This precious photograph traveled a long way, and probably became almost painful to look at as the years went by. The couple is Daniel Janson and his second wife, Maria Anna Hilfinger.
They were the parents of Daniel Janson, who settled in Rice Minnesota, and Stephan Janson, who settled in Jackson, Michigan. He and his first wife, Regina, were the parents of Johannes Janson, who arrived in Buckman, Minnesota with my great grandfather, Josef Janson and settled there.
Daniel was born in 1816 in Balzfeld, Germany and died there in 1897 at 81. Anna Hilfinger Janson was born in 1822 and died in 1902, at 80.
When Horrenberg families left for America in those years, they said goodbye for ever. We know Wendelin went back for a visit, and probably others did too, but Wendelin was a kid when he left and only 25 when he returned. Still, he would definitely have visited this couple and told them all about Amerika.
(In fact, he would have stopped in Michigan on his way to NYC to board the ship, since the train route ran between the Great Lakes and into Canada then).
When Stephen the great grandson of Stephen the immigrant sent these photos, he remarked about the inherited traits passed down among the Jansons--how much the men resembled each other, gen after gen.
Having Daniels pic now makes me agree even more. Look:
Do the actually look alike, or have I studied them so much I can't tell? I don't know when Stephan II was born, and maybe he's not in the right generation, but the idea is to compare faces.
The second pic ("Daniel?") is speculating, but he and the gentleman marked "guest" were at Johannes' 50th wedding anniversary in 1924.
I think "Daniel?" might have been Johannes' brother from Rice, Mn and Stephan (who would have been 67) probably attended too, huh?
------------------
Nope, to answer my own question: Daniel Janson, who settled in Rice, Mn died in 1910, so he couldn't have been at the anniversary in 1924. So, who was that bearded man? He's the one who looks most like Johannes...
WOW, Stephan, these are so COOL!
VERY cool to see a picture of my great-great-great grandfather in Germany! And yes, a lot of times you can look and say, "Yep, that's a Janson." They were so dark. I've told people I do genealogy & that my ancestors were German, Bohemian, English, & French-Canadian/Native American. When I show the picture of John, Mary & family, they always thing that must be my Native American family because of how dark they were. My mom said her grandpa Mike's nickname was "Der Schwarze Janson." The Black Janson.
ReplyDeleteHey by the way, I just remembered something...I don't know if you knew this but Daniel & Maria Anna actually tried to emigrate when the children were young but were disallowed. I have the papers from Germany that one of the distant cousins there got for me from the Karlsruhe archives. I don't know why they weren't allowed. Unfortunately that script is so hard to read I can't interpret enough to figure it out. One page is from a newspaper & that I can read. It advertises that they are selling pretty much everything & moving to America. Which they then weren't able to. I'll have to scan that.
ReplyDeleteI also have the packet of papers from John & Maria Anna's application to emigrate & the estate of Johann Michael & Maria Anna Franziska (Wagner) Sauer, Mary's grandparents.
WOW, Carrie!
ReplyDeleteSo, if they tried to emigrate when their kids were young....it would have been after the 1848 revolutions in Europe. Regina died in 1846, so Daniel married Maria Anna in 1847 or 48. By my records, their oldest kid was b in 1850. Probably the govt was being particularly restrictive just to "show them"...but it means that the fire to leave was built in those boys pretty early.
I'd love to see the papers, and post them here if that's ok. It's a stretch, but maybe someone could read em for us (I have two people in mind who probably could, unless the prob is faded docs).
Oh, man...how devastating it must have been for them. And how startling for their PAPERS to have made it to America 150 years later...lol
I dug them out. The application for Daniel was in 1853 for Daniel, Maria Anna, children from Daniel's first marriage: Magdalena & Johannes & from the second marriage: Joseph, Daniel, Valentin & Christina. It says the original papers are stored at the Badisches General-Landes-Archiv (Baden State Archives) in Karlsruhe. It is 30 pages long! I know there's affidavits from family & friends, baptism records, the pages from the "Karlsruher Zeitung" paper. That alone is 4 pages of very small print. It took me awhile of scanning that to find what pertained to the application-the paragraph about Daniel Janson selling everything to go to America.
ReplyDeleteThe application for John & Mary is 6 pages in comparison.
What? You don't want to scan 30 plus pages? LOL
ReplyDeleteGawd, what COOL documents. Daniel and Maria Anna probably spent 6 months gathering what the app required, only to have one NO stop them cold.
Ahhh, I just finished scanning them. I'll send it in a couple of emails. I scanned everything except the first 3 pages of the newspaper. I've never been able to figure out what it says except the newspaper because it's just so overwhelming being that long & most are in sloppy and/or fading script. I'm wondering what the process was for applying for emigration?
ReplyDeleteThinking about the guy you thought was maybe Daniel but he had died...Valentin Janson (son of Daniel & Maria Anna) also immigrated to the U.S. He was with his brother Daniel in 1885 in Langola Twp., Benton co. But then I have a son listed for him that was born in April 1897 in Dielheim. He married there in June 1897 to Katharina Teufel. Maybe he went back to Germany but came back to America after marrying? I've never found more on him. Maybe it's not him in the picture but it got me thinking about what happened to Valentin.
ReplyDeleteOMG, Carrie, this is TONS of info to digest and investigate--THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteWhew--Valentin? I have him as a sib, but all of a sudden he's real. (It does tickle me that he "had to get married"--I think of Jansons as so proper. Another stereotype shot to hell. YAY!)