Category: Hunkler, George John

M Is for…Marriage Records

Posted on by spuddled

I’m going to trust the idiom about pictures and thousands of words and focus on the former for this blog post regarding marriage records. Here are the records I have (or of which I have copies) for the first few generations of my direct ancestors.

Generation 1:

26 August 1961
Caldwell, Canyon, Idaho
Theodore Richard Montgomery and Linda Jo Hoffmann
(parents)

Generation 2:

17 September 1930
Winner, Tripp, South Dakota
Lawrence Theodore Montgomery and Blanche Agnes Wilson
(paternal grandparents)
Not a marriage record, exactly, but an article from the Bloomington, Illinois Pantagraph (which makes me wonder…do I actually have the official document somewhere in all my piles?)
12 March 1938
Peoria, Peoria, Illinois
Joseph Benjamin Hoffmann
and Velma Marie Swing
(maternal grandparents)

Generation 3:

The marriage of paternal great-grandparents Charles William Montgomery and Laura Blanche Walker on 22 February 1883 in Richland County, Illinois appears in Ancestry.com’s Illinois, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1800-1940, but this database doesn’t include images, unfortunately. So moving along…

13 March 1907
Boone County, Nebraska
Carl Ozro Wilson and Sophie Christine Roberg
(paternal great-grandparents)
7 December 1902
Fairbury, Livingston, Illinois
Paul Hoffmann and Emma Alice Slagel
(maternal great-grandparents)

Another one that’s missing (why have I not written away for these??):
18 June 1913; Peoria, Peoria, Illinois; Albert Carl Swing and Lena Agnes Hunkler (maternal great-grandparents)

Generation 4:

25 December 1858
Hamilton County, Ohio
John Montgomery and Belinda Simmons
(paternal great-great-grandparents)
15 February 1857
Noble, Richland, Illinois
Marcus Walker and Mary Ann Conklin
(paternal great-great-grandparents)
Another not-quite-document, but an excerpt
31 August 1879
Brush Creek, Fayette, Iowa
Wellington David Wilson and Lucinda Blanche Davis
(paternal great-great-grandparents)
Another one that’s more of an excerpt…
3 December 1878
Rushford, Fillmore, Minnesota
Anders Mathis Roberg and Agnette Evensdatter Lien
(paternal great-great-grandparents)
17 January 1875
Renaucourt, France
Jacob Hoffmann and Christine Schmidt
(maternal great-great-grandparents)
30 November 1875
Fairbury, Livingston, Illinois
Samuel Slagel and Mary Demler
(maternal great-great-grandparents)
17 February 1884
Fairbury, Livingston, Illinois
Albert Carl Swing and Catherine Marie Hoffmann
(maternal great-great-grandparents)
14 December 1886
Peoria, Peoria, Illinois
George John Hunkler and Maria Elizabeth Rusch
(maternal great-great-grandparents)

These are not all the marriage records I have, though they do become more sparse from here on out. I would keep adding more here, but I figure this blog post is already 13,000 words long, so that will do for now.

E Is for…Elmwood

Posted on by spuddled

Today I’m taking a look at Elmwood, Illinois, a city of about 2040 people in Peoria County. According to Wikipedia, Elmwood was platted in 1852 and named for a grove of elm trees near the home of the first postmaster.

Our family connection to the town began in 1916. In that year my great-great-grandparents, George John and Maria Elizabeth (Rusch) Hunkler moved to Elmwood from Crugar in Woodford County. At that time George was 54 and Maria was 57; both natives of Switzerland, they had been married for 30 years. Maria had given birth to five children: Bertha Elizabeth (b. 1887); Matilda “Tillie” (b. 1888); John George (b. 1891); Lena Agnes (my great-grandmother, b. 1892); and Hulda Catherine (b. 1896). All five children had already married by the time their parents moved to Elmwood. George and Marie were enumerated there in January 1920. No occupation is listed for either of them, but the census notes that both became naturalized citizens in 1892.

My grandmother, Lena’s daughter, was born in 1917 in Francesville, Indiana. When she was two years old (apparently shortly after the 1920 census enumeration), Grandma moved with her parents and her older brother Roy to Elmwood where they lived for two years with George and Maria on their farm. On Grandma’s fourth birthday her immediate family moved again, away from her grandparents’ Elmwood farm to Forrest, Illinois, about 88 miles east.

Woodford County Journal [Eureka, Illinois]; 8 July 1920, pg. 5

George and Maria, however, remained in Elmwood. In 1930 they were enumerated again, still in Elmwood and now living on Lilac Street, though no house number was listed. They were listed as owning their own home, valued at $1400.

Year: 1930; Census Place: Elmwood, Peoria, Illinois; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 0008; FHL microfilm: 2340282

George died four years later; his death record notes that his death on 2 December 1934 took place in Elmwood and that he was buried 3 days later in Washington, Illinois’s Glendale Cemetery. Though three years older, Maria outlived her husband by almost 14 years. She was enumerated in the 1940 census in Elmwood, living alone at 80 years old. On 27 September 1948, she died in El Paso, Illinois, at the Dowell Nursing Home. Her death certificate notes she had been at the nursing home for 9 days before her death from acute cardiac failure due to arteriosclerosis. She was buried beside her husband in Glendale Cemetery.

N Is for…Naturalization

N Is for…Naturalization

Posted on by spuddled

Today’s post will take a look at two naturalization records, one from each side of the family tree. First, the paternal branch. Anders Roberg, my great-great-grandfather, was born in Innvik, Norway on 11 October 1855. On 2 June 1875, Anders and his brother Arne emigrated to the United States. Both moved to Wisconsin, where Arne would stay for most of his life, while Anders would move to Minnesota and then Nebraska. On 3 December 1878, Anders married Agnette Evensdatter Lien in Rushford, Minnesota. By 1880 they were living in Boone County, Nebraska.

Arkivverket: The National Archives of Norway; Norge; Emigrasjonsprotokoll

Anders’s naturalization documents of 1884 detail the process required for him to become a citizen. They note that on 7 May 1884 Anders appeared in court in Albion, Boone County, to apply for citizenship. They further indicate that it had been at least two years since he made his original intention known; this was done through the Crawford County, Wisconsin, court system. Anders now renounced his allegiance to any foreign leader or government, particularly King Carl XV of Norway. He was required to have been a resident of the United States for at least five years without leaving its territories, and a resident of Nebraska for at least one year. Satisfied with Anders’s compliance with these various regulations, the Albion County Clerk approved his application on 7 July 1884.

On the other side of the family, also a great-great-grandfather, we have George John Hunkler. He was born in Saint Gallen, Switzerland, on 20 September 1862. Unlike Anders, George already knew his future wife in Switzerland. He emigrated in 1883, according to the 1900 census, and took up residence in Illinois. Two years later he paid for Maria Elizabeth Rusch’s passage to America, and they were married on 14 December in either 1885 in Washington, Illinois, or 1886 in Peoria.

On 22 August 1892 George Hunkler appeared in court in Peoria. Similar to Anders Roberg’s documents, George’s note that two years previously, on 28 September 1890, he had appeared in court to apply to become a naturalized citizen. Two witnesses had testified at that time that he had lived in the U.S. for at least five years and at least one year in Illinois and affirmed his good character. George also renounced his loyalty to The Republic of Switzerland, and was permitted to become a naturalized citizen.

Anders Mathis Roberg
George John Hunkler

Tombstone Tuesday – A Plethora of Greats

Posted on by agnette

A few years back on one of our many genealogical field trips, Mom and I realized that she (and I) have seen all eight of her great-grandparents’ tombstones.  This is one definite advantage to having most of your relatives stay put in the same general vicinity after emigrating to America; all eight of these ancestors are laid to rest within a 150-mile radius, from Francesville, Indiana, to Washington, Illinois. Here they are in ahnentafel order:

Jacob Hoffmann
b. September 18, 1836 in Mackwiller, France
d. January 20, 1914 in Fairbury, Illinois
bur. Graceland Cemetery, Fairbury, Illinois

Christina (Schmidt) Hoffmann
b. March 30, 1850 in Butten, France
d. September 16, 1908 in Cissna Park, Illinois
bur. Cissna Park Cemetery, Cissna Park, Illinois

Samuel Slagel
b. November 30, 1849 in Wisconsin (?)
d. November 29, 1937 in Fairbury, Illinois
bur. Graceland Cemetery, Fairbury, Illinois

Mary/Maria (Demler) Slagel/Schlegel
b. January 17, 1855 in Baden, Germany
d. February 3, 1928 in Fairbury, Illinois
bur. Graceland Cemetery, Fairbury, Illinois

Albert Carl Swing
b. October 24, 1859 in Akron, Ohio
d. October 14, 1922 in Francesville, Indiana
Catherine (Hoffmann) Swing
b. February 2, 1862 in Remicourt, France
d. March 15, 1931 in Francesville, Indiana
Both bur. Roseland Cemetery, Francesville, Indiana

George John Hunkler b. September 20, 1862 in St. Gallen, Switzerland d. December 2, 1934 in Elmwood, Illinois Maria Elizabeth (Rusch) Hunkler b. December 25, 1859 in St. Gallen, Switzerland d. September 27, 1948 in El Paso, Illinois Both bur. Glendale Cemetery, Washington, Illinois

This means, of course, that I have visited the graves of 8 of my own great-great-grandparents.  My 8 paternal great-great-grandparents (and even my own 8 great-grandparents) are a little more widespread, but I’m making headway there as well.  Now  if only I could figure out where Lucinda Blanche (Davis) Wilson is buried…I might just have to plan another field trip.

Related articles