But these numbers are arbitrary. Some filed and received their naturalization within a few years, for others it took much longer.

Many filed their Intent in one state and then finalized their application for naturalization in another state, complicating the process as paperwork had to be exchanged across distances for verification. Some had to await court dates, and courts were often backed up. Others had to travel great distances from where they settled to the largest town, county seat, or state capital to do the paperwork, get interviewed, and make court appearances. Because travel was often expensive or intensive, much time passed between Intent and final naturalization.

Some file their Intent but never finalized their naturalization, sometimes hiding from authorities, so their descendants would never know, until they went looking for records. Records get lost or destroyed, so how can you really prove it 100 years later?

For Andreas (Andrias) Anderson, my first Norwegian ancestor who arrived in 1851, filed his Declaration for Intent in 1852. It was finalized in 1871, nineteen years later. Standing in the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay Area Research Center Archives holding the original naturalization papers with his signature was an incredible experience for my mother and I. Signed over 125 years ago, the fragile paper still exists, a record of our ancestor’s existence, too.

Things were not so easy a century or more ago. Migration through Liverpool was a special form of hell, tolerable only because of the better life to come. The miracle is that so many went ahead instead of turning back.

The migrants were generally illiterate, had never traveled before and were most gullible – and Liverpool took them for all they had.

…Crooked travel agents in Liverpool sold tickets or the journey beyond New York “at special bargain rates.” When the migrant got there he found that the tickets were phony.

…Migrants to Wisconsin were often routed via St. Louis – at twice the normal fare.

…most migrants had to travel cheap, in rotten boats manned by brutal crews, with food unfit for hogs and the strong likelihood that none of them would live to see the promised land.

The average ship out of Liverpool weighted a thousand tons, carried 750 passengers and took 35 days for the 2,900 mile crossing. When the migrant bought his ticket he imagined he had bought a berth, but all he got was a quarter – a fourth part of a berth six feet square.

…Between 1847 and 1853 – the busiest years for Liverpool emigration – 59 ships were lost at sea with 18,000 passengers. When vessels foundered in mid-Atlantic, rescue rarely came.

Before the Civil War, most migrants headed for New York. But thousands headed for Wisconsin. The English, Irish, Scots and Welsh usually made their way first to Canada because the British government insured slightly cheaper passengers than the New York route…from Canada these British migrants drifted through the Great Lakes and disembarked on the Wisconsin shoreline. For them, New York and the East was unknown territory; they never saw it on the way over and rarely experienced the grim conditions of the New York route.

…But Scandinavian settlers had a tougher experience. They were not eligible for government help in Canada and therefore took the New York route, with all the hazards it involved. Speaking little English, they were fleeced first at Hull, when they reached England, then at Liverpool – and finally picked clean in New York.

But the urge to reach Wisconsin never flagged. In the summer of 1855, the stated destination for nearly 5,000 migrants passing through Liverpool was Wisconsin – second only to New York. For Minnesota, the figure was 127, and for distant Oregon, one.

For my Norwegian Anderson family, the passage from their home to New York or elsewhere was a rocky one, with people out to pick them clean at every turn. Yet, as the article states, their determination to cross the ocean to a foreign land was strong and they kept on going.

The question I’m still puzzling over is why Wisconsin. Was there a campaign to encourage settlement? Were there stories of cheap land? Did their churches reach out with an invitation or was it the thrill and risk of the wilderness? Were conditions back home so horrible and pitiful that risking their lives in a new land was better than coping with what they lived with daily? Or were the ones who arrived earlier and settled there calling back home begging family and neighbors to leave their own homes to come to this strange new wilderness?

From Wisconsin, many Norwegians and others traveled on within a few years to the newly formed Dakotas, but many returned to Wisconsin, often broke and broken. Why? I’m still seeking answers.

In another article I found from “The Ensign” in July of 1991, “Sail to Zion”, it tells me a little more about the struggles of the immigrants crossing the Atlantic, and their determination to survive. The story highlights specific voyages made by members of the Latter-Day Saints to America:

..during the crossing, measles, chicken pox, and other ailments claimed 48 lives (43 of the children), or 11 percent of the company. Mortality was especially high among children.

In Liverpool, the Merseyside Maritime Museum has a mock-up of steerage quarters. It is a confined area with tiered bunks ranged along each side. A ladder or steep stairs provided the only exit, and during storms, the quarters were “hatched down” to prevent water from flooding the hold. The only light came from a few lamps hanging in strategic locations and shedding a dim yellow glow. The only sanitary facilities were buckets or chamber pots. Some later packets had water closets build on the main deck, but during severe storms – sometimes lasting for days – steerage passengers were hatched down and could not get to the deck. It is easy to imagine the resulting chaos and stench.

…Overcrowding compounded the misery of seasickness, dysentery, cholera, and other diseases. Many emigrant companies exceeded five hundred passengers. Between decks, these men, women, and children huddled together in a heaving, rocking craft, suffering in body and spirit. Even under the best conditions and disciplines, the situation created a fertile environment for the spread of disease.

Living in Israel for five years, a new immigrant rich country, I caught some glimpses of what it must have been like for the newly arrived immigrants in American and Canada, struggling to survive and care for their families while coping with a language and customs they are completely unfamiliar with. But the horrors of the immigration route amazes me.

People all over the world continue to face horrific terrors, victimization, and rigors to escape their native lands to get anywhere. They wanted to get here, anywhere away from there, in the worst way, and they did, and they still do today.

There is an online FTP index of the book at Rootsweb USGenWeb – History of Door County by Holand to help you find your ancestor mentioned.

I have the Knapp and Anderson family branches in Door County, an area I didn’t get time to explore during my recent visit, so I may find some information about them. At the least, I will learn more about the area in which they lived and worked.

You may be able to find copies of this book in your local library or Family History Center or through library exchange programs.

Anderson, Chester

Age 73. Passed away at his home October 13, 1971.

Mr. Anderson was born in Lessor, Wisconsin, May 2, 1898, and had lived in Racine most of his life. He worked at Gordon Machine for 33 years, retiring in 1967.

Mr. Anderson was a member of Holy Communion Lutheran Church for over 50 years, taught Sunday School, was a member of the choir, and the Church Council, in addition to serving as a member of the Building Committee of the present church. He was a member of Belle City lodge No 92F and A.M., the Gorton 20 Year Club, the Forward Together Senior Citizen Club of Humble Park, and the Senior Citizen Choir.

Survivors include three sons and two daughters-in-law, James and Lavern Anderson of Huntington Beach, California, Russell and Genevieve Anderson of Racine, and David of Los Angeles, California; two daughters and two sons-in-law, Miss Marjorie Anderson, of Racine, Nancy and Robert Stark of Racine, and John Drydyk, of Cedarburg, Wisconsin: 14 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; three brothers, Rudolph Erwin Anderson, of Racine; Floyd Anderson, of DePere, Wisconsin, Raymond Anderson of Seattle, Washington; other half-sisters and half brothers; other relatives. His wife, Elizabeth, preceded him in death, Jan. 9, 1969.

Anderson Brothers circa 1940
(from left) Raymond, Rudolph, Chester, Floyd

Funeral services will be held Friday, October 15 at Holy Communion Lutheran Church, 1:30pm, the Rev. Dale Hallberg officiating. Interment will be in West Lawn Memorial Park. Friends may call at the Hanson Funeral Home, 722 N. Memorial Drive, Thursday afternoon and evening from 4 to 9 PM and Friday at the church from noon ’til time of service. Masonic services will be held Thursday evening at 7:30 pm at the funeral home. All Master Masons are asked to meet at the Temple at 6:45 pm.

Part of the fun of tracing your family stories is whether or not they live up to the real truth of the past. We’d heard stories of how the Anderson and Svendson/Svenson families were farmers, raising cattle for butcher and dairy. The landscape around us was certainly representative of diary and cattle farming. Vast fields in their late spring greenery stretched out over flat and slightly rolling hills. Farm houses of various shapes and sizes sat next to tall silos awaiting the fall harvest.

Some homes were huge, easily able to accommodate the 12-14 children many of these families had in the past. Others were small, which made you wonder, for most of the families is our late past were huge, or at least tried to be huge as typhoid fever, tuberculosis, flu, and other epidemic and highly contagious plagues swept through the closely knit communities.

My mother kept commenting on how peaceful and restful the area felt, with big open spaces and a slow, calm way of life. Trees blew in the breeze around the farm houses and lining the pasture lands, with small ponds or lakes tucked in places.

We know that this peaceful exterior will be humming and buzzing around harvest time with tractors and heavy machinery, blocking roads and blasting dust into the air, but for now, it looks like a farming paradise.

Town Lessor, Shawano County, Wisconsin

Lessor. Lessor Town. Lessor Township. Township of Lessor. Town of Lessor. And Elmdale. These are the various name combinations of the town where our family spent several generations after their arrival from Norway.

Andrias (Andreas, Anders, And, Andrew) Anderson (1812-1895) arrived via New York in 1851 and moved immediately to Manitowoc Rapids, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, for reasons we’re still guessing at. At the least, he brought with him his children, John Christian Anderson, Hans Anderson, Andrew Anderson, Mary Anderson, and O? Anderson along with his wife, Fairiey or Tierney. They are found in the 1860 and 1870 US Census in Manitowoc Rapids.

Our ancestor, Hans Anderson, is next found in La Crosse, Wisconsin, marrying Sarah Olson, also known as Sigrid or Siri Ystabakken, also of Norway, in 1867. They leave promptly after their marriage, according to family stories, to the new Dakota Territory, where the newly established Dakota Territory is up for land grabs. They move to the new state capital of Yankton, seeking cheap farm land. Unfortunately, legends of cheap land versus the reality of extreme conditions and poor soil quality make it impossible to succeed without great money and effort.

About 1875 when the rumors of Black Gold began to spread and the Black Hills Gold Rush begins, the Hans and Sarah Olson family gave up on their life in the Dakotas and headed back to Wisconsin, ending up in Outagamie County, next to Shawano County, in the village of Cicero, starting over again. They brought with them their first five children born in Dakota: Louis Anderson (1868-1882), Johan (John) Christian Anderson (1870-1955), Otto Anderson (1870-1916), Caroline Anderson (1871-1891), and Gena Anderson (1873-c1958).

In Cicero, Wisconsin, they have Mary Anderson (1876-1890), Ida Anderson (1878-1971), and Anton Anderson (1880-1969). Before 1882, they move to Lessor, just north in Shawano County, where they add to the family with Sophie Anderson (1882-1883), Amelia Anderson (1884-?), and Hans M. Anderson (1887-1901). Their family of 12 children, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren, made their home in Lessor for most of the rest of their lives.

Among these names, most of them are buried in Our Savior’s Lutheran Church Cemetery, at the intersection of Welhaven Road and County S Road.

Across the street and south a tad was the Svendson/Svenson farm where the family all came together in later years. Hans Anderson moved with his family further west on County S Road, not far.

As we drove through the area, we tried to identify landmarks to help us locate properties on the various plat maps from 1898, 1911, and 1920 of Lessor Township, Shawano County, Wisconsin. We stopped in at one farm to visit with two ladies, to find one of them was a 97 year old woman who had lived here most all of her life. Unfortunately, she couldn’t remember the Andersons or Svendsons. We found out later that this was the property of John Christian Anderson, son of Hans, until it traded hands before 1920. It now belongs to the Naparilla family.

Over the next few days, we explored the Our Savior’s Lutheran Cemetery, finding most of our relatives, spent time in the Shawano County Courthouse and Family History Center digging into the dates and papers of our past, and met with a few local experts on Lessor history, most of whom ended up being related to us in some twisted fashion or another. Amazing. Stay tuned.

We flew here a couple days ago to begin serious gap filling in our family history research after learning of some new information about our family tree. Here in Shawano County, we’re digging into the Anderson side of the family, which is deeply intertwined with the Swendson/Swenson family. Luckily for us, most of our relatives spent most of their time, and generations, in Lessor, a small farming and dairy community south of Bonduel.

The genealogy researcher who has helped us answer long long family history questions here is Barbara Brady. She knows the ins-and-outs of Shawano history and genealogy and is brilliant. We highly recommend her services. What she has uncovered for us not only answers questions about our family, but it has also opened up new paths that we are falling down. I wish I could say “walking down”. They are coming so fast at us, we tripping over our own research.

She found some possible connections with some living relatives in Wisconsin, and also a well-known historian and author of Lessor and nearby communities history, Ray Brusky. We spent hours with him today going over old photographs and stories associated with our family – it was amazing.

He had more living family connections for us, and we’ve talked to the family and hopefully will meet with them in the next day or so, as well as another Lessor historian, whom we meet tomorrow. We’ve been to the family cemetery in Lessor, but we need to go back and photograph more tombstones as the morning spent in the Shawano County Courthouse, where they were very helpful, uncovered a ton of connections to those buried in the cemetery who are also family members.

Here is a partial list of family names we’ve uncovered so far:

Anderson, Svendson, Svenson, Svendsen, Timmons, Peterson, Kvalhemm, Roberts, Blichfeldt, Blackfeldt, Olson, Oile, McMahon, Simonson, Ostby, Berswensen, Tetting, Waterman, Ystabakken, Thorsen, Thorsteinsen, Nerva, Johanson, Sigeist, McGee, Jensen

I’m sure more names will be popping up soon.

We’re learning a lot about genealogy research on this trip. Expect to see a lot of exciting news and stories and photographs of family.

On another note, please everyone out there with family history to share, do not let it sit in photo albums, or even in printed books. Take advantage of your family’s younger and web-wiser members and get this stuff up on the web. I will be discussing how to create a genealogy blog on my Lorelle on WordPress site, dedicated to discussing WordPress and blogging, so hopefully we can all help our older, less computer-literate family members preserve their memories and stories.

This was just decided yesterday, so I’m overwhelmed with the fact that I have to prepare to do a lot of research on a part of the family tree that has barely been explored. And I have less than a week to do it and we’re on a plane to Wisconsin.

I hope that by sharing with you some of the thoughts and actions I’m taking to prepare, you can tell me what I’m doing right or wrong, and I will figure some of this out for myself.

Narrowing the Focus

The first thing I need to do is narrow the focus of my family history research. I’ve narrowed it down to the eldest in the family tree, the harder to track down, and have got it narrowed to four family names: Anderson, Blichfeldt, Swendson/Svendsen, and Knapp.

The first three names, Anderson, Blichfeldt, and Swendson/Svendsen, came together in my family’s history through an amazing combination of life circumstances. I talk about it in the article on Searching For Grandfather Anderson, but here is a quick summary.

Hans Anderson arrived with his family as a child of 7 to the new world of America, taking up residence in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. In 1867, he married Sarah Olson, daughter of Ole Olson, and moved to South Dakota for a few years before returning with his family to Cicero, Wisconsin, in Outagamie County in 1875. He and Sarah had 11 children, six of whom died young. Among the remaining children, they had Johan (John) Christian Anderson and Gena Anderson.

John married Helena Blickfeldt, daughter of Frantz Henrick Blichfeldt and Mary McMahon, in Lessor Township, Shawano County, Wisconsin. Helena’s mother died in childbirth and she was adopted and raised by Christopher Swendson/Svendsen.

Gena Anderson married Christopher Svendson’s son, John Swendson, before 1896, also in Lessor Township, Wisconsin.

When Helena died of consumption (TB) in 1906, not long after the birth of her ninth child, John Anderson’s family was split up and distributed among family members. Some went to live with their paternal grandparents, Hans and Sarah Anderson, and others went to live with their mother’s adopted brother, John Swendson, and his wife, their aunt Gena (Jenny).

When Hans and Sarah were getting older and the challenge of raising the children was getting a bit much, they moved either in with or next to John and Gena, reuniting the Anderson children about 1914, where Hans and Sarah lived until their deaths.

The story of how these families mixed and mingled is one of the more fascinating stories in our family tree, so I’m eager to learn more about them, and their descendants.

The Knapp family, back three generations, is also on my map to explore. Nora Knapp married Raymond Anderson, one of the son’s of John and Helena Anderson, which led eventually to me. The Knapp family can trace it’s bloodline directly to Nicholas Knapp, a thoroughly researched family tree. But the more “modern Knapps” need a little more work.

My great Uncle Wayne P. Knapp wrote several books about his life growing up in Northern Wisconsin, so I’m eager to dig into the books and see if we can recreate the past as he saw it growing up, while standing on the same land 70-80 years later. We also have recently found stories written by his brother, Robert Knapp, about this childhood in Wisconsin as well as his life once they migrated to Oregon and Washington State. We have many photographs of the area, so I’m anxious to compare images as well as notes.

With these people as the focus, I now have to narrow things down to the specific things I need to find and see and photograph.

Mapping and Tracking

Now that I’ve narrowed my search to the specific people and names, I need to narrow my search to the specific places. The Master Genealogist (TMG) program is really helpful at printing out a variety of reports, including one that lists the places, which I can sort by county and town. This tells me the areas in which I need to start my geographical research.

From this information, we book our flight to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and end up with the airport in Appleton, Wisconsin, which puts us in Outagamie County and near neighboring Shawano County, areas where the Andersons, Blichfeldts, and Swendsens came together.

I begin with a list of the genealogical societies in the area as well as libraries, courthouses, and LDS Family History Centers in Wisconsin. Then I expand my list to include local museums and archives. I want to know who has what information so I can go through and figure out what information I need and then who has what I’m looking for.

In anticipation of getting birth, death, and marriage certificates, as well as land and probate records, I visit the Wisconsin Vital Records and Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services – Genealogy Services sites for forms to print out in advance and information I need to schedule my visits and research.

I track down some plat maps of the historical areas and then use Yahoo and Google maps to trace what they look like today, with driving directions to help me get there.

I print out reams of paper to help me research and guide our family search, sorting it by family member and location.

One of the most valuable things I’ve done to prepare for this trip is to buy GenSmarts. It works as a stand alone and integrates with TMG to analyze your research data to determine what is missing and offers suggestions. The integration with TMG is fabulous as it allows me to quickly process specific data on a person or group of people to look for holes and make recommendations and then add that information directly to my task list in TMG. It isn’t perfect, and I’ll have a better review on it soon, but it well worth the money. It has found holes in my research that I didn’t even know were there!

I have a lot of work to do to prepare, and a lot of work to do upon arrival, but with the help of new friends and family, I’m really looking forward to this trip with my mother. I’ll keep you informed on our progress. And any help you can offer, I’ll gladly accept!

Let me tell you about two of the Grandfather Andersons we’re looking for.

Hans Anderson from Norway

Our original Hans Anderson arrived from Fredriksvern, Norway, to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 1851. He was one of six children, for whom we know nothing. We also don’t know his original name, his parent’s name, or what boat or port he arrived in. But we do know his children.

Hans Anderson (June 21, 1844 – September 1, 1924) married Sarah Olson (c1846 – 1930), also born in Norway, on June 15, 1867, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Sarah and Hans moved around a lot with their family, beginning in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and then moving in 1867 to South Dakota. About 1875, he and his family moved to Cicero, Outagamie County, Wisconsin, where he appeared on the 1880 Census. In 1894, they moved to Lessor, Shawano County, Wisconsin, until 1904 when they moved to Sawyer in Door County, Wisconsin. The Census reported that Hans was a farmer throughout his long life, dying at 80 years old.

Together, Sarah and Hans had 11 children of which 6 died very young. They were:

• Amelia Anderson
• Louis Anderson (c1869-?)
• Otto Anderson (c1870-?) married Julia
• John Anderson (c1873-1855) married 1) Helena A. Blickfelt/Swendsen (Svendsen) (1879-1906), 2) unknown, 3) Charlotte King
• Caroline Anderson (c1871-?)
• Shena Anderson (c1873-?)
• Gena Anderson (c1873-?) married John Swendsen/Svendson (1870-?), son of Christopher Svendsen (Norway)
• Mary Anderson
• Ida Anderson
• Anton Anderson (May 1880 – ?) married Lily (1880-?) in 1906 in Wisconsin
• Unknown Anderson

We are searching for the parents of Hans Anderson, or one of his brothers. We’re looking for immigration records, and pouring though old microfilms looking for some record of how he immigrated and what his original name was. It’s been very frustrating as the Norwegians changed their names, often drastically, from the original when they immigrated, making the process that much harder.

Helena Blickfelt/Svendson

What we do know about his life is that he was married to Sarah for most of his life. They were also blessed with many grandchildren. But all was not joy. When their son, John, lost his wife, Helena, leaving him with six living children to raise, the rest of the family stepped in.

Helena Blickfelt Anderson’s life was a tragic one. Born with a twin who died at birth, her mother died very soon after. According to family stories, Helena was unofficially adopted by Christopher Svendson and his wife, for unknown reasons. We can assume that the Andersons and Swendson families were close as Helena married John Anderson and John Swendson, Christopher’s son, married Gena Anderson about the same time in Wisconsin.

John and Helena Anderson Children, circa 1910

When Helena died, Hans and Sarah took in three of the grandchildren to raise. John and Gena Swendson took in two of the other children, repeating what his father had done with Helena many years before.

As age finally made it more difficult to live independently with three young children, in 1914 they moved in with Helena’s adopted family, John and Gena Swendson, reunited five of the Anderson grandchildren. Plus any children the Swendson’s had on their farm in Lessor, Wisconsin. One of those grandchildren, Raymond, became the Raymond Anderson whose grave has been lost in Monroe, Washington.

Raymond E. Anderson

The IOOF cemetery in Monroe, Washington, has long my Grandfather Anderson. Raymond Anderson (1905-1974) was buried there in 1974. As far as we can tell from the family notes, his tombstone was paid for. But there is no tombstone and the cemetery has no record of where he was buried. We can’t find his body nor burial spot.

We spent hours walking every row of the small but populated cemetery, examining tombstones with dates from the early 1800s, many of them worn away to flat stones. Grandfather Ray Anderson was only buried 30 years ago. His tombstone should be easy to find.

We will contact the Masons who helped to bury him, and the undertakers, to see if they have some record of where he may lay. As for the tombstone, we don’t have a receipt in our records, so we’ll have to call around the various gravestone companies to see if anyone still has a record from 1974. They might have information on where the headstone was installed.

One of the caretakers of the cemetery was nice, helping us walk around to try to find him. She said that she would “probe with a pole” to see if she can find a casket in one of the “closed” or “unmarked but known filled” spots. That just tells us that someone is buried there. It doesn’t tell us who. I’d hate to pay for digging up strange people just to run DNA tests to determine who is buried where and where is one of my Grandfather Andersons!

We have all the information on him, but it is frustrating not to be able to find “him”. It also pains the family who paid for the tombstone, only to find out that it wasn’t taken care of by the other family members. It brings up dark and sad memories of his fast and miserable death with cancer, and the heartache of his second and newly married wife trying to break the prenuptial agreement (for a couple of thousand dollars worth of nothing estate) and get money from the family, unexpectedly turning into a greedy, raging and demanding monster no one recognized. It’s a tough way to say goodbye, but now, 30 years later, new memories can be formed and now he’s gone missing!

Help Us Find Our Grandfather Andersons

If you have any information on where Grandfather Raymond Anderson might be buried in the IOOF cemetery in Monroe, Washington, we’d love your help.

If you have any information on Hans Anderson or the Christopher/John Swendson (Svendsen) part of our hunt for our Grandfather Andersons, please leave a comment below. We’ve hit a dead end and we need some help. Thanks!

Simply type in the last name and choose a census year from among 1850, 1880, and 1920 US Census statistics and 1990′s phone books.

The results are interesting, if not totally accurate as the number spread for the very small populations of your family in areas is pretty small. Still, it was interesting to notice the differences.

All of my ancestors were in the United States before 1850. So I thought I’d take a look at what the charts said for the different names in the same time period of 1850, the earliest year the program offers. Not all names are listed. They currently feature the top 50,000 popular surnames. I tried several names such as Farlin and Close and there was no listing.

Dark blue indicates the lowest concentration of population for that name, about 1 in 10,000 people. Red indicates the highest concentration of population with that name, about 1 in 10 people, with yellow and green in the middle of the colored maps. I’ve showcased the 1850 Census maps for the surnames of Knapp, West, and Anderson.

In 1850, the Knapp family, descended from Nicholas Knapp (Knap) (c1606-1670), began in Connecticut about 1630. His bother, William, and his descendants spread across the soon to become United States, bringing the Knapp family name and bloodline with them. My core Knapp family ancestors made their way to Illinois and Wisconsin, was determined to embrace the frontier about 1860, ending up in South Dakota. It was a hard time with a lot of violence and attacks, so with his large family, Hans made his way slowly back Wisconsin. In the 1930s, Emma Beatrice (Primley) Knapp brought her 7 children to Oregon following the spread of logging camps and work, and eventually settled in Washington State.

The West family arrived, we believe, in New York and moved soon after moved to Ontario, Canada. After many years farming there, David West moved with his family, following the path of the Quaker movement, to Raisin Township, Lenawee, Michigan. His sons, Abraham (c1786-1860), Levi (born c1790), Benjamin (born c1782), Jacob (born c1785), and Morgan (c1791-1870) came with him. The West family stayed in Raisin, Michigan, for several generations, marrying neighbors like the Farlins, Bowerman, Westgate, White, de Haviland, and more. As farming became more difficult in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many of David’s descendants started leaving Michigan, moving towards more work and hope.

The Hans Anderson family arrived on American soil from Fredriksvern, Norway, when he was about 7 years old between 1845-1851. They were part of the Lutheran Church movement from Norway to the United States. He and his family began in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, but he moved his family after his marriage to Sarah Olson in 1867 to South Dakota. The Anderson and Knapp family met in South Dakota. Times were tough in those years and the “frontier” of the Dakotas was particularly brutal, so Hans returned to Wisconsin by 1875, where his grandson, Raymond, a school teacher, married Nora Knapp, blending the two families. His many descendants stayed in Wisconsin, though eventually a few spread further afield.

Do these census maps help tell their stories? In a way. We know that all three families began their life in North American basically in the same area near New York. All three families came together about the same time in Michigan and Wisconsin, though some were there long before the others arrived. Their stories speak to the spread of European families across North America, serving as examples of the migration route of all of our recent ancestors.