Discoveries

The Efner Atchison Breakthrough

September 22, 2013 by Jill Holman

As you may remember from my earlier post, we had a mystery on our hands. The family story was that Efner worked for the railroad & died in a hotel fire, perhaps in Wadena or Staples MN. The death date for him in the family Bible was 28 Oct 1909, but I hadn’t found a death certificate.

So my clever & persistent mother has been at it again. She decided to tackle this problem. First she got all organized & made her fact sheet. She found a census record for him that I had missed – he was listed as Efner Efnerson in 1895!

Then when she ran out of leads, she contacted the Wadena County Historical Society & they provided several helpful tidbits:

1) Cemetery information – Efner M. Atchison, May Atchison, Clair Atchison Fjerstad, Nettie Kilts and Ruben Kilts are buried at Evergreen Hill Cemetery, Section 4 old east Lot/row L62/W/1/2 in Staples, MN. (Hooray we have more information about where he is buried!)

2) Wadena Pioneer Journal 11/4/1909 “Last Thursday the relatives in Thomastown of Dick Atchison of Staples were advised that his death had occurred in Minneapolis where he had been for a couple of weeks for treatment. The funeral services were held from the Methodist Church, Rev. L. Dodds officiating. The remains were interred in the Evergreen Cemetery north of Staples. The deceased leaves a wife and three children and numerous other relatives to mourn his loss.” (Dick!? When did Efner go by Dick!?)

3) Wadena Pioneer Journal, Neighborhood News 11/4/1909 “Owing to the recent fire, the Hotel Ransford at Brainerd, has been closed. Thomas H. Beace, who has been managing the hotel, will not renew his lease, as he has arranged to manage a new hotel at Virginia.” and “Brainerd had a bad fire Thursday of last week. The damage amounted to between $150,000 and $200,000. The fire started in the Schwartz drug store. The Columbia block and contents were a total loss. The Odd Fellows block and post office burned, and the Ransford hotel was practically ruined. The Masons, Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows and Red Men lost heavily.”
(There was a fire, but no link that Efner was involved & it looks like he was already in Minneapolis having his treatment at the time.)

Then my clever & persistent mother decided to search for the death certificate by the date. (Luckily the last name starts with A!) She found one for Richard Achison & enough information matches up that we think it is him.

So, it looks like we have another family story that doesn’t appear to be true. We can’t find any evidence he worked for the railroad (& others do say they worked for the RR in the census). And on his death certificate it says he died from: chronic nephritis with valvular disease of the heart, which doesn’t seem fire related.

I was surprised that he wasn’t listed at a hospital on the death certificate, since he was supposedly in Minneapolis for treatment according to the newspaper article. I was very curious who or what was at “304 Aldrich Ave S” in 1909 and found that the address listed was not a valid address. (I spent some time with the 1909 City Directory & some old maps.) And my clever & persistent mother also looked up the doctor that signed the death certificate and he was located on Nicollet Ave., pretty far away.

Still another mystery for someone to solve! And there is so little information for Efner’s son Glenn – who wants to work on that puzzle?

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Ingalls & Seaward – Sibbel Seaward’s Ancestors

July 21, 2013 by Jill Holman

Found another gem of a book!: A Genealogical History of the French and Allied Families by Mary Elizabeth Queal Beyer. It is from 1912 and yippee! You can read it online. I learned a lot about Sibbel Seaward’s ancestors. There is even a picture of her, which is now the oldest portrait of an ancestor that I have.

Sibbel Seaward's Pedigree — Sibbel Seaward’s Ancestors

Here are a few of my favorite stories & discoveries . . .

Ingalls

How fun is this!? Scandinavian pirates! Here is a quote from page 219:

“The name is supposed to be Scandinavian, and derived from Ingialld. During the ninth century the Scandinavian pirates often descended upon the east coast of Great Britain, and in after many years of this nationality made settlements in Lincolnshire. These people were a hardy seafaring race, owing to the nature of their country, but under changed conditions of environment settled down to tilling the soil. The name of Ingalls is still common in England, its etymology being ‘By the power of Thor.’ “

Edmund came to Salem in 1628, only 8 years after the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
Sibbel’s grandfather, Henry, was in the Revolutionary War and later was town clerk for Richmond, NH. President Garfield was a descendent!

Seaward

The story on the name according to Mary on page 239:

“The Seawards are of Scotch-English descent, a tradition in the family giving the name originally as Ward. Some of the family living near the sea were designated as Sea Wards, and thus they finally came to be known as Seaward or Seward.”

William was born in England & came to Taunton MA by 1643. He took the oath of fidelity to Guilford 4 May 1654. As the author states on page 240:

“He was a tanner, a man of considerable property and eminence in the town, and was for a long time commander of the train band. He frequently represented the town in the General Assembly.”

Caleb was also a tanner who was the first settler when he moved to Durham CT 4 May 1699.
Ebenezer was a doctor who moved to New Bedford MA 1737.
Stephen had a wool mill until 1812 & then he was a tavern keeper on the road to Albany. He moved in 1828 to the far west, which was Cattaraugus NY. He lived with Sibbel at the time of his death.

Fun story from page 247:

“The following incident has been handed down by the descendants of Stephen Seaward, who was at one time the owner of a valuable iron gray horse of which he was very proud. One night it was stolen from his stable, and while he made diligent search throughout that part of the country, no trace of the missing animal could be found. A year or so afterward, a neighbor who had been to Albany, told him of having seen in a stable in that city a horse which he believed to be the one he had lost. Stephen immediately went to that city, where he explained the situation to the man who had the horse in his possession, to which explanation the man replied: “If you can prove your statement, the horse is yours.” “I will prove it by the horse himself,” returned Stephen Seaward. He stepped into the barn and the horse neighed, as had been his habit upon the approach of his master. He then went up to the horse and patting him, said: “Prince, address yourself!” and he immediately stretched himself upon his hind legs, and then on his fore legs. Then his owner said: “Take my hat,” which the horse immediately did; then he requested him to make a bow, which the animal proceeded to do. “The horse is yours,” said the man, and Stephen returned home, happy to again be the possessor of this much prized animal.”

Poor Lucy died from childbirth with her ninth child.

There is a picture of Sibbels’ gravestone here, though it is a bit hard to read.

Big question: it says Almira (Sibbel’s daughter) was married three times! I only know about two: Benjamin & William. Who knows the answer to this mystery?

The Basic Facts:
Sibbel SEAWARD
b. 15 Apr 1811, Decatur NY
d. 2 Apr 1891, Franklinville, Cattaraugus, NY
m. 17 Mar 1829 William McNALL, Franklinville, Cattaraugus, NY

Longevity!

June 23, 2013 by Jill Holman

Recently, I got to thinking . . . it seems like my ancestors lived to be awfully old. Lots of them lived to be in their 80s & 90s. And didn’t people used to have a shorter life expectancy? And lots of women used to die in childbirth. I think I only have found one case of that with my ancestors.

So I went searching and I love what they have done here at the Mapping History Project graphing life expectancy. I managed to grab a screenshot showing all three of these at once:

The black line is life expectancy for both men & women from birth
The red line is life expectancy for men at age 5
The yellow line is life expectancy for women at age 5

It really shows how infant mortality was a huge problem – look at that big gap between the black line & the other two lines between 1850-1890.

Then I put my ancestors on the chart by hand:

Longevity Chart — My Ancestors Lived Longer than Average!

Blue dots – my paternal female ancestors (It is a little hard to tell the blue from the black, but the black are the small dots & the blue are the larger dots.)
Black dots – my paternal male ancestors
Green dots – my maternal male ancestors
Red dots – my maternal female ancestors

Since the original chart is average age of death, you would expect my ancestors (the dots) to be equally above & below the lines. But they are not. There are so many that lived much longer than you would have expected.

Here are my Longevity Stars (the ones that are off the top of the chart):

Sarah Crose Van Benschoten died 22 Nov 1944 at the age of 103
Peter Leclair Houle died 13 Oct 1922 at the age of 97
May Williams Atchison died 15 Dec 1971 at the age of 95
Abigail (Abbott) Harrington Holman died 6 Feb 1926 at the age of 94
Foelke Janshen Tholen Iwwerks died 7 Jun 1874 at the age of 94
Anna Olsdtr Bjaastad died 13 Jul 1928 at the age of 91
Dena Ubben Iwwerks Middendorp died 7 May 1939 at the age of 91
Jane Anisworth Williams died 9 Nov 1872 at the age of 90

What a fun exploration – I hope I inherited those longevity genes!

Ripples in the Pond – A Non-Traditional Chart

May 4, 2013 by Jill Holman

Isn’t this an interesting chart!? All credit is due to my clever & persistent mother.

Let’s ask her a few questions about it . . .

Why did you do it?
My idea of family history has two parts. Going backwards to find where we came from, the “roots.” And going forward to see where the “branches” lead. That even sounds like a “Family Tree,” doesn’t it? I wanted to create a visual display for this information. Something pleasing to the eye, simple and easy to follow. That could be printed out on 8.5 X 11 paper. (That leaves very little space to waste.)

What came next?
A “tree” didn’t work for me. I needed to find another theme and decided on just the “roots.” One set of our grandparents and their parentage going back 3 generations. That’s only 30 entries and it lays out well on letter-size paper.

So I had the “roots” of the tree, on to the “branches.” Same set of grandparents, with 3 generations of descendants. Oops! Now I had way more entries! Plus, that would vary a great deal by branch. What to do? I needed a flexible layout. I played with different grids and decided on a circle format, “Ripples in the Pond.” And for a touch of fun I put the entries in order of their birth.

This branch has 46 entries, but my next branch had 58 entries. Way too cluttered in this layout. Back to the drawing board. I changed to a square format, resulting in “The Family Quilt.” I have one branch that has 76 entries! Still haven’t come up with a layout for that one.

Family Quilt — Example Chart (of course the names have been changed to protect the privacy of living people)

Any trouble with, or advice on, researching the descendants?
Tracking down descendants is troublesome, especially after 1940 (no census records). I had to rebuild whole families, from bits and pieces. Painstaking agony, but fun when you’re successful.
Investigating is the process of elimination, explore everything and anything to tie names and places together. Who married whom, how many children did they have, dates and places. All the normal searches, all public records. Anything you remember. Talk to anyone that might remember something. Check old pictures, cards and letters. Obits and funeral cards. Public family trees. I even resorted to people searches and social media.

You made it in Appleworks?
Yes. With the drawing application – that allowed me to move text around. And I made my own geometric grids to help with balance and use of space.

Any tips if someone wanted to make one for themselves?
Colors don’t always print out the way they look on your computer. Print out the color palette (and make it larger, if possible). Use this to choose your colors.

You can change the look of your “creation” a great deal by experimenting with different fonts or different paper. I have one called “The Family Bible” which I print on paper with an antique parchment finish to give it an “old” look.

What I Have Learned Because of this Chart

It is fascinating to me that I think about different things with a different display. I have learned new things about the generations and birth order. It is nifty that you can visualize the legacy of one couple. And if you have these charts for different parts of the family, it is fun to compare.

My first reaction was that I never knew I had so many cousins! But really I need to be more exact about that. And it is funny because I sort of think of everyone as my cousin since I have learned that a lot of us are related if we just trace back far enough. But I really only knew who my first cousins were and now there are all these names in the outer ring with me – look at all those second cousins!
When I was little, there was this girl at the big family gatherings who was the same age as me. Everybody kept telling me she wasn’t my first cousin and that confused me a lot. I wish I had this chart back then because it clearly shows that she is the last in the previous generation and I am the first in the next generation and that’s why our birthdays are the same month, but we are not first cousins. (I now know we are first cousins once removed. I still get confused about that terminology, so here is a good place to check that cousin lingo.)
For Fay Holman & Mabel Vipond, they had a lot more kids in the succeeding generations than other parts of the family (and they weren’t Catholic, so why did they have such big families?)
For William Laitala & Katri Kempainen, the spread of generations is much shorter than for other parts of the family. The first generation has a spread of 12 years from the first born to the last born. For the next generation, it was 15 years and for the third generation it was 17 years. For other parts of the family, it was more like 13 years-30 years-37 years.
I knew that I was the first grandchild for both of my sets of grandparents. What I didn’t know was that for Pete Fjerstad & Clara Atchison’s desendants, my grandmother was the first in the next generation and then her oldest son was the first in the next generation and then I was the first in the next generation! That is cool!

Thanks to Mom for all her work on this and sharing this chart and information about her process!

What about you? Have you come up with a unique way to present your genealogy research?

The Fjerstad Breakthrough

January 20, 2013 by Jill Holman

Just what you dream of! A cousin in a far-away country contacts you and shares information you didn’t have! Hooray!

And I learned a lot:

Check out these two charts for a bunch of ancestors for Lars & Anna:

Lars had three siblings: Ole, Britha and Kristi (twins!) and all of them emigrated to America. Anna had a half-sister named Maria.
They come from Fjaerland Norway and here is a map:

Map of Fjaerland Norway Where Anna & Lars were born

And it is beautiful there! Check out these pictures:

The Farm Bjaastad — The farm nearest the fiord is Bjaastad, where Anna Olsdtr. was born

Historic Fjærland — Historic Fjaerland about the time when Anna Nilsdtr. Jordahl left Norway

A new resource I didn’t know (of course it is in Norwegian & my Norwegian is not so good) which has Lars’ baptism and Anna’s baptism
And there is a database for emigration that shows that Anna emigrated 8 Apr 1885, Lars emigrated 12 Apr 1886 and his mother Anna on 15 Jun 1893 (and that seems to solve my mystery of the older Anna in the 1895 MN census – it looks to be Lars’ mother). Anna’s father Nils also emigrated 4 May 1875.
One thing that might seem confusing is naming. Lars also used the name Lasse and then kept the name of the farm he left, which was Fjaerestad, shortening it to Fjerstad in America. Anna was born out of wedlock at the farm Bjaastad, but her mother later married and moved to the farm Jordal, so Anna used that as her last name in America, changing the spelling to Jordahl.

Please note that Ottar’s research is being shared with his permission. Thanks so much Ottar!

The Basic Facts:
Lars (Lasse) Johannesson FJERSTAD
b. 2 Oct 1864, Fjaerland Norway
d. <1920
& Anna Nilsdtr. Bjaastad JORDAHL
b. 13 Sep 1866, Fjaerland Norway
d. 7 Jun 1950, Minneapolis, Hennepin, MN
m. 22 Nov 1889, Arendahl, Fillmore, MN

You might also be interested in:

A Brief Timeline for the Fjerstads

The Mystery of Peter LeClair – The Birth Breakthrough!

November 12, 2012 by Jill Holman

Peter’s birth was a bit troublesome. Over the first several years of my genealogical journey, I had collected several sources reporting Peter was born in 1815:

1815 – Jun 15 – Peter LeClair born in St David (Chetek obituary)
1815 – Jun 22 – Peter LeClair born (cousin’s info)
1815 – Jun 27 – Peter LeClair born (Grandma’s notes on cousin’s info, MN Cemetary Inscription Index, obituary from scrapbook, death certificate informant: LE Olson from the Barron County Poor Farm)

Then when I found his parents marriage in 1820, I was a little nervous. These people were Catholic and back then they did not really approve of children born before marriage!

Also, there is that pesky problem of the census information. As you can see in the following table, he started off reporting close to correct information and then things got goofy. Later in life, he seemed to settle on 1816 as his birth year.

Year of Census	Age Reported	Birth Year Calculated
1851	24	1827
1870	44	1826
1875	45	1830
1880	54	1826
1885	65	1820
1900	84	1816
1905	86	1819
1910	94	1816
1920	104	1816

Recently, my clever and persistent mother threw herself into researching Peter. After coming up empty-handed searching for his birth in 1815 or 1816 anywhere and paging through several years in the parish registers where his parents married, she decided to focus on 1827 because it was reported in the first census record we have for him. Of course she had to try his many name variations and finally Voila! She found that Peter’s birth was in 1827. Whew. 28 June 1827 to be exact. In Yamaska St. Michel. Yes, there are his parents names: Charles Leclerc & Julie Chouinard. Hooray!

Peter Leclerc born 28 June 1827 Yamaska St. Michel part 1

That works so much better with his parents marriage in 1820! And a baptismal record is more of a primary and reliable source for birth information than the obituaries. Whew.

But why, oh why, would someone decide to tell everyone that he is 12 years older than he really is?!

The Basic Facts:
Peter LECLAIR HOULE
b. 28 Jun 1827, Yamaska, Quebec
d. 13 Oct 1922, Turtle Lake, Barron, WI

You might also be interested in:

Discoveries

Ingalls

Seaward

What I Have Learned Because of this Chart

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