As I've mentioned from time to time, one of the more frustrating genealogical walls I've been banging my head against is in my mother's maternal grandmother's family. Her grandmother was born in Denmark in 1871, and came to this country with her parents likely sometime in 1872, but pinning down exact names, dates, and locations has caused me to scare the cats with foul language on more than one occasion. Join me below the orange cheese doodle to hear the sanitized, family friendly version.
Genealogy & Family History Community
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It's not as if these people were a complete mystery to me ... Mom had some fond memories and funny stories about her grandparents; and she knew that her grandmother had been born in Denmark, and that her maiden name was Peterson. But asking specific questions was a difficult thing, and I could see there were some painful triggers there. You see, her own mother had died in a tragic accident at the young age of 34; her father remarried several years later, and I gathered that perhaps her grandparents did not fully approve of their son-in-law's second wife (a divorcee, of all horrors). While contacts were not severed, it seems they may have been somewhat curtailed--at least as far as Mom's recollections went.
One interesting side note: In the immediate aftermath of grandma's death, Mom--age 5--went to live with her g-uncle Julius for a few months. Fifteen years later, when my Dad first took her to meet his own parents, the first thing her future father-in-law said to her was, "Why, I believe I know you...didn't you stay with the family of Julius Peterson as a little girl?"
And I knew where they all were buried ... in fact, the Petersons and Careys are buried in the same cemetery as my parents! I had pictures of their graves!
All I would need to do would be to order their death certificates from the State of Wisconsin using the names and dates on the tombstones, and I'd have everything I'd need to start searching for information from Denmark. This was ten years ago, and I was such a naive n00b. State of Wisconsin said they could find any of these death certificates.
I was dumbfounded, but realized I need to fill in some more local blanks to find out where I had gone wrong. I found a tree online that held promise, which said my gg-grandfather was known as James Peterson, but his birth name had been Jens Christjian Peterson, son of Peter Christianson. His wife was more of a mystery...her given name was either Maren or Karen, but she was sometimes known as Marian or JoAnna; her father was likely Anders Muller, but maybe not. Their first child (my g-grandmother), who went all her life by Myra, was really named Pethria, or maybe Maria Petrine. They came to America by way of Racine, where they worked for a couple of years before moving on to Juneau County.
Well, this was definitely news to me, and a lot to digest, but I began looking for evidence to support these claims. Sure enough, I found this promising family on the 1880 census:
This shows a J.C. Peterson, wife Johanna, of the right age, born in Denmark, and the oldest child, a girl named "Pethrea", was the only child born in Denmark, living in the right township and county. The younger children had names which matched. Until I started this line of research, I had assumed that "P" g-grandma had used as a middle initial had stood for "Peterson" but perhaps it was indeed for "Pethrea". (Or maybe both ... "Petrine" appears to be a common feminine form of "Peter", so it may be that she was named for her paternal grandfather, Peter Christianson.)
Next I found some great plat maps of the area from 1898 and 1940. The 1898 map shows a couple of parcels held in the name of "J.C. Peterson" adjacent to a parcel in the name of "Christ Peterson" ... "Christ" appears to have been a lifelong bachelor, and the younger brother of Jens (he is buried in an unmarked grave in the same family plot). The 1940 map shows that the "J.C. Peterson" plots are owned by Elizabeth Nelson (Myra's younger sister), and the "Christ Peterson" land is now owned by Myra's brother Julius Peterson, and his son Clifford...aha, so this is where my Mom stayed as a very young child!
All well and good, but still no explanation as to why the State of Wisconsin could not find the death certificates. Eventually, I found an obituary from 1912 for my gg-grandmother, which helped with some information, but most definitely did NOT help with the name problem:
I next found an obituary for my my g-grandmother that solved part of the mystery. Apparently, a few years after her husband died, Myra married again. No one among my cousins knew this, so maybe Mom didn't know it either. Sigh. Well now, I could get her death certificate, which had this information:
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Excerpts from G-Grandma's death certificate |
Wait a minute!
Myrna??? Ok, close enough. Must not obsess... Anyway, note that the reporting person, is a Mrs. Cochrane--her daughter (otherwise known as my g-aunt Nina). About this time, one of my cousins was digging through her mother's collection of old photos and miscellaneous "stuff", and she found a letter written in the 1960s from our g-Aunt Nina. Check out these excerpts, which correspond nicely with the online tree I'd found a few years earlier:
Very fine, but would have been finer to have had this earlier, lol. Nina did a lot of deferring to her Uncle Julius, who would know more ... Julius who died in 1979, and so could no longer be asked anything in person. Anyway, I bravely ordered Jens and Johanna's death certificates once again, hoping Julius at least had shared his greater knowledge on the official record. Here is his input on his mother's death certificate:
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From his mother's death certificate |
Sigh, but there is hope for his father's death certificate:
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From his father's death certificate |
Sigh again, because it was not Julius who did the reporting, but his sister Lizzie's husband. Still we are getting closer. And, wait a minute, what about Jen's brother Christ? So I ordered one more death certificate and held my breath. Sure enough, Julius was there to add a smidge more info regarding his grandmother!
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From his uncle Christ's death certificate |
Now I had two parents to look for, and indeed found a baptismal record for gg-grandfather Jens!
And joy of joy an actual location in Denmark! Still a long, long way to go on this line, but the brick wall has quite a few more holes in it. And my gg-grandparents seem like the patient type who will keep watch until their story is told:
Unfortunately, I have some meetings which will keep me from responding to comments until early afternoon. In the meantime, feel free to share your latest and greatest finds...but behave yourselves. ;)