Sometimes, tracing roots can be an absolute maze

He knew they had been born “somewhere near Pittsburgh, Pa.,” he knew their names and had a “pretty good idea” of their birthdates. But that was it. His research had brought him to the end of the line and he turned to me in frustration.

First, we recreated the family tree on his maternal side. A past relative had done a great job putting it together and directed us to their own family, which was in Canada near Toronto.

“Could there have been a Canadian connection?” I asked him. Possibly, he acknowledged, but none that he knew.

After he left, I fired up my computer and dialed into www.ancestry.com. I have an annual membership and it has proven to be a reliable source for finding lost relatives. Next, I began a Canadian search and at the very top of the list was his grandfather’s and grandmother’s names.

The information I was seeking was included in the Ontario marriage records and provided more data than either of us could imagine. The computer gave me the names of their parents, where they lived, the place where the ceremony was held, the presiding minister and the witnesses to the marriage. It even gave me the church affiliation of the bride and groom. And, it confirmed my client’s suspicion, by indicating the ancestor was born in Beaver County, Pa., and did, in fact, live in Pittsburgh, where he was a dentist.

Genealogy should always be that easy. Someday it might, as computer technology becomes more sophisticated, more data is deciphered and more families join governmental bodies recording the roots of their ancestors. But for now, it isn’t. 

Incidents such as the one I just mentioned happen, but not with the frequency you might expect. In fact, I am working on another one that is proving to be as difficult as this was easy.

It’s in my own family, and I have been poring through records almost as long as I have been studying genealogy.

You see, my wife’s relatives are Norwegian and my folks are Swedish. That has taken me down genealogy trails that seem to lead nowhere. Right now, I have a distant relative (and three others like him) that go back to the 1700s. His name is Per Person and, somewhere along the line he married a Betsy Swanson.

The problem is each subsequent son followed Scandinavian tradition. So as sons of the Per family, their names became Person. When someone decided first names were significant, it was changed to Per Person. And, when they came to the United States in the mid-1800s, it was Americanized to be Pearson.

The result is my records show a Person, Pearson, Pedersen or Peterson who was my grandfather married to Betsy Swanson. But they didn’t leave well enough alone. Since Betsy was a girl, she was known as Swan’s “dotter.” And, the minister who married them changed her name to Swenson.

My wife’s grandfather complicated the problem even more. His name was Johanus Johanson, but in Americanizing it, he changed the name simply to John Johnson – which in Minnesota is something close to John Smith for commonality.

It does provide me with a good excuse when I would prefer to do something else. I just say, “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that right now. I’m working on my grandfather’s genealogy!” 

Come to think of it, I can follow that line forever.

Meade is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Burnet County Genealogical Society and the Kingsland Genealogical Society. His column appears in The Daily Tribune on the first and third Sunday of each month and in The Picayune the following week. You can e-mail him at www.Leemeaderoots@aol.com.