52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 4 "Education"

Esther Louise Johnson in about 1920

 On the 1940 US Census, they asked for each person's Highest Grade of School Completed. For my maternal grandmother, Esther Louise (Johnson) Ogden (1902-1984) the entry is "H3" meaning that she only completed three years of high school. You might wonder why she did not finish high school with only one year to go. Luckily I don't have to wonder because my mother shared her mother's story with me.

In the summer of 1920, after Esther's junior year of high school in Gordon, Sheridan County, Nebraska, her parents, Swedish immigrant Gustav Johnson (1867-1941) and Rosabell (Strayer) Johnson (1872-1955), decided to move their family from Gordon to Henning, Otter Tail County, Minnesota. When my grandmother went to register for high school in Henning, she was told that she would have to complete two years of high school there rather than just the one. Something about a difference in education standards between where she came from and Henning. My grandmother said nuts to that and never enrolled in her new high school.

Several years later she went back to Sheridan County to visit her cousins. A young man there named Emery Ogden was dating one of her cousins. After meeting Esther and getting to know her, he dropped the cousin and began courting Esther. There were married in Rushville, Sheridan County, Nebraska on 19 March 1929. 

Their first daughter Ardis Rosemary Ogden was born in Sheridan County on 20 September 1930. She died only two days later. My grandmother was so frightened by that experience that when it came time for my mom, Shirley Ann Ogden (1931-2014) to be born, Esther went to back to Henning to be with her mother for the birth. That is why my mother was born in Minnesota and not Nebraska where her parents were living. 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 3 "Out of Place"

 In the book "The History of Clinton County, Iowa" from 1879 (The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns &c., Biographical Sketches of Citizens. United States: Western Historical Company, 1879.) my 2xgreat-grandfather John Kennedy (1826-1913) said that he married Honora Collins (1830-1888) on 10 November 1854, but he named no place. It also says that he moved to Wisconsin in 1849 and in 1854 moved to Clinton Co. 

Hanora Wallace (1853-1911), Honora's second daughter, from her first marriage to John Wallace was most likely born near Beloit, Wisconsin in 1853. That puts both John Kennedy and Honora in Wisconsin at the same time. That was where I have spent the last several years looking without success for a marriage record for them. 

Then one day I was looking through the records from Old St. Mary's Catholic Church, the first Catholic church in Chicago. I had determined that John Kennedy's sister Mary (1837-1899) had married her first husband, Stephen Lawler (1831-1866), in Chicago and had found a baptism record for a son of theirs in 1856. I was looking for a record of their marriage when I came across this entry from 1854:

Imagine my surprise! I quickly checked that it was the right date and sure enough I had accidently stumbled across a record of John and Honora's marriage. I have no idea what they were doing in Chicago. That was not where I had expected to find them.

John's sister's obituary says that she came to the US as a child and settled in Chicago. John made no mention of Chicago in his county biography. More research is required into this Kennedy family's history in Chicago. Also I need more information on the movements of Honora, especially after the assumed death of her first husband in 1853 or 1854.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 2 "Favorite Photo"

This week is easy. I use my favorite genealogy photo as my Mastodon banner.

I came across this photo several years ago when I was browsing through a copy of a book called "Bon Homme County [South Dakota] History" (Hoover Herbert T, Carol Goss Hoover, Dottee Blaha, and Bon Homme County Historical Society. 1994. Bon Homme County History. Tyndall SD, Vermillion SD: Bon Homme County Historical Society ; H.T. Hoover.)

I knew I had ancestors in that county and I was hoping to find a mention of them. I found something even better--a photo of them!

The caption said something like "William Ogden visiting his grandparents John and Isabella Gibbon outside their sod house near Scotland, SD." (I don't have a copy of the exact wording, but that's pretty close.) I thought "Hey! I know those people!" A genealogy happy dance ensued.

William Fredrick Ogden (1871-1951) was my mom's paternal grandfather. (My mapapa using my shorthand notation. See the "Ma and Pa" tab on this blog.) He is visiting his maternal grandparents (my 3xgreat-grandparents) John Gibbon (1803-1899) and Isabella Davidson (1811-1890). These are my mapapamapa and mapapamasma. The "s" in there is because Isabella was John's second wife--a step-mother to my 2xgreat-grandmother Hannah Gibbon (1837-1927), who married James Robert Ogden (1836-1910).

My Gibbon line were originally from Aberdeenshire in Scotland. They went first to Ontario, Canada in 1835. Some time in the 1870s they made their way south to the Dakota Territory where they settled in Bon Homme County outside of the town of--wait for it--Scotland. 

The quality of the photo is not very good, but who cares? I have a photo of my ancestors from around 1880 and that is truly wonderful.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 1 "I'd Like to Meet"

For 2023, as a way to get back into blogging, I'm going to try to take part in Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge. This week's topic is "I'd Like to Meet."

I don't have any one ancestor I'd like to meet. My focus this year is on my four great-great-grandparents who came from Ireland in the mid-1800's and settled on adjacent farms in Hampshire Township, Clinton County, Iowa. These are the only 2xgreat-granparents that I have not been able to take back to the next generation. I would love to meet any one of them as they might be able to tell me not only about themselves, but also their spouse and their neighbors.

John Kain (1819-1892) and Mary Fox (1823-1890) were married in St. Louis, Missouri in 1848. They came to Clinton County in 1852. According to their grave marker they came from County Armagh and County Leitrim, respectively.

John Kennedy (1826-1913) and Hanora Collins (1830-1898) were married in Chicago, Illinois in 1854. They went to Clinton County that same year. According to the information on their grave marker, Hanora came from County Limerick. John's birthplace of King's Count (now County Offaly) comes from his obit in the Clinton newspaper. 

I have no idea how accurate the information on the grave markers is. For example, John Kennedy's age varies quite a bit in the records as he got older, so it is hard to pin down his birth year. 1826 is my best guess, but that is not what is on his marker. One of the items on my research list is to see if I can track down who had these markers erected and see if that might lead to the source of the info.

It would save me so much time and effort if I could talk to one of these Irish ancestors. It would be like a ladder over these backwalls and back to specific spots in Ireland.