Mappy Monday: The Journey of My Irish Ancestors

In honor of my Irish ancestors, here is the emigration of the family of George and Hannah (Gray) Dempster.

View Dempster family emigration in a larger map

Locations pinpointed on this map include:

• Rasharking, Antrim, Ireland
• Moyarget, Antrim, Ireland
• Cape Castle, Antrim, Ireland
• Ballycastle, Antrim, Ireland
• Moville, Ireland
• New York, USA
• White, South Dakota, USA
• Brookings, South Dakota, USA
• Aurora, South Dakota, USA

Watch for more about George, Hannah, and the Dempster family this week!

Mappy Monday: Vernon Township, Wright County, Iowa

John and Belle Jorenby were married and raised their first seven children in Wright County, Iowa.

This map, which I found on Ancestry.com, shows the southeast sections of Vernon Township.  John and Belle's land was on the west edge of Section 23.  Two of Belle's brothers, Almond and Otto Anderson owned land in Section 27.

Looking at this map I noticed the Jorenby land was between four schools. I tried to determine where the the children might have attended school.  The four schools were located in

• Section 22, NW corner - This appears to be closest to their home (which is marked by the little tiny dot above the "n" in Jorenby).
• Section 24, N center - If each school served children in a specific quad of the sections, children in Sections 13, 14, 23 and 24 probably attended this school.
• Section 34, NW corner - The Anderson cousins likely attended this school.  I initially thought that maybe the oldest Jorenby child, Pearl, might have tagged along with her Anderson cousins in her first year.  However, I believe that Pearl Jorenby was older than the Anderson children.
• Section 36, NW corner - This one appears to be the farthest away.

In thinking about those good-old South Dakota winters,  - would they have attend the school in Section 22?   Especially since their walks were probably "uphill both ways"!!

Mappy Monday: Waage Family Migration Map

In 2005 I put together a book for the descendants of John and Ida Waage.  While creating the book, I found myself wondering where all the homes were located.   In an effort to document that, I pinpointed all the named locations on a Google map.  Below is the result.



View Waage family emigration in a larger map


Locations pinpointed on the map include

• Haugesund, Rogaland, Norway
• Skanevik, Hordaland, Norway
• Lisbon, IL
• Roland, Story, IA
• McCallsburg, Story, IA
• Fulton, Hansen, SD
• Volga, Brookings, SD
• Lake Sinai, Brookings, SD
• Arlington, Brookings, SD
• White, Brookings, SD
• Lake Campbell, Brookings, SD
• Fremont Township, Moody, SD
  

Saturday Stumble-Upon: It's a Small World After All

Since I started this blog back in July, I have heard from some cousins again and have also been in communication with a few new cousins.

Shari (Searls) Adair, a cousin in the Glenn family line who I've been in contact with for several years now, was surprised to learn that she knew two other sides of my family!  She was in school and 4H with my grandma Sharon (Jorenby) Luze. When the families lived in the Lake Campbell area, the Searls farm and the Jorenby farm were adjacent to each other. Shari's family had also lived near Lowell Workman in Eureka township.

Now with the realization that the cousins from the east (Glenns from Aurora) knew the cousins from the southwest (Jorenbys from the Lake Campbell area) and the cousins from the north (Workmans in Eureka township), I began to wonder how far apart these families really were.  So I pulled up Google Maps and started mapping the childhood homes of my great-grandparents.  Here's the result:

View It's A Small World - family beginnings in a larger map

Not bad!  Brookings is almost the center point of all of their childhood homes.  I'm willing to bet that at some point or another, the families all crossed paths in Brookings.  Moral of the story: It's a small world after all!