April 28 to May 4

BIRTHS:

I first “met” Amanda Sofia Karlsdotter Tolf years ago in a softly lit Family History Center.

According to the 1880 census I viewed on the FHC’s microfilm, Amanda and her older sister Frida were working as housemaids in the Geneva Illinois home of a successful local businessman. She was not quite 15 years old.

Amanda was born May 1st, 1865 in Svenarum, Jönköping, Sweden. She’d immigrated with her parents and three of her eight siblings in 1878.

I was later able to see Amanda in the photo shown here because of two amazing women, both named Marilyn, who volunteered at the Depot Museum in Batavia Illinois. I wrote about it here in a post called Serendipity in Genealogy.

My great uncle Augusta Charles Hermann Mangels was born in Chicago on May 3rd, 1913 to unhappily married parents. He was a young boy when his mother gave him up for adoption. His new family called him Carl Nichols.

Many years later Carl and his brother Ernest were reunited.

MARRIAGES:

My maternal great-grandparents James Walton and Johanna Carlson were married April 28th, 1908. James was an infant when his parents immigrated from the Isle of Man and Johanna had immigrated from Sweden. Is it possible they were married before this? And if not, what made them decide it was finally time to tie the know? Johanna would have been expecting their fifth child in April of 1908.

Another notable union in my family tree occurred 146 years ago this week. Danish-born Niels Christian Dahl and Norwegian-born Gurina Thompson were married by a Justice of the Peace in Chicago on the 4th of May 1878.

DEATHS:

Two Swedish direct-line ancestors from different branches in my family tree were named Lars.

My 3rd great-grandfather Lars Petersson died in Hörby, Skåne, Sweden on 30 Apr 1872.

My 10th great-grandfather Lars Tolfsson died 345 year ago 04 May 1679 as shown below.