Brick Wall People – Part 8 – Maren Rasmussen

No Known Photo

Name: Maren Rasmussen

Birth: my records list her birthdate as about 1819 in Alsted, Denmark.

Death: Sometime after 1880, which was the last census I have been able to find her in.

Marriage: before 1841, which is about when their first child was born.

Location(s): Alsted, Denmark

Relation to me: Maren Rasmussen is my paternal grandmother's mother's father's mother, which makes her 6^th generation before me.

Alias(es): None known at this time.

Parents: unknown

Spouse(s): Hans Nielsen

Children: Ole, Niels, Rasmus, Jorgen, Jens, Ane Lisbeth

Other Family: None known at this time.

Details: I know even less about Maren than I do about her husband, and like him, what I know comes from their son's birth records and the Census records I have found on this family. I have nothing on her before their marriage, only that she lived to at least 60 with her husband.

That's all I have on Maren. I don't know when she was born, only an estimate from the Census, and I have no clue when she died. I'd definitely love to learn more about this whole branch of the family, particularly the names of her parents and whether she had any siblings.

Proof:

1)      My initial proof for Maren came from Rasmus's birth record found at Family Search, but I was unable to confirm it until I had found several of the Census records I now have.

2)      My major proof for both Maren and her husband, as well as much of the rest of this branch of the family, comes from Census records, starting in 1850, and going through to the 1880 Danish Census. After that, I have no records of this family at all aside from Rasmus and his family.

Needed:

I have no exact birth or death information for Maren, so I know nothing about her family except that her father's given name was probably Rasmus, and that is probably where my great-great grandfather's name came from. 

If my family or anyone out there has any more information on this family, I'd love to talk to you about it. I'd love to learn more if at all possible.

Matrilinial Monday – Dora Hillinger

Dora and her sister Minna ca 1918

Name: Dora Kresch

Called by Grandkids: Bubbe

Birth: 1892, Czudek, Galicia (now Poland)

Death: 1969, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Spouse: Alex Hillinger

Marriage: 1919, Frankfurt, Germany

Children: Ben, Mina, Sam, Helena, Peppi, Selma

Parents: Benzion Kresch and Feige Golda Reich

Siblings: Naftali, Minna, and at least two more unnamed.

About: Dora was born in a former Germanic state called Galicia, which was primarily composed of the areas of southern Poland and eastern Ukraine. It was known for its poverty, and many Jewish shtetls were located within its borders. Dora was born in Czudek, just south and west of a well-known Jewish center of learning, Rzeszow. She lived there until the end of World War I, and I have found at least one account of an attack on the village which she likely lived through. 

Once the war was over, she and her sister travelled to Frankfurt, where she met the man who became her husband, Alex Hillinger. They settled there together and had six children, her mother eventually following her daughters to the city to be nearer to them until her death in the late 20s.

Unfortunately, at this time, the Nazi party was coming to power, and in 1933, after her husband's latest business venture failed due to the programs set in place by the Nazis, he decided to take his family and leave. He found a place for them in Paris, and she followed with the children. The family stayed in Paris for a year while they worked to get a visa to come to America, finally managing sometime in 1934. They settled with Alex's sister in Memphis, but shortly after their arrival, he had a stroke, and Dora was left to make money for the family. She went to work as a cook at a hospital, moving the family again, this time to Hot Springs, where her second son, Sam, my grandfather, was able to graduate from the High School that President Clinton would later attend. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the family moved one last time. This time, they moved to Chicago, where they finally stayed, and both Sam and Ben were soon sent off to war.

She lost her husband in 1948, shortly before Sam's return to the US, but she gained a daughter-in-law and a grandson who was named for him. Dora lived in Chicago for the rest of her life. She had 14 grandchildren by the time she died, and her first great-grandchild was born less than a year after her death.

Dora and her daughters and grandkids, Hannukah ca 1950s

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Surname Frequency

Randy Seaver posted the latest SNGF post, and I really couldn't resist this one. Right up my alley.

1)  Go into your Genealogy Management Program (GMP; either software on your computer, or an online family tree) and figure out how to Count how many surnames you have in your family tree database.

2)  Tell us which GMP you're using and how you did this task.

3)  Tell us how many surnames are in your database and, if possible, which Surname has the most entries.  If this excites you, tell us which surnames are in the top 5!  Or 10!

4)  Write about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a status or comment on Facebook, or in Google Plus Stream post.

So I use Roots Magic 6 now, so I just followed Randy's instructions. It was incredibly simple. Roots Magic has a report view for Surname Statistics with a few different options. I went with Frequency of Surnames. According to the list I got, I have 820 surnames total.

My top ten:

1. Jensen (355, earliest was from 1590, latest was from 2010)
2. Hansen (311, earliest was from 1630, latest was from 2010)
3. Nielsen (220, earliest was from 1545, latest was from 1998)
4. Pedersen (201, earliest was from 1500, latest was from 2008)
5. Bordewich (the only non-Danish name on this list) (139, earliest was 1800, latest was 2011)
6. Christensen (84, earliest was 1602, latest was 1989)
7. Larsen (75, earliest was 1812, latest was 1991)
8. Andersen (69, earliest was 1700, latest was 1971)
9. Sørensen (67, earliest was 1690, latest was 1979)
10. Kristensen (65, earliest was 1874, latest was 1959)

And the next five:

Madsen

unknown

Solberg

Thomsen

Pedersdatter

All of which are Danish as well, except for the unknown surnames.

Bordewich made the top ten only because I have such extensive information on that line. Johan Petter and his children were incredibly prolific. We ended up all over the place. Though there are a few variations on the name.

I expected Christensen to place first when I originally decided to do this post, but was shocked to see it didn't even place third. After a little thinking, I realized why. I did a name list for a word picture a few years back, and Christiansen turned out to be the largest name in the picture because there were so many, but I only used the names of my direct ancestors in that list, which very much changes the number of names. Since tis list includes everyone, that means other names placed well above it.

I thought it might be interesting to do a combined list of the related names, and see if that changes the order at all, because some families, the names shifted depending on a lot of factors, including male/female. After some tinkering and adjustment, I came up with this list:

1. Jensen (405)
2. Hansen (326)
3. Pedersen (294)
4. Nielsen (249)
5. Christensen (199)
6. Bordewich (154)
7. Sørensen (100)
8. Andersen (95)
9. Larsen (81)
10. Madsen (50)

That's with all variants of the name included. I removed all the unknown surnames from this list, which would have been in the tenth position with 71 people. The numbers go quickly down from fifty. Most have less than ten. I went with the most common name to sort them under, though some joint names had both included on my list several times. The most difficult were the Gabriel/Howells line, where the name switched from first to last with each generation, so both were surnames at different generations. I just included both in my count for Gabriel and Howells variants, but that didn't even reach forty total for the whole line.

An interesting exercise. I'm not shocked to see that the Danes (and Scandinavians in general) had the highest counts, as that is where most of my success has come, on those lines. I might have to do this again in a few years, to see if that has changed at all.

Brick Wall People – Part 7 – Hans Nielsen

No known photo

Name: Hans Nielsen

Birth: my records list his birthdate as about 1817 in Alsted, Denmark.

Death: Sometime after 1880, which was the last census I have been able to find him in.

Marriage: before 1841, which is about when their first child was born.

Location(s): Alsted, Denmark

Relation to me: Hans Nielsen is my paternal grandmother's mother's father's father, which makes him 6^th generation before me.

Alias(es): None known at this time.

Parents: unknown

Spouse(s): Maren Rasmussen

Children: Ole, Niels, Rasmus, Jorgen, Jens, Ane Lisbeth

Other Family: Kirsten Nielsen.

Details: I know very little about Hans, and what I do know comes from two sets of records, but mostly from the Census records I have found on this family. It looks to me as though he was farming the land that my great-great grandfather eventually took over and ran until his death shortly before 1900. He seems to have handed off the farm to Rasmus before his death, as he and his wife are listed on one Census as the "elder farmer" (for lack of a better term), and on another all on their own. I have no information on any of their other children aside from what is listed on the census forms at this time, so I do not know if any survived childhood aside from Rasmus, though I have managed to find a couple marriage records for two of Rasmus's siblings. I do know that for a time, Hans's sister was living in their home, as she is listed in a Census around that time, listed as a widow.

That's all I am sure of about Hans and his wife. I do not know precisely when they were born, only an estimate from the Census, and I have no clue when they died. I'd definitely love to learn more about this whole branch of the family, particularly where the farm came from, and why it passed to Rasmus instead of his elder brothers.

Proof:

1)      My initial proof for Hans came from Rasmus's birth record found at Family Search, but I was unable to confirm it until I had found several of the Census records I now have.

2)      My major proof for both Hans and his wife, as well as much of the rest of this branch of the family, comes from Census records, starting in 1850, and going through to the 1880 Danish Census. After that, I have no records of this family at all aside from Rasmus and his family.

Needed:

I have no exact birth or death information for Hans, so aside from his sister, I know nothing about his family except that his father's given name was probably Niels. I would love to know if Hans was the first to own the family farm, or if he inherited it as his son Rasmus did. I would love to know if he had any other siblings aside from his sister. Most of all, I'd love to find more records about this family in general, as it seems to be a long-time resident family of this area.

If my family or anyone out there has any more information on this family, I'd love to talk to you about it. I'd love to learn more if at all possible.

Matrilinial Monday – Merle Tydfil Bordewick

Name: Merle Tydfil Jones

Called by Grandkids: Grandma

Birth: 1915, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Death: 2012, Belleveue, Washington, USA

Spouse: George Robert Bordewick

Marriage: 1939, Vancouver, Canada, USA

Children: Two boys, two girls, all currently living

Parents: Daniel Thomas Jones and Eliza Anne Howells

Siblings: Marjorie, Edwina, and Ivor

About: Merle was the third child of four born to Daniel and Bessie Jones, both immigrants from Wales who had settled in Vancouver, BC, Canada. When she was born, her father set off to the office to report her birth, but upon arriving, instead of using the name he and his wife had agreed on, which it has been suggested he forgot, he decided to name her for his home town of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. She grew up in a happy home, surrounded by siblings and cousins. As a teenager she became involved in a church youth group, and there she met a young man by the name of George. The two began to see each other, and she continued to date him throughout her youth. After he had finished basic training for the military, the two married before he was sent off to the east coast of Canada to begin his officer training.

Their first son was born while George was overseas serving in the war. Merle lived with her parents during that time, and spent a great deal of time with her mother and father-in-law as well, especially after their other son was lost soon after departing Canada for the front. George returned home safe and sound, and they had two girls, and the family settled happily into a post-war world. In 1956, only a month after George lost his only remaining family member on his father's side, their final child, a boy, was born. Soon after, George's job went south, and so he began to look for a new job, eventually finding a place in Washington, and moving the whole family across the border to the US. Our family has lived in the area ever since.

George and Merle were very active in the community, both in church and social groups, as well as Masonic groups due to George's membership in that organization. The two traveled and socialized and hosted many family gatherings until George's death in 1992. Merle lived for many years after in their home in Bellevue before moving into a retirement community, then to a group home where she lived until her death in 2012.

Her funeral was attended by all of her children, grandchildren, and both of her great-grandchildren, as well as many more distant family relations and friends, all of whom remembered her fondly. She is greatly missed.

The Bordewick Girls at Merle's birthday

Brick Wall People – Part 6 – Hannah Griffiths

Hannah and family ca 1920s

Name: Hannah Griffiths

Birth: 1849, Newcastle Emlyn, Wales

Death: 1933 Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

Marriage: before 1882, in Wales

Location(s): Newcastle Emlyn, Wales; Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

Relation to me: Hanna Griffiths is my maternal grandmother's paternal grandmother, which makes her 5^th generation before me.

Alias(es): None known at this time.

Parents: unknown

Spouse(s): Benjamin Jones

Children: Daniel, David, Joseph, Jack, William, May, Sophia

Other Family: No other direct family known.

Details: Like Benjamin, the majority of information I have on Hannah comes from my grandmother. She was lucky enough to travel to Wales with her family once before her grandmother's death, and told me often about meeting her and being allowed to sleep with her in her bed. I only know a slight bit more about her than I do about her husband, though I have a great deal more pictures of her. As I said, she continued to run the Post Office in Merthyr Tydfil after her husband's death. I also know she blamed herself for her son Davey's death, as he ran into a lake to catch her hat one day when he was still recovering from a cold or the flu, and fell sick with pneumonia, and died.

Other than that, I know little about her, and would love to learn how she came to Merthyr Tydfil from Newcastle Emlyn.

Proof:

1)      Like Benjamin, all my details on Hannah in my family tree came from my grandmother, and through her father. Beyond that, I had no specific proof for many years.

2)      My first actual proof came from the record of my great-grandfather's death on Family Search, which lists Hannah as his mother. I assume this came from my grandmother or one of her siblings, as with Benjamin.

3)      Like I said above, we have many photos of Hannah, both from her life in Wales after Daniel's departure, as well as his visit back with his family.

4)      And I also have the stories I mentioned from my grandmother about her visit. There are not many of them, but there are a few that I do recall.

Needed:

I have more precise BMD information for Hannah than for her husband, though I still want their wedding record, and it would be nice to have more exact information for her birth and death info. What I really want to know is who her parents were and if she had siblings, and how many there were. Other than that, I'm actually pretty happy with my knowledge about her, though I do look forward to learning more about her as I find more information.

If you're a member of the Jones family who knows more about Hannah, I'd love to hear the stories you have, and I'd love to share what I have as well. Please feel free to contact me.

Matrilinial Monday – Margaret Hansen Hillinger

Name: Margaret Hansen aka Maggie

Called by Grandkids: Nana

Birth: 1919, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Death: 2010, Issaquah, Washington

Spouse: Sam Hillinger

Marriage: 1948, Frankfurt, Germany

Children: Two boys, two girls, unnamed here as all are still alive.

Parents: Holger Skov Hansen and Julie Oline Hansen.

Siblings: Marilyn and Torben.

About: Maggie was the first child of three born to Holger and Oline Hansen, Danish immigrants. She grew up in a happy home, her father building houses, her mother tending to the children and their home and sewing. Unfortunately, Oline got Pneumonia in 1929 and died, and Maggie did not get along with her new stepmother or step sisters. She left to go to boarding school, which set her up as a secretary immediately after she graduated. In 1942, when the WAC corps were created, she was quick to volunteer, along with her younger sister. She moved around the states during the war, climbing the ranks until she achieved one of the highest ranks for a woman at the time. Once the war was over, she volunteered to go to Europe to help with rebuilding, and ended up near Frankfurt on the base there.

While there were few places one could easily relax in Europe at the time, the Army had set up special trips to vacation spots for the volunteers, and so it was that Maggie found herself headed to St Moritz. On that train ride she met a young private, Sam Hillinger, and together they learned to ski. After returning to the base, the two continued to date, and in 1948, they were married. Their first child, my father, followed soon after, and the couple returned to the states once he was old enough to travel so Sam could get his degree. After his graduation, the family moved again, this time to Seattle, where our family has resided ever since.

Sam and Maggie had four children, six grandchildren, and now have four great grandchildren. They lived long and happy lives together until Sam's death in 2000. Maggie continued to stay as active as she could, though she slowed down quite a bit after that, moving from their large house in North Seattle to a small apartment in a retirement community, and then to a nursing home near her two daughters near the end of her life. She died in 2010 surrounded by memories and family.

We still miss her.

Surname Saturday 2.0: The Pughs

The Pugh Family

  

This is one of the more murky parts of my family tree. Like the Currans, who I knew little about when starting my family quest, I know almost nothing about this line, and did not even have the name Pugh attached to it until recently, when I found Selina Howell's death record on Family Search. I originally had Selina's parents listed as Hug Roberts and Ellen Griffiths, but in the record, her mother's name is listed as Pugh. As of yet, that is the only time I have found the name, so I still have not completely confirmed it, but it is possible that somewhere a generation or two ago, her maiden name was confused with another maiden name on this branch, though on a different side. My grandmother's paternal grandmother was a Griffiths, so it's possible that it was somehow attached to this woman by accident. Until I find more on her, though, I have no way of confirming that one way or the other.

Aside from that, I have very little on this line. I have no parents for Ellen, and no siblings for Selina, so I have no way of tracking further back at this time. I do know that at the time Selina was born, Ellen and Hugh lived in Northern Wales. I'm not sure if that was where they were from or not, or where they might have been born or married, but I continue to look. Their surnames are distinctly Welsh, so I continue to assume for now that they are at least Welsh.

This line, for those interested:

* Ellen Pugh (or Griffiths) married Hugh Roberts. I have no birth, marriage or death information for her aside from that, though I do know that she was likely alive when her daughter's family moved to Canada, or died at about that time, as there is a photo of her with my great-grandmother as a baby. I have only one child for them: Selina.

* Selina Roberts was born in Duffryn, Northern Wales in 1846. She married Gabriel Howells in 1874, and they had 8 children, two of whom died in a Whooping Cough epidemic in 1877. She moved with her husband and children to Southern Wales for a time, and from there to Canada, eventually settling in Vancouver, BC, where she died in 1933.

* For information on the Howells family and descendants, see the Howells surname post.

What I need:

* Some sort of confirmation of which surname was Ellen's maiden name.

* Information on Ellen and Hugh's marriage. When they married, where they married, how many children they had.

* Where and when Ellen born, who her parents were, and whether or not she had siblings.

More on this line:

* Brick Walls – A Different Listing

* Original Pugh Surname Post

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This post marks the end of my second round of Surname Saturday. I do have many other surnames in my tree, of course, but little to no documentation on most of them, and unlike this last generation, I know almost nothing about most of them, so I'll leave this for a time. Instead, I'm going to do posts starting next Monday about the women in my family, starting with my grandmothers and working my way back, in honor of Women's History month. I hope  you'll follow those as well.

Brick Wall People – Part 5 – Benjamin Jones

Benjamin Jones with his wife & daughters

Name: Benjamin Jones

Birth: my records read "Before December 24, 1865." I have him listed as being born in Caio, Wales.

Death: before 1915, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

Marriage: before 1882, in Wales

Location(s): Caio, Wales; Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

Relation to me: Benjamin Jones is my maternal grandmother's paternal grandfather, which makes him 5^th generation before me.

Alias(es): None known at this time.

Parents: unknown

Spouse(s): Hannah Griffith

Children: Daniel, David, Joseph, Jack, William, May, Sophia

Other Family: No other direct family known.

Details: The majority of information I have on Benjamin comes from my grandmother, his granddaughter, who only knew of him from her father, as he died before she was born. I do know that he and his wife apparently ran the post office in Merthyr Tydfil, and that Hannah continued to run it even after his death.

Beyond that, I really know nothing about this man. I don't know how he moved from Caio to Merthyr Tydfil, or when and where he married his wife, or if he always worked in the post office, or anything.

Proof:

1)      All my details on Benjamin in my family tree came from my grandmother, and through her father. Beyond that, I had no specific proof for many years.

2)      My first actual proof came from the record of my great-grandfather's death on Family Search, which lists Benjamin as his father. I assume this came from my grandmother or one of her siblings, but it at least is a more concrete proof of Benjamin's existence than the family tree I had.

3)      The last piece of proof I have is from family photos dating to around the turn of the century, one of which shows Benjamin with his wife and daughters. I do not believe we have any other shots of him, but it is lovely to have the one we do have.

Needed:

I have no exact BMD information for Benjamin, though I know if I want to pay for it, it should be available on the UK BMD records website, along with marriage information for he and Hannah. This is obviously my next step, but I worry that I will pay for something and find nothing, which is why I have continued to put off paying for any services that offer it.

I'd love to know more about his life, especially life before Merthyr Tydfil, and who his parents were, how many siblings he might have had, and how he met Hannah.

And really, that's all I have on Benjamin. If you're a member of the Jones family who knows more about him, I'd love to hear the stories you have, and I'd love to share what I have as well. Please feel free to contact me.