Naturalization Update

I said I would update the "Coming to America" blog entry when I received the naturalization papers of Carl Peterson.  I have good news and bad news.  The good news:  I received the papers yesterday.  The bad news:  It wasn't quite what I was looking for.  The paperwork I received stated the Minnesota Historical Society Library searched the indexes available to them, which included online and print indexes to Todd County naturalizations.  They did not find any records for Carl Adolph Peterson.  They found records for Carl Alfred Peterson.  Wrong Carl.  Because I had included information about Carl's wife and sons, they checked for them as well.  They found First Papers (Declaration of Intent) and Final Papers (Petition for and Oath of Naturalization) for Carl Peter, Final Papers for Carl Gustaf, and Final Papers for a Minor Alien for Carl Emil.  The First Papers for Carl Peter sounds like them belong to our Carl Peter because it does state he was born in Sweden, arrived in New York, and arrived in October of 1879.  I wasn't sure of where they arrived but figured it was New York but I knew they arrived around 1880 since my grandfather was born in Minnesota in 1881.  So October 1879 is close.  The signature does look like the same signature I have seen on other documents.  I believe it to be the right Carl Peter.  I know somewhere in my research I found Emil being listed as Emil D. Peterson.  So seeing the Final Papers for "Carl Emil Daniel Peterson", I have to believe this is the same person.  The Papers say he is above 21 and actually Emil was 30 in 1898 so it sounds right.  The 1900 Census says he is already naturalized in 1897.  So if he wasn't naturalized in Todd County, I'm going to have to look in maybe another county or another court.  The hunt continues...

Carl Peter Peterson's First Papers

Carl Peter Peterson's Final Papers

Carl Emil Daniel Peterson's Naturalization Papers

Carl Gustaf Peterson's Second Papers

Wedding Bell Clues

Everyone has wedding certificates in their possession.  Working on genealogy, I probably have more than my share.  I have some as current as my own to ones back to the 19th century.  But there are more to wedding records than just wedding certificates.

Marriage bonds--as in money, not the bonds of holy matrimony--were common in some states, particularly in the South, into the 18th century.  They were posted in the county courthouse to help offset any costs of legal action in case the marriage was nullified.  The groom and usually the father or brother of the bride posted a bond; if a woman posted bond, it may have been the bride's mother because the father was deceased.

Licenses eventually replaced bonds in the 19th century.  In some states, however, a license wasn't required for a couple to be married, or the license might be recorded in a different jurisdiction from the marriage.  For those states requiring licenses, sometimes couples took out a license or application but never made it to the altar.

Marriage licenses and certificates from 1896 had little genealogical information.

Marriage license applications today have a wealth of information.

Most of today's licenses give addresses, birthplaces,  occupations, and parents names.  All very helpful with clues to further documentation.  The address directs you to a city directory.  The birthplace directs you to where a birth certificate can be found.  Occupation can lead you to archived business records or directories.  Parents names give you another generation back.

If anyone has marriage records in your possession, I would love to have a copy to document the marriage in our family.

Coming to America

Carl and Christina (Johnson) Peterson came to America from Sweden in 1880.  As yet, I have not located the port, date, or ship.  I would imagine they came through New York.  At the time, Ellis Island did not exist.  Therefore, I went to the Castle Garden website to search their database.  I put in both Carl and Christina's names.  No luck.  Since they also brought their three sons, Carl Emil, Carl Peter, and Carl Gustaf, I searched under them as well.  No luck.  I have located where Carl was naturalized.  I have, as yet, not gotten that document.  As soon as I do, I will add that document to this blog entry so everyone can see it.

For them, having their name on a ship's manifest was the culmination of a dream.  A steerage ticket to America may have cost as much as two years' wages.  That bought a crowded, 3,000-mile voyage of two weeks to a month as human cargo, suffering seasickness and unsanitary conditions on a diet of thin soup and bread.  Harder still than the voyage was leaving behind everything and everyone they knew.

They continued on to Todd County, Minnesota.  This is where they were naturalized.

If anyone has more information or copies of documents, please let me know.

Welcome

This is the first entry in my blog.  I want to tell you about who I am and how I came to develop this website.  I was born in Eugene, Oregon and four days later I was adopted by Fred & Mickie Love.  We lived in Oregon for six months and then left for California.  I started my schooling in the Los Angeles area.  We lived there until I was nine.  We then moved to the Seattle area.  This was quite a shock to me because it was on my 9th birthday, which is in January, when we arrived at our new home and I walked out onto the patio and slipped and cracked my tailbone on the icy surface.  I immediately declared my hatred for our new home.  We lived in the area for 12 years.  I graduated from high school there and began my college education at a local community college and transferred to a state university for a year.  My parents retired to San Diego and I followed them there.  I finished my college degree there and while working at a Savings & Loan, I began my love of genealogy.

The spark started when my father's sister and husband visited and showed pictures of their trip to Scotland, where they did some genealogy research.  This was in 1987.  Fortunately, someone had already done a lot of research on my father's line.  No one had done any on the Peterson line so I started working on my mother's line first.  This was long before the internet.  I didn't even have my own personal computer.  Everything was done by hand and snail mail.  If I wanted to look at census records, I had to drive to the National Archives in Laguna Niguel, about an hour and a half drive north, to look at microfilm rolls.  It was very time-consuming and expensive.

In 1989, I became a flight attendant and a year later I purchased my own computer.  There still wasn't the internet but technology was making research a little less time consuming.  At least now, when I had a layover in a town with a good genealogy library or family, I got research done.

I want this website to not only show my adoptive family roots but as a means of sharing my genealogy knowledge that I have acquired over the years and perhaps enlighten my visitors.  Therefore, I will discuss what actions I have taken, the results I have found, and topics of genealogical interest.  I want to teach others things I have discovered all these many years.