Fortune

 This week's topic from the Generations Cafe challenge is FORTUNE. I've decided to search each of my ancestry lines and find more information on when and where my ancestors came to America to seek their FORTUNEs. I'll start by going backward in time and finding the first person in each line who was born outside the USA and died in the the USA. I'll be tracing the ancestry of my Mom's parents and my Dad's parents:

        Anne Louise Quist                                            James Gardner McDearmid

Carl Quist  /  Iva Mae Lane                          Gardner Clark McDearmid  /  Louise Kathryn Juhrend

Starting with Carl Quist, my grandfather, it's easy. I knew him pretty well and the family has done a lot of research on him. He was born in Steneby, Dalsland, Sweden in 1898. He arrived in New York on May 3, 1914. He was 16 when he came to America and headed for Iowa where his brother John lived. WWI was beginning and Sweden continued its course of neutrality resulting in a greater unemployment and a declining economy. Trading partners declined and unemployment increased. Grandpa Quist probably saw greater prospects in America where the economy was growing. He survived the Great Depression and made a living as a carpenter and small farmer. He died in 1985 in White Lake, Wisconsin where he lived with his daughter. 

Looking back on Iva Mae Lane's ancestry takes me to my 6th great-grandfather, Henry Loveall, Rev. AKA Desolate Baker, born in Cambridge, England in 1694. After reading all the collected stories I'm not so sure I want to claim him. Seems he was born Desolate Baker (so his family would have been bakers) but he changed his name to Henry Loveall to cover up his bigamy (Love all!)  He emigrated to America around 1715 possibly as an indentured person and/or for religious freedom. He was a Baptist who apparently founded a couple of churches, served on church boards but then would be relieved of his duties because of his hanky-panky and less than desirable behavior. He married Martha Vinnet who was born in 1699 in Oxfordshire, England. They married in the Rhode Island colony (founded on religious freedom) where they settled for a time. Henry died in New Jersey in 1778 and Martha died a few years later in Maryland. Henry Loveall may be the topic of a future post because there are so many stories about him and his children may have fought in the American Revolution. 

Gardner Clark McDearmid was descended from my 3rd great-grandfather Archibald McDearmid who was born in Scotland in 1744. He emigrated to America before 1782 because that is the year he married Sarah Varnum in Thornton, NH when he was  38. Archibald probably left Scotland because the clans were being broken up and to seek religious freedom and economic opportunity. Archibald and Sarah had 14 children. Archibald may have been involved in the Revolution of 1776 but I've not yet found documentation of that. It appears Archibald did fairly well because the list of goods in probate and the property left to the children seems substantial. Archibald died at age 77 in Thornton, NH. 

Grandma Great Amelia, my Dad Jim, me, Grandma Louise

Both of the parents of Louise Kathryn Juhrend were born in Germany. Henry Juhrend in 1855; Amelia Phelps in 1865. Amelia W. came to America as a child. She resided in the Highwood/Highland Park area of Illinois. With her first husband, Mr. Henricks, she had three children. She was widowed and in a few years married Henry Juhrend and they had four children, including my Grandma Louise. Henry came to America when he was about 20 and was a laborer. He probably fled Germany because of continued unrest and government oppression.  By 1920 Henry had died (I don't know why)  and Amelia was widowed again. I never knew her husbands and to me Amelia was always Grandma Great. Her adult children often lived with her while she worked as a laundress and caterer. She died in 1959 at the Winchester House in Libertyville, IL.

For most of my life I thought that all my Grandparents came from "the old country" to seek their fortunes. When I started to research in depth I was amazed to find I was not Irish, that Grandma Iva Quist was of English heritage and that ....I may be a Daughter of the American Revolution! That will require more research, documentation, and patience.