52 Ancestors - Curious - Oline Hansen

I struggled trying to decide what to do this week for my entry for Curious. It's not a hard prompt, but I had several options, and couldn't decide between them, but I figured since I started this talking about how I got into genealogy, I'd end the month with a similar story. The story of how our family found out about my great grandmother Oline's family. 

Oline, Maggie, and Holger Hansen ca 1920

When I was young, my grandmother and her sister and brother decided to find out about their mother's family. Oline had died when my grandmother (the eldest of the three) was nine, and they'd lived in the US, while most of Oline's lived in Denmark, so the family had quickly lost all touch with them. So they dug into the records they could find for Oline here in the states, and found a location they thought she was born. My great aunt wrote to the government there and asked if they had any information on her and her family. What they got back was a treasure trove. A full family tree from their grandparents down through the current generation. 

Even better, they learned that one of their uncles, Hans, was alive and well--and living in the US. The three quickly got in touch with Hans's step-daughter, who was taking care of him, and arranged a meeting, where they spent a few days talking to him about their mother, and about their family and their life in Denmark.

Maggie, Hans, and Marilyn about 1988

Shortly after meeting their uncle Hans, Marilyn took a trip to Denmark with one of their cousins on their father's side, and met many of the other members of their family, gathering so many fabulous stories. I'm still digging through all the information Marilyn got from those visits. It's amazing, how much you can get out of a single visit.

It's because of their search that we know so much about this side of our family. And because of their search that I have now gotten several generations further back on each of their grandparents' sides of the family tree.

52 Ancestors - Favorite Photo - Gabriel & Selina's 50th Anniversary

 

This photo is of Gabriel and Selina Howells' 50th Anniversary, they were my great great grandparents. The event was held in Vancouver, BC. They're the lovely elder couple in the center of the shot, with their children behind them and their grandchildren around them. The little girl in the front left is my grandmother, Merle, who would have been about eight or so at the time. Her older sisters are the two in the front right, and her little brother is the one on Selina's lap, I believe. Her parents are in the back right. He's the last in the back, and she's the second woman from the right. Most of their family lived in the area, but one branch did drive all the way up from California to attend.

Gabriel and Selina were married in Northern Wales in 1874. He was the eldest of his family, and was meant to be the one to inherit his family farm, but he wanted to go into masonry, and so after a horrible influenza outbreak where they lost their first two children, they chose to leave the area and move south to a mining town where they had six more children. Two boys and four girls. He worked on the mines, creating the masonry that held up the entrances and probably buildings of the mines, until he realized that working on the mine in that way was no more healthy than actually working in the mine. So the family moved again--this time across the sea to Canada. They settled for a time with Gabriel's brother, Louis and his family in Saskatchewan. But Louis had a farm, and Gabriel wasn't interested in being a farmer, so the family soon moved to Winnapeg, where he could do his masonry again. When their children began to move out and marry, each couple traveled west, all but one generally settling in and around Vancouver BC. Gabriel and Selina followed them west to be near their children, and settled there, living there until their deaths. Hers in 1933, and his in 1934, almost ten years after their 50th anniversary.

This photo has given me a wealth of knowledge about this branch of the family. I used to go over it with my grandmother for hours, gaining so many stories about her cousins and aunts and uncles on this side of the family. If you have similar photos, and grandparents they're connected to still around, I highly recommend it. You never know what you might learn.

52 Ancestors - Favorite Find - Jack Seneft

 As soon as I saw this prompt, I immediately thought of one of my favorite ancestors. My grandfather's uncle Jack. He's one of the side-relatives that I'm utterly fascinated by, even though I have few truly solid pieces of info about him. I don't know the order of Jack and his siblings for certain, I don't know when they moved from what is now Poland to England, or how old he was at that time. I don't even know his birth name, as he was Jewish, and Jack is most definitely an anglicization of another name. My presumption is that his name was Jacob, but I've found nothing that proves that for certain. Even his surname's spelling varies depending on time and record. The two I've seen most often are Seneft and Senefft, though at least this I can attribute to immigration and Hebrew spelling.

So if I know so little about him, why is he my favorite ancestor? Because we share a birthday. Jack was born September 13, 1891, 78 years before I was born. And despite how little I know about him, that makes me very happy.

Jack Seneft was born in what is now southeast Poland in a town called Shendeshov (also known as Sedziszow Makopolski). He was the second youngest of five siblings. I believe he and all his siblings were born in that town, which means the family likely emigrated to England sometime between 1892 and 1899, as the first is the birth year of his youngest sister, and the last is the date that my great-grandfather, one of his elder brothers, apparently served in the English military, according to my grandfather's draft registration paperwork. My great-grandfather was eight years older than his younger brother Jack. I have no information on the siblings' relationship to each other. I don't know that my grandfather even met his uncle Jack.

Which leads me to a story that I cannot prove, but have assumed for a little while now. When my grandfather's family came here from France, one of his uncles was supposed to come to Ellis Island to speak up for them so they could enter the country. He never showed up. Luckily, another family they knew from Germany saw them and stood for them so they were allowed to enter. I have no proof aside from the fact that he lived in New York, but I believe that Jack was that uncle. There were others who were in the country, but none of them were blood relations, and I don't think they lived near the harbor, so Jack would have been the closest, and makes the most sense. I do find it sad that the only story I can attribute to Jack is this story, where he may have forgotten to help my grandfather and his family. 

So what do I know about Jack? Well, his birthdate and location, which come from his naturalization record. I know he was one of five children, as one of the few Census records I have for his parents lists her only having five children. I also know that he worked for his eldest brother, Isaac Senefft in England as a tailor, which was a very common trade for Jewish immigrants. I know that he came to America, boarding the Lusitania (yes, that Lusitania) in Liverpool, England in 1911, and arrived in March of that year in New York. I know he wasn't the first in his family to come to America. His elder sister, Anne, had married and moved to America with her husband, settling in Memphis, Tennessee, so she was how he was able to enter the country. I know she came before him as her husband is listed on Jack's entry of his passenger list as his contact. And while I'm not entirely certain, I am fairly sure he lived in greater New York City until his death in 1948.

He's a fun find. Before I found his death record in New York, I had only a name. Not even a birth date or location. I like to imagine a young man, alone in New York and loving it, away from the structure of family keeping him in a box. From what I have been able to determine, he never married. Single and loving it. He was definitely a New Yorker at heart. And I'm very glad I found him.

If anyone has photos of him, I'd love to finally see his face. And if you have any information on this man, I'd love to know more about him.

52 Ancestors - Foundations - Robert James Park

So I've heard of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge before, but never joined in until this year. In the past, I found out halfway through the year, or already had too much else going on here. This year, I decided that since I was almost entirely silent here the last year or two, that it would be a good way of getting something on this blog. If you're interested, you can join the challenge here.

The first week's prompt is Foundations. I've been pondering this one since I got the prompt, trying to figure out what this would be about, since it is so very general. I did think about the person who made my maternal grandfather's family line so strong, but I've written about him a lot, so I wanted to do something different. I just wasn't sure what that might be. So this morning, I glanced through some of the other entries that have been posted to Twitter, and realized just what I wanted to do. The foundation of why I got into Genealogy in the first place.

I remember tales of my family tree as a background of my life since I was small. I remember my grandmother and her sister digging into their own lineage when I was young. My father even made hand-calligraphed family trees for each of my great grandmothers before their deaths in the early 80s. But it wasn't until 1991 when I lost my grandfather that I felt the need to actively dig into my family tree.

My grandfather's mother, Mary Park was Irish American. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania along with all of her brothers and sisters, but their parents came from what is now Northern Ireland. Upon my grandfather's death, I realized I knew almost nothing about that branch, and that there were almost no members of that family left. It set me on a path to learn everything I could about that side of my family tree. Eventually, that became all branches of my ancestry, but that side has always held a deep fascination for me.

At the beginning of my search, all I knew was what I could glean from my mother, her siblings, and their mother. The nice thing was that they'd spent a lot of time with Granny before her death in the early 80s, since Grandpa was her only surviving child. The bad thing was that they knew nothing before Granny's parents. So for a long while, all I had was the name of my great-grandmother, her siblings, and their parents. And nothing before they had arrived in America.

Until I finally got my hands on their death certificates. Which helped with my great-great grandmother,  Elizabeth Park nee Curran, but not my great-great grandfather, Robert James Park. Her parents were listed as Thomas Curran and Jane Blair, which led me to several more records, and a more firm knowledge that that branch, at least, was from Antrim in Northern Ireland. His parents, unfortunately, were far less helpful as listed on his death certificate: John Park and Dunlop. No first name, just Dunlop.

Now, I had often wondered if perhaps my great grandmother might have been named for her grandmother, as that is a very common thing to do, and her middle name was Dunlop, so that part, at least, was confirmed. But I had no way of proving her grandmother's first name, as I could find it listed nowhere else.

Until last year, when a cousin got in touch with me. (Hi Kate! :D) Her grandmother was my great-grandmother's youngest sibling, and so we had a lot in common trying to untangle who Robert Park was, and who his parents were. Some of the records I found confirmed a birthplace for him of Ballymena, Ireland, now in Northern Ireland. But none of the records either of us could find listed anything quite right to prove his parents. So she began to check with her DNA matches and compared them to possible records, and ended up talking to someone at Family Search who helped her confirm Robert's parents. Not John, as was listed on the death certificate I found, but David Park. And the wife listed? Mary Dunlop. So now I know for certain, my great-grandmother was named for her grandmother. The Dunlop middle name was also passed to two of her younger siblings. 

So as of now, my ancestral line on this side of my family goes back solidly another two generations. Starting from Robert, his parents were David Park Esquire and his wife Mary Dunlop. David's father was John Park. We haven't yet been able to determine his mother's name. Mary's parents as my cousin found them were Robert Dunlop and Mary Baird. And that's as far back as I currently have. Not bad, given that I had one and a half people before, and one was wrong.

So my lessons to anyone interested? Even if it takes 30 years, keep looking. New records are uncovered or uploaded to the net every day. You never know what you might find. Talk to family. Because they see things different than you, or may have information you don't have. And get those DNA tests, because that was a lot of what gave my cousin the hints that helped her focus in on names.

That's all for now. Good luck in your searches!