Andrew Hendrickson Family Newsletter
Vol. 3 No. 2
June 3, 2007
Three months have passed, and we’re writing again to update you on our latest activities. Since
we’re not having a family meeting this quarter, most of the information in this newsletter will
come from the family history side of the committee. That’s because the newsletter is mostly
written by the person doing the research. I find it easier to write about what I’m doing than
anything else. There are a few other items to mention though, and we’ll mention them first.
Family Reunion.
We have made some great plans for the family reunion this year. It will be at
Canyon View Park in Spanish Fork, Utah, on July 28. As at past reunions, we will be providing
copies of some of our latest research at cost. This will include paper copies of the history we
wrote and the associated family group records. This year we will also make CD copies of the
information available. The CDs will have the story of Andrew Hendrickson’s parents, Henrik
Henriksson and Brita Simonsdotter, as well as a GedCom with Patsy’s latest research findings.
Silent Auction. We will be holding our silent auction again this year. It brings a total profit and
helps fund future reunions. We have found that homemade items sell best, but we will appreciate
all donated items. When you know the items you will bring, decide on a starting price. We don’t
want anything sold at a price the donor isn’t comfortable with. See the Upcoming Events link
and our March 2007 newsletter for `more details on the reunion. We would love to see you there!
Family Updates.
J.D. Gordon is still collecting updates of births, marriages, and deaths that occur in our families.
Please send any updates to him at jdgordon1@comcast.net. Or you can bring them to the
reunion. J.D. won’t be there, but Patsy or Mary will gladly collect the information for him. He
first collected the information for our July 2005 reunion. If your family needs to send him
updates, consider doing it by the time of the reunion this summer.
Website.
We are continually refining the website. (Thanks Shane.) Not much new information has been
added since our last committee meeting, but a few of the links have been fixed and the
appearance of the site is more attractive. After the upcoming reunion, we will replace the
pedigree and family group information to reflect our latest research. We will also add another
biography, which has been a year in the making. It is the story of Andrew’s parents. We told you
about that in our last newsletter.
Family History.
The last quarter has been busy in the family history arena. Research has focused on the family of
Henrik Henriksson and Brita Simonsdotter, including their ancestors, the families of their
children, and their half-brothers and sisters. This research has been critical in writing the story
we will bring to the reunion. It has led us in many different directions. About the time we think
we have found all the information needed for the history, something new turns up. Sometimes it
is a new person or family, other times a pertinent fact we had overlooked. We have been led to
new sources as well as new insights into the sources we already had.
The research has added more families to our collection – we now have more than 2,200, names.
There are still mistakes in the file. We have done little work on Maria Carl Fredriksdotter’s
family. That will be the focus next year. Researching that family will be more difficult. There are
fewer clerical surveys and the records are arranged in an order that makes them harder to search.
In addition, there are fewer Korsholm records on the HisKi website. None of the burials have
been posted yet, and there are fewer years of christenings and marriages available.
Research challenges. Researching our ancestors in Finland has been an adventure. Though there
are a fair number of records for the time period we’ve been searching, they present many
challenges. Not the least of the challenges is the language barrier. Original records are in
Swedish, an unfamiliar language. The cataloging of films in the Family History Library is in
Finnish, another unfamiliar language. Most place names are in both languages. Then there are
the Americanized Swedish names in the IGI that are attempts of the temple recorder to interpret
the Swedish brogue. One must search with an open mind.
Figure 1 Records from Mustasaari for Olaf Thomasson's family
Another challenge is the script that is hard to decipher – especially in the earliest records. Then
there are the names of the people. The priests weren’t consistent in the way they recorded them.
Sometimes priests put farm names or military names as surnames, sometimes they left them off.
Sometimes they omitted the patronymic name and only used a surname. With women, they often
used only the given name, which created a challenge in searching for their family and
recognizing them in the records.
Then there are place names. They presented a wonderful challenge – especially in searching the
IGI. One had to know both the Finnish and the Swedish names of the parishes because both
appeared there. Also the IGI usually only listed the parish name, ignoring the farm name. This
means several sources must be compared and the farm verified, since many people in Finland
had the same names.
Putting this family together has taken us to various sources; all of which have helped us find
pieces of the puzzle. The sources have included: the HisKi Project, an internet website sponsored
by the Genealogical Society of Finland; the Internatrional Genealogical Index (IGI) found on the
internet site of familysearch.org; family records researched by Ellie Poulson in the 1950s; and
the original parish records on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
We have also tries to glean any family stories floating around among descendants. The parish
records, which are the original source for all the other records mentioned, contain several types
of material that have each been helpful in their time. In addition to christenings, marriages, and
burials, there are communion records that show families together, and move-in and move-out
records.
Doing this family research has honestly been like playing a game. Hopefully the information it
has brought together is correct. If anyone sees mistakes, or has questions about what is on the
website, please don’t hesitate to contact one of us. One of our mottos is: “Everything is
improvable.”
Research experience from Patsy
One of the successful research experiences I had was finding the identity of Matts Johansson
Kerola, who was Brita’s stepfather, the second husband of Greta Jacobsdotter. In the IGI he was
confused with another Matts Johansson who was born the same year. Both men were living in
the Alavateli parish when Greta and Matts married. Alavateli was the place Greta’s husband
came from when he married her. I found that fact somewhere. So I jumped on the IGI
information and put it in my PAF file. I found the entire family of this Matts with his parents, his
siblings and other family connections. I wanted him to be my Matts; but as I fleshed out the
family, I ran across a few unsettling details. The first was a burial entry in Alavateli for a Johan
Kerola. When I found that, I realized there were two Johans with a son named Matts, one was a
Kerola, the other was not. It was the Kerola name that kept me searching beyond the first family
I found. Who were the Kerolas, and where had they come from?
Some of the things I tried were looking for parishes where the Kerola surname and farm name
were found. That gave me some possibilities, but there were also some names that were similar
that threw me off. (I wanted to resolve my problem with the computer if I could. But it gave me
no conclusive answers.) Finally I looked at the clerical surveys on film (for perhaps the second
or third time). They gave me a birth date for Greta’s real husband. It was different from the birth
date of the Matts I had found.
Back at the computer with my new knowledge, I did a multi-parish search for a Matts (Mathias)
born on the date I had found. And what to my wondering eyes should appear but a single
Mathias born on a Kerola farm in a parish I’d never used in my research. His father was Johan
Eriksson, his mother was Karin Mattsdotter. I had seen this Matts before but couldn’t guarantee
he was mine without real proof. I had dismissed him because he was two years younger than
Greta and I was too focused on Alavateli. When all my ducks lined up: the right farm name, two
proper places of residence, the right father’s name, and the exact birthdate, I was convinced I
had finally found the right person.
Looking back, I marvel at the process by which I was able to locate the right Matts Johansson
Kerola. It was the surname Kerola that kept me unsettled and searching. Yet not all the entries
for this man included the Kerola name .I could not have solved this problem without using both
the computer and the microfilmed records because each resource contained a different piece of
the puzzle.
I think Matts wanted to be found. I also wonder if Greta didn’t want to be connected to the right
Matts. Perhaps this couple or their children were keeping my mind unsettled until I found and
recognized the birth record for my Matts Kerola.
We’d love to hear from you. Give us your suggestions of ways we can improve.
We are:
Patsy Hendrickson
Mary H. Rasmussen
Dean Hendrickson
Our webmaster is
:Shane D. Rasmussen