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Black Sheep Ancestors

October 4, 2024

Recently I’ve heard several genealogists bemoan the fact that their ancestors are boring. These folks say their ancestors didn’t do anything exciting. They were born, married, had children, and died. Genealogists want a few “Black Sheep Ancestors”- those characters that bent the rules and broke the laws and were anything but boring.

 

I can understand the appeal of some of these bad boy and girl ancestors. Bad boys and girls typically generated more records than their more respectable siblings. Newspaper articles and court records often detail their escapades. Naturally, an intrepid genealogist wants to claim some of these characters.

 

Luckily, outrageous ancestors aren’t hard to find. How many of your ancestors had their first child after less than nine months of marriage? I’ll bet there are at least a few. Some probably weren’t even married when that first child arrived. Have you tried to figure out the circumstances of that “irregular” birth?

 

Divorces were considered scandalous in earlier eras. Although rare in earlier days, divorces did occur. In eras with less concern for privacy, they often involved newspaper write-ups. These were full of salacious details. If you find a woman listed as widowed on a census when you know her husband was still alive, you might suspect a divorce. Divorce was considered shameful, and women, especially, often tried to hide it.

 

Some facets of life in earlier eras may push an ancestor into the black sheep category, even though they were considered respectable in their day. Slavery is one of these areas. It’s hard not to be disturbed by a slave-owning ancestor, but most people before the Civil War considered it normal. That’s true of Northerners as well as Southerners.

 

Crimes such as robbery and murder are fun to find on the family tree, but it’s important to remember they were serious when they occurred. My fourth great grandfather Bengt Hendrick Rosendahl is an example. Bengt committed murder in 1769. He was an alcoholic and an ugly drunk. He abused his wife and children.  One day he and a tenant on his farm got into an argument. Bengt stormed back to his house for a gun, returned and shot the tenant. He was found guilty and beheaded for his crime.

 

Since it was a horrific and unusual crime at the time, there were lots of records about Bengt’s crime and his trial. As my family and I discovered each new grisly detail, we were shocked that someone in our family tree could have done this. However, it didn’t affect us personally. Bengt’s descendants were all law-abiding, responsible members of society. None of them killed anyone. That makes it easy for the genealogists in our generation to tell Bengt’s story in a lighthearted manner. It feels too long ago to matter today.

 

I suspect that the difference between a fun black sheep story and a life-altering tragic story is time. My fourth great grandfather was a murderer, and my family considers it a good story. If my grandfather had done the same thing, it might seem more sensitive. It would be harder to tell my black sheep story and laugh about it.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

Naturalization and the 1920 Census

September 27, 2024

If you have ancestors who arrived in the United States after the Civil War and before World War I, you’ve probably looked for their naturalization records. You may also have learned that these records are not always easy to find. There are several reasons for this.

 

The earlier the naturalization record the more difficult it is to locate. Before 1906, citizenship could be granted by any court in any state or territory. In addition, immigrants tended to move frequently in the early years of their residence in America. It’s hard to determine where they were at a given time. Finally, some immigrants naturalized as soon as they were eligible. Others waited decades. Some never naturalized at all.

 

Like other genealogical records, some naturalization records have been digitized. Online indexes are available for some areas and periods. However, many naturalization records are not digitized or even indexed online. The only place they’re available is at local courthouses and/or state archives and libraries.

 

All of this means that figuring out where and when your ancestor naturalized can be a daunting task. However, if your ancestor was enumerated in the 1920 census, you’re in luck.

 

All the censuses between 1900 and 1940 include citizenship status for people not born in the U.S. The 1920 census is unique in that it also includes the year an immigrant arrived as well as the year he naturalized.

 

Using the data from the 1920 census, it’s easy to determine whether someone was naturalized. If he or she wasn’t, the census listed him as AL, for alien. This would be the case if he had filed no naturalization paperwork. If he had filed a declaration of intent, he’d be listed as PA. PA means that he had started the process of obtaining citizenship but hadn’t completed it. Anyone naturalized was listed as NA.

 

For those who had been naturalized, a year of naturalization is also listed. This can be a great help in finding their naturalization records. You’ll still have to figure out where your ancestor was during that naturalization year, but that’s better than trying to follow him for years or possibly decades

 

There is one caveat to using any census record including the 1920 one. Remember that the censuses are not always accurate. People forgot when events occurred or obscured the truth for various reasons. The 1920 census naturalization information, like any census information, should be used as a clue not as a verified fact. Still, it’s not something to overlook when you’re trying to find your ancestor’s naturalization records.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

 

 

Beware of Online Family Tree Photos

September 20, 2024

Like most family historians, I’m always on the lookout for pictures of my ancestors. Periodically, I review online family trees in my continuing search. Websites such as Family Search, Ancestry.com, My Heritage, and many others all allow users to post their own trees, including pictures and other documents.

 

Every time I search, I find new-to-me photos of my ancestors. It’s thrilling to see faces I’ve never seen before. However, finding new photos is not always an occasion for joy. Sometimes it’s an exercise in frustration to see photos purporting to be an ancestor when I know that they’re not.

 

Photos on online trees are seldom attributed to a source. It’s easy to copy them to your own tree, and that’s what many genealogists do. That’s why online trees are filled with photos that aren’t really of the people they claim to be.

 

If you find a photo of an ancestor, it’s important to contact the person who posted the tree. He/she may know where the photo came from and may even send you a better copy of the picture. If the answer to your question is that the poster got the tree from another online tree, it might mean that the photo has been floating around the internet. You may never find out who originally posted it. You may never get verification that the picture is the ancestor the trees claim it to be.

 

Before you accept that a given photo is your ancestor, there are a few simple things you can do to help you decide if it is. First, think about the time that the ancestor died. If he died before 1850, the chances that a photo of him exists are slim.

 

Although the earliest existing photographs were taken in 1826, the earliest photo of people was taken in 1838. Photos of average people are common from the Civil War era forward.  Some more well-to-do families had them taken a decade or so earlier.

 

Another way to determine whether you’re looking at a photo of your ancestor is to look at the clothing he is wearing. If your great grandmother died in 1910, a photo purporting to be her where she is wearing an above-the-knees 1920’s style dress is not her. People sometimes wore clothing for decades so out-of-style clothing is not necessarily proof that the photo is wrong. Clothes from an era after your ancestor’s death means that the subject was not who it is claimed to be.

 

For example, my third great grandfather Stephen Hadlock died in Iowa on what was then the frontier in 1847. His family had spent the previous dozen years following the migrations of the Mormon Church from one place to another. After all these moves the family was poor. It is doubtful that he ever sat for a photograph.  Despite this, online pictures of him are on numerous trees.

 

Most of the photos online are copies of the same photograph. I suspect that the picture is not my ancestor.  The clothing of the man and woman in the photo is clearly of a later era than 1847. I’ve seen the same picture identified as a picture of Stephen’s son Oren and his wife Ann. The style of the photo and the clothing make this likely since Oren didn’t die until 1892.

 

The internet is filled with incorrect photos. Don’t add to the confusion by copying photos to your own tree unless you have verified that they are of your own ancestors.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society