Category: Miller Family History

Creating a Family History Gallery

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Now, that the spare room is relatively complete, it’s time to start my family history gallery. It’s harder than I thought. Deciding what to include has been the most overwhelming part. Fortunately, I have access to many family photos through digital copies shared by other family members and many originals in my own collection. I recognize that some may not have this luxury. But a family history gallery doesn’t have to be just family trees and ancestor photos. It can be so much more!

Here is a list of ideas that I am using as inspiration for what to put on my wall:

  • genealogy fan chart
  • ancestor Photos
  • photos or paintings of ancestral homes or lands
  • maps (there are so many amazing historic maps available online)
  • documents like marriage certificates, land patents, ship manifests…anything visually interesting
  • artifacts, like medals, jewelry, gloves, small items owned by the family
  • items that represent heritage (in my case things like Danish hearts, Swedish Dala horses etc.)
  • pressed flowers from heritage sites (this one is particularly exciting to me)
  • painted or printed sayings meaningful to the family
  • framed family recipes

I have been slowly gathering each item I want to put on my gallery wall. Before going on the wall, everything will be laid out on floor or bed to get an idea of how I want to look on the wall. One thing I have to decide is if there will be a few ‘extra’ pieces beyond family history items. I have a handful of garden/natural curiosity items I may add as well. I guess It will come down to space and what looks good!

Selecting what photos I want to use has been the hardest part, but I’ve started a folder on my desktop. Getting photos printed off these days is pretty inexpensive, so even if I don’t use them in my gallery, I won’t have spent a lot. I think it’s important to remember, that gallery images can change too! You don’t have to find an image and have it on the wall forever. I plan on using standard sized frames for photos I don’t plan to keep up long-term.

Above is the room, future gallery wall, and the beginning layout of the gallery. I will need to get some more frames, and get the pictures printed. I will be sure to post the gallery when it’s finished (someday)!

There are some really important things to remember when displaying and storing family photos, artifacts, and heirlooms. Working in the archives really showed me the importance of taking care of precious items. I may write a whole post on it, sharing some of my favorite resources.

Two of the best pieces of advice, if you can’t use a duplicate as a display:

  1. Keep items/photos/documents out direct sunlight and fluctuating temps
  2. Use archival or museum quality framing materials

I didn’t expect this to take me so long to put together becuase I have a lot of things too add, but it is really hard to choose what to include! It is a fun process though, I have gotten to revisit parts of the family tree I have’t looked at in a long time.

 

 

Finding my Swedish Ancestors

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about trying to read and translate a birth record for one of my Swedish ancestors, Carl Victor Johnson. I was so stuck that I turned to a Facebook genealogy group for help. They did help, so much so I posted about that too! From the help I was given and that other tidbits I picked up from other posts, I dove in to my Swedish roots. The Swedish National Archives take a little getting used to, but they are really quite amazing. I have been able to find several generations of Swedish ancestors on both my father’s and mother’s sides of the family.

johan and carl victor he 1861-1870

1861-1870 House Hold Examination for Carl Victor and his family in Högsby Parish, Kalmar County, Sweden.

In the records you can find a lot of details beyond birth, death, and marriage. The household examination records detail the movements of the family from what town the moved to next and departure dates to America. The records are also very specific down to farm names (I need to do a little more research into that)!

A couple of weeks ago, I upgraded my computer for the first time in a decade. Now that I have a faster, and not on its last-leg computer, I can research records faster, and put together compilations for my family. I’ve linked a document about my father’s Swedish ancestry, which included Carl Victor. It isn’t a professional genealogy examination, but it’s easy to share and understand for my family. I’ve included images and links throughout, as well as, my own commentary on what they’re looking at.

Our Swedish Ancestors

For me, the genealogical research is just a stepping stone to finding out more about the people and places my family comes from. I don’t just want names and dates (even though I love that, and all the old documents that go with it), I want to connect to the places, landscapes, and stories that come with finding those names and dates.  So, really, I’ve just started finding my Swedish ancestors. I can’t wait to find out more.

Family History and Social Media

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In my last post, I shared a screen shot of a record I’ve been looking for, for a long time. It was so exciting to find it, but unfortunately, I could not figure out what it said! I was staring at the names of another generation of ancestors without being able to read it.

That’s when I turned to social media, Facebook to be exact. I have over the last year or so joined a wide variety of genealogy groups, local historical society pages, and specific family groups, as well. I have rarely, if ever, posted in these groups. I finally decided now was the time to ask for assistance with translating this record. I joined the Swedish American Genealogy Group and posted my query.

Not only did several people respond within an hour, they helped me translate the text and also linked another record to the family. The generosity and shared interest in the group is phenomenal. To be honest, most of the genealogy and history groups I follow are the same way.

Carl Victor Johnson Birth

While, I couldn’t tell anything about what was going on in the 4th column a few days ago. I can now tell you that my 2nd great-grandfather, Carl Victor Johansson was born in Högsby, Sweden on January 26, 1845. He was baptized February 2nd. AND his parents were Jonas (Johan) Peter Samuelsson and Eva Lisa Danielsdotter of Kisebast. I was able to find out more about each parent through the help of the link shared by a kind person in the Facebook group. I’ve added Eva Lisa’s parents too! I am still searching for Jonas (Johan) Peter Samuelsson’s family.

If you haven’t tried using the help of social media on your brick-wall ancestors, I highly recommend it! If nothing else, you’re bound to get in touch with other people who share your genealogy obsession.

Back to It: Winter Genealogy

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It’s December! I haven’t posted in quite a long time. I’ve been doing stuff. At the end of October, I bought my six month subscription to Ancestry.com and casually launched into my winter “hobby” (obsession). During the summer months, I spend my time in the garden, visiting the sites, and collecting. Winter time is much better spent with a cup of coffee, snow falling outside, and my laptop. I wait until there is a good sale on the all-inclusive Ancestry membership, then pick up where I left off in early spring.

I’ve been diving into my genealogy goals for about a month now. It’s been exciting, so far! When I left off, I had just received the results of my mother’s cousin’s DNA test, but didn’t get too far into the results or matches. I am using both of their tests to track down the biological family of my Great-Grandfather, James Oscar Petersen. He was born in 1899/1900 and adopted in 1902. His given name before adoption was Oscar Adsit. I will share some of my crazy adventures in tracking him down soon. I’m being helped by another genealogy enthusiast in Nebraska!

Above are photos of Great-Grandpa as an adult and young boy. The document is a certified copy from his adoption.

Another genealogy goal I’ve been working on, is tracking down more of my Swedish ancestors, on both sides of my tree. Last year, I spent a lot of time looking into my Danish ancestry and learning the ropes of the Danish archives. It came surprisingly easy to me. The Swedes have been much more of a challenge. Last night, I had my first real break through. I was able to track down the birth record of my 2nd Great-Grandfather, Carl Victor (Johansson) Johnson. He’s on my father’s side. I had started to think he was going to remain a mystery. After finding his place of birth, I was able to page though the Swedish parish records… and there he was. I’m sure only those really into genealogy will understand my excitement. I definitely yelled (really) something like, “AHA! I FOUND HIM! TAKE THAT CARL!”

Now, here I am staring at the birth record with his, previously unknown, parents named…but I cannot for the life of me figure out what those names are. Can you?

Carl Victor Johnson Birth

This parish record is from 1845! I found it searching the Swedish, “Search the Archives” website found here. In the first column, you can see he was born January 26th. The second column is his baptismal date, February, 2nd. Next, his name, Carl Victor. This last column is the real problem. It should include his father, mother, as well as some other varying info. I usually do OK reading gothic handwriting, but I am stumped on this one. Any help is appreciated! I am so close to adding another generation to the family tree.

So, this is what I’ve been up to. I’ll share more stories and more genealogy. Hopefully, I won’t wait three months to post again!

Finding the Soddie: My First Chance to See the Land

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This past week, Todd and I took a little adventure out to the Sandhills of Nebraska. We had the chance to spend some great quality time with family, and do some family history sleuthing too.

Bright and early, Monday morning we hopped in the car and drove towards Seneca. We took one of Nebraska’s most scenic routes, Highway 2. It was gorgeous.  Once we reached the intersection of Hwy 2 and the 86-A spur, we zeroed-out the “trip b” odometer. When we entered Hooker County and the Mountain Time Zone, I knew we were getting close to our destination. With four miles on the odometer, we made it. For the next quarter-mile of Hwy 2, we were crossing a piece of land homesteaded by my great-grandfather. It is also the land where I believe my grandfather was born in a sod house.

Of course, I put my hiking boots on, Todd pulled the car over, and I tromped around a bit. Because I did not contact the current land owners, I never crossed any fence lines. It was beautiful. I could see a windmill just beyond a hill, there were tons of cattle that were really interested in what we were doing, and a lot of plants. I didn’t collect anything other than a clipping of a sunflower. Next time, I may collect yucca seeds, a prickly pear pad, and some wild roses. Next time.

While we were there, I had Todd take a photo of me holding a copy of my grandfather’s “Sons and Daughters of the Soddies” certificate. It was a great moment. It was a moment to honor my grandpa, great-grandpa, homesteaders, and Nebraska history. I am definitely going back.

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Along the way, I took note of some of the museums, libraries, and historical markers. I will be checking into and probably contacting some of them! One marker, in particular, added a little more insight to my family history. The time frame of my great-grandfather’s land claim fit for a period when settlers were known as “Kinkaiders.” It’s history I intend to look into more.

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All-in-all, I plan to continue my research, contact more local historical societies, look up tax rolls, and get a hold of the current land owners. I also think I need to lock down a better system for making sure we are on the correct stretch of land. I don’t feel my method is extremely reliable.

While I was there, I also thought about not being able to bring back plants, and how I could still incorporate some of the landscape into my garden. I will post about that soon.

After we had spent a bit of time on the land, we decided to start our journey back East. Because we’d already driven six hours, we stopped for a stay at the historic, Arrow Hotel in Broken Bow. We had Runza for dinner then a couple of drinks at the hotel bar. It was a good day. (I didn’t get a photo of our Runza, this is via the internet, while I was searching for a good image it made me hungry for Runza again…)

via hotels.com

In the future, I plan on taking an extended trip to spend more time in the area and add on a few other stops at other places where my family lived and died. It is really an experience to stand where ancestors (near and far) stood. I feel going to these places will be a life-long adventure. 20180724_084441.jpg