LINN AND LIND

Could it be that we are related to EVERY Linn in the middle of Iowa? How about the surname Lind? After all, Gus and John’s last names were often spelled Lynn, so why not Lind? In this post, I’m going to attempt to set the record straight on these surnames.

I’ll take one married couple in our family tree:

Marie Ellen Linn, born in Lehigh, Webster County, Iowa, in 1908, married Clemens Gustaf Emanuel Lind in Lehigh on 26 January 1926. Clemens was born in 1902 in Harcourt, also in Webster County. This couple had 3 children: Donald, Phyllis, and Richard.

So, are either Marie Ellen or Clemens Gustaf related to us? If they are in our tree, they certainly are in some form. Which would you guess is the relative?

It might surprise you to learn that it’s Clemens Gustaf Emanuel Lind who is our relative. Marie Ellen Linn is not.

Let’s start with Clemens who is our distant relative. Clemens is listed as the nephew of the husband of the second cousin three times removed. OK, I said it wasn’t a CLOSE relative! Clemens’ mother was a Challgren, which shows some form of relationship to me. But more importantly, Julia Linn* and Peter Berg’s daughter, Francis, married Arthur Challgren, a brother to Jennie Challgren who married Frank Lind.

And it’s Frank Lind and Jennie Challgren Linn who are the parents of Clemens Gustaf Emanuel Lind.

Confusing? It can be without a genealogy program that shows all of these relationships. We clearly are not related closely to the Lind family. But we are related. Challgrens were friends of my parents in Dayton. And I see the surname Lind at reunion news articles and other family get-togethers.

Now let’s look at Marie Ellen Linn who is not related to us other than to have married Clemens Gustaf Emanuel Lind.

Marie was born in Lehigh, Webster County, Iowa, to Jessie William Linn and Lillie Belle Needham. Following Jessie Linn, we see he was born in Missouri in 1881 to Francis Marion Linn and Esther Gillespie. Francis Linn was born in Illinois in 1840. Francis’ parents, Isaac Linn and Mary McVay, were born in Ohio. Isaac was born in 1820.

We can see, just by these few generations back, that these Linns were not from Sweden. First, none of the men married a Swedish woman. Second, very few Swedes came to the United States before the 1840’s. Isaac Linn was born here in 1820. There is some evidence that the next generation back is from Pennsylvania and before that, from Ireland. I’ve not been able to trace this family farther back at this time; and I doubt that I’ll spend more time on these Linns since they are not related to us.

One other interesting fact that might shed light on the other Linns is that they were not buried where OUR Linns were buried. Ours were in Dayton Cemetery, Linn-Bethel Owen Cemetery and others in and around the Boone and Pilot Mound areas.

These other Linns were buried north of Dayton cemeteries: McGuire Bend Cemetery (about 14 miles north of Dayton, near the Des Moines River) and West Lawn Cemetery (just outside of Lehigh). While there are many Linns in those two cemeteries, none are related to us.

 

*Julia Linn was John Linn’s daughter, shown to be the first white child born in Webster County, Iowa.

 

 

The red pin shows McGuire Bend Cemetery; at the top of this photo is Lehigh. The West Lawn Cemetery is just west of the town.