where2look4ancestors

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • and so it begins…

    A genealogy filing project kept bringing me back to the cousin quest I began years ago. Add to that a recurring daydream about a future trip to Scandinavia, inspired by the Thompson sisters in my family tree. Gradually my 2022 genealogy goal changed from working my way through a 67-page…

  • Carl Tolf in kyrkoböcker

    Two hundred and fifty four years ago a young Swedish couple celebrated the birth of my 5th great-grandfather Carl Tolf. Carl’s birth was entered in the church record book with a quill pen – can you imagine? Unimaginable to the priest who recorded the event, I am able to admire…

  • 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…

  • Pearl Tolf and a marriage certificate

    Pearl May Tolf shares a New Year birthday with her uncle Peter. Pearl’s father (Peter’s brother) Frans Tolf and his wife Mathilda settled in Dixon Illinois where Pearl and five younger siblings were born. Frans and Mathilda’s oldest child was born in 1883, which means Pearl may have fibbed about…

  • Peter Tolf and a church record

    A shaking leaf on Family Tree Maker tells me there is a clue about my 2nd great-grandfather Peter August Tolf (1858-1929) in the U.S., Evangelical Covenant Church, Swedish American Church Records, 1868-1970. The record includes a history of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Batavia [Illinois], which was formerly called the…

  • National Bike to Work Day

    The League of American Bicyclists was originally founded as the League of American Wheelmen in 1880. Bicyclists, known then as “wheelmen,” were challenged by rutted roads of gravel and dirt and faced antagonism from horsemen, wagon drivers, and pedestrians. From the past to the present, bike riders have been a part of my family…

  • Veterans Day

    What we now know as Veterans Day is our opportunity to publicly commemorate the contributions of living veterans. Armistice Day, as it was called previously, officially received its name in America in 1926 through a congressional resolution. It became a national holiday 12 years later by similar congressional action. If…

  • Headstone Genealogy

    I’ve seen many headstones that provide wonderful clues for anyone researching that particular family tree. But none quite as wonderful as the Hollister headstone in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. The names, dates and relationships on the front and on the back made it easy to find the right Hollisters in the…