Miscellaneous Hints
- Park Genealogical Books has sponsored some very informative "Research
Notes" at http://www.parkbooks.com/Html/research.html
I especially like the one on Sioux Conflict Depredation Claims.
- About half of the Swedes in Sibley County, especially around Winthrop,
came from Lekåsa parish, in Västergötland (now the province of
Skaraborgs Län.) There were also large colonies of Swedes from this
same area near East Union in Carver County and, of course, in Saint Paul.
Many of the Swedes in the county also came from Alvsborg Län.
- There was a large colony of Seventh-Day Baptists in New Auburn.
- Most of the church records should have been microfilmed, with copies at
the various denomination headquarters. Be sure you have the correct
Lutheran Synod. All the Catholic records have been microfilmed by
the LDS. The Sibley County Historical Society has copies of some
church record-books.
- Over a period of about 20 years, quite a few families came from
Burgenland to the Gibbon area. Their descendants, the Burgenland
Bunch, can be contacted at www.spacestar.com/users/hapander/burgen.html
- Lippe-Detmold was an independent duchy, now part of Germany.
Oldenburg was also an independent duchy, now part of Ostfriesland in
Northern Germany.
- "Prussia" was used by many census takers as a synonym for
"Germany". It may not mean any more than that.
- New Rome and Rush River used to be small communities, with their own
churches and businesses. They are pretty much just wide spots in the
road, now. The Sibley County Historical Society has a nice little
booklet on New Rome, with some great pictures and a map of the town.
- In an obit, "The German Cemetery" near Gaylord probably means
Trinity Lutheran Church, south and east of town.
- The records for Saint Johannis (St. John's) Lutheran Church of New Rome
are at Saint Paul's Lutheran Church (WELS) in Arlington. They
are, of course, written in German.
- For many years before 1900, the township Justice of the Peace would
record all the births and deaths, and then bring them in to Gaylord to
transfer to the County records in January. It is possible that the
Township Clerks still have some of the old record books. I am
checking on that possiblity.
- "do" on a list means "ditto".
- "Geb." on a gravestone means "geboren", which is
German for "born". "Gest." means "gestorben",
which is German for "died." "Alten" means
"age" or "old". "Jahren, Monat & Tagen"
means "years, months, and days."
- "Fred med dit støv" is Norwegian for "Rest in
Peace". Literally, it means "Peace with your dust".
"Fodd" means "born" and Dödd" means
"died" in both Norwegian and Swedish. "Barn af"
means "child of" and "Hustru af" means "wife
of".
- Many people changed their names to make them more
"American". Common ones are Carl/Karl => Charles;
Friederich => Fred; Johan/Johannes/Jonas/Sven/Hans => John;
Anders => Andrew; Arendt/Arne => Arnold; Per => Peter; Lars =>
Louis. Women seemed to stick with their given names more. The
only ones I have run across are Karri => Karen and Maria or Maja => Mary.
- There is a very good introductory lesson on the Swedish language (and
spellings and those funny marks over the vowels) at www.genealogi.se/sprakeng.htm
Also a short lesson on how to make the special German, Swedish, and
Norwegian characters, and how to pronounce them (at least in Swedish) at http://longstrom.com/swedishtoenglish.htm
( look for the box for
"Swedish and Norwegian Letters".)
- Most townships are 36 square miles. A section of land is just
about exactly one square mile. A quarter-section is approximately
160 acres. The section numbers are assigned in a zig-zag pattern,
starting at the North-East corner of the township. If the township
is square (no rivers creating strangely-shaped borders) then the numbers
will run like this:
| 6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
| 7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
| 18 |
17 |
16 |
15 |
14 |
13 |
| 19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
| 30 |
29 |
28 |
27 |
26 |
25 |
| 31 |
32 |
33 |
34 |
35 |
36 |
- A useful website with links to info on cemeteries all over the US can be
found at www.gac.edu/~kengelha/dontknow.html
Thanks to Kathleen Engelhardt for maintaining this site.
- There is an interesting page of assorted cemeteries in other nearby
Minnesota counties at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~coleen/cemetery.html
which includes the old cemetery at the Lower Sioux Agency. Also
McLeod County, Lac Qui Parle, etc.
- Trying to figure out what your ancestor died of? Check out the
list of old medical terms at http://www.rootsweb.com/~njmorris/disease.htm
- ODHS stands for "Orders der Hermanns Sohne" or the Sons of
Hermann lodge. There was one in new Rome, and I suspect there were
several others nearby.
- Gibbon is the Polka Capitol of Minnesota. So if you love polka
music, it's in your genes. Radio station KNUJ in New Ulm used to be
24-hours a day polka music (it switched to country-western a few years
back) and the station has the largest catalogue of great old polka music
at http://www.polkaparade.com/
Hap and I recommend the KNUJ 50th Anniversary Collection.
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