to find more. The one above was one of my favorites. It shows the old high school in Plymouth, Wisconsin, where my mother-in-law’s family has lived for generations. I bought it for $6.99. The listing said it was postmarked 1910, but it didn’t say what else was on the back.

A week or so went by, and the postcard arrived in the mail. I ripped open the envelope, admired the vintage cheerleader, and then turned it over.

This is what I saw:

Could we arrange a game down there with the Waldo High School or second team, Friday night. We would guarantee you a return game through our principal—we would want 4.00 and will give you the same when you come up. Answer on the next train as we want a game for Friday.

Le Roy LaBudde–Ass’t Mgr. Plymouth High School B. B. Plymouth Wis.

LeRoy LaBudde sent the postcard. LaBudde is my mother-in-law’s family’s name. A quick search revealed that LeRoy was a collateral ancestor of hers. Nearly 100 years after one of her relatives mailed this postcard, I’d bought it on eBay without having a clue who it was from. What are the odds?

Freaky stuff like that happens all the time in genealogy. It’s pretty cool.

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In Which I Let My Freak Flag Fly

Kerry Scott — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:58:45 +0000

I need to tell you something. I can trust you with this, right? I mean, it’s a little odd…but I know you won’t make fun of me, because people on the internet are never mean like that.

So there’s this conference. It’s called Laurapalooza. I’m not making this up: It’s a conference for Laura Ingalls Wilder fans. It’s going on right now, and I’m totally wishing I was there.

I know, right? Don’t feel bad. My husband laughed too.

See, I loved the Little House books as a kid. LOVED. I liked the TV show too, but the books were really my thing. And thirty-[mumble] years later, when the ultrasound guy said, “You’re having a girl,” I was like, “Yay! How long before I can get her into Little House books?” (Yes, that’s dumb. Of course boys like them too. I’ll be reading them to my son in no time.)

Now my daughter is about to turn five, and I’ve been reading the chapter books to her, every night, one chapter at a time. They’re actually better than I remembered, and there are nuances that I completely missed as a kid. For example, the relationship between Ma and Pa….I mean, it’s the 1870s, so they aren’t exactly equal, but it’s really quite a partnership. There’s also a lot of genuinely useful historical insight for researchers (like The Long Winter, which depicts the famous winter of 1880-81, when quite a few of my own ancestors lived not far from the Ingalls home in De Smet, South Dakota). In fact, I’m realizing that my love of obsession with history really started with these books.

Then, about a month ago, I read an article about planning a family vacation to visit various Ingalls/Wilder family sites. I made my husband promise that we’d do it. Some people dream of Disneyland. Not me. I want to go to Walnut Grove.

Then I read about Laurapalooza. Check out this schedule. Who wants to hear a talk about the Long Winter Seed Trip? I DO. Who wants to take the side trip to see the Betsy-Tacy neighborhood? ME. Who wants to see the guy who played Almanzo in person? SIGN ME UP (seriously, because I saw his picture and he still looks good, and if you’re the same age as me you know you would swoon too, so just shut up).

Yeah, I’m THAT geeky. I felt you should know. And I’m already planning to go to the next Laurapalooza in 2012. All I need is a sunbonnet (and money, and childcare, and a playlist for the drive to Mankato…but first, a sunbonnet).

(Oh, and remember when I told you about the tornado that hit Old World Wisconsin? They’ve been closed this whole time. They’re still closed. They lost something like 2,000 trees. But they’re finally going to re-open just in time for the annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Days event, which is awesome. If you’re in Wisconsin and want to support them, you should go. It’s fun even if you’re not even remotely as dorky as me. Go here for details.)

Photo by cesarastudillo

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Wordless Wednesday: Thirty Degrees Below Zero

Kerry Scott — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:00:35 +0000

The back reads:

Minnehaha Falls[,] Minneapolis

Taken by Bert E. Buzzell, in 1897

Now at 2157 Echo Park Ave LA [Los Angeles]

Photographer

30 Below Zero

I froze my nose this day.

I’m not certain who the people in the photo are, although I believe the woman is probably Ida Johnston Rolfe Smith, my grandmother’s aunt.

In the middle of a heat wave, standing under the frozen falls sounds pretty good to me.

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The Gift

Kerry Scott — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:15:10 +0000

On this day in 1847, my grandparents gave me a gift.

That’s the day the Johann Jacob Scheiber and his wife Christine Engel Meier/Mayer arrived in New York on the brig Johannes Christoph from Germany. They left their home in Trechtingshausen with their five-year-old son Frank, four-year-old Frederick, and a baby girl who had been born in February.

Last month when I was packing for our vacation and choosing the DVDs for the kids to watch in the minivan, I thought of them. What would it be like to spend eight weeks on a ship with two small children and a newborn? What would you feed them? How would you keep them occupied? What if they got sick? I can’t imagine what that would be like.

As it turned out, not all of them made it. The baby appeared on the ship’s passenger list, but not in any subsequent records. Jacob’s obituary from 1881 says she “died on the ocean.” They would have had to bury her at sea. I wonder how they felt on that July day when they finally arrived at New York after losing their baby on the journey. Did they think it was worth it? Did they wish they’d never come? How did their young boys cope with losing their baby sister and their country at the same time?

If they came here to build a better life, though, they certainly succeeded. They bought land in West Bend, Wisconsin in August, and were among the very first settlers there. Jacob started his tailoring business by traveling throughout Washington County on foot to find customers. By the time he died in 1881, he left a considerable estate, and three grown sons with prosperous families. Christine died in 1887, and she had used that estate Jacob built to make loans to other West Bend residents. Her will is filled with the names of neighbors and relatives who had borrowed money from her. In fact, her oldest son Frank (my great-great-grandfather) had failed to pay the interest on his loan, and she took it out of his inheritance. Christine was a tough cookie.

When I celebrate the Fourth of July, I always think of my ancestors, who made such huge sacrifices to give me the chance to be an American. I don’t know what future they imagined when they landed on that day 163 years ago, but I’m grateful for the gift they’ve given me.

Photo by shimelle

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I Like These Books. You Should Read Them.

Kerry Scott — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:01:33 +0000

It’s summer, and apparently other people have summer reading lists. I wouldn’t know, because this year I have a summer painting list instead. I’m sanding, priming and painting all of the trim in my house (and please don’t tell me that trim should never be painted, because you haven’t seen THIS trim, which is beyond help). It sucks. I hate painting.

Last summer I had more fun. I read a lot. These are the books I read last summer and liked. Check ‘em out:

Go If You Think It Your Duty: A Minnesota Couple’s Civil War Letters I loved this book. I stayed up half the night to finish it. It’s fascinating to see how this newly-married couple managed a years-long separation during the Civil War. It’s also fascinating to see how racy it is at times…those 1860s couples were kind of hot.
Letters of a Woman Homesteader Who knew there were woman homesteaders? These are the letters of a young widow who moved from Denver to the wilds of Wyoming at the turn of the century. It’s amazing to see how she fared (especially with a toddler in tow). It’s also interesting to see how communities worked together in a place where they were so separated by geography (and sometimes weather).
Pioneer Women This book tells about the experiences of women and their families in Kansas in the 1860s-1880s, in their own words. It blew my mind to see what they went through, and to contemplate whether I would have made it (answer: no way). I read this last summer, at the same time I was reading Little House on the Prairie with my daughter (that’s the one where the Ingalls family moved to Kansas). It was eye-opening to see how much the experiences of the familiar Ingalls family mirrored those of other early white settlers in Kansas. If you were a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, you’d probably especially enjoy this one.
The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s This is meant for people who are writing novels or other works about the 19th century, but it’s interesting on its own as well. It’s in dictionary form, so it’s especially handy to have on hand when you’re reading stuff from old newspapers. For example, under “wedding gifts,” it says that it was only in the second half in the century that gift-giving expanded from the immediate family to friends and co-workers. Most gifts were decorative things (it lists sugar bowls, cake baskets, ice cream knives and napkin rings as “typical”). That’s handy to know when you’re reading a small-town account of the gifts given at a wedding, or looking at the serving dishes and utensils you’ve inherited.
Isle of Canes If you liked Lalita Tademy’s Cane River, you’ll love this one. It’s the story of generations of descendants of a slave woman, and how she secures freedom for herself and her children. It was written by Elizabeth Shown Mills, who is kind of a big deal in the world of genealogy, and it’s based her research on a real-life family. It’s over 500 pages, but it’s worth the investment.
Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie Honestly, this is one of the best books I’ve ever read (not just historical books—ALL books). It’s the story of a Norwegian family who settles in Dakota territory (now South Dakota) in the 1870s. To see how each character handles the huge challenges they encounter, and how their experiences shape them and their children…seriously, read this book. Don’t read the foreward though, because it has a huge spoiler (why do they do that?). The sequels to this book are Peder Victorious: A Tale of the Pioneers Twenty Years Later and Their Fathers’ God, and both are excellent as well…but Giants of the Earth is a must-read.
The Help Required reading for every American. If you haven’t read this, you need to. Right now.

Happy reading!

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A Tornado Hit My Favorite Place Last Night

Kerry Scott — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:08:46 +0000

I have this list of ideas for blog posts. It’s kind of a mish-mosh of things that occur to me at random times. Then, when it’s time to write a blog post, I look at the list and pick a topic.

Except today. Because while I had “Old World Wisconsin” on the list, this wasn’t the post I was going to write at all.

This place is one of my favorite spots in Wisconsin. It’s like time travel. There, I can see exactly what my third great-grandparents’ Norwegian farm might have looked like in the 1870s, and see the kind of schoolhouse their kids attended. I can take my almost-five-year-old daughter to Laura Ingalls Wilder Days, and watch her churn butter while wearing a sunbonnet. I can take her and her little brother to meet Father Christmas (which is waaaay cooler than visiting that creepy mall Santa).

But last night a tornado ripped through Old World Wisconsin. None of the people or animals were hurt, but the buildings and trees were heavily damaged (along with about 120 homes in nearby Eagle…it’s amazing that no one was killed). It’s a mess.

If you like Wisconsin, or you like history, or you like cool stuff, you can help by donating money to help repair and restore the damaged buildings. If that’s not your thing, consider donating to the Red Cross, who are among those helping out the folks down in Eagle. They could really use a hand.

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What’s in a Name?

Kerry Scott — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:00:43 +0000

We were on vacation in Door County last week. I didn’t blog, email, tweet, or [whatever the verb is for Facebook] the entire time. It was fabulous.

When I got back I had a full mailbox. One of the great things about being a genealogist is that you get real mail. I am the only person on my street who is excited to see the mailman every day.

One of the things in my mailbox related to Dorothy Ann Meyerhofer Smith Ackermann. I’ve been corresponding with one of her descendants, who found her death certificate, obituary, and headstone…all listed with the first name of Louisa. This was a bit odd, since every prior record we had of her said her first name was Dorothy, and also because her sister’s name was Louise. There’s no law that says you can’t name your daughters Louise and Louisa, but it’s not something you see every day.

Since all of the records listing her as Louisa were created at the time of death, I wondered if there might have been a mix-up at the funeral home that led to an error on the death certificate, obituary, and headstone (since they usually do the paperwork for all three at the same time). So I ordered the SS-5 for Dorothy, which is the form she would have filled out to get her Social Security card. I figured that would have been completed years before her death, and she would have done it herself. The name is far more likely to be correct on the SS-5.

Guess what? It turns out her name was Louise Anna Meyerhofer Smith Ackermann. It’s not even “Louisa,” it’s “Louise.” We know her sister as “Louise.” They appear to have the same first name. What’s going on here? I’ve seen families that give a child the same name as a previous child who had died, but both of these women lived well into old age.

Next step: I’m ordering the SS-5 for the sister, who we know as Louise Meyerhofer Haskell. I want to know if her first name was really “Louise” as well.

Oh, and the mother’s name? Mary. Not Louise.

Do you have weird names in your family?

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