Today's email brought a very special treat - the first photograph I've ever seen of my great-great grandparents, Peder (Peter) Jeremiasen and his wife Elsie, with two of their children, Karen Marie and Peter Petersen. Denmark, 1885, three years before the family came to the United States to live in Waterloo, Iowa. The photograph is from the collection of Peter's granddaughter.
I love doing my genealogy research on line. I love reading about genealogy online. But I also look forward with anticipation to my print copy of Family Tree Magazine in the mail each month. And this month's issue has some real treasures. And where do the treasures lead me? Online, of course!
Family Tree Magazine published its list of101 Best FREE Genealogy Web sites. Yep, browse and search to your heart's content and don't shell out a penny. Many are ones you already know about, but there are still some I haven't seen before.
I decided to select five of the sites I'd never visited before to see what they have to offer.
Being a newspaper junkie, the first site I visited was NewspaperAbstracts.com. It is organized differently than I would expect. A search on abstracts from Lancaster county, Nebraska yielded 11 hits, none of which were from Nebraska newspapers. The subjects of the articles refer to Nebraska place names or people from Nebraska. In that regard, the organization of the site allows one to think outside the box and not restrict oneself to newspapers of a specific locale. The site has a search feature, but a surname search gives results that only list the newspaper name. I had better luck using a standard Google site search string "kelly site: http//www.newspaperabstracts.com." Seeing the results in Google allowed me to see summaries of the article. The site has a yahoo discussion group where you can sign up for their e-newsletter. Overall rating: C.
Next up was theNew York Public Library digital collection. The site states that it is partnering with Google to have a portion of its pre-1923 books scanned for Google books. I found that some manuscripts that relate to some of my Bellinger line from the Mohawk Valley are in the collection, but I could not review a digital copy. Now, once you visit the Digital Library, you will find much more interesting and accessible fare. In the History and Geography section, I found some of George Catlin's beautiful images of Native Americans. I found a collection of cabinet card photographs. Once I found the collection of old sheet music, I knew that I would have to make a return trip to this web site!
The site also includes a collection of Ellis Island photographs, postcards, cartoons. I know that my return trip to this site will undoubtedly last an hour or two. Overall rating: A+.
I collect cookbooks. I don't actually use them, I just read them. So my next site was Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project. There are cookbooks featuring French cuisine, Creole cooking; another called The Frugal Housewife (some things never change), a manual for Army cooks, and a White House cookbook from 1897. It's a very interesting site which I hope to return to - even though I'm not quite sure how it made a list of the top 101 genealogy sites. The Library of Congress has chosen to include this site in its collection. Interest Rating: A; Genealogy Rating: D; Overall Rating for Genealogists: C+.
Next stop was a techie product site called Evernote.com. This allows you to make notes, do screen captures, and organize various bits and pieces of information and store it all on the web. Rather than tell you any more about this site, I'll let you watch this video:
As I'm already sold on Microsoft OneNote and use it almost daily, I'm probably not going to switch, but for those looking for a free product that does something similar, this might meet your needs. Overall use for a genealogist: B+
My last stop on the tour was theDanish Demographic Database. I wondered if I could find anything on my Danish ancestors. WOW! Within seconds of initiating a search on Danish immigrants, I discovered this record on my great grandfather, Jens Petersen, then using the surname Jeremiasen. He was from Terndrup, Denmark, and with his parents and siblings, on their way to Waterloo, Iowa. His parents and siblings also showed up in the search results. Jens' father's occupation was Arbejder, which I guess means he was a laborer. Jens' occupation was a Barn? Say what? Thanks to my friend, Google Translate, I discovered that is Danish for Child. Whew!
One more search while I'm on this site - let's see what the Census search comes up with. I entered great-great grandfather's name, Peder Jeremiasen:
It just doesn't get any better than this! There's my family! My great-great grandparents: Peder and Else. The Larsen surname is new information. Other family members had given me her last name as Polsdatter. And here, the children have the surname Pedersen, as with Danish naming tradition. They did change the spelling to Petersen once settled in the U.S. "Hans Hustru" by Else's name is translated as "His Wife." Peder's occupation of husfader jordbruger og pottemager translates as "The father a farmer and potter." And from this record, I now have birthplaces for these members of the family.
Was it sheer luck or divine intervention that I saved this web site until last? Based on ease of use and my personal discoveries, I've got to give this one an Overall Rating of A++ !
Today's earlier post about my "Grandpa Pete" got me thinking about one of the traditional family recipes for Danish ebleskiver (also spelled aebelskiver). These are little round pancakes. When my father used to visit his grandmother, the children all called them "balls" - which is an apt description.
Beat egg yolks; add sugar. Sift together dry ingredients and add alternately with shortening and milk. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.
Pour some cooking oil into the ebelskiver pan. Heat until smoking. Fill the depressions about half full. When cooked on the bottom turn with two forks. Flipping them is an acquired skill that takes some practice!
You can test for done-ness by inserting a toothpick. When it comes out clean, they will be done. In time, you'll know how to time them - just like with regular pancakes.
Add oil to the pan between batches.
As soon as the ebelskiver are done, shake them in a paper bag filled with sugar (or powdered sugar) to give them an extra-sweet coating. You can eat them by hand, with some honey, syrup or jam as a dipping sauce. Make this a new addition to your Sunday brunch!
While teflon ebleskiver pans are available, I find that a cast iron pan gives better results.
A few weeks ago my father came across this issue of American Dane magazine from March 1974 featuring his father, Otto William Petersen, on the cover. He asked me if I wanted it for my family history records.
Would any genealogist ever say "no"?
The magazine features a reprint of an article about my grandfather's toymaking hobby that originally appeared in the Lincoln Star (Lincoln, Nebraska).
He got started crafting windmills, then wagons and dollhouses. The story even shares a little insight into family history.
The Waterloo, Iowa native, who spent his youth on a farm, recaptures some of his earliest remembrances of the rural scene in replicas of wagons, wells and hayracks.
The typical hayrack model comes complete with tongue, double trees and neck yokes. He's even put a spring on the tongue, an addition his dad made at corn-shucking time to relieve the horses of some of their burden.
Another touch from his past is the convertible hayrack-wagon "since my dad could not afford both."
The magazine identifies the little girl in the photograph as Debbie Nielsen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Nielsen.
My brick wall discovery of the immigration of the Jeremiasen family this week made it an easy decision to select this family for my Surname Saturday post.
I haven’t jumped into the deep end of the pool on my Danish ancestors before was because of the confusion in Danish naming traditions. If you find it difficult to trace female ancestors without a surname, try doing research on a family whose surname changed every generation!
Instead of maintaining surnames through each generation, the Danes instead used patronyms.
I’ll use my family to illustrate – my great great grandfather was Peter Jeremiasen. His children took the surname Petersen (Peter’s son). My great grandfather was named Jens Petersen. Had the naming tradition continued in this country, Jens’ children’s last names would have been Jensen (Jens’ son). On the female side, Peter’s wife’s name was Polsdatter – this means that she was Paul’s daughter.
It’s a challenging aspect to seeking my Danish roots – which is probably why I’ve focused on the family after they stopped the traditional naming and stuck with Petersen once they arrived in America.
For further reading, here’s an excellent explanation culled from several authors on the subject:
It has been along and arduous task, but at last I have discovered my very first immigration record of any of my family lines! The record shows my great-great grandparents, Peter Jeremiasen (first name spelled Peder on the record), his wife Elsa (I've seen it recorded as Elsie and Elsia) and children Margretha, Maren, Karen and Jens, my great-grandfather. The parents retained the surname Jeremiasen after they came to the United States. The children took the surname Petersen, as per Danish naming tradition.
It was exciting enough to see all of the given names and ages matching my family tree, but when I saw that their destination was Waterloo, Iowa, I was ecstatic since I knew that's where the family lived when they came to the United States.
The other new information I have from this record is that the family arrived in Quebec, Canada in June, 1888 on a ship called the Sarmatian. They had departed from Liverpool, England.
With these few pieces of information, I've broken through a brick wall that has perplexed me for years! Family lore is that my great grandfather Jens' wife-to-be, Karoline Hansen, was on the same ship with the Jeremiasen/Petersen family. So my research is just beginning - to locate her and find out more about this immigrant ship.
What an amazing day! I can hardly wait to begin digging deeper.
