Twins from Tånnö

Twin (tvilling) girls were born in the Ny family of Tånnö, Jönköping, Sweden on the 8th of January 1910; Anna Gunborg Kristina and Greta Tarborg Katrina. The girls were baptized January 27th. In addition to their births, the entries in Tånnö’s Births and Baptisms Book includes information about the girls’ parents. According to the record…

Are Obituaries Always Accurate?

My quest continues ~ I’m still searching for the descendants of my Norwegian and Swedish 4th great-grandparents. My focus this year is on those who left Scandinavia and settled in North America. My Norwegian 4th great-grandparents Christian Tronson (1779-1852) and Gunvor Mortensdatter (1788-1875) had 10 known children. Several of the ten left Norway behind, immigrating…

January 1, 1858-1921

My second great-grandfather was given the name Pehr August when he entered the world on 01 Jan 1858 in Svenarum, Jönköping, Sweden. He was the 5th of eight children born to spiksmed (nail-smith) Carl Tolf and his wife Helena Stina Åhman. Pehr was just 11 years old when his oldest brother Gustaf emigrated to America.…

All the Lost Stories

When I started researching my family history in the 1980s, I knew very little about any of my ancestors, even less about their countries of origin, and next to nothing of our shared heredity. Neither of my parents were very interested in genealogy. I didn’t hold out much hope of discovering vintage family photos or…

Research in Burned Records

Two explanations about fires hindering research in the Swedish parishes of Tånnö, Värnamo and Voxtorp are here and here. There are workarounds of course, but pre-1860 research would consume many hours and yield few results because all three parishes belonged to the district of Östbo ~ and there was a fire there too. Which is…

Robert Plum in the newspapers

Robert Edward Plum’s intended bride Elma Rascher was born on the fourth of January 1887. When Elma was 27, her big sister posted an engagement announcement in three St Louis Missouri newspapers; the St Louis Globe Democrat and the St Louis Star and Times both on 18 June 1914, and the St Louis Post Dispatch…