Isreal came over from Sweden with two of his brothers in 1883. The two of the brothers changed their names upon arrival in America. Apparently WOlf sounded a bit wild to them or something.
They worked at the Sing Sing prison together in New York until they could afford to travel to MN where they began farming. Isreal and John came to the Balaton, MN area and raised their family near each other. We have found their names together in each census record that we have found. We are still researching why the third brother moved to a different area of MN.
Since Linda sent me that great piece of information we may have discovered many other family members who may have later followed the three brothers to MN. This puzzle has been so much fun for us to put together! We have pictures of the families that attended a family reunion in 1952 but we only seem to be able to identify the people from our line so far. We are working together to discover some more of our more distant relatives so we can name the unknown faces and share them with their descendants. It's so neat to see pictures of people that you may not have even known exsist, isn't it?
This is the picture of Isreal Wolf and his wife Dorothea (Larson) and their children. (Isreal is the man with the mustache and his wife is to his right) I don't want to label anyone wrongly, but I think Amanda (Grandpa's mom) is the second from our right in the back row. Isreal died in 1930, long before I was born so I was never given the chance to get to know him. My grandpa told me some stories about the family when I was younger, but I didn't pay enough attention to recall all of the details. Luckily my grandpa was insightful enough to write articles about them that my cousins and I have also recently discovered. Thank God! My prayers were answered and Grandpa is answering some of those questions I never got the chance to ask him though he has been gone for over 5 years now.
I am thinking about taking an ancestry vacation with my family at the end of next summer to do some more research. Hopefully I'll be able to meet up with my cousins too. I'm looking for museums and cemetaries for now and I'm hoping to be able to read through some of the newspaper archives. We will find the places my ancestors used to live and hopefully find their final resting places too. Cheesehead thinks this sounds like the most enjoyable vacation I've planned so far. Who would have known?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
9 comments:
Love the winter look of your blog.
Manly Man's Aunt Linda did the work for our family that you are doing for your's now. She managed to get a family geniology book together for us. She even managed to find my very elusive original maiden name. Long story. Anyway, your family will seriously appreciate this effort.
Deb.
How exciting Cinj! My father has recently become interested in his family's history and will be going to Finland next spring to meet many cousins, aunts, and uncles.
My husband's family is fascinating to me - most of them have lived in the same area for many generations and there are local roads bearing the family name, old homesteads, and farms. Tons of interesting history.
Hi My friend!
Im so glad I could help you and your famaly a little bit.
Linda
Fabulous, Cinj! What a treasure to find a family photo like this and to know who is in it! I love the idea of an ancestry vacation. Let us know what you find! And, like Deb, I love your new winter look.
Your winter look is so beautiful :). I love ancestry, you history is similar to mine only my family is from Germany. I would love to hear more about your wonderful family history Cinj.
Christmas Hugs,
Kathi :)
How exciting to learn more about your great great grandfather! I love old pictures, the stories they hold is interesting.
Hi Cinj, when you said Linda helped you, I didn't realize it was dear Linda Lunda, a truly sweet person. How exciting that your husband is on board with this journey to find your roots too. Happy (ancestor) hunting!
Frances
Deb- Thanks. I wanted a more seasonal look.
Those books are neat, but I don't think I could afford one. So far I have more than 3,000 names in my tree.
Amy- I'd love to go to Sweden someday too, but those relatives are so distantly related it might be hard to pin it down.
I have done some research on my husband's family too. His dad's grandpa founded Wagner, WI. There are also a couple of streers names after his mom's grandparents in Fifield, WI I think it was. I'll be doing more research on his family too as time goes by. Somehow it seems that there's always something more to find out there.
Linda- Thanks! You're such a sweetie.
Ben- I found lots of others too. If you want to see more check out the Nelson family blog on my sidebar.
I'm sure I'll find a bunch more, my family lived in that area of MN for many generations.
Kathi- I'm sure I'll have more to share as time goes on. It's fun finding out information and sharing it with interested friends and family.
PGL- They do hold so much information, don't they? My cousin found a bunch more too from our other side of the family.
Frances- Isn't she the best? She stopped by and told me she had a friend who might be able to help quite a while ago. The rest is history and she helped SO much!
I like you winter look too. I can see how much you are enjoying this genealogy. You ran across a gold mind with this find! I know how that feels in the genealogy world of things. Now you have more rabbit trails to follow and more questions. It never ends and every find is fun.
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