Surname Saturday - The Leahy/Lehys of Bulgaden Parish

Bulgaden Parish Church
County Limerick, Ireland

Recently, I received two inquiries about my connection to the Leahy family.  One was via an ancestry.com message and the other was though MyHeritage dna. The dna match is to a Leahy branch that settled in Canada in the 1820s and the message board connection is to a Leahy who is still in Ireland whose aunts still live in the same area the Connerys lived in.  So I decided it was time to learn more about my Leahy ancestors.

My great-grandmother Mary Leahy was born 5 January 1827 to Patrick Leahy and Ellen McCarthy and baptized on 6 January 1827 in Bulgaden Parish, County Limerick, Ireland.  She married Patrick Connery of Kilfinane, County Limerick, Ireland on 4 March 1851 in Bulgaden Parish.  Patrick Connery and Mary Leahy had eleven children including my grandfather Michael Joseph.

Tracing and recording the births and baptisms of these children I have been able to determine the siblings of Mary Leahy.  As far as I have traced her siblings are:Thomas, Michael, Roger, John, Elizabeth, and Catherine. Based on the Baptismal records of Mary and her siblings their Leahy aunts and uncles are:Patrick, Mary, Thomas, Roger, Ellen, Michael, John.  The only unique name in these two generations of Leahys of Limerick is Roger.

Leahy and Lehy are interchanged on a regular basis.  I have seen both a Roger Lehy and Roger Leahy in the church records and until older records are available I will have to accept that my Leahy line will end in 1790 with the birth of the first Roger Leahy.

Cousin Bait Wins Again!

I have been working on re-doing my family tree as part of the 2016 Genealogy Do-Over and in the past week I entered the Baptism records of 29 children that were born between 1820 and 1834 in the tiny village of Oberselters, Hessen-Nassau, Germany.  The six families involved were Burbach (3 brothers) Muller ( I don't know yet if the Mullers were related) and  Pabst families.

Susanna Burbach had moved to Wurges after her marriage to Johann Georg Meurer and her children were Baptized in Wurges.  Susanna's daughter Anna Maria Meurer married Andreas Hassler and they remained in the area.

This week ancestry.com sent me an email that someone had posted a message on my account.  The message was from Patrik Hassler in Germany!  Patrik wrote that Susanna Burbach Meurer was his 3rd Great-grandmother and he still lived in the area.  He found my tree on ancestry.com and was looking for family in the United States.  My 2nd Great-grandfather Hubert was a brother of Susanna Burbach!! Another cousin found. Whoot!!

Serendipity Times Two - Unexpected Finds!

Things you find on the way to somewhere else!  I am taking the "Family History Writing Challenge" from Lynn Palermo and decided to write the story of my Great-Great-Grandmother Catherine Caspary and her decision to immigrate to the United States in 1856.

Catherine's story begins in 1851 in Villmar, Hessen-Nassau, Germany.  She is married to Georg Burbach and has a young son Adam.  How and why did this young couple decide to leave Germany and go to America and why Milwaukee, Wisconsin?  This is the basis of the story I am writing.

While researching their method of travel to America, I realized that I didn't know their port of departure.  What did I know?  I knew from Georg's naturalization papers that they arrived in New York in July of 1856 and Georg was born in 1824.  So I went to ancestry.com and selected the New York Passenger lists.  I entered the following criteria:  Name Georg; birth year 1824 +- 2yrs; place of birth Germany; arrival 1856.  I got only 26 returns!

There they were Georg and Catherine SUMBACH and their sons Hermann and Johann.  Traveling with them is Anna Caspari who is likely Catherine's sister and Anne Marie Becker.  They had sailed on the ship "Mary Ogden" from Le Havre, France.

Later I went to familysearch.org to see if there were any records for my Georg Burbach that would be of help with my story.  Imagine my surprise to see his name on a marriage record in New York state!  He is listed as the "father of the groom".  This is the record of the marriage of his second son John (Johann) to Steffonia Grumber in 1875 at Brooklyn, Kings, New York.  I knew about John and Stephanie's marriage since they and their children lived close to Georg and Catherine in Milwaukee.  I hadn't yet looked for their marriage other than the 1880, 1900, and 1910 census returns.  I am glad since I would have wasted a lot of time.   I had no reason to believe John had ever left Milwaukee after his arrival as a two year old in 1856.  The next mystrey to solve is why did he go to New York for a bride?
Job training, arranged marriage, they met in Milwaukee and her family moved to New York for work?  What do you think?

Surname Saturday - Surname Spread the Connerys and More!

Map of County Limerick from
The Families of County Limerick by Michael C O'Laughlin

It was going to be a simple project, check the Catholic Parish Registers for my Grandfather’s baptismal records.  Found him:  Michael, son of Patrick Connery and Mary Leahy on 16 June 1861.  He was baptized in Kilfinane, County Limerick, Ireland and his Godparents were Michael Leahy and Helen Leahy.  They are most likely the brother and sister of Mary Leahy.  The custom of the day was that godparents were either a relative or a very close friend of the family.

After finding Michael’s record I realized that I needed to do the same for his siblings.  All ten of them!

While I was recording all of their information, it  became apparent how “surname spread” happens.  Each has two godparents.  In recording the baptismal  entries for Michael’s siblings I actually added 3 new surnames and found several siblings for eachof the parents.   The new names are Brigid Barrett, Joanna Howard, and Marie O’Donnell.  While I have no evidence, I strongly suspect that these women later married the man she was paired with for the Baptism.

Individuals I suspect are the siblings of Patrick Connery are Dionysius and Michael Connery.  Those I think may be siblings of Mary Leahy are Thomas, Johanna, Patrick, Michael, and Helen.

Helen was a sponsor on two occasions.   Thomas Hennessy does appear to be unrelated to the Connerys and Leahys but I am sure there is a connection.  Later Michael would marry Alice Fleming, a granddaughter of John Hennessy.  Sister Ellen married Michael Hayes and sister Catherine married Patrick Walsh.  Brides of the brothers add more surnames to the count.

***

Kilfinane, County Limerick; Diocese of Limerick

Baptisms and Marriages 1832 to Jul 1856,  microfilm 02429/03

Baptisms ans Marriages Aug 1856 to Mar 1859  microfilm 02429/04

Baptisms Mar 1859 to Mar 1880  microfilm 02429/05

Fearless Females - Sisters from Hungary

New York Passenger Lists

SS Aquatania sailing from Southampton

Arriving New York 9 Dec 1921

Lines 21, 22, 23 show the arrival of three sisters from Hungary.  Juliana 20, Mary 16, and Elizabeth 12, had traveled from Szabolcs Megye Nagy,  Apagy, Hungary to come to the new world.  It must have been a terrible crossing, the page shows that many people had been in the hospital, some even died.  Mary was one of those hospitalized, so ill that she refused to even think about another sea voyage ever again.  The ship log shows that they had been living with their brother Peter Fendrik in Apagy until their voyage to America.  It was very scary for the three girls who spoke no English.  They were going to Rayland, Ohio which may have been the home of their mother Elizabeth who came to America about 1914.  They hadn't seen their mother in seven years and now she was married with another child.

This is not Mary's entire story.  It does not relate how she immediately went into service in a private home and learned English by immersion.  She married a coal miner and lived her live in Martins Ferry, Ohio raising three children and practicing her faith.  Although she was a small woman, she was four feet nine inches in height, Mary was a giant in the kitchen.  Mary's baking skills were legendary and were in high demand.  She baked for family and friends often donating to church dinners, and funeral luncheons.  

Mary Fendrik Gulyban was my father-in-law's mother.  From her I learned to make stuffed cabbage rolls. and her wonderful Hungarian Kolaches filled with apricots, nutmeats, and poppy seeds.  

Mary died in 1987 twenty two years after her husband.

Surname Saturday - How is That Spelled?

As genealogists we all need to think outside the box.  We learn early on to consider alternate name spellings and ages.  Sometimes we need to be more creative than other times.

While researching my husband's maternal line Sempsrott I have needed to be even more creative than usual. Unique first names can really help ferret out those mis-spelled surnames.  I understand that a heavy German accent can cause misunderstandings in census records, but I think this name has had a record number of interpretations.

These are the variations I have found to date for the surname Sempsrott:  Semporste-Semporstt-Sempscote-Semmsrote-Simprod-Semporatt-Semprot-Seniprot-Semparote-Semparoto-Sempsrote-Sempirote-Simpsrott-Senpscott-Sempscott and Sampsroth.  There may be others that I haven't recorded as well as some I haven't found yet.

Sempsrott/Semsrott/Semsroth - Surname Saturday

My husband's grandmother Naomi's maiden name was Sempsrott.  At some point she had given my husband a family tree that covered the years from 1829, when his great great grandfather Frederich Albert Sempsrott was born in Germany, through 1947 when the trail ended.  After we retired to Florida in 1992, my husband came across the paperwork once more and we decided it was time to do something to document the family history.  It seems that their mother, Anna, feared they would be drafted into military service and so she put them on a ship bound for the United States.  Family legend reports that two brothers, Frederich Albert and Johann Heinrich were stowaways on a ship that left Berlin and they ended up in Cincinnati, Ohio.  From Cincinnati the two brothers traveled to southern Illinois settling in Jasper County.  At some point probably in the 1870s, Johann and his family moved to the Covington, Kentucky area while Frederich and his family remained to farm in Jasper County, Illinois.

This family is one of many which has variant spellings to challange the genealogist.  Some of the variations have included Simperoot, Samscrott, Samesroth, Sempsrote, Sompcrott, Semprote and Samsrott.  In Germany the name appears as Semsrott.  Some have traced the name back to Asendorf, Germany in 1583.  This is about the time Sweden invaded northern Germany.  If this is true could the Semsrotts be descendants of the Sammen (Swedes)?  Still working on this line as every spelling needs to be checked out.

Krbec of Bohemia - Surname Saturday

In 1877 Jan Krbec and Barbora Sunka were married in Drazicicih Tabor Bohemia. Jan and Barbora immigrated to the United States in 1887, arriving in New York on the Elbe on May 21. Traveling with Jan and Barbora were their children, Frank age 5 and Marie age 10 months. They had traveled from Bohemia to Austria and boarded the ship in Bremen, Germany. Their plan was to remain in Chicago, Illinois. Their journey completed, Barbora and Ian spent their lives in Cicero, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Krbec is a relatively uncommon name and there were only about a half a dozen families with that surname in Cook County, Illinois at the time of the 1900 census.

Researching the Cook County birth and death records, provided the original village of birth for Ian Krbec. The church records are digitized online at http://digi.ceskearchivy.cz. Using the records I was able to find the christening record for Ian Krbec in Chrastany, Bohemia in 1852.

Using a combination of Czech and Illinois records, I should be able to construct a timeline for the Krbec family and determine if Ian was connected to any of the other Krbec families. The search should prove interesting and fruitful since I have also discovered which parish the Krbecs belonged to in Cicero. Thanks to familysearch.org those records are also digitized online.

Surname Saturday - Surname Spread

It began with my husband and myself.  Two surnames, adding our parents expanded the count to four.  We're growing!

That is the point of genealogy isn't it?  Growing your tree branch by branch.  How does 2 names to 4 names grow to a total of 854 surnames?

My parents had 9 children, 8 of whom are married adding eight surnames to the count.  My dad had one sister who added yet another surname.  Her 8 children added more surnames.  My mother had 4 siblings who married adding 4 more surnames to the tally.

I am doing a collateral tree and the fact that many of our ancestors came from families of 10 or more children is a major factor in surname spread.  In the research I have done, religion, nationality, and culture do not seem to have had a bearing on family size.  Farmers or shopkeepers, country or city dwellers, religious or not, the propensity for large families seems to be the same.

My parents grandchildren number 21 and  17 are married and have contributed a total of 20 grandchildren at this point.  I don't see a shrinking of the family tree anytime soon!

Surname Saturday - Hennessys Where do They Come From and Why are They all Named Timothy.

My great grandmother (b about 1800) was a Hennessy from Ballylanders, Limerick, Ireland. Mary Hennessy was the daughter of John Hennessy and Mary Hayes. While attempting to track the ancestors of Mary Hennessy, I joined several cousins who were working to the same end. Some of them were the descendants of Mary Hennessy and some were the descendants of Mary Hennessy's sister Winifred.

We decided to pool our resources and see if we could determine who was who. In my experience, the Irish have a propensity to call everyone cousin, especially if the came from the same county and were acquainted with each other. Actually they probably were cousins when you think about it.

A Timothy Hennessy of Chicago had written a history of the Hennessy family of Counties Cork and Tipperary in 1954. This history began with birth, about 1700, of Timothy Hennessy in Dagan, County Cork.

As we combined our information, we were able to establish a 10 generation Hennessy Family Tree. It consists of 588 individuals and covers a span of 311 years. The family migrated from Cork and Limerick to Chicago, Houston, California, and Australia. There are 8 Timothys, 7 Thomas', 9 Michaels, and 7 James' and 8 Johns. 7 Marys and 5 Alices add to the confusion. Just to make it more difficult, about 1820 (+/- 10 years) Alice Hennessy (duaghter of John Hennessy and Mary Hayes) married Timothy Hennessy (son of Thomas Hennessy and Bridget Cleary).

Is the John Hennessy who married Mary Hayes an ancestor of Timothy Hennessy who married Alice Hayes? If not, where did he come from. This tree is not sourced and may never be due to the state of Irish records, but we do know the villages/parishes to look at for proof. What will we find.

Surname Saturday - Hansen of Asker, Akershus, Norway

My Hansen line is from Asker, Akershus, Norway. Asker was once the name of a farm which grew to become a town in the county of Akershus. Asker is the plural form of the word Ask which means Ash Tree. In 1948, Asker was incorporated into the city of Oslo. Geographically Asker is a coastal area but it also has hills and woods. It is also known as a gardening area as it is rural in nature. My great-grandfather was born at the Garnison Menigheten parish in Oslo, Akershus, Norway. He always referred to himself as coming from Asker, Akershus, Norway. According to the 1875 census Asker had a population of 9611 living on 1333 farms.

Asker within the county of Askershus

Askershus within Norway.
images courtesy of Wikipedia

Surname Saturday - Gulyban from Hungary

As I work my way through my surname list I have come to the name Gulyban and its various spellings. The Gulyban line I am researching originated in the county of Borsod, Hungary.
It is from Northeastern Hungary. Ellis Island records show 45 Gulyban arrivals between 1893 and 1923. There are many more when "creative" spelling is used for searching. The 1920 federal census lists 54 Gulybans born in Hungary. Again this does not include alternative spellings such as Gooban.


Wikipedia provides the following information: Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén (Hungarian pronunciation: [borʃod ɒbɒuːj zɛmpleːn]) is the name of an administrative county (comitatus or megye) in north-eastern Hungary (commonly called "Northern Hungary"), on the border with Slovakia. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Nógrád, Heves, Hajdú-Bihar and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. The capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county is Miskolc. Of the seven statistical regions of Hungary it belongs to the region Northern Hungary. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén is the second largest county of Hungary both by area (after Bács-Kiskun) and by population (after Pest County). 40% of the land is arable. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén is one of the most geographically diverse areas of Hungary. It lies where the Northern Mountains meet the Great Hungarian Plain, thus the northern parts of the county are mountainous – with some of the highest peaks and deepest caves in the country –, the southern parts are flat.

Augustinus Gulyban, my immigrant, came to the United States in 1905 at the age of 15. As many others had, he went to stay with friends or relatives until he got his feet under him. He settled in eastern Ohio like many Hungarian immigrants and worked in the coal mines. Gus, as he was also known, enlisted in the US Army in 1917 only to be rejected 3 months later as an enemy alien. Gus was naturalized in 1918.

Surname Saturday - Connery of Limerick part 2

Previously, I wrote about my grandfather, M J Connery of Kilfinnane, County Limerick, Ireland. As I wrote about the name, I realized how little actual research I had done on M J. I had blindly accepted the family stories as fact. This week was the time to remedy this error.

The name Connery is from the gaelic O Maolconaire or follower of Conaire. It is a variant of the name Conrey. The name is said to be found originally around Galway, Ireland. According to Castel Garden records there were 303 immigrants while Ellis Island shows 167 Connerys in their records. These are not accurate counts since many Connerys entered several times. I guess seeing these numbers that the name Connery is not as common as I always thought.

Searching the Chicago City Directories, I followed my grandfather from the earliest known listing for Michael J Connery in 1888 as a bartender and living at 163 N Paulina. By 1889 he is boarding with the Michael Connery who is a policeman in Chicago. This may have been a means of saving money since by 1890 he owned a saloon at 161 N Paulina and was living at 544 Austin Ave. M J remained a saloon keeper until 1912 when he entered the Real Estate business where he remained until his death in 1953. M J appears in the Chicago Voters List as a voter in 1888 and states that he has been a resident of Illinois for 8 years and filed his citizenship papers in Cook County. I have also been able to document M J's participation in Chicago's St Patrick's Day Parade. On Mar 15, 1896, the Daily Inter Ocean newspaper listed M J as an aide to Grand Marshall Martin Mulcahey. Not sure about the white horse yet since I can't find the documentation other than his obituary.

There is still more to try to find about M J and his family. Maybe his naturalization records will help to pinpoint his actual arrival. I know his parents and his mother's parents but not much more. M J was one of 11 children and I only have information on one brother and two sisters.

Surname Saturday - Connery of Limerick, Ireland

Michael Joseph Connery (M J) left Limerick and immigrated to the United States in 1888. He was joined by his 16 year old sister Cath on the ship Alaska which docked in New York on July 30,1888. He was one of 11 children which might explain his choice to immigrate.

I have explored MJ's siblings and their descendants, but have not studied the surname Connery. The 1901 census for Ireland shows 450 entries for the surname Connery with 129 Connerys living in County Limerick and 10 in Kilfinnane which is MJ's birthplace. The 1911 census of Ireland shows 467 entries with 114 in Limerick and 20 entries for Kilfinnane. In contrast, the 1900 Census of the United States there were 79 Connerys with 7 Connerys in Illinois and 3 living in Cook County, Illinois. The 1910 Census lists 71 Connerys with 7 in Illinois and 6 in Cook County. I only looked for Connerys who were born in Ireland. New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois had the highest number of Connerys listed in both the 1900 and 1910 census.

I will need to further explore the name Connery. There must be more to find.

Geneabloggers Surname Saturday - Burbach of Oberselters, Germany

One of my genealogy goals for this year is to concentrate on one family line every month and clean up their file.  I wrote about the Burbachs on the first Saturday of January.  Today I will summarize what I have accomplished this month.

I have established that 2 additional lines of the family migrated to Milwaukee, WI in the 1870s.  They remain to be explored fully.

I have ordered several transcriptions from Milwaukee German Newspapers in  hopes of documenting cause of death, marriages, etc.  One thing I hope to get more details on is the drowning death of my grandmother's brother John at age 9.  I have only found one reference to it.  In the personal diary of a Milwaukee policeman.

I will continue to check for possible duplicate people and enter source citations.  As information becomes available I will keep working on the Burbachs but with February it will be time to concentrate of the Fergusons.

Genabloggers - Surname Saturday Burbach and Associated Families

As one of my genealogy goals for 2011, I plan to work on one family per month and clean up my files, find new information, and cite sources.  For January I am beginning with 


BURBACH - Milwaukee, WI and Hesse Nassau, Germany
                        (also Heer, Meurer, Probst and others)


My Burbach line is from Oberselters, Hesse-Nassau, Germany.  The family lived in Oberselters as far back as 1732 and began the migration to the United States in the 1850s.   Church records show marriages into the Heer, Muerer, Probst, Kreppel, and Schwartz families among others.  The Burbachs from Oberselters were farmers and became grocers, butchers, farmers, and newsmen.
Various branches of the family settled in Milwaukee, WI, St Louis, MO, and Harris County, Texas.


As I persue this family, I often reflect on the courage it took to travel to a new country, learn a new language, and learn a new trade.  I am sure their faith gave them strength and comfort as they have retained it to this generation.  

Geneabloggers Surname Saturday

Happy New Year Everyone!!

As the new year begins so do my genealogy resolutions.  One of my resolutions was to concentrate on one surname per month.  I plan to make sure sources are cited, add photos and documents, delete duplicate individuals and facts, and continue new research.

To that end I thought I would alphabetize the primary surnames along with any associated surnames.  Just for fun I am color-coding them and including the area of research.  My surnames will be in red and my husband's surnames will be in blue.

BURBACH - Milwaukee, WI and Hesse Nassau, Germany
                        (also Heer, Meurer, Probst and others)
CONNERY - Chicago, IL, and Kilfinnane, Limerick, Ireland
                       (also Leahy, Ryan. Dawson, Hayes, and Mc Carthy)
FERGUSON - Jasper County, IL Decature, IN, Stokes, NC, 
                         York, VA, and Scotland)
                        (also Chapman, Stuart, and Whitmarsh)
FLEMING  - Chicago, IL Eau Claire, WI, Port Huron, MI, and 
                       Ballylanders, Limerick, Ireland
                       (also Hennessy, Hogan and Walsh)
GIBNEY     - Chicago, IL, Green County, Ohio and
                       La Porte County, IN, Sweden, and Germany
                       (also Hale, Hanson, and Hepke)
HANSEN   -  Chicago, IL and Aker, Akershus Norway
                       (also Pedersen, Daniels, Christiansen, Johnsen
                        Tripp, Dvorak, Riis)
PETERSON - Chicago, IL and Sweden
                       (also Britton and Neilson
SEMPSROTT - Jasper County, IL OH, and Berlin, Germany
                       (Steinfort of Ohio and Germany)


It would certainly appear that I will be busy this year since this is only one of my genealogy goals for this year.  Next Dec 31st I will review this post and see what I have accomplished.

Surname Saturday - Those Sly Scandinavians

It has been a time honored caveat that Scandinavians used a patronymic naming system.  Yes and No.  I have both Norwegian and Swedish surnames in my family file.

My Swedish Peterson/Neilson line appears to have followed the standard naming convention.  When I found the marriage record of Leopold Peterson and Caroline Neilson the parents names were listed as Peter and Anne for Leopold and Nils and Karna for Caroline.  Peter who?  Last names would have been helpful, but at least I know the naming pattern that was used. 

My Norwegian Hansen/Danielsen ancestors however,  freely changed from the patronymic to using the last name of the father.  My grandfather, Adolph Hansen, was christened under the name Adolph Johannesen.  His father was variously recorded as Johannes Hansen and Adolph Hansen.  My great-grandmother, Dorette Christiansdatter, was also named as Dorette Danielsdatter and her brother became Oskar Daniels.  Their father was Daniel Christians. 


Since this is Surname Saturday, I won't begin to talk about the first name changes.  At least they kept their ages consistent.

Surname Saturday - Where They Came From

I thought I would revisit the surnames I am researching, this time listing them by country of origin.  It will be interesting to see where the majority my research is taking me. Because I have chosen to orient my family tree from my grandchildren's viewpoint, this list includes the surnames in both Dave's and my backgrounds as well as the surnames of my son-in-law's adoptive parents.

In no particular order, the list is:
Germany:  Burbach, Caspari, Siglar/Ziglar, Sempstrott, Coan/Coon, Haas
Ireland:  Connery, Fleming, Hennessy, Leahy, Mc Carthy, Ryan
Norway: Hansen
Sweden:  Peterson, Hanson (2 different lines)
Hungary:  Gulyban, Palinkas, Fendrik, Biro
Bohemia:  Krbec
Scotland:  Ferguson

As I suspected the preponderance of my research will be using German resources.  Thank heavens they are abundant.    One German line I have traced back to 1732 and another to 1604.  The Ferguson line goes back to 1641 in Virginia.  Haven't begun to check Scottish resources yet.  I suspect this is a never ending project.

Surname Saturday - HANSEN

My Norwegian grandfather, Adolph. left Norway in 1894 with his sister Dagny and brother Artur. They left behind 2 brothers, Sigurd and Thorolf, along with their father and step-mother. Adolph, Artur and Dagny traveled to Chicago where their deceased mother's sisters and brother were living. At 14 years of age Adolph finished his education. In the 1900 census he was working as a packer and he and Artur were living with their aunt and uncle, Olga and Axle Pedersen. Adolph married Henrietta Burbach and they had 2 children, Dorothy and Donald. Donald was my father.
About 10 years ago, I decided to find out more about Adolph's family. It was challenging since my Hansens didn't consistently use the typical naming patterns. Also, when Adolph left Norway he traveled under his middle name of Halfdam. I finally found their emigration records from Norway by looking for his sister Dagny. Looking for help on the ancestry.com message boards, I made contact with a Norwegian author who was writing the biography of Adolph's father, Adolf Hansen. Adolf Hansen, born 1852, was a noted musical composer and the biography was in honor of his 150th birthday. The author and I wrote back and forth often and I was able to order a copy of the book and also received a recording of the concert of Adolf's music played for the birthday celebration.
Adolf, the composer, had 2 wives and 10 children most of whom I've been able to find. The Norwegian naming patterns appear to have been followed sporadically at best. Adolf was born Johannes Adolf Waldemar Hansen but later used Adolf Hansen. Looking for his father, I expected to find Hans? What I found was that his father's name was actually Martin Hansen. When I looked for my grandfather's christening records, I found him listed as Adolph Johannsen! A rose by any other name?