52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 4 “I’d like to meet…”

There are so many of my ancestors I’d like to meet but for this week, I am choosing my paternal grandfather Adolph Halfdan Hansen. Adolph died when I was only four years old but I still remember his twinkling blue eyes and the Sunday afternoon trips to Kiddy land at Amlings Flowers. Let me tell part of his story before I tell you why I’d like to meet him and what I would ask him.

Adolph Halfdan Hansen
1880 - 1946

Adolph was born to Johannes Adolf Hansen and his wife Dorette Cristensdotter on 29 Jan 1880[i] in the military parish on Oslo, Akershus, Norway. He was baptized there in the state religion Lutheran faith on 18 April 1880[ii]. He was the third child of the marriage following after Dagny and Artur.

Adolph’s father was a music instructor and composer in the Norwegian Army. He and his wife went on to have four additional children before Dorette’s death from childbirth in 1887.[iii]

Two years after his first wife’s death, on 2 Feb 1887, Johannes Adolf married nineteen-year-old Nathalie Egeberg in Olso.[iv] Apparently, Nathalie’s young age caused problems with the older children especially with the oldest daughter Dagny Amanda.

Johannes Adolf and wife Nathalie in Bergen with family
shortly before the 1894 emigration of Dagny, Artur, and Adolf

On 21 May 1894, Dagny, 17, along with her brothers Artur, 15 and Adolf, 14 traveled from Bergen to Kristiana where they boarded the Thingvalla ship the Norge[v] which arrived in New York on 8 June 1894. They had a single suitcase between them and each had $1.00 U.S.. They were traveling to Chicago.[vi]

The three siblings traveled on to Chicago where they went to stay with their mother’s sister Olga Petersen and her family.[vii] By the time of the 1900 census Dagny had left the family to work for the Charles B Ayers family as a servant.[viii]

All of the siblings made a successful life for themselves in the United States and were eventually joined by their younger brother Sigurd. Only Thorolf remained in Norway and the 1901 census shows him living in Oslo with his grandmother Sofie.[ix]

Nathalie and Adolf( as he was by then called) had a family which included the five children of that marriage and moved from Oslo to Bergan shortly before the three of Dorette’s children emigrated.

Adolph remained in Chicago where he finished his education and went to work for his Uncle Oscar in the iron work and shipbuilding business. This business required frequent travel since the company had many jobs going on in locations around the country.

On 30 Oct 1907 Adolph married Henrietta Eva Burbach at a nuptial Mass in Gesu Church in Milwaukee, WI.[x] There would be frequent trips between their home in Chicago and Milwaukee where Henrietta’s family lived. Including a trip in 1907 to be the Godparents of Herman Adolph Burbach, Henrietta’s nephew.

There is lots more to say about Adolph, but I wanted to present the backstory so I could explain why I’d like to meet him.

I would like him to tell me about his mother. Other than the basic dates there is very little known about her. Did she tell her children stories, did she sing to them? Were her eyes the same twinkling blue as his? Was she tall? How was the seventeen day trip across the ocean for a fourteen-year old? Were the seas calm or rough?

How was he, a Lutheran, able to have a Nuptial Mass, become a Godparent in a Catholic Baptism, and finally be buried in a Catholic Cemetery at a time when all of these were denied to non-Catholics?

This inquiring mind wants to know!!

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[i] Aker, Garnison: Den Norske Kirke, Births 1857-1880, Birth and Christening of Adolf Halfdan Hansen; FHL microfilm FHL film 255742 batch C428255.

[ii] ibid

[iii] Norwegian Lutheran (Oslo fylke), Ministrial Book #12 Dode og begravede, page 300, death and burial record of Dorette Christiansen; arkivverket.no, Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

[iv] Norwegian Lutheran Church, , FHL film 1282501 ITEM 2 bk 13, , Marriage of Johannes Adolf and Nathalie; FHL microfilm .

[v]  "Digitalarkivet.uib.no," Norwegian Digital Arkiv,  (http://digitalarkivit..uib.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?slag=visbase&filnamn=arkivvert/EMIBERG&brukar=&loc=5017848&spraak : accessed 6 June 2002), transcription, "Emigrants from Bergen 1874-1930," .

[vi] Norge passenger manifest, 8 June 1894, ; in Ellis Island Records; (Washington, D.C.: National Archives), .

[vii] 1900 U S Census, Cook County, Illinois, population schedule, Ward 28, ED ED 844 precinct 4 West Town Chicago city, 11B, 204, Adolph Hansen.

[viii] 1900; Census Place: Chicago Ward 35, Cook, Illinois; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 1132; FHL microfilm: 1240291

[x] Adolph Hansen and Henrietta Burbach marriage, 30 October 1907, Marriage Register of Gesu Church (English): v. 4 p. 76, Roman Catholic.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - America was Her Name

La Motte Township
From Crawford County 1930c, Illinois
Published by W. W. Hixson & Co. in 1930c 

My husband’s family tree has an America Sempsrott as the spouse of his second great-uncle. In tracking America there were several roadblocks. Looking at the records there appeared to be two women named America in Crawford County, Illinois in the 1870 – 1931 time period but further research revealed that there are three marriages and multiple names involved.

America Ellen Snyder was born 29 April 1869 in Lawrence County, Illinois to William Snyder and Nancy McCarthy.[i] America’s father died in 1878 in Lawrence County and her mother evidentially returned to her birthplace in Crawford County, Illinois.

In 1885 America married William Martin Tennyson and they lived in Crawford County, Illinois. The 1900 census shows them living and farming in Robinson, Crawford, Illinois with their children Claud, Effie, Pearl, Charles, and Jessie. America is recorded as Maggie E Tennyson.[ii]

In 1910 Andrica and William were still farming in Robinson and had only their three youngest children still at home. William was a “General Farmer” and an employer rather than an employee but they did rent the farm.[iii]

William Tennyson died 28 April 1912 in Robinson and is buried in the Palestine Cemetery in Crawford County, Illinois.[iv] America was forty-four years old.

On 24 Nov 1914 William Sempsrote, a widower with two young children, married Ellan Tennyson in Sullivan County, Indiana in a ceremony performed by Earl A Kennedy, JP.

In 1920, America E Sempsrote was living in Lamotte with her second husband William on the farm that they own. His children Opal and Glenn are still at home.[v] By 1930, Ellen and William Sempscote were still farming in Lamotte and enjoying each other’s company. [vi]

America died on 4 May 1931 in Palestine, Crawford, Illinois and was buried as America Ellen Tennyson on May 6 in the Palestine Cemetery.[vii]

In various records she has been identified as America Ellen, America E, Ellen, Ellan, Maggie E and Andrica. At different points in her life her surname has been recorded as Snyder, Snider, Tennyson, Sempsrott, Semperote, Sempscott, Semporad. She was a woman who had 7 children, six of which survived infancy, she survived her first husband and went on to remarry and raise the two children of her second husband all whild living the difficult life of a farmer's wife in rural Illinois in the early 1900s.

America I am glad I could unravel your story and find your place in our tree!

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[i] "Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916–1947." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010. Index entries derived from digital copies of original records.

[ii] Year: 1900; Census Place: Robinson, Crawford, Illinois; Page: 19; Enumeration District: 0047; FHL microfilm: 1240295

[iii] Year: 1910; Census Place: Robinson, Crawford, Illinois; Roll: T624_283; Page: 27A; Enumeration District: 0032; FHL microfilm: 1374296

[iv] Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

[v] Year: 1920; Census Place: Lamotte, Crawford, Illinois; Roll: T625_364; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 31

[vi] Year: 1930; Census Place: Lamotte, Crawford, Illinois; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0006; FHL microfilm: 2340244

[vii]Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks II – Week 2 Challenge

This week’s prompt is "challenge” which is not an unusual thing in genealogy. It seems that our ancestors are always trying to thwart us. They hide in the records, they change their names and ages, and are less than forthcoming about their place of birth among other things.

I have dealt with all these things but the biggest challenge I have had so far has been dealing with Irish records.

National Library of Ireland map

We have all heard about the burned records from the time of the “troubles” during the period between 1918 and 1925. Yes it happened but many local parish records survived and have been put online for free by the National Library of Ireland (NLI) . They are not indexed, and you need to read them page by page.

Challenge number one: you need to know the name of the parish where the event took place.

Challenge number two: you know the naming pattern to expect but how many aunts and uncles did the subject have who all used the same names for their children? A subject might have six or seven first cousins about the same age with the same name.

Challenge number three: Did the event actually take place where the family lived?

Challenge number four: What information might a record provide?

Challenge number five: Will the record be legible?

An example: I am looking for a marriage record for John Hennessy and Mary Hayes who I know were Catholic and lived in Limerick, Ireland. Limerick, Ireland has in excess of 50 parishes. I also know that Bulgaden is a parish in Limerick which has been mentioned in connection with the Hennessy family. I believe the marriage to have occurred between 1804 and 1813 based on unsourced information obtained from others. The marriage records before 1812 are not available so now what?

I have developed a work pattern. I will go to Find My Past on a free Friday and do a name search for John Hennessy born about 1785 (+/- 10 years) in County Limerick and note any marriage events. If I see one that appears to be what I am looking for, I will note the parish and then move over to the NLI records to scroll for the record. 

If I do find a record and it is legible, it will show the names of the two parties who married and where they each lived. It will also show the names of the witnesses present who were usually a member of each family. It may also show the groom’s occupation depending on the priest. The record may be in either Latin or English again depending on the priest.

So far in my quest for the marriage record of John Hennessy, I have search the records of ten parishes in Limerick with one more to go before I switch to the adjacent counties of Cork and Tipperary. I have encountered about twenty John Hennessys and probably fifteen of them married a Mary.

To help with my search I have printed a map of Limerick showing all of its parishes which I have marked as “searched”. I am also keeping a research log so I can keep track of where I’ve been.

If you come across a John Hennessy and Mary Hayes of County Limerick with children named James, Thomas, Patrick, John, Michael, Winifred, Mary, Alice, Margaret please let me know I’m looking for them.