Genealogy Instincts again

Here's the problem I always have with doing genealogy research. Some people don't think going with your 'gut' or your 'instincts' is the right way to go because you might end up doing research on the wrong family and I don't just mean one branch but the ENTIRE family back two or three hundred years and then come to find out after all that work that you aren't even related to anyone in the tree.

But I find that using my instincts, genealogical or detective if you prefer, don't just help me find the RIGHT branch or family for my tree but also ends up helping others that might be doing research on the same surname as I am. After all I did find at least two generations of Robinsons for another researcher that turned out not to be mine.

I haven't been doing as much research lately because 'life' has gotten in the way. But I never let my research lag for very long no matter what else is going on. In fact just last week I was poking around trying to find information on a great-aunt's husband's family and sent an email to a cousin (a daughter of the great-aunt) and she gave me a couple of clues. Well, with those few clues I managed to find her GRANDPARENTS marriage record. It turns out her father was born here in the US but was then taken to the Czech republic when he was a baby with his parents and returned to the US when he was about 25. Unfortunately, because the country has changed so much and actually branched out into several other smaller countries finding any other information on that side of the Atlantic is going to be a tough mystery to tackle. But the elation my cousin had when I sent her the image of her grandparent's marriage record was enough for me.

This led me to once again tackle my own maternal side of the tree. Though not as difficult as my cousin's digging through German records when there isn't much known is part of the challenge and much like one of my favorite fictional characters, Nancy Drew, I am always up for a challenge.

The Mystery of Henry Lepley Civil War Soldier

Did you ever start researching a name on your family tree and think it was going to be simple? Well let me tell you from experience that its NOT. I have been bothered by the Civil War pension file of my great-great grandfather, Henry Lepley probably since the minute I got it in the mail several years ago. No, more like from when my order was confirmed.

Its bugged me simply because there's no real evidence provided within the pension file that Henry died during the war from any kind of injury. It mentioned him being 'wounded' but the specifics are to say the least contradictory. His 'widow' got a monthly pension because according the file he DID die. Unfortunately it doesn't specify WHERE he died, and when it does each location contradicts the one before. To top it off the Pension Office in January 1868 actually asked that they be furnished with 'official' evidence of the date AND cause of Henry's death. The problem with that is non of the documents in the file have ANY record OF his death. They request this TWO MONTHS after they issued the certificate to Mary Jane, his widow, granting her the pension of $8 per month.

Its just plain crazy and now when Henry's name is found on a website for soldiers from Pennsylvania, I wrote the webmaster and asked her about it telling her there are questions about whether he actually DID die. She replied that he DIDN'T die and was actually DISCHARGED in Harrisburg. She then sent me a Word document that shows NOTHING about Henry being in Spotsylvania or being wounded or even being IN the Civil War past 1863, which again contradicts Charles Lepley's diary entry that says he heard that Henry was 'wounded' (the entry dated June 16, 1864).

I'm creating a Word doc for the webmaster of the site (Helen, a very nice lady) of what was in Henry's pension file. I would really like her opinion since I am completely confused as to what REALLY happened to my 2nd great-grandfather. I guess I just don't want to end up finding out that he WAS discharged from the service and vanished, leaving his wife and THREE young children behind.

More Later.

Scandinavian genealogy

Its been more than interesting finding out about my Norwegian, Swedish and Danish ancestors. I guess I never thought about any other ancestors' origins except England and Germany, which I already knew. Some of my collateral relatives or spouses of them came from Sweden but I never dug any deeper because I wasn't directly related to them.

I worked on some collateral lines from my 3rd great-grandparents and found that only ONE actually came to the US and settled here. All the others stayed in Norway. I find that unusual because you would think that if one found America appealing that their siblings would follow her and see if what she told them (assuming she told them) was true.

I haven't put everything into my genealogy program yet, and I also haven't sent the family history reports to any cousins that I think might be interested because frankly I don't know how they will react to finding out that their great-grandfather or in my case 2nd great uncle changed their surname from Oleson to Ring because of the man that essentially raised them as his own sons. The change affects any cousins that are related to Albert's brothers Anton, James and Martin. I don't even know my own reaction to the decision they made to pretty much erase their father's name of Oleson and become the sons of Fred Ring. I'm going to have to give that some thought and post my thoughts about it later. I was just glad to be able to get to the bottom of most of that mystery, even though I still don't know what happened to Albert's father Carl Petter or why Martin's father was listed as Martin. But I'm not one to give up on solving a mystery.

Norwegian, Swedish, Danish equals Scandinavian genealogy

The Norwegians aren't the only ones that have unusual naming traditions that make it challenging for a genealogist to trace their ancestry back to that country or even Sweden or Denmark. I've finally managed to organized each of the surnames so that I can create some family history reports. This of course would be much easier had my great-grandfather, Albert just kept his biological father's surname of Oleson instead of honoring his step-father by taking his (Ring).

Its funny but I think I can understand why Albert and his three brothers DID take Fred's last name of Ring instead of keeping Carl Petter's of Oleson. Since it looks as if Carl pulled some sort of disappearing act after Martin was born in 1878 and Julia married again around 1881 or at least after the 1880 census, and proceeded to have several children with Fred, it makes sense that since Fred was probably the only 'father' they knew growing up, especially Martin, that they would feel it was only right that they take his name of 'Ring' as their own. I admire them for doing that but much like my other great-grandfather Joseph Cowden who was actually born Cowden Roxberry, it would've been nice if somewhere, ANYWHERE, Albert or one of his brothers would've explained this for their descendant and family genealogist. None of my cousins EVER knew about this and they all thought that it had been Fred that changed his name and not Albert or James or Martin.

It should be interesting to get their reaction to this discovery I've made and the research that I've put into tracing Julia's and Carl's families back to the countries of their birth. We all knew that my grandmother, Rose Julia (Ring) Gentzen was part Norwegian and that Julia was as well, but Fred Ring is DANISH, yet in the census records, Albert, Martin, James and even Anton acknowledged that their father was SWEDISH. I doubt anyone of my cousins will react badly to the news that their great-grandfathers surname wasn't originally RING but OLESON, but at least I've cleared but the mystery surrounding just WHO changed their name when they came to America. The truth is NO ONE changed their name until after Julia married Fred A. Ring in 1881.

Norwegian genealogy

I've been learning a lot about Norway and Norwegian genealogy this week, but just today I was overwhelmed when I got an e-mail from a guy in Norway who had information about my 2nd great-grandmother's father side, Johan Nilsen. He sent me a Word document that was mainly in Norwegian but I managed to translate it into English, at least for the most part. I also found a webpage that contained information on Julia's mother's side but I was definitely more interested in her father's side since I hadn't found any clues.

The funniest thing so far is that Johan Nilsen translated into English turns into John SMITH. Now whether that's just the simplest way to translate it or because Nielsen is a common name in Norway and Smith is so common here in the US that it just made sense I don't know. I sent the original Norwegian document to another guy who lives in Norway and he's going to see how it actually translates.

I have to say that the Norwegian people, at least those that I have talked to so far are not only very helpful but also very nice and forgiving especially since the naming practices are confusing and a bit intimidating. I'm looking forward to what else Harald is going to send me and who knows we may end up finding out that we're related. That would be the coolest thing I think. To actually have a cousin in Norway that I could write to.

Genealogy learning something new everyday

Its been a pretty good couple of days for me genealogically speaking. Turns out I had the WRONG passenger list for Julia because I didn't take into consideration that she would've most likely traveled WITH her husband and child. So again with some help from fellow researcher Robert, I managed to find Carl, Julie, Anton AND another child from Carl's FIRST marriage, Ole Gustav. Its seems they sailed NOT from Sweden, although that's where Carl was born, but from Norway, Christiania to be exact and arrived in QUEBEC of all places. Now from there I don't know exactly when they went to Chicago, which again was their final destination but they left Norway 15 April 1871 and arrived in Canada 22 May 1871.

I also discovered with a little help (more like a hint) that Julia and Martin had another sibling and it was actually a name I had picked out but wasn't quite sure she was the right one because much like the name Smith, there are a LOT of similar surnames (for lack of a better term) in Norway and Sweden and with the females keeping their father's names ever AFTER marriage makes it a little hard to find the right couple.

But the family arriving in Canada reminded me of something my Uncle Clarence told me once when I asked him about Great-grandpa Ring's siblings. He had mentioned (I think) that two brothers had 'died' and/or killed themselves in Canada. I don't know exactly what he told me only that he DID mention Canada. That made me think that perhaps Albert and James were born in Canada and THEN they came to Chicago, but I haven't found any birth records for them in Canada, or even Quebec. So I will have to try on Monday and Ancestry Library Edition.

In the meantime I am learning about the naming traditions in Norway and have joined two message boards that focus for the most part on Norwegian genealogy. Hopefully I'll find researchers there willing to help just like Robert.

Gotta love genealogy and instincts

It was an interesting weekend for me on the genealogy front. Facebook changed the design of the 'groups' so that they look like other pages and it makes it easier to post queries, especially for genealogy groups. So I thought I would try it out at the Norwegian group I joined some time ago. And between that and posting to a local message board I think I may have (with a LOT of help mind you) just cracked the mystery of my 2nd great grandmother Julia (Nielsen, Olsen, Johnson) Ring.

I posted my query first to the Norwegian group just to see if anyone had any suggestions. This was last week. After getting some suggestions and websites to try, I went to my library and used Ancestry Library Edition. There I found a passenger listed for a Julia Olsen who's final destination was Chicago. The time period when she left SWEDEN was right, but it didn't provide any other information. Upon a suggestion from a member I posted another query this time to a local message board, specific to Cook County, Illinois. I got some suggestions and provided additional information. One member on the board, Robert, took it upon himself to do some digging and like me went with intuition when looking for the elusive Julia and her first husband, who's name I only suspected was on the birth record of one of her sons.

This morning he sent me images of Julia's birth record and her name Julia JOHNSDATTER, as well as the birth record of Anton Julius Olsen, her first child AND her first husband Karl Peter Olsen. I was completely blown away (and still am) to the point I had tears in my eyes. This brick wall seemed to be getting higher and higher with no end in sight but thanks to Robert and his intuition I think I can (I hope) find other records including when Carl came to America because my ancestor, Albert John Ring, was born in Chicago and Carl IS his biological father.

There is still a mystery to be solved though; according to Anton's birth record, Julia and Carl Peter were married AFTER he was born (somehow I had a feeling about that). The mystery is how Martin, Julia's 4th and last child with Carl Peter, wound up with his father's name being Martin Olsen on the birth register. But I have found the records that Robert sent me at FamilySearch, now that we're sure they were born in Norway and NOT Sweden. That was the other sticking point to this mystery. The marriage record shows the names of their fathers so with that I can try to find their mothers and maybe Carl Peter's birth record.

Instincts and intuition are something all good detectives use when they have a difficult case they need to crack. The same holds true for genealogists since we are in a sense detectives ourselves. I've relied on my instincts more than once but this time I had to get some help and they were the ones that went with what their instincts were telling them and it paid off. I am more than confident that Robert found my 2nd great-grandmother, her first husband and their first child and I want to thank him for doing the digging in places he thought to go. This wall is slowly but surely coming down and once it does let the bricks roll. :-)