Maria Magdalena (Krings) Brausen

I've been making some good discoveries lately in my research. One ancestor I hadn't been able to find was Maria Magdalena "Helen" (Krings) Brausen. The first information I have for her comes from a copy of "Brausen Family Tree-Meyer Branch," a set of family group sheets on the descendants of Peter and Magdalena. This record was something my mom had from an unknown relative dated 1976 & 1983. It lists her as Lena Kringhs, born in 1844 and died in 1926. On her death certificate she is listed as Helen Brausen, died 10 Mar 1926 in Pierz Township. It lists her age as 78 years 1 month & 16 days. That would calculate her birth date as 13 Jan 1848. Right above that it says she was born "Jan 15-1848." The death certificate states that she was born in Butzheim, Germany, father: Not Known birthplace: Germany & mother: Mary Kriencks birthplace: not known. Joe Wieling, her son-in-law, was the informant.

Her obituary confounds me as it says, "She was born in Butzheim, Germany, Jan. 15, 1848, 78 years ago. She came to America 59 years ago and 2 years later made her home in Milwaukee, Wis. Having lived in Milwaukee for 14 years she came to Morrison county where she has lived since." I've never been able to find any record of her in Milwaukee. I think that they meant Madison, Wis. as that is the area they lived in before moving to Morrison County, Minnesota along with many, many other families. The part that I've never been able to figure out from her obituary is this: "one brother and a step-brother, Frank Ruker of Wisconsin also survive." I've never been able to connect her to another Krings and have never found a Frank Ruker. If only they would have named her brother! Several years ago, a Brausen relative was in the State Archives at Madison and found Peter & Magdalena's marriage record and I just received a copy. It's stamped that it's illegal to make it available to the public in electronic form so I can't post it but it reads as follows:

1. Date of Registration: May 20, 1873
2. The color: white
3. Full name of husband: Peter Brouson (it's been transcribed as Branson or Bronson reading the u as an n)
4. Full name of wife previous to marriage: Maria M. Krings
5. Occupation of said husband: farmer
6. Residence of said husband: T. Springfield Dane Co. Wis.
7. Birthplace of said husband: Nettesheim Germany
8. The place, town or township, and county where the marriage was contracted: T. Springfield Dane Co. Wis.
9. Time when the marriage was contracted: April 30th 1873
10. By what ceremony contracted: Catholic
11. Name of person pronouncing marriage: Jos. A. Dreis
12. Residence of last person named: T. Sprinfield Dane Co. Wis.
13. Names of subscribing witnesses:
14. Date of certificate of marriage: April 30 1878
15. Name of the father of said husband: Henry Braunson
16. Name of the mother of said husband: Catharina Nober
17. Name of the father of said wife: John Caris
18. Name of the mother of said wife: Elis Krings

The relative that looked this up wondered if perhaps the witnesses were listed in the wife's parents spot by mistake. After looking at the actual record, how it's a form with blank lines for the answers & that the witness lines aren't right above or below the wife's parents lines, I think these were in fact her parents. I've come to this conclusion recently when searching Maria Magdalena Krings on Family Search.

I had looked through the batches years ago researching the Brausens & could never find Magdalena. I figured maybe the people giving information on her assumed she was born in Butzheim, the same towns her husband's family was from. Recently I tried looking up Krings again from Nettesheim-Butzheim on Family Search. That's when I found a Maria Magdalena Krings born 17 Jan 1850 in Nettesheim-Butzheim to Elisabeth Krings, with no father listed meaning she was illegitimate. ["Germany, Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898", Batch Number: C95905-4]. Upon further searching, I also found a Jacob Krings born to an Elisabeth Krings on 30 Jan 1845. The brother listed in her obituary? I believe this probably her. I requested image copies of those two birth records from Family Search and am anxiously awaiting to see if they can tell me anything else. The dates are a little bit off but I think the only immigrants I've found that were exactly right were my Bohemian ancestors. And that itself is a post for another day. :)

Unidentified Pictures

Looking through my grandma's pictures again to send some off to a relative, I found a couple of my favorites that I wanted to share. I love this picture of the baby dressed as an adult. I have no idea who it is but suspect maybe a Brausen as I have other baby pictures from that line & time period. The second I love just for the expressions on the family's faces. They look like the most unhappy people ever! This one is a postcard with the back stamped St. Joseph, Minn. I don't know of any family who lived there so I don't have any clues as to who this could be.

Berwick Biography

As I'm doing more research on the Eikeness family in ND & MN, I found the ND Biography Index at the NDSU libraries. Lo and behold Swen Eikeness showed up in, "Berwick: A Handful of Civilization Dropped In A Desert" by Milo F. Bryn. I ordered it and received the page as PDF attachment this morning. Although it doesn't give me any new information & basically says what his obituary does, it's still nice to have.

Sven G. Eikeness

Sven G. Eikeness was born on April 13, 1865, in Frederickshall, Norway. He came to the United States as a young man and worked for a number of years as a farmer north of Berwick and as blacksmith in Berwick.

In 1894 he was married to Hilda Olava Thorson Lento [sic] of Fairbault [sic], Minnesota. Their twelve children include Thor of Barton, Otto, Mrs. Ed Solem of Rugby, Mrs. Ed Larson of Tunbridge, Mrs. Ragna Carlson of Tunbridge, Mrs. Marshall Granger of East Grand Forks, Minnesota, Mrs. Theodore Rivas of St. Paul, Minnesota, Mrs. P. J. Riordan of Omaha, Nebraska, Mrs. Claude Cross of Avadore, Oregon, Helmer, Olga (deceased), and Mrs. Annie LaFavar [sic] (deceased). Mrs. Eikeness died in 1948.

He served as a village trustee for Berwick from 1834 to 1935. He was a member of the Berwick Lutheran Free Church.

Mr. Eikeness died on August 4, 1949, in Rugby and was buried in the Berwick Lutheran Cemetery.

Another Ancestor Came to America

Lately I've been trying to use Find A Grave to help fill in some blanks. I had great luck the other night finding Griswold & Hilliard family members. I decided it was time to try finding more Eikenesses. I've looked & looked with no luck. But as I was searching & re-looking over what I had, I realized I was missing quite a few people in census records. For some reason I started searching for Swen Eikeness' brother Johan Ludvig Hansen. And that's when I found something exciting. It turns out their mother Ragnild, who I thought died in Norway, actually came here.

A few years ago I was searching for Swen & Hilda in the MN censuses and found that his father Hans Andersen was living with them in Walcott, Rice county, MN in 1900. I noted at the time that it said Hans was married but I figured it must be a mistake or she was still in Norway. I had Ludvig Hansen in 1920 living in Twp. 157, Pierce, ND. He is listed as Ludvik Hanson, 61, widow, b. Norway. With him is John Hanson, 26, his son; Helin Ekenes [Helen Eikeness], 25, divorced, servant (his niece), b. MN; Ramon Ekenes [Raymond Larson], 6/12, her son, b. ND; and Helga Ekenes [Eikeness], 5, sister to Helen, b. ND.

Working back, I found him in 1910, in the same place. Listed as Ludvig Hanson, 50, widow, b. Norway. With him then is his son John Hanson, 18, b. ND; Ragna ??, 21, niece, single, working as his housekeeper. This has to be Ragna Eikeness, the age is right & she was his niece. However, it says that she was b. Norway & immigrated in 1904.

It turns out he was living there by 1900. I never would have found him in 1900 had it not been for his son. He is listed as Jacob Hanson, b. Dec 1858 Norway, widow. I would've had my doubts had it not been for the other people with him. Hans Hanson, b. Nov 1890 ND, his son; John Hanson, b. Mar 1893 ND, his son; and ta-da . . . Ragnild Iversen, b. Jun 1833, Norway, married, immigrated 1880, his mother! Not only that but the year is right on, the year she was married, 1855, the number of children: 12 with 10 still living. It is all perfectly right.

My guess is that Ludvig's wife died leaving him with two young boys so his mother went to stay with him or live with him in ND, leaving her husband, son Swen & his family behind in Walcott, Rice, MN. Supposedly my great-grandmother Ann was born in Berwick in 1904, the first in the family born in ND. So the family moved from MN to ND between 1900 & 1904.

Working back again in MN, I found through another hard-fought search, Hans & Ragnild Anderson together in Walcott in 1885. Also with them were the two youngest children Ole b. 1878 & Christian [Kristiane] b. 1880.

Now the question remains, what happened to Hans & Ragnild? Did she go back to MN or did he move to ND with the rest of the family? Where did they each die and when? This has been a difficult family to search. They went by so many names: Ekenes, Egnes, Eikeness, or the patronyms Hansen, Andersen & Iversen. Moving to ND doesn't help me any either as the records for ND are no where near as good as MN back then. This is my new quest now that I know Ragnild came here also and before her son Swen!

LeFavor News

I recently got an email from Family Tree Maker Magazine about GenealogyBank.com, a website that has old newspapers online. I saw they have a 30-day trial offer so I thought I'd try it. Boy did I find some interesting stuff within just a few hours! One of the papers they have archived is the Grand Forks Herald. As my LeFavor family lived in East Grand Forks, I hit upon several related articles.

I finally found the name and date of Emma LeFavor's husband. From the Grand Forks Herald, 18 Jul 1912:

"Licensed to wed-Marriage licenses were issued yesterday to Edward Schneible and Emma LeFavor, both of Grand Forks, and to Claude C. Merchandt and Miss Jessie Maud Holzheimer, both of Seattle. The former couple were married by Judge L. K. Hassel yesterday afternoon."

Even more interesting, and what was actually the first article I hit upon, was one of Fred stealing a horse from his father-in-law, Charlie LeFavor!

From the Grand Forks Herald, 23 Mar 1913:

"HORSE STEALING CASE DISMISSED

Fred Schneible was Arrested on that Charge Friday by Father-in-Law.

Lack of Evidence and Because LeFavor Changed His Mind About Prosecution, the Defendant was Released--Accused Man Attempted to Go to Canada but was Stopped by Chief of Police Sullivan.

The case of Charles LeFavor against his son-in-law, Fred Schnieble, who was charged with stealing and selling a horse belonging to Mr. LeFavor, was dismissed in court yesterday morning because of lack of evidence as Mr. LeFavor said that he had given permission to the young man to sell the animal.

Mr. Schneible was arrested on Friday by Chief of Police Sullivan on a warrant procured by William Derrick, another relative, at the instigation of LeFavor. But the latter changed his mind about prosecuting and stated in court that he gave the young man his consent to sell the horse.

The evidence showed that the horse was taken from the LeFavor farm Friday morning and sold to William Elliott for $75.

When the sale was discovered, Mr. LeFavor sent Derrick to town, and a warrant was sworn out by Judge William J. Rasmussen.

Chief of Police Sullivan kept on Schneible's trail all afternoon. Learning that the man intended leaving for Canada Friday night, he went to the Grand Forks Northern Pacific depot just before the flyer was due. Schneible was not in sight, however, but Mr. Sullivan waited until the train pulled in. He made a hurried search of the cars, and not finding his man, was just ready to leave, when he happened to think that Schnieble might be waiting near the Great Northern-Northern Pacific crossing near the city. Mr. Sullivan again boarded the train, and when he alighted at the crossing, he discovered Schnieble ready to get on.

As soon as Schnieble saw the policeman he broke into a run across the country, but was caught before he had gone very far. He was returned to this city, and yesterday morning was arraigned in municipal court before Municipal Judge Rasmussen.

It is said that Schnieble sent his wife to Grafton Friday morning, intending to join her there when he went through Friday night."

The final LeFavor article was also very interesting. Apparently Charlie was selling liquor. Now I've found two ancestors who got in trouble with the law for that.

From the Grand Forks Herald, 10 Sep 1922:

"Minnesota Point Man Arrested On Charge Of Having Liquor For Sale

Chief of Police Harry Gregg, on Saturday afternoon raided the residence of Charles LeFavor, 222 Forest avenue, Minnesota-Point, and said that he discovered a large quantity of "moonshine" whiskey, wine, mash and a number of empty bottles on the premises.

Mr. LeFavor was arrested on a charge of keeping and having liquor for sale and will be arraigned in the municipal court Monday morning. Pending the hearing he is being held in the city jail.

This case, it is understood, will be dealt with in accordance with the recently passed city ordinance drawn up for the purpose of giving the municipal authorities jurisdiction in actions that grow out of liquor charges."

All that was found in just one night. I can't wait to see what else I can find today!

Helen Brausen's Origins

Out of all my great-great-grandparents, there's only one I haven't been able to find the exact origin of, Maria Magdalena "Helen" (Krings) Brausen. What I know about her is little. I have various different birth dates for her, various places of birth. She was supposedly born in Butzheim which is where her husband is born. I have looked at the records for Butzheim/Nettesheim & never found her. The odd thing is, there are Krings there. In fact, the witnesses for her husband Peter's birth in 1842 were Heinrich Esser & Christian Krings!

Her marriage record doesn't help much, it just makes things more confusing. She and Peter were married 30 Apr 1873 in St. Martin's, Springfield, Dane, WI. It asks for & lists the residence & place of birth of the husband but not the wife. Frustrating. It the spot where witnesses are supposed to be listed, it's blank. Her parents are listed as John Caris & Elis Krings. Are these the witnesses listed in the wrong spot? Is that her mother & step-father? Was her mother unwed when she was born and that's why both are Krings? This record just creates more questions than answers.

Her death record lists her mother as Mary, with no father listed. Her obituary is odd in that it lists being survived by, "one brother and a step-brother, Frank Ruker of Wisconsin". Why does it list the step-brother & not the brother? I have never ever been able to find a Frank Ruker, trying all sorts of spelling variations. I have found other Krings families but never a link to them. Her obituary also mentions something puzzling, "She came to America 59 years ago and two years later made her home in Milwaukee, Wis. Having lived in Milwaukee for 14 years she came to Morrison county where she has lived since." Did she really live in Milwaukee? Is that a mistake and it was Dane county as that's where they married & had children.

There is something that gives weight to her having lived in Milwaukee. I found this in my grandma's pictures and comparing it to the Brausen family picture, I'm almost positive this is Peter & Helen, perhaps at the time of their marriage. If you click and look at the enlarged version you will see that it is stamped from a studio in Milwaukee. In all the years I've done genealogy, this is the closest mystery to me that I have never been able to find any more information on.


Note: The originals of both of these pictures are in my possession. They came in the boxes of photos from my grandma, Eva (Meyer) Janson. The top picture is a digital restoration I did quite a few years ago. The original is almost in two pieces right down the middle & has a lot of the picture worn off. If you see this picture anywhere, I'm the source of it. I've seen it used all over the internet (and in printed family reports) with no mention of where it came from or the fact that I'm the one that digitally restored it.

A very useful site

I feel lucky to have ancestors that settled here in Minnesota. Both because I live here which makes it so much easier to do research and because there are so many good resources online. One I actually ran across in an issue of Family Tree Maker magazine is called MACO eCounties. This site has been so useful in finding marriages that took place before or after the database that Ancestry.com covers for MN. I've had two big finds so far using this. One on my side and one on my husbands.

There were stories in the family that my great-grandfather William LeFavor re-married after my great-grandmother Ann died in 1933. Doing a search did indeed turn up another marriage! I sent away & very promptly received a copy of the marriage. William married Maud Ann Moore (b. 9 Dec 1914 MN) on 21 Oct 1934 in East Grand Forks, Polk, MN. They were married by Rev. Daniel James Kerr, witnesses: Mrs. D. J. Kerr & Dr. L. E. Doringan. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything more on Maud. I'm hoping when the 1940 census comes out next year, I'll be able to do some more tracking on them.

On my husband's side, he had heard that his father's father's surname was Anderson. This has been a hard thing to really verify as his grandmother died some years ago, and his father isn't listed in Ancestry's birth index as his parents were not married. Wouldn't you know that doing a search for Portlance turned up a record for his grandma & a Michael Anderson? I sent for this record but was sent an email back saying no marriage record existed but perhaps a marriage license which the recorder could send me. So as it turns out Arlene Elizabeth (Kerr) Portlance, aged 26 and Michael Frank Anderson, aged 21, filed for a marriage license on 29 Sep 1960 in Hennepin County. The month after my husband's father was born. But according to the county recorder, they either never married or did it in another state. I'm guessing they never married. But I never would have gotten this clue without the website.