I Can Identify

 This week's prompt is "I can identify." I thought I'd interpret it by identifying people in a picture. One of the pictures I was sent that had belonged to Carl and Mildred Strand was a picture of a child and 3 men labeled "4 generations." No names were attached to it. At first I thought maybe it was from the Strand side. I wasn't able to find 4 generations of Strand men that would work. I also looked on the Pulsipher side. No luck there either. I thought the younger looking man looked a bit like Mildred's uncle William Truman so I looked for 4 men that would work on the Truman side. No luck. I put the picture away for awhile. Later, I was working on the Bellingar side and was untangling the messy personal life of Mildred's older brother Ray. That was when I realized he had his first born son in 1917, and that Ray's grandfather David Bellingar didn't pass away until 1921. Ray and his family were also living in Michigan at the time his son Elwyn was a toddler, about the age of the child in the photo. It also makes sense that Mildred would have a picture of her nephew, older brother, father and grandfather. Finally, I had a plausible explanation for the men and child in the 4 generations photo. David, Charles, Ray, and Elwyn Bellingar are the only 4 generations on the Strand or Bellingar side that were alive all at the same time and make sense for Mildred to keep. The mystery had been solved!

I uploaded the photo to Ancestry and MyHeritage. They have technology on their websites that can repair and colorize old photos. I tried both and this one came out the best, I think. 

L.to R. Charles Bellingar, Ray Bellingar, Elwyn Bellingar, David Bellingar.

Outcast: Johan Jonasson

 The prompt for this week is "Outcast." I immediately thought of my great, great grandfather Johan Jonasson. He was the father of George S. Henrickson, my great grandfather who immigrated to America from Sweden. As I looked over my notes on Johan I saw he was an outcast in more than one way.

The birth records for Moheda Parish in Kronoberg County, Sweden record Johan being born on October 28, 1827 to Crofter Jonas Johansson and Maja Stina Danielsdotter. He was baptized on November 1, 1827. 

The next record that records his life (1831-1836) shows him living with his parents and siblings at a remote land Nackelyckor, situated on the land of Vegby Forsagard. This land is so remote that when I did a Google search for it it doesn't even come up. So, it's either changed names, or no one lives there anymore. Either way, all the records describe this location as being "remote". So, Johan and his family lived faraway from other people. 

In the Household record for 1837-1843 the family continues to live at the "Remote land Nackelycke cultivated by soldier Warn at soldier croft." The father Jonas is listed as a pauper. Records also state that the father likes to fight, is poor and is called "Styf" Jonas. Styf translates to "Stiff" and can describe his physical appearance, or his personality. 

Johan has grown up living in a remote part of the parish, being an outcast, if you will. Now something will happen to make him another form of outcast.

Johan's father Jonas died on July 29, 1846. The family was already listed as penniless and paupers. Johan's mother was left widowed with 4 children. Johan was old enough to also be listed as penniless on the records. 

On the Household records for 1844-1850 Johan is listed as a farmhand in Nya och Sodra Kvarnen in Moheda Parish. There is a note on the record about his conviction of theft. The notes are hard to read but it looks like he was sentenced in June 1848. His mother was also convicted of the crime of theft in 1851 even though it appears it happened in June 1848. After his sentence, Johan becomes without a steady residence for 1848-1849. He had to move on. 

Notes for his mother Maja tell us that she was convicted of theft and sentenced to 17 days of living on bread and water. She and Johan also had to perform public church duty. They also would have been asked to stand on the "duty stool" during a church sermon where their crimes would have been described. They would have asked for repentance and then been rehabilitated. Johan and his mother's crime happened in 1848 and they were punished for it in 1851. Sweden outlawed public humiliation for crimes on May 4, 1855. Too late for Johan and Maja.

Johan marries and lives with his wife until her death on April 10, 1872. The very next day Ingrid Christina Svensdotter Fahna moves in with Johan as a maid. They have an illegitimate daughter born on June 13, 1873. Johan and Ingrid do not marry until January 10, 1874.

Under reputation Johan continues to be described as a drunk, penniless, and "Styf" like his father before him. Ingrid and Johan have two more children, George and his sister Amanda, who immigrate to America. Ingrid leaves Johan to care for her sister, leaving him alone, again. Johan died in 1903, living by himself, as far as I could tell from the records.

Johan seemed to live most of his life as an outcast, whether it was by living remotely from other people, or by his actions taken and being outcast from society. I don't have any pictures of Johan, but I did find a picture of his younger brother Anders. Anders, by contrast, was never convicted of theft, had illegitimate children or was classified as a drunkard. I found this picture of Anders with 2 of his adult children. Anders is seated in the front, next to his wife.

I found notes on the Fahna family online. They were not very complimentary when they mentioned Johan. Johan seems to have been the Black Sheep of the family. Johan is definitely one of the more colorful ancestors I've come across.

Social Media

 The prompt for this week is "Social media." Social media didn't exist in our ancestors' day, but I can imagine how it might've been used. I'm sure Mildred Strand, with her love of letter writing and communication, would have loved Facebook. She would have Friended everyone and commented on their posts and kept up with what was happening. My Grandma Thompson, with her love of photography, would have been a natural for Instagram. I can picture Carl Strand being active on political Twitter, Arguing with politicians and telling them how they were doing everything wrong. And of course YouTube would have been a natural for our ancestors to relax with after a hard day working on the farm. Or scrolling through the latest TikTok reels to relax by.

While they didn't have social media, they DID have the local newspaper. The newspaper not only printed all the news fit to print, but also all the local social news. It listed all the comings and goings of the local townspeople. I've been able to find many of my ancestors mentioned in the local Allegan Gazette over the years. I've been able to piece together what life was like, and even get some questions answered too.

For instance, in this blurb from April 1910 I know that the Strandt children all had the measles. That would include Carl Strandt. 

I also know that in April 1911 my great grandfather Frank L. Thompson was visiting my future great grandmother Anna Coners. This is also the only time I see my great grandfather referred to as "Lawrence." All other papers refer to him as Frank, or Francis. 

Going back further I"ve found my great, great grandfather Orville Ashley mentioned in the papers. I knew he was a successful farmer and hunter, but it was cool seeing it mentioned in the paper.

Of course, one of the biggest reasons for being printed up in the paper was for getting married or for celebrating an anniversary. I found an article detailing the wedding of Selma Anderson, youngest daughter of Carl and Ulrika Anderson. And sister to Malvina Henrickson.

For Malvina's wedding to George Henrickson, I found only this.

Wedding anniversaries are common too. I found this article describing the twenty-fifth anniversary of Malvina's brother, Frank.

And this article describing the 60th wedding anniversary of Carl and Mildred Strand

.

This is just a small sample of the articles I've been able to find. I've found a few mentioning the Strandt's visiting relatives in Chicago. One was about the wedding shower held for Miss Viola Strandt before her upcoming wedding.  I guess the social aspect has always been with us, whether printed in a newspaper, or posted by ourselves to social media.