Showing posts with label Känsäkangas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Känsäkangas. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Revisiting a record I already had

So in my last blog about Hilma I referenced another blog.  I wrote that in 2016 shortly after receiving the new information that I had received, which completely shocked the descendants of Hilma who had no idea that she had an additional sibling Selma (that we aren't sure what happened to but guess didn't come to America).  I'm not going to repost the additional record for Selma or for the birth of her son Nils Ragnar but I did want to revisit some of the records because I completely missed something the first time.

So as mentioned twice previously, Hilma was born to Benjam(in) Henriksson Kiviniemi and Lisa Greta Johansdotter Känsäkangas (have also seen her listed as Rasmus).


Benjam was born 14 Feb 1859 at Kivijärvi Finland to Henrik Mattsson Kivijarvi (1829-1887) and Anna Caisa Andersdotter (1830-????).  He's listed as Benjam and Benjamin in various records.  As stated before, he abandoned the family about 1881 and allegedly went to America, although I can't find him anywhere.  His birth is listed as record #17 on the upper left section of this book page.

Many thanks to Alan for finding Benjam's birth record and marriage to Lisa Greta for me today!


Lisa Greta was born 18 Jan 1855 at Kaustinen Finland to Jonas Johansson Känsäkangas-Virkkala (1818-1868) and Helena Johansdotter Hotakainen (1817-????).  There is a project that was turned into a book called the "Caino-Torp" book that takes the Känsäkangas family back to the 1500s.





Benjam and Lisa Greta were married 4 Nov 1877 at Karleby Finland.  Their marriage record is the last record on the bottom of the right page.










So, these are new records that weren't listed in the previous blog - where is the information that I missed from the records in 2016?


So in this communion book for 1885-1894 Lisa Greta is shown with her family (although there is a note that her husband left for America in 1881).  She's listed with her in-laws above her, her 3 daughters, including the illegitimate Selma, and her sister-in-law and her family below.

When I was initially sent these records I didn't see the possible connection in the next record.





I was also given this communion book page, which covers the exact same time frame (1885-1894).  In this one Lisa Greta is almost listed as a member of the family of her 2nd husband Gustaf Robert Wäyrynen, tacked onto the end of his family, which included his 1st wife and their 4 children, and again Selma.

I don't quite understand why she's listed twice, although I know in American census records there are times people got enumerated twice.  Perhaps it's a simple as that.


Lisa Greta marries Gustaf Robert Wäyrynen 22 Jul 1894 at Karleby Finland.  His 1st wife passed away 5 Jun 1893 at Karleby.  Lisa Greta is 39 years old when she remarries and her husband is 42 years old and they have 6 children between them.  Surely Hilma doesn't have any further siblings (at least on her mother's side)?







This is the record I missed.  I was given it, with an explanation of what the notations in the right column were and filed it away.  As I was going back through records and corresponding with Alan again I noticed another child, Karl Emil, listed with the family.  Who is Karl and what is he doing with the family?  I asked Alan who did a little digging and...........





.......lo and behold, Karl Emil was indeed born to Gustaf and Lisa Greta, who had (what I think is) her last child at the age of 42.  His birth is the middle record on the right page.

I'm not sure how I overlooked this child the first time but it proves again that you need to have to have a pair of studying eyes when you look over documents.  Overlooking something like this can limit future benefits of receiving the document.  How you ask?



For me, I work on the ancillary lines - descendants of my direct ancestor siblings.  I'm trying to track down what happened to Lisa Greta - if one of Karl Emil's descendants works on the tree (alas there is nothing that I can find to indicate this yet) but I don't have him in my tree I may not make a connection.  Same with a photo of Lisa Greta - entirely possible that there's a photo of her - perhaps it's the unidentified photo in the first post I referenced.  Perhaps one of Karl Emil's grandchildren is still living and has a photo.  Again, he needs to be in my tree for that to work.  What about DNA testing?  If one of Karl's children or grandchildren get DNA tested, they may eventually show as a match in my tree.  If Karl isn't in my tree it's entirely likely that the connection could be missed.  In my mind the ancillary lines are just as important when you're trying to track down records and photographs that, if they exist, are in the hands of descendants.  I know for a fact that Hilma and Anna's descendants do not have them so I have to rely on Selma or Karl Emil's descendants.  Perhaps one of them will read this and solve the mystery for me?

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Progress leading to another mystery

I recently met with one of my grandpa Korstange's cousins on his mom's (Burke) side of the family.  It was a great visit filled with new genealogical finds (some that I will probably blog about in the relatively near future).  One of the reasons I wanted to meet up with her was to get another shot at scanning some of the photos her father Paul had.  I visited him with my grandpa in January of 2005 but I did a poor job scanning the photos and passed on some that I've been chomping at the bit to scan lately. Her father passed away in January and had been staying on the east side of the state so I was unable to meet up with him again (which I regret).
One of the photos that I had scanned the 1st time is labeled "Grandma Burke's Grandma", which I believe makes her a 4th great grandmother to me, grandmother of Paul's mother Hilma (Kiviniemi) Burke.

The problem is, I don't know which grandmother as I have birth and marriage records for both of them but no death dates for either of them:

Hilma Kiviniemi (and her sister Anna) was born to Benjam Henriksson Kiviniemi and Lisa Greta Johansdotter Känsäkangas 21 Jun 1879 at Karleby Finland.  Benjam's mother was Anna Kaisa Andersdotter, born 18 Dec 1830 at Vahanga Finland and Lisa's mother was Helena Johansdotter Hotakainen, born 06 Jul 1817 at Halsua Finland.  I've corresponded in the past with a descendant of Anna who also had no information on what happened to Hilma and Anna's parents, let alone grandparents.  One of Lisa Greta's sisters settled in the Houghton MI area and the descendants of her have no information.  One of Helena Hotakainen's nieces settled in the Chicago area and I'm starting to work that line now. 

I posted the photo and my "quandry" at the Finnish Genealogy Facebook page.  This put me in touch with June Pelo, who's a veritable wealth of knowledge when it comes to "Swede-Finns" and their genealogy.  Utilizing her resources here and in Finland she was able to tell me pretty definitely that Hilma and Anna's father Benjam abandoned the family and came to America (in 1881, prior to Anna's birth).  The scant records available initially said that Lisa Greta joined him with the daughters in 1884.  From communion books found by one of June's contacts this was not only proven false, but proved that Lisa Greta had a child out of wedlock (meaning there is a sibling for my 2nd great grandmother that nobody had any knowledge of) and remarried in Finland.  *Captions are the notations of the researcher, not my work.
Karleby Communion Book, 1873-1882 (page 587): Benjamin Henriksson to America in 1881...but the last notation for wife Lisa Greta Jonasdr could be a communion marking for 2.6.1884...and not a move to America...   
Karleby Communion Book 1885-1894 (page 625): Benjamin Henriksson shown on page 587 in the previous book (1873-1882)...Communion markings for Lisa Greta Jonasdr in 1887, 1888 and 1889...and a move to the farm on page 690 in 1894...also, she gave birth to a daughter Selma, born 19.8.1885...Selma shown with the patronymic Lisasdr...

Karleby Communion Book 1885-1894: Lisa Greta Jonasdr shown here with 3 daughters...all came here from the farm on page 625 in 1894...Hilma Johanna to Uleåborg, 26.11.1894...

Lisa Greta Jonasdr married again...on 8.7.1894, with Gustaf Robert Väyrynen, born 17.10.1851...also shown here are Anna Elisabeth Kiviniemi, born 1882 (to Maxmo in 1901); and Selma Lisasdr, born 1885 (to Wasa in 1901)...
Selma, born 19.8.1885, Karleby (right page, 3rd name)...the record shows she was born out of wedlock (oä) to Henrik Kiviniemi's son's wife from Storby, Lisa Greta...
Shown here in Vaasa Communion Book, 1896-1905...Selma gave birth to a child out of wedlock, Nils Ragnar, born 18.2.1904, Vaasa (birth records at SSHY only until 1902). There are no communion markings shown for her...and nothing to indicate a move out of Vaasa... 

These communion books are absolutely amazing resources that I'd have never considered to look for.  Because of them and the help of June's researcher I now know that my 3rd great grandmother Lisa Greta didn't come to America as I suspected, and that she had another daughter who had a son (which means potential cousins in Finland on this side of my family).  But alas, nothing about the 2 grandmothers so my photo is still unidentified!  I'm going to beat on this brick wall until it finally crashes down, no matter how long it takes........