Bright Shiny Objects - They Are Everywhere!!

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In late December, I committed to the Genealogy Do Over.  I had already begun a partial do-over by selecting a family line and reviewing every person an piece of paper for any missed or overlooked information,  at the same time creating source citations that were missing.  It is one of my failings, not creating source citations as I enter details.  Fortunately I have kept the order cards from the microfilms I have used for my research.

In January I entered the Do Over in earnest.  Enter BSO #1!

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 I had plans to attend FGS2015/RootsTech in February.  With a few extra days included for my first visit to the Family History Library, there was the need to plan to make the most effective use of my time at the Library.  I decided to concentrate on two of my husband's Swedish ancestors for whom I had no place of birth or accurate date of birth.  I created a research plan and timeline for both.  Another part of my plan was to check out the Library's holdings for Ireland, especially Counties Limerick and Cork.  These are the ancestral homes of my maternal grandparents.  While I was not very successful in my plan, I was successfully distracted from the Do Over for most of February and a good part of March.  I do not easily admit defeat in searching for clues.

After I returned from Salt Lake City, I went back to the Do Over and finished reviewing the original line I began working on in July 2014 and continued on to another line, following up on my Swedish research.  At RootsTech I attended a class on using the Arkiv Digital to find Swedish records.  To use this program you must first know the place where your ancestor lived.  This resource is free to use at the Family History Centers.  Having learned in class that the immigration records are part of the police records, I have been able to find the record of my husbands great-grandmother Caroline Nelsson leaving Sweden in 1871 to go to Boston, Massachusetts.  

In late March, I became aware of a free class offered online by Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland. It is a six week class titled: Irish Lives in War and Revolution: Exploring Ireland's History 1912-1923. Enter BSO #2!

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 The counties that my maternal grandparents came from in Ireland were heavily involved in the fight for freedom.  " learning the history solves the mystery" right.  How could I not follow that BSO?  While my grandparents were already in the United States at this time, they each had atleast one sibling still living and working in Ireland and they also traveled back to visit several times.  Knowing that they responded to the census question on "Place of Birth" with Irish Free State in 1940 leaves me with little doubt about their leanings.

As I continue the Do Over, I know I will be distracted at time by other BSOs like webinars, conferences, traveling, and life in general but I have resolved to keep returning back to the goals of the experience.  I will never finish in the 13 week cycle of even in a year, but I will accomplish quite a bit this year.

Oh, there is BSO #3 Jamboree in June!

FGS 2015 Getting Ready to Research and Learn

It's almost here!! Something I have yearned to do but doubted I ever would.  My upcoming adventure to FGS2015, Roots Tech 2015 AND a visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City!!

I have been getting ready for about a month.  I have looked at the syllabus for FGS2015 but have not made any final choices for classes yet.  With 25 or more sessions per day to choose from, how do I ever decide?  That is not even including the Roots Tech sessions that will be going on.  I am staying a week even though both FGS2015 and Roots Tech last only four days.  I have built in some research time in the Family History Library too.  Looks like I will get some extra time in the Library since in addition to being open on President's Day, they are open until 9 pm.  Here is where I will need some serious time management skills.

In preparing for the research portion of my adventure, Since I am part of the Great Genealogy Do Over, I have created two different research logs.  Early on I decided to limit my research to two different areas which have been pretty much my brick walls.  On my husband's Swedish line there are two men for whom I have been unable to establish a birth date of place of birth.  I have a reasonable expectation of some success because of a finding aid available at the Library.  Wish me luck!  My second area to be searched is Limerick County, Ireland.  I have town and village names and lots of surnames to look for.  Both of my mother's parents and as far as I know all of her her ancestors came from County Limerick.  Given the reported state of  Irish records, I am hoping that there are some genealogies of other books that will help me with finding out more about my Irish.

I will Connect with genealogy facebook friends, Explore the Family History Library, and Refresh myself with new knowledge and enthusiasm!

Family History Writing Challenge Day 27 - Religion - What the Records Reveal

In researching my family tree, I have used lots of church records.  Other than census records church records are probably the records I have used the most since they are so full of information and clues.  Each country’s records have some differences but there are lots of commonalities.  All record name of the child, names of parents (including mother’s maiden name) , and god-parents.  The god-parents or sponsors can be an important clue to other family members.

Catholic Church records show that Johan Jacob Burbach was christened in St Antonius Church, in Oberselters , Hessen, Germany,  in 1732.  For well over a century, Burbach family members were baptized, married, and buried from St Antonius. 

Lutheran Church records show immunizations as well as sacraments received.  Confirmation was required before marriage would be allowed.  When families remained  stationary it was easy to track back through the years.  In Scandanavia, permission from the church was required before a person could move to another location.  Such moves were recorded in church records just as entry into a village was recorded.  Norwegian Lutheran christening records also listed the birthplace of the parents.  That’s how I located the birthplace of Martin Hansen, my great-great-grandfather.  In Norway legitimacy was indicated by the order of the parents names listed in the record.  Mother first, father second indicated an illegitimate birth.  Other countries just had columns that were checked to indicate legitimate or illegitimate.

Swedish Lutheran record sets included an annual household inventory or listing of everyone in the family.  In the event that someone had moved, they recorded where they moved to and when.  These inventories included name,  birthday, sex, marital status, and relationship to the head of the house.  Using the household inventory ( Husförhörslängder) helped me to find the brothers and sisters of Karolina Nielsson.

Hungarian church records are very similar to the German church records and are written in a mix of Hungarian and Latin.  The records for the part of Hungary that Augustinus Gulyban came from date back to 1777.  They are very complete with both birth and christening dates, parents names and where they lived in addition to godparents.

Irish church records are notoriously scarce and pretty much do not exist before the 1860s.  Another issue is that even if the birthplace is known it is difficult to be sure that the parish is in the same county.  I recent learned that the records that may be of use are in Tipperary not in County Limerick or County Cork as expected.

Catholic Church records in the United States are similar to the ones from European countries in that they are a combination of the native language of the country and Latin.  They also reflect the changing customs.  Confirmation is received at different ages, notes may be added to the record.  Often the marriage place and date are added to the baptism record or a death may be indicated by a cross marked next to a name with a date included.  In fact a note on my grandparents wedding record  makes me wonder how they had a Nuptial Mass in a Catholic Church in 1907 when Adolph was a Lutheran.  I have found no record of conversion and at that time the Catholic Church did not allow such marriages.  I haven’t looked for a conversion and maybe I should since Adolph was also a god-father in 1908 and was buried in a Catholic cemetery in 1946 both just not done in the years in which they happened.

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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.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Who is Your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor?

Hey geneaphiles, it's Saturday Night again - time for more Genealogy Fun!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Determine who your most recent unknown ancestor is - the one that you don't even know his or her name.

2) Summarize what you know about his or her family, including resources that you have searched and the resources you should search but haven't searched yet.

3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a status on Facebook.

My most recent unknown ancestor is the father of Leopold Peterson b 1851 in Sweden. Leopold came to the United States in 1870, landing in Massachusetts. According to the 1892 Chicago voters roll, Leopold applied for citizenship in Massachusetts and his oldest child was also listed as having been born in Massachusetts.

Going through the marriage records for 1873 did yield the correct record for Leopold Peterson who married Caroline Neilson in Boston on 11 Aug 1873. According to the marriage index Leopold's parents were Peter and Anne. How helpful! Using the Boston City Directory for 1873, I found the minister on the record Rev George S Noyes was at the Bethel Church on North Square in Boston. I have also looked for his parental information on his naturalization application but all it says is when he came here and that he came from Sweden.

I have also checked the Swedish records on FamilySearch and checked out the Norwegian Emmigration records on the Digitalarkivet. Next I will try to find out where the records of the Bethel Church might be housed in hopes that they are more complete. I hope they would yield the parents last names or at least the county in Sweden if not the actual parish. I am surprised that Leopold's origins are so elusive since Leopold is a relatively unique name in Sweden.

Genabloggers - Church Record Sunday - Scandanavian Records

Copy of a Swedish Household Inventory from Quidinge, Varmland circa 1855.

I have both Norwegians and Swedes in my sights as I work on my genealogy.  As such I have found the Church records of both Norway and Sweden to be extremely valuable in my research.

Christening records indicate  the names, ages, and residences of the parents.  Godparents (usually relatives) are also listed.  Both birth date and Christening date are indicated.  Careful observation may yield even more information.  For instance I had noticed that in my Great-grandfather's Christening record his mother's name was written before his father's name.  On further checking it was determined that this indicated that his birth was illegitimate.  That is why I could never find a marriage record for his parents.

Marriage records show birth date, place of birth,  residence at time of marriage, parents names, witnesses, occupation, and when vaccinated. 

Other church records might include a household inventory, which like a census shows every member of the family.  It also includes year of birth, and where someone moved to if they left the family.

I have also found German and Hungarian records to be valuable and meticulous.  If only the Irish records hadn't all been held in thatch roofed cottages that burned!

Friday Findings - Discovering the Details

I am changing Follow Friday to Friday Findings so I can share some of my search processes in the hope that it will help someone else in their efforts. Leopold is a very unusual name Swedish name so I thought tracking my husbands great-grandfather and his wife would be an easy task.  Not so much.

Leopold Peterson and Caroline Neilson appear in the 1880 census as a married couple living in Chicago with their 3 children, Annie, John, and Frank.  According to the census, Leopold and Caroline had both been born in  Sweden and immigrated 1870 and 1871 respectively.  Daughter Annie was born in Massachusetts in 1875.  In 1892, on the Chicago voters registration, Leopold indicated that his naturalization papers were filed in Boston.

As I searched for more information,  it became apparent that the answers were in Massachusetts, probably Boston.  I looked for Leopold and/or Caroline in the 1870 census without much hope since they had said their arrival was in 1870 and 1871.  Next I ordered the Massachusetts Marriage records for 1872 and 1873 from the Family History Center.  I selected those years based on both the immigration dates and the birth of Annie in Massachusetts.  I found the marriage record of Leopold and Caroline in the LDS film # 1433032.  They were married 11 Aug 1873 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts.  According to the record, Leopold was a 22 year old cabinet maker and Caroline was 26.  Leopold's parents were Peter and Anna, Caroline,s parents were Neils and Kare, Rev. George S Noyer officiated.  After searching the Boston City directories for 1872/73, I found that Rev Noyes was associated with the the Bethel Church at North Square in Boston.  It was a Methodist Episcopal Church organized in 1828.

I have found Caroline's birth record and her parents but I am still looking for Leopold's birth and parents.  Finding the parents first names at least tells me that they followed the standard Scandinavian naming practices.  Now how do I find Peter and Anna the parents of Leopold?  Any suggestions out there?