My Trails into the Past

Randy Seaver over at Genea-musings has another assignment for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. Tonight, it's to create a timeline for one our our ancestors. I used RootsMagic software to create my timeline of my second great-grandfather, Vincent Sievert. Because I have added various "facts" to the software, my timeline has quite a few events of his life. The small superscript numbers at the end of each line refer to the sources. I elected to have them be endnotes and they are here: I have sources for most of the events in his life once he arrived in the United States in 1852. What I don't have are original sources for his birth and marriage. Between 1860 and his death, I have quite a few events about his life, but the time between their ship arrival and the 1860 census is unknown as well. Someday I'd like to search for local Joliet, Illinois newspapers. I'll probably have to visit Joliet and read the microfilmed versions myself. Copyright © 2014 by...

Raymond Joseph Hork was the eighth child of John Anton Hork and Julia Ann Sievert. He was born on 11 Nov 1889 in Stuart, Guthrie Co, Iowa. [1] The family had lived there at least since 31 Oct 1886, when his next oldest brother, Anthony was born. [2] By the 1890’s, they were living in Oregon, where the next sibling, Urselle was born. [3] Raymond lived a short life, dying on 1 Dec 1917. [4]    He was only 28 years old. So what happened in his short life? Two census records give some minute detail. The family finally settled for good in Hamilton, Ravalli County, Montana, where they were found in the 1900 census. [5] His father was a tailor and they were renters. Raymond was listed as being born Nov 1890 and 9 years old. In 1910, he was a 21 year old, living at home with his widowed mother, Julia, three brothers, Albert, Tony, and Cyril, and two sisters, Carrie and Urselle. Raymond was a printer. Newspaper accounts give some information. He was invited to children’s part...

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...

This week's ancestor belongs to my husband--his great great-grandfather. Anders Eliason was born on 28 Sep 1821 in Grolanda, Skaraborgs län, Sweden. [1] He was the son of Elias Pehrsson and Kjerstin Ericsdotter, the third of seven children.   Birth record of Anders, son of Elias Pehrsson & Kjerstin Ericksdotter He married Cajsa Florine Pehrsdotter on 11 Jul 1847. [2] She was the daughter of Pehr Andersson and Maja Andersdotter, born on 12 Sep 1812. [3] Marriage of Anders & Cajsa in 1847 In 1866, Casja and Anders immigrated to the United States aboard the City of Manchester. Two of his children, Sofia and Alfred, and his brother, Gustaf and his family were on board, too. 1866 ship list of the City of Manchester The family ended up in Iowa with new surname of Lundquist. It has not been determined why the name was changed to Lundquist. Perhaps there were other family members already in Iowa who had adopted this name. Anders and Casja had 6 childr...

Matrilineal Monday is a blogging theme to celebrate or share something of your mother’s line. When I started on the process of locating my grandparent’s marriage record, all I knew from my aunt (their daughter) was they got married on Thanksgiving and the reception was at Aunt Sadie’s. I didn't know who Aunt Sadie was. I wasn't sure of the year, so I didn't know when Thanksgiving fell. All I knew was William Cyril (known as Cyril) came from Hamilton in Ravalli County, Montana and Anna (later known as Anne) came from Anaconda in Deer Lodge County. Letters sent to the county recorders in both counties came back with no record found. Gosh, why wouldn't they be married in one of their hometowns? Letters were sent to the Catholic churches in both counties with the same results: no record of marriage found there. So, who was Aunt Sadie? My daughters and I had taken a trip to Montana to visit both Hamilton and Anaconda, hoping to find more information about th...

I spent over 32 years working for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) where I was a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union 1555. I began working there as a BART Train Operator and later became an Employee Development Specialist (EDS) where I taught new employees to be train operators. I retired in 2010. My father, William J. Hork, worked most of his life for grocery stores that were unionized. He was initially in the Retail Clerks Union 1179 which later was renamed United Food & Commercial Workers Union. My father worked for LoRay, Ralphs, Bon Appetit, and Safeway. He retired in 1993. My grandfather, Tom J. Johnston, worked as a carpenter most of his life. His last job was with the Contra Costa County Community College District and he worked at the Diablo Valley College (DVC) campus. I remember visiting him there once with my grandmother. He gave me a wooden tennis racket and frame. I loved playing with that racket. Updated 4 Sep 2014. I found To...

I’ve written about Julia Ann Sievert before for Fearless Females and you can read it here . Today for 52 Ancestors, I would like to write about the information I learned about her from the 1910 census. [1] The Julia A. Hork household lived on Seventh Street; however no house numbers were listed. Julia was listed as head of household with six children. She was 54 years old and a widow. Comparing that age to the known birthdate of 31 Oct 1854, her age was off by one year. [2] Although it is unknown who gave the information for this census, it probably was Julia herself. Ten children were listed as being born with nine still living. This is more accurate than the previous census which listed seven children born and seven living (the seven who were listed in the census). Julia had ten children, five girls and five boys. Her oldest daughter, Maria Catharine “Mary” died 28 Sep 1895 in Portland, Oregon. [3] Julia was listed as being born in Illinois of German immigrant parents. She...