A Moment in Crime: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “A Hard Choice”

 

Runaway to Robber to Regular Guy: Making a Better Choice

Ellison Laird: 1914-1993 (Maternal First Cousin 1x Removed)

 

Everyone has made mistakes as a teenager—it’s how we all grow and learn. But some mistakes are worse than others. It can be a question of scale—how big was the mistake? Did it hurt other people? Did it have long term consequences? My grandfather’s nephew Ellison Laird made a whopper of a poor decision as a young teen that could have completely derailed his life. But he made the hard choice to change course and build a solid future.

Ellison James Laird was born October 20, 1914, in Mankato, Minnesota, to parents James Laird and Gertrude Macbeth Laird. He was the second of their eleven children. James was a teamster employed by the city as of 1920, but by the census in 1930 he was taking odd jobs. Obviously something happened that changed the family’s situation for the worse between 1920 and 1930. The Great Depression began around that time period, and probably led the city to lay off employees. So in 1929, the Laird family was probably under stress, and as the second oldest child who would be expected to assume more adult responsibilities, Ellison probably shared that stress. Family life must have been rough, because he chose to run away from home at age fourteen, heading west to Fargo, North Dakota in the spring of 1929.

On April 24, 1929, Ellison was arrested in Anoka, Minnesota, along with a fifty-year-old man named Frank Williams. They were charged with the burglary and attempted burglary of multiple stores in various Minnesota towns. The initial news reports listed Ellison’s age as seventeen. He finally confessed his true age to police the following day, admitting he was a runaway.

St. Cloud Times Headline, April 24, 1929

After reading the various news articles on the pair’s crime spree, it appears that Ellison met Williams in Fargo. Ellison told police that Williams “had offered him a job at $3 as a salesman’s assistant.” Obviously the much older Williams took advantage of Ellison’s youth and naivete. Police determined Williams was a career criminal from Chicago.

According to Ellison Laird, he and Williams stole a car in Fargo, and used it while committing burglaries there before driving into Minnesota to continue the burglary spree. They robbed four stores in Clear Lake, Minnesota. The St. Cloud Times reported as follows:

“After being in St. Cloud Monday night, and failing successfully to rob any stores here, Williams and Laird went to Clear Lake. Shortly after midnight, they broke into the Dingmann Hardware store there…and took a quantity of merchandise, in addition to a number of loose keys. With these keys in their possession they also are charged with having robbed the Weis barber shop and restaurant, the McDonald meat market and the LeBlanc grocery store. They attempted to enter the office of the Central Lumber company…but were unsuccessful.

Tuesday evening, police brought young Laird back to Clear Lake where…he showed them how the stores were robbed and how entry was made.”

In addition to Clear Lake, they also burgled several stores in Rothsay, Minnesota.

The pair were captured in Anoka due to a humiliating reason. The St. Cloud Times noted:

“Imbibing too freely of the contents of a bottle of hair tonic stolen at Clear Lake resulted in the arrest of the pair at Anoka Tuesday afternoon. The two suspects, when they pulled into an oil filling station at Anoka, were noticeably intoxicated and slightly sick. The attendant at the oil station notified the police of two drunk drivers and the police made the arrest, later finding in the car a large quantity of merchandise alleged to have been stolen…”

I wondered why they hadn’t stolen liquor or bought some with money they had stolen—drinking hair tonic seemed a bit desperate. But I quickly realized that in 1929, Prohibition was still in force, so there was no liquor to steal or buy. People resorted to all sorts of liquor substitutes, in this case hair tonic. No wonder Ellison and Williams were slightly sick.

Ellison made the hard choice to confess everything to the police. Williams denied Ellison’s account, but the evidence the police recovered, both in the vehicle they were driving and in a hiding place Ellison led them to in Sauk Center, proved Williams’ guilt.

Ellison’s confession led to the police taking pity on him. The newspaper noted, “Because of the youth’s age, and the fact that apparently he had been duped into a life of crime, Sherburne county officials were inclined to be lenient with him and he may be returned home without charge placed against him.”

I hypothesize that he did avoid facing charges, because a year later Ellison appears on the 1930 census at age fifteen, living at home in Mankato with his parents and siblings. James and Gertrude obviously took him back, and he seems to have left criminal activity behind. The census showed he was back at school, while his older brother had, at age seventeen, already left school and was working as a laborer in an effort to help support the family since father James no longer had steady work.

Ellison probably followed his brother’s example the following year and left school to try to find paying work. The 1940 census showed him still living with his parents, and it listed his last year of schooling as “HS1” which means he only completed his first year of high school before dropping out. 

Albert Lea Tribune article Jan 1942

Ellison registered for the World War II draft the same year, stating that he worked for his father in Garden City, Minnesota. He was 5’10, 150 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair and a dark complexion.

Apparently, Ellison was eager to serve his country. A news article in the Albert Lea Tribune in January of 1942, reported that Ellison had finally been inducted into the Army after being rejected twice for bad eyesight. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he had returned to the draft board a third time, stating that he “would keep on trying until the army ‘let him in’”, and telling the draft board he could “see well enough to hit a Jap.”

He was inducted on January 17, 1942, and was discharged from Camp McCoy in Wisconsin at the end of December 1945, holding the rank of T/5 (or Tec 5). T/5 stood for Technician Fifth Grade, a rank used from 1942 to 1948 that equaled the pay of a corporal but carried no command authority. It appears he was called “corporal” anyway. He married Mary Jane Pollock in March of 1944 in Pine River, Minnesota, and the marriage notice referred to him as Corporal Ellison J. Laird. Ellison was 29 years old, while Mary Jane was 20 on their wedding day.

Following the war, Ellison farmed in Cass County, Minnesota near Pine River. He and Mary Jane had one daughter, Trudy, who was born September 7, 1948. At some point after 1950, they moved to St. Paul. I was able to find Mary Jane’s obituary, which stated she worked at the General Electric plant in St. Paul, and in Chicago, before the family moved to Seattle where she was employed for many years at the Boeing plant as an aerospace worker. I don’t know if Ellison also worked for those companies. I need to find an obituary, which may require a trip to Minnesota.

Ellison seems to have been a vintage car buff. I found an article from the Longview Daily News in Washington about a classic car competition. Ellison and Mary Jane were there in his 1928 Chevrolet sedan. He came in second place in a balloon-breaking event.  

1928 Chevrolet Sedan. Lars-Göran Lindgren Sweden, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellison died in Seattle on July 17, 1993. He was 78 years old. Sadly, his daughter preceded him in death on June 7, 1987.

Beautiful headstone marking graves of Ellison, wife Mary Jane and daughter Trudy Laird. 

Ellison Laird made some bad decisions as a desperate fourteen year old boy. But he then made the hard choice to take responsibility for his crimes, which led authorities to treat him with leniency and give him a second chance. He took that chance, served his country, and built a solid life. It is encouraging to see that mistakes don’t define a life.

Sources:

Cemetery photo courtesy of lavoiesr1 on Ancestry.

“Oldtime Cars in Competition.” Longview Daily News, Longview, Washington. Aug. 3, 1972. Newspapers.com.

Photo of 1928 Chevrolet sedan. Lars-Göran Lindgren Sweden, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

“Tried to Rob St. Cloud Stores Monday, Younger Suspect Asserts Today”. St. Cloud Times. St. Cloud, MN. Apr. 24, 1929. Newspapers.com.

“Suspects Held to Answer for Many Robberies”. St. Cloud Times. St. Cloud, MN. Apr. 25, 1929. Newspapers.com.

“Two Suspects Held in Anoka”. Austin Daily Herald. Austin, MN Apr. 24, 1929. Newspapers.com.

“Rejected Twice, Finally Ok’d”. Albert Lea Tribune. Albert Lea, MN. Jan 21, 1942. Newspapers.com

Deserving of Survival: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “A Place that Matters”

 

If the Walls Could Talk: Historic Valentine Hill House Still Standing After 375 Years

Valentine Hill: 1611-1660 (Maternal Ninth Great-Grandfather)

Nathaniel Hill: 1659-1741 (Maternal Eight-Great-Grandfather)

 

In 1649, my ancestor, Valentine Hill, built one of the first homes in the Oyster River area of New Hampshire, an area that is now part of the city of Durham. Although radically remodelled and added onto over the centuries, the house still remains. It now serves as a boutique inn, offering 23 rooms, two dining rooms serving chef-prepared meals, and a tavern. The very age of the building gives the Hill house significance, but the building also played a part in the history of New Hampshire and the United States. It truly is a place that matters.

Placque on the Three Chimneys Inn, Durham NH

Valentine Hill was born in England between 1602 and 1611. He arrived in the colonies around 1635. He established himself as a merchant in Boston, and according to his entry in The Great Migration, “he was engaged in the transatlantic trade in fish and timber. He also traded to the south to Virginia and elsewhere, the commodities being horses, tobacco and Indian corn. Hill owned fractional shares in vessels, and was a principal partner in the larges dock and warehouse operation in Boston in the 1640s.”

Map of Boston in 1600s with Valentine Hill dock property and house highlighted

Valentine Hill was admitted to the Boston Puritan church in 1636, and was chosen as a deacon in 1640. He also became a freeman in 1640. He had two wives. He married Frances Freestone around 1638. They had five children, but only one survived past infancy, daughter Hannah. Wife Frances died in 1645. He then married Mary Eaton in 1648. They had six children, only two of whom survived to adulthood, daughter Elizabeth and son Nathaniel.

Valentine Hill had extensive landholdings, which he bought, sold and mortgaged frequently. In addition to large holdings in the Boston area, he had sixty acres in the Pullen Point area where he dealt in the fur trade. In 1643, he received a grant of land at the falls on the Oyster River, and by 1649, he built a sawmill there. He received additional grants in Oyster River for 500 more acres, water rights at the falls on the river, and a gristmill.

Oyster River area in 1600s with Valentine Hill property marked

Along with the mills, he built a house in Oyster River. According to the Three Chimneys Inn website, “This 1649 Homestead, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the oldest house in Durham and one of the oldest buildings in New Hampshire.”

The inn’s website goes on to state, “In 1649 Valentine Hill built the original homestead, much of which was ferried up the Oyster River by gundalo. The house was single story with a basement and an upstairs living area-kitchen combined. The outdoor summer kitchen fireplace can be seen in our Tavern…” The property stands on a rise still known as Valentine Hill, overlooking the river and the falls that powered the Hill sawmill and gristmill.

A drawing of a gundalo similar to the vessels that brought construction materials to Oyster River in 1649.

Grokipedia noted that the house was “constructed using local timber milled on-site to support colonial shipbuilding and settlement needs… It employed simple post-and-beam framing techniques typical of early English colonial architecture in New England, reflecting First Period vernacular design with functional elements suited to frontier life.”

Following Valentine Hill’s death in late 1660, his son Nathaniel, my eight-great-grandfather, eventually inherited the Oyster River property. The estate was complicated and involved considerable debt that needed to be settled. Nathaniel’s mother was, for a time, so destitute that the town paid for her and Nathaniel’s care. Nathaniel was only one year old at the time of Valentine’s death.

Probate was still not completely settled by 1699, when a now middle-aged Nathaniel filed paperwork as the estate’s administrator. The Great Migration (citation below) included the following record:

“On 4 July 1699, ‘Nathaniell Hill administrator to…Valentine Hill’ presented an inventory, taken 30 June 1699, of ‘a parcel of land formerly granted unto Mr. Valentine Hill deceased by the town of Dover…which land is lying & being at the head of Oyster River…containing about 500 acres as also a parcel of meadow at Wheelwright’s Pond both…worth forty-five pounds’ [NHPPR 7:390]. On 7 June 1721, an additional inventory was taken totalling 75 pounds: ‘one hundred acres of land at Whelrit’s Pond’, 50 pounds, and ‘twenty acres of land at Jonson’s Cross’ 25 pounds [NHPPR 7:392].”

Despite the endless probate issues, it appears that Nathaniel was living in the house. The Oyster River area suffered an attack from Native Americans during King Philip’s War in 1694. While many buildings in the community were burned in the attack, the Hill house survived, and was referred to in records as the Hill Garrison where other settlers took shelter. In 1699 Nathaniel fitted the house “with ‘Indian Shutters’ for protection.” (Three Chimneys website)

View of the rear ell of the house--the original section built by Valentine Hill in 1649. Wikimedia Commons, Photo by AcrossTheAtlantic.

Grokipedia states, “Around 1699, Nathaniel Hill, son of the original builder Valentine Hill, expanded the structure by adding a two-story front section to the existing 1649 rear ell, transforming it from a modest garrison-style home into a more substantial residence to accommodate growing family needs. This addition created the central hall plan and front entrance that define the house's Georgian appearance today, including features like corner pilasters and 12/12 sash windows.” Three Chimneys Inn notes that this addition “now forms the front entrance to the "Maples" and "Coppers" dining rooms.”

The Three Chimneys Inn several years ago--this two-story front addition was added by Nathaniel Hill.  Photo by AcrossTheAtlantic, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Nathaniel Hill died in 1741, and the house passed to his son Valentine Hill, who died in 1765. At some point the property was transferred to the Woodman family, who were apparently connected to the Hills through marriage. I have not yet traced the connection. The Woodmans were probably the owners during the Revolutionary War, when local history claims the house was “a storage place for munitions that were taken from the British Blockhouses in Portsmouth and hidden for use by Revolutionary troops.” (Three Chimneys website).

Around 1795, The Woodmans built a large barn on the property, along with a brick water cistern. The family also deeded land for a cemetery to the town of Durham. The cemetery property is adjacent to the Hill house property.

The Woodmans eventually sold the house and land to George Ffrost. The Ffrosts renovated the house, adding Federal-style trim and changing the slope of the roof. They eventually turned the property into an estate with formal gardens and stone perimeter walls.

The house while owned by the Ffrosts

The Ffrosts began renting the house out in the 20^th century. One of the tenants was the University of New Hampshire, which used the property as student housing for a brief period. The property became very run down, and might have been razed without the intervention of preservationists.

Property's condition when the Inn's owners acquired it.

The Hill-Woodman-Ffrost House was restored, repaired and converted into an inn in 1997. The house is also part of the Durham Historical District.

Durham Historic District with Hill house/Inn property highlighted, which surrounds cemetery land donated by Woodmans.

I am so glad this special home still survives, thanks to the hard work and financial investment of the Inn’s owners. I hope to someday visit the Inn and stay in one of the rooms that Nathaniel Hill added to the house over 325 years ago. I would love to walk in the footsteps of my eighth and ninth great-grandfathers.

Sources:

“Valentine Hill.” The Great Migration and the Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635. Vol. 3, G-H. Anderson, Robert Charles. Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1996-2011.

Buildings of New England. “Valentine Hill House. C. 1649.” https://buildingsofnewengland.com/2021/09/07/valentine-hill-house-c-1649/

“Steeped in New Hampshire History.” Three Chimneys Inn website, History page. https://www.threechimneysinn.com/history

https://winthropmemorials.org/great-allotment/pages/valentine-hill.html

AcrossTheAtlantic, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

By AcrossTheAtlantic - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63031226

https://www.ci.durham.nh.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/historic_district_commission/page/17701/national_register_nomination_for_district.pdf

Hill-Woodman-Ffrost House. https://grokipedia.com/page/hill_woodman_ffrost_house

New Hampshire, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1932. Will of Nathaniel Hill. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8996/images/007636323_00541?_gl=1*s94pvf*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAjwvsvTBhBaEiwAmf-3ngqoQibXX0ck4iVzu2PGov9Xp65ZyG1hYkBtvKomoXUGKLSE6_JY_RoCWw8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&gbraid=0AAAAADtC4Oejd84GGFLEPSklEYDUF4bax&pId=119209

Why Choose Wood? 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “More than a Name”

 

Sometimes Vee, Sometime Oleson, Sometimes Wood: A Confusing Surname Switch

Thore Oleson Vee: 1852-1883 (Paternal First Cousin 2x Removed)
Gro Pedersdatter Hovland Vee: 1865-1932 (Wife of Paternal First Cousin 2x Removed)
Julia Oline Vee: 1882-1980 (Paternal Second Cousin 1x Removed)

 

Norwegian names can be confusing at the best of times, but as I researched my first cousin twice removed, Thore Oleson Vee, I found more than the average amount of confusion. Thore seems to have occasionally used the surname Wood along with Oleson and Vee, and following his death, Thore’s widow uses Wood for her own and her daughter’s surname.

So what do we know about Thore Oleson Vee? He was born in Laerdal, Sogn al Fjordane, Norway on January 6, 1852 to parents Ole Torresson Haavardshaugen and Gjorand Olsdatter Ve.  He was the third of their eleven children. At some point in the 1870s, he emigrated to Minnesota. Some of his siblings also arrived in Minnesota and Wisconsin; it is unclear whether they traveled together, or separately.

Thore settled in Freeborn County, Minnesota. He appears on the 1880 census as a 27-year old working as a farm laborer, living with Anders Erickson and family. I assume he was working for Anders, who interestingly was Swedish, but married to a Norwegian woman. Two other farm laborers, Ole Olsen and John Olsen, were also living with the Ericksons. How did Thore find this position? Did he have family or friend connections to the Olsens, despite their being born in Wisconsin? Was there a connection to Erickson’s wife? Or did he just happen to find the job once he arrived in Minnesota?

1880 Census entry for Thore Vee

Just a year later, Thore married a teenager who had immigrated to Freeborn County with her family a decade earlier. Gro Pedersdatter Hovland was born in 1865 in Norway to parents Peder Thoreson Hovland and Britta Kristoffersdatter Hovland. The family appears on the 1865 Norway census. They must have emigrated just a few years later, as they appear on the 1870 US Census, where they are living with Peder’s brother Haaver Thoreson on his farm in Bancroft Township in Freeborn County. By 1880, Gro’s parents have their own farm in the same township.

Bancroft Township borders the town of Albert Lea, where Thore was living with the Ericksons. That gave Thore and Gro opportunities to meet and to eventually marry on December 26, 1881. Thore was 29 years old, while Gro was just 16. The newspaper notice of their marriage lists Thore’s surname as Ve.

I don’t know where the young couple lived after their marriage. Did Thore acquire his own farm by then? As yet, I have found no records.

Thore and Gro’s first child, daughter Julia, was born February 4, 1882. By this time, Thore was using the surname Wood. The birth record lists the baby as Julia Oline Wood. Their second child, daughter Betsey Petrine, was born April 11, 1883. Her birth record also lists her surname as Wood and her father as Thore Wood.. However, both babies’ baptism records list their surname as Olsen, Thore’s patronymic surname. This shows that amongst the Norwegian community in the area, Thore was still identified by his patronymic (Ole’s son, Oleson) and place name, Vee, even though he was using Wood when interacting with some government entities, like county clerks.

It appears that Thore and Gro were using three surnames during the same time period of 1881-1883: Ve or Vee, Olsen and Wood. Why did they choose Wood as their English-language surname? Some Norwegians simply translated their Norwegian surname into English, but neithter the name Olsen or Vee have meanings in English that are even remotely related to Wood

Tragically, Thore died November 13, 1883. He was only 31 years old. Gro was left a widow at age eighteen. I had difficulty locating his death record until I started searching for him under the name “Thore Wood”. That pulled up the index to his death record in Bancroft Township, Freeborn County. I located the actual entry in the Bancroft Township death records on FamilySearch. It reports that Thore died of consumption (tuberculosis).

Thore's death record

Thore was buried in the Central Freeborn Lutheran Cemetery. His headstone lists his surname as Vee.

To compound Gro’s grief, her baby Betsey died just weeks before her first birthday, on February 20, 1884. Confusingly, Betsey’s death record, entered just four lines below her father’s in the Bancroft Township death ledger, lists her name as Betsy P. Vee. She also died of consumption. I cannot locate her burial place.

Betsey's death record showing a different surname than her father's, just four lines above hers.

So what happened to Gro and young Julia after Thore’s death? A check of the 1885 Minnesota census showed that they were living with Gro’s parents and her uncle Haver, who also lived in Bancroft township. Her parents had ten children still living with them, so the house must have been crammed with people. The census taker just listed Gro and Julia under the surname of Toreson, which the rest of the household was using.

By the 1895 Minnesota State Census, Gro and Julia are living in her uncle Haver Thoreson’s house. She is acting as his housekeeper. She is listed as Mrs. Groe Wood, and Julia is also using the surname Wood.

1895 state census, with Gro and Julia using the Wood surname

In 1900, Gro appears on the census still living with her uncle Hovar Toreson. But now she is using her “location” surname, Hovland, which is the farm her family lived on in Norway. Daughter Julia is also using the surname Hovland on this census.

Gro remarries on June 6, 1908 at age forty-three. She lists her name on the marriage records as Gro Wood. Curiously, her new husband has the surname Wee, which is a different spelling of Thore’s surname Vee. I find no evidence the two men were related, however, which is not surprising as Wee/Vee is a location surname. They were likely from the same area of Norway.

On the 1910 census, Ole and Gro are listed with the surname Wee, while Julia, who is still living with them at age 27, is listed as Julia Wood. However, on the 1920 census, they are all listed with the surname Wee.

News item from the Albert Lea Tribune newspaper on Aug 30, 1910 showing Julia using Wood surname

Daughter Julia preferred the surname Wood on most records, and continued to use it for the remainder of her life until her marriage in 1923 to Herman Shelton. Her marriage record lists Wood as her surname, and her Findagrave entry also shows Wood as her maiden name.

So what can we conclude about Thore Oleson Vee and his many surnames? Like many Norwegian immigrants, Thore saw surnames as flexible. When you moved in Norway, after all, your location surname changed to your new residence’s name. So using different names for different purposes seemed normal to him. But why did he choose to go by the English surname of Wood on occasion? I think he may have been trying to show that he was now an American with an American-sounding name. In this case, Wood was more than a name. It represented his desire to fit in among his new countrymen. His wife seems to have shared that desire.

 

Sources:

1880 Federal Census. Year: 1880; Census Place: Albert Lea, Freeborn, Minnesota; Roll: 620; Page: 83c; Enumeration District: 096Freeborn. Albert Lea. 096.

Thore Wood Death Record. Index to deaths, 1870-1959; birth index, 1870-1921; index to delayed birth records, 1874-1981; birth and death records 1872-1949. Freeborn County, Minnesota. Births, deaths, 1872-1907, Bancroft Township.  FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95QP-39Q5?wc=36TN-DPX%3A1583719002%2C1583719408%26cc%3D2185953&cc=2185953&lang=en&i=50&groupId=2185953

Freeborn. Death Record Indexes 1870–1959. #004539639. Item 2. FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939Z-YGWF-K?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQPZB-J3CT&action=view&cc=1803974&lang=en&groupId=M9S4-NL6

State Census data: Ancestry.com.

Findagrave Entry for Thore Olsen Vee: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150001606/theodore-olsen-vee?_gl=1*14ilkyj*_gcl_au*MjQ3MjQ2NzQ0LjE3ODU1OTUzOTc.*_ga*MTcwOTEwOTIzLjE3ODU1OTUzOTg.*_ga_LMK6K2LSJH*czIwZTUyM2YwLTRhZmEtNDBhMC1hYzc3LWQwOTY5N2I3MGJkMCRvNSRnMSR0MTc4NTY4MDg3NyRqNDYkbDAkaDA

Moon Landing and Me: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Free Space”

 

Apollo 11 Crew Landed on the Moon on My Birthday

 

This week marks the 57^th anniversary of the first moon landing by the crew of Apollo 11. That was a special day for me, as Neil Armstrong took his “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” on my tenth birthday.

I no longer remember how we celebrated my tenth birthday. I know we had a cake—my mom always baked an angel food cake for our birthdays, and my brother and I got to choose what color to tint the fluffy frosting, and how to decorate the central hole (I usually put a slender glass or small vase into the cake’s center, and put a little bouquet of flowers in it). I have no memory of what presents I received either.

But I do remember watching the moon landing. My mom was a big fan of Walter Cronkite, so we watched CBS’s coverage. I don’t think we had a color TV yet; in my memory, everything was black and white, and the photos from the moon were pretty fuzzy. But I was excited. Even at ten, I understood I was watching something amazing and world-changing.

Buzz Aldrin and the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, July 1969

Later, perhaps at Christmas, I received a bulletin board for my room that had a picture of the moon lander and the date stamped on the cork backing. I used the bulletin board straight through my college years, although most of the time I had so many papers and photos tacked up that the Apollo 11 lander was invisible.

Photo of a bulletin board like mine from an online sale post

The first time I visited NASA in Houston with my children, I proudly showed them the displays on Apollo 11, pointing out my birthdate on the signs. The event remains special to me, and I think about Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin every year on my birthday.

Sources:

Photo of Buzz Aldrin and Lunar Lander. Wikimedia Commons. https://images.nasa.gov/details/as11-40-5948 http://dayton.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/LARGE/GPN-2000-001102.jpg on the Wayback Machine at the Wayback Machine http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-001102.html on the Wayback Machine at the Wayback Machine

 

Missing Children: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “A Question the Records Can’t Answer”

 

Census Records Show My Grandmother Gave Birth to Children Not Found in Records

Ragnhild Olsdatter Ve Syverson: 1848-1933 (Paternal Great-Grandmother)
Regina Syverson Peterson: 1872-1952 (Paternal Grandmother)
 

I have been trying to re-examine the 1900 and 1910 censuses for my direct ancestors, paying particular attention to the questions asked of women on how many children they had borne, and how many children survived. Answers to those questions have sometimes surprised me, indicating that certain ancestors had additional children that I had failed to find in the records. In most cases, these mystery children had either died in early childhood or were stillborn.

When I looked at my grandmother Regina Peterson’s and my great-grandmother Ragnhild Syverson’s answers to those questions, I discovered that each woman had lost three children. I was stunned.

I had already identified Ragnhild’s three lost children. One child, Anne Sirine Syverson, died at age nineteen, so I had been able to find her on the 1880 and 1890 censuses, and had found her death record. Ragnhild had also lost two young sons, Syver and Ole. I found Syver, born in 1869, on the Minnesota State Census in 1875. He died the next year at age seven. His little brother Ole was born in 1873 and died in 1874. I was able to find his birth record and his cemetery record. Sadly, while all three of Ragnhild’s lost children were buried in the Linden Lutheran Cemetery in Linden Township, there are no grave markers for them. I expect Ove and Ragnhild couldn’t afford a headstone so probably used wooden markers that decayed and disappeared.

Ragnhild's answer to 1900 Census question

Regina was one of Ragnhild’s surviving five children. She married my grandfather Paul Peterson in 1892 when she was twenty years old. As far as I knew, Regina had given birth to ten children. I knew that one child, Oscar, died in infancy in 1898. I had a birth record for him, but no death or burial record to confirm the date of his death.

Regina's wedding photo--1892

But Regina’s answer to the 1900 census question indicated that she had borne five children, but only two—Anna and Randine—survived at that time. So Oscar was not the only child that Regina and Paul’s had lost. The 1910 census confirmed that three children had died. Regina reported in 1910 that she had given birth to nine children, and had only six who survived. 

Regina's 1900 census entry

I had noticed that Regina and Paul’s oldest child, Anna, was born in July of 1895, a full three years and one month after Paul and Regina’s marriage. I suspect they had two births in those three years that ended in tragedy. Family Search actually flagged that three-year gap, suggesting there might have been another birth during that gap. However, I have found no records for those children after searching both Ancestry and FamilySearch. I also found no burial records for these lost infants.

Regina's 1910 census entry, confirming the loss of three children.

The records apparently can’t tell me anything about these two lost children other than the fact that Regina gave birth to them and they died. I can find no names, birth or death records, no sign of how long they lived, and no record of what happened to their bodies.

Beyond these gaps in factual information are additional and even more important things that the records cannot tell me—how painful the loss of three children must have been for my grandmother and for my great-grandmother. How did they manage to go on? Did each subsequent birth leave Regina anxious that she would lose yet one more precious life? Did she panic at each sign of illness in her babies? Did she wake at night to listen for the sounds of their breathing? Did the losses change Regina in significant ways?

No record can ever answer these questions. I can only imagine her pain, and wonder if I should enter these mystery babies in my tree, or to let them fade away.

Sources:

Year: 1900; Census Place: Lake Hanska, Brown, Minnesota; Roll: 758; Page: 8; Enumeration District: 0038. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Lake Hanska, Brown, Minnesota; Roll: T624_691; Page: 4b; Enumeration District: 0041; FHL microfilm: 1374704. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

Remembering a Civil War Vet on Memorial Day: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “A Moment of Courage”

 

Alden Orren Dane: Wounded While Fighting with the Vermont 10^th Infantry

Alden Orren Dane: 1844-1923 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

Today is Memorial Day, a holiday that was created to honor the Civil War dead. Therefore, it seemed fitting to write about my first cousin four times removed, Alden Orren Dane, who bravely fought with Company K of the Vermont 10^th Infantry. He was wounded in battle on November 27, 1863. Fortunately, he survived and returned home to build a life.

Alden Dane was born August 18, 1844 in Derby, Vermont to parents Joseph Dane and Jane Wheeler Dane. Joseph was the son of my fourth great-grandfather, Francis Dane, and the brother of my third great-grandfather David Dane.

At the age of 18, Alden enlisted in the Union Army on July 21, 1862, a year after the start of the war. He served as a private in a Vermont infantry unit, so was probably serving with people from his hometown and surrounding areas.

Some of his fellow Vermont 10^th soldiers kept journals and wrote letters home that describe what life was like for Alden. Writing from Culpepper, Virginia in November 1863, Herbert George told his family:

 … While we are in camp I feel just as well contented as I ever did at home but when we are on the march and I get awful tired and can’t stop to rest I feel a little ugly. Some times we are not allowed to get anything to eat in all day and then have to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and get our breakfast in the dark. Then is the time when a soldier will curse the rebellion.

…If I should be lucky enough to get a furlough next winter should want to go home with decent clothes on, don’t want to wear any home out of the field for they will be lousey. The ground here is covered with old clothes & lice & no man can keep them off only by picking them off when they bite. If we take off any of our clothing nights we have to hitch them to a steak or they will crawl off where we can’t find them. We can drive a pair of pants or a shirt anywhere with a little patience…

Battle of Mine Run--Illustration used in Harper's Weekly during war

 “When we fill up our haversacks we have to be careful to put the string over a stump or something to keep them [worms] from running away haversack and all Ahem!…”

Alden probably shared Herbert George’s frustrations as the war dragged on.

On November 27, 1863, General Meade ordered the Union forces to attack Lee’s Confederate forces in the Mine Run Campaign. The Union underestimated the size of the Confederate army they faced, and suffered losses. The 10^th Vermont, part of General Joseph Carr’s division, was sent to support General Prince’s left flank. A soldier in the 10^th Vermont recalled the fight as “a deluge of lead and iron that swept over us.  The musketry was not in the least of a jerky or intermittent sort, but one continuous roll.”

According to a website on the Mine Run Campaign, “Carr’s men, though inexperienced, performed admirably, and became veterans that afternoon. Their arrival stabilized the Union line, which was then in danger of collapsing under pressure from the ever-aggressive Johnson…. Col. Charles T. Collis of the 114th Pennsylvania judged it “one of the sharpest and best fought affairs of the war. The musketry was the most terrific any of us had ever heard, and the chances of getting off without a decent wound was about as poor as it possibly could have been.”

Drawing of Mine Run battle--Library of Congress

The Union suffered 1400 casualties in the battle, and one of them was Alden Dane. His injury was apparently not severe enough for him to be sent home. He must have been sent to the rear to receive treatment and recover, for he continued to serve in the war until he was mustered out on June 22, 1865, a month after the war had ended. His unit participated in several important battles and campaigns later in the war, including Spottsylvania Courthouse, and the siege and capture of Petersburg, Virginia. The unit was near Appomattox Court House when Lee surrendered to Grant. The unit lost 149 officers and soldiers in battle, and another 203 to disease. Alden Dane was fortunate to have survived.

Alden returned home, and eventually moved to Massachusetts. He married Martha Saloma Bliss, another Vermont native who moved to Massachusetts, on January 21, 1868. They settled in Billerica, Massachusetts, and appear on the 1880 census. Alden was working as a “Superintendant of Farm”. The couple had no children, and Martha died November 15, 1893 at age 53.

Marriage Record

Alden remarried to a younger woman named Lucy Parker. Tragically, she died of complications from childbirth on February 16, 1899, just two days after Alden and Lucy’s baby son Arthur died of a heart defect on Valentine’s Day, 1899.

Death record of wife and son.

Alden did not marry again. He continued to live in the Billerica area, boarding with other families. By the 1900 census, he was working for the railroad, and the 1910 census shows him 65 years old, working as a livestock dealer.

On February 24, 1882, Alden had filed for a military pension as an invalid. He received a pension and is listed on an 1890 Veterans Schedule, which noted that he had been wounded in the left ankle during the war, and in 1890 suffered from chronic diarrhea, a diseased lung and “rheumatics”. Without access to his full pension file, I am not sure how much he was receiving as a pensioner.

Alden was active in his community, serving in the local GAR chapter, the Masons, and the Odd Fellows.

Alden should be remembered for his service to our country in the Union Army. He suffered a wound in battle, but still returned to duty following his recovery. His determination to continue serving his country after he was injured demonstrated his courage and the courage of his fellow soldiers.

 

Sources:

Bully for the Band: The Civil War Letters and Diary of Four Brothers in the 10th Vermont Infantry Band. Davis, James A. ed. McFarland and Company. 2012.

Union Vermont Volunteers. https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UVT0010RI

Alden O Dane, Billerica, Dies. Boston Evening Globe. Boston MA. 28 September 1923.

Marriage, Birth and Death Records. Vermont and Massachusetts. Ancestry.com.

A Name that Looks Back 200 Years: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “A Name with Meaning”

 

Francis Ami Dane: Named in Honor of His Ancestor Born Two Centuries Before

Francis Ami Dane: 1817-1892 (Maternal 2^nd Great-Granduncle)
Francis Dane: 1615-1697 (Maternal Eighth Great-Grandfather)
AmmiRuhammah Faulkner: 1692-1756 (Maternal First Cousin 8x Removed and Francis Dane’s Grandson)
 

When I first entered Francis Ami Dane into my family tree, I was struck by his name. The name “Francis Dane” had appeared repeatedly in my family tree for two centuries and across six generations before Francis Ami Dane’s birth in 1817. Francis’ middle name, Ami, also echoed a name that first appeared in the Dane line five generations earlier. Francis Ami Dane was proof that the Dane family took great pride in their history and in the first members of the family to arrive in the American colonies.

My eighth great-grandfather, Rev. Francis Dane, arrived in the Massachusetts Colony in the 1630s, and became the minister of Andover, Massachusetts in 1648. I have written other posts about his efforts to stop the Salem Witch Trials and his commonplace book which has survived nearly four centuries and is now digitized and available online. He was a leader in his community of Andover. He had many descendants.

His daughter, Abigail Dane Faulkner, was arrested during the witch trials in retaliation for her father’s opposition. She was convicted and sentenced to death, but was spared immediate execution because she was pregnant. By the time her son was born in 1692, the witch hysteria was over and she was freed from prison. She named her son AmmiRuhammah Faulkner. Ammi Ruhammah is a Hebrew term found in the book of  Hosea which translates to “ beloved people”. The name was probably intended to exhibit Abigail and Francis Faulkner’s relief and gratitude to God that this child had saved her life. The name AmmiRuhamah appears in the Faulkner line for several generations.

It appears that Francis Ami Dane’s parents, David Dane and Sally Randall Dane, were familiar with the Dane family history and chose to honor it when Francis Ami was born. They were also apparently religious, as two other sons were named Moses and Israel.

While Francis Ami Dane had seven children with his wife Sarah Terwilliger, he did not give any of his sons the name Francis Ami. One son was named Frank Siegal Dane. Perhaps Frank was a nod to the name Francis. Francis seems to have gone by Frank for much of his life.

Francis Ami Dane grew up in Genesee, New York and moved to Wisconsin at some point in the 1840s. He married Sarah Terwilliger in Janesville in 1846, and they moved to Lewiston, Columbia County, Wisconsin. He was a farmer.

Francis died in Columbia County, Wisconsin on New Year’s Eve 1892 at the age of 75.  I wonder if Francis Ami Dane ever really understood the significance of his name, and how it honored his ancestors. Did he pass on his family’s history to his own children, or did it die with his father, David? I will never know.

Sources:

The Founding of Harvard College. Morison, Samuel Eliot. 1935. Harvard University Press. Page 374.

Obituary of Sarah Dane. Portage Daily Democrat. Portage Wisconsin. May 7, 1895. Newspapers.com.