My Trails into the Past

I have recently returned from a twelve day vacation to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, Mitchell, South Dakota, and Stanton-Red Oak, Iowa. Conference In Minneapolis, I attended the three-day International Germanic Genealogy Conference hosted by the local society, Germanic Genealogy Society. This was the first conference and in 2019, our local society, Sacramento German Genealogy Society, will be the hosts! I met lots of genealogists from around the country and the world. Especially exciting was meeting in person, Ursula Krause from Berlin. Some of the classes I attended: “Finding Your Ancestors in German Directories” – Ursula C. Krause “World War I Era U.S. Alien Registrations” – Paula Stuart-Warren “Meyers Orts Gazetteer” – Fritz Juengling “Die Pfalz: Understanding and Researching in Palatine Records” – Richard Haberstroh “Baltimore: The Golden Door for Immigrants” – Debra A Hoffman “Pioneers and Colonists: Background of Germans in Eastern Europe” – James Beidler The conf...

Pehr Alfred Andersson Lundquist was my husband’s maternal great grandfather. He was born in Sweden 19 May 1856 in Wädbäcken, Grolanda, Skaraborg to Anders Eliasson and Cajsa Pehrsdotter. [1] Last week’s 52 Ancestors post on Anders Eliasson is here . Pehr Alfred immigrated to America when he was just 9 years old, arriving with his family in New York on 9 Jul 1866 aboard the City of Manchester . [2]  Once in America, the family's surname became Lundquist. By 1870, he was the only child still living with his parents on a farm in Jefferson County, Iowa. [3] He purchased 80 acres of land on 11 Oct 1883 in Montgomery County, Iowa from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company for $1120. [4] The railroads only needed the land wide enough to lay their tracks and build a few stations and yards, so then sold the excess land to farmers. Pehr Alfred married Mathilda Lovisa Ericksdotter-Holm on 15 Mar 1892 in Red Oak, Montgomery County, Iowa. [5] Their marriage application...