Pape: Truth and Lies

Truth in families.   I think being truthful and not ashamed of history is part of today's culture.  But back in the 1880s and into the 1940s and 50s, re-inventing yourself seemed to be the mainstay of the entire culture of America.   I've been trying to track family genealogy for years, and I get bits and pieces, here and there, of actual facts.

My maternal Grandfather, William Pape, immigrated in 1882.   It took lots of research, but I finally found where he arrived in NY in April 1882, with his sister.  I was always looking for Anna, but she is logged in as Emma.   The first thing that makes me go hmmmmm.

Grand Forks is listed as their destination, and obviously arrived at some point, since the family farm is just outside of Grand Forks on the Minnesota side.  From there, things get really sketchy.  My first check was Census records, and while William was somewhere in 1885, 1890 and 1895, I haven't located him until 1900.   He is listed with a wife, Adue, but no marriage records are found for him, either.  The names listed on the census by the census taker are amusing, I'm certain spelling wasn't his best subject in school.

Ida is listed is Adue
Minnie  is  Mine
Frederick is Fradrik
Mary and Anna he got right
and Rodman is Wrodmen

Makes it a little difficult to go searching for folks when sometimes all you have to go on is a single name!  hmmmmm

But William was really Wilhelm, and it was 'Americanized' when he arrived here, I'm assuming.  But with no records to balance things up, it's really difficult to analyze history.   The 1900 census lists his wife "Adue" as being age 31, making her birth year 1869.   However, her death certificate lists her birthdate as 1875.  Which makes her only 16 when her first child was born.   Hmmmm.

Family stories being what they are, Ida's maiden name is Gringland, or Grenlin, or something along those lines.  But her death certificate put her name as Pearson, with parents Markus Pearson and Carrie Olof.  Again, no trace found for those names either, that connect to Ida.   Hmmmmm

The only thing that points to anything other than living on a farm from 1900-1941, is a listing where my grandfather, William, being on a ship that arrived in NY Sep 1904.  The ship manifest states it was from Cuxhaven, Germany.  As I understand it, Cuxhaven is part of Lower Saxony, Germany.  On the 1920 Census it lists his mother as being from Saxony, Germany.    Did he travel back to Germany to make arrangements on a death? his parents, perhaps?   hmmmmm

Of course, then there's the question, who stayed with the children during his trip, he would have been gone through the spring/summer which is harvest time for farmers.  His wife, Ida?  Alone?  Hmmmmm

Then there's the whole mental institution of Fergus Falls State Hospital.  Ida was a resident there for many years, and died there as well.  When I started getting into genealogy, I wrote to them asking for information and found that files had been shredded just a couple of years prior to my inquiry.  Ida was a patient of Minnesota State Hospital, now known as the Regional State Hospital, in Fergus Falls, Minnesota.  Upon checking for her records, they only have on file her last admittance date of 2/24/1915.  She died at the facility and is buried there.  Call the Office at 218-739-7247 to arrange time to visit her grave site.    Her death certificate does not give any indication to the name of Gringland or Grenlen.   Her death certificate also states "Cause:  Manic depressive psychosis-known 35 Coronary thrombosis due to coronary sclerosis.  There was an autopsy."   There was no Name of spouse listed on her Death Certificate, and it causes me to wonder, was there no record of this? or is data obsolete.  As a further note, Minnesota only keeps 30 years history now.  Unfortunately, the rest of her records have been destroyed.  An assumption on my part is that she was released from time to time to go home to her family.  And while circumstances with her must have created havoc in the home, it also must have been difficult for a husband to put his wife into a facility; I like to think he cared enough about her to try to bring her home to his family, as I was told that she was in and out on several different occasions.  Her parents were listed as Markus Pearson and Carrie Olof.  Hmmmmm

Now that I've pieced together more parts of the puzzle, was she left at home with 5 children (Ages 13-5) during the summer harvest months while he was away dealing with something back in Germany?  And did that create enough of some sort of rift between them that things became unbearable and he had her committed?   Hmmmmm

All these different questions that make me go hmmmm.  And I have to wonder if life back then was more complicated than it seemed.  People came to America and re-invented themselves with a new name, background stories that don't always add up, all to make a "better" life.  Perhaps in some circumstances it made things more difficult.   I can see wanting to start a new life, but as we get older, we seem to need to gravitate back toward home - wherever that may be - or to what's familiar.

In my own case, I was living in Ohio, moved there to do the same:  start a different life, new location, different people to interact with.  After 10 years, I was moving back to the west coast because I needed to be closer to family.

When all is said and done, there are only so many friends we can depend on, and we learn we need family most of all.   Maybe immigrants paid a higher price than were willing to admit by the need or want to start over, start fresh, make a better life by leaving family and home behind.  In some ways, I'm thankful they did ... it brought me to my own place in life.

Who's Pregnant?

Back in the 1930s, it was considered SHOCKING to be pregnant out of wedlock.  I've been researching family trees and genealogy off and on now for 20 years, and I found out today that my own Grandmother, Myrtle, was pregnant when she got married.  I guess you'd call that a shotgun wedding?!?!

I've been having discussions with my own mother about family history, and I'm quite shocked and somewhat shamed to find out that there have been some family secrets that were never let out.  I understand everyone wants their privacy, to keep what they considered their own shame to themselves, and not feel others are judging them.  In the year 2016, I don't think anyone is concerned about unwed mothers, it's just not an issue.  But back in the 1930s, that wasn't acceptable.

We've been talking about family relationships, the distance between family farms or homes, and get-togethers that happened, or didn't happen, when Mom told me that grandma "had to get married".   I wonder if that played an issue in how life turned out?  After all, her husband Harold was 15 years older than her, and just a farmhand.  I'm sure I've written about how I felt she was keeping secrets all along -- turns out she was!  They were married July 20, 1935 and the baby arrived Mar 18, 1936. No long term planning of this wedding!


It's OK, Grandma, no judgement from me!

There are things we may never know,
but this one surprised me!


Harold, late 40s or early 50s.

Grandma liked to cut up her photos,
no idea who he's standing with, or where.

Family Mysteries

Kajsa Anderson.  My great great grandmother.  She must have been quite a woman.
She had her first child at 19, Henry, in 1857.  Peter was born 6 years later, then Charlie, and last, Anna.  From what little I've been able to piece together, she emigrated from Sweden to America around 1883.   She was 45 years old at the time, and traveled here with her four children.  Henry was 26, Peter was 19, Charles was 13 and Anna, just 6.

How do you imagine that you can start a new life at 45?
What motivates you to make such a move?

I can only relate in my own experiences.  I was 49 years old when I rented a truck, loaded all my belongings, towed my car, moving me and my son across country.  Brian was 22 at the time.  But I was moving to be closer to family, needed to be closer to them.

So that brings me back to the same question:  What was the driving reason behind Kajsa moving from Sweden to America?  I know younger men and women moved for the dream of a better life.  Was she doing that for her children, a new place where they could make a better life on their own?  

I don't ever recall my father talking about visits with his grandfather, Charles.  They lived in Pennington county, my father was born in Marshall county, the distance between Thief River Falls and Alvarado, MN, is  ... according to Google 39 miles.  Was there ever a family picnic or Christmas gathering?  Grandfather Charles died in 1952.  My father was born in 1937.  Surely there must have been some kind of .... relationship.

Or perhaps there was a family rift, they didn't seem to approve of Grandmother Myrtle marrying Harold Danielson.  And I've always been curious about that.  Grandma was always secretive, never wanting to talk about Harold's background.  Now with the advent of the internet and census data being readily available and searchable, I have found several things that lead me to believe that the stories told were fiction.  Or embellished 'truths' based on very little facts.  I've contacted people over the years, and there have been differing opinions as to the real truth.

In the Alvarado cemetery, there are some other Danielsons buried there.  Relatives?  If so, they were never spoken of, either.  And Alvarado has never been a town of thousands.  Harold's mother, Christina, had family around as well.  Her brother, Peter Hendrickson, was raising Harold at one point, as he's listed on the census as his nephew.  So what's the real story?    She was buried without a headstone, I haven't been able to locate any kind of information whatsoever about her, other than her being listed on different census' over the years.

About every six months, the urge to dig a little bit more grabs hold of me and I can't seem to let go without finding out something about a relative!   Even a tidbit puts the whole story more into focus.

Genealogy sure is addicting!

Here's my great grandfather Charles with a cow on a lead ... one of my fav pictures because it tells more of a story than just a posed photograph: