where2look4ancestors

  • Peter Tolf and Augusta Landstrom Marry

    At first we thought there were two couples; Peter & Christine Tolf and Adolf & Augusta Sandstrom. Isn’t that what it looks like? But it was actually only one couple, Peter Tolf and Augusta Landstrom. They each brought a sibling to act as witnesses when Peter and Christine’s brother Frans…

  • A Norwegian and a Swede

    No, this isn’t one of those jokes. A Norwegian immigrant named Peter Thompson married a Swedish immigrant named Maria Fredrika Peterson in Chicago in 1883. How they met is a mystery. Family lore has it that Maria worked as a house servant in San Francisco’s Nob Hill when she first arrived…

  • Harriette Kathlyn Tolf 1909-1954

    Every once in awhile I will stumble across a photo that makes me do a double-take. Do you have any of those in your tree? A picture of one person who looks so much like someone else in your tree you almost think it’s a… well…an impossibility? This picture had that effect…

  • 1892 Obituaries: April 30

    The following death notices appeared in one column on page 6 of the April 30, 1892 issue of the Chicago Daily News; F. A. Bird, Paul Grantham, Lizzie C. Kennedy and part one of James Kilroy: James Kilroy’s death notice was continued in the next column and Mrs Mary A Benson…

  • Mariage de François Schmitt et de Elisabeth Grosse

    One of my favorite online resources for French records is Archives de la Moselle. Many of my Schmitt ancestors hail from the village of Hellimer in Moselle, Lorraine, France. Records for Hellimer are free (!) and available online from 1737 to 1791. When I want to see records from the period after 1791, I visit my local…

  • Oh Those Beautiful Hats!

    Their fathers Peter (1858-1929) and Frans Tolf (1852-1928) were brothers. And so Ranghild Katarina Henrietta (1889-1973) and Eva Mathilda (1891-1957) were first cousins. Eva had a sister named Pearl May (1883-1967). The three women got together often. As a matter of fact, Pearl lived with Ranghild and her family in the 1910…

  • Helena Christina Åman 1822-1901

    She died. And then she disappeared. According to the local newspaper, my 3rd great-grandmother died 13 January 1901: From the Batavia (Illinois) Herald, Wednesday 16 January 1901, “Death of an Aged Mother – Died, at the home of her daughters, Misses Christina and Amanda Tolf, on Hueston (sic) St., West Batavia,…

  • Morgan Henry Clark 1830-1910

    Morgan Clark intrigues me. My 3rd great-grandfather was born in Maryland 25 Feb 1830 to Rebecca Margaret (nee Ridenour) and her husband Mathew Clark. Morgan followed in his father’s footsteps (no pun intended) and made his living as a shoemaker. Both father and son were politically active according to newspaper…

  • Herman Friedrich Carl Mangels 1854-1912

    The family story was Herman Mangels had a tendency to partake of alcoholic beverages. So much so that his wife threatened to lock him out of the house the next time he returned home inebriated. That next time happened on a cold January night. The family story went on to say…

  • Karl John Raymond Tolf 1891-1973

    He was my grandmother’s Uncle Ray, the younger brother of her father. My mother and my sisters and I called him Unkie. While I was thinking about writing this post, it dawned on me – with some surprise – that I actually knew someone born in 1891. Not knew of him, but knew him.…