Independence Rock, 800 miles from the Missouri River, was a huge landmark along the Oregon Trail. Most emigrants were impressed with its mass, though some found it unremarkable.

Independence Rock was not only a landmark, but a calling card, a register of those who had made it that far on the journey. Many travelers painted their names on the rock, and later wayfarers searched for the names of people they knew:

 On the side of the rock names, dates and messages, written in buffalo-grease and powder, are read and re-read with as much eagerness as if they were letters … from long absent friends … being a place of advertisement, or kind of trappers’ post office…” William Marshall Anderson, 1834

“It is the great register of the desert; the names of all the travelers who have passed by are there to be read, written in coarse characters; mine figures among them.” Fr. Pierre-Jean DeSmet, June 14, 1840

“…found inscribed on its eternal sides the names of many of the company who passed by in the first emigration, besides many others, doubtless of mountaineers and trappers.” Samuel Hancock, 1845

“It was covered with names of the passing emigrants, some of whom seemed determined, judging from the size of their inscriptions, that they would go down to posterity in all their fair proportions.” Howard Stansbury, July 31, 1849

My favorite story of Independence Rock tells of a cannon hauled to the top of this monument on July 4, 1847, and shot off in honor of our nation’s birthday. At least two people present there that day later recounted the event:

On Independence day this party fired a cannon from the top of the rock, and planted a flag there.” Robert Caufield, July 4, 1847

“We passed Independence Rock, on Sweetwater, on the 4th day of July, and hoisted the Stars and Stripes and fired the cannon on top of said rock at 12 o’clock that day.” Hon. Ralph A. Geer (who traveled the Oregon Trail as a boy in 1847, and described the day in a speech many years later).

I included this story in my novel, which is set in 1847. To me, it shows the sense of adventure and pluck – some might call it folly – of our 19^th century ancestors.

What do you think – was it adventure or folly?

Annie Hill Regan – circa 1900

Recently I submitted my great-grandmother Annie Hill Regan to Rachael Flynn’s  Irish Women of our Past – Book of Names project. Here’s how Rachael describes her very exciting project:

The BOOK OF NAMES is a project which aims to recognise the women in our past who have made the journey from Ireland to other lands.

Artist-researcher Rachael Flynn is currently working on an arts project through which people will be able to submit the names of their female Irish ancestors in order to build up a record that seeks to pay honour to their struggles and successes. 

By adding the names of their Irish mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, aunts, cousins… the people who add names to this collection will have the chance to effectively ‘light a candle’ in memory of these relatives. 

Rachael asks for some basic information in order to add a female Irish relative to the  Book of Names: name, date and port of departure, destination, and your contact information. Very simple.

I had the data about my great-grandmother’s emigration, but I wanted to revisit the passenger list I had copied from Ancestry.com ages ago. I remembered how exciting it was to locate this information because I knew for certain it was my Annie. I struggle with genealogy at times,  becoming distracted and discouraged quite easily. It always seems to me that it shouldn’t be so difficult to find the information you are looking for…

I had spent hours looking for other relatives, so I prepared myself for a long search. There was the question of her first name – would she be listed as Annie, Anne, Anna, or Ann? It had appeared in each form in some official document or anther. Then her surname – Hill can be English, Irish, Swedish, German, etc. And she emigrated to the United States around 1900, along with hundreds of thousands of other people!

I lucked out and found Annie on a passenger list not long after I began the search. I had not expected the departure port to be Glasgow, and I was a bit surprised that the list said Annie came from Kilkenny (Kildare was her home county) but I was certain I had located the right Annie when I read that her passage was paid by her brother-in-law Mr. O’Brien of Clontarf, Minnesota and her final destination was also Clontarf. Clontarf was a tiny town, this had to be my great-grandmother.

This morning I came across the following posting on a RootsWeb message board from 2008:

From the London Times of April 21, 1899 comes this ad:

ANCHOR LINE.–GLASGOW to NEW YORK.
Furnesia, 5,495 tons, April 27; Ethiopia, 4,001 tons, May 11.
Excellent accommodation. Cabin fares from £9 9s.; second cabin,
from £6.–A.H. Groves, 14, Rue du Helder, Paris; T. Cook and
Son, Paris and London; Henderson Brothers, 18, Leadenhall st. E.C.

The following comes from the NY Times shipping news:

May 13: “SS Ethiopia. (Br.,) Capt. Wadsworth.
(from Glasgow.) sld. from Moville for New York to-day.”

For days the NY Times lists her as expected on
Sunday, May 21. On May 22, however, she is listed
as expected that day. On May 23, “SS Ethiopia,
(Br.,) Wadsworth, Glasgow May 11 and Moville 12,
with mdse. and passengers to Henderson Bros.
Southest of Fire Island at 5:35 P.M.

- submitted by Marj Kohli

S.S. Ethiopia

Thank you Marj Kohli of Canada! I wonder where Annie boarded the S.S. Ethiopia? In Glasgow (she had sisters living in Manchester, England) or did she make the journey up to Moville on Donegal’s Inishowen Peninsula? I don’t believe it says on the passenger list, but I will check it again.

I also wonder what held the Ethiopia up? It was supposed to arrive in New York on May 21st, but didn’t make it until May 23rd. Adventure on the high seas? Too bad Annie didn’t keep a travel diary (or if she did, too bad it didn’t survive!)

Click here to read more about Annie.

I am honored to have her name included in Rachael’s Book of Names along with all of the other incredible Irish women who made the journey to a new life. I encourage all of you with an Irish mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, cousin, or auntie to submit their name and their story to Rachael’s project. Visit her website here and follow her on Twitter for all the latest information. It is really a very easy process – take a few minutes and honor your Irish relatives!

Who will you submit? I have some more Irish ladies to get to – a couple more great-grandmothers, some great-great-grandmothers, and a few great-grand-aunts. I better get busy!

Annie and her chickens on her farm in Tara Township, near Clontarf, Minnesota

The story of an English family emigrating to Austrailia.The Emigrants (and its sequal The New Land) and truly great films, and Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow contribute two of their best performances ever. HOWEVER, what lame-brain decided to release this in VHS in an English-dubbed version ONLY. If any movie requires its native language, it’s this one. A huge part of the movie’s strength is created by the sense of how "foreign" these new arrivals were in the U.S. The movie literally makes no sense when the family finally makes it to the U.S. and the "Americans" don’t understand them–even though in the ridiculously dubbed version they are all speaking English! It’s also a travesty that they didn’t use Liv Ullmann to dub her own voice (if they HAD to dub it)–and we all know she speaks English quite well. If you have the choice, get the laser disc version. At least it is in Swedish and subtitled. Let’s hope the DVD version will not repeate the mistake of the videotape!
Oh wow…..to be honest, I disregarded the other reviews here because I wanted to see this movie again so badly. So, I convinced myself that it couldn’t make THAT much difference dubbed instead of subtitles. Boy, was I wrong! It makes a very, very big difference in the authenticity of such wonderful movies.Being of Swedish extraction from both my parents, I love to hear the beautiful lilt of the Swedish language in movies reproducing the lives of my ancestors. Though I cannot enjoy this version as I could a subtitled one, I will watch it until I can find the subtitled version for myself."The New Land"….. the same review applies….except that many years ago I bought the subtitled version for my father…..and I will borrow his rather than watch it dubbed!Two beautiful movies; and they lose so much with English instead of Swedish words.

Jeannethe Nicholls, an Ecuadorian who is now a US citizen, says that he spent six hours in an interrogation ”without a bath or a glass of water or [a chair to sit on], watching my two suitcases check item by item.”

Nicholls said that the customs agent, rude and authoritarian, made her distinguish between things that belonged to her, and things that she brought to her family as gifts. The customs agent made her send several of the gifts back to the US, including $500 in cash, and she had to pay $52 for processing.

Reported by Ecuadorian Vivo

By this point in their travels, they had passed the landmarks of Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, and Scott’s Bluff. (For pictures of these natural wonders from Adventure Dates, click here, or go directly to the Adventure Dates blog.)

Despite the great vistas and imposing natural beauty of the land, the emigrants saw little evidence of the white man’s habitation. Most of the Army forts along the trail were not built until the 1850s, when dealings between the pioneers and Native Americans deteriorated.  Even Fort Kearny, which originally sat on the Missouri River near what is now Nebraska City, NE, was not moved upstream on the Platte to its final location to better serve the pioneers until 1848.

Thus, in 1847, when the events in my novel occur, Fort Laramie was the first outpost of civilization most of the wagon companies had seen since leaving Missouri. As the National Park Service website for Fort Laramie says, “This ‘grand old post’ witnessed the entire sweeping saga of America’s western expansion and Indian resistance to encroachment on their territories.”

At this time, Fort Laramie was an American Fur Company outpost. It was not acquired by the Army until 1849. A competing post, Fort Platte, sat a few hundred yards away.

Fort Laramie was located on the Platte River. Willows lined the river’s cold, rapid waters that gushed from snowmelt in the Laramie Range. The adobe buildings had walls that were six feet thick and fifteen feet tall.  In 1842, John C. Fremont described the fort as follows:

A few hundred yards [from Fort Platte] brought us in view of the post of the American Fur Company, called Fort John, or Laramie … its lofty walls, whitewashed and picketed, with the large bastions at the angles, gave it quite an imposing appearance … the fort, which is a quadrangular structure, built of clay, after the fashion of the Mexicans … walls are about fifteen feet high, surmonted with a wooden palisade…. Over the great entrance is a square tower, with loopholes…. At two of the angles, and diagonally opposite each other, are large square bastions, so arranged as to sweep four faces of the walls….” John C Fremont, July 15, 1842

Fort Laramie was primarily a trading post, and travelers stopped there for days to repair wagons, wash clothes, re-provision, and mail letters. Most camped in their wagons outside the fort, so their comfort wasn’t much better at the fort than on days along the trail. As one emigrant described their stay,

 Our camp is stationary today; part of the emigrants are shoeing their horses and oxen; others are trading at the fort and with the Indians. Flour, sugar, coffee, tea, tobacco, powder and lead, sell readily at high prices. In the afternoon we gave the Indians a feast, and held a long talk with them. Each family … contributed a portion of bread, meat, coffee or sugar, which being cooked, a table was set by spreading buffalo skins upon the ground, and arranging the provisions upon them…. Having filled themselves, the Indians retired, taking with them all that they were unable to eat.” Joel Palmer, June 25, 1845

And here is another traveler, who, like travelers today, was upset about high prices on the road:

I purchased a dressed deer skin for 2.50 cents and returned to camp satisfied that money was allmost useless while all kinds of grocerys & Liquors were exorbitantly high for instance sugar 1.50 cents per pint or cupful and other things in proportion Flour Superfine 1.00 dollars per pint or 40 dollars per Barrel … no dried Buffaloe meat could be had at any price so our stores of provisions did not increase.” James Clyman, 1844

Many other emigrants wrote of their stays at Fort Laramie, including descriptions of trading and feasts with the Indians who also camped near the fort.

But soon the wagon companies moved on, traveling higher into the Rockies, and on toward their final destination.

In the weeks ahead, I will periodically describe more of the hardships and wonders they encountered on a journey that remains remarkable to us 165 years later.

For more information on the history of Fort Laramie, see Fort Laramie Park History, by Merrill J. Mattes, which can be downloaded from the National Park Service site.

Just getting out of Dublin was a feat. We accidentally had the “avoid toll roads” option enabled on our GPS unit (called a Sat Nav in these parts) and it took me right through downtown Dublin. I figured if I did ok starting out with intense city traffic, I’d be fine in the country. I’ve done ok, but I wouldn’t call it “doing just fine.” When we finally got out of the city, we headed straight up into the Wicklow Mountains. It was an hour and 45 minutes before I got out of third gear!

The drive was studded with one gorgeous view after another. I can completely understand why they call it the Emerald Isle. One road we drove down was so lush and green, it almost felt like we were in the tropics. We stopped in the town of Glendalough (GLEN-da-lock, meaning valley of 2 lakes) with a beautiful, intact round bell tower and ruins from a 6^th century monastic settlement. The two mile round-trip walk to the two lakes gave us a chance to stretch our legs and ogle more beautiful Irish scenery.

After several bizarre twists and turns that our “sat nav” insisted we take, we arrived at our gorgeous little cottage on an Irish farm near the town of New Ross (www.fruithill-cottages-ireland.com).  The cottage was utterly charming. It was raining and just over 40°F, but fortunately we had a wood burning stove. Instead of burning wood, though, they burn peat briquettes – a new smell to add to my olfactory memory. It smells earthy and interesting, but I still prefer the smell of a wood fire. Even though it was cool enough to have a fire every night of our stay, there was something very romantic about sitting in front of a peat fire, sipping tea, in Ireland.

We spent four days in the Waterford/Wexford area. On the first day we drove to New Ross and toured the Dunbrody Famine Ship. This is a replica of the ships that carried thousands of immigrants from Ireland to America during the mid-19^th century.

At that time, the journey took 50 days. By 1900 the journey would be cut down to 5 days or so in steamer ships. During the Great Famine of 1847 – 1850, cargo ships sailing from Canada to America realized they could make some extra money by bringing people from Ireland to Canada or America on the westward journey. The conditions on these sailing ships were so bad that up to 50% of the passengers wouldn’t survive the journey and the ships became known as “coffin ships.”

On board the ship we saw the deck and the kitchen above board…

This captain is altogether too cheerful and modern

Then we were taken below deck to the cabins. There were 4 first-class rooms that held 2 people each. Passage for first class passengers cost £25 per berth. Then we were taken to the steerage quarters. Passage in steerage cost about £3.50 per person. A family of 7 could sail for £22. There were 32 beds (16 upper and 16 lower) about the size of a king size mattress. Sounds comfy until you understand that this room with its 32 beds housed 176 passengers on average, with some voyages squeezing in as many as 300 people.

People in steerage class were locked inside for 23 and a half hours a day, mostly in the dark. It was easy to imagine how the smell would have been overpoweringly horrific. Most of the passengers were already ill from “the hunger” and its attendant diseases (mostly typhus and cholera), but dysentery and seasickness added to the misery. They were allowed above deck only a half hour per day (in shifts) to cook food for their families. Hot food consisted of flour, oatmeal, or barley mixed with water and cooked over a fire above board. If it was too wet above board to light a fire, there was no hot food that day. Their only other rations would have been about 4 pounds of bread products per week for a family of 5. It’s incredible that any of them survived 50 days in those conditions.George’s grandmother (his father’s mother) came to America from the Cork area in the early 1900s. We were relieved to learn that the conditions improved dramatically by the time she made her journey. We visited the Heritage Center in the town we think she immigrated from, known variously as Cove, Queenstown, and Cobh (the Irish name for Cove and still pronounced Cove.) They had an excellent exhibit on Irish immigration as well which included information about the sailing ships and the eventual switch to steam powered vessels. By early 1900 the journey to America had been cut down to about 5 days on the fastest steamer ships. First class passengers were enjoying conditions that were downright posh, and even steerage passengers were comfortable and safe, though still cramped.

From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, Ireland was sending many of its prisoners to Australia. These were largely political prisoners and those convicted of petty crimes. This journey took up to 5 months depending on weather. Those who survived served out the remainder of their sentence doing hard labor. Some small percentage finished their sentences and went on to own land and make significant contributions to Australian society. There were several Irish rebellions in Australia, but none that made much of a difference.

Cobh was also the last port of call for the ill-fated Titanic. This year marked the 100^th anniversary of the famous disaster, so exhibits and banners commemorating the event were all over town. The Lusitania, a passenger ship sunk by German U-boats during WWII also sailed from Cobh. Passage back and forth from this port town to America continued until the 1950s.

Ireland has seen so many of its citizens emigrate to other countries over the years that it is astonishing that 4.5 million people remain on the island today. Emigration out of Ireland slowed during the 20^th century, but is on the rise again in the 21^st century. Between 1995 and 2007, Ireland experienced tremendous economic growth. This period is known as the Celtic Tiger. When the market collapsed here, as everywhere, in 2008, emigration again started in earnest when educated job-seekers found it easier to find jobs outside of Ireland.

In the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, friends and family would have a “wake” for those leaving the country since the assumption was that they would never see their loved ones again. It was a time of both sadness and excitement about finding a better life in a less harsh land. Irish music is filled with laments about leaving Ireland. At least those leaving today can hope for an upswing in the economy so that they can return to this beautiful island.

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When the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union imploded two years later, Americans sighed a breath of relief. Seemingly overnight, our debilitating fear that a horde of T-72’s would blitz through the Fulda Gap evaporated; the world realized a nuclear holocaust would not be the Cold War’s coup de grace. What’s more, the Cold War’s conclusion freed millions of souls from Soviet oppression. We were right to be relieved. American conservatives, who were eager to take credit for USSR’s demise, were feeling particularly triumphant at that time. We had finally reached the “end of history,” and “democratic capitalism” reigned supreme. It remains to be seen, however, whether post-Cold War conservative chest thumping was truly justified.

Although all freedom lovers should celebrate the downfall of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the peaceful death of the Soviet Empire did not necessarily indicate the demise of Marxism as a force in the world. In fact, a strong case can be made that the United States is more Marxist now than ever before. It is true that a socialist revolution did not occur, as Marx predicted, via an apocalyptic struggle between workers and the bourgeoisie, but a socialist revolution of sorts nonetheless occurred. To those who believe Marxism has been relegated to “the dustbin of history,” I can only point to the words of Marx himself. The world we inhabit is not so different from the one Marx envisioned.

In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, which provided an introduction to the Marxist theory of “historical materialism” and famously provided the clarion call, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of the world unite!” The world remembers Marx’s sharpest phrases, as well as the mountain of corpses his disciples constructed in the subsequent 140 years. More frequently forgotten, however, are the specific policies Marx promoted in his seminal work. Section II of the Manifesto explicitly declared what the Communists sought to achieve. Even a cursory examination of the United States today refutes the notion that Marxism is an exhausted intellectual force.

The ten program points from The Communist Manifesto:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

Although Americans still enjoy basic property rights, the state’s power of eminent domain (reinforced in 2005 by the Supreme Court case Kelo v. City of New London) ensures that our right to our own property is subject to the state’s whims. Zoning laws determine how property may be used. Heavy property taxes require you to pay what amounts to an annual rent on land you ostensibly own. Yes, you may own property, but only if the state does not think that property can put it to better use and only if you can afford to keep paying the state for the privilege.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

The Constitution’s 16th Amendment, ratified in 1913, provides the federal government the power to levy an individual income tax. As Marx wanted, that income tax is highly progressive and redistributive. The top earners in the United States pay a far higher tax rate—up to 35 percent of their income—than the rest of the population.

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

Although all rights of inheritance have not been abolished, the federal government and several of the states impose large estate taxes – called “death taxes” by opponents. When Americans die, much of their accumulated wealth is simply confiscated by government rather than being inherited by their descendants. The federal estate tax goes as high as 45 percent—and of course, if the estate is not liquid, the inability of heirs to pay the tax in cash can result in the loss of property. This is another way family businesses and childhood homes get taken away.

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

As the United States has not experienced a massive exodus of wealth, this is not presently a major issue. But if America’s economic decline continues, and people with means rationally decide to leave the country, do not be surprised if this Marxist notion finds a new multitude of proponents. Already the United States employs the highly unusual practice of taxing its citizens who live abroad.

5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.

The Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913. The Federal Reserve is America’s central bank. Although privately owned banks still exist, the Fed sets interest rates, regulates private banks, provides financial services for the U.S. government, and controls the money supply. Although our system of public and private cooperation is more convoluted than Marx might have imagined, the Federal Reserve has much more in common with Marx’s vision than with a truly free banking system.

Read the full article here.

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In the eight years of the George W. Bush Presidency, 8,327,610 persons from foreign countries established permanent legal residence in the United States, an average per year of 1,040,951.

As shown by the table below from the Department of Homeland Security, the current problem is not legal immigration, which has always been a driving economic force in America.

Rather, one must presume from the data below that the problem can only be illegal immigration combined with changing demographic patterns.

Table 1.
PERSONS OBTAINING LEGAL PERMANENT RESIDENT STATUS: FISCAL YEARS 1820 TO 2011
Year	Number	Year	Number	Year	Number	Year	Number
1820	8.385	1870	387.203	1920	430.001	1970	373.326
1821	9.127	1871	321.350	1921	805.228	1971	370.478
1822	6.911	1872	404.806	1922	309.556	1972	384.685
1823	6.354	1873	459.803	1923	522.919	1973	398.515
1824	7.912	1874	313.339	1924	706.896	1974	393.919
1825	10.199	1875	227.498	1925	294.314	1975	385.378
1826	10.837	1876	169.986	1926	304.488	1976¹	499.093
1827	18.875	1877	141.857	1927	335.175	1977	458.755
1828	27.382	1878	138.469	1928	307.255	1978	589.810
1829	22.520	1879	177.826	1929	279.678	1979	394.244
1830	23.322	1880	457.257	1930	241.700	1980	524.295
1831	22.633	1881	669.431	1931	97.139	1981	595.014
1832	60.482	1882	788.992	1932	35.576	1982	533.624
1833	58.640	1883	603.322	1933	23.068	1983	550.052
1834	65.365	1884	518.592	1934	29.470	1984	541.811
1835	45.374	1885	395.346	1935	34.956	1985	568.149
1836	76.242	1886	334.203	1936	36.329	1986	600.027
1837	79.340	1887	490.109	1937	50.244	1987	599.889
1838	38.914	1888	546.889	1938	67.895	1988	641.346
1839	68.069	1889	444.427	1939	82.998	1989	1.090.172
1840	84.066	1890	455.302	1940	70.756	1990	1.535.872
1841	80.289	1891	560.319	1941	51.776	1991	1.826.595
1842	104.565	1892	579.663	1942	28.781	1992	973.445
1843	52.496	1893	439.730	1943	23.725	1993	903.916
1844	78.615	1894	285.631	1944	28.551	1994	803.993
1845	114.371	1895	258.536	1945	38.119	1995	720.177
1846	154.416	1896	343.267	1946	108.721	1996	915.560
1847	234.968	1897	230.832	1947	147.292	1997	797.847
1848	226.527	1898	229.299	1948	170.570	1998	653.206
1849	297.024	1899	311.715	1949	188.317	1999	644.787
1850	369.980	1900	448.572	1950	249.187	2000	841.002
1851	379.466	1901	487.918	1951	205.717	2001	1.058.902
1852	371.603	1902	648.743	1952	265.520	2002	1.059.356
1853	368.645	1903	857.046	1953	170.434	2003	703.542
1854	427.833	1904	812.870	1954	208.177	2004	957.883
1855	200.877	1905	1.026.499	1955	237.790	2005	1.122.257
1856	200.436	1906	1.100.735	1956	321.625	2006	1.266.129
1857	251.306	1907	1.285.349	1957	326.867	2007	1.052.415
1858	123.126	1908	782.870	1958	253.265	2008	1.107.126
1859	121.282	1909	751.786	1959	260.686	2009	1.130.818
1860	153.640	1910	1.041.570	1960	265.398	2010	1.042.625
1861	91.918	1911	878.587	1961	271.344	2011	1.062.040
1862	91.985	1912	838.172	1962	283.763
1863	176.282	1913	1.197.892	1963	306.260
1864	193.418	1914	1.218.480	1964	292.248
1865	248.120	1915	326.700	1965	296.697
1866	318.568	1916	298.826	1966	323.040
1867	315.722	1917	295.403	1967	361.972
1868	138.840	1918	110.618	1968	454.448
1869	352.768	1919	141.132	1969	358.579
¹ Includes the 15 months from July 1, 1975 to September 30, 1976 because the end date of fiscal years was changed from June 30 to September 30.

For some factual and analytical details on the history of immigration in the United States, see history.com in
United States Immigration Before 1965

when the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act reformed American immigration law.

Many people mistake it for Norwegian Independence day which it is not.

On May 17, 1814, after ratification by the national assembly organized by the independence movement on May 16, the new CONSTITUTION for NORWAY was signed. The reality that this CONSTITUTION came in context with a very strong movement in NORWAY for INDEPENDENCE from SWEDEN. Unable to gain international support forced NORWAY after a short war to negotiate with SWEDEN. NORWAY was allowed to keep its own CONSTITUTION, but had to accept the KING OF SWEDEN as its monarch. For more historical information and perspective, read, “Constitution of Norway” in Wikipedia.

So we were stuck with loyalty to the Swedish Crown until 1905. It was never all that popular but Norwegians being rather stolid we soldiered on, and in good time…

This meant that NORWAY was subservient to SWEDEN under the KING of SWEDEN. The vision of and movement for INDEPENDENCE continued and was AT LONG LAST brought to fruition on June 7, 1905 when, having revoked the Constitutional amendments which ended the “personal union” with the King of Sweden, the NORWEGIAN PARLIAMENT took action to create an INDEPENDENT NORWAY with its own KING. This is a very complicated and interesting process with democratic ideas and processes pressing the whole process.

NORWAY did gain its own KING! The Parliament invited Prince Carl of Denmark to become KING. Understanding the NORWEGIAN movement toward democracy, he said he would consider becoming the KING only after a REFERENDUM of the PEOPLE of NORWAY to vote on whether they wanted a REPUBLIC or a CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.

Coat of Arms of Trondheim

The PEOPLE of NORWAY voted 79% for the CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. Prince Carl accepted election as KING of NORWAY. He and his family came to NORWAY. He was the MORE popular when he chose the historic name of NORWEGIAN kings, “HAAKON” and became King Haakon VII of Norway. King Haakon VII took the OATH as monarch on November 25, 1905 – 2 days after he arrived in Norway from Denmark. King Haakon VII was crowned KING of NORWAY at NIDAROSDOMEN (the cathedral in Trondheim) on June 22, 1906. Again, there are numerous interesting facets of the whole process, so I encourage you to read more in Wikipedia, “Haakon VII of Norway.”

Excepted from:

TODAY is SYTTENDE MAI, the Norwegian CONSTITUTION Day, NOT independence day!

I suppose I could add here that my mother’s family is from Trondheim, the ancient capital, while my father’s is from Oslo, the current capital.

Coat of Arms of Oslo

I read a story, which I believe to be true, that when during World War Two, King Haakon VII was holding court, in exile in Scotland, a young man, a member of the Resistance, who had been injured by the Germans and escaped, was brought to the King. At the door, he straightened up and despite grievous injuries to his leg, walked without a limp to the King. Afterward he remarked that, “A man does not limp while his legs are the same length”. Such is the Heritage we have carried down from the Sagamen of the Viking age. And such is our reverence for freedom, independence, and written constitutions. We waited 90 years for a King of our own, who says perseverance, and steadfastness doesn’t pay.

O Valdres,  O Valdres, thou home in our hearts.

For immigrant families, an ocean apart.

Your valleys and mountains with lofty peaks high,

The mem’ries we cherish tho’ years have gone by;

O Valdres, your beauty is seen by day’s light,

Queen of the Valleys, a beacon at night.

For you now, O Norge, our hands cross the sea,

We all join together in one family.

Our homeland forever, our homage we give,

From all distant shores wherever we live,

O Norge, you call us from all walk of life,

In peace, love and joy, our hearts now unite.

Gretchen Dokken-Hellie

* I wish YOU ALL, “Good 17th of May!”

Related articles

• The National Day of Norway – Post 1 (cardinalguzman.wordpress.com)
• The National Day of Norway – Post 2 (cardinalguzman.wordpress.com)
• Norwegian Constitution Day (genealyn.wordpress.com)
• 17 of May Down under (vibekejohannessen.com)
• Thousands to converge on Ballard for Syttende Mai festivities (ballardnewstribune.com)

If so, you will find a specific page about genealogical research for the Poles on our website.  It provides historical background, main LAC archival collections and published material and links to other websites and institutions.

If your Polish ancestor came to Canada before 1865, a good starting point would be to consult the three following databases:

• Immigrants at Grosse Ile (1832-1937)
• Immigrants to Canada
• Montreal Emigrant Society Passage Book (1832)

If your ancestor came between 1865 and 1935, you might find his name on passenger lists.

Tip:

Tracing your Polish ancestor in Canada is the first step. Joining a genealogical society is an ideal way to start your genealogy research.

Questions or comments? We would love to hear from you!

You will find on our website a specific page about genealogical research for the Dutch. It provides historical background, main LAC archival collections and published material and links to other websites and institutions.

If your Dutch ancestor came to Canada before 1865, a good starting point would be to consult the three following databases:

• Immigrants at Grosse Ile (1832-1937)
• Immigrants to Canada
• Montreal Emigrant Society Passage Book (1832)

If your ancestor came between 1865 and 1935, you might find his name on passenger lists.

Tip:

Tracing your Dutch ancestor in Canada is the first step. Joining a genealogical society is an ideal way to start your genealogy research.

Questions or comments? We would love to hear from you!

Well, this has not happened. In fact, my research seems to lead to all sorts of letters from and to everyone but my family! Reading these letters is fascinating, and they provide a ton of contextual information, but can they really be as good as the real thing?

For example, I came across several letters from Stephen Owens , a nineteenth-century Irish immigrant to Clontarf, Minnesota, to a niece back home in Skerries, County Dublin, Ireland.  The letters are in a file at the Swift County Historical Society. The letters were shared by Kerby Miller, professor of History at the University of Missouri and the preeminent authority on Irish emigration (see his book Emigrants and Exiles.)

The first letter in the collection is dated December 4, 1899. Mr. Owens is about seventy-years-old, has been in the United States for over fifty years and is very happy to have received a letter from his niece back home in Skerries. He writes, “I Thought I would never hear from my friends in Skerries again…”

Mr. Owens goes on to describe his family and his community. Here’s an excerpt:

I am pretty smart on the foot yet thanks be to God. Your Aunt don’t hear so well as I do, She is Pretty Old Looking. She is Able yet to do our Cooking and washing. We had to give up farming we were to old to work the farm any Longer So I sold it and moved to the Little Town of Clontarf near the Church…

Main Street of Clontarf, Minnesota - 1920

More than fifty years have passed since Mr. Owens left Ireland, but he still asks about old school friends, neighbors, and family:

When you write again Let me know iff your Uncle Michael Owens wife is living in Skerries or Daughter. Remember me to John Baulf and to James Russel the Shoemaker and his Brother Mathew and their sister Margret iff Living. All my Old School Mates I suppose are nearly all Dead, iff I landed in Skerries now i would hardly no one Person in the Town the would all be new People to me  my Generation are all Passed away Well Dear Niece Ceila I wont forget you night & morning in my Poor Prayers and I hope you wont forget your Old Uncle…

On March 19, 1900 Mr. Owens writes to his niece and thanks her for the shamrock she sent him. He goes on to describe the large St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Clontarf, and wagers that, “yous did not celebrate like this in Skerries.”

Mr. Owens has this to say about the Boer War taking place in South Africa:

We are all Irish to the Back bone out here and all Boer sympathizers out here. We are sorrow to hear of so many of our countrymen being slain in the war…the English will give them the Post of honor on the Battle field, but won’t give Home Rule.

In the letters Mr. Owens shares much with his niece about his American hometown of Clontarf, Minnesota. He talks about Church activities, the priest, and building projects in the town. When Mr. Owens says “We are all Irish to the Back bone out here and all Boer sympathizers…” I realize he is speaking of my ancestors – his neighbors in Clontarf and all fellow Irishmen who helped establish the community twenty-five years earlier.

So maybe my great-great-grandfathers Patrick Foley, John Regan, and Francis McMahon were Boer supporters, too? Clontarf was a small town, I imagine they all ran in the same circle – St. Malachy Catholic Church, the Hibernian Hall, McDermott General Store…actually there probably was just the one circle!

So, these letters were not found in a relative’s dusty old attic, nor do they even directly reference my ancestors. But they are the next best thing to finding my own family’s letters. It is often the small discoveries that keep family historians and genealogists going.

I will feature a few more excerpts from the Owens Letters in a future post. There are plenty more insights to the Irish experience in America that this nineteenth century Irish immigrant has to share!

But isn’t this true for everyone? The unexpected becomes expected, because change comes to all of us. Sometimes we seek the change, other times it is foisted upon us. But at some point, we all jump into the abyss of the unknown.

The pioneers called leaving the States for Oregon “jumping off.” Their jumping off points were typically Independence or St. Joseph, Missouri, where they left civilization as they knew it and headed into the unknown.

Most emigrants jumped off around mid-April. At this time of year, these frontier towns teemed with people and wagons and livestock. Prices surged as high as spring floods as families sought to provision themselves for the arduous journey ahead. Imagine the bustle and excitement of thousands of strangers converging on muddy streets and splintered boardwalks.

For those of us who live in the Midwest, think of the weather this time of year. Last Saturday we had thunderstorms and hail and more than 120 tornadoes across a wide swatch of what used to be the open prairie. Some years there are late snow storms in April.

Would you want to head out across the prairie with only a canvas wagon cover between you and the elements? The covers could get blown off by wind and shredded by hail. There were no warning sirens or National Weather Service to give notice.

Most of the emigrants walked, rather than riding in the wagon, to spare the mules or oxen. Would you want to walk through wet or snowy spring grasses? Wade across swollen spring creeks? Search for firewood dry enough to cook your meals?

The unknown will hit all of us. Some of our rigors are physical, some are mental or spiritual. What challenges can you anticipate? And how can you prepare yourself for the unexpected?

Cries crept up vines, winds whailing as weather ripped,
ravaging, destruction in design, and animals on upright arches,
plundering, planting, with their seeds sown in dour definement,
secondly  stating how redemption rescues heretics honourable

Pretention perceived, a pagan prolapses, a revert,
returning to customs cultured in creed, compassion,
adoring all organically ordered, cosmos cultivated, worshipping
wonders of life lived, no shame centred nor hate held highly

Fear for death not fixated, elders elegantly enchanted, adorned,
admired in astuteness, orphic orifices orally imparted, incantations,
lore leaping onto parched pages, merciless monks meddled, crosses came , corrupting corporeal carcasses, defiling demonically, our glorious Gaelic gods

Washed wayfully did they destruct, destroying, archaic acts,
a tongue thought treasonous, witches were they, said the savaged
settlers, burn, bash the barbaric beasts, beat into submissive subjection,
enslaved, entrapped, emigrated and exported, whence came a heriditary heretic returned

This poem can be read on poetry.com - http://www.poetry.com/poems/141981

That same Immigration Act of 1891 created stricter laws on health and financial security. Immigrants had to prove that they were of good health and had good job prospects to enter the US. It is estimated that an immigrant would need to save at least $1200 toward the purchase of land and farming equipment to get started in America, an enormous amount of money in those days! So it must have taken an immense amount of courage and desire for a family to uproot everything and move to this new country.

There is one benefit to the timing of their emigration: US records from 1880 on are more thorough and complete than earlier records. By this time the census takers began recording the names, ages and occupations of all the members of the household, which provides us with a veritable treasure of insights into the lives of this family.

As we learned earlier from the ship manifest, the Birkholz family came to America with three young children: Carl (4), Helene (3), and Emma (2). Luckily, a federal census was taken just five years later (in 1900) so we can see how this family is faring. It appears they are renting a home in the village of Menomonee Falls, and father Friedrich Birkholz is working as a laborer in the local quarry. He’s not alone: all along the street we see that his neighbors are also recent immigrants from Germany, and  employed at the same work. In fact, our great-grandfather Frank Struck is living with the Birkholz family and working at the quarry as well.

One interesting tidbit: while all the adults are listed as being able to read and write, only Friedrich and Frank are able to speak English, unlike Wilhelmina and her mother Carolina. Here is a partial transcript of their census entry:

As you can see, two more children have been born: Charles and Ernest. There is one person missing from this list: their eldest son, Carl. He would have been about 10 years old at this time, and while it may be possible that he is living with another family member (which I have not found via census searches), sadly the most likely explanation is that he passed away sometime shortly after their arrival in America. It seems a bit corroborative of this theory that they named their first son born on US soil Carl (Charles) as well. But one odd note: the census taker asked how many children this couple had, and how many are living, and the written response is 4 (all living). However, as you’ll see in a future post there are plenty of reasons why this might have been a recording error.

We then move forward five more years, to 1905, when a Wisconsin state census is taken. Friedrich is still working as a laborer and renting his home in Menominee Township. Frank Struck has moved on (he married in 1901 and started his own family). The Birkholz family has added to their numbers significantly: with Franz, Otto, and Ruth born in these five short years. There is again a child missing – Helen – but she is “rediscovered” in a later census. Where she is at the age of 15 is only speculative at this point, as extensive searching of the surrounding area has not identified her yet. It could be that she was living with relatives, working as a servant, or she may have been somehow missed by the census-taker. (Update: see bottom of post for a possible discovery on Helen’s whereabouts.)

The next federal census is in 1910, and much has changed again in the five year span. Their son Otto is missing from this census, so it appears that sadly they have lost another young child. We do find a 19-year-old Helen again living with the family, and a clue to where she has been: her occupation is listed as domestic for a private family. There is a marked improvement for the family as a whole, however: Friedrich has purchased his own farm in nearby Lisbon Township!

  The family endures yet more tragedy in January 1914, according to this news article posted in the Waukesha Freeman.

Apoplexy is an old fashioned term for a stroke, although I do wonder if this was actually a choking incident? There is one little clue in this news account that corroborates the question of Otto Birkholz’s fate: it says that Emma is survived by three brothers, which would be Charles, Ernest and Frank.

Emma is buried in the family plot in Sunnyslope Cemetery, Menomonee Falls alongside her parents and brother Frank. The final resting place of the remainder of the family has yet to be determined.

We’ll now jump forward six years to the 1920 census. Four of the Birkholz children are still living with their parents on the farm. Charles, now 23, is working as a machinist at a gasoline company. 21-year-old Ernest is a laborer with the railroad. And 19-year-old Frank is helping his father on the dairy farm. Their youngest, Ruth, is only 15 and in school. Their oldest living child, Helen, is now 30 years old and most likely married. Incidentally, a relative – Carl Struck – has a dairy farm himself just down the street.

One year after the census, their grandmother Carolina Struck passed away at the age of 90 (see her death notice in a previous post). Her daughter Wilhelmina Struck-Birkholz died a few years later, in 1926. Her husband Friedrich followed in 1929.

  1930 is the final year that the census is available at this time, and it appears the farm has been sold with their father’s passing and the children scattered, since I cannot find any evidence of the Birkholz family living in the Menomonee Falls area. I found a listing for Charles in Milwaukee; he has purchased a home in the city, where his new bride Irene and his younger sister Ruth are living with him. He is working as a machinist at an electrical control firm, and his sister is a drill press operator for the same company.

  Charles Birkholz’s home in Milwaukee.

His brother Ernest has rented an apartment just four miles away and is working as a truck driver for a hardware store; his wife of four years is an assembler at an auto parts factory.

Ernest’s rented home in Milwaukee.

I was unable to find Frank on this census, although a news article I discovered in the Waukesha Freeman, dated July 1951, marks the final information recorded for this family.

As far as I am aware, the Struck and Birkholz families did not much keep in touch over the years after Wilhelmina’s passing. It seems that the Birkholz family endured plenty of hardships as immigrants to this country, but they were able to achieve their dream of buying a family farm, and their children were afforded a good education that allowed them to make their own way in the world successfully… which is no small matter to a family who came to this country during a difficult time and worked hard to achieve their goals.

Update: While researching related family members, I found the following entry in the 1905 census, which quite possibly could be Helen:

As you see, the age and surname match, and she is living in the Menominee area, although the lack of a first name makes it difficult to be certain.