Too Many Williams: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Oops”

Failure to Properly Examine Census Records Leads to a Parental Mistake

William Herniman: 1819-1908 (Maternal 2^nd Great-Granduncle)
William Henry Herniman: 1856-1917 (Maternal 1^st Cousin 3x Removed)
William Alfred Herniman: 1843-1916 (Maternal 1^st Cousin 3x Removed)

 

Census records can be very seductive. They list names and ages, and often suggest relationships. A few clicks of the computer mouse, and all those names are added to the tree, along with the inferences about the relationships amongst those individuals. For example, if you have a couple in their 40s living with a child in his teens, all sharing the same surname, it is tempting to surmise the teenager is their son. Tempting, but not always correct. And if you have an elderly couple living with a younger couple, once again all sharing a surname, it is easy to assume they are two generations of the same family unit. I made those type of assumptions about the three William Hernimans listed above. At the time of the 1870 census and the 1900 census, two of the three Williams were sharing households. And I carelessly assumed in each case that the elder William was the father of the younger William on the census record. And I also assumed the two younger Williams might be the same person. Oops. Oops on all counts!

William Herniman was born August 10, 1819 in Taunton, Somerset, England. He was the first child born to James and Sarah Herniman. In December 1840, He married Mary White. They appeared on the 1841 English census, where William was working as a joiner. The couple emigrated either in 1843 or 1849, settling first in Dane County, Wisconsin, and then moving to Lisbon, Wisconsin, becoming two of the town’s first pioneers.

William Herniman: 1819-1908

William and Mary appear on the 1860 census in Lisbon. The couple were 40 years old, and were farming.

The 1870 census sent me down an erroneous path. William and Mary were still living on their farm near Lisbon, but now a 13 year old boy, also named William Herniman, was living with them. Had the census taker missed the child on the previous census? Had he written down the boy’s age incorrectly? Was he actually 10 years old? At first I didn’t let these issues bother me. Young William appeared to be William and Mary’s child, so that’s how I recorded him.  

1870 Census

On the 1900 census, William and Mary, now in their early 80s, were living in a household headed by William Herniman, age 56, and his wife Sallie, 51. Ah, I thought, they’ve moved in with their son and his wife. It all made sense, right?

1900 Census

Except I wasn’t paying attention to the details on the census forms. Details that were critical to understanding the true relationship between these people.

First, if this younger William were their son, why didn’t his age match up with the earlier record? The 1870 census showed him as age 13, with a birth date of approximately 1856 or 57. The younger William on the 1900 census was born far earlier, in 1843 or 1844.

Also, when I looked at the census image, I could see the column detailing the relationships of the household members to the head of the household. William and Mary were identified as the younger William’s uncle and aunt. The younger William’s mother, named Elizabeth, was also living in the household.

In addition, the 1900 census asked all women how many children they had given birth to, and how many still survived. Mary Herniman answered zero to both questions. She and William had never had children.

I was forced to re-evaluate the identity of young William Herniman. I quickly determined he had the middle name Alfred and was the son of William Sr.’s brother George. George’s wife was Elizabeth White, who was the sister of Mary White Herniman, so William and Mary were William Alfred’s aunt and uncle twice over.

Postcard of New Lisbon, Wisconsin in 1907

But who was the 13-year-old William living with William and Mary in 1870? It wasn’t William Alfred, as he was already married at that point and living with his wife. William (the elder) and George Herniman had two other brothers who had also emigrated to America, John and Henry. Henry had no sons named William, but John’s eldest son, William Henry Herniman, born in 1856, matched up in age to the boy on the 1870 census. John and his family had moved to Minnesota around 1870, so young William Henry was probably visiting his uncle for the summer.

I learned important lessons from my numerous mistakes on the three William Hernimans. First, I must actually examine the image of the census form, paying attention to the little details. Simply clicking information on the transcribed record is insufficient. Second, I must never make assumptions about the identities of or relationships among the people living in a single household without finding supporting documentation.

But probably the most important thing I learned is that even when I’ve made an “oops” in my tree, it is easily corrected.

Sources:

1870 United States Census. Year: 1870; Census Place: Lisbon, Juneau, Wisconsin; Roll: M593_1720; Page: 76A. Accessed via Ancestry. Com.

1900 United States Census. Year: 1900; Census Place: Lisbon, Juneau, Wisconsin; Roll: 1793; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0073; FHL microfilm: 1241793. Accessed via Ancestry.com

A Grandaunt’s Tragic Teenage Death: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Gone Too Soon”

 

The Mystery of Anna Syrine’s Death Solved

Anna Syrine Syverson: 1877-1896 (Paternal Grandaunt)

 

I had always wondered about my grandmother Regina Syverson Peterson’s second-youngest sister, Anna Syrine (or Anne Sirine) Syverson. I knew she died in her late teens, before she had a chance to marry and start her adult life. But I had no clue as to her cause of death until a recent discovery on Family Search.

Anna Syrine Syverson was born just four days before Christmas in 1877. She was the third of Ragnhild Olsdatter Ve and Ove Syverson’s four daughters, and was born on their homestead in Linden Township, Brown County, Minnesota. Ragnhild and Ove had two more children after Anna. When Anna was only four years old, her father was killed in a farming accident, fatally injured by a horse. She probably grew up with only hazy memories of Ove, and only a single photo to remind her of what he looked like.

I have so little information about Anna. I loved her middle name—I wondered if she was a calm and serene child as her name hinted, or if she was feisty and impetuous. All I knew was that she died before her nineteenth birthday, and was buried in an unmarked grave near her father’s headstone in Linden Lutheran Church cemetery. The only documents I had been able to locate that included her were two Minnesota state censuses and the 1880 federal census, and her indexed birth record.

1895 Minnesota Census showing Anna Syrine, identified incorrectly as Soren

But recently, I received a notice from FamilySearch that a new record for Anna Syrine Syverson had been added to their database. When I investigated, I discovered that Brown County, Minnesota’s 1890s death records had been scanned and uploaded. The careful, tidy handwritten entry for Anna Sirine noted her date of death, February 18, 1896, her father’s name, and her cause of death: consumption.

Brown County death record for Anna Syrine Syverson, showing consumption as cause

As soon as I read the word “consumption”, I realized I should have suspected that she was a tuberculosis victim. Her older sister, Jorgine, also died of the disease, but many years later and after she had married and had several children. I expect Anna Syrine had been sick for some time, which would explain why she hadn’t married. My grandmother Regina gave birth to her first daughter in the summer of 1895, just eight months before Anna Syrine died. Regina named the baby Anna in honor of Anna Sirine, probably suspecting that her sister would not survive much longer.

Once again I was struck by the random nature of tuberculosis. Ragnhild and her other children all lived in a small house and were in intimate contact with one another. Obviously all of them were exposed to TB, but only two of them died of it. Why was my grandmother Regina spared? Why was Ragnhild, who probably nursed Anna Syrine for months or years, spared? Ragnhild lived to the age of 85, and Regina to 80. But poor Anna Syrine was taken far too soon.

I have one photo of the Syverson family that may include Anna Syrine. The family stands on the porch of their home—eldest son Ole is at the left, youngest son Syver next to him. Syver looks to be about 12. He was 14 when Anna died, so Anna might be one of the three daughters who cluster around Ragnhild. But in that case, where is the fourth daughter? However, I realized Syver might have been small for his age, and the photo could have been taken at Anna’s funeral in 1896. I can imagine that Ragnhild might have wanted a photo of her remaining children, fearing she could lose more of them.

While there is little physical evidence remaining to show that Anna Syrine spent eighteen years on this earth, at least now I know how she died. I will keep her memory alive as best as I can.

Sources:

Anna S. Syverson in the Minnesota, U.S., Births and Christenings Index, 1840-1980, accessed on ancestry.com

"Minnesota, County Marriages, 1860-1949," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939Z-BGWT-Z?cc=1803974&wc=MRJ5-2NL%3A146278001 : 15 May 2020), 004540654 > image 328 of 1795; county courthouses, Minnesota.

Minnesota, U.S., Territorial and State Censuses, 1849-1905. Original data:Minnesota Historical Society. Minnesota State Population Census Schedules, 1865-1905. St. Paul, MN, USA: Minnesota Historical Society, 1977. Microfilm. Reels 1-47 and 107-164.Minnesota. Minnesota Territorial Census Schedules, 1849-1855. St. Paul, MN, USA:

Always in the Shadows: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Like to Meet”

 

Mary Jane Mills: Hidden in the Outsized Shadow of Husband Jerome Dane

Mary Jane Mills: 1831-1920 (Maternal Second-Great-Grandmother)
 

History is far kinder to men than women. Men’s stories are told. Men’s records are kept. Women only appear as a daughter or wife linked to a father or husband. Their stories remain hidden. Their records are minimal. The disparity is even more extreme when the woman’s husband was a sort of larger-than-life figure—a figure like Mary Jane Mills’ husband, Jerome Dane. I know so little about her, and so much about Jerome in comparison. I feel as if she was hidden in his shadow. I wish I’d had the chance to meet her and ask her about her life—especially all those years when Jerome left her behind when he rejoined the military and fought first the Dakota Sioux tribe, and then the Confederates in the Civil War. What was her life like? How did she deal with his absence?

So what do I know about my second-great-grandmother Mary Jane Mills Dane? What records remain?

Mary Jane was born May 9, 1831 in Herman, New York. Her parents were Orpha Pratt and Joel Mills, who had four sons (Orville, Gehial, Frank and Orrin) in addition to Mary Jane. It appears that Joel had been married before, and had at least two or three additional children from his first marriage. The 1830 census, taken two years after his marriage to Orpha, shows that his household included one male child under five, which would be Orpha’s first-born Orville, one male child between five and nine, one female child under five, one female child between five and nine, and one female child between ten and fourteen. It appears that Mary Jane was probably raised with at least two half-siblings, Loricia (pronounced Larissa) and Jerome—the two older children on that 1830 census. New York records are extremely limited; no birth information was recorded in the early-to-mid 1800s, so this is more of a hypothesis than fact.

Mary Jane’s family moved to Wisconsin sometime before the 1850 census. While there, she met another transplanted New Yorker, Jerome Dane. He had just completed military service in the Mexican War, and then moved to Wisconsin to live with his older brother Francis Ami Dane.

Mary Jane and Jerome married July 3, 1852 in Williamstown, Wisconsin. Mary Jane was 21. Jerome was 24. They settled near Janesville, and their first child, daughter Orpha Antoinette Dane, was born October 21, 1854.

They apparently relocated to Blue Earth County in Minnesota in 1858 (see news article below). Just three years later in 1861, Jerome re-enlisted in the military in Minnesota, joining the Minnesota Infantry. He was on active duty for the next four years, serving as a captain, first in Minnesota during the war against the indigenous tribes, and then in the Civil War.

But what happened to Mary Jane and their daughter Orpha? Had Jerome built a house for them? Had he bought a farm with existing buildings? Did he leave her with someone to help with the farm? I have so many questions, and none can be answered. He enlisted during an indigenous uprising against settlers near Blue Earth County. Mary Jane was left alone during a very dangerous time.

Apparently Jerome was home often enough on leave in 1862 to father another child. Mary Jane gave birth to a daughter she named Sally Jane on April 1, 1863. Sadly, the little girl died just three months later on July 9, 1863. How did Mary Jane cope? Her husband was gone, leading troops in the Civil War, which must have been devastating enough for her—she probably dealt with constant fear that he would be injured, killed, or captured. She was left behind to care for a nine-year-old child while grieving for her baby. How did she survive such stress? Did she have family who could support her? Her brother Orrin had married and also lived in Blue Earth County, but he too was serving in the war. Did her sister-in-law live close enough to offer support?

Little Sally may not have been the first child Mary Jane lost. The 1900 census asked all mothers how many children they had given birth to, and how many survived. Mary Jane answered that she gave birth to six children, but only three survived. Given the large span of years between the births of Orpha and Sally, I would hypothesize that Mary Jane lost two other children in infancy before Sally. Losing a third child in 1863 must have been heartbreaking.

To compound Mary Jane’s suffering, her brother Gehial was killed in the war two months after little Sally’s death. 

Gehial Mills, a few years before death in Civil War

Jerome survived the war, and was back at home by the date of the Minnesota 1865 census. However, within a few years, he uprooted his family and moved about 20 miles east to property in Waseca County near the tiny community of Janesville. They stayed there only a few years. Their son Orlo Dane was born there August 27, 1868, and daughter Lucy May Dane, my great-grandmother, was born there as well on November 5, 1871. They are recorded below in the 1875 Minnesota census.

Census incorrectly says Jerome and Mary Jane's parents were from Ireland. One of Jerome's tales/jokes? Their families arrived in the 1600s from England.

Yet by the 1880 census, they had moved back to Blue Earth County to LeRay Township. They lived there until 1891 when they abruptly moved nearly 200 miles north to Crow Wing County near Brainerd, where they celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary in 1902.

Poor Mary Jane. Packing up all her possessions again and again, moving from house to house by wagon, all while trying to raise two young children and a teen daughter. It must have been a difficult time. I wish I could ask her how she managed, and if she ever had time to herself—time to be happy and to laugh. Jerome seemed to be an extrovert—he was an officer in the local GAR group, he ran the local post office, he gave amusing, fascinating interviews to newspaper reporters. Was he charming to Mary Jane? Did he make her happy? Did he make her laugh? Was she equally outgoing, or was she more reserved? Was she glad she married Jerome, or did she have regrets? Was she as restless as Jerome, ready to move, always looking for a better place? Or did she prefer to settle down in one spot, but never had the chance?

I have only found one photo of Mary Jane, obviously cut down from a group photo. She looks to be in her sixties, and posed with a solemn expression—typical for the time period when photos had long exposure times. Sadly she died eight years before my mother was born, so my mother never met her, and didn’t remember hearing any stories about her from Mary Jane’s grandson, my mom’s father Ivan Macbeth.

One of Jerome's death notices. Of course I found none for Mary Jane.

Following Jerome Dane’s death in 1908, Mary Jane moved in with her daughter Lucy and her husband, Walter Macbeth. She lived with them until she died January 1, 1920. My grandfather, Ivan, was nearly 14 when she died, so he certainly should have remembered her. I wish I’d thought to ask him about his grandmother when he was still alive.

Mary Jane is buried at the Eagle Lake Cemetery in Minnesota, near the Macbeth farm in LeRay Township. I’ve visited her grave—the only opportunity I ever had to “meet” her, sadly. I’m sure she could have told me some amazing stories.

Sources:

Findagrave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45575683/mary-jane-dane?_gl=1*1iuii8j*_ga*MTQ5MDkwODUzMi4xNjI2MjI0NDE0*_ga_B2YGR3SSMB*MjFjMjQ4NDYtYmY1Yi00MWEwLThlMTUtN2JhZjc0ZDk0ODNjLjI3NC4xLjE2NzU3ODE5ODAuNDUuMC4w*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*MTY3NTc4MTk2Mi4zNzguMS4xNjc1NzgxOTgwLjQyLjAuMA..

DNA Matches Identify Second Great-Granduncle: 52 Ancestors 2023 “I Can Identify”

Thank You Ancestry DNA for the New Second-Great-Granduncle! Confirmation of Ove Syverson’s Family Origins

Tomas Anfinnson Vetti: 1766-1851 (Paternal Third-Great-Grandfather)
Sjur Tomasson Hestetun: 1807-1867 (Paternal Second-Great-Grandfather)
Kristoffer Thomassen 1803-1878 (Paternal Second-Great-Granduncle)
Ove Syverson: 1840-1882 (Paternal Great-Grandfather)
Helge Christopherson: 1831-1914 (Paternal First Cousin 3x Removed)

 

Researching the Norwegian side of my family tree can be difficult, especially when trying to identify the ancestors who never left Norway. The surname complexities make it difficult to confirm my hypotheses, as surnames are a complex and often changing combination of the father’s first name and the farm or estate the family lived on—as seen above in father and son Tomas and Sjur. Tomas’ surname is made up of his father Anfinn’s name “Anfinnson”, and the estate/farm name “Vetti”. Sjur’s surname is completely different from his father’s. He is identified as “Tomassen” or Tomas’ son, and he has moved from Vetti to Hestetun.

Vetti Farm area in Norway

In addition, there are spelling variations. Some of Tomas’ children seem to have spelled his first name Thomas and others Tomas. Some used the Norwegian “son” and some “sen” which is more common in Sweden. So you can see variations like Tomason, Tomasson, Thomasson, Tomasen, Tomassen or Thomassen all in the same family.

And the place-name part of the surname can change more than once in their lifetime when they move, creating even more opportunities for confusion. As an example Sjur’s brother went by the name Christopher Thomassen Hestethun when he married, and a few years later was identified as Christoffer Thomassen Oren. He’d moved to a different area, so his surname changed.

So how can I verify potential ancestors, particularly siblings of one of my second-great-grandparents? Lucky for me, Ancestry DNA matches helped me to confirm that Sjur and Christopher truly were brothers, the sons of Tomas Anfinnson Vetti.

How did DNA matches to six of my fourth cousins prove a fraternal connection between Sjur and Christopher?

Ancestry’s homepage includes a list of my latest DNA matches. Most are listed as “distant” cousins, but every once in a while there are potential third, fourth or fifth cousins that are worth further investigation. In mid-January of 2023, I had a potential match fourth cousin match to a person named C Kerkman. While this person had no Ancestry tree linked to their DNA profile, I was able to get some hints of our possible relationship by looking at our shared DNA matches—the people we were both related to.

Our shared matches included a couple of new fourth cousins whose listing included the notation “Common Ancestor”. This notation indicates that the family tree linked to their DNA profile includes ancestors that are descended from one of my ancestors. In other words, our shared ancestor had at least two children, and we are descended from each of those siblings. Ancestry determines this by comparing our Ancestry trees and sometimes even extrapolating back an addition generation or two from where our trees may stop, but from where other researchers have made connections.  

Once I looked at those match profiles, I clicked on the “View Relationship” tab on our shared ancestor, Tomas Anfinnson Vetti. And there it was: a connection from this new cousin back to Tomas—six generations, with Tomas’ son Christopher their third-great-grandfather.

With the new names of Christopher’s son, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to research, I was quickly able to locate records on Ancestry to support the DNA connection. I also found information on some of Sjur and Christopher’s other siblings, opening up new lines of research.

This isn’t the first time a new DNA match has helped build my family tree. DNA has proved to be a great way to identify and verify new ancestors, especially the siblings of my direct descendants. I am so excited that I can now identify several of my second-great-grandfather Sjur Tomassen Hestetun’s sibligs, thanks to six fourth cousins who decided to test their DNA.

Carried Off to Montreal: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Out of Place”

Taken Prisoner in Queen Anne’s War: Sarah Randall Cole’s 1703 Travail

Sarah Elizabeth Randall: 1661-1713 (Maternal 8^th Great-Grandaunt)
Joseph Cole: 1659-1703
Deborah Marie Madeleine Cole: 1698-1744
Mary Marie Therese Cole: 1701-1761

 

Sometimes the oldest records I unearth can produce the most surprising and fascinating stories. While working on my maternal lines recently, I identified another of my 8^th great-grandfathers, Richard Randall II, born in New Hampshire colony in 1658. I added Richard, his parents, and his siblings to the family tree. The siblings included a sister named Sarah Elizabeth Randall, born just three years after Richard in 1661. Following my usual practice, I looked at the Ancestry hints for Sarah, hoping to pinpoint her birth and death dates, and the name/s of any spouse/s. That’s when I noticed an anomaly in the hints: a 1704 baptismal record for an adult Sarah from a Catholic church in Quecbec! Sarah was born to Protestant English parents in an English colony. Why would she be converting to Catholicism in Canada? Why would she be so out of place?

The answers were quite amazing. 1703 was a pivotal year for Sarah and her family. In 1698 Sarah married a man named Joseph Cole from the area near Fort Saco in Maine. They were rather old for a first marriage—if Sarah’s birth date of March 24, 1661 is correct, she was nearly 38 years old, and Joseph was a year older. The couple started their family quickly. Daughter Deborah was born the year they married, and daughter Mary was born in 1701. Joseph also had a son from his first marriage, probably named John. 

The northernmost English colonial settlements like Saco were under continuous threat from the late 1600s through the early 1700s, as part of a proxy war between England and France. The French manipulated the indigenous tribes in the area, stoking their resentment of the settlers and encouraging and financing raids on English settlers. The year 1703 saw a renewal of this conflict. An article on fortwiki.com explains the situation:

“Queen Anne came to the English throne in 1702 and renewed hostilities with the French. In August 1703 some 500 French & Indians attacked English settlements between Casco and Wells. The assault at Fort Saco resulted in eleven killed and twenty-four taken prisoner. In all, one hundred and thirty people were killed and taken prisoner.”

Fort Saco, 1699 map

It appears from the few records I can find that Joseph Cole and his son were among the settlers killed in the raid, and Sarah was taken prisoner along with her two little daughters. They were taken to Canada by the Wabanaki warriors, where they were apparently ransomed by a French landowner, Pierre Boucher, sieur de Boucherville. Sarah became his servant.

Sarah’s young daughters were given new French names and were baptized into the Catholic faith just months after their capture. Deborah’s baptismal record is below. The translation is as follows:

“The same day 8th of December of 1703 was baptised by me priest Marie Madeleine (also named Deborah) (Coal) Cole English born at (?) in New England on the 7th of October 1698 from the marriage of late Joseph Coal English protestant from Sackow and Sarah Sara Randal kidnapped from said place of Sackow on the 21st of August of this year and brought with her children to Canada.”

As we see in the record, Deborah is now called Marie Madeleine Cole. Little Mary becomes Marie Therese. The baptism records and prisoner lists were compiled and translated in Emma Coleman’s book cited below.

Sarah was pregnant at the time of her capture, and on January 29, 1704 she gave birth to another daughter she named Priscilla. The baby was baptized on the day of her birth. Priscilla did not survive, apparently dying shortly after birth.

Sarah finally agreed to be baptized into the Catholic faith some months later. Her baptism record bears the date April 27, 1704, and notes her maiden name, Randall (although it was misspelled by the priest), her marriage to Joseph Cole, and that she was “inhabitant of Saco in New England, taken the 22 Aug. 1703, living in the service of Mr. Boucher…”

Unlike the records for her daughters, the record notes Sarah “has made abjuration of heresy”, which implies she had to publicly renounce her own faith. The other important thing to note is in regard to the witnesses to the baptism:

“Her Godfather was Monsieur de la Perriere, son of Mr Boucher and officer in the troops…”

I question whether Sarah’s conversion to the Catholic faith was voluntary. The presence of her master’s son, possibly in his military uniform, implies the threat of force. She was totally at the mercy of the Boucher family, forced to work for them after they “ransomed” her—basically she was purchased by them and was seen as little more than property.

Pierre Boucher

The Coleman book notes that Sarah and her two daughters were listed on the French government’s “Roll of 1710/11” as prisoners in Canada, so they were still being held by the Boucher family seven years after their baptisms.

The colonial governments continued to negotiate with the Quebec government, trying to broker returns of prisoners. At some point following the 1710 Roll, Sarah was offered the chance to return to the English-held colonies. The records claim her daughters “chose” to remain in Canada, but I question how much choice was involved. Both girls were minors, who had spent most of their childhood with the Boucher family, speaking French. They likely had no memory of their lives back in Maine. They no longer even had their birth names. They had basically been absorbed into French society.

Accounts by other female prisoners who returned to the New England colonies after captivity in Canada reported they were told that while they could return to their homeland, their children could not. They had two choices: give up their rights to their own children and return to the English colonies alone, or to remain in Canada if they wanted to stay with their children. This was a cruel, brutal choice. Sarah’s life in the Boucher household must have been absolutely miserable to have induced her to abandon her children.

But abandon them she did. Her husband dead and their Saco home probably burned by the Wabanaki, Sarah did not return to Maine. Instead she moved to Beverly, Massachusetts early in 1710, which is where her sister Priscilla had settled with her husband William Preston or Presbury. Sarah quickly entered into a marriage contract with a Beverly widower, Captain Thomas West, on March 29 1710. Two months later, on May 25, 1710, the pair were married by a Robert Hale, Esq. These records appear in the Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 database cited below.

Sarah was widowed again when Captain West died in 1723. Sarah and her sister Priscilla Presbury transferred land still owned by their father in 1727. The Genealogical Dictionary cited below states,

“In 1727 Sarah West and Priscilla Presbury of Bev., widows, ch. And only heirs of Richard Randall late of Cape Porpus, deeded a Cape P. town gr. Of 1681-2 to Edward and Stephen Presbury of Newbury, shipwrights.”

Cape Porpus (or Cape Porpoise) was in Maine near Saco, where Sarah lived with first husband Joseph Cole until the Wabanaki attack in 1703. Edward and Stephen Presbury were two of Priscilla’s several sons, so Sarah’s nephews.

This land transfer was the last record I was able to find for Sarah Randall Cole West. It is believed she died the same year as the land transfer, but I have been unable to confirm this.

As for the daughters Sarah was forced to leave behind in Canada, both were made French citizens just months after Sarah returned to New England. The girls were only 12 and 10 years of age, so hardly able to make such a decision for themselves.

Boucherville in 1724

Quebec notarial records cited below show they both married Frenchmen from the Boucherville area. Marie Therese, born Mary Cole, married Pierre Rougeau, son of Jean Batiste Rougeau (also Berger) on January 16, 1716. She was 16 years old and Pierre was 21. Marie Madeleine, formerly Deborah Cole, married Simon Seguin dit Laderoute on November 10, 1715. She was only 17, while her husband was 31. Once again, I wonder whether she had any say about her fate. The Boucherville records include the baptism records of Mary and Deborah’s children; each woman had several offspring. I wonder if Sarah’s daughters were ever able to communicate with their mother after she returned to New England, or if even letters were forbidden between the warring colonies.

I am so grateful that I happened to notice a record that seemed out of place, prompting me to research the tragic life of Sarah Elizabeth Randall more thoroughly. Sarah and her daughters must have always felt “out of place”—the trauma of 1703 must have haunted their lives, both in Canada and back in New England.

 

Sources:

http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Saco

Ancestry.com. Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
Original data:Libby, Charles Thornton. Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. Portland, ME, USA: The Southward Press, 1928.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Anne%27s_War

New England Captives Carried to Canada Between 1677 and 1760 During the French and Indian Wars, Emma Lewis Coleman. Southworth Press, Portand, Maine. 1928. Accessed via google.com/books.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Original data:Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).

Quebec Notarial Records: Bibliothèque Et Archives Nationales Du Québec; Montréal, Quebec, Canada; Collection: Fonds Cour Supérieure. District Judiciaire De Montréal. Cote Cn601. Greffes De Notaires, 1648-1967.; District: Montreal; Title: Labeaume, Marien Tailhandier (1699-1730)

Family Photo Identified at Last: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Favorite Photo”

 

Norway Wedding Photo Now Proudly Hangs in Minnesota

Ove Syverson: 1841-1882 (Paternal Great-grandfather)
Ragnhild Olsdatter Ve: 1848-1933 (Paternal Great-grandmother)

 

My brother has rescued many family photos from the attic of the farmhouse that has been in the family for three generations now. He has painstakingly and beautifully refinished and restored the often elaborate frames, and has hung the largest and oldest in the stairwell of the home. I was fascinated by one photo in particular, but hadn’t been sure of the identity of the young couple depicted. Over Thanksgiving this year, my brother refreshed my memory: the photo depicts our great-grandparents, Ove and Ragnhild Syverson.

This photo is such a treasure! Ove died just a few years after the couple and their children had immigrated to the Linden Lake/Lake Hanska area of Minnesota. He was killed in a farming accident at the young age of 41 when my grandmother, Regina Syverson, was only ten years old. During their early years as homesteaders, the Syversons had no money to pay for a sitting with a photographer, so this photo is the only image of Ove I have ever seen, and was probably the only image his young children had to remember him by.

Ove's death record--1882 Brown County Minnesota

In addition, this is the only photo I have ever seen of my great-grandmother Ragnhild as a young woman. In her old age, she looked quite different. She styled her hair severely and had a rounder, fuller face. In addition her lower jaw looked smaller—I think she may have lost most of her teeth, causing the jawline to compress. 

Ragnhild in her old age

But in this photo I can see the resemblance to her daughter, my grandmother Regina Syverson Peterson, and to her grandchildren, including my father. She is quite beautiful.

My dad, Juhl Peterson, and his mother Regina and grandmother Ragnhild above.

This photo was probably taken on the occasion of Ove and Ragnhild’s wedding. They were married around 1866, when Ragnhild was 18 and Ove 25. The only potential wedding record I have found thus far was from Opland rather than Fjordane and the birthdates and parents’ names don’t match. So as yet I have no marriage record to help me definitively date the photo.

The photo emphasizes Ove and Ragnhild‘s amazingly light blue eyes—even in the sepia-tone photo, those pale irises are arresting. I see where my dad’s wintry blue eye color came from. It appears Ove and Ragnhild were each photographed separately and their images joined in a single photo by the photographer. Not only does my brother have a separate photo with just Ove’s identical image to support this theory, but you can see that Ragnhild’s image is slightly larger than Ove’s, making the photo look slightly off-balance.

Both young people posed stiffly, and probably wore their most formal clothes. They obviously took this event seriously. I love the silk tie Ove wore with his black suit. Ragnhild’s dress appears so perfect except for the white ruffle along the neck that is hiked up higher on the right side.

The Syverson family obviously treasured the photo, placing it in a beautiful oval wood frame—the wood grain, restored by my brother, is lovely. We are fortunate that the oval bubble glass survived all these years—replacing it now costs a fortune.

My brother and his family continue to treasure and preserve this photo of our great-grandparents, an image that has survived nearly 160 years.

The Path Ahead: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt “Looking Ahead”

 2022 into 2023

 

Before I can really look ahead, I need to take a quick look back at 2022. I finished 56 blog posts—more than one a week! I also completed blog posts for each and every one of Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 prompts—the first time ever that I fulfilled that goal!

So what was the breakdown between the two sets of family trees among those 56 posts?

I completed thirty posts about my Peterson/Macbeth ancestors, on topics ranging from family photos and photos of horse teams to a lawsuit over an estate. I had some exciting “brick wall” breakthroughs. First, I confirmed my third great-grandfather Charles Macbeth’s parentage, and found his siblings. Second, I made huge strides in expanding my great-grandmother Ragnhild Olsdatter Syverson’s family tree, discovering that several Hanska area families descended from her nephews.

I completed twenty-six posts on the Aird/Jandy family tree blog. I made so many fascinating discoveries. I found a cemetery in Kentucky where all 43 graves are people on the family tree. I discovered an ancestor who is reputed to haunt a local Orange County canyon. I also learned how much information could be gleaned from death notices and death certificates, discovering the tragic toll of tuberculosis on one branch of the Smith family, and a mysterious murder on another branch.

I am eager to begin a new year of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. I have downloaded Amy Johnson Crow’s 2023 prompts, and I have already compiled a list of fascinating stories that I want to write about.

My only problem is that many of the stories I want to tell don’t match up with this year’s prompts. So what should I do?

I think I will use Amy’s prompts when it suits me, and make up my own when necessary. I don’t want to forget significant discoveries and fascinating tales just because they don’t fit Amy’s prompts. When I make a discovery and have all the documentation right in front of me, I’m going to write it up.

I believe I can do 52 blog posts again, although it may be difficult with a lot of other tasks ahead of me this year. However, I’m going to try. I’m having so much fun writing up my discoveries, so why stop?

Onward to new discoveries and new stories in 2023!