One thing I’ve found interesting is the lack of immigrants in The Tree. Of course, EVERYONE is an Immigrant unless you are Native American, but a majority of our ancestors in The Tree were living in the United States BEFORE it was the United States.
Most stories of your neighbors and friends, and what you see on TV, have stories of people leaving their countries and going to America to seek the prosperity they have been assured they would find here. The greatest country in the world.
You hear stories of immigrants coming by ship and landing on Ellis Island in the shadow of the Statue Of Liberty. $10 dollars in their pockets and all the dreams they can carry. Irish, Italian, Russian, Jewish, all kinds of people, coming to The Melting Pot.
I have yet to find that in The Tree.
I use 1776 as the timeline. If you were here before 1776, you are an Immigrant, but you were here for the birth of the nation.
On the Grover side, we have always been told we were of Norwegian descent. This would account for the most recent immigration in The Tree.
Erick Knutson was born in 1818 in the country of Norway. He met and married Emily in 1851 and their first child, Barbara, was born in Dodgeville, Wisconsin in 1852. On August 19th, 1888, in the town of Goldfield, Iowa, Barbara married Joel Albert Grover. Erick and Emily are my Great- Great-Great Grandparents.
I believe the only other ancestor who was not born in the US after 1776 is Edward Dalton. He was born in 1796 in Sefton, Lancashire, England to Thomas Dalton and Jane Darwin. Records are so far unclear as to when he came to the US and married Catherine Marshall in Somerset, Pennsylvania. There is more to be discovered though, so stay tuned.
Their Son, William Dalton Married Jane McQuilling. That’s them in the picture above. Their Son, Marion Dalton married Eliza Jane Finley. Their son James married Addie Ophelia Barnett. Their Daughter Margaret married Ralph Monitcue and they had a daughter named Jeanne Elizabeth. My Dad’s mother. Margaret Dalton passed away soon after Jeanne was born, and she was raised by her Grandmother Addie.
On the Smith side, Johan Andreas Kaufmann came to The New World from Germany and passed away even before America was born. His son Isaac Americanized the name to Coffman. Then he married Esther Easter. They are my 4th great Grandparents.
I would like to get some charts and graphs of all the arrivals of our ancestors. From when and where. I have found Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and England, and of course, Norway. The European information is hard to find, but I am still working on it.
Smith and Grover Family Tree 