Friday Funny....why didn't I think to spell it like that?1910 Census

1910 US Census
click to enlarge

So misspellings in the census is just a given, right? I thought I'd seen every possible spelling of the surname Borgreen.That is, until I found this one. Banyteea. I had to laugh at the thought, but then I noticed the misspellings of most of the family's first names. Gus became Gee. Ebba became Adda. Levi became Louis and Carl became Rarl.
I like to think that this poor indexer was on his/her 1000 entry of the day, or drunk. Yeah, drunk. That sounds likely.

FRIDAY FUNNY

If you have your own genealogy or family history related blog, you can participate in Friday Funny. What is it? Friday Funny is a daily blogging prompt used by many genealogy bloggers to help them post content on their sites. have you come across something genealogy-related that makes you laugh or smile? Post images, stories, quotes and more during Friday Funny. 

Namesake

Johanna "Jennie" (Fält) Borgreen

March 3 - Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you've come across in your family tree.


My name is Jennie and I was named after my Great Grandma Borgreen.  


Jennie Fält was born on 22 May 1868 in Nävlinge, Kristianstad, Sweden  . On 16 Jul 1891 she arrived the U.S. traveling directly to Rock Springs WY. Research shows an individual named Andrew Felt was already living in Rock Springs and I suspect he was her brother. She married Grandpa Gust Borgreen on 5 Dec 1891 and the mysterious A. Felt served as witness.


 Gust and Jennie reportedly homesteaded in Rock Springs, but as yet, no land patent has been found. By 1898 they had moved to Belt MT with three of their 7 children. The rest would be born in MT.


While living in Belt, they appear next door to one Andrew Felt and family on the 1900 census. Four children were born in MT bringing the grand total to 7. They moved to Great Falls by 1905 and resided there until they passed. 


Jennie passed on 14 Apr 1936 and Gust on 6 Apr 1946. 


We'll visit Jennie Felt again, as she is my brickwall ancestor. I have not been able to locate the parish in Sweden where her baptism record is kept, so have not been able to identify her parents or any siblings. She is a stubborn woman, this great grandma. But with time and persistence, I will find her.


[ETA] almost immediately after posting this, I DID locate the parish register where I found a record of the date she left for the U.S. I haven't found a baptism entry, but she may have not been baptized in the same parish. Regardless, one baby step forward and I'm very excited about that.

Crossing the Pond

I bit the bullet and subscribed to the World Delux membership at Ancestry.com for one month. In the first few minutes of active membership I found a host of information and quickly zeroed in on my maternal Great Grandfather, William H. Johnstone. Months ago, I received a scap of paper with the names of William's siblings on it. Using those names and the names of his parents I was able to find William and his family on both the 1891 and the 1901 England Census. The information gathered here is phenomenal.
                                            1891:

Name:                              Willie Johnstone
Age:                                   6
Estimated birth year:       abt 1885
Relation:                           Son
Father's name:                 William Johnstone
Gender:                            Male
Where born:                     Stanley, Westport, Lancashire, England
Civil Parish:                     West Derby
Ecclesiastical parish:       Stanley St. Ann
County/Island:                  Lancashire
Country:                           England
Registration district:       West Derby
Sub-registration district: West Derby (Rural)
1901 Name:  William Johnstone Age: 16 Estimated birth year: abt 1885 Relation: Son Father's name: William Johnstone Mother's name: Elizabeth Johnstone Gender: Male Where born: Liverpool, Lancashire, England Civil Parish: West Derby Ecclesiastical parish: Stanley St Anne County/Island: Lancashire Country: England Registration district: West Derby Sub-registration district: West Derby, Eastern

Of course this same information was available for all members of the family, so I found place of birth and
approx. years of birth for the parents and siblings too. It helps to put everyone in their proper context within the family unit. I did notice a difference in place of birth info on these two censuses. In 1891 William's place of birth is listed as Stanley, Westport, Lancashire, England. In 1901 it is given as Liverpool, Lancashire, England. This tells me that I need to research a gazeteer for that place during those years. Perhaps the place name changed. 


 I can see from the actual census document that they lived at the same address all that time. This tells me that I should look in that place for other records as well. 


This was time and money well spent. Hopefully the remainder of my one month membership will be as fruitful.

Mystery Monday.....I've found you Andrew!

1900 Federal Census

Today just confirms further why it's so important to search the collateral lines. I've been searching for my great great grandfather Andrew Marxer. I knew he came to the US in the 1880's and that he stayed in MN while his son Joseph, my great grandfather came to MT. I knew there were at least two of Andrew's children with him in MN. What I didn't know is who he lived with in his later years. Through family information and a compiled county history I tracked down his son-in-law, Frank Nascher. Frank married Andrew's daughter Maria "Mary" and I found Andrew living with them until at least 1900. But I had to search for Frank Nascher to get any result. Andrew just wasn't showing up on the indexes. Evidence points to a 1909 death date for Andrew, so now I'll be searching St. Paul city directories for even more information. I've also located a MN death entry for an Andreas Marxer in the FHL catalog. I'll be ordering that film to make sure that it's really great great grandpa Andrew and to glean any more information I can find there.

Research the Collateral Lines

Collateral Ancestor

Definition: An ancestor not in the direct line of ascent, but of the same ancestral family.

I've been having a bit of trouble with my maternal great grandmother, Johanna "Jennie" (Felt) Borgreen.

I can't seem to find her parents' names. I ordered her death certificate and came up empty. As I was searching the 1900 census, I found Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Borgreen living in Belt MT with their small children. I scanned up and down the page and was very surprised to find a listing for Andrew Felt and family living right next door to them. I noticed that some of Andrew's children had been born in WY. I knew that Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Borgreen had lived in Rock Springs WY and the census showed that a few of their children had been born there. I also noticed that Andrew immigrated to the US, from Sweden, one year before Great Grandma. It became almost obvious to me that they may be related and their close age made me think that perhaps they were siblings. I thought that maybe Andrew would have some of the answers I was not able to get from Great Grandma. So I began to track Andrew and family through time. Below is a timeline for Andrew and his family and my sad version of source citations. I have all sources clearly sited in my records but I'll spare you the details here. 

I have yet to find evidence of Andrew's death. I do know that he was living in 1920, so can narrow my search a bit with that information. My goal is to find the place of death and order his death certificate. Hopefully there will be something of use there. I'll also do some city directory searches and newspaper research. I found a land patent for Andrew and maybe that will help me track him a bit farther. Heritage quest, which I use for census research, doesn't have the 1930 census up yet. I know that Ancestry.com does but am not ready to subscribe again, just yet. Maybe after the holiday bills are paid, I'll renew my subscription for a couple of months. I'd like to see if any of the Felts are listed on the 1930 census. But I can wait a little bit for that.

Timeline for Andrew Felt

1874 Andrew Felt born in Sweden¹

Married: ¹

1887 Son Axel born in Sweden¹

1889 Married in Sweden to Celia ¹   Selma (Paulson) ⁶ⁱ  Thelma (Paulson) ⁶ⁱⁱ

1890 Immigrated to US¹

1889¹ (1890) ⁶ⁱ  Son Victor born in Rock Springs⁶ⁱⁱ WY¹      

1893 Son Elmer born in WY¹

1895 Daughter Agnes born in WY¹

1899 Son Andrew born in MT¹

1900 Family is living next door to Gust and Jennie Borgreen in Belt MT¹

1902 Daughter Mary was born in Cascade County MT²

1907 Andrew received a land patent in Cascade County⁴

1910 Family is living in Cascade County MT²

1910 Andrew and Victor are working in a coal mine²

1910 Census lists Axel as a cripple²

1911: 26 Jan 1911 Victor married Maggie Defoe (sic) in Belt MT⁶ⁱ

1913 Victor and Maggie are living in Wisconsin³

1913: Son, Charles, born to Victor and Maggie.³

1915 Victor and Maggie are living in Wisconsin³

1915: Daughter, Selma, born to Victor and Maggie.³

1918: 23 Nov 1918 Axle died ^& buried at Pleasant View Cemetery Belt MT⁵

^{Between 1920 and 1925 Victor divorced Maggie3, 6ii}

1920 Andrew Felt family living in Cascade County MT³

1920 Living at home Andrew, Selma, Elmer, Mary³

1920 Andrew is a farmer³

1920 Elmer is a farm laborer³

1920 Victor is living in Anoka County, Minnesota with wife

         Maggie and her parents³

1925: 17 Dec 1925 Victor married Elizabeth Bann in Great Falls MT⁶ⁱⁱ

1957: 4 Feb 1957 Victor died and is buried at Manchester Cemetery⁵

¹1900 Census

²1910 Census

³1920 Census

⁴Land Patent

⁵ cemetery listing

⁶ⁱMontana marriage index ref# 4716

⁶ⁱⁱMontana marriage index ref# cn12609

Alternate surname spellings:

Felt¹

Felts²

Feldt³

"This Is a Pretty Park" by Dani Rhodes..age 3

We were headed home from the cabin on Labor Day 2010. As we headed through Great Falls, I decided to drive over to Mount Olivet Cemetery to see if I could find Great-great Grandma Coleman's grave. I knew that her daughter and son-in-law, Mary Alice and William H. Johnstone were buried there and figured she might be too. I had no idea where their graves where, but Mom said they were in the old section by the main road. So, I drove through. It seemed a huge task to try to find them. I figured we could spend hours looking. I scanned the headstones for the name "Johnstone". Suddenly I saw it and pulled over to take a look. But it wasn't Mary Alice and William. It was actually Uncle Steve and Auntie Bert. Nice to see them, but not what I was looking for, so after a quick hello and goodbye, I drove around again.

I decided to pull over and walk the rows. Allison and Dani got out to help.
I walked down a few stones and looked over one row and there it was. "Johnstone". Mary Alice and William Johnstone. I hardly had to look for them at all, I walked right to it. I looked on the back of the stone and there was "Coleman". and right in front, set into the grass was Mary Coleman 1857-1932. Just the proof I needed. I few days ago, I'd checked the Montana death index and found one Mary Coleman in Cascade County with a death date of 14 Jun 1932. The 1930 census showed Mary Coleman still living with her daughter and family, so I knew that she died sometime after 1930. I needed to make sure I had the right person and this stone showed me that I did. Now with this new information in hand, I'm ready to send to the Cascade County courthouse for her death certificate and hopefully learn her birth date, place of birth, parents' names and whatever other little gems I can find out. You are right, Dani. This is a very pretty park.

The Census

After writing down all the information I could find at home, I decided to sign up for a free two week membership at Ancestry.com . The first thing I noticed was the list of available census records listed. Since this (2010) is a census year, it seemed a good enough place to start. I quickly learned that mistakes abound in the census records. It's almost comical how many different ways your ancestor's name might be mispelled. But I found that if I looked at the entire family list, I could easily tell if I had the right name or not. It's important to read every line of the census to extract all the clues out of it. Also, read the page before and the page after your ancestor's listing and don't neglect to read the entire page on which your family member's name appears. You might find relatives living nearby, like Great Grandma Borgreen's brother and family living near them in WY and again in Belt MT! When I have the time, I intend to look into her brother's records a bit more, sometimes it's easier to find out information on the male relatives than the females. I hope to learn exactly where they came from in Sweden. More on that later. The census is very useful in helping you create a timeline for your ancestor. By noting when they lived in a particular place and where and when they were married or where and when the children were born, you can track them back and forth through time. BUT, don't use the census as a primary source. The records are full of errors and guesstimates. Use the clues you find to help you track down the primary sources for this information. In other words, it's not good enough that Great Grandma says she came over on the ship in 1891. You'll want to find the ship's passenger list to confirm that info. But her statement to the enumerator is a handy clue to help you narrow down the search for that passenger list. Until you find the primary source, you mark Great Grandma's emigration "circa" 1891 and site the Census (including the census year) as your source. When you finally find the ship's passenger list, you can cite the exact date and the ship's list as your source.