Gustaf Adolph Segh 1873-1908 (52 Ancestors #42)

This week’s challenge was “Proud”.  I am writing about my great-grandfather’s brother, Gustaf Adolph Emil Segh. I am proud of my research in both finding him and finding a picture of him!

It was known that my great-grandfather (Karl Oscar Segh/Charles Oscar Seeber) had twins in his family, but it was not known that he himself was a twin.  It wasn’t until I began to learn more about his family in Sweden that I learned that he and Gustave were the oldest of eight children born to their parents and that they were the first set of three twins born to August and Matilda Hertel Segh.

Gustaf Adolph Emil Segh was born on the 6^th of November 1873 in S;t Per Parish, Ostergotlands, Sweden.  He and his twin brother Karl were the oldest of the children.  They are both listed in the 1890 census in Sweden with their parents, and a brother, Johan August Segh, who was born in 1875.  The other five children had all died before this census was taken.

In 1892, Karl Segh had left for the United States.  Gustaf remained in Sweden.  He became a train engineer and lived in Stockholm.  Gustaf married a woman named Elina and they were divorced in 1904.  It appears that Gustaf never had any children. No records have been found to indicate that Gustaf ever came to the United States to visit, although his brother Johan did.

Gustaf Adolph Emil Segh died in Stockholm on the 10^th of May in 1908.  He was unmarried at the time and was thirty-four years old.

About ten years ago I was visiting my parents at their summer place and my mother brought out a box of old pictures.  She didn’t know who the people were in some of the pictures.  I began looking through them and came across an old picture of a young man.  I turned the picture over and on the back was written “Gustaf Adolph Segh”!  No one had ever seen a picture of Karl/Charles' twin brother before! they were obviously not identical

twins! The picture was at least one hundred years old!

Genevieve Elizabeth Murphy 1906-1992 (52 Ancestors #41)

One of the most colorful ancestors I know of was my grand-aunt Gen.  She is the topic of this week’s challenge “Colorful”.

Genevieve Elizabeth Murphy was born 6 August 1903 in Peoria.  She was the oldest child of Edward R. and Katherine “Kitty” Hanauer Murphy. She was my grandfather’s sister. Edward, her brother, was born in 1906.

Gen received her 1st Communion on the 4^th of January in 1911 at St. Mark's in Peoria and was confirmed there on the 1^st of May in 1913.  When Gen was almost eighteen years old, her youngest brother, Joe, was born (in 1921).

The 1920 Census indicates that Gen had attended school over the past year, so she must have attended high school.

Gen became an aunt for the first time in 1928 when my mother was born.  She adored the new baby, and was close to my mother through-out her life.  In 1930 Gen was listed as age twenty-six, living with her parents and working as a stenographer at a grain company (probably where her father was also working as a salesman). The 1930 Census indicates that Gen graduated from high school.  

In 1940, Gen was living with her parents and was thirty-six years old.  She was listed in the census as a secretary at a hotel. By 1948, Gen was listed as Promotional Director at the Pere Marquette Hotel.  The war years are where the story begins to get colorful.  After Gen died, my brother and father were clearing her things out and found letters from about 1941 to 1945 from many soldiers, thanking her for either showing them a good time or providing them with girls who showed them a good time.  The letters seemed to indicate that Gen ran a “business” through the hotel! She was still the Promotional Director at the Hotel in 1951.

On the 14^th of April in 1952, at the age of forty-nine, Gen married Wayne Matheny.  Wayne was thirteen years younger than her and divorced.  He was a radio personality in Peoria who went by the name of “Wayne West”.

She and Wayne purchased a lovely home in Peoria Heights and her parents lived in the upstairs of the home.  Wayne moved into television on WMBD in Peoria and hosted several children’s shows and was active in both Peoria Players and Juvenile Theater.  In 1958, Wayne lost his job and was “run out of town”. 

Wayne and Gen moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where he was hired by KOLN

television and again, had several children’s shows there.  In 1959, Gen’s father died. Her mother died in 1963. Sadly, her baby brother, Joe, also died in 1963.  Gen had been quite close to Joe, so I am sure that it was a very difficult time for her.

I visited them several times as a child when they lived in Nebraska.  They were very involved in the community and lived in an old gorgeous home.

While in Nebraska Gen and Wayne hosted many tours:

1963-a trip to Mexico

1965-a trip to Hawaii

1966-a trip to the West

1967-a trip to Europe

1969-a trip to Ireland and Scandinavia

Shortly after their last trip, Wayne was again “run out of town". In 1970, Wayne and Gen bought a motel in Oskaloosa, Iowa to run as their “retirement”.  However, Wayne died the same year, so Gen sold the motel and moved back to Peoria.

She lived in various apartments in Peoria until she became unable to care for

herself.  She was placed in a retirement home and shortly after she was there, the home requested that my mother remove her, because she was so disruptive.  Oh, I must have neglected to share about Gen’s personality!  She was one of the most fun and interesting people I know to have been around.  She was also one of the most awful people I know to be around.  She had a temper that was known far and wide.  It was nothing for her to hang up the phone in anger if she was ever confronted, or even felt like she might be confronted or disagreed with.  The family still talks about wanting to “throw an Aunt Gen” when dealing with situations! Fights between her and my grandfather are epic stories in the family, ever since they were children.

So, anyway, my mother placed Gen in another retirement home and again, received a phone call asking her to take her out.  My mom talked long and hard and convinced them to try a little longer.  By this time, Gen was suffering from dementia and then seemed quite medicated, so that seems to be how she was allowed to remain there until she died in 1992.

Gen led a very colorful and interesting life, but seemed to be deep down one of the most miserable, unhappy persons I have ever known.  She could be great fun, and we had very interesting conversations as I got older, but she had no tolerance for any slight perception of someone not agreeing with her.

It’s interesting that she lived with her parents almost her entire life and that she married a man who was gay (or perhaps bisexual) and he was a pedophile.  I would sure like to know what all of Genevieve's issues were.  Whatever they were, they sure made for a colorful woman!

Olaf Hanson 1885-1943 (52 Ancestors # 40)

This week’s challenge is “October” with the suggestion of writing about an ancestor who had an October birthday.  I am writing about my great-grandmother’s (Ingrid Olauson Seeber) first cousin, Olaf Hansson.

Olaf was born to Hans Persson and Karna Nilsdotter in Katslosa, Malmohus, Sweden on October 5^th, 1885, exactly 130 years ago from today!  Olaf was the ninth of ten children in the family.  He worked on his father’s farm until his father died in 1904.  That same year, Olaf immigrated to the United States. He was nineteen years old. Six of his siblings were already living in the United States when Olaf came.

It is reported that Olaf was unemployed for “a long time”, but eventually he became a shoemaker like his older brothers.

Olaf Hanson is found in the 1910 Peoria, Peoria, Illinois Census living with his in-laws and his brand-new wife Hilda Caroline (Johnson) on Blaine Street.  Hilda was about five years older than Olaf. Olaf was listed as a shoemaker.

Olaf was naturalized as a US citizen in Peoria on the 17^th of July in 1912.  In 1917 he registered for the WWI Draft and was listed as thirty-two years old, living on Blaine Street; he reported that he owned his own shoe repair shop at 3117 S. Adams in Peoria.  He was described as medium height, small build with gray eyes and brown hair.

In 1920, Olaf and Hilda were still at the home on Blaine Street.  Hilda’s father was living with them, along with a ten year old “adopted daughter” Pearl Durant. In the 1920 Census Olaf was listed as a shoemaker in his own shoe shop.  1930 shows the family still on Blaine Street.  In this census, Pearl Durant was listed as a “roomer” and she worked as a grocery clerk.  Olaf was listed as a shoe-repairer.  Pearl was not listed with Olaf and Hilda in 1940.  They remained on Blaine Street and Olaf was listed as a shoe repairman.

In the 1942 WWII Draft Records, Olaf reported living at the same Blaine Street address and that he still owned his own shoe repair shop on Adams Street.

Olaf’s brothers Per Hanson, Magnus Hanson, Nils Hanson and John Hanson all were shoemakers in Peoria, Illinois also.  Pers eventually returned to live in Sweden, but the others married and raised families in Peoria.  Their sister Emmy, also settled in Peoria.  The oldest sister, Kersti, had settled in Evanston Illinois when she emigrated in 1887.

Olaf Hanson died on the 23^rd of December in 1943.  His wife Hilda died in 1949.  Both of them are buried in Peoria, Illinois.

It is interesting that I have no memory of ever hearing of any of this family from my great grandmother, my grandmother, nor my mother.  Perhaps my great-grandmother was not close to her cousins, although I do know that Olaf’s brother, Nils, was who met her at the train in Chicago in 1894 when she emigrated here from Sweden.

The only other information on the “adopted daughter” who was always listed as “Pearl Durant” that I have found was that she was listed as a housekeeper in the 1942 Pekin, Illinois City Directory. However, I have found listings for the family of a William Durant, born in 1829, who was a shoemaker and lived in Peoria.  He had two sons who also lived in Peoria.  His son, Wesley was widowed in both the 1900 and 1910 census' but William's son, Oliver, married in 1898 to a woman who had two daughters.  It is possible that they had a daughter after they married that for whatever reason ended up living with Olaf and Hilda.

I am going to see if there was possibly a will left when Olaf died.  Perhaps that will give me some additional information on this seemingly quiet settled man, who lived in the same house for at least thirty-three years kept his shoe shop in the same location through-out his life in America.