Monday, May 31, 2010
Hopkins Family
Here are some transcribed pages from the will of Archibald (our direct ancestor). I find it quite interesting.
p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6
Archibald had 5 children with his wife Jennet Love Hopkins, one of whom was a son Ephriam.
Ephriam had 7 children with his wife Nancy Shanklin Hopkins, one of whom was a son Archibald (this is a popular name in this family).
Archibald had 6 children with his wife Ruth Gordon including a daughter Sarah Ann,
Sarah Ann had 8 children with her husband Archibald Hopkins (a cousin) one of whom was Nancy Catherine whom married Thomas Bradshaw.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Pictures
I start with this one, my parents wedding :)
Here is one at my parents wedding reception. it's great because it's got both of their parents in it as well. They look mahvelous
Here is a great pic of my mothers parents, Ole and Mildred Lund, looking suave in Panama
Here is a pic at my Grandma Charles and Elsie Campbell's 50th Wedding Anniversary. This includes their children Marian, Glenn, my dad Jerry, Virgil and Virginia.
Some more pics from my moms side....
my uncle Dick harvesting on the Lund homestead
My Mothers Maternal Grandfather Carl Hendriksen
My Mothers Paternal Grandparents Olaf and Lina
more to come
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Judge Thomas Bradshaw
Cencus records would indicate Smith Bradshaw was farming in MO in the years Thomas grew up. He and Elizabeth had 11 children. Thomas was one of the youngest if not the youngest. When the civil war broke out, Thomas joined the Confederacy. He would have been only 18 years old.
I had heard we had a confederate in our family, and my cousin confirmed he was the one, so I started digging. The whole thing makes me kinda sad really, for all involved. I have very strong feelings about the confederacy and then the first records I found on Ancestry.com were POW records. The Confederates didn't keep alot of records, especially not the outfit he was part of I'd imagine. Let me elaborate. The POW records list his unit as Porters, in Marion County, MO. Now I feel pretty comfortable associating our Thomas with this regiment as Joseph C Porter , was actually Thomas' cousin. Porter was tasked with recruitment and bushwacking in Northern Mo where he lived. So it makes alot of sense. The records are less than perfect but it looks like Thomas was captured Oct 10, 1862 and looks to have been in custody till June of 1863, spending time in Gratiot Street Prison and Alton Prison, neither of which I would wish on anyone.
I don't really know what happened to him during the rest of the war. I do know he met and married Nancy Catherine Hopkins in Rockingham County Va (I have requested those records), in Oct 1865. They moved back to Mo. Together they had 8 children, 5 of whom survived to adulthood. They farmed. Later in life he became a Judge. He passed in 1910.
I am attaching a copy of a civil war POW record, his obituary, and his death certificate
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Danish Saga Kings? Ja Youbetcha
Apparently this family has done extensive research into their heritage. Mom was given a copy of some of the final output relating directly to her Grandfather. I don't know what documentation was done.
So last night I started trying to translate the forward to this book. Jay! This is for you! Viking Kings and Archers abound.
"Schytte-family are our oldest known relatives in the Nordic countries. With the help of the family seal, this family traced back to the old Danish saga-kings,
all the way to the last part of the 8th century. The family's oldest members stand out as good archers, and although the seal has changed over time, archery remains in the design of the seal. Their family members who took the doctor degree in the 16th and 17th century, selected the nickname toxotious, (Latin for archery). It is likely that the actual family name Schytte comes from archery.
Right up to the 15th century Taa was used as a nickname in the Schytte-family. Professor Barry Koht believed that it came from club foot, that often walked in the family. Several Danish and Norwegian Viking Kings were of Taa/Schytte family, among them Harold Harfargre.
The image of family vapnet / seal is from "Geschlechterbuch der Familie Schutte" by Albert Schuthe, Harburg-Wilhelmsburg, Germany. "
so this is gonna be interesting. What I do know is that Great Grandpa Carl (Hendriksen) came from an island called Vega in Norway. He spent at least some time fishing with his father. His father, Hendrik Johan Eriksen, drown on a fishing boat. His mother's name was Henrika Peternella Johanna Klaudatter. These are taken directly from the family document. I will post some family sheets as I continue going through it.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Ladies Night
Emma, my mothers maternal grandmother, arrived on the Bergensfjord in New York on 6/19/1916. Sadly she passed away in 1928 of complications after gallbladder surgery, leaving behind her husband Carl and young daughter, Mildred. She is listed as being from Helgeland district of Norway.
Emma Part 1 Emma Part 2
Lina was my mothers paternal grandmother. She arrived in New York on 10/5/1909, on a ship called United States. She was from Snaasa (yeah I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong), Norway. Lina went to Spokane, WA with her friend, and I am not sure how she wound up meeting my Great Grandpa. Have begun looking for her Marriage document. Olaf and Lina had three boys, Ole, Arnold and Ivar, and one girl, Anne together. I posted some information about their homestead in Simpson, MT a few days ago, and after farming and raising their family they retired to Mesa, AZ. Lina lived a long productive life, if the records I have are to be believed, 98 years long. I met her once or twice when I was quite young. I am hoping maybe my mom will tell us a little bit about what kind of person she was as she knew her in the comments.
Lina Part 1 Lina Part 2
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Germany
What we learned yesterday was that there are some basic tools to help identify the correct microfilm/s to order. I have jumped one hurdle I believe, in that I have basically located place of origin for both my Great Grandpa Frederick (Fritz) Matthies, and my Great Grandma Bertha Beise.
I lucked out really. Bertha travelled with her parents Carl and Johanna? (this is interesting in that cencus records list her as Minnie), a brother August, and two sisters, Anna and Martha. They travelled out of Hamburg, on the Dania (click on the D at the top and scroll down to Dania), May 10, 1890, and arrived in New York harbor May 22, 1890. Hamburg kept good records and I have record of both ends of the journey documenting the town they came from. Bertha was 13.
Her future husband Frederick Matthies arrived in Baltimore on the SS Oldenburg on Apr 14, 1892. I am still investigating whom he travelled with. He was 24, but there was a Matthies family that travelled on that ship, and there was some kind of relationship. The Oldenburg sailed out of Bremen. They didn't keep their departure records, and thankfully the arrival records included town of origin. Finding his record was a trick. Love Ancestry, but his record wasn't coming up on my searches of his index. It was suggested that town of origin was on his naturalization records, so I went to Minnesota Historical Society and got a copy of those records. There I found the month and year of arrival and port of arrival, and was able to scan the ship records visually to find him.
I have several documents from Swift County MN, where they settled temporarily, including Fritz and Berthas marriage certificate, and Fritz's naturalization records, but don't have them scanned at this point in time. I am attaching the departure/arrival records
Bertha departure Bertha arrival Fritz departure
From there they introduced us to some tools to determine what town originally held the records that are needed for the search, because that is how the FHC would have them indexed. The interesting thing is most the records would be kept by Churches of course, and you really should know whether they were Protestant or Catholic (or Jewish if that is the case) cuz the Churches or Synagogue might not be in the same town. This might sound dumb but I don't honestly know the answer to this for Fritz and Bertha but am expecting Protestant. Soooo next step is to check into this and order the microfilm!
Homesteading
So because I didn't get a chance to scan any more of my paper documents in the past few days, and also because I'm kinda excited to have received these documents electronically today, I'm gonna switch gears and post about my moms family. I received the homestead application of my Mother's Paternal Grandmother, Lina Lund, today. She homesteaded with her husband, Olaf, up in Simpson, MT. Simpson is literally 20 miles from the Canadian border. The closest thing to a town really was Havre. I linked that article because I often wonder about their personal stories of those early days. I have heard a few of the town generally during the wild and woolly bootlegging days, and took a fascinating tour called 'Havre beneath the streets'
Olaf and Lina's (gee guess where they are from :)) farm, at least part of it IIRC, is still in the family. I will have to get some pictures to post. They are not the only ones in the family to get their 320 acres though. Lena's brother Ingvald, and my Great Grandpa Marion Campbell (dads side of course), also got their land. Interestingly enough my father said the other day 320 acres is not, was not, nearly enough to make a living up there. There were some tough times. But its amazing land, feels a bit like you are on top of the world. I will post Marion Campbell's and Ingvald Nagelhus' (yup thats right, Nagelhus) applications when I get them in a couple days.
I will also be ordering homestead records from North Dakota. I understand Olaf homesteaded there around 1900 and I'm pretty sure folks in my dads maternal line did the same. Land, land everywhere.
so for those interested here are links to the documents. As you can see there are lots of hoops to jump through.
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First Post
So I am not much of a writer, but I thought I'd give this a shot. I've had a great deal of fun and even a few adventures in my few short months of doing family research. At this point I'd like to share some of what I've learned with those who would be interested, including some of the documents I've assembled.
So I'm going to start with my Grandfather Charles Campbell. Just one week ago I was running round a graveyard in Henry County, KY with my oldest brother snapping pictures of graves. We were hot on the trail of my great great great grandfather John. Actually I'm still working on that one. But we had fun anyway. We also made it to the deed room in New Castle.
So I suppose I should take a step back. Grandpa Charlie is my paternal Grandfather. A Campbell of course, I remember him as a very personable guy, loved to laugh, play cards of all sorts, and buy me dairy queen from down the street :). I'll say more about him in future entries, but for now lets just put some basic facts up.
Charlie was born in 11/6/1902 in Green City, Sullivan, MO to
Marion Campbell and Annie Virginia Bradshaw Campbell
Marion Campbell was born 4/29/1866 in Knox County, MO to
James Campbell and Rebecca Anderson Campbell
James Campbell was born 4/20/1837 in Henry Co, KY to John Campbell and Annie Scott Campbell
Book Cover P1 P2Here it gets fuzzy. Information would indicate that John was born in 1804
I think he was born to another John. I will submit my case in my next entry I think but enough for tonight and forgive me link issues on my first post.