Matrilinial Monday – Mary Dunlop Bordewick

Name: Mary "May" Dunlop Park

Called by Grandkids: Granny

Birth: 1891, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Death: 1982, Des Moines, Washington, USA

Spouse: Bjarne Bordewick

Marriage: 1917, Vancouver, BC, USA

Children: George & Henry

Parents: Robert James Park and Elizabeth Curran

Siblings: Jennie (unconfirmed), Helen (unconfirmed), Robert Curran, Elizabeth, Rhoda, Margaret, George, Florence

About: May Park was the fifth child of Robert and Elizabeth Park, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as all of her siblings were. Her parents had immigrated to the US shortly after their marriage in Northern Ireland (somewhere around the county of Antrim, possibly Belfast), and settled there in 1883 or so. She grew up there for the first ten years of her life, before things became too difficult for her father to continue do business as a cabinet maker, so they returned to Ireland. They lived there for five or so more years before one of their eldest children moved to Canada, and wrote back glowing letters about the country, so the family moved again, this time settling in Vancouver, BC.

In Vancouver, May met the man who became her husband, Bjarne Bordewick. He was a recent immigrant himself, having made several stops between Norway and Vancouver, and soon the couple married. Their eldest son was born a year later. They settled in Vancouver and raised two boys there before the war broke out in Europe. Both sons went to war. Only one returned. But George, their eldest, had married before heading off to the front, and they had a new grandson to console them while he was away. After his return, the Bordewick clan grew again, two daughters born to George and his wife. May doted on them all.

Unfortunately, after a move in 1950, Bjarne was struck by a car, and died, and May was left alone. Her younger sister Marge moved in with her, and the two kept house together until both grew too frail to live on their own. By this time, George's family had expanded by another son, a daughter-in-law, and two sons-in-law, not to mention May's first great-grandchild. George and his family had moved to Washington state in 1960 when he'd needed a new job, and so he moved her down to be closer to the family, and so that he could keep a closer eye on her. He got a place for her in a Masonic Home, and she lived there until her death.

Merle, May, and May's granddaughter and great-grandaughters ca 1977

Brick Wall People – Part 9 – Ole Larsen

No Known Photo

Name: Ole Larsen

Birth: my records list his birthdate as about 1812.

Death: Sometime after 1900, I believe.

Marriage: 1851 in Slots-Bjergby, Denmark.

Location(s): Slots-Bjergby, Denmark, Minnesota, USA

Relation to me: Ole Larsen was my paternal grandmother's mother's mother's father, which makes him 6^th generation before me.

Alias(es): None known at this time.

Parents: unknown

Spouse(s): Birthe Marie Schrøder

Children: Maren Sofie

Other Family: Oscar, brother; Oscar Jr and Tina, nephew and niece.

Details: Ole is a little odd, as I know a lot and at the same time very little about him. I have both his wedding record to his wife and his daughter's birth record, and know that he came here to the states about the time his daughter was born. I know that he had a farm here in Minnesota, and that he had a brother and a niece and nephew here in the states, and that their branch ended with them, at least according to my great-great uncle, Hans.

His isn't a positive story, but it's also very common for the period. Ole came here to America promising that he would send for his wife and their daughter and her children once he settled, but he never did. I'm not sure what happened to keep her from coming aside from the difficulty of a trip with three children, one of whom was quite small, but they never saw each other again. I don't know if he had any further contact via letters, either to his wife or to his daughter, but I do know that his grandson, Hans finally came to the States and met him. Or at least I believe he met him before his death, though I am uncertain when that was.

Other than that, I know nothing about him. I'd love to know more about his story, and where exactly he lived in Minnesota.

Proof:

1)      My initial proof for Lars comes from his wedding record to Birthe in 1851. It gives no parents, unfortunately.

2)      My next is from their daughter's baptism record in 1855. It doesn't prove he was in Denmark at that point, but it at least confirms he is Maren Sofie's father.

3)      The next bit of info is an interview with my great-great uncle Hans, in which he mentions him once or twice, mostly about how he went to his farm after coming to the US.

4)      And the last bit is in a few letters between my grandmother and her sister about the Hansen family, one of which specifically mentions his desertion of his wife and daughter, though it makes no mention of her other two daughters, so I'm not sure if they knew about them.

Needed:

I do have a birth date for Ole, but it's from his wedding record, so it might not be exactly right, and I have no real death information on him, especially since he died well before the Social Security registry was in existence. I keep searching for him in the Censuses, but unfortunately his name was incredibly common, especially in that area. Not to mention that I don't know if he was going by Larsen or Larson here in the states, because it was common for all Scandinavians in the US to take the –son version of the surname, regardless of where they came from at the time. I'd love to know where he lived in Minnesota, and when he came over. I'd also love to know the names of his parents and any other siblings he might have had.

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

Matrilinial Monday – Oline Hansen

Name: Julie Oline Hansen

Called by Grandkids: While she never got to meet her grandkids, I have learned that my father and his siblings would have possibly called her Mormor.

Birth: 1886, Fjenneslev, Denmark

Death: 1929, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Spouse: Holger Hansen

Marriage: 1918, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Children: Margaret, Marilyn, Torben

Parents: Rasmus Hansen and Maren Sofie Olsen

Siblings: Herman, Maren Hansine, Hans Kristian, Johanne, Ole

About: Oline was born in Fjenneslev, Denmark, just about in the center of Sealand, which is the large island on the east side of the country which has Copenhagen as the most-eastern point. Her father owned a farm, Stubbegaard, which he had inherited from his father, and which was passed on to his eldest son when he came of age. 

At the age of 8, her father died, and so she and her two elder siblings helped out on the farm. She did not particularly like working on the farm, so eventually she went to those in their town who could afford to pay for help, and began to work as a maid, cook, and seamstress. She ended up with a job with the agriculture minister at the time, and moved with the family to Fredericksburg, just outside of Copenhagen, and lived there for a few years.

Soon after, her younger brother Hans decided to travel to America and find his way there. After a short time, Oline followed him, eventually settling in Chicago doing much the same work she had done in Denmark.

On a trip back to Denmark in 1916, she met another young Dane traveling back to visit with his family. The two spent much time on board together, and when a blockade prevented their return to the US for a time, he sought her out in Fjenneslev, and courted her there. Upon their return to America, he moved to Cleveland, and she soon followed. They were married shortly before the end of the war. My grandmother was born about a year later.

Oline had two more children, and made their home comfortable and happy while Holger built houses. He built the home they lived in, and Oline cooked, washed, and made clothes. Often their family came to visit or even to stay for a time. Her brother Hans was fond of stopping by for supper. Unfortunately, like her father before her, she caught a respiratory ailment, and in early 1929, it became pneumonia, and she died.

Holger sent his children to live with his younger brother, and moved them to a new home. He couldn't stand the thought of staying in the home where she had died.

Oline, Maggie and Holger, ca 1920

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.