We Will RAWK You event (December 2023)

Question

Nominations have been made, a team of 28 volunteers has been assembled, and 5 lucky WikiTree members have been randomly selected to have the team work on their branches.  In other words, get ready to RAWK!!!!

As part of our 15th Anniversary celebration in 2023, we introduced the We Will RAWK You event. It's a lot like the WikiTree Challenge except that this time our goal is to increase the CC7 for 5 fellow WikiTree members.

RAWK stands for Random Acts of WikiTreer Kindness.

We had our first We Will RAWK You event in March (big success!) and continued the fun in June, August and October.  Now we're ready to RAWK again all through the month of December, starting at the stroke of midnight EDT (4 am UTC) on December 1st.  Our goal is to increase the CC7 numbers for these lucky WikiTreers.

• Kathryn Nass Penner
• Caroline Verworn
• Ian Beacall
• Bonnie McFeaters
• Bob Hvitfeldt

How high can we take them?

Since this event is pure WikiTree Kindness, there are no points or bounties.  However, we'd like to collect links to interesting profiles or finds for the research done on each person's branches.  Our 5 WikiTree members who are getting RAWKED will each be listed below in their own answer to this post.  Let's collect our noteworthy discoveries in the comments to each of these answers.

If you're reading this early in the month of December, you can still sign up for the RAWK team.  Please answer this post and we'll get you signed up.

Have fun, everyone!

Answer 1

Kathryn Nass Penner (Nass-24)

Kathryn's particular brick wall is her German paternal line. Her parents were German speaking Mennonites in Prussia/Ukraine, who immigrated to Canada (separately) during WW2.   A family tree (Anentafel) was smuggled out of Prussia/Russia but Kathryn has still had difficulty finding sources for the Nass line past her father. 

Both her maternal lines and father's maternal lines have been worked on extensively, but are not yet on WikiTree.  Both her maternal & paternal lines go back to De Veer-90.

Please comment below with your interesting finds for Kathryn.

Answer 2

Caroline Verworn (Vernon-2152)

Caroline's paternal side is mostly English, Irish, Scottish, and German.  Her maternal side is Polish and Italian.  If folks find their way up her husband's tree, she thinks it'll be German on his paternal side (more specifically, the Germans from Russia, aka, the Black Sea Germans) and his maternal side is mostly UK (English, Scottish).  Her step-mom is also connected, and but she hasn't had any time to add her lines yet, so that could be a fun and fruitful line.

Please comment below with your interesting finds for Caroline.

Comments

My comment presently is that I am related to Caroline Verworn (Vernon-2152) on my father's side. I will enjoy learning. Yes I have been told that my Vernon side is German so I agree. (Paternal side)

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Terrific, Alice.  Do you know your exact relationship to Caroline?  I noted my connection degree to each RAWKEE on Friday because I think it will be fun to see if our RAWKING brings me closer to any of them.  I've added you to the RAWK team list; look for an email from me later today.

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Yes I do: starting with me

1. Alice Stephens
2. Ernest Stephens, father
3. Wesley Stephens, father
4. Elijah Stephens, father
5. Malinda Ross, Mother, 
6. John Ross, her brother
7. Peter Ross, his son
8. Nancy King, his wife
9. Lucinda King, her sister
10. Alexander Strunk, her husband
11. Honor Pennington, his mother
12. Elijah Pennington, her brother
13. Malinda Pennington, his daughter
14. Thomas DeHart, her husband
15. America DeHart, his sister
16. Lucinda Blackard, her daughter
17. Rosa Shelor, her daughter
18. William Vernon, her son
19. private Vernon, his son
20. Caroline Vernon, his daughter

I am also going to check out the relationship of Caroline, to my great grandmother Vernon, to see if there is a trail there too.

Answer 3

Ian Beacall-6

Ian's lines are English, Irish and Welsh.  Here's a Free Space Page he created outlining where he could use some help from the RAWK team.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Ian_Beacall_-_Brick_Walls

Please comment below with your interesting finds for Ian.

Answer 4

Bonnie McFeaters-9

Bonnie's paternal line reach back to the late 1600’s and earlier than that in Europe, primarily England, Scotland, Wales, and Germany.  In Pennsylvania, she has found many sourced roots back to the early 1700’s.  
 

Her maternal line is mostly Eastern European, coming to the US in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, but there are many cousins that are now in the US which need to be connected there.

 

Bonnie writes that "my husband’s line is impossible to trace as he comes from a part of the world (Istanbul, Turkey) where they did not use last names until 1923. The only way I will be able to do anything there would be when DNA testing is more advanced and acceptable to his culture."

Please comment below with your interesting finds for Bonnie.

Comments

I’ve got a bunch of Turkish relatives too and had great success using Türkiye’s own genealogy records. If your husband has a Turkish ID card (or any of his relatives in Turkey), they can access their ancestors on: T.C. İçişleri Bakanİığı Nüfus ve Vatandaşlık İşleri genei Müdürlüğü alt Üst soy Belgesi.

Good luck!

Bob

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I think that it's a marvelous coincidence that 2 of our 5 RAWKEES this month have a close connection to Turkey.  Thanks for this tip, Bob.  I'll also reach out to David Randall and the Global Project to see if we have any WikiTreers with Turkish research experience.

Answer 5

Bob Hvitfeldt-7

Bob's lines are Scandinavian (pre-1700) and eastern European (Jewish; Polish and Hungarian).  His son-in-law is Turkish and Bob's research on these branches is still underway.  In short, Bob's family tree gives the RAWK team research opportunities in several very interesting areas! 

Please comment below with your interesting finds for Bob.

Comments

Some interesting finds about Bob's father's father's father's mother's father, Lorentz Edberg-20. He worked as a pilot overseer in Göteborg, Sweden and got a gold medal for Gallantry at Sea. It was through the Wikipedia page about this I found records for birth and death. His brother, Jonas Magnus Edberg-110 that also worked as a pilot as their father has an interesting tombstone with the translated engraving: 

BELOW HERE RESTS

THE PERISHABLE DUST

OF

YACHT LIEUTENANT

J.M. EDBERG

BORN IN TURKU 1751

DEAD IN STILLESTORP VILLAGE

1810

READER:

YOUR SHIP STEERS WELL ON THE SEAS OF THE WORLD

HAVE A PILOT ON BOARD WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO DIE

THAT BRING YOU TO THE ISLAND OF LIFE

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Thanks Axel!  What a great find.

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Hello Axel,

This is quite an interesting find; thank you!  I hope that it's okay that I added you to the official RAWK team roster.  That way you'll receive important emails from me throughout the month (not too many, I promise!).

Cheers,

Betsy

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I just found Bob's oldest Swedish ancestor (found so far), Carl Pärsson. He was born in July of 1619 and died on 27 Dec 1705. He lived his entire life at Myckelby in Husby, Kopparberg, Sweden. He married Anna and they had 8 children! He was 86 years when he died. 

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That's amazing, Missy; great work!!!!

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Wow!  Thank you so much, Missy!

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You are very welcome, Bob! 

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Hello again Bob, I found Carl Pärsson's wife Anna's last name, approximate birth year and actual death date! She was Anna Jöransdotter, born in 1628 and died on 19 Dec 1686 in Myckelby. She was only 58 when she died.  And they actually had 12 children in total! I found 4 more after the post above. 

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Thanks, Missy, you’ve done it again!  A whole set of 7G grandparents!

Answer 6

I will be glad to help where I can.  I am related to https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Vernon-2152 Caroline Vernon (Verworn) She is a18th cousin Twice Removed. on my father's side.

Comments

Hi Alice--I responded to your earlier comment and here I see the answer to one of my questions.  Thanks for helping us RAWK!