ChicagoGenealogy: Research Insights from Study and Serendipity

The naturalization record for Sigurd Nelson that I ordered from the Iron Range Research Center arrived last Saturday and I'd give the process a 9 out of 10. The online index was easy to search, the online ordering process went smoothly, and communication from the Center was great. Three days before the document arrived I received a pleasant email letting me know that it had been mailed. The only thing that would have made it better? Receiving the record in digital format a few days quicker. (See The Search for Mrs. Nelson: Part 5 ) If you've read previous posts, you'll remember that I am searching for the wife and child of a man named Sigurd Nelson. The researcher who's interested in them believes that they died of influenza before 1920 but he doesn't know anything more about them. I have reason to believe that the Sigurd Nelson who was living in Duluth is the man the researcher is interested in and I was hoping that this Sigurd's naturalization record would

Recently a researcher asked if I could check indexes at the Circuit Court Archives for a crime that happened c. 1922. I'm always happy to learn something new and so I said I'd give it a try. I'm no expert on using this resource, but maybe a few quick notes about my experience will be helpful to someone else. The microfiche index with the title "Counter Index Alpha Criminal Div" is kept in a thick black notebook on top of the filing cabinets. It covers 1873-1944, but some years are missing. The entries for the earliest years are docket book pages. Information includes the name(s) of the defendant(s), the indictment number, the reason for indictment, a dollar amount that's probably bail, and brief dated notations that probably document various steps as the case proceeds. One of the cases had a December 1879 entry that seemed to read "Cont [or Cout] by Agt" and an August 1880 entry that said "Stricken off &c." The later years have in

The researcher who is looking for Sigurd Nelson's family members provided me with new information a couple of days ago and looking back on it tonight, the birth place he sent reminded me of the World War I Draft Registration Card that I mentioned in a previous post. The "Kristiana, Norway" from the email seems like a great match for the "Christiana, Norway" on the card for Sigurd Godferd Nelson. Earlier today I had a hunch that I might be on the right track. Now I'm thinking that I really might be. The Duluth newspaper mentioned that Sigurd G. Nelson had naturalized with other veterans in 1920 and I decided to go looking for an online index. I found one at the website for the Iron Range Research Center in Chisholm, Minnesota. A search for Sigurd Nelson brought up five possibilities with one clear match. The fee to order the record was $10 and I went ahead and placed the request. If Sigurd filled out the usual forms, I'm very likely to find

Note: If you haven't been following my posts, you can find background information for the search in The Search for Mrs. Nelson and Child Begins . A number of years ago I spent some time searching Duluth newspapers at GenealogyBank.com and so I decided to see what I could find out about Conrad and Sigurd Nelson using that approach. A search for "sigurd nelson" in Minnesota newspapers brought up seventeen results. One was a mis-match. Seven were for a Sigurd G. Nelson who was an elected representative from Ironwood, Michigan. That left nine possibilities. Among them I fould Sigurd the divinity student and Sigurd the young single man attending social events. It's possible this is the same person. Then I found Sigurd the soldier--possibly two men. One was mentioned as Sigurd and the other was mentioned as Sigurd G. Sigurd G. returned to be naturalized after the war. And then there were two mentions of a Sigurd being arrested for vagrancy, one before the war and

Note: If you haven't been following my posts, you can find background information for the search in The Search for Mrs. Nelson and Child Begins . The researcher tells me that Sigurd was born 13 January 1894 in Norway and I've decided to try to use that information to find a matching record in Ancestry.com's World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 . I usually start with bare bones information to see what I'm up against and a search for "sigurd nelson" yielded 316 matches--to many to scroll through at this point. I edited the search and added a birth year of 1894 +/- 2 years. That narrowed the search to 218 results. I'm not 100% sure that he was living in Cook County at the time he would have registered, so I added a January birth month. This gave me three results. *Sigurd A. Nelson, born 14 Jan 1892 in Illinois (living in Cook County) *Sigurd Nelson, born 22 Jan 1893 in Wisconsin (living in Pacific, Washington) *Sigurd Godferd Nelson, bor

I am searching for the unknown wife and child of Sigurd Nelson. (See The Search for Mrs. Nelson and Child Begins for details.) FamilySearch's Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947 seemed like a good first step because spouse names are included the database. I chose the advanced search option typed in "sigurd nelson" with 1916-1922 with "Exact & Close match" selected. No matches were found. I removed the dates and searched again. This retrieved three records: *Sigurd A. Nelson who died in 1944, wife Emma, parents listed *Sigurd A. M. Nelson Jr., the son of Sigurd A. M. Nelson and Anna W. Bietan who died 23 May 1921. His birthdate was given as 20 Oct 1817 but he was three years old so he was likely born in 1917. *Anna Cathrine Maurer who died at the age of 44, the daughter of Sigvard Nelson. I decided to follow up on Sigurd A. M. A search for "sigurd nelson" in FamilySearch's Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920 broug

Background Recently someone asked for help finding out what happened to the wife and child of "Captain Sigurd Nelson." I haven't been able to turn up anything quickly but I think there are answers in Chicago records and I'm not ready to give up. I thought blogging might be an interesting way to keep track of a multi-step search done over a number of days and so I offered to take on the project as a no-charge challenge in return for permission to talk about the search in a public forum. The Starting Point Name of wife unknown Wife died in a flu epidemic, 1918-19?? Child of unknown age and gender also died from flu Sigurd died at age 32 in 1926 and is buried at Montrose Cemetery Sigurd has no grave marker and no family members are buried with him Sigurd was born in Norway in 1894 Sigurd came to the United States in 1912 at age 18 Sigurd's military records destroyed in 1972 St. Louis fire Sigurd had an older brother Conrad in Chicago Conrad