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.

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. 

Play Time: The Henrickson sisters

 This week's prompt is "play time." There are so many ways to go with this prompt but while researching Henrickson ancestors I discovered some play time the Henrickson sisters had back in August 1928.

On August 11, 1928 Grace Henrickson married Harold Wall. Harold was an apprentice plumber and Grace worked as a clerk. Witnesses were Mr. Ralph Quarry and Miss Ingrid Henrickson. Ralph Quarry had married Grace's sister, Pearl, in January 1927. The wedding took place at the Swedish Lutheran Church with the reception at the Henrickson farm.

The next article I found tells us exactly where Grace and her new husband went, and with whom.

Mr. and Mrs. Hjalmar Anderson, of course, is Selma and Hjalmar Anderson. Selma was the oldest child and daughter of George and Malvina Henrickson. Grace and her new husband honeymooned with Selma and her husband at Pine Lake. I looked up Pine Lake and there are several Pine Lakes around the country. Most likely she went to Pine Lake, Michigan in southeastern Michigan. Selma and Hjalmar had a 1-year-old daughter at the time. It's not known if she came too, or if she was cared for by someone else. 

This entry sheet from the Swedish Lutheran Church shows that the Henrickson sisters took turns being witnesses for each other at their weddings. 

I just thought it was nice that the sisters seemed so close to each other. I've found other instances in the newspaper of the sisters visiting each other at their houses or going with Malvina to visit each other. 

Do you have anything to add? Questions, comments? I do not have any pictures of Grace, aside from the group family shots and I'm not sure which one she is. If you do have a known picture of Grace, and Harold, I would love to see it. 

All newspaper articles are from the August 18, 1928 edition of the Allegan Gazette.

Family Business

  The prompt for this week is "Family Business." There are two occupations that come up over and over again in the family tree: farming and teaching.

People have been farming for the past 12,000 years. When society transitioned from a hunter-gatherer society to staying put, cultivating crops and domesticating animals. Our ancestors have been farming since.

While Carl and Ulrika Anderson met while Carl was working at a railroad station in Stockholm, Sweden, after marrying they moved to a farm in the country. Unfortunately, after nearly 2 years of famine they moved to America. Once again, Carl worked for the railroads first, before saving up enough money to buy a farm in Michigan. After he passed away, his farm was inherited by his daughter and her husband. George Henrickson had attended college and worked as a Lutheran minister before giving it up to come work on the farm. When he passed away, his son Raymond took over the family farm. While he also had a full-time job in the paper mill, he still kept cows and raised crops. The land is still in the family and farmed today by Ray's sons and grandsons.

Carl Strand also tried different jobs over the years, including his own successful business at one point. However, during the Great Depression he came back to the family farm and stayed there the rest of his days. His father had tried farming off and on and was never very successful at it. Carl was a much better farmer than his father, much to his father's chagrin, and was able to keep the farm in the family. 

Ray Henrickson and brother with plough horses.

Carl Strand's plough horses.

The Pulsipher and Brownell families farmed in America going back to before America was a country. Farming is also strong in the Bellinger and Truman families. William Mabbs had a successful soap manufacturing business in England before moving to New York City. After a bank failure cost him his fortune, he moved to Michigan and became a farmer.

Women have not had a lot of job options open to them over the years. They were expected to stay home and keep house and raise children. If you lived on a farm, then you also helped your husband with farm chores. The only time a woman could really work outside the home, was before she was married, which several of our ancestors did. 

George Henrickson's aunt, Sara Lena Fahna, was single all her life and worked as a schoolteacher. She was known for being a good teacher who kept a disciplined classroom.

Elnora Truman, Mildred Strand's mother, taught school before marrying Charles Bellinger. Mildred Strand taught school before marrying Carl Strand. Carl Strand's mother, Mary Pulsipher, taught school before marrying William Strand. When Mary was older and her children had all left home, she taught school again. Her daughter Eva also taught school. And Eva's daughter Ruth also taught school. Several of Mildred's grandchildren and great grandchildren have also taught in varying degrees and capacities. 

I feel very proud to come from such a long line of farmers and teachers. I can't think of two more nobler vocations. (If only they paid more ;)

Questions, comments, or want to add more information? Post them below or email me. Thank you for reading!

Oldest Story: The Bellinger family

 This week's prompt is "oldest story." The oldest story I could think of was of the history of the Bellinger family in America. Mildred Bellinger Strand wrote down her family history. She wrote of how when she was 16, she asked her grandfather, David Bellinger, about his family and the Bellingers. She wrote down what he told her. Mainly, that the original Bellinger came to America around the time of the American Revolution and was one of three brothers. They all separated and never saw each other again. She also listed David's father and mother and his aunts and uncles. I used this information when I started building my family tree. Mildred was very accurate with names and places. My research seems to indicate that the first Bellinger came over in the early 1700's. The family was part of the Palatine Germans invited to the American colonies by Queen Anne. There were Bellinger brothers and fathers and sons. The Bellinger name is all over the Hudson and Mohawk Valley area.

Our particular Bellinger is Oliver. Mildred did a great job in listing Oliver's brothers and sisters. She wrote that while Oliver moved his family to Michigan, the rest of his family stayed in Ohio. This is only partially true.

While I was filling out the Bellinger branch of the tree, I noted how Oliver Bellinger had married Margaret "Almyra" Jones in Cuyahoga, Ohio. The Bellingers had moved there from New York. The Jones family had moved there from New York, and before that had lived in Massachusetts. Oliver then moved his family to Michigan and ended up in Allegan. After filling out Oliver's branch of the Bellinger tree I decided to see what happened to his brothers and sisters. This is where the story gets interesting.

I started with Oliver's older sister, Parmelia. She married a man named William Jones in Ohio, and then moved to Michigan also. Next, his older brother Adam married a Lydia Jones in Ohio. They, too, moved to Michigan. Then, his sister Laura married Jefferson Jones in Ohio. They, too, came to Michigan. I began to see a pattern.

First, yes, Oliver had other brothers and sisters come to Michigan. That wasn't a surprise. What really surprised me was the recurrance of the last name "Jones." Jones is a popular name, but what are the odds that 4 brothers and sisters would all marry people with the last name of "Jones"? I did some more research and it turns out that William, Lydia, Jefferson and Almyria were all brothers and sisters too. 4 brothers and sisters of one family married 4 brothers and sisters of another family. Cuyahoga, Ohio must've been one small area in the 1820's and 1830's. :)

I looked into the Jones family and the parents were William Jones and Chloe Sprague. Both parents came from Massachusetts and go back pretty far. At least to the early 1700's. In the Plymouth, Mass area. The Sprague line goes back to Ireland. I haven't researched the Jones line all the way back yet, but I would expect it to go back to England. This family definitely needs some further research. They must've been close neighbors or friends. Especially for 4 siblings from each family to marry each other. Unfortunately records from Cuyahoga in the 1830's are hard to come by.

There is one further twist to this story. While filling in the information for the children of these unions, all first cousins to our David Bellinger, I found something interesting, and weird. Parmelia and William had a daughter named Adline. When she was a widow at the age of 63 she remarried. She married a man named Philip Bellinger. THAT'S interesting I thought. She happened to meet a man with the same last name as her mother's family. Well, turns out Philip Bellinger was the son of Adam Bellinger and his wife Lydia Jones. Philip and Adline were double first cousins. All 4 of their parents were brothers and sisters. Genetically, they were about as close as half siblings. Adline was 63 and Philip was 66. This was in 1903, Mount Pleasant, Michigan. When the marriage application was filled out, Philip's parents were correctly listed. Adline's mother was listed as "unknown" and her father was listed as William Sprague, instead of William Jones. "Sprague" was her grandmother's maternal name. It looks like they were trying to hide their relationship. Maybe not. I would definitely love to have more information on this relationship. They both had children from their first marriages. I haven't researched them. I guess the Bellingers are just like the royal families of Europe. :)

Marriage application of Philip Bellinger and Adline Jones Hicks.

Family secret

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about finding things that surprised me while doing family research. This week's prompt is "family secrets." I haven't found any long-lost relatives on the Henrickson/Strand side. Yet. :) This is more of a surprise, and I guess it could be a secret too.

Something we often hear when people bemoan modern society is that no one stays married anymore. That back in "the good old days" people got married and stayed married forever. Celebrating 50 and 60 years of wedded bliss. That is false. People have been getting divorced since the beginning of time. It may not have been socially acceptable, and it may have been difficult if not at times impossible, but divorce has always been an option our ancestors had. I have found instances of ancestors getting divorced starting back in the late 1800's. Many times, there were no children involved, and the couple had only been married a year or two. The divorce that surprised me the most, though, was finding out that William and Mary Strandt had been divorced, back in 1917. 

William Strandt and Mary 'Matie" Elizabeth Pulsipher were married June 8, 1888. By all accounts William and Mary often struggled to make ends meet. William farmed, trained horses, and worked as a laborer. He also drank alcohol, often getting drunk. One time William got drunk and into an argument with oldest son, Carl. William ended up chasing Carl around the house with an ax. William also moved the family to Illinois to find better work, promised by other Strandt family members. The better work never showed up, so William moved the family back to Michigan. Upon moving back to Michigan is when Mary's uncle gave her the deed to the Strandt family farm, which was wisely placed in Mary's name.

Finally, on January 13, 1917, Mary filed for divorce from William. She alleged Cruelty as the reason for divorce. "Cruelty" could mean anything from William being unfaithful, to him being a drunkard, to him being physically and mentally abusive. It was probably a combination of all of the above. One of my research goals is to find the divorce complaint that Mary filed that would cite the reasons for cruelty. We know that William contested the divorce. I would also love to hear his reasons defending himself. According to a newspaper article from the time, there was not enough evidence to grant a divorce. The lawyers got together and came up with a plan where William was given machinery, money, and a chance to visit the children at certain times. A full divorce was granted to Mary on July 31, 1917. She was 40 years old, had 4 children at home, and no job, that we know of.

When I found the divorce record, at first I thought it must belong to another William and Mary Strandt. The more I investigated it though, the more I realized that it was my William and Mary Strandt. I had never heard any mention of Carl's parents getting divorced. I knew he had a feud with them, and with his siblings, but I had never heard of a divorce. My mother had never heard of a divorce either. So, this was a family surprise/secret. 

Now, I had heard the story of how Carl had fought with his parents over control of the farm so I wondered how that could have happened if William and Mary had been divorced? None of this was making any sense. I kept researching and then I found my answer. William and Mary HAD divorced, but then they had remarried.

On July 15, 1918, William and Mary Strandt remarried. They were married by J. Ford Stratten, Probate Judge. This record also confirmed that the William and Mary who divorced on July 31, 1917, were the same couple. According to the record, Mary was a housekeeper, which could have just meant that she kept house at home. Not that she was employed as a housekeeper. William was listed as a taxi driver living in Otsego.

William must've used the last year to try and win Mary back. I'm sure he said he was a changed man, maybe he offered to give up drinking? Either way, he got Mary to take him back. Not happy with the family reunification was oldest son, Carl. Carl and his father never seemed to get along and Mary taking William back was the last straw for Carl. Shortly after William moved back home, he and Carl resumed their fights. Carl moved out. The 1920 Federal census shows Carl working and living with a young couple as their hired hand. Later that year he would marry Mildred Bellinger and begin his own family. 

I don't see this so much as a family secret, but as, a family event not talked about. Something better not talked about.

If you have any information or can add more to William and Mary's divorce, or marriage and relationship, please add them in the comments below. You can also email me.

Also, as you can tell from the divorce ledger above, there were a lot of couple filing for divorce in 1917. Most of them were by women, but a few men filed too.

Challenge

 This week the prompt is "challenge" so I am keeping up with my own challenge of recording the births, deaths, and marriages of each month. February is the shortest month and as a result I didn't find that many results for February.

Births in February include:

Marvin Henrickson, born on Feb. 11, 1944.

2x great grandfather William Strandt, born on Feb. 15, 1876. (Chicago, Illinois)

Gary Thompson, born on Feb. 20, 1949.

3x Great grandmother Wilhelmina Gley Strandt was born on Feb. 21, 1841, Prussia (Germany)

Paternal 2x great grandmother Mary Bellegraph born on Feb. 26, 1869 in Pomerania (Poland)

Marriages

Despite being the month of Valentine's Day, February only contains two marriages.

Great grandparents George Henrickson and Malvina Anderson were wed on February 21, 1900.

Paternal 2x great grandparents Mary Bellegraph and Joannes "John" Knach Conors were wed on February 7, 1888 in Indiana.

Deaths

Great granduncle Frank Anderson (older brother of Malvina Henrickson) died on February 5, 1939.

Paternal 3x Great grandmother Abigail Eldred died on Feb. 9, 1847.

Marvin Henrickson and 2x Great grandmother Elnora Truman Bellinger both died on Feb. 28. 2005, and 1953 respectively.

That's for this month. Not a lot happening in February. March will be completely different. Just the number of birthdays to keep up with. April, too! :)

Feel free to add additional birthdays, deaths, and marriages in the comments below. I try not to go back too many generations, or, go too much into extended family.

Mary Bellegraph and John Knach Conors Wedding day 1888.

George Henrickson and Malvina Anderson Wedding Day 1900.

Unless noted, births, deaths, and marriages occurred in Michigan. If they occurred in another state, or in "the Old Country" I tried to note it, if available. 

Least: Ruth Strandt Carlisle

 The prompt for this week is "least." I decided to write about the least known member of the Strand(t) family, Ruth "Bessie" Strandt Carlisle.

Ruth Strandt was born November 27, 1904 in Otsego, Michigan to William and Mary Strandt. William's occupation was listed as farmer. They were living in Otsego at the time. Before they came to the current Strandt family farm. Ruth was the third child born, and second daughter of William and Mary. Carl was the older big brother. 

Ruth Strandt birth record. 

When Ruth was 5 she moved with the family to Illinois, where younger brother, Howard, was born. Not able to find work to support his growing family, William moved everyone back to Michigan, ending up on the Strandt family farm in Watson township.

I haven't been able to discover much about Ruth. She hasn't come up much in stories from the past. Either from Eva's remembrances, or stories from Carl. I didn't even know Ruth existed until I started researching the family. Howard was the only Strandt sibling I had ever heard stories of.

We know Ruth attended Allegan High School and later transferred to Kalamazoo Central High School, which she graduated from in 1924. The quote next to her picture says " An idle brain is the devil's workshop." There are no extracurricular activities listed by her name. I couldn't find her, or any Strandt, living in Kalamazoo in 1924 for that matter. Her picture is in the yearbook. If she graduated in 1924, she would have been 19 years old at the time.

Ruth Strandt's Senior High School picture 1924.

On July 26, 1925 she married Gerald Carlisle. They lived in Kalamazoo where Ruth worked as a clerk at the Kalamazoo Stationary Company. According to notes in the Strandt family Bible, Ruth had a baby that died when it was born. I haven't been able to find any records of this birth so far. 

Gerald and Ruth Carlisle

 

Ruth passed away on May 24, 1928 at Old Borgess Hospital, after surgery for appendicitis. Her death certificate lists cause of death as a ruptured tubal abscess. A Double Salphingectomy was listed as a contributing cause of death and had occurred 5 months before her death. Ruth had had both fallopian tubes removed 5 months before. 2 days before her death she'd had an operation for appendicitis. She must've been in a lot of pain. Doctors didn't have the imaging technology and tests they have today to more accurately diagnose conditions. Not to mention antibiotics and pain killers. 

High school photo and newspaper death notice of Ruth. 

 

I've heard it mentioned that the two deaths that most upset Carl in his lifetime were the deaths of Ruth, and his daughter, Yvonne.  

Top row: Carl and Eva
Bottom row: Howard and Ruth

Do you have any information, pictures, or memories of Ruth Strandt Carlisle? Post them below or email me. I'd love to hear more about this least known member of the Strandt family.