These two maps show Prince Edward County in the state of Virginia, where our Jansons tried farming for 10 months in 1900. The map on the left shows the county in relation to larger Va cities, and the one on the right shows Hampden in the middle and Meherrin on the south edge, about 20 miles away. Turns out that grandpa's brother Sebastian lived in Meherrin while their parents tried Hampton. They all eventually moved back to Minnesota.Larry found two interesting pieces of info online yesterday--both having to do with Joseph, Sebastian and Mary's son. Evidently, in 1942, Joe had to prove when and where he was born to someone here in Stearns county. Were they enlisting men over 40 then? Anyway, these are interesting documents--see who little Joe's godfather was? Anton was 20 years old. We have no idea who the other sponsor was--looks like Mrs Zerknutzer? Larry found a family named Zirknitzer but we have no clues beyond that. Yes, new info always creates more questions!
Ha! It crossed my mind to check the 1900 census records for Hampden but I didn't actually do it. Wanna guess who did? The Zirknitzer family lived next door to Joseph and Franziska Janson. They were from Austria, so would have been as familiar as a lot of their Buckman neighbors.
In June 1900, Sebastian and Mary were still living in Buckman, according to the Minnesota census, with their adopted son John and Seb's brother Eugene. We assume they left for Virginia shortly afterwords because their son Joseph was born in Meherrin, Va according to the green birth certificate above.
So baby Joseph's sponsors were Anton Janson and Katherine Zirknitzer.
(BTW, Larry scanned the rest of the population living around our great grandparents--almost every one, black or white, were born in Virginia of parents born in Virginia--not exactly the German settlement Joe and Fran hoped for).
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