Per Nilsson-Leap Year

It’s kind of fun to be writing about Per Nilsson. Yes, he was born in a Leap Year, on the 29^th of February in 1856 in Malmo, Sweden.  He was my great-great grandmother’s brother (making him my second great granduncle!).  What is fun is that my great grandmother, Ingrid Olauson, was visiting him and his family in 1899 in Rankin, Illinois when she met my great grandfather! More on that soon.

Per was seventh of ten children born to Truls and Bengta (Andersdotter) Andersson.  He married Kjersti Mortenson around 1884 in Sweden and they had five children.  Their first two children, Nels and Magnus were born in Sweden in 1885 and 1887.  Per came to the United States in 1888, and his wife and sons came over the next year in 1889.  According to family records Per and his family lived "100 English miles from Chicago."  Since his third child, Anton, was born in 1891 in Iroquois County, Illinois, I am assuming that this is where the 100 miles from Chicago was.

In 1893, their fourth child, Anna, was born in Rankin, Illinois.  The family stayed there for several years, which is where Ingrid Olausson met Charles Oscar Seeber at a Swedish dance hall in 1899.

The family must have moved soon after that because by June of 1900 they were living in South Platte, Hamilton County, Nebraska.  The 1900 Census shows that “Peter Nelson” was a farmer.  He was listed there with his wife and four children. In July of 1900, another son, Oscar, was born.

Sadly, Per’s wife Kate (Kjersti) died in 1903, leaving Per with their five children, ages eighteen to three.

Peter Nelson was listed in the 1910 Census in the same place with his sons, Magnus and Anton, along with daughter, Anna. Apparently, his son, Oscar, had died by this time.  I have not found him listed in any census for 1920.

Per Nilsson died on the 5^th of May in 1929 at the age of seventy-three.  Or in Leap years, he was eighteen years old!

Alfred Milton Adamson-Leap Day

Alfred Milton Adamson was born on Leap Day on the 29^th of February in 1860 in Jasper County, Illinois.  He was the youngest of ten children born to Zedekiah and Lucinda King Adamson. He also had four older step-siblings.  Alfred’s mother died the same year that he was born. By December of that year, his father Zedekiah remarried to Sarah Cummins. Either she died or they divorced by 1862, when Zedekiah married for the fourth time to widowed Susan Carner.

Alfred was fourteen when his father died.  He has not been located in the 1880 Census.  Some sources report that he married Rebecca Ward in 1883, but I have not been able to confirm that.  He did marry Emily Nancy Huddlestun in 1885 and they had four children.

Alfred died in 1932 at the age of seventy-two, or according to Leap years he was eighteen years old!

Ira Adamson-born in a Leap Year

Wow.  I challenged myself to write about the five people in my data base that were born in a Leap Year.  The first one I chose was Ira Adamson.  Here is what I know:

Ira Adamson was born on the 29^th of February in 1808 in Cocke County, Tennessee. He was the eighth of ten known children born to Thomas “Byrd and Rachel Williams Adamson.  He married Sophia “Polly” Evans on the 5^th of April in 1835 in Lawrence County, Indiana.  Ira Adamson is listed in the 1840 Census for Jasper County, Illinois with a wife and a son and daughter, both under the age of five.

And, sadly, this is all that is known of Ira and his family.  Several researchers have tried to learn more, but to no avail at this time. So the search continues...

 

Update on any progress

It has definitely been strange not to be posting every week as I did last year doing the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.  I have missed doing the research and writing the blogs, but sadly the challenge didn't continue into 2016.  So what have I been doing?  I have continues to keep up with the Hints in Ancestry, which are always interesting and have led to some finds, but nothing that has driven any research on my part.  I requested a search for an Inventory for my great-grandfather's brother when he died in Stockholm, but nothing was found (disappointing for me). 

I feel stagnant in my attempts to complete or even work on the goals that I set for myself for 2016.
I have found some possible leads for my husband's grandfather's family, but nothing that can be proven right now. And I am stumped in finding more records or information on Aaron Adamson, possible father of William Adamson (born @1790 in North Carolina). I am feeling that it is an impossible task to search for pictures of William Murphy, my great-great-grandfather (born 1838 in Ireland) here in Peoria, until the Peoria papers are archived. 

I am hopeful that once the National Library of Ireland Irish Catholic Parish Registers are released by Ancestry.com in March I will have some more luck finding ancestors from Ireland.  The records were released last year, but are coming out indexed now.  I have done as much as I thought possible with going through the records and trying to decipher some of the writing.

I am also trying to interest my husband in a trip to Stones River, Tennessee to see where my great grandfather, Moses Thompson Adamson, was wounded and taken prisoner during the Civil War.  Perhaps as the weather warms up, I can persuade him!

Meanwhile, I need to get back to writing about my ancestors!