Friday, July 9, 2010

G-G Grandparents on my dad's side

Paternal g-g grandparents - the Swedes and the Danes


Pedar Bengston married Katerina Johansdatter in Virestad, Kronosberg, Smaland Sweden; both were born in Sweden, as were all their children and the family immigrated to Chicago in the early1870's.


Smith - all I know is they were from Sweden and this is not the original name.


Kjaer - stayed in Denmark, around Holstebro. My dad's first cousin has done a very detailed family history and has graciously shared it all with me.


Sorenson - stayed in Denmark and like the Kjaer's, cousin Jim has done a wonderful family history on them as well.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

G-G Grandparents on my mom's side

These are my g-g grandparents:


Maternal - the Irish and the Germans


Jeremiah Quill married Hannah McCarty, both born in Ireland; married in 1856 Camden NJ
lived in Philadelphia, Ohio and St. Paul MN


James S. Rochford married Bridget Maloney, both born in Ireland; married before 1862, place unknown
lived in NY state and St. Paul MN


Heinrich/Henry Herbst married Louisa Lindroth, both born in Germany; married in Germany before 1845 
owned a farm in Leyden Twp, Cook Co. IL, an area referred to as Mannheim


Charles/Carl Dettman married Frederika Bahr, both born in Germany; married in Germany before 1860
owned a grocer shop in Chicago, IL on Lincoln St. (not Lincoln Avenue)


My Quill's have also been spelled and indexed in various databases as Ouill, Quesal, Quale, Duill and Gill.


The Rochford's are listed as Rockford, Rochefort, Rocheford.


Dettman sometimes has one 't' and two 'n's' or one 't' and one 'n'  or 2 't's' and 2 'n's'


Bahr is also listed as Barr.


Lindroth is more of an educated guess than a certainty, all sorts of spellings on that one.


I have found census records for all of the families above, from their first appearance in the US Census until their deaths. I also have all the death certificates, with the exception of the Herbst's. I have also been to the grave sites for all my maternal g-g grandparents, pretty amazing experience each and every time!


The most amazing thing is that I have found these family members at all. When I started all I knew where the first and last names of my great grandparents. As I began to research it was funny how all of a sudden some long buried tidbit would pop into my brain.  The death certificate for my grandpa Quill, Thomas J. (we called him Boo) had him born in Chicago. But then while searching for John Quill in FamilySearch.org I found one married in St. Paul MN to a Kate Rochford. Bells went off and I remembered my grandpa talking about St. Paul. Sure enough, my grandpa and 3 of his sisters were all born in St. Paul MN, not Chicago.


A census record for my great grandma Kate's brother listed one of his children named Clementine. Another bolt in the brain sent me looking through a box of photos and there it was, a picture of me with my grandpa's cousin Clemmy at my parents house in 1967.

Monday, July 5, 2010

My Genealogy Story

I began researching my family in 2002, grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles all long dead. My maternal grandpa, with Irish grandparents, always said the Quill's were from Dingle Bay. My maternal grandma, of German grandparents, taught me to count in German and talked about the farm in Mannheim, in what is now a suburb of Chicago. One day while my dad was visiting I asked him about his family, his Danish and Swedish grandparents. He had 43 first cousins and I sat and scribbled names on a piece of steno paper. Most of those had the last names Johnson and Smith.


One day at school another teacher who had been working on genealogy for many years showed me the 1920 census online. I typed my great-grandfather's name, John Quill and Chicago and sure enough, there he was, with wife Kate and and couple of my great aunts. I was hooked! Every spare minute I spent online, searching census records and the Family Search website hoping to find more information. That folded up piece of steno paper was still in the address book and that came out and names were typed into any database I could find. I was certain I would find the family trees all ready for me.


Well, it has been eight years and so far the only family trees I have are the ones I have created from my own research. Some relatives have surfaced along the way and have added wonderful information and even some pictures. But my journey continues into finding the mysteries of my family, Irish, German, Swedish & Danish. Not so much of a melting pot as some families, but a fine mixture never the less.


This is where I am going to share my genealogy journey: my family, my research, the successes, frustrations, challenges, research tips, and links.