Monday, November 26, 2018

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 47 Thankful for a Compiled Service Record!


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

Monday, November 19, 2018

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 43 Cause of Death




John William Peterson appeared in only four records during his short life. He was born to Leopold and Caroline (Neilson) Peterson on 3 June 1876 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts[i]. He was the second child and first son born into the marriage. He was baptized in the Emanuel Lutheran Church of Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts on 9 July 1876[ii]. It is noted in the record that neither of his parents were members of the church and his father is listed as L P Peterson.

In 1880, John is recorded living with his parents at 520 W Superior Street in Chicago, Cook, Illinois.  Also, in the household were his older sister Annie and younger brother Francis (Frank).[iii]

The final record that John appeared in was the Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index, 1878-1922 which yields the information that John Wm Paterson, age 9, died on 7 June 1885 in Chicago and is buried at Graceland Cemetery.[iv]

A little boy just nine years and four days old was gone and I began to wonder just what caused his death. Was it an accident? Newspaper searches gave no clues so I decided that it would be necessary to get a death certificate to find the answer to my questions.

When I located the death certificate for John, the cause of death was listed as poliomyelitis.  Wow! Polio! Growing up in the 1940s and 1950s I was very well aware of Polio and it’s seriousness but I hadn’t known that it even existed in the 1880s.

A query at Wikipedia gave me more information about Polio and the epidemics associated with it. I never knew that it was associated with water like cholera. There was no epidemic in Chicago in 1885 but I am sure that the water was not the cleanest and a young boy would be drawn like a magnet to any standing water. I will never know how John contracted Polio but now I know the cause of his death.


[i] Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
[ii] Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Elk Grove Village, IL, USA; Parish: Emanuel Lutheran Church; ELCA Film Number: S160-161; SSIRC Film Number: S-160
[iii] 1880 U S Federal Census; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 195; Page: 601A; Enumeration District: 133
[iv] Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index, 1878-1922 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.