Need Answers to Questions about an Ancestor [closed]

Question

I am trying to bridge some gaps and unplug some mysteries around a move from Norway to Amerika.   John Andersen Monson [[Andersen-8117|John (Andersen) Monson (1845-1882)]] was born in 1845 in Norway to an unwed mother.  She then married the father, Anders Hansen [[Hansen-18383|Anders (Hansen) Monson (1817-)]], and in 1853 they left for the US.  

Somewhere in the moving process, the family appears to have picked up the name Monson (Munson).  While this is listed on Find a Grave and in an unsourced family tree I have on paper, I haven't been able to find any substantial documentation to prove this.

The family ended up in Minnesota, with a stop in Iowa along the way.   I have done some extensive searching through the records, including censuses but haven't been able to firmly identify anything until 1870, when John has a farm in Cottonwood County, MN.

The only potential hints for his father is an Andrew Munson in the Civil War who enlisted from Jackson County, MN.

Looking for help confirming the match back to Norway, and their early period in the US.

Comments

You may need some professional help from Norway.  There are so many thing that could have happened perhaps Monson, Monsson, Monsun is Ander's father's last name and was added on shipping records by english speakers.  If  you can find John's father on the census in Norway with John under a name then something happened on their trip over.  Do you have their census records from Norway or this shipping records?   But it is all speculation as names changed without paperwork during that time period.  

Perhaps there is some mention in the newspapers about Anders ie. obituary or history of the area where they lived about them or land records?  

Good luck, I wish it was easier.

Answer 1

There maybe Norway Census records here?   https://www.digitalarkivet.no/en/search/sources

Perhaps some information here:  https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&q.anyPlace=norway%20&q.givenName=john&q.surname=monson%20&f.collectionId=1473181

or https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&q.givenName=anders&q.surname=monson%20&f.collectionId=1473181

Comments

Thanks.  I haven't been able to find anything more on family search.  I have also been through the Norwegian records and if the family is right about the origin, I have all the records I need from there, other than passenger lists.  Confirming that is another story, where Norway records won't help a lot.  

Johns father in Norway was Anders Hansen.  His was Hans Ingebrigtsen.  Noone was at a Munson farm (Kolbotn and Gjersvold).  No immediate ancestor named Mons.

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So did the ship to the US or Canada?  What ships were sailing when they came over?  

Perhaps the man she married isn't his father?  Perhaps his biological father's name was Munson?  Were you able to find his baptism or birth registration?

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I have the baptism records and moving records in Norway.   What I don't have is solid evidence that these are the right people in Norway.   The only two things that link them are an unsupported statement on Find-a-Grave and a very similar statement in an undocumented family tree.   I tend to lend some credence to the family tree as it was done in the 60's and 70's before the "copy anything you find off the Internet" phase of geneology, and by someone who would have actually met John's wife, though many years before the tree was made.   

I had been hoping to find a death record, or obituary, or funeral record for John.  He was said to have died in a hunting acident in Grafton, ND in March 1882.   But city records don't start before May 1882.  Neither of the Lutheran Churches there at the time show the funeral, but both were being formed right around that time.  Neither show the daughter which was born that year either.   I haven't found any newspaper articles either.  But I don't have access to the one paper which was active during those years, only some of its articles.   I also haven't been able to make any definitive ties to John's parents during the period 1856 on.  The only thing I do know is that they were in MN and Iowa.

Answer 2

John's mother and grandmother are Berith, not Berth, in the Norwegian sources.

Do any of the censuses show them having Munson neighbors? They could be cousins and Anders and John could have chosen to change the name to that even though their most recent ancestors weren't Monsons.

Have you tried looking for any of the US marriage records involved? They sometimes include parents names.

Comments

I have been unable to find a marriage record for John and Toline in Minnesota in 1871.  Unfortunately, the county was just being formed, as were the local churches. That left records scarce on the ground.   I have also been unable to find a death record for John in North Dakota in 1882.  Again, early days of the settlements.

Given the lack of documentation I am also entertaining the notion that John Munson/Monson was not John Andersen Gjerlov from Norway.

Answer 3

Just to bring everyone up to date.  Based on the comments from Bjørnar Tuftin, I went back and reviewed the records.  After some careful analysis and comparing the writing for other names, I was able to discern that the last name was in fact Monsen, not Hansen.  That helped clear up and verify that I did have the right people in Norway.

I then also took another tack and tried researching John's sister instead of him and his parents directly.  This led me to some church records in Spring Grove, MN where I was able to pick things up in 1854.

Being some of the earlier immigrants from Norway this was a challenging group as they had not yet begun to keep passenger lists in Quebec (1864), nor departure records in Norway (1861), so tracing them across the Atlantic is rough.

Thanks to all who helped.