Jill's Genealogy Journey

Stories, Discoveries & Tips

Jill Holman

Family History Month is Coming in October

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October is Family History Month. If you haven’t started to research yet, grab a blank chart and start writing things down! And then ask your oldest living relatives what they know ASAP.

For those of us who have been researching awhile, here are 5 of the most interesting projects that are off the beaten path of traditional research . . .

1) Make a family cookbook with recipes that have been handed down in your family. Or try a new recipe to honor your heritage. You could just borrow a cookbook from your public library.

Here are some fun ones I found . . .

cookbooks

2) Do something with those old pictures! Ideas:

photobook-holman
A photobook doesn’t have to be complicated – just pick some key photos and get started.

3) Gather tombstone pictures. You can go traipsing through cemeteries or do this from home via Find a Grave. While the amount of information varies for different entries, sometimes you get lucky and see pictures of someplace too far away to visit in person.

nathan-washburn-grave

4) Inventory, take a picture and write down the story for any family artifacts you might have or that your relatives have. For example, who has the family Bible? Where is great-grandfather’s military medal? If you have older furniture, there is a big difference between “I bought this table at a garage sale” and “My grandmother gave me this table and she got it just after World War II.”

5) Make a poster of your research. You could buy one and fill it in with your information. Or have one printed from one of your charts – Walmart posters start at $6 at the time of this writing.

More Project Ideas

Ancestors of Renie Middendorp

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Here is my current knowledge of this part of the family . . . I can’t say that everything is perfectly verified from primary sources yet, but this is a good start and a good basis for further research.

John and Dena and all their children are a bit confusing. John was married before Dena, to Cornelia and they had a son. Dena had a child before she was married, then she married Sam Bird and had 3 children, then she married John and they had 10 children. On to the ancestors and the timeline of events that are documented . . .

The Ancestors of Renie Middendorp (1882-1961)
The Ancestors of Renie Middendorp (1882-1961)

Timeline
1803 – Teunis born (WieWasWie)
1830 – Teunis married Elizabeth (WieWasWie)
1845 – John born (naturalization papers)
1847 – Dena born (1900 census)
1873 – John came to the US (naturalization papers)
1880 – Ubbe & Myka and John & Dena are in Turner SD (census)
1882 – Renie born (death certificate)
1883 – Teunis died (WieWasWie)
1885 – Ubbe & Myka are in Turner SD (census)
1885 – John & Dena in Minneapolis MN (census)
1895 – John & Dena in Minneapolis MN (census)
1900 – John & Dena in Turtle Lake WI (census)
1905 – John & Dena in Turtle Lake WI (census)
1909 – John is a US citizen (naturalization papers)
1910 – John & Dena in Turtle Lake WI (census)
1911 – John gets a land patent in WI (BLM database)
1913 – Renie and Melena married (marriage certificate)
1918 – Renie drafted in WWI (draft card)
1918 – John died (Marvin Iwerks’ books, findagrave.com)
1920 – Renie and Melena in Turtle Lake WI (census)
1920 – Dena with daughter Lena in Clayton WI (census)
1930 – Renie and Melena in Turtle Lake WI (census)
1939 – Dena died (Marvin Iwerks’ books, findagrave.com)
1961 – Renie died (death certificate)

Sources

You might also be interested in:

Review: The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy

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There is a lot I like about this book. And I have a few concerns. First, the positives . . .

This book does a nice job of explaining complicated topics. It is pretty – it has an attractive layout and lots of illustrations. I love the famous examples such as with the Romanov family and Richard III. I also think the match worksheets in the back are interesting – a lot of us could probably be more organized with what we are doing and learning.

In addition, he does a great job of making the point that your genetic family tree is a subset of your genealogical family tree. People still might be your ancestors even if you don’t have any of their DNA. And we don’t share that much DNA with cousins either. While we share on average 50% atDNA (that is autosomal DNA) with a sibling, a parent or a child, we only share roughly 12.5% with a first cousin! (p.94) The charts and illustrations really help visualize these types of things.

My 3 areas of concern . . .

1) Money and choosing tests – If cost were not a factor, the advice is to do multiple tests, on all the people you can, at all 3 companies (p.211). At current prices at the time of this writing, that is $835 for a man and $476 for a woman (because you cannot do the Y-DNA test on women). Yowza. Scary! That is a lot and adds up fast for multiple people. Who can afford that?!

Recommended Tests Current Prices
Y-DNA (111 markers) @ FamilyTreeDNA $359
mtDNA (full) @ FamilyTreeDNA $199
atDNA @ FamilyTreeDNA $79
atDNA @ Ancestry $99
atDNA @ 23andMe $99 ($199 if you want the health info)
Total $835 (or $935 if you want the health info)

The author does also acknowledge that cost is a factor for most of us and offers a flow chart to help decide, but I think a lot of people will still feel confused about what to do and feel restricted by the high costs.

2) Scientific validity – Ancestry in particular has really gotten people frustrated in this area in recent years and I haven’t seen anyone announce things are all better yet. For more info, see: Ethnicity Results – True or Not?

3) Privacy – Both Ancestry and 23andMe have in their terms that they can use your data for other research and they can sell your data and you can’t opt out. I haven’t seen anyone announce things are all better yet on this either. See the Cone of Shame section here: The Best and Worst of 2015 – Genetic Genealogy Year in Review

More resources on privacy since it is so important:

And sadly, the book is already starting to get out of date since it is almost a year old. For more current information since the book was written and another perspective by a different author, see: 2016 Genetic Genealogy Retrospective

In summary, this book is great for someone wanting to better understand the science behind the DNA tests, but to help decide which tests to choose and which company to use, you probably want to do some additional reading, such as:

William Laitala’s Ancestors

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As you may have seen from our earlier Laitala post, we had a mystery about William Laitala. Who were his parents? We had a few bits of information, but nothing that tied everything together:

  • Alina, who we thought might be William’s sister, named her parents in a Social Security record: Johan Laitala and Anna M Wiitanen. Are these William’s parents?
  • There is a fragment left from the very damaged parish book dated 1879 from Haapavesi showing Johan Laitala and Anna Marie Wiitanen and their children: Abel, Johan, Herman, Abraim, Anna Maria and Wilhelm. Is this our William? (By the way, we are so lucky the fragment survived! I had been told that no records were available due to a fire. Yippee! It is also an interesting story how this fragment came to our attention. A nice lady in Finland contacted a cousin and shared it with her and then she shared it with us.)

So my clever and persistent mother spent some quality time with the Finnish parish books, searching for a later record of the family. She looked at all the parishes surrounding Haapavesi too in case the family moved around. Nothing. (She had previously found records in the Hiski database showing Juho and Anna Laitala as godparents several times in the parish of Vihanti, between 1885-1895.)

Then she found the cousin had a notation saying that Sakri Juntilla, Alina’s husband, came to Chisholm to meet William Laitala, brother-in-law. Where did this come from?

It took a bit of looking around and then – Aha! The Ellis Island records!

So now we feel confident that this all ties together. William and Alina were siblings. We know their parents names. William was born in Jan 1878 in Haapavesi, Finland. (There are discrepancies on the exact date, but we’re sure of January.) Of his older siblings, we think only Abel and Abraim came to Minnesota, the others remained in Finland. We also think there were two younger brothers, Matti and Antti, who also came to Minnesota. And, of course, Alina Laitala Juntilla, the youngest sister, came to Chisholm with her daughter to join her husband.

So I couldn’t stop there! Then I stitched together these ancestors for William from the Hiski database and the parish pages. This could have errors, but it is a good start for further research.

The Ancestors of William Laitala
The Ancestors of William Laitala

Look at all the interesting things going on with the Finnish names!:

  • Laitala was likely a farm name because it ends with -la
  • Soininen changed to Witanen (Soininen might be an old style family surname)
  • There is some Swedish and some Finnish
  • We are going back far enough that we see the old fashioned “son of Juho”

More info here:

McNalls

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Ah, the McNalls. I thought I didn’t know much about them and then sources just kept crawling out of the woodwork! OMG, it felt like I would never finish with this part of the family.

Here is where we are with William McNall and his ancestors (his wife Sibbell Seaward and her ancestors are over here) . . .

William McNall (1806-1870)
William McNall (1806-1870)


 
Almira was my great-great-great-grandmother. William and Sibbel were her parents. William was handy and according to the profile of William McNall from the Cattaraugus County Historical Advisory Committee, he “became a farmer, carpenter, joiner, mason, wheelwright, millwright, and blacksmith depending on what was needed.”  They also said he was “public-spirited, charitable and benevolent as a husband and father.”

John and Meleson were William’s parents. We only know a little bit about them. Then this part of the family gets a bit messy. There was an early settler of Union, CT, a William McNall with a son Arthur, that perhaps are our ancestors, but there is not enough evidence yet to know for sure. There is also a good deal of speculation and debate here about the early McNalls, but no one seems to have enough sources to say for sure. And if that wasn’t enough confusion, there is also a bit of a muddle that perhaps some McNalls were confused with some McNitts. Does Arthur McNitt = Arthur McNall or were they separate people?

Here is what we can be pretty confident about since we have some sources . . .

Timeline
1780 – John born (grave)
23 Feb 1806 – William born Stafford Springs CT (Adams, Ellis)
1817 – John settled at Cadiz NY, kept a hotel, had the first sawmill there (Adams, Ellis)
17 Mar 1829 – William & Sibbel married (Ellis)
19 Jan 1846 – John died in NY (grave)
1850 – William & Sibbel & 8 kids farming in Franklinville, Cattaraugus, NY, Mellison with them (census)
1855 – William & Sibbel & 7 kids in Franklinville, Cattaraugus, NY (census)
1860 – William & Sibbel & 4 kids in Franklinville, Cattaraugus, NY, Almira & 2 kids with them (census)
1870 – William & Sibbel still in Franklinville, Cattaraugus, NY, he’s a carpenter (census)
20 Dec 1870 – William died (Adams, Ellis)
 

The Basic Facts:
John McNALL
b. 1780
d.19 Jan 1846, Cattaraugus NY
& Meleson WASHBURN
William McNALL
b. 23 Feb 1806, Stafford Springs CT
d. 20 Dec 1870,Franklinville, Cattaraugus, NY
& Sibbel SEAWARD
b. 15 Apr 1811, Decatur NY
d. 2 Apr 1891, Franklinville, Cattaraugus, NY
m. 17 Mar 1829, Franklinville, Cattaraugus, NY

 
Sources

Fjerestad versus Fjeseth

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My clever and persistent mother recently decided to tackle the death of Lars Fjerstad. There was a family story about how he was working at a neighbor’s house and they hadn’t seen smoke over there in a couple days and so they went over and he was dead. We think maybe he died in Minnesota, but was buried in South Dakota? And we haven’t been able to find a death certificate.

She insists on documentation. She wants proof, so she conducted some extensive research. She looked for proof of death. She looked for proof of life. Lars and Anna moved around a bit, so she looked in several counties on both sides of the border between Minnesota and South Dakota. She explored civil and religious records. Some she had to go through page by page. Some were in Norwegian. (No, she doesn’t know Norwegian, but you can follow the pattern of church records in a foreign language if you put your mind to it.)

Also complicating matters, there is an error in the South Dakota Cemetery Index. The entry for Lasse J. Fjerestad has the death date as 1614. Oops. And in case you were thinking there was another Lasse J. Fjerestad, no, the index only goes back to 1831. 1614 is definitely a typo.

Lasse Fjerestad 1864-1914
Lasse Fjerestad 1864-1914

My clever and persistent mother had just about given up. She decided she would check one last time. And voila! A recently posted image popped up on FindaGrave.com! Thank you Sherbie58 for taking these pictures! This is our guy:

Lasse J. “Louis” Fjerestad
2 Oct 1864 – 7 Feb 1914
Sterling Lutheran Cemetery
Volga, Brookings County, South Dakota

Also interesting, there are two other Fjerestads in the Sterling cemetery. Two infants that appear to be in the same grave: Henry and Esther. Henry 1901-1902 was Lars’ son. But Esther 1895-1896 is another mystery to solve! Who did she belong to?

Lessons Learned

  • If you do a search, you find a few family trees that have a Lars Fjerstad that was born in 1864 and died in 1918. These are all wrong! Somehow we have copied an error from each other. These are two separate men! There was a Lars Fjeseth 1844-1918 and a Lars Fjerstad 1864-1914.
  • Lars Fjeseth 1844-1918 was a prominent man in the area. Those of us who descend from Lars Fjerstad 1864-1914 need to stop claiming him as our ancestor.
  • P.S. If you really are descended from Lars I. Fjeseth 1844-1918, his grave is over here in Singsaas Cemetery in Hendricks, Brookings County, South Dakota.