Jill's Genealogy Journey

Stories, Discoveries & Tips

Discoveries

Mayflower Ancestors

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Funny story . . . I discovered I have a Mayflower ancestor last Thanksgiving. Yes, on the holiday where we think about the Pilgrims and the Indians, I discovered I have a Pilgrim ancestor. I sure wish I had known when I visited the Plymouth area years ago! I have to admit I am kind of excited about this discovery. There are lots of descendants of the approximately 217,000 Revolutionary War soldiers, but there were only 102 Mayflower passengers and about half of them died the first winter.

While checking sources, I discovered another Pilgrim ancestor! A married couple, Samuel Washburn and Abigail Leonard each had a Mayflower ancestor. Here is what we know about the ancestors of Samuel Washburn and Abigail Leonard. Some dates are approximate and calculated. Most of this information is from the Mayflower Families through Five Generations volumes 12 and 15.

The Ancestors of Samuel Washburn and Abigail Leonard

I will go into more detail on the Washburns in an upcoming post, but for now let’s talk a bit about the Mayflower passengers, especially Francis Cooke and James Chilton, both signers of the Mayflower Compact.

There is some great description about the ship and the journey here. Over two months on a small ship under bad conditions! They got off course from where they were supposed to settle and there was some disagreement between the Puritans and non-separatist Pilgrims.
They wrote the Mayflower Compact to govern themselves and this was the first written framework of government established in what is now the United States. Many people believe the Mayflower Compact influenced the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

The Mayflower Compact by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930)
The Mayflower Compact by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930)

Francis Cooke

Francis Cooke was my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. He had been a woolcomber in England, then he was in Leiden for a bit and then ended up on the Mayflower in 1620 with son John. He made it through that hard first winter and lived many more years, until 1663. Wife Hester and the other children came on the Anne in 1623.

James Chilton

James Chilton was also my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. He may connect back to Robert Chilton who was a representative from Canterbury to Parliment in 1339 – I would love to find out more about that! James was born around 1556 in Canterbury England. He was a tailor and spent time in Leiden. Rocks were thrown at him and his daughter. He came over on the Mayflower in 1620 with his wife and daughter Mary. He died in Cape Cod during that first infection and his wife died soon after. Poor daughter Mary! Only 13 years old and an orphan in a strange land. Another daughter, Isabella, came to Plymouth 1629 or 1630.

Resources

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:

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.

Finnish Ancestors On My Mind

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My clever and persistent mother is working on the Laitala part of the family. It sounds like she is finding some cool stuff that we will be able to share soon.

And I have just read Finns in Minnesota by Arnold R. Alanen. It is a quick read at 112 pages & it has lots of fun pictures. I especially liked all the Finnish terms & phrases included, of course Sisu, we have all heard that one before. How about “Oma tupa, oma lupa,” which he translated as “one’s home, one’s way.” (Which differs slightly from Edgar’s translation of “One’s own cabin, one’s own freedom” in Finnish Proverbs in Minnesota.)

Alanen also highlights The Finnish Cookbook by Beatrice Ojakangas – I had to check that one out! She remembered yummy food from her Finnish grandparents & lived in Finland for a year. Her cookbook came out in 1964 & it is more than just recipes. She has an introduction including personality, language & a bit of history. The recipes are put into historical & cultural context & adapted to the American kitchen. Both Finnish & English names appear. There is lots of emphasis on items for the coffee table! Hmmm, I have got to get my hands on some sour rye bread!

In addition, Alanen mentions Bobby Aro & he sounded familiar, so I had to go see what I could find . . .

Bobby Aro Song:

Bobby Aro Documentary:

And here is something fun, a little more recent & actually in Finnish!

Also, my head is full of images of historic Chisholm. We do not usually think of northern Minnesota as the Old West, but Chisholm was that same sort of rough & tumble boomtown with lots of young single Finnish men, working in the mines and lumber camps, living in boarding houses. And then there was lots of drinking & carousing. What an interesting time & place!

There are some great old images in Hans R. Wasastjerna’s History of the Finns in Minnesota – don’t you love these?!

Chisholm Boarding House
Chisholm Boarding House
Finnish Miners
Hibbing Miners 1914, Mostly Finns

Mercer Raceabout Type 35

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Mary & her mother & ?
Mary & her mother in a Mercer Raceabout

More about this picture I published last time – this is a special car!

Thanks to cousin Gordon, self-professed car nut, I have learned that this is a Mercer Raceabout Type 35 and it was made from 1911 to 1915 with a total production of under 1,000.

They say it was “one of the most advanced cars of its time” & I am ever so curious how these two women ended up in this special car!

Did they have racing in Staples? Cousin Gordon suggested it could have been an older car used for dirt track racing by the time the picture was taken.

I had guessed this picture was in 1910 in Staples, but it must have been later. Margaret died in 1923, so it has to be before then. Mary moved to Canada in 1913, but she did come back to visit several times, so perhaps this picture was taken on one of her trips back to Staples.

Lovely 1912 Mercer 35R Raceabout
Lovely 1912 Mercer 35R Raceabout


This picture & more information available here at Wikipedia.

There are also some great pictures of a 1913 Mercer Raceabout here at Jay Leno’s Garage where they describe the car “as little more than a hood, two bucket seats and a 25-gallon gas tank.”

Thanks to Cousin Gordon!

P.S. Added February 9, 2014:
A bit more from my clever & persistent mother in response to this post . . . Note: the number 5 on the car, how old the car looks, no leaves on the trees BUT the men are in their shirtsleeves, and the style of clothes they’re wearing. My guess is this is around 1920 or 21, in the spring. I have no record of Mary’s visit in 1920, BUT in 1921 she came in the spring. All the other visits were in late fall or early winter. And in 1920, son Charles was living with Margaret. He would have been 39. My guess is he’s one of the men in the picture.

Thanks Mom!

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Histories, Mysteries and Little Old Ladies

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Guest post from my mother! . . .

Some people go to the beach, I like to spend my summers investigating a family history “mystery.” This summer it was Efner Atchison [see the last post for more on him] and Mary Ellen Williams, from the Fjerstad/Atchison branch of our tree.

We had very little information on Efner. He was my “Mystery Man.” Or so I thought.
Mary Ellen Williams, or Mae Atchison as she was known in later years, was my husband’s great-grandmother. I had met her, at family gatherings and her annual two week visits with my mother-in-law. She was a feisty, little old lady. This was someone I actually knew, no mystery there. Or so I thought, again.

To investigate a family history “mystery,” I gather all the information I have (fact or not). See what’s missing and begin a list of questions I don’t have answers for. Then I go in search of those answers. Find the facts and put the pieces together. Simple, right? Maybe for Sherlock Holmes.

Mary Williams Fact Sheet
Mary Williams Fact Sheet


Efner and Mary Ellen were married in 1897 in Staples, MN. Efner seemed to have died in 1909. That left Mary Ellen a young widow with 3 children to raise. And apparently she stayed a widow right up to her death, 1971 in Staples, MN. That intrigued me. How in the world did she support herself and raise 3 children? Did she live in Staples all those years? 60 years of missing pieces?!?! Now I had a “Mystery Woman,” too.

She lived in Staples, she had family and friends there. Yet she seemed to have moved to Canada somewhere around 1913. I had trouble believing that. Why would she have packed up her children and moved to another country? Putting myself in her place, I guessed that either she was traveling with someone or that she knew someone where she was going.

Canadian records for that time and area are sparse. She seems to have visited someone in Canada according to a 1912 Border Crossings from the U.S. to Canada record. Further searches showed me that she had a brother living in Saskatchewan at the time. The 1916 Census of Canada shows that she did indeed live in Saskatchewan, beginning in 1913. Border crossing records show that between 1917 and 1921 she returned to Staples several times. Maybe to visit her parents? Fact: she lived in Canada from 1913 to 1921.

Only 50 missing years to go. Since the Canadian resources had dried up, what other facts did I have? The end of her life! She died in Staples in 1971, how long had she been there? By searching through newspaper archives, I found “resident tidbits” about her all the way back to 1942. Bingo, the last 30 years of her life were spent in Staples. Some of those years were spent in a local retirement home.

Still 20 missing years. And this time I had the 1930 and 1940 U.S. censuses to help me. 1930 turned up nothing, that was disappointing. But in 1940 she shows up in Duluth, MN working as a housekeeper for the Spencer family. And the Duluth City Directories show her living with them back to 1935.

1921 to 1935 – 14 years still missing. Totally frustrating for me. Where was she? In Canada? Duluth? Staples? Or someplace else? Why didn’t I ask her about her life when I had the chance? Maybe there wouldn’t have been a mystery, or missing years. But then what would I do with my summers?

P.S. Note from Jill . . .
I just want to underscore how surprising this all was. From the stories I had heard, I thought this little old lady had lived in Staples her whole life. But no, she got around! I was so surprised she lived in Saskatchewan! It also seems good to mention that she lived for 95 years – so she had a lot of time to move around & have an interesting life.

Extra bonus – I thought I would share a couple more pictures I have of Atchie, as we called her. I wish I knew more about these images. It is easy to pick out May/Mary in the black dress & her mother Margaret in the white dress. I don’t know who the other people are in this one:

Mary & her mother & ?
Mary & her mother & ?


Mary & her mother & ?
Mary & her mother in a Mercer Raceabout

And here they are again in this car. I am guessing around 1910 in Staples? Perhaps the man on the left is Margaret’s husband John, but it is hard to tell for sure.


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