Dempster Family Immigrates to America

The Dempster family immigrated from Ireland to America in the early 1880s for a handful of reasons, including the poor crops in the County Antrim and the political unrest between the Roman Catholics and Presbyterians. 

In addition, family stories say that Hannah Dempster was so fearful of their home being attacked that she would sit up at night and keep watch at the window with a candle.  One night Hannah fell asleep and the candle set the curtains afire.  It is said that George decided then that it was time to leave for America.  Another family story tells of young male relative that did not return home one night and was found the next morning strung up by his thumbs in a nearby cave.

Two of George and Hannah Dempster's older daughters immigrated to America in May 1882.  Hannah Dempster (b. 1864) and Matilda (Dempster) McGarry (b. 1858), son-in-law Laurence McGarry, and 1 year old grandson Laurence McGarry Jr. boarded the ship Dominioin in Belfast, Ireland.  They arrived in Quebec, Canada in June 1882.  They stayed in Canada until that winter and then left for Brookings County, Dakota Territory.

From Dempster

From Dempster

George and Hannah immigrated with the rest of the family in the summer of 1883.  The family boarded the steamship Devonia in Moville, Ireland in July.  The Devonia arrived at the Port of New York, likely Castle Garden, on the 7th of August 1883.  Their son Thomas died shortly after they arrived and is buried in the eastern United States.  They came directly to Brookings County, Dakota Territory and likely stayed with  Hannah's brother Charles Gray, who had a farm near the town of White.

From Dempster

From Dempster

Ship list images are snippets taken from the ship lists on Ancestry.com's "Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935" and "New York Passenger Lists 1820-1957".


Some family information taken from Jo Kalleymn and Shari Adair's journal from their trip to Ireland in April and May 2006.  Thanks Jo and Shari!

Those Places Thursday: Moville, Ireland

George and Hannah Dempster and their family left Ireland from the port at Moville in 1883.  This is a view of Moville, Ireland that was taken by Jo Kallemeyn and Shari Adair from a ferry in 2006, about 123 years after the George and Hannah Dempter family left Ireland. 

So take one last look at our homeland and remember it well:

From Dempster

Connecting Haktor T Wicks to Haktor H Wicks - Part 2

Continuing my search for the connection between Haktor T Wicks and Haktor H Wicks (Read Part 1 here):

I started by searching in Ancestry.com, but came up empty handed. Then I remembered Jessica had mentioned Hector was married in Lisbon, Illinois.  Having searched for Illinois marriages before, I headed straight for the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index.  I quickly found two marriages for Hector H Wicks.

Groom:  Wicks, Hector H
Bride: Torreson, Lucinda H
Date: 1891-12-06
Vol./Page: 001/0116
County: Kendall

Groom: Wicks, Hector H
Bride: Scott, Lena
Date: 1899-11-29
Vol./Page: 002/0013
License No.: 00002096
County: Kendall

Requesting copies of these marriage certificates could identify other relatives, who may have been witnesses to the marriage.  Unfortunately, I don't believe these will help us connect Haktor Torjulson Wicks and Haktor Haktorsen Wicks.  It did help me identify that Lisbon, Illinois was in Kendall County though.

The Kendall County, Illinois Rootsweb pages had some helpful references, including "Norwegian Emigrants from Illinois to Iowa" and "Norwegian Lutheran Church Records".  The Kendall County site also linked me over to the Norway Heritage site. There I was able to locate immigration information for Haktor and Guri in 1867 and Haktor and Madala in 1870.

Name: Haktor Haktorsen Vike
Age: 49
Sex: m
Remarks:  Residence Skaanevig
Passenger on: Ship Fredrik Petersen 1867, from Bergen May 6 to Quebec June 6

Name: Guri Vike
Age: 40
Sex: f
Remarks: wife - Residence Skaanevig
Passenger on: Ship Fredrik Petersen 1867, from Bergen May 6 to Quebec June 6
Source: NAC C-4522 list 32 - Transcribed by Paul Scheie - 2004

Name: Haktor Torjussen Vike
Age: 24
Sex: m
Additional: residence Skaanevig
Passenger on:  Ship Mercator 1870, from Bergen Apr. 28 to Quebec June 30

Name:  Madelle Torkildsatter Vike
Age: 23
Sex: f
Additional: residence Skaanevig
Passenger on: Ship Mercator 1870, from Bergen Apr. 28 to Quebec June 30
Source: NAC C4525 list 63 - Transcribed by Paul Scheie - 2005

No discovery of the ships they immigrated on would be complete without finding more information on the ships themselves, right?  I didn't think so!  Here are the links to the ship information for the Ship Fredrick Petersen and the Ship Mercator.

All this is really neat information, but still nothing definitively connects Jessica's Haktor H Wicks and my Haktor T Wicks. 

A little browsing around and I found a link to the Norwegian Census, but I'll save that for Part 3.