52 Ancestors - Elizabeth Danskine (Paterson)

Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.  Each week focus on one ancestor and post something about him or her. Since March is Women's History Month, I'm posting about my female ancestors. 

Elizabeth in Scotland 1903

Elizabeth Danskine is my Scottish great grandmother. She was the 2nd youngest child of William Danskine and Agnes Findlay born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland on March 12 1858. Elizabeth was one of three sisters in the family who lived beyond the age of 31. Seven of her siblings died from diseases that may have been curable in this time period. Four dying from phthisis (tuberculosis), one from gastric fever (typhoid), one from morbus coxarius (hip disease) and one from peritonitis (inflammation of the abdominal area). How terrible it would have been to watch your siblings pass away.

On July 11, 1883,  at the Free High Church in Airdrie, Elizabeth becomes the 2nd wife of Francis Paterson and step mother to his young daughter, Mary. My great grandmother gives birth to seven daughters and one son (my grandfather, Johnston). After her father, William, dies in 1885, Elizabeth's mother, Agnes, moves in with the growing family. Agnes is listed in the 1891 Scottish census as the mother-in-law, a retired grocer living with the family.  Agnes dies in 1892. 

Elizabeth loses one daughter, Ellen Danskine, at the age of two and her step daughter, Mary, at the age of 14 in Airdrie, Scotland. 

In 1907, after hard times hit and the family is left broke, Elizabeth, her husband, and children immigrate to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  Elizabeth was a reliant woman and had some business sense from having parents who were grocers. According to family stories, Elizabeth opened a Confectionery & Fruit Store, so her daughters had a place to work. She, also, took in boarders. 

Shortly after arriving in Edmonton, Elizabeth's oldest daughter, Agnes, dies from typhoid fever. Then her 2nd oldest, Janet, dies of a appendicitis in 1912 in Provost, Alberta.

Elizabeth's husband, Francis, was not happy in Edmonton, Alberta and wants to move on. The rest of the family resisted and stayed, while he moved to Washington, USA about 1918, alone.

Elizabeth and her youngest daughter, Edith, move to South Cooking Lake to operate the South Cooking Lake Store and Post Office. Elizabeth dies unexpectedly  on April 22, 1919 of the Spanish Flu at the age of 61. She was interred in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Edmonton, Alberta beside her daughter, Agnes.

Posts about the Patersons:

52 Ancestors - Johnston Cumberland Paterson (Elizabeth's son)

Fearless Females - Marriage Records

Fearless Females - Immigration

Fearless Females - Six Word Memoir

Sentimental Sunday - Janet Danskine Paterson Abbott (Elizabeth's daughter)

Tombstone Tuesday - Elizabeth Paterson & Agnes Findlay Paterson (Elizabeth & her daughter)

My Scottish Roots

Posts about the Danskines:

Sunday's Obituary -James Danskin  (Elizabeth's grandfather)

Fearless Females - Family Document

Surname Saturday - DANSKINE

52 Ancestors - Robert's Roots - Fannie McKinley (Mapplebeck)

Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.  Each week focus on one ancestor and post something about him or her. Last week, I decided to post about women for the month of March since it's Women's History Month. Today is St. Patrick's Day so I've picked Robert's 3rd great grandmother, Fannie McKinley who happens to be Irish.

Fannie McKinley is one of the women on Robert's direct maternal line. All the the women in this direct line would have mtDNA haplogroup J which they passed on to their children. 

I've not done a lot of research on this family, I'm hoping Robert will help out some day, but here is some of what I've found. Fannie was born in Ireland about 1850 according to most of the records that I've found.  Fannie's parents were John McKinley and Ann, both born in Ireland. Fannie has a younger sister, Annie, who doesn't marry. The family immigrates to Nova Scotia, Canada after 1853 since Annie is born in Ireland about that time and before 1871 since they are found in that census living in Aylesford area, Nova Scotia. 

Fannie marries George Mapplebeck on January 27, 1876 in Aylesford, Nova Scotia by license Church of England. George and Fannie have two girls, (Annie and Bessie) and four boys, (George, John, Emery, and, Stanley). Fannie dies at age 49 in 1899.  She is buried in the East Margartsville cemetery by her parents. George remarries in 1900 to Mary Dempsey. 

Links to records:

George and Fannie marriage record

East Margartsville Cemetery

52 Ancestors - Bessie Beatrice Landers (Belknap)

Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.  Each week focus on one ancestor and post something about him or her. Since March is Women's History Month, it's only appropriate to include women for the rest of the month.

Bessie Beatrice Landers is my great grandmother on my direct maternal line (my mother's, mother's, mother). All of the women in this direct line would have received mtDNA (mitochondrial) haplogroup H from their mother's and they in turn passed it on to their children. Their daughters then pass it on to their children and so on. Sadly I have no daughters who can pass it on, but I do have cousins who have daughters. 

Bessie was born August 2, 1888 in Keithsburg, Mercer County, Illinois, USA to James Robert Landers and Angeline Henrietta Littrell. Although Bessie's birth record has her middle name as Imena, she went by the middle name Beatrice in all other records that I've found. 

 

Mercer, Illinois, "Register of Births," Return of Birth, p. 34, no. 3540, Bessie Imena Landers, 1888; Courthouse, Aledo.

What should have been a joyous occasion turns to sorrow eight days after Bessie's birth.  Her mother, Angeline, dies of congestive chill complicated with dysentery. James and Angeline's three children are now motherless, Fred Lewis who is 5, Ruby Jane Jean who is just about 2, and newborn, Bessie. 

James remarries in December of 1889 to Laura Belle Baugess. Since there is no census for 1890 to go by, I'm not sure where the children would have been.  But in the 1900 census, Fred, Ruby, and Bessie are living with their paternal grandparents, John William Landers and Mary Angeline Humbert. Their father, James is living with his new wife and four children.

By the 1910 census, James, his wife, and their 7 children are in Sheridian, Nebraska. Fred, Ruby, and Bessie have left their grandparents in Mercer County and have all gone to South Dakota. Ruby is married to Altie McCready with an 8 year old daughter from a previous marriage to George Oscar Johnson. Fred is living with the J. L. Johnson's family as a hired hand. Bessie is living with the O.L. Boyden's family as a servant.

Shortly after the census, Bessie marries Donald Francis Belknap on 12 September, 1910 in Charles Mix, South Dakota, USA. Donald Francis Belknap is listed in the 1910 census as a widower  and the nephew of Joseph S. Grandon living in Charles Mix, South Dakota. (Still haven't figure out how he is related.) Donald lost his first wife Bertha Ocila Todd in May of 1907 by Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. Somehow both Bessie and Donald, from different parts of the country ended up in Charles Mix, South Dakota, where they meet and married. 

Bessie and Donald stayed in South Dakota for a couple of years. 1911 is not a good year for them. Bessie gives birth to a little boy, John Donald Belknap, in May who only survives 20 days. Later that same year in September Bessie's brother, Fred, dies. 

Leaving her sister, Ruby, in South Dakota, Bessie follows her husband, Donald back to the Lacombe area in Alberta, Canada in 1912. Bessie and Donald have three girls who survive to adulthood, Bertha Bessie (Betty) born in 1913, Ruby Alberta (my grandmother) born in 1917, and Frances Eldora born in 1918. More women to pass on haplogroup H. 

Bessie's father, James Robert Landers, dies February 21, 1929 in Riverton, Fremont County, Wyoming, USA. Fred, Ruby, and Bessie are mentioned in his obituary. 

Bessie dies in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on December 27, 1947 at the age of 59.

 

Alberta, Province, Registration of Death, 1947, 001295, Bessie Beatrice Belknap;Alberta Vital Statistics, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

 

More post about the Landers:

Surname Saturday - Landers

Fearless Females - Marriage Records

Fearless Females - Family Documents

 

Another post about Donald Francis Belknap:

Workday Wednesday - Water Witch

 

52 Ancestors - Charlie Honkawaara

Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.  Each week focus on one ancestor and post something about him or her.

Charlie Waara at his Watch & Jewelery Shop

Charlie Honkawaara (Warra) was my great granduncle. . According to records, he was  the last child of Sakris Honkawaara and  Britta Maria born in Pudasjärvi, Oulun Laani, Finland before they immigrated to United States. I've not been able to pinpoint his exact birth date, but he was probably born about 1882. 

According to Velma Deydey, Charlie’s niece, in the book “Echoes of Coteau” , Charlie and his wife Olga ran a restaurant in Dunblane.  In 1921 they sold the restaurant and Charlie was a pump man for CNR. Then in 1932 Charlie and Olga moved to Moose Jaw, where Charlie operated a jewellery and watch repair shop. Charlie seemed to be a man of many talents. He was a machinist, woodworker, drummer, shop owner and watch maker. Charlie was even a casket maker.

Although Charlie and his wife Olga Kellokoski never had any children, their home seemed to always be full. As their parents got older they moved in with Charlie and Olga. First Olga's mother, then  Charlie's parents. 

In the 1921 census, Charlie and Olga still have Charlie's mother, Britta, living with them. Olga is listed as a restaurant keeper and they have two young ladies of 18, who are waitresses, staying with them.  One of them is their niece Aino Mustonen. 

Charlie is listed in the Canadian Voters list, as Charles Waara. He appears many times living on High Street West in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada from 1940 to 1958. He is listed as a jeweller or watch maker. 

 

See post about my Finnish Side

Surname Saturday - My Finnish Roots

52 Ancestors - Sakris Honkawaara