My Trails into the Past

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings ’ assignment tonight is to:  1)  All genealogists are human and most of us have gone on wild ancestor (goose) chases in our genealogy research career.  What was one of the wild ancestor chases in your research?  Explain the situation and how you (hopefully!) solved the puzzle. Here's mine: I cannot think of a time when I went down the wrong trail and had to chop off a line I had researched. However, I have been searching a long time for a few end-of-the-line ancestors. Two examples include: Jeremiah & Mary Sullivan of County Cork Jeremiah Sullivan and Mary Sheehan of County Cork came to the United States sometime in 1860s, but I cannot locate them on a ship’s list. It is possible (and I have not thought to check until this moment) that Jeremiah came alone and then Mary came with the children, or Jeremiah came with a couple of s...

My husband’s ancestors immigrated to the United States from Sweden. His great-grandfather, Nils Malkom Nilsen, was a minister with the Swedish Mission Church and gave sermons in the Swedish language. It is possible he learned English to conduct business, but his son, Arthur, said when he started school, he only knew Swedish, a clue to the language spoken at home. Because of this, Arthur would not allow his children to learn Swedish. Nils Malkom’s wife, Hulda, died before he did in 1924. Four obituaries have been found for her. English language obituaries were printed in the Stockton Record , Turlock Daily Journal, and the Modesto Bee . Nils Malkom had served in churches in each of those localities. An obituary was also printed in the Swedish-language newspaper Vestkusten . A comparison of the obituaries shows some differences and why it’s important to locate all that may have been printed. "Beloved Woman Passes to Rest. Escalon,” Record (Stockton, Calif) , 17 Nov 1924, p. 8, col....