Linn Photos

To everyone who finds this blog,

I apologize for being absent for a few weeks. Life does have a way of putting some things to the front and pushing others to the back of our lives. But you can see from the photo below, one big piece of news our family is sharing:

On September 9, Penny Belle joined our family and clearly is loved by her two big brothers, Colton and Max. We are overjoyed by this new addition; and you can be sure that she and her brothers will know their family history and learn about their lives that made it possible for all of us to be here to welcome a new life.

In addition to helping with our grandchildren, I've also been spending a great deal of time in front of my computer, going through the thousands of photos and documents that I've inherited from mom, scanning many photos, and adding them to my ancestry.com page. If any of you have an ancestry account, let me know and I'll invite you to be a guest so you can see all of the work I've been doing there.

But I also want to use a couple of these posts to share some of the more interesting photos that I've found and scanned. In this blog, I'll concentrate on Linn photos. Next time around, I'll move to the Olofsons; and after that maybe a look at Lundgrens, Rasks, and others to whom we are related.

Charles Henry Linn was my second great uncle, the youngest child of Gus and Catherine Lundblad Linn. As a young man, Charles and his wife Louise moved to Nebraska where they raised two children, Wallace, and Helen. You may recall the death of Charles was quite unusual. Below is a reminder from the Omaha newspaper:

Omaha Daily Bee, August 19, 1913:

During the severe storm that visited Kansas City Saturday night Charles H. Linn, 2511 Ames avenue, was killed by a lightning shock while using the telephone. The bolt had hit somewhere along the line just at a time when he had the receiver to his ear. He died shortly afterwards. Surviving him besides the widow are two children, Wallace and Helen, both of whom live at home.

Mr. Linn was 46 years of age and conducted a business at Kansas City. His home, however, was in Omaha. 

Isn't Charles a fine looking man, dressed to impress?

Next is a photo of my great uncle Frank Linn, brother of Peter and Elsie Linn. He is holding one of our dear cousins, Joan, who just celebrated another birthday last weekend.

Below is a photo of Julia Linn Berg. Julia was said to have been the first white child born in Webster County, Iowa. The daughter of John Linn and his first wife, Julia was born on January 8, 1851. She married a minister, Rev. Peter Berg, and had two daughters, Edna and Frances.

Julia died in 1905 after an operation for cancer.

I love the photos that show our ancestors as young people, living fun lives. Laughing, dancing, playing instruments, and the following. A photo of Peter Linn with Ken Carlson on the back of a motorcycle in 1913. Wouldn't any of us love to have that motorcycle today?

Cedar Brook farm is where Andrew and Elin Andersson Linn lived and raised their 3 children. Standing outside their front door is Elin, Elsie, Andrew; and in front Frank and Peter Linn.

Between the Linns and Olofsons, there were many cousins for our parents to play with. The picture below shows many of them. I left the handwritten labels on there so you can find those to whom you are related. They are all related to me.

The Linns and Olofsons were musical families. And so were the Lundgrens. Below is a photo that shows Pete Linn on both the mandolin and banjo. Others in the photos, I believe, are Lundgrens.

Do you know the story of how Pete Linn and Floyd Olsen managed to move a very, very heavy rock from the farm south of Dayton to the park near the Dayton elementary school? Read the article below to learn just how difficult it was.

It was dedicated as a memorial rock for local soldiers who served in the Civil War. What a great tribute and one I'm so proud that my grandfather was a major part of.

Our Linns must have been very, very social. I have so many photos of parties, dances, card playing, and more. Sadly, most are unlabeled. But my last photo for this post is one that was labeled. I've kept the labels so you, too, can recognize some of the important members of our family.

I hope you enjoyed this look at some of our ancestors and their daily activities. While this is a huge job for me that will take years, I'm enjoying learning more about my ancestors and scanning as many photos as I can.

Next week: the Olofsons

SCHOOL RECORDS

Would you be comfortable sharing the grades you earned in elementary school through high school? Would the notes or comments made by your teachers about your behavior or attitude be ones you would be happy to share with your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren?

In genealogy, some school records are available for viewing online. Many of our high school yearbooks are on Ancestry.com where we can view what our spouse looked like years ago, what an uncle or aunt’s activities were. When I look at the North High School yearbooks for the years I attended, I see my hideous hair styles, see clubs and activities I was in, and many more memories in picture form.

The grades and attendance records for the schools in Webster county when our parents or grandparents attended school are available. First, my mom and I located them in Fort Dodge, but the copies were somewhat blurry and the machine couldn’t read and clear them for viewing. I thought I wouldn’t be able to access them. But a couple of years later, I learned that the University of Northern Iowa had taken possession of these school records and were willing to make hard copies of several pages from different schools and years. I had to act quickly, deciding which might contain my closest relatives, made my list and sent it off. A few weeks later, I received the copies and paid their fee. Today, those records have been moved again, and while I’ve tried to gain access and even elicited the help from a head librarian in Fort Dodge who had connections, we were never able to access those records again.

But I do have several records for both sides of my family (OVER 250 pages!). And today I’m sharing a few with you. Aren’t you curious?

This first grade report is from June 1899, Hardin Township. I've put a little arrow to the left of two names we all know: Vernie Olofson and Lilly Olofson. Vernie was 8 years old; Lilly was 6 years old and they were both in the first grade. Both attended 37 days of the session. A young man named Eddie who was 12 years old attended just 10 days. Often I found the boys above the age of 10 attending fewer days each session, ostensibly to help out on the farm at times of the year.

The next grade report is also from Hardin Township, 1907. If you again look at the left side, you will see a few names I marked: Frankie Linn, age 12, 5th grade, attended 42 days. His grades were all in the 80s and 90s. Down the page is Maudie Olofson, age 10, attended 50 days, in the 8th grade. I wonder about the accuracy of that, but perhaps my grandmother was advanced! Her grades were mostly in the 80s with one 90.

Next is Lilly Olofson, age 12, attended 49 days, in the 5th grade. Lilly had a few grades in the 70s and the rest in the 80s. 

The third report is from Richey School for the entire 1930 school year. One name is marked: Rolland Linn, age 5. He attended school for a total of 169 1/2 days. His grades were all in the 80s. Stanley is on line 7. He was 8 years old and attended 168 days. His grades were in the 90s and 80s. 

The final one that I'm posting today is from 1905, Hardin Township #2. Several Linn and Olofson relatives are listed as well as other names of more distant relatives like Houseberg, Westling, Larson. In this record, we see the first 5 listings are close relatives: Elsie Linn, age 15, Vernie Olofson, age 14, Lillie Olofson, age 12, Peter Linn, age 12, Frankie Linn, age 9, and farther down is Maude Olofson, age 8. My grandmother Maude had one grade of 80, but all other grades for all of these relatives were in the 90s. 

A smart bunch, don't you think? Given the hard work they had to do on the farm, responsibilities for chores and tasks, walking to and from school, and doing homework, they were very busy young people. Most of these one-room school houses had fewer than15 students per session, but can you imagine being a teacher with students from age 5 to 12 or beyond? Being responsible for activities, lessons, heat, safety and more? As a retired teacher myself, I'm glad I taught one subject at a time!

I realize that some of you might not be able to enlarge the records on your computer. If there are any of these, or of the 250+ more I have that you would like me to look through, copy and send, please let me know.

Age Differences

 

It’s not unusual to be attracted to and marry someone who is several years older OR several years younger than we are. It is true today and was true hundreds of years ago when our ancestors were alive and making their arrangements to marry.

In Sweden, all couples, starting in the late 1600’s, needed to meet with the local priest, go through the banns (3 weeks of announcing their intention to marry in the church), and arrange for the traditional gift giving. During these meetings, the priest often entered his “notes” about the couple including who was vouching for each person.

A widow or widower could not remarry until the assessment and divisions of their previous “estate” were legally resolved. But that was normally done within about 3 months of someone’s death.

The gift giving sometimes included the man’s commitment to a morgongåva, a gift that was similar to a dowry and compensation for the bride's commitment to the marriage and household improvement. The wife would receive the morgongåva after the death of her husband. It was a way to help the widow continue for some time until she could find another man to marry or a stable household with a relative. This practice ended sometime around the early 1800's. 

As you might guess, a widower was more able and likely to marry again and to marry a much younger woman, both for the stability it brought to her life, but also her ability to give birth to additional children. An older widow, unless economically stable, might have more difficulty remarrying. It's why I see many of our widowed female ancestors living in the poor house or living with one of their children, but not remarried.

Let's look at a few of these May-September marriages in our family line.

Olaus Fredricsson is my 3rd great grandfather, father to Gus and John Linn. Olaus' family had been well off, and Olaus, his wife Catharina Johansdotter, and their 8 children, lived very comfortably at Dodringshult in Ingatorp Parish, Jonkoping County.

Dodringshult Farm in Ingatorp Parish

At some point, Dodringshult was for sale. Some of the description includes: Forest property in Northern Småland. The property is located about 20 km from Eksjö and about 10 km North of Bruzaholm. The area has about 572 hectars of which 533 are productive forest land.  Well-developed forest road network. Good hunting opportunities.

When Olaus died at the age of 44, Catharina was forced to move from her beautiful home down a dirt road to a small shack called Vastra Lund. She had her youngest 3 with her, while the older children had gone out working as drangs or pigans on other farms. How would Catharina live and provide for her children long term? We don’t know if she was bequeathed a morgongåva. We do know that she would have received half of the net proceeds from Olaus’ estate. But how long that would last is unknown. One way to assure she had food on the table and a roof over her head was to remarry.  Catherina was almost 45 years old when she married Johannes Jonsson who was 28 years old. He moved to Vastra Lund after his marriage to Catharina. While this is confusing, it does lend support to their probably not knowing each other well, or at all, when they married.

Anders Fogelqvist is my 4^th great grandfather on the Linn side. He was born in Uppsala county in 1744 and married Anna Marie Lundeberger in 1775. His bride was born in 1730, making their age difference 14 years. This couple had no children, and when Anna Marie died in 1790, Anders married my 4^th great grandmother, Lisa Lagerstrom, who was 21 years his junior. He liked being with women both much older AND much younger! But Anders himself was a great catch. He was a master hatmaker who also worked for the king’s artillery.

When my second great-grandfather, Olof Olofson, remarried, his new wife, Brita Rask, was 20 years younger. Olof was born in 1837; Brita in 1857. In an earlier post, we saw how this couple probably did not know each other before their marriage in Iowa in 1880.

The few options available in these very small, rural parishes, the need for stability, additional children, comfort, and yes, love, found our ancestors remarrying soon after the loss of a spouse. And, in many cases, these remarriages were between two people who might be separated by many years. Selfishly, I’m so glad they did remarry as I’m a descendent, in many cases, of a second marriage.

 

RELIGION OF OUR SWEDISH ANCESTORS

We think of many Scandinavians as being Lutheran, but there is much more to learn about religion in that part of the world.

Before the 11th Century, Swedes worshiped the Norse pagan gods. It was not centralized or formalized, meaning that each village or territory practiced its own customs and religious practices. Normally that included sacrifices and food rituals.

Christianity gradually gained a foothold in Sweden and by 1060 Christianity (Roman Catholicism) was firmly established throughout most of Sweden. When the Protestant Reformation came to Sweden, it became a political tool used by the king to secure control over the church and its assets. The King, Gustav Vasa, proclaimed a state church with HIM as the head. From the 1530’s until 2000, Sweden has been Lutheran with the Church of Sweden (Svenska Kyrkan) as the state church.

The Church of Sweden (Svenska kyrkan) is Evangelical Lutheran and has its secretariat in Uppsala, a city that has been the center of the Swedish church since the Middle Ages. The Church of Sweden has been separated from the state since 2000, which means that Sweden no longer has an official state church. While most countries in the world have no official religion, Sweden is in fact the only Nordic country without a state church, as Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland have all retained theirs.

On October 28, 2018, I posted about the Jansonites, a small group of people who lived in and around the area where Maude Olofson Linn’s ancestors were from. Below is a brief quote from that article:

Erik Jansson, along with many Swedes in the 1840's, became disenchanted with the state church, its rules, and the oppression they felt. Erik Jansson became a leader of a movement that rebelled against the state-run Lutheran Church. Meeting in secret in various homes to hear Jansson speak, the group lived in fear that they would be found and arrested. As the group of Jansson followers increased, a plan was made to flee to the United States, to establish a colony where they could worship freely.

 

Members wishing to join Erik Jansson, and the group known as Janssonites, sold all of their belongings and put the proceeds into a common fund used to transport followers and to establish their American colony. The first settlers, around 1,500, arrived in Henry County, Illinois, in 1846 and bought 60 acres, establishing Bishop Hill as their home.

 

You can read more about this short-lived colony of fanatics, some have referred to it as a cult, that demonstrated the extent to which some Swedes would go to in order to have freedom of religion.

Some of us know about the Swedish tradition of Lucia, one of the non-religious highlights before Christmas which is celebrated on December 13. It is named for Saint Lucia who was killed for her religious beliefs. Today, it is a local custom celebrated in homes and in villages. A young woman in white enters a dark room with a ring of light on her head, symbolizing bringing the light into the darkness of winter on the Winter Solstice. She carries food that symbolizes her bringing food to the persecuted Christians.

Midsummer is a celebration on or around the Summer Solstice. Greenery, maypole dancing, and great smorgasbords are part of the celebration. Rocky and I were in Sweden once during Midsummer, and the food spread at the hotel was tremendous with every kind of herring one could imagine. Rocky tried them all. I did not!

Today, few church services are held, and the churches are often locked. A pastor is responsible for multiple churches and holds a service on a rotating basis at the various churches in his assigned area. Attendees today would have to drive to a church a few miles from their home church if they want to attend church on a regular basis.

Today, Sweden is considered to be one of the world's most secular nations, with a high proportion of nonreligious people.

While holidays that we know to be based in religion might still be celebrated, there are few, if any, religious rituals. Swedes simply celebrate the day itself.

There are also non-religious ‘name-giving’ ceremonies (namngivningsceremonier) for infants, with the aim of celebrating the arrival of a new child without the religious overtones of a christening.

The churches are architecturally interesting. Below are a few pictures we have taken of the churches of our ancestors:

 

Ingatorp Church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                            Malexander Church

 

Farila Church

 

 

                                                    Amot Church

Ulrika Church

 

 

 

 

 

The churches above were places of worship for our ancestors:

Ingatorp: church attended by Olaus Fredriccson and his family, including our Gus, John, and Peter Linn.

Malexander: the church that Elin Andersson's family would have attended.

Farila: church in Galveborg County that the Olssons and Olofsons would have attended.

Amot: church attended by John Barquist and his ancestors and family.

Ulrika: church attended by Gus Linn and John Linn before they immigrated to the United States.

When our Swedish ancestors came to the United States, most of them continued to meet regularly in homes until a church could be built. The services were in Swedish with Swedish Bibles and Swedish hymns. And this practice of being in the Swedish language lasted for many years.

John Linn was an ordained minister and started many churches in Iowa and surrounding states. According to his Dayton Review obit on 23 May 1907, he was converted to the M.E. church in Hardin County and entered the work of the ministry. In 1868 he was pastor at Rockford, Geneseo and Galesburg, IL. In 1874 he was presiding elder of the District of Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. 

Our Swedish ancestors were faithful servants, protestants with some remaining Lutheran, but throughout their lives, they practiced their faith.

Roy Hagerty Rinquist Update

 

On May 23, I posted about the Hagerty boys who were adopted by 3 different families. Roy Oscar Hagerty was adopted by William Rinquist and his wife Charlotte Linn Rinquist.

Below is some additional information I have found about Roy:

An obituary from an unknown newspaper source in Miami states that Roy O. Rinquist, 82, of 8981 Sunset Dr., Miami, passed away Thursday. Mr. Rinquist was a native of Kansas and had been a resident of Miami for the past 18 years. His Philanthropic services to the Veterans Hospital for which he was awarded a 3,000 hour volunteer pin and to Post No. 67 of the American Legion who honored him with the "Award of Merit" and a life membership bears tribute to his outstanding services. He is survived by his wife Hilda. Friends may call 7-9 pm Friday Lithgow 150 St. Chapel, 15011 W. Dixie Hwy.

 

Two items stand out for me in this obit:

 

1. Roy’s philanthropic services to the Veterans Hospital and the American Legion. The pins were given for various levels of volunteering, starting at 300 hours. Roy was clearly a very active volunteer for the Veterans Hospital in Miami.
2. He was survived by a second wife, Hilda whom he married two years after his first wife Olivia passed. Hilda must have loved men! She had 5 husbands altogether, counting Roy Rinquist.

 

 

NOTICE: I've been informed by blogger that it will no longer support the email feed you receive when I've posted something new. I hope you will keep checking the site itself for new stories and updates. If I find a new plug-in, I hope to set that up again. If any of you know how I might do this, please contact me.

ancestorfootprints.blogspot.com

 

DNA - A Brief Introduction

 

I’m not a DNA expert and would never hold myself out to know more than the basics. But, like many people, I’ve spit into a tube, sent my DNA in and received results about my ethnicity, learned of over 400 potential relatives, and even been in contact with some. Today, I wanted to share a few things I’ve learned from doing my DNA.

Even with my limited science background and interest, I know that I receive half of my DNA from each parent. Each of my siblings also receive half from each parent. But, unless I am an identical twin, the mix we children receive from each parent is not the same.

We don’t look identical, don’t have the same eye color or nose shape, or height. But we have some of the same characteristics. You can tell we are siblings. We just received a different mix of that 50% from each parent.

My two brothers and I each took an Ancestry DNA test. One of our parents is from Swedish descent; the other from Bohemian descent. Neither, of course, is 100% Swedish OR 100% Bohemian, but pretty close!  And what they passed on to us is also not exactly 50% of our makeup.

I’m 43% Swedish; one of my brothers is also 43% Swedish; the other brother is 64% Swedish. Yet, we are full-blooded siblings. It’s important to recognize that the mix of DNA received will not be identical.

I recently attended a Zoom genealogy meeting on DNA and learned that, within 5 generations, we probably have errors in our family trees, based on the paper research we have done. Even the best of researchers cannot help but have errors. That’s because we don’t really know what was going on in the lives of our ancestors. Was a direct-line descendant born out of wedlock, yet raised by the people that we see on all paper records as the parents? Was one of our ancestors raised by a neighbor after a tragedy struck leading us to believe through the paper trail that the parents are the biological parents? Were mistakes made by the census taker or the local minister? There are so many reasons why the paper records might be incorrect. Thus, the reason for DNA testing.

My reason for doing DNA testing was to break through a couple of brick walls. For example, my third great-grandfather, Carl Johan Lundblad, father to Catherine Lundblad Linn, was born out of wedlock in 1793 to Ingeborg Ingedotter. Our tree on Carl’s father’s line, stops at Carl and his mother. I have no way through paper records to definitively find his father. Going back 3-4 generations through my DNA test is not likely to show results because I would only receive about 6.25% of my DNA from Carl Johan Lundblad. Do you see the problems? Carl’s biological father, the person I’m trying to find, would only be responsible for 3.12% of my total DNA. But still, it has been my best hope for breaking through that brick wall.

Last summer, I was back in Iowa and was so very fortunate to have time to visit with Uncle Merlyn and Aunt Shari at their 60^th wedding anniversary celebration, see cousins I hadn’t seen in decades; Uncle Ivan who took me as his “date” to the celebration; Myron and I also visited with Veryl Olofson.

I had purchased two more Ancestry DNA kits with the hope that I might get a generation older, closer to Carl Johan Lundblad, to test. And Ivan immediately said yes. Veryl also did the same to help with the Olofson line, being a generation farther up our tree on that side.

In Ivan’s case, Carl Johan Lundblad would be his second great-grandfather, and Ivan would have inherited 12.5% of his DNA from Carl, 6.25% from Carl’s biological father. This can make a difference, assuming the right people also test their DNA. I’m still hopeful that another descendant of Carl Johan Lundblad’s biological father will test and will lead us to a breakthrough on this tree line.

Through Veryl’s DNA matches, I’ve communicated with cousins I’d never met and enjoyed sharing stories and a few photos.

It's always important to remember when doing your own DNA test or having other members of the family take DNA tests that surprising results can happen. You know what I mean. So, it’s important to tell people that they should be prepared, even if they are CERTAIN there will be no surprises, that there could be a surprise. I have seen so many of these “events” in my genealogy groups, a couple of parent or sibling surprises with my friends, and even was contacted by someone from Ancestry who did match our family and had been adopted as a baby.

I manage five DNA tests and can also view 2 others on Ancestry. I’ve also uploaded my husband’s DNA results to another online site, FamilyTreeDNA, because we are working on a Scottish “event” in his family line, and that site has more results for him as a Scot than Ancestry does.

My Ancestry results show that I’m 43% Swedish, 24% Czech, 11% Norwegian (yes we Swedes got around!), 6% Baltic, 6% Germanic (probably related to my Czech), 5% Finnish (probably Bertil Monsieur I wrote about in the 2018 blog), 3% Wales and 2% England and Northwestern Europe (no idea how those got in there!).

An additional thing I have learned is that some of the low percentages might not be/probably aren’t related to people in our tree. They could be from characteristics that are attributed to a geographical area. As more and more people test, my mix of percentages changes a bit. For now, I feel comfortable saying I’m about half and half Swedish and Czech.

If you are interested in doing your DNA and you post it on Ancestry, I’d be happy to be another pair of eyes to look at matches. The more people who test, the better chance we have of finding our way through brick walls. After all, our mixes are not identical. You may hold the key.

 

LaVonne June 5 Visitation and Service

 To my friends and family,

Thank you to those who were able to come to either mom's visitation or cemetery service and those who sent flowers, cards, and donations. We are so appreciative of everyone's hugs and tears and stories about mom that have made us smile.

In a few days, I'll start posting again about our Linn and Olofson ancestry. I have two interesting ones that are just about finished: one about an adoption in our Linn family, and another about DNA (non-scientific, I promise!).

But today, I'd like to share a few pictures from Saturday. If you would like to make a donation in LaVonne Halligan's name to the Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, you can go to https://ncsml.org/ and make an online donation OR you can mail a check indicating it is in memory of LaVonne Halligan to 1400 Inspiration Place SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404.

Ivan and Diane; Diane, Merlyn, Myron; Karrie, Randy, Becky, Merlyn and Shari; Myron, Diane and Randy; Randy and Ivan; procession to mom's resting place; mom's beautiful casket.