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. 

Changing Names: Was Our Family Name Changed at Ellis Island?

 Almost every family seems to have a story about an ancestor whose name was changed at Ellis Island. Hollywood loves to use this urban legend of a character coming to America and an unfeeling, disinterested customs official can't pronounce the foreign name, so he gives the character a new, Americanized name. It never happened. Custom officials used the manifest that was created at the point of departure. Also, most of the inspectors could speak more than one language. If names were changed, it came from the immigrant, not from the inspector.

On my paternal side, my Bellgraph family became Bellgraph from Bellgrowa in Pomerania long before they immigrated to America. My 2x great grandfather John Knach became John Conor when he settled among many Irish Catholics in Nebraska. He even went so far as to claim to be from Ireland on the census, even though his family was from eastern Prussia.

On my maternal side there are many instances of the appearing and disappearing letter "t" at the end of Strandt. Even in Germany the letter appears and disappears. In America, Carl Strand seems to be the only family member who left it off. It seems to have disappeared permanantly from him around the time of World War I when there was large anti-German sentiment in the country.

This leaves us with Sven Goran Henrik Johansson, known as George Henrickson in America. If we look at George's family, we can see that there is actually a history of men in his family changing surnames.

Going back we find George's great grandfather, Anders Skjold, born in 1788 in Sweden. His father's name was Lars Christian Hultberg. When Anders joined the Swedish military, though, he took on a military surname. Men would do this to distinguish themselves from all the other men with the same name as them. "Skjold" means "Shield" in Swedish. 

Anders Skjold later had a son named Sven Andersson, born in 1810. Sven also joined the Swedish military and took on a soldier surname. His surname was "Fahna", which means "Flag." So, Sven Andersson Fahna is how he became known. His children had the last name Fahna. 

Sven had two sons, Jonas and Anders. They also joined the Swedish military and took on military surnames. Jonas could not use Fahna, as his father was using it. Jonas's surname became "Fahnstrom". Anders took the last name "Lindblad." Lindblad is an ornamental name. "lind" refers to the Lind, or Lime tree. "blad" refers to Leaf. 

Sven's daughter, Ingrid, married Johan Jonasson. Their son, Sven Goran Henrik, would have had the last name of Johansson. Johan was one of the most popular, if not the most popular name in Sweden at the time. That means, there would have been very many Swedish immigrants in America with the last name of Johansson. We've already seen how common it was to change the surname in Sweden. There was no tradition of carrying on a family name as the surname changed each generation, or with entry to the military. So, when Sven Goran Henrik Johansson came to America and saw how many other Swedish immigrants had the last name Johansson, he decided he wanted to stand out and be different. When he became a naturalized American citizen he chose a new, more American sounding name for himself. He went with George Henrickson. He dropped Johansson, and turned his name of Henrik into his surname by adding "son." 

The first paper is the passenger manifest from the ship leaving Malmo, Sweden. His name is listed as Sven G.H. Johansson. The next picture is the manifest of the ship coming into Ellis Island, in New York. The name is listed exactly the same. And that, is how we became Henrickson's, and not Johanson's. :)

How George fits in:

George Henrickson (Sven Goran Henrik Johansson) son of, 

Ingrid Svensson Fahna, daughter of,

Sven Andersson Fahna, son of,

Anders Skjold, son of,

Lars Christian Hultberg. (Lars was also in the military and I believe Hultberg is also a name given to him in the military but I'm not sure. At least 3 generations of Swedish military service.)

 

John Knach Conors

 For Father's Day weekend I decided to write about my 2x great grandfather on my Dad's side of the family. His side has been a bit harder to research. I haven't found as many records, and, the history is a bit more convoluted, as you'll see here.

John Knach was born March 28, 1863 is what is present day Poland. His sister Catherine was born the next year in Posen, Germany. Today, it's Poznan, Poland. Either way, the area that John and his family lived in is land which was fought over and went back and forth between Poland and Prussia/Germany. IT's no wonder that the father, Martin, decided to bring his family to America. 

Sometime in 1872 John, his father, 2 sisters, and brother came to Nobel County, Indiana. I haven't found them on a passenger list, but they all list Germany/Poland as their birth place. In 1873 John's sister Frances is born in Indiana. I haven't been able to figure out who John's mother was. On some of his records he lists an Emma Grice as his mother. But on other documents a Mary Ann is listed as his mother. I do know that his father was married twice. I found a note that said his father had a Polish wife and an American wife. That when the American wife died the Polish wife came over. I just haven't figured out which was which. 

On the 1880 census John lives in Green, Nobel County, Indiana with his father Martin, mother(step?) mother Mary Ann and siblings on a farm. John's father is listed as being born in Poland, as is John. 

In February of 1888 he marries Mary Viola Bellegraph. Mary is also from eastern Prussia. On October 8, 1889 Mary and John become parents to Anna Beulah Conor. Anna is my great grandmother who goes on to marry Frank Thompson. John and Mary are living in Grand Island, Nebraska. At some point they decided to leave Indiana and head to Nebraska. Also, John has changed his last name from Knach to Conor. I haven't been able to figure out why he did this, or when. Also, Conor is spelled different ways over the years. From Conor to Coners to O'Connor. One of the reasons I've run across is that when the family moved to Nebraska there was a large Irish Catholic population there and to fit in, John changed his last name. The Knach and Bellegraph families were both Catholic so this could be a possibility but no one really knows for sure. 

In 1892 a son is born to John and Mary in Michigan. In 1895 a daughter is born to them in Grand Island, Nebraska. The family has moved back again. 1902 finds the family back in Michigan again. My dad says he always heard that the reason the family came back to Michigan was because the barn burned down in a fire. I'm not sure if this is the first or second time they came back to Michigan. On the 1900 census John's profession is listed as Laborer, and his father's birth place is listed as Ireland! John was really trying to fit in, I guess.

The 1910 census finds John and Mary living in Hopkins, Michigan on a farm that is mortgaged. 8 of their 10 children are living with them. The 2 oldest daughters have moved out. On this census John lists Indiana as his father's birth place. 

On December 24, 1917, Mary files for divorce from John. She says there are 12 children in the family. Extreme Cruelty is the reason given. On June 12, 1918 the divorce was granted. John contested it. 

*interesting to note that my 2x great grandparents on my maternal side were also divorced in 1918/1919. Both times the wife filed and cited "cruelty" as the reason. Both cases were contested, but granted ultimately. 

On the 1920 census John is living on a farm he owns, but is mortgaged with 3 of his 4 youngest sons in Hopkins. He lists his, and both his parents' birth places as USA. 

I haven't been able to find John yet, in the 1930 census. He passes away September 7, 1938 in Michigan at the age of 75. Cause of death is listed as Uremia. Hyper trophy of the prostate with a urinary tract infection. 

I haven't been able to find any pictures of either John or Mary. So far. He definitely led an interesting life, completely reinventing himself and his family history on every census it seems. The ever changing information made it quite hard to tract him down. I spent hours looking for an Irish connection, and trying to find his birth certificate in Indiana at first. It wasn't until I found him connected to people with the last name of Knach/Knack/Knauch that I finally figured out his story. And I've still yet to figure out who is mother truly is, Emma or Mary Ann? His descendants seemed to have kept that alive as many of his sons spell the last name of Conor different ways. From Conor to Coner to Coners to even O'Connor. 

Life is never dull in the Conor household.