9 JAN 2013 HANS GABRIEL RASMUSSEN

Hans Gabriel Rasmussen, my great-grandfather, was born 150 years ago today in Stavanger, Norway (9 Jan 1863). In celebration and remembrance, here are some highlights of his life:

He was christened April 19, 1863, at the Domkirken (Cathedral) in Stavanger, the son of Hans Rasmussen and Ane Gurine Gaudesdatter.

His siblings were:  Rasmus (1850-1869), Serine (1853-1931), Anne Marie (1856-1866), Olava (1859-1923) and Andreas (1866-1866).

His father was the captain of the brig, "Favoriten".  He and his son, Rasmus, died when "Favoriten" was wrecked in a storm off the island of Løno (west of Bergen) 10 days after Hans Gabriel's 6th birthday, January 19, 1869.

His mother died when Hans was only 14 years old.  It was said she never recovered from the loss of her husband and son. 

He enlisted as a seaman May 28, 1883, and was discharged December 17, 1884, having sailed on the "Saga" on a voyage to Galveston, TX, (according to the Seamen's List of Stavanger). He arrived in the US    Jun 16, 1884, and became a naturalized citizen in 1892 (according to his passport application of 1921).  There are two stories about how he came to the US.  One cousin says she heard that he was in Chicago and sent money to Alberthine Wesnes and her father, Johannes, so they could join him there.  Grandma-the-Great said Alberthine and Johannes had moved to Chicago and when Hans G. found out where they were he "jumped ship in Key West" and made his way to them.  There is more evidence for the second version.  Alberthine and Johannes arrived in 1882 and Hans in 1884.  There is no record of him on any passenger list.  It is more likely he was a member of a ship's crew.

Hans and Alberthine Wesnes were married in Chicago on August 3, 1886.  Their children were:  Anna Gunhilda (1887-1968), Karen "Carrie" Helene (1889-1977), Mimmer (1891-1894), Jennie Marie (1893-1933), Harry (1895-1974), Albert Carsten (1898-1975) and George William (1900-1902) born in Chicago and Irene Olive (1902-1973) and Mildred Elaine (1905-1986) born in Madison.

He was widowed in 1907 and parented his young children with the help of his older daughters moving from Madison to Black Earth and then Mazomanie.  He was a painter and worked at the University of Wisconsin.

In 1921 he applied for a passport to return to Norway for a summer-long visit to his sisters and nieces. On his passport he is described as 5ft, 6 inches tall with grey hair, blue eyes, a fair complexion, square chin and a prominent, turned up nose.

He died in Mazomanie, WI, on November 2, 1926, and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, WI, with Alberthine and infant son, George William.

The Love Line

Since genealogy research can be overwhelming, we had to ask ourselves where to begin? Typically, genealogists take their parents' information and work backwards from there. The result is a pedigree chart.

AuntieC and I decided to post the pedigree chart for the LOVE line first. We discovered exciting information about our colonial ancestors and want to share it. To save our sanity, we decided to start with the men, then return to their wives, providing separate pedigrees for each branch. Sometimes, it's more difficult to find information on colonial women since they weren't listed in the early census reports and weren't included with their husbands on tax documents.

I decided not to give the full list of children for each individual at this time, but we will include that information in separate blog posts. We're going to begin with Alexander's story and all of the questions that we still haven't resolved. AuntieC uncovered some interesting documents about his life in colonial Pennsylvania, so stay tuned!

THE BASIC LOVE LINE (updated)

i. Alexander LOVE
           b. 1718 either in PA or Ireland

           m.1742 PA to Margret MOORE

           d. 3 Mar 1784 York, SC 

          

          Margret MOORE

           b. 4 Oct 1719 Antrim, Ireland
           d. 1806 York, SC

  
ii. Col Andrew LOVE
           b. 12 Sep 1747 PA          

           m. 1770 New Garden, Chester, PA to Ann LATTIMORE

           d. 26 Mar 1821 Livingston, KY

          
           Ann LATTIMORE
           b. 15 Jan 1749 unknown location
           d. 18 May 1814 Livingston, KY


iii. James LOVE
            b. 2 Jun 1778 The New Acquisition, Camden District, Craven, SC

            m. 20 Jan 1803 York, SC to Sarah WYATT

            d. 12 Jan 1835 Livingston, KY
         
            Sarah WYATT
            b. unknown
            d. 16 Jan 1832 Livingston, KY


iv. Andrew LOVE
            b. 12 Mar 1806 Livingston, KY

            m. 13 Aug 1832 Livingston, KY to Elinor “Nellie” MINNER

            d. 14 Nov 1875 Crittenden, KY
           
            Elinor “Nellie” MINNER
             b. 18 Oct 1814 Livingston, Crittenden, KY
             d. 5 Apr 1879 Crittenden, KY


v. James H. LOVE
             b. 9 Dec 1836 Fords Ferry, Livingston, KY

             m. 2 Mar 1859 Fords Ferry, Crittenden, KY to Elisabeth C “Betty” FOSTER

             d. 1 Oct 1899 Crittenden, KY
            
              Elisabeth C “Betty” FOSTER
              b. 22 Apr 1838 Livingston, KY
              d. 8 Dec 1914 Jackson, Illinois


vi. Emory Franklin “Jefferson” LOVE
              b. 4 Jul 1862 Crittenden, KY

              m. 11 Dec 1883 Crittenden, KY to Emily Angeline “Angie” WOFFORD

              d. 28 Sep 1952 Risco, New Madrid, MO
             
              Emily Angeline “Angie” WOFFORD
               b. 12 Nov 1860 Crittenden, KY
               d. 13 Jul 1941 Risco, New Madrid, MO


vii. Thomas Edwin “Ed” LOVE
               b. 14 Apr 1894 in Marion, Crittenden, KY

               m. 24 Oct 1915  New Madrid, MO to Mary Belle ADAMS

               d. 25 Jul 1974 in Malden, Dunklin, MO
              
               Mary Belle ADAMS
               b. 15 Jan 1899 in Marked Tree, AR
               d. 14 Jun 1971 Flint, Genesee, MI

12-12-12 They Say It's Your Birthday

A "lucky day" this year, but also the 110th anniversary of the birth of John Vernon CAIRNS, one-half of the duo known as "Grandpa and Grandma-the-Greats" by later generations and originator of that artery-clogging tradition called "The John V. Cairns Memorial Breakfast" celebrated at LOVE family reunions.

John aka Jack was born in Mazomanie, Dane County, Wisconsin on 12 DEC 1902 the son of Charles Worthington CAIRNS and Caroline Susanna SCHUMANN most likely on the family's Hickory Hill Farm. Grandpa said, there were hickory trees on the hill across the road, the nuts of which they harvested and stored in the attic.  Another memory he passed on was that the family lived in the granary while the new house was being built.  The house and outbuildings are still there, the first residence on Carter Road east of Hwy 78 just north of the intersection with Hwy 14.

John was surely named for HIS grandfather, John Verner CAIRNS who came to Wisconsin from Orange County, New York in 1847. John, his older brothers, Frank Elmer, and George Worthington, and his younger brother, Alfred Charles, grew up farming. We can imagine that their mother, having no daughters to help with household chores, recruited one or more of the boys for help in the kitchen. Jack seemed to be able to hold his own with a frying pan at least.

He graduated from Mazomanie High School having made arrangements to make up the class work missed when he, Alfred, and their parents traveled to California in an attempt to ease Caroline's battle with tuberculosis. Early pictures show him to be rather nattily dressed often sporting a pipe (then there are the later pictures with dropped trou...Grandma always had her camera ready for those).  He worked in auto repair garages early on. His letters to Mildred before they were married (traveling to Rockford, Illinois, in the "little red roadster") are more practical than ardent.  He made bathtub gin, or something like it, and played poker to bring in extra money during the lean years of the 1930's.

He was a partner for many years in Capitol Welding located on Dickinson Street in Madison (nothing remains of the building today). In his profession he was involved in taking up the street car rails in downtown Madison after they were no longer used, securing Blackstone the Magician for one of his escape performances and welding the circular staircase in Woldenbergs, one of the ladies' department stores on the Square in Madison (if I remember correctly, the staircase was made of aluminum and Grandpa was one of few welders who had the skill needed).

Jack was a Mason and member of the Zor Temple in Madison.  He always had tickets for the Zor Shrine Circus in February. He belonged to the East Side Business Men's Association. He took his brand new son-in-law down to Mickey's Tavern on Willy Street where he, Jack, was a returning customer (I think this was some kind of bonding thing or initiation...Dad must have passed muster).

He practiced the after-lunch-20-minute-nap long before it became recognised as an energy booster in studies. He was known to have his hair tied up in ribbons by his daughter and, years later, by his granddaughter during said naps. He also provided wake up service for his daughter with a tuneful, "Little Bonnie Bump-up, time to get your rump up" during his morning shave.  He cried over sad movies and said, "I think I heard a buck snort" when he farted (making grandchildren double up in giggles).

He was an outdoors man.  He camped, hunted, fished, gardened, and built some really impressive wood fires (both inside and out at The Cottage).  He bought The Cottage for back taxes in the mid '40's and, I think, it became his real "home" from then on.  First, escaping there on weekends in a big green Cadillac or Buick with Biffer, the dog, in the trunk, Grandma riding shotgun and a lucky grandchild or two in the back with the food.  Later it was their retirement home.

He lived nearly a century. Perhaps not a remarkable life in the grand scheme of things, but that's ok. He was Grandpa, I smile when I think of him and I'm glad we got to share part of our lives together. 

HOW IT STARTED....SORT OF

Although we've named our enterprise "A Long Line of Loves" realize that there will be more..er..Moore, Lattimore, Wyatt, Minner, Foster, Threlkeld, Travis, Wofford, Morse, Higgins, Lair, Yeakey (and all spelling variations thereof).  And that's just on Dad's dad's side.  On his mother's there are Adams, Creed, Reed and Graham for starters.  These families are early settlers of this country and many took part in the Revolutionary War. All took part in the move westward since they ended up in Kentucky after independence.

On Mom's side are Cairns, Anderson, Leavitt, Schumann, Schlag and Berner on her dad's side and Rasmussen, Wesnes, Sunde, Gjerding, Felichs on her mom's.  The Leavitt's are old New England settlers having arrived shortly after the Mayflower according to one cousin.  Our Cairns immigrant, William, came from Scotland about 1800.  The Schumann's and the Berner's arrived from Germany in the mid 1800's and the Rasmussen's from Norway in the early 1880's.  

So you see our family is representative of the history of the settling of the United States, certainly the early English and Germans came for trade or religious freedom, the Scots-Irish and the Scots looking for land, similarly the later Germans and the Norwegians looking for a better life.

I began actively researching our family only about 7 years ago when cousin Jackie asked me to go to the vital records here in Dane County to see if I could find a death certificate for Sarah E. Leavitt (Leavit, Levit, etc), the wife of John Verner Cairns.  I didn't find it, but I, like many before me, caught the bug (became obsessed).

I had picked up a few tidbits from Mom and Grandma (Mom sang, "My Grandpa was a sailor, so a sailor I shall be" part of a poem she wrote...that was my first clue about the Rasmussen's). I had notes I had taken about the Rasmussen family in a discussion I had with Grandma. I had a copy of the Cairns family tree prepared in 1915 and one of the Schumann's prepared in 1984 for a reunion. I had a copy of the Sunde family prepared by cousin Larry as a result of a trip to Norway in the 1980's I knew my Grandpa Love was born in Kentucky and moved to Missouri as a young boy and that Grandma Love was raised by her aunt and uncle after her mother died and her father moved away.  Beyond that, I knew little.

Since that time, I have gathered a lot of information (most of which is sitting in piles on the floor of my bedroom...I swear I WILL get organized...another good reason to have a blog..organization becomes rather necessary when trying to put together a post).  I have gotten a Love family tree, not sure from where, Love information that brother James put together from his research, information on the Leavitts from cousin Jackie, Cairns info from letters in the Gertrude Cairns Collection at the UW River Falls, Family Search.org, Ancestry.com, genforum.genealogy.com, digitalarkivet.uib.no (Norwegian Archives), Middleton and Mazomanie cemeteries, the Wisconsin Historical Society Library and Archives and more. I hope I can share all of what I know and have learned in this blog.  

Genealogy is like a puzzle or a mystery waiting to be solved.  Finding the pieces and fitting them together is what makes it fun and exhilarating even knowing there will always be untidy loose ends and those people you can never be sure are "yours".  I seem to have headed toward a "journey" theme here echoing iLuv's. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.

What we're doing here.

Dear Current and Future LOVEs,

Auntie C and I have decided to start a blog. Seriously, it's true.

Why a blog? Well, Auntie C made a good point. We should try to record our memories of those we love (well, most of the time) before we become senile or die. In true LOVE fashion, she was merely being practical and not morbid and, since I agree, here we are.

Here's the thing. Genealogy is a huge puzzle that we try to piece together into a big, coherent picture. The problem is we're missing most of the pieces and some of the pieces will never be recovered. The things we truly want to know (i.e. what these people were really like), we will never know. Yet, we know our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents or at least some of them. We can tell our stories about them and record them for the next generation. So, that's partly what we're doing here.

In addition, we will trace our family back to their immigration to the United States and, perhaps, beyond, if possible. We want to focus on primary sources when we can find them.

Since we've never done anything like this before, there will surely be some growing pains. However, we commit to present the facts as we find them. All conjecture will be honestly noted. A label will be attached to posts pertaining to a particular family member, surname, etc.,  which will make it easy to search for the family member or line you're interested in. The comment sections will be open for you to add your own thoughts and memories or to ask questions.

I think that's about it.

We hope you enjoy the journey through our family history. We can't wait to see where it leads us.