The Name “Lorenzo Dow” in My Family Tree: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Religious Traditions”

 

Lorenzo Dow: Methodists, Mormons and Spiritualism

Eli J. “Lorenzo” Dow: (Maternal Second Cousin 4x Removed)
Lorenzo Dow: 1845-1903 (Maternal Third Cousin 3x Removed)
John Lorenzo Dow: (Maternal Fourth Cousin 2x Removed)
Lorenzo Dow Park: 1830-? (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)
Whitcher Dow: 1804-1882 (Maternal First Cousin 5x Removed)
 

I read Amy Johnson Crow’s email regarding this week’s 52 Ancestors prompt. She was discussing ways to determine the church affiliation of ancestors, suggesting that we look at burial locations, social groups or societies the ancestors belonged to, and their children’s names, noting, “For example, Lorenzo Dow was a popular name among Methodist families.” I did a double take. I was familiar with the name “Lorenzo Dow”. I had a couple Lorenzo Dows in my family tree, and had always wondered why their families chose “Lorenzo” for a first name. I needed to take a second look at my Lorenzo Dows.

First, I did some research on the original Lorenzo Dow. Who was he and why did Methodists name their children in his honor? According to Wikipedia, Lorenzo Dow “was an eccentric itinerant American evangelist, said to have preached to more people than any other preacher of his era. He became an important figure and a popular writer. His autobiography at one time was the second best-selling book in the United States, exceeded only by the Bible.”

The original Lorenzo Dow, traveling preacher. Image from Wikimedia Commons

He preached all across the United States and in England and Ireland. He was unkempt and poorly-dressed, but he was a mesmerizing preacher. Wikipedia noted that “Dow's public speaking mannerisms were like nothing ever seen before among the typically conservative church goers of the time. He shouted, he screamed, he cried, he begged, he flattered, he insulted, he challenged people and their beliefs. He told stories and made jokes. It is recorded that Lorenzo Dow often preached before open-air assemblies of 10,000 people or more and held the audiences spellbound…”

He preached from 1798 until his death in 1834. Wikipedia states, “His influence and popularity during his life led to many children of the early 19th century, especially on the American frontier, to be named after him…[and] the 1850 U.S. census counts Lorenzo as one of the most popular first names in America.”

The first Lorenzo Dow in my family tree was born as Eli J. Dow, but at some point took on the name or nickname of “Lorenzo”. He was born in 1816 in New York; the original Dow preached in the region. Perhaps Eli’s speaking style reminded family members of the fiery preacher, or perhaps his religious fervor led to the comparison.

Lorenzo Dow of Utah. 1845-1903

This first Lorenzo named one of his sons Lorenzo Dow, showing that he continued to admire the fiery Methodist preacher. However, by the 1840s, Eli “Lorenzo” had converted to Mormonism, and his son Lorenzo was born in the Mormon town of Nauvoo, Illinois.  Lorenzo the son moved west to Utah with the Mormons, settling in the town of Draper, Utah. He named his first son John Lorenzo Dow, so the name continued an additional generation, but no longer took prominence as a first name. The Mormon Dows preferred Biblical names.

I had one additional Lorenzo Dow in the tree: Lorenzo Dow Park. I have little information on this cousin, born in New York in 1830. Some trees connect him to another Lorenzo Dow Park with four children, but I don’t believe that information is correct.

While researching the Dow line, I ran across one additional Dow family member with some unusual religious traditions of his own, far removed from those of the famous circuit riding, fire-and-brimstone preaching Lorenzo Dow. Whitcher Dow, Eli Lorenzo Dow's uncle, was born in Vermont in 1804 and became a farmer, moving to Illinois where he was one of the founding fathers of Fairfield, Illinois in Bureau County. He was apparently very devoted to his wife Eunice, and when she died in 1877, he turned to spiritualism. He claimed to be in regular communication with her beyond the grave. A Dow Family history described him as follows:

“Whitcher Dow: He was a farmer, served as supervisor; was a devoted spiritualist and during his last five years held daily conversations with his wife, who often told him much of what was to happen. He was a fine man, temperate, charitable and honest to the last degree.-From the Book of Dow, Genealogical Memoirs compliled by Robert Piercy Dow.”

Whitcher Dow's headstone in Yorktown Cemetery, Illinois. Photo by Lynn W. on Findagrave.

Without Amy Johnson Crow’s mention of the popularity of the name “Lorenzo Dow” in connection to religious traditions, I never would have realized that this name popped up in my family tree as a tribute to a famous traveling preacher. In addition, I never would have unearthed the interesting information about Whitcher Dow. In the future, I will try to look for information on my ancestors’ religious affiliations, as I now know their church connections can provide important clues about their lives.

Sources:

Wikipedia entry on Lorenzo Dow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_Dow#References

The Book of Dow : Genealogical Memoirs of the Descendents of Henry Dow 1637, Thomas Dow 1639 and others of the name, immigrants to America during colonial times, also the allied family of Nudd. Robert Piercy Dow, writer and editor. Claremont, NH. 1929. https://archive.org/details/bookofdowgenealo00dowr/page/436/mode/2up?q=whitcher

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/46986934/person/322192349992/hints

Image of Lorenzo Dow, preacher. By Unidentified. Publisher: Childs & Lehman. - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3a28796. See Commons:Licensing., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47376386

Findagrave Entry for Whitcher Dow. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19503623/whitcher-dow?_gl=1*1f21hay*_gcl_dc*R0NML

Ove And Ragnhild -- More Than “Kissing Cousins”: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Cousins”

 

My Great-Grandparents Were First Cousins: Ove and Ragnild Syverson’s Mothers Were Sisters

Randi Olsdatter Ve: 1804-1869 (Paternal 2^nd Great-Grandmother)
Ragnhild Olsdatter Ve: 1806-Unknown (Paternal 2^nd Great-Grandmother)
Ove Sjurson/Syverson: 1840-1882 (Paternal Great-Grandfather)
Ragnhild Olsdatter Ve: 1848-1933 (Paternal Great-Grandmother)

I often struggle with Norwegian genealogical records due to the language difference and the confusing patronymic and geographical surnaming tradition. As a result, it took me a shockingly long time before I realized my great-grandparents were actually first cousins, sharing a set of grandparents.

I had been tracing a DNA match that led back to my great-grandfather Ove Syverson’s brother Tollief, making our shared ancestor Ove and Tollief’s parents, Sjur Tomasson Hestetun and Randi Olsdatter Ve. In the past, I had focused more on Sjur Tomasson Hestetun than on his wife since the Hestetun surname gave me geographical information. But this time, I looked more carefully at Randi and her parents, Ole Johannesen Wee and Gjorond Mogensdatter Ve Nundal. I suddenly realized those names seemed extraordinarily familiar. I checked Randi’s siblings and found a name I knew all too well:  Ragnhild Olsdatter Ve. She was my other second-great-grandmother. How had I never realized my second great-grandmothers were sisters?

Ragnhild Olsdatter Ve

Ole Johannesen Wee, my third great-grandfather, was born in Ardal, Norway on March 13, 1780. Ole married Gjorond Mogensdatter Ve Nundal on March 27, 1804. Gjorond was the “older woman”— she was twenty-eight and Ole was twenty-four.  They had three children over the next four years. Randi was born in 1894, Ragnhild was born December 31, 1806, and son Johannes Olsson Ve was born September 22, 1808.

Ole Johannesen Wee died at age thirty-three on January 18, 1810. Gjorond remarried in 1813, and had two more children, only one of which survived.

Despite being two years younger than her sister Randi, Ragnhild was the first to marry. She married Ole Gulbrandsen Geithus on April 1, 1825. Ragnhild was eighteen, and Ole was twenty-four. Interestingly, Ole and Ragnhild’s first child, son Gulbrand Olessen, had been born February 28^th of that year, and baptized on March 13, about two weeks before their wedding.

Ole and Ragnhild went on to have five more living children (there also seem to have been some stillbirths or infant deaths, but the records are unclear): Gjoran Olsdatter, born in 1826; Anna Olsdatter, born in 1828; Ola Olsen, born in 1834; Kari Olsdatter, born in 1839; and my great-grandmother Ragnhild Olsdatter, born in 1848.

Ragnhild’s sister Randi married Sjur Tomasson Hestetun on December 5, 1830. They had six children over a ten-year span. Tollief Sjursen was born in 1835; Maritha Sjursdatter was born in 1837;  Johannes Sjursen was born in 1838; Ove Sjurson, my great-grandfather, was born in 1840, Anfind Sjurson was born in 1842; and Sjur Sjursen was born in 1845.

While the two sisters and their families lived on separate “farms” in Norway, they were both still in the Ardal/Sogn og Fjordane area. The two families probably gathered together several times a year, so Randi’s son Ove would have grown up knowing Ragnhild’s daughter Ragnhild. Ragnhild was eight years younger than Ove, so he probably originally thought of her as an annoying little cousin. However, by the mid-1860s, Ove must have started to view her differently. She became more than a “kissing cousin”—she was the cousin he wanted to marry.

I have been unable to locate Ove and Ragnhild’s marriage record, but by the time of their first child, Ragnhild’s, birth on January 9, 1868, they were already married. Their future in Norway must have seemed difficult, because they made the difficult decision to emigrate to the United States shortly after Ragnhild was born. They seem to have arrived in America in early 1869, and their second child, a little boy named Sjur/Syver, was born in Wisconsin on October, 23, 1869. By 1872, they had moved to Linden Township in Brown County, Minnesota and were homesteading a farm there. My grandmother was born on that farm on March 1, 1872.

Discovering that my great-grandparents were first cousins was enlightening and enriched my understanding of their lives and those of their parents in nineteenth century Norway. I look forward to learning more about this close family connection.

 

Sources:

"Norway, Church Books, 1797-1958", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6876-TD6N : Sun Jan 19 16:51:40 UTC 2025), Entry for Ole Guldbrandsen Geedhuus and Guldbrand Olsen Geedhuus, 1 Apr 1825.

"Norway, Baptisms, 1634-1927", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NHT8-YVC : 23 June 2020), Ragnilda, 1807.

Guldbrand Olessen birth "Norway, Baptisms, 1634-1927", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NWRR-TW5 : 23 June 2020), Guldbrand, 1825.

Ragnilde Osdr Marriage. Norway, Select Marriags, 1660-1926. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60095/records/1850704?tid=46986934&pid=322178148228&ssrc=pt

 

Sister Confusion: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “The Name’s the Same”

 

Mathilda and Mary Macbeth: Ancestry Thought They Were a Single Person

Mathilda “Tillie” Macbeth: 1861-1944 (Maternal Great-Grandaunt)
Mary E. Macbeth: 1861-1947 (Maternal Great-Grandaunt)

 

While using Ancestry’s Pro Tools recently, I noticed that Mathilda Macbeth, my great-grandaunt, was flagged as a possible duplicate on my Ancestry tree. I looked her up and discovered that Ancestry was trying to merge her records with those of her sister, Mary Macbeth. How could this happen? They married different men, lived in different places and died in different years. Why did Ancestry’s algorithm think they were one single person? The only thing they had in common was the same birth year. I had a specific birth date of October 8, 1861 for Mary. Mathilda, however,, had just a year, 1861, followed by a question mark. I didn’t have a specific date for her birth. Time for some research to nail down Tillie’s birthdate, as these two women were quite obviously two separate people who simply shared parents.

Both sisters were born to parents Charles Macbeth and Nancy Herniman in Grand Island, Erie County, New York. New York birth records are very difficult to find, so I had no actual birth certificate to look at for either sister, or for any other of their siblings born in New York.

So where did I get 1861 as the birth years of Tillie and Mary? Another tree had included the October 6, 1861 birth date for Mary, and I had simply copied it. Not good genealogical practice. However, Mary’s age on census records corresponded to an 1861 birth date, and her headstone also shows an 1861 birth year, so the birth date was certainly possible.

Mary Macbeth Britt headstone from Findagrave

However, Mathilda’s census records also included ages that corresponded to an 1861 birth year, and her headstone also stated she was born in 1861. Neither sister had an obit or death certificate that provided their actual date of birth, so I was left perplexed.

Mathilda Macbeth Doolittle headstone from Findagrave

I speculated that Mathilda could have been born in January 1861, and that Mary was an “Irish twin”—a child born less than twelve months after the previous child. If Mary had been born a few weeks early, an October birthdate would have been over nine months after a previous January birth. However, my great-grandfather Walter Macbeth was born May 29, 1860, and another brother, Albert Macbeth, was born May 8, 1862. An early 1861 birthdate for Mathilda did not work with her brothers’ birthdates. The siblings’ mother, Nancy, simply could not have completed four separate pregnancies in the space of only twenty-four months.

I realized that the 1900 census could provide some measure of clarity, as it was the only U. S. Census to ask for each household member’s month and year of birth. Both sisters appear on the 1900 census, and both showed birth dates of October 1861. That’s when the light came on for me. They were twins! That possibility hadn’t occurred to me! While I still cannot confirm that they were born on the 6^th day of October 1861, I feel fairly confident that their birth month and year are correct.

1900 Census record for Mary Macbeth Britt showing Oct 1861 birthdate

1900 Census record for Mathilda Macbeth Doolittle showing Oct 1861 birth date.

The twins’ lives followed similar trajectories. The Macbeth family had moved from New York to the Mankato area around 1866. Mathilda married Frederick J. Doolittle on January 17, 1880 in Mankato, Minnesota at the age of eighteen. Frederick was twenty-eight. Frederick was a farmer in LeRay Township in Blue Earth County, next door to Charles Macbeth’s farm.

Mary also married another farmer in LeRay Township, Handy Britt. They married one year after her twin, on February 16, 1881. Mary was nineteen.

Sadly, Mary and Handy never had any children. Mathilda and Fred had one son, Bertram Urson Doolittle, born nine months after their wedding on October 26, 1880. However, Frederick Doolittle died on February 9, 1888, just seven years Bertram’s birth. Frederick was only thirty-six.

Following Frederick’s death, young Bertram grew up to help his mother, working as a butcher at a young age before Mathilda’s brother sent him to medical school. Bertram became a doctor, practicing in Indiana. His mother moved there to live with him until his tragic death at age thirty-four. She subsequently returned to Mankato and lived in an apartment building on Hickory Street and then in Nicollet County near her sister Nellie. She died March 8, 1944 at age eighty-two.

Mary and Handy Britt continued to live on their farm in LeRay Township until sometime in the late 1920s, when they retired from farming and moved to a house on Nicollet Avenue in Mankato. They lived there until the end of their lives. Mary died December 16, 1947, at the age of eighty-six. Her husband Handy died in 1949.

Mary and Handy Britt's house at 833 Nicollet Ave., Mankato

Despite Ancestry’s suggestion, I will not be merging the records of Mathilda and Mary Macbeth. Yes, they were born at the same time to the same parents, and yes, they had similar names. However, their names were not the same and they were not the same person. They were twins, not an error in my tree.  

 

Sources:

1900 United States Federal Census. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 18.

Findagrave.com. Entries for Mahilda Doolittle and Mary Britt.

Crafting a Family Business: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Family Business”

 

Bill and Betty Hoffman Carlson and the Founding of Carlson Craft

Betty Bernice Jane Hoffman: 1920-1988 (Maternal Second Cousin 1x Removed)
William Dewey Carlson: 1915-2012 (Husband of Maternal Second Cousin 1x Removed)

 

Growing up in Southern Minnesota, I was familiar with the Carlson Craft Company, located in nearby Mankato. They were the premier printing company in the region, and along with business stationary and publications, they printed many of the wedding invitations and graduation announcements families sent out and received. I think I ordered my own wedding invitations from Carlson Craft. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that the founders of Carlson Craft were in my family tree.

Betty Hoffman was born in Mankato on February 22, 1920, to parents Howard Christian Hoffman and Clementine Morrison Hoffman. She was their only child. Howard’s father, Henry Jacob Hoffman, was my great-grandfather William Hoffman’s brother.

Betty married William “Bill” Carlson on September 15, 1946. She was twenty-six and he was thirty-one. He had served in World War II, and in an interview with Connect Business Magazine in 1988, he recalled that when he returned home from war, he wanted to start a business; he didn’t want to work for someone else.

Bill considered several types of businesses, including a small hotel and a diaper service business. He said that “in early 1948… I got the idea for a letter copying service, from a US Dept. of Commerce booklet that was filled with ideas for returning servicemen for operating their own business. In those days, of course, there weren’t any copying machines, so flyers or invitations had to be copied either by offset printing or, as in our case, by mimeograph.” (see 1 below)

Bill Carlson operating early printing machine

The business fit his and Betty’s needs, he said. In 1948, she was still recovering from cancer treatments, and he wanted a business that wouldn’t risk her recovery. Also, both Bill and Betty had experience with mimeography, and as a prior accountant, Bill had experience managing finances.

They started the Carlson Letter Service in the family room of their home, mailing business pitch letters to fifty potential client companies. 

The Carlsons' Mankato home where they started their business

Within a few years, they decided they wanted to focus on the wholesale wedding invitation market. Bill recalled that, “The profits in being in business for myself did not come overnight. In fact, it took seven years before the profit of my business exceeded what I would have earned at my prior accounting job.” (1 below)

While Bill and Betty tried to get the printing business off the ground, they also started their family. Their daughters Nancy and Patricia were born in 1949 and 1951.

First Carlson delivery truck

The business grew, moving into a building on Front Street in Mankato, eventually employing 500 people.  Bill and Betty tried to treat their employees well, providing some benefits even to part-time employees. They also pledged to donate five percent of their profits to charity.

In 1959 Bill impulsively hired a young college student named Glen Taylor, which turned out to be one of the best business decisions he ever made. Taylor worked his way up in the business, and in 1972 Taylor bought the business from Bill and Betty Carlson, changing the company’s name to Carlson Craft.

1970 Newspaper ad (See 3 below)

According to the company’s website, under Taylor’s leadership, Carlson Craft has grown to become one of the “largest privately held corporations in the US, with more than 80 companies and 12,000 employees. The Occasions Group was formed in 1998 to bring together five Taylor facilities as one company with one goal: to be the preferred social print partner for life's events.”(2 below)

As for Bill Carlson, he stated in 1998, “I retired at 59 and haven’t regretted it because it allowed me to give more time to my family, civic organizations and my church.” (1 below) Betty had continued to have health problems over the years, so they prioritized travel and time together in retirement.

Betty Hoffman Carlson died January 10, 1988. She was sixty-seven. Bill Carlson remarried and died in 2012.

Learning about the history of Carlson Craft and my cousin’s role in founding and growing the company was a real delight. Bill and Betty built a company that just celebrated its 75^th anniversary, and still brings joy to brides and grooms nationwide.

 

Sources:

1.       “How Carlson Crafted His Business.” Vance, Daniel. Connect Business Magazine May 1998

2.        https://www.navitor.com/blog/the-history-of-navitor/

3.       Carlson Wedding Service advertisement. Estherville Daily News, Estherville, Iowa. Tue, May 12, 1970