June 14, 2024
Family legends are a fun part of genealogy. Many a genealogist has heard a story about a great-great grandmother who was a Cherokee princess or the three brothers who immigrated from Ireland together. One of them left to go West and no one ever heard from him again. There are all sorts of other stories involving ties to royalty and stolen inheritances that sometimes pop up in family lore.
New genealogists tend to accept these stories as true. More experienced genealogists have learned that many of the stories are based more on imagination than fact. They never accept a family legend unless they’ve proven it’s true. Not even if Aunt Maude swears that she heard it from her grandmother!
My great grandmother died long before I was born. According to family members she claimed she was related to the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh. When I began doing genealogy, I decided to check out the story. I thought there was a chance the story was true since my great grandmother’s maiden name was Lindberg. The name wasn’t spelled the same as Charles Lindbergh’s, but it was close, so maybe? Plus, both my great grandmother and Charles Lindbergh’s family came from Sweden.
As I delved into Swedish genealogy, I learned that Lindberg and Lindbergh are essentially the same name. Translated, the name means linden mountain. It was a common name of farms in Sweden. Many people took the name of the farm where they lived as their surname. Most of them were not related. That turns out to be the case with Charles Lindbergh and my great grandmother. They were from different parts of Sweden. They lived hundreds of miles apart. After pouring over Swedish church records, I could find no connection between the two families.
My research also shows that my great grandmother died in 1925. Charles Lindbergh didn’t make his famous flight until 1927. I doubt she was bragging about a relationship to a man who was an unknown at the time she died. I suspect that the relationship between my great grandmother and the great aviator was a matter of wishful thinking by my grandmother’s descendants when Charles Lindbergh became so famous.
Even though I didn’t find out I was related to Charles Lindbergh, it was interesting to do the genealogy to debunk the legend. I suppose my cousins won’t be pleased to lose their link with a celebrity, but I’m working on another possible relationship to a famous person. According to another family story, we’re descended from one of the Salem witches. So far, it’s looking like that line is correct. Maybe my cousins will think being related to a witch is a fair trade for not being related to an aviator!
Carol Stetser
Researcher