Bellingar Family updates

This week I decided to post about some of the recent discoveries I've made. They all concern the Bellingar family.

First, we'll start with Loretta Foster Bellingar. Loretta was the wife of David Bellingar, and Mildred Bellingar Strand's grandmother. Before marrying David B. when he returned home from fighting in the Civil War, Loretta had been married to David Cummins. David C. passed away while being held prisoner at the infamous Andersonville prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia. If David C. hadn't died, Loretta wouldn't have been widowed, and David B. would have married someone else. None of us would be here. Looking into Loretta's past, I found another twist of fate that would have sent the family into another direction.

Loretta's father was Archibald Foster.  Archibald was born in New York or Vermont and made his way to Ohio where he married Eliza Ann Mann. They had 5 children together before Eliza unexpectedly died. After Eliza died, Archibald married Louisa "Lucy" Collier. They had 7 children together. Loretta was the second child of that union. If Eliza hadn't died, Archibald and Lucy wouldn't have married, and Loretta wouldn't have been born. What I didn't know, was how Eliza passed away.

Eliza had just given birth on May 19, 1837 to a baby girl. She died on August 21, 1837. Only about 3 months later. I figured her death was probably related to her giving birth somehow. Mothers often passed away while giving birth or just after. Eliza was also very young so maybe she had caught some disease. Well, while researching Archibald I found a newspaper article that detailed how Archibald's young wife tragically passed away. Eliza was sitting on a bed, holding a young child in her arms. I'm guessing the young child was her infant daughter. Lightning struck the home, passed through the house and struck the bed Eliza and the child were sitting on. Eliza was killed instantly but the child survived, marked by the lightning. 

Two twists of fate that if they hadn't occurred, we wouldn't be here today. Eliza being unexpectedly killed by lightning, while sitting inside her house, and David Cummins being held prisoner in one of the worst prison camps during the Civil War.

The next update is happier. Fred Strand recently sent me some old family photos. One was of a large family but he wasn't sure if it was the Bellingar's or not. I immediately recognized a young Charles Bellingar in the photo. I had been sent a photo of Charles and Elnora with their first born son Ray a few months ago so I was sure this was Charles. There was an older man and woman in the photo and the other men and women corresponded to the number of brothers and sisters that Charles had. Going from this, I conclude that it's a family photo of David and Loretta Bellingar with their 6 children. This is exciting because it lets us see a younger David Bellingar and we get to see his wife Loretta for the first time. We also get to see Charles's brothers and sisters. Mildred's aunts and uncles. Based on the clothing and ages I'm guessing the picture is from the 1890's.

Front row L-R: Loretta F. Bellingar, Estella, David Bellingar
Back row, L-R: Edward, Ellen, Charles, George, Jennie Bellingar

A lot had to happen for this family photo to take place. Loretta's mother was her father's second wife. David was Loretta's second husband. David had to survive the Civil War. Charles had to survive childhood diseases. It's amazing how many things had to happen for any of us to be here today. It's truly amazing.

Ps. In case you're wondering, the child being held when Eliza was killed by lightning was also named Eliza, after her mother. She lived until the age of 70, married, and gave birth to 10 children. She lived a full life.

Questions, comments, more information to add? Let me know down below or email me. Feel free to share with anyone who might be interested.

The Strandt Family: What the Census Suggests?

 This week's prompt is "What the Census Suggests". I thought I would look at the 1900 US Census for the Carl F. T. Strandt family.

This census tells us that Carl F. Strandt is 66 years old and has been married for 39 years. It also confirms his birthday as being in March 1834 and that he has been in the US for 29 years. So, we know Carl and Wilhelmina were married for 10 years before they decided to move to America. The census tells us they arrived in 1871 and it also tells us that Carl is a Naturalized American citizen. We know Carl is a farmer. He also has the ability to read, write and speak enough English to get by. He also owns his home, with a mortgage.

Next, we have Wilhelmina. The census confirms her birthday as February 1841. She is 59 years old. The 1900 census asked women how many children they had given birth to, and how many were still alive. Wilhelmina lists 4 as the number given birth to, and 2 as the number still alive. This is very interesting. We know Wilhelmina was Carl's second wife. Oldest son, Carl, jr was from the first wife. When Carl and Wilhelmina came to America, they came with three children. They had Carl, Carolina, and Wilhelmine. William was born in Chicago, after they arrived. Carolina and William were her two surviving children. Sometime after arriving in America, Wilhelmine disappears. She must've passed away. The question is, when was the other child born, and when did they pass away? Was there a child born in Germany that died as an infant? Or was there a child born in America, perhaps before William, who passed away? 

Also, while the census tells us that Carl was naturalized and a citizen, no mention is made of Wilhelmina's citizenship status, or any wife for that matter. A woman's citizenship status was usually tied to her husband's. Since Carl became a US citizen, Wilhelmina may then have been considered a US citizen too. However, since women weren't allowed to vote, being a US citizen wouldn't have mattered much to Wilhelmina. 

We also know that Wilhelmina too, could read, write and speak enough English to get by.

The census tells us that William and his new family are living with Carl and Wilhelmina in Watson, Allegan County, Michigan. Carl is listed as the head of the family with William as the son. William and Mary, and daughter Eva are living with his parents. William's occupation is farmer. Mary is listed as having given birth to one child, with one child living. William and Mary had been married for 2 years.  Eva is one year old.

One more interesting note, on this census, the Strandt name is spelled with the final "t". 

William and Mary, with Eva and Carl and other family members, approx 1904.

Carl Strandt family is listed at the very bottom.

Favorite Photo

 This week's prompt is "Favorite Photo." Our first favorite photo is the wedding photo of my great grandparents, George Henrickson and Malvina Anderson.

Tina said she really liked this one because of the whole vibe of it. The clothes, the style, the way they are posed. I also really like the clothes. George looks very dapper and Malvina has flowers on her corsage and in her hair as part of her veil. Time and money and planning went into this wedding. I'm sure Malvina's parents were very happy, as were George's family. I wonder if any of his relatives were there? After marrying they went to Wisconsin to live for a time before moving to Chicago and then back to Michigan. 

Another favorite photo of mine is this one of my great grandmother Emilie (Emily) Dobbratz Ashley.

This photo shows Emily sitting in a field with her four children. She has knitting/sewing in her hands. I really like it because it looks like a nice, pleasant summer afternoon, relaxing in a field. The children are all happy and smiling. Everyone looks at ease. I also like it because it's not a studio posed photo. It was taken out in the field at their house. 

Do you have a favorite photo?

Memorable

The last prompt of 2025 is "memorable." This Fall I came into contact with the wife of a descendant of Jonas Fahnstrom, brother of Ingrid Fahna. She is the family historian in her family and had a wealth of information on the Fahnstrom/Fahna family in America, and their life in Sweden. It was her research into her husband's family in Sweden that greatly helped me in researching our branch of the family. I am eternally grateful to her for putting that online as it helped me so much in my research. Out of all the information she sent me, 2 pieces really stood out. One was a picture, and one was a letter. 

The first is a picture of a young George Henrickson. I'm guessing he was in his early 20's when the picture was taken. He arrived at age 17 and was married at 25. You can see just how handsome he was. No wonder Malvina fell in love with him. I really like this picture because it's rare to get a picture of an ancestor so young in age. Most of the pictures I've seen of George are when he's older, and his health has started to fail. In this picture he's young and has his whole life ahead of him.

George Henrickson

The second memorable piece of information this year is a letter written from Malvina to her sister in-law, Amanda, George's younger sister. The letter is dated April 1938, and it's written near the beginning of George's illness. George suffered from Pernicious Anemia, the body's inability to absorb vitamin B12. It's an autoimmune disease that occurs primarily in people of northern European descent. This link explains the disease in more detail. Pernicious Anemia I'm not sure the doctors had an adequate way of treating it back then.

Allegan, April 22nd, 1938.
Dear Amanda.
You will probably be surprised to get a letter from me. I don’t know that I
have ever written to you but I want you to know that Goran is ill. He has been ill since the beginning of March but during these last few weeks he has been in bed and I fear the worse.
He has become so thin and it seems he gets weaker and weaker day by day so I have been thinking, maybe, if it’s possible for you, that you could come and see him.
He is himself having great courage and believes that he will recover and it is good because the doctor says that this is the best of medicine for him.
If you can come, write me a few lines in advance but say nothing more than I have written that he us I’ll and that you are coming to see him.
If you will be coming by railway it would be best to get off at Kalamazoo because there aren’t any passenger trains going to Allegan anymore.
I have two daughters living there.
They will meet you and give you the address to Eulalia. If you write to her they will meet you and bring you here.
Write  me in English.
Her address is Mrs Charles Marsh
1023 Eagleston Avenue.
Kalamazoo
Michigan.
Her telephone number is 8071
Maybe you have got a car and will get someone to drive you here.
That would be the least trouble.
I would like you to know, though, that he is ill
My two youngest boys are at home and are doing the work now.
Hope that all of you are well. Now I want to finish this time by many dear greetings to all of you. Kindly and in a hurry.
Malvina.
Excuse my bad writing. I haven’t written in Swedish for a long time. I have almost forgotten how but I hope that you will be able to read.

I know that George was not said to be a fan of his sister marrying their cousin. I wonder if that also means the families did not have much contact with each other. Malvina says that she thinks her letter will surprise Amanda as she's never written her before. Or maybe George is the one who wrote to his sister? You can also tell from the tone that Malvina is very concerned about George, enough to write to his sister herself. Her two youngest sons would have been Ray and Evald. 1938 is also the time Ray started seeing a young Viola Strand. 

Another interesting fact we learn from the letter is that Malvina knows how to write in Swedish! She learned not only how to fluently speak it, but also to write it. She does say it's pretty rusty and for Amanda to try and reply in English so she must not have felt good about trying to read it. The local Lutheran Church stopped Swedish language services in the early 1920's so that's probably when Malvina stopped using it more often. I also think it's interesting she referred to George by his Swedish name of Goran. Maybe she thought Amanda would be more comforted by that name than his American name? 

Unfortunately, we don't know if Amanda made the journey or not. Hopefully she was able to. 

What were your memorable family history moments from this year? Surprising stories or information? Surprising relatives or ancestors? Let me know down below. As always, feel free to share and repost with anyone you think might be interested.

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Animals!

This week's prompt is "Animals." Living and working on farms, our ancestors were with animals all the time. Here is a collection of my ancestors and relatives with animals over the years.

Bum

The first one, above, is Bum. Bum was owned by my grandpa Thompson. Bum liked to sit on the running board of my grandfather's car and ride into town, sitting on the running board.

Horace Ashley with cat

Next up is my great granduncle Horace Ashley with a farm cat. Horace was my great grandpa Ashley's older brother. He's pictured here with his wife Jesse and an unknown farm cat. Judging by the cat sitting on Horace's shoulders, I think the cat really liked Uncle Horace. He probably also liked the free milk from the cows. 

Boys on outhouse

This picture comes from the Strand family archives. I'm guessing that Carl Strand is one of the boys in this picture. Maybe with brother Howard? Cousin George? Or friends? Either way, an unknown cat made it into the picture.

Strandt siblings with horse

In this picture we have eldest Strandt child, Eva, with, I think, brothers Carl and Howard on a horse.

Carl Strand with horses. Around age 14.

Here is Carl Strand with plough horses when he was around 14 years old. Carl had his horses trained so well he could line them up, and have them walk down the row, ploughing, and wait for him at the end. He was good with horses. Better than his father, which led to conflicts between them.

Carl Strand horses, approx. 1917.

Another picture of Carl Strand's horses.

Ray and Evald Henrickson with horses.

I also have a picture of my grandpa Henrickson with his brother, Evald, and their team of plough horses. 

Ray Henrickson with cows

And last but not least, here is Ray Henrickson with some of his cows. This picture was taken in 2003. He had a great affection for cows.

And there you have it. Animals my ancestors and relatives have known throughout the years. Questions, comments, more information to add? Post them below in the comments or feel free to email me.

Ray Henrickson with horse. Rowdy?

I found this picture after I first published the blog, but I wanted to include it. It just shows how important horses were to farmers before tractors.

 

Off to school

 This week's prompt is "Off to school." I decided to post some pictures I found that are school related. These were all found by my dad in my aunt Toni's house. If anyone has any insight to any of the photos, please comment down below.

Up first is this one room school house. Back in the day, all country schools looked like this. One teacher, numerous students in different grades. I don't know how the teachers did it, but they did.

Michigan one room school house

2nd grade Allegan

Dawson school

Effie Carlotta Madden. High School graduation 1886

 

Mildred Bellinger High school diploma 1918

My 5th grade class picture

Blackman school reunion 2005

There you have it. Class pictures through time. :)

Off to Work: Mildred Strand

This week's prompt is "Off to work." Besides farming, the other profession that keeps repeating itself in our family is teaching. We have had a great many teachers over the years. Granted, women did not have many opportunities for other careers back in the day, but it is interesting how many women in our family have taught over the years. Carl Strand's mother, Mary Pulsipher, taught school before marrying William Strandt. Mary even taught school again in her later years. She attended Western Michigan College in the 1940's to add to her teaching credentials. Her daughter and Carl's older sister, Eva, also taught school. Eva's daughter, Ruth, grew up to be a schoolteacher in Florida.

June 1941

On the Henrickson side, George Henrickson's aunt, Sarah Lena Fahna, taught school in Sweden. She taught until she retired. 

Mildred Strand also came from a line of teachers. Her mother, Elnora Truman, taught in a one room school before marrying Charles Bellinger. 

After graduating from high school, Mildred earned a diploma from a Normal School and was allowed to teach. Normal schools were educational institutions dedicated to training teachers. Mildred attended one for one year and was then credentialed to teach school in the state of Michigan. 

It states that Mildred V. Bellingar has successfully completed the prescribed course of study and completed practice teaching at Allegan County Normal School. Dated June 12, 1919.

Mildred taught for one year before marrying Carl Strand on July 9, 1920. While Mildred gave up teaching to become a wife and mother, she never stopped learning. She read voraciously and loved to study and learn new things. Several of Mildred's grandchildren and great grandchildren work in education today. 

I haven't been able to locate where Mildred taught yet. I'm still working on that. Mildred's high school diploma has also been found. Here's a copy of that.

It says that Mildred Bellingar has completed the scientific course of study and is declared a graduate of the High School. Dated May 30, 1918.

Many thanks to Mildred's son, Fred, who recently found these diplomas. They are the only records at the moment of Mildred graduating high school and Normal school. I'm very thankful they were saved and shared.

Questions, comments, more info to add? Leave them down below in the comments or email me.