Not All Norwegians Used the Patronymic Naming System - His Father's Name was Martin not Hans

As is so often the case, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing! In my case, my knowledge caused me to make a serious error in my genealogy file. Since I posted my tree on ancestry.com, that error has been compounded when others either copied my tree or appended it to theirs.

While I found the error, and corrected it several years ago, I wanted explain my error with a written summary. This will be added to my tree on ancestry in the hope that others will see it and correct their information.

When I began searching for my great-grandfather's birth record in Norway, I was looking for Adolf Hansen. When I finally found the christening record, I discovered his name was actually Johannes Adolf Waldemar Hansen. The record was difficult to read in places and I do not read Norwegian. Since every one knows that the Norwegians use the Patronymic naming system, I assumed the 

father's name was Hans and so I entered Hans Hansen as the father of Johannes Adolf Waldemar Hansen.

As I continued my research, I found several hints that I should go back to that christening record and look at it again. The first hint was found in Adolf’s first marriage record. On 12 December 1877, Johannes Adolf Waldemar Hansen married Dorette Christensen in Grønland Parish, in Oslo, Norway.  Their marriage record[i] clearly states that Johannes Adolf Hansen’s father is Martin Hansen. Dorette’s father is Daniel Kristensen.

record of the marriage of Johannes Adolf Hansen marriage to Dorette Kristensen

The entry for Johannes and Dorette is the third from the bottom.   

record of the death of  Dorette Hansen

Dorette died[ii] on 4 July 1887 shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Aagot Dorette.  Aagot was the seventh child born to Adolph and Dorette during the ten years of their marriage.

record of the marriage of Adolf to Nathalie Egeburg

Johannes Adolf, as he was then known, married[iii] Nathalie Bull Egeberg at Garnison Menighet in Oslo on 2 Feb 1889. Once again, his father’s name was shown to be Martin Hansen.

Now that I had seen Martin listed twice as the father of Johannes Adolf Valdemar Hansen, it was time to revisit the birth record of Johannes Adolf Valdemar Hansen and see what new information could be learned.

birth record of Johannes Adolf Waldemar Hansen

Johannes Adolf Waldemar was born[iv] 11 October 1852 and christened at Aker, Akershus, Oslo, Norway on 26 December 1852. He was the illegitimate son of Johanne Sophie Johannessen and Martin Hansen. Martin appears to be in the military but I haven’t yet determined Johanne Sophie’s occupation.  Sponsors at the christening were Johanne Marie Johannessen, Martha Marie Andersdatter, Adolf Anderssen and Julius Johnssen.

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[i] SAO, Grønland prestekontor Kirkebøker, F/Fa/L0005: Parish register (official) no. 5, 1869-1880, p. 311    Quick link: https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/kb20060921030440 accessed 23 Oct 2017

[ii] SAO, Garnison Church Church Books, F / Fa / L0012: Ministerial Book No. 12, 1880-1893, p. 300

[iii] SAO, Garnison Church Church Books, F / Fa / L0012: Ministerial Book No. 12, 1880-1893, p. 238

[iv] SAO, Aker prestekontor kirkebøker, F/L0019: Parish register (official) no. 19, 1842-1852, p. 395

All images and records are located online at the Norwegian Digitalarkivet correct as of 26 Oct 2017

FGS 2014 Conference

Save the dates!  August 27, 28, and 29 in San Antonio!

San Antonio River Walk

 

 

The countdown has begun for the 2014 Federation of Genealogy Societies Conference.  Just three months from today the doors will open on amazing opportunities for education.  Both Societies and individuals will benefit from a wide selection of topics and speakers.  Some of the many topics to be covered include DNA, Society Management and Growth, Maps, and Source Citation.

Here is the link to the brochure with all of the details and registration information. https://www.fgsconference.org/FGS2014_%20RegistrationBooklet_web.pdf
 Join us and spend some time on the River Walk while you improve your genealogy skills.


photo courtesy of google images

A Swedish Fisherman's Daughter

Aurora Henrietta (Ora)Hanson was the seventh child born to Olof Hanson and Mary Hepke. She was born in 1876 in Michigan and married William Snyder on 24 Mar 1894 in Chicago, IL. About 1909 she began a candy business that became a Chicago fixture for 50 years. Our family connection is that my husband Dave Peterson is the great-grandson of Ora Snyder's older sister Lizabet. Below I have collected some articles about her and her candy company. There appears to be some confusion about the number of children Ora and William had and I can only document a daughter Edith, born in 1895.

March 31, 2009

Chocolate dipped

I had the chocolate symposium (held a few weeks ago at the museum) and Women’s History Month on my mind when I came across this image from the museum’s photo history collection of glass plate negatives by Underwood & Underwood. Thanks to a morning spent with ProQuest (thank you Smithsonian Libraries!) I was able to learn a bit about the remarkable woman who is pictured. I’m guessing that readers who know something about Chicago history are going to fill in the gaps!

Here’s what I learned: Mrs. Ora Snyder (nee Hanson) of Chicago was the mother of several children when her husband took ill in 1909 and had to quit his job. To make ends meet, she began making candy and selling it to the children down the street after school. She very quickly took her sweets to a different location in “the Loop” (Chicago speak for the historical downtown district) where her business really took off. By the time this photograph was made in 1925, she owned eight shops. In 1931, she was the first woman elected as President of the Associated Retail Confectioners of the United States.

In a Chicago Daily Tribune article from December 20, 1942, she explained how war rationing affected business. “Mrs. Ora Snyder said her stores were 1000 orders behind and purchases are being limited to five pounds per customer. Even using more honey and maple sirups [sic] . . . the company cannot meet the vastly increased demand.” She explained, “People, because of sugar rationing and chocolate shortages, have fewer sweets at home and are turning to candy to fill the need.”

After the war, when supplies were more accessible, she continued expanding her business. When she passed away at age 72 on July 18, 1948, she owned sixteen shops, one of which was a seven-story building. In another Tribune article, in 1959, son-in-law Seymour W. Neill was running the company of twenty-four shops, requiring some 380,000 pounds of sugar and 350,000 pounds of chocolate per year. He’s quoted as saying, “One thing that has become almost a lost art amid the mechanization is hand chocolate dipping. Snyder’s still employs about 20 who do hand dipping but they’re hard to find.”

If you have stories about Snyder’s and the woman who turned a small kitchen-based business into a Chicago-based chain, please share them in the comments.

Shannon Perich is Associate Curator for the Photographic History Collection at the National Museum of American Histor

Mrs. Snyder's Home Made Candies

Chicagoans used to salivate at the words Mrs. Snyder’s Home Made Candies.

That reaction was the result of Mrs. Ora Snyder’s recipes for candy and for business success: use high quality ingredients and hire high-quality staff; sell fresh candy; provide good value for the price; give your customers what they want.

These ingredients are basic fare in today’s business classes but Mrs. Snyder didn’t learn them in business school. She developed and tested her recipes on-the-job. Like many entrepreneurs of her day, she started with limited capital and without a business plan. She could of failed but she refused to.

Her story begins in the kitchen . . .

Ora learned to make candy as a child. But in 1909, when she was a worried wife and mother, she turned to it for economic stability. At night, her kitchen produced whipped crème chocolates, fudge, divinity, and other confections. By day she sold them in some unused space belonging to a Chicago peanut & coffee roaster. Her individual sales were small, five-, ten-, and fifteen-cents. But her volume grew quickly. After four months in business she was making $500 a month, about $9,600 in today’s dollars.

Ten years later she had four stores in Chicago's Loop. She was the subject of articles in national magazines and a co-founder of a national trade organization. Twenty years later she had ten shops. Newspapers covered her plans and purchases. She lectured at conferences. Lists of prominent, successful businesswomen published in Fortune magazine, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and other publications all included her.

By the time she died in 1948, Ora’s candy-kitchen-factory was cooking up confections to fill 16 retail shops daily. That’s quite a successful recipe.

Text and Photographs © Copyright 2003 - 2010 , Ferret Research, Inc, All Rights Reserved

Limerick, Ireland to Chicago, Illinois

Alice Fleming was born 1 Jan 1872, the youngest of 12 children born to Thomas Fleming and Mary Hennessy of Ballylanders, Limerick, Ireland. Since all of her siblings had immigrated to the United States, she had very little supervision from her aged parents. According to family legend someone in Ireland notified her brother in the States that Alice and her cousin, Mary Hogan were running wild about the countryside. Accordingly, it was decided that Alice should come to live with her sister Mary Fleming Walsh in Port Huron, Michigan. She came to the United States with her brother Michael Joseph Fleming about 1891. On 28 June 1893, Alice married Michael Joseph Connery, a merchant from Chicago, Illinois. Michael had immigrated from Limerick but had known Alice from his trips back to Ireland. Michael and Alice eventually had 11 children, the youngest of which was my mother Elizabeth Mary Connery Hansen. Alice's two daughters, Mary Elizabeth and Alice Josephine were sent to St Joseph Academy in Adrian, MI. Their uncle Michael was a priest at the school. This is a picture of Alice Fleming Connery taken at Adrian circa 1900.

Names and Places

Since I have committed to this blog I need to start with the names and places I have been researching. Since my approach to this whole project is through my grandchildren's eyes, I have included their father and his family as well. The countries and names I am researching are: Germany - Burbach, Coan, Hepke, Sigler, and Sempsrott; Norway - Hansen; Ireland - Connery, Fleming; Scotland - Ferguson; Hungary - Gulyban; Sweden - Nilsson, Peterson, and Hanson.

Along the way I met a Norwegian who was writing a biography of my great-grandfather, a Norwegian composer, a unknown cousin in Wisconsin whose grandfather was the brother of my grandmother, and found relatives of my husbands. I have been to cemeteries and courthouses. My hope is to use this blog to flesh out the facts and dates I have accumulated into some sort of narrative for the benefit of my grandchildren and those of my brothers and sisters.

Included in this narrative, in no particular order, will be tales of soldiers, farmers, musicians, fishermen, priests, nuns, teachers, and others. Many of the families are large so there are many stories to tell.

Along with my personal research, I volunteer at the local family history center 4 hours per week and often check the message boards to see if I can help someone with a querie. I have started scanning photos and documents and creating digital files which I will move to a flash drive. I already have my data base on a flashdrive. I did find, to my dismay, that scrapbooks do not move to a new version of Family Tree Maker, so I will create file folders by family name and store photos and docs there. They can always be retrieved to add to printed books but will not be lost with the next up-grade.