Information on the Topic
What ancestor migrated a long distance in his or her lifetime? Maybe
you found an ancestor far from where you expected? How about a discovery in a
distant library or archive?
This is an interesting topic as there's one great grandmother who I speak about to tell you about what little I know of her life in the United States, but rarely do I touch upon where she grew up. This great grandmother is Annie Larsen. I've written about her before here.
What's so interesting is I don't think she knew which way her name was to be spelled. This is due to the name on her paperwork. One name was Annie Larsen and the other was Annie Larson. I believe she couldn’t read or write, but I’ll have to get into this later.
These are the documents; however, on paperwork Annie said she went to England and then onto the US in October but this states September (could have been wrong about the month?) and said the ship was the Hamburg, but this is different. Sometimes what people remember were not always correct or maybe this isn't her manifest, but the age and much of the other information is correct.
Annie had filled out a few major documents which had her name spelled differently. In fact, I’ve tried countless times to find her manifest coming from Denmark, or Southampton as she put down, but found only the manifest below which mirrors what’s on her other documents.
On this Marriage license, note Annie's last name as Larson. This is in 1896. Credit
This is on Annie's Passport application. Notice her father's last name is now spelled Larsen. Credit
This is why I said, she must have not known how to spell her own name. I have also found what I thought was her ship manifest coming into the USA (yellow highlighted below). However, one of the most popular surnames or last names is Larsen/Larson so this might or might not be related to her.
Credit: From Ellis Island
When I first went looking for information on great grandma Annie, I found her passport information first. This is the only picture I have of her at this point.
Annie Gauquie's passport picture. Credit
She looks like my mother, myself and my oldest sister. I think my oldest sister has her hair with the thickness and curl.
It gave me her father’s name (Paul- same as my grandfather's middle name), her birthdate, the place she was born (Alrup / Aarup / Arup Denmark), and the how and when she arrived into the US. I believe this is the first person of my family to actually arrive into the US.
I never knew any of my ancestors came from Denmark at all. I thought my ancestors had come from the main area of Europe and not other areas such as Denmark. To top this off, she was young, a mere 20 years old, when she did this all by herself.
Then to get to the US and somehow to Minnesota where she meets my great grandfather Jules, is unremarkable. I’ve spent a lot of time sitting down trying to think how they must have met and why. After all it was 1892, and am thinking it was probably more of a mail order bride because she was alone (to my knowledge) and back then many women needed a man for support as many things they couldn’t do without being married. It was expected then.
I was shocked to find a form for their wedding certificate as I didn't think in 1896 areas would have been doing that yet. Credit I thought it was interesting for them to put County of Ramsey in the state of Minnesota on them.
Jules' wedding ring found in one of the sofas in 2000s.
The ring is inscribed AL to JG 4-25-96 That is 1896 .
I was able to match up some of her information with some census in Denmark. Where Annie was born was a small farming community so there would be limited people with names. It helped that we knew her father’s name and that he died earlier in her life. It helped me narrow things down even more.
Annie's Naturalized citizen application stating where she was born and her father's information. Credit
When I get the time, one of my goal is to trace her line backwards in Denmark which should be interesting. At least I have the starting information for now.
To go from a small community, then to be a servant (as mentioned by another census) at another farm nearby, and then to the US was a HUGE move for someone so young. I believe this is one reason why she wanted to marry someone who had a farm, because she knew how to work one already so it would be something useful.
Then to add this to Jules speaking Flemish, a Dutch dialect, and she spoke Dutch, it would have been a natural fit for both of them. It would have given them both a touch of home - language, culture and lifestyle, in their adopted land.
It would have helped that some of his ancestors/relatives had been farmers and knew how to farm. Add that to Jules’ cousin, Louis Van Rompaye, starting a transport company to bring milk to stores and such, they had all the contacts to make a good life.
When Jules sold their son their farm they had owned since 1900.
Jules' cousin, Louis Van Rompaye's company of delivering milk. Jules was a dairy farmer.
She was a well travelled person for a farm servant turned farming wife. Too bad she didn’t leave more information for me to find other than the small overall article about her life for her jet setting ways. I think I would have loved to get to know her. As she had spunk, I think, as who would be a lady, work on a farm, and only stop because a cow kicked her? My great grandmother!
Middletown Times Press in 1917 Credit
I hope you are getting some much needed rest Annie.
Her resting place at St Mary's Cemetery in Washingtonville, NY. Credit: J. Fitzgerald taken Jan 2019
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