Peterson vs. Joramo: 52 Ancesotors Prompt "Context"

The Surname Battle: Peterson vs. Joramo

Paul Peterson (1867-1942) and Jacob Joramo (1864-1934)

            My grandfather Paul Peterson emigrated from Norway with his parents and three siblings in 1870 when he was just three years old. Paul and his descendants used the surname “Peterson.” However, his brother and neighbor, Jacob, used the surname “Joramo”. Jacob’s descendants all say our side of the family uses the “wrong” surname, but our side insists they are the ones in the wrong. I could never understand how this conflict arose. How could two brothers end up with different surnames? Once I started researching Norwegian immigrants and surnames, I discovered the reason for the confusion and conflict. 

An article on a Norwegian immigrant history site explained it quite succinctly: “In Norway prior to the 1860s families did not use fixed surnames. They used a patronymic pattern in which children were named after their father. Hence, John Andersen = John, the son of Anders. And Mari Andersdatter = Mari, the daughter of Anders. Anders himself would be named Anders Olafsen = Anders, the son of Olaf. The full family unit could include Anders Olafsen (father), Mette Evensdatter (mother), John Andersen (son) and Mari Andersdatter (daughter). Mette Evensdatter will not have a name corresponding to her husband.” 

The author goes on to explain, “This system definitely gets confusing when you encounter names as common as Ole Olsen or Nils Hansen, so they often used their farm names to clarify their identity when conducting official business or traveling. In church records, for example, they would typically append the farm name to the patronymic name to be more precise, for example “Anders Olafsen Sandness” (or “Anders Olafsen på (from) Sandness” if Anders merely worked at Sandness). It’s very important to keep in mind that when a farm name is used, it is the farm at which they currently reside, rather than the farm at which they were born. The use of farm names is very helpful to keep in mind when looking at old records, since Norway only gradually adopted fixed surnames from the mid-1800s until they were required in 1923.”

This explains my family’s dual names. “Peterson” was the patronymic: Paul and Jacob’s father was Peder Pederson or Peter Peterson, depending on the record. He used the surname “Peterson/Pederson” fairly consistently. After his death in 1880, only ten years after the family arrived in Minnesota, the rest of the family swung back and forth between “Peterson” and what must have been the name of the farm where they lived in Norway, “Joramo”.  

                                      Jacob Joramo with wife Stina and son Carl about 1890

The 1875 state census listed the family as Peterson. The 1885 state census lists mother “Anna Joramoe” living with sons Jacob and Paul “Joramoe”. The 1895 census shows Paul Peterson and wife, plus Paul’s mother Anna Peterson, all living next door to Jacob Joramo and his wife. Paul and Jacob’s sister listed her maiden name on at least one record as “Marit Peterson Joramo”, so she split the difference, combining the patronymic with the farm name. Their other sister Julia gave her maiden name as “Peterson”. 

                           Paul Peterson and wife Regina Severson, 1892

My father said that his father Paul felt that Jacob was being disrespectful of their father, Peter, by choosing to adopt Joramo as a surname. I suspect Jacob felt Paul lacked respect for the land they left behind in Norway. Jacob was three years older than Paul, so probably had fond memories of the farm where he was born and the family they left behind in Norway, so place was more important to Jacob’s sense of identity. 

Jacob’s 1934 obituary lists his name as “Jacob Peterson Joramo”, so in the end, Jacob honored both the patronymic and the farm names. 

          Paul Peterson and his four Joramo nephews: Sam, Carl, Joe and Olaf, about 1940

Understanding the context of Norwegian surname variations helped me respect Jacob’s decision, However, I am glad my grandfather Paul chose the surname Peterson.  I am proud to have Peterson as my maiden name, and to honor the great-grandfather who died long before I was born. 

Quotes from “Understanding Norwegian Naming Patterns” by Eric https://norwegianridge.com/2011/07/10/understanding-norwegian-naming-patterns/

Peterson Farms: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Harvest”

Harvest Time in the Early Twentieth Century on the Paul and Oscar Peterson Farms

             Farming has changed so much over the last century. My brother grows some of the same crops as his father and grandfather did on the same land outside Hanska, Minnesota, but the equipment he uses to harvest it is amazingly different.

My grandfather needed to hire crews of threshers to harvest his wheat crops, as small farmers couldn’t afford to buy big threshing machines themselves, and didn’t have the large number of workers needed to run them. 

            The photo below shows a threshing crew. Most of the men would have been part of a traveling crew who moved from farm to farm over huge swathes of the Midwest, but probably a couple are my uncles, possibly Oscar or Phillip Peterson, or their cousins the Joramos. It was an exciting but busy time when the threshing crews arrived. Everyone enjoyed the company—extended family members joined the hired crews. The women were cooking non-stop to provide huge pot-luck meals to feed all the workers. Children were put to work at small tasks and caring for the animals while the men were in the fields for long hours. 

            Early corn harvests required a corn picker machine, which removed the cobs from the stalks. The cobs then needed to be fed through a “sheller” which removed the kernals from the cob. When the first combines were developed—machines that could simultaneously pick the cobs and shell them, spewing the shelled corn from a chute into a wagon, with the stalks, leaves and cobs expelled from the back of the machine—it was a great time saver.

            Here is a photo of my Aunt Thelma Peterson with my cousin Elaine Peterson, Thelma’s niece. The men behind them are shelling corn, and are my father, Juhl Peterson, and one of his cousins, either Loren or Junen Kyllo. They are working at Juhl’s brother Oscar’s farm, located just down the road from Juhl and Paul’s property.

            Below is a photo of my grandfather Paul with another man who may be his son Oscar, sitting next to a sheller. I believe they are at Paul’s farm. The original photo was very small—only 2x3 inches—and it was impossible to identify the people. I was delighted to discover my grandfather, in his old age, in the photo when I blew up the scanned photo. 

            Current combine harvesters are more expensive than many homes, starting at over $400,000. I wonder what my grandfather Paul Peterson would have said about that! Farming has become an expensive and complicated business, and I admire my brother’s commitment to it. Finding photos of my Peterson ancestors at work on their farms reminds me that Kent’s commitment was shared by my father, grandfather and great-grandfather—a century of hard work and sacrifice that I honor.

Hoffmans and Macbeths: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Map It Out”

Geography, Love and Marriage in the Early Twentieth Century

            I recently started studying plat maps from the early twentieth century, looking up my grandparents’ farm sites in southern Minnesota to better understand the geography of the places I’d visited as a child. I was surprised to discover how close many extended family members had lived in the years between 1900 and 1930. Suddenly I had a whole new understanding of family relationships.

            The map below shows parts of two townships in Blue Earth County, Minnesota—Mankato Township and Le Ray Township. The plat map was prepared in 1916. The highlighted “plats” or acres of land were farms owned by my extended family members. Dozens of my ancestors lived mere miles from one another—the furthest distances between the highlighted farm places are perhaps five miles at most.

            Seeing the physical proximity of these families helped me understand how couples met and fell in love—three of my grandmother’s sisters literally married the “boy next door” —Nora Hoffman’s family, William and Lena Hoffman, lived at site No. 3, and the Seltenreich boys, the three young men Nora’s sisters married, lived right across the road at site No. 4.

            My grandmother Nora married a boy just down the road a few miles; Ivan Macbeth grew up at site No. 8. Nora’s brother, Elmer Hoffman, married Mildred Edwards, whose family lived nearby at site No. 6. This romance led to Elmer’s sister, Jennie Hoffman, pairing up with Mildred’s brother Delbert Edwards. Nora’s youngest sister married Robert Miller, who grew up at site No. 1, the Charles Miller farm.

Elmer Hoffman and Mildred Edwards Wedding--I think man on left may be Delbert Edwards and woman to right Jennie Hoffman, who married later.

            The Hoffmans weren’t the only family who found familiarity breeding love rather than contempt. My grandfather Ivan Macbeth’s extended family also married neighbors. Ivan’s father, Walter, also grew up at site No. 8. His brother Charles farmed the site next door, site No. 9. Nearby at site No. 10, several members of the extended Britt family lived and farmed. The Britts intermarried with the Macbeths several times over several generations. Walter Macbeth married Lucy Dane, whose grandmother was a Britt. Walter’s sister Caroline Macbeth married William C Britt, and his sister Mary E. Macbeth married Handy E. Britt.

            A generation later, Walter’s daughter (and my grandfather Ivan’s sister) Ethel Mary Macbeth married a neighbor to the west, George Ott, who owned site No. 7. Another of Walter’s daughters, Annie Macbeth, married Gus Schostag, who lived at site No. 5.

            Travel in the early part of the twentieth century was still slow and often difficult, so meeting potential romantic partners could be difficult. Most of these families were farmers, so worked at home, never meeting other people at a workplace. Schools and churches tended to be small and nearby—the schools these families attended were one room, usually with fewer than thirty pupils total. Young people simply didn’t meet many people of the opposite sex, so had few potential partners to choose amongst. I wonder whether my ancestors’ choices to marry were based on romantic love or were they more of a practical decision? Can you really find true love in a five mile radius? I hope my ancestors did.

The Seltenreich Double-First Cousins: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Cousins”

                So what exactly is a double first cousin? Double first cousins arise when two siblings reproduce with another set of siblings, and the resulting children are related to each other through both parents' families. Double first cousins share both sets of grandparents in common, aunts and uncles in common,  and have double the degree of consanguinity than ordinary first cousins. In other words, double first cousins should NOT become kissing cousins or marry!

                In my family, several of my grandmother’s nieces and one nephew were double-first cousins. My grandmother had four older sisters, and the three oldest became enamored of a neighbor’s three sons, and ended up marrying them.

                The first couple to wed was Grandma Nora’s eldest sister, Grace Ida Hoffman. Grace was born July 15, 1889, so was ten years older than my grandmother. She married the eldest of the three Seltenreich brothers, Carl Oscar, who was born September 24, 1887. The wedding was May 6, 1912, when Grace was 22 years old. The couple farmed near Mankato. They had three children: Reuben Julius, born May 28, 1914; Stella Lucille, born June 26, 1916; and Smila Deloris, born August 13, 1930. 

             Oscar Seltenreich, Grace Seltenreich, and their children Stella and Reuben

                Martha Hoffman, the next oldest daughter born September 17, 1891, married the second oldest Seltenreich son, Julius “Jay” on September 20, 1916, when they were 25 and 24, respectively. Jay was born January 21, 1892, so was a little younger than Mart. Jay became a firefighter in Mankato, and they had one child, a daughter, Lucille Fae Seltenreich, born July 10, 1925.

                The third-oldest sister, Sadie Marie Hoffman, born February 12, 1894, married the youngest Seltenreich boy, Frederick Herman Adolph on June 6, 1917. Fred was born July 29, 1893. They were 23 and 24 when they married.  They lived just down the road from Grace and Oscar. Fred also farmed. Sadie and Fred had one daughter, Elnora June, born June 16, 1924.

Elnora Seltenreich as baby, and with boyfriend Bud Fisher and her parents Fred and Sadie Seltenreich.

                So these five children, Reuben, Stella, Smila, Lucille and Elnora, all shared the same four grandparents, the same aunts and uncles, and shared more genes than typical first cousins. I wonder if they ever realized how unusual their relationship was—that other cousins didn’t share the same grandparents and had a wider circle of relatives. They were very special cousins.

Funks and Grentzes: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Mistake”

Funks and Grentzes: My Research “Mistake”

While researching my great-grandmother and her family, I made a serious mistake based on a single census record. It took me a couple of years to correct the mistake, which crippled my research on a whole branch of my family tree.

My maternal great-grandmother, Lena Helena Funk, was born on February 12, 1869 to Charles or John Funk and a woman named Catherine or Catherina, whose surname was a bit of a mystery. All I knew for sure was that the family had moved to the Mankato, Minnesota area at some point prior to Lena’s birth, but I was struggling to confirm how many children the family had, and what happened to all the family members other than Lena.

My best piece of evidence was the 1870 census record, showing the Funks living near Mankato. The family was headed by father John, age 40, a cabinetmaker born in Prussia, and his wife Catherine, age 33, born in Ohio, who was “keeping house”. There are six children listed: William, age 12, born in Iowa, Sophia, age 10, born in Iowa, Mary, age 8, born in Iowa, Charles, age 6, born in Iowa, and 3-year-old Amelia and baby Lena, age 1, both born in Minnesota.

I dutifully added all these children to my tree under the surname “Funk”. I searched for them on later records, but poor Catherine and the three older children all disappeared. Father “John”, also known as Charles, appeared in the 1885 state census as a widower, so Catherine must have died. He lived with Lena and Charles, and I was able to find Amelia’s marriage records, so I knew she was alive. But I could find no trace of William, Sophia, and Mary Funk. Had they all died along with their mother, at some point between 1870 and 1885?

I was stuck until I found an obituary for Charles Funk, Lena’s brother. It had a wealth of information. First, it included his father’s death year, 1889. It also stated that his mother died when he was six years old, which would make her death year 1871. Third, it stated he was born in Burlington, Iowa, which gave me a location to search for records. And fourthly and most importantly, it stated he was survived by a half-sister, Mrs. Mary Gaffney of Redwood Falls, Minnesota.

I suddenly realized that the three “missing” older children weren’t necessarily missing. If they were half-siblings, they likely had a different surname than Funk. The census taker had mistakenly listed them as having their stepfather’s surname, and I had been searching for them using that erroneous information.

So what was the correct surname? I started researching Mary Gaffney of Redwood Falls, and eventually discovered her marriage record. Her maiden name was “Grentz”. She married George Gaffney of Janesville Minnesota when she was 17—he was ten years older. They had six children together.  

                                                            Mary Grentz Gaffney

I then backtracked to the Iowa records, finding a marriage record from Mahashka County, Iowa for C.N. Funk and Catherine Grentz dated November 21, 1863.  That led me to the 1860 census record for Louis Grentz, a brewer from Oskaloosa, Iowa, with a wife, Catherina, son William Louis, and daughter Sophia Grentz. The last Grentz daughter, Mary, was born in 1861 or 1862, around the same time that Louis Grentz must have died. I have yet to find death records for him that would give me a precise date.

I made the appropriate corrections to my family tree, so now William, Sophia and Mary are listed as the children of Louis Grentz, and as half-siblings to my great-grandmother Lena Funk and her siblings Charles and Amelia.

I managed to find Lena’s half-brother William Louis on the 1880 census. He was 19 years old, living in Mankato and working as an engineer. The census shows his surname as “Grantz”. I have found no further records for him under either Grentz or Grantz.

 I am still struggling to find any records at all for Sophia. Perhaps she died at the same time as her mother. But at least now I will be searching for her with the correct surname.

Annie Macbeth Schostag: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Back to School”

Annie Macbeth Schostag: 1893-1976

            “Back to School” calls to mind new pencils and notebooks and anxious children heading to a new classroom. But it also applies to the dedicated teachers who head back to work each fall—teachers like my great-aunt Annie Macbeth Schostag.

            Annie was my grandfather Ivan Macbeth’s middle sister. She was born June 1, 1893 to Walter Macbeth and Lucy Dane Macbeth, the second of their six children, and grew up on the family farm in LeRay Township, Blue Earth County, Minnesota.

            I am not sure when she became a school teacher. I believe she attended some sort of teacher training program—there is a city directory listing for her in 1914 listing her as a “student” and boarding in “rooms” at 513 North 5^th Street in Mankato. She was 21 years old then, so it must have been secondary school, probably Mankato Normal School which trained teachers at that time. I have not been able to find her in the Normal School yearbooks that still exist from that era, however. The photo below shows her with other young women that looks like it was taken in her early twenties, so it could be her with other teachers-in-training. She is at the far right.

            By the date of the 1920 census, Annie was 26 years old, living at home with her parents and two youngest brothers, and was working as a teacher, probably at the nearby Dickerson one-room school. My mother said that was where she taught, and she appears in the photo below of Dickerson School students as the teacher in the upper right corner.

I love the photo--it is fascinating to see the range of ages in the class. Annie may have had her own young brothers as students—they attended Dickerson, but may have been in high school by the date the photo was taken. Look at how cold the weather was—the students were all bundled up. Using the restroom involved going out in the cold to an outhouse. The inside of the school was probably heated by a wood or coal-burning stove, which wouldn’t have kept the building very warm in the winter months. Students sat at wooden desks fastened to the floor, with the youngest in the front at the smallest desks, and the older students at the back. Differentiated instruction was the rule of the day—teachers at these schools prepared dozens of lessons each day, teaching three or four levels of English, math, and history. It was a lonely, hard, and poorly paid life.

            I am not sure how many years Annie taught. By the 1930 census, she was married to Gustaf Schostag and was living in Decoria with him and his mother. She was no longer teaching; schools usually forbade hiring married women as teachers.

Annie

Gus

            Annie and Gus never had any children. Gus farmed for many years before retiring to the small town of St. Clair where they lived until their deaths. I remember them as a sweet old couple who we visited occasionally when I was in grade school. I remember on one occasion, probably around 1966 0r 1967, Annie made my brother and I chocolate milk shakes on a warm summer day, much to our delight. She was having a little trouble with daily tasks at that point—my grandmother had been appalled at the state of the house. I suspect Annie, then in her seventies, might have had the beginnings of dementia. She must have used spoiled milk in the milkshakes, as both my brother and I became violently ill a few hours after drinking them. My mother never felt comfortable eating there again. Poor Aunt Annie!

1961

            Annie died March 19, 1976 at age 82, and was buried in the Eagle Lake Cemetery.

Julius “Jay” Seltenreich: 52 Ancestors Prompt “At Work”

Julius “Jay” Herman Arthur Seltenreich: 1892-1955

            Many of my ancestors were farmers, so I am always interested when I find someone in my tree with a different occupation. Jay Seltenreich, my great-aunt Martha Hoffman’s husband, was a firefighter for the city of Mankato, Minnesota. To my delight, as I looked through old family photos from my grandmother Nora Hoffman Macbeth, I found two photos of Jay at work.


            Jay was born on January 21, 1892 to Julius and Friedericke Fabian Seltenreich. He was the fourth of their five children, with older siblings Ida, Louise, and Carl Oscar, and younger brother Frederick. His full name was Julius Herman Arthur Seltenreich, but he was called Jay to distinguish him from his father Julius.

_{^{Seltenreichs: L-R Carl Oscar, Julius, Ida, Frederick, Friedericke, Louise and Jay}}


            Jay grew up on a farm just outside Mankato, Minnesota, near a farm owned by William Hoffman. William had six daughters, several of whom were close in age to the three Seltenreich boys. Jay and his brothers all married Hoffman girls—Carl Oscar married Grace, Fred married Sadie, and handsome Jay married Martha, who was a few months his senior. 


            Jay and Martha married September 20, 1916, with their siblings Sadie Hoffman and Fred Seltenreich as their attendants. Following their marriage, they lived in Mankato where Jay worked as a laborer for the St. Paul and Omaha Railroad. His 1917 WWI draft card described him as being medium height, with gray eyes, brown hair, and, stunningly, a “stout” build! I find it unlikely he’d become so overweight in less than a year! His marriage photo shows a slim, handsome man.

By the 1920 census, Jay is working as a “checker” at a freight depot, but by the 1930 census, he has become a fireman with the Mankato Fire Department. The photos I found show Jay on the firetruck, still handsome and smiling. He must have cut quite a dashing figure in his uniform, and he appears to have been the engine driver as both shots show him behind the wheel. His 1942 WWII draft card states he was 5’10” and 190 pounds—that might qualify as “stout”, but a lot of the weight would have been muscle. Firefighting required hard, physical work, even in a smaller city like Mankato. By 1953, at over age 60, he was listed in the city phone directory as being a lieutenant with the fire department, so he had put in over 25 years with the department and advanced up the ranks.

Jay died June 22, 1955 at age 63. He was survived by his wife Martha and their only daughter Lucille. When I am in Mankato next, I will try to do more research to see if I can find out more about his career with the Mankato Fire Department.