This week is
about “being thankful” and while I have a lot to be thankful for, I will
concentrate on a genealogy find I am very grateful to have received.
Oloff Hansson
was one of my husband’s 2nd great-grandfathers. Oloff was born
somewhere in Sweden. He first appears in the US Federal Census for Michigan
City, La Porte, Indiana. He and his wife Marie were living in house # 132 and
his stated occupation was fisherman.[i]
They were a seemingly poor family but
over time they had children which increased the family to nine children.
Oloff served
with Company E in the 4th Regiment of the Indiana Calvary from
August of 1862 until June of 1865 [ii],
he then returned to Michigan City to resume life with his family,
The family
moved to Chicago before 1880 when they appear in the census living at 254 West
Chicago Ave and Oloff continued to his occupation as a fisherman. The youngest
child in the family was Enert who was six months old.[iii]
Oloff died
in March of 1900, before the census was taken. It seemed I was at a brick wall
since I had never found his parents or birthplace. I could find no trace of his
widow in the 1900 census and the children were all married by then.
His pension
did not appear in the online records at fold three although I was able to find
an application and pension number. None of Oloff’s naturalization papers gave a
place of birth other than Sweden.
I sent off
to NARA for his Compiled Service Record which held quite a bit of biographical
information. While I still don’t have his parent’s names or know where he was
born, I did get the answers to some of my questions.
According to
his pension application, Oloff left Sweden about 1855 and traveled to Germany.
In Hamburg he married Maria Hepke at the American Consulate and they left
Germany for the United States about 1857. I also learned that Marie had died of
childbirth in 1881. After the 1880 census there is no record of the infant Enert
so it is possible that he died then as well.
So now I am
looking for a Swede who emigrated to Germany and then a married couple, he born
in Sweden and she born in Germany, leaving Hamburg about 1857-1859 for America.
I am grateful
for this find since it limits my search parameters.
[i] ear:
1860; Census Place: Michigan City, La Porte, Indiana; Roll: M653_275; Page:
389; Image: 391; Family History Library Film: 803275
[ii] Historical
Data Systems, comp. U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.
[iii] Year:
1880; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 195; Family History Film:
1254195; Page: 163B; Enumeration District: 141; Image: 0521
