Happy Birthday, Måtta!

The ruins of the church at Balkåkra.

Måtta Svensdotter was born July 28, 1788 in Hedeskoga, Skåne, Sweden. Her parents were Sven Larsson and Ingeborg Hansdotter. Måtta spent her entire life in the far southern point of Sweden near the ocean and the coastal town of Ystad. She married Ola Sträng Mårtensson in Blentarp in 1815. They had three sons and two daughters. A son and daughter died during childhood. Their oldest, Mårten, was the father of Håkan Mårtensson who was the father of Jenny Hawkinson Nelson, the grandmother of my dad. Måtta and Ola were tailors who traveled around southern Sweden making clothing for people. Måtta died 10 Apr 1847 in Gusnasva, Balkåkra.

Måtta was my 4th great grandmother. Interestingly, two of my own children share her birthday. 

You can read more about her family story by clicking this link. 

Ola Strang Mårtensson from around Ystad (Håkansson – Hawkinson family of Osage City, Kansas)

Happy birthday, Johannes Ivarsson!

Johannes Ivarsson was born on July 8, 1816 in Byarum, Jönköping, Sweden on Bodabygget farm. He

Plätt Farm, Byarum parish, Jönköping

was the second child of Ifvar Knorr Assarsson and Eva Johannessdotter. Johannes had four sisters and two brothers.

He grew up in the area of Byarum and when he was twenty-eight, he purchased land on Plätt farm where his older sister Lena, also lived with her family, near the town of Vaggeryd.

A year later, on the 31st of May 1846, Johannes married Inga Christina Svensdotter and they began their family with a son, Johan. (Johan was later known to his family in America as John August Johnson who settled in McPherson County, Kansas.) Johannes and Inga Stina had three boys and three girls in the following years. Johan, Britta, Emilia, Christina, Sven, and Anders.  

In 1846 dysentery swept through southern Sweden. Christina (age 4) and Sven (age 2) contracted it and died on the same day. One week later, Johannes also died of it on September 14, 1846.

Happy birthday, John Tichnor!

Happy birthday, John Tichnor!

John was one of my 6x great grandfathers.
He was born 320 years ago today between Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts in a little coastal settlement called Scituate. Scituate was a village incorporated by immigrants from Kent, England in 1636. John's grandpa, Sergeant (King Phillip's War) William Tichnor, migrated from Kent and served as a town constable there. Here is a great site to learn more about Scituate. Click here: http://scituatehistoricalsociety.org/

John Tichnor the son of William Tichnor was born June 24 day --1699 
Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988; 
Scituate Births, Marriages, and Death, p. 74

Happy Birthday to My Mom

Vera Carolina Dibbens

born: January 19, 1929Murdock, Kingman, Kansas
parents: Frances and Forrest Dibbens
married: January 28, 1950
spouse: Earl Milan Johnson
children: Shari (me), Kristine, Laurie
died: October 24, 2004
Branson, Missouri