john teter hendrickson

I am intrigued by many people that I find on my searches though ancestry.com My husband's family even has people tied to the Gold Rush, which is an exciting chapter that I have yet to explore, and as I said before, I really like looking at draft cards.
I also like passport applications. They can have a TON of information and sometimes even pictures!
(we all know how I am about pictures)
A couple months back I posted about Pedro Aisa (Peter Aissa) and I am hoping to someday find out even more about him, but I have hit a wall for now.

But the person I think I am most obsessed about is
John Teter Hendrickson.

John's parents were Jesse Hendrickson (PA 1818-1878) and Mary Ann Teter (OH 1824-1907) John was the youngest of 10 children and was born on August 1, 1868 in Joplin, Missouri.
At the age of 12 he lived in Prairie, Missouri with his mother, sisters Rachael and May along with his brother Edward.

On December 15, 1892 in Bates, Missouri he married
Minnie Elizabeth McElroy who was the oldest of three children. Her parents were William Allen McElroy (1839-1925) and Sarah Jane Durm (1844-)

In 1900 John and Minnie were living in Grand, Day, Oklahoma with the first two of their three children. Rena Louise (1894-1990) and William Roy (1897-1880) John was working as a farmer.

* When I looked up Grand a "frontier village", I found out that Day County itself was only around for 15 years -- Oklahoma History
Why did they go there?

In 1902 they had another child, Jennie E (Jennifer Elizabeth?) who was born in Missouri.

1910 the family was living in Riverside, California. John was still a farmer and his industry is listed as being 'fruit'.
I can't find where they were in 1920, but
Minnie was still in California in 1930 and was living with her youngest daughter
and granddaughter in Los Angeles and was "widowed".

Well, if we back up to 1917 we find that John has applied for a passport to

come back into the United States from

Agua Prieta, Mexico.

At this time he is a Hotel Keeper

"Established in business, hotel in Agua Prieta, Mex. where I am at present domiciled."

John was 50 years old, 5' 7 1/2" and had blue eyes

He had a 'high' forehead.

He had a 'regular' nose.

A 'firm' mouth and a 'square' chin.

His hair was gray-brown, his complexion was 'ruddy' and his face was 'regular'

John had to get people to vouch for him as to having been born in the United States.

One of those people was his brother,

Edward R Hendrickson.

On August 14, 1917 John married

Maria Mercedes Luna.

She was born on August 10, 1898 in Hermosillo, Mexico

and was (barely) 19 when she married John.

Her parents were Merced Luna (1854-) and Clayetans Zaneo Garcia (1864-)

John and Mercedes had two children, Edward Ruben (1918-1991) and Carlos Roy (1920-1921).

Carlos Roy died when he was 11 months and 28 days old.

John and Mercedes' son Edward R was my grandfather. The story that was told to me was that John's ancestors were from Finland

and that he had a "white" family before he married my great grandmother.

(and didn't necessarily divorce his first wife) 

John meet my great grandmother in Mexico after he fled there when he and his brother got into trouble with some 

San Francisco "outlaws".

From what I understand, John traveled back and forth from Mexico to San Francisco, but my grandfather never met him.

My aunt told me that there was a rumor that John was in San Francisco once when my grandparents were newlyweds, and they tried to contact him, but never found him.

Even though I can't find John's brother Edward R between 1880 and 1930, except for the letter that was written for John to prove he was a citizen, to me it seems that they were pretty close  --

And in 1930 Edward was in San Quentin Prison. Which is in Marin, across the bridge from San Francisco.

Is that why John came to San Francisco often, to visit his brother?

(since it wasn't his wife)

My grandfather is Edward R too and so is one of my uncles. My brother's middle name is even Edward, so were they named after him?

Did John also give two of his son's the middle name Roy because his first wife's maiden name was McElroy or was his brother Edward's middle name Roy?

I do know that John Teter died in Sinaloa, Mexico in 1943.

Here is the craziest part --

I was contacted on ancestry.com from someone who lives in Mexico telling me that her grandmother, Herlinda Pena was also married to John Teter Hendrickson.

(with no divorce?!)

They were married in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico in 1924.

They had 8 children between 1925 and 1941.

John, Nelly, Rose, Ernesto, Josephina, Emma, Charles and Roy.

pedro aisa

Pedro Aisa was born September 17, 1876 and came over to San Francisco from Spain in 1906.

He left Le Havre, France on August 18th and arrived in New York on August 28th. He was listed as being around 28 years old and not married yet. He was also listed as being a barber, but the family was told that he had been a physician in Spain. He had $30 and had never been to the United States before. He is meeting his friend, Michael Franco who lives on 1545 Post Street in San Francisco.

*Michael, I believe is Miguel Franco, step father to Theresa Pelegrin. Theresa marries Pedro early in  1907. She immigrated here in 1904.

In 1910, he was still going by Pedro, but was spelling Aisa, with a double ss.
He and Theresa had two children by then and three of Pedro's brothers in law lived with them.

In 1917 he lived at 377, 11th Avenue and he was working as a gardener. He is listed as being "short" at 5'4" with a "medium" build, brown eyes and black hair.

In October of 1919, I found Pedro returning home from Hawaii. He is not traveling with family, but I have not found a military enlistment... yet.

In 1920 he was going by Peter and the spelling had switched back to Aisa. He was working as a waiter on a boat. (I know that I'd like to know more about that) He and Theresa have three children, Marcel, Emile and Grace. They lived on 20th Avenue.
Interestingly, both Pedro and Theresa and both sets of their parents, are listed as being from Spain, but French is their "mother tongue". Could be why the family thought Theresa was from France -- she spoke French!

By 1930, he was Peter Aissa.
Peter was working as a barber, had about $4,000 and owned a home. He lived with his wife Theresa and all his children lived at home, including Marie who was 9 years old.
His brother in law, Antonio 'Frank' Franco who lived with the family before -- in 1910 was living with them again.
Both Frank and Marcel were working as chauffeurs. Emile was a quartermaster on a steamship.

Peter Aissa committed suicide on March 13, 1936 by ingesting rat poison. He was 56 years old.
There is paperwork that Theresa filed requesting a name correction attached his death certificate, so it does read Peter Aissa.
His mother's maiden name is listed on it, but is illegible. His mother's first name was Carmen.

Pedro had four brothers and two sisters that I have been able to find. Two of the brothers, Francisco and Enrique never changed the spelling from Aisa to Aissa.

ey-s-uh

People cannot say our last name correctly.

Having a boring first name, I was always the one who tried to make sure I pronounced other's names correctly. I had a friend Leif, who would answer to LEAF, but I never called him that. I had to say it the right way. I am sure it never mattered to him, but it mattered to me.
I don't know why I had a thing about this. Maybe it it because I never liked my first name. I always thought it was a name for Old Ladies. Now that I am fast approaching Old Ladydom -- I am not so much liking Carol any better, but I have come to terms with it.
I even gave Paige a longer middle name in case she didn't want to be called Paige. She could be Beth or Liz...
but she likes Paige.

I do like Carol more than Kismet.
Yes, my mom wanted to name me Kismet. My grandmother didn't like the name Kismet, and since my grandmother worked at the hospital where I was born, she filled out my birth certificate and named me Carol.
Thank you Grandma!

Being an Aissa has brought on a new level of this name pronunciation for me.

"Thank you Mrs. Ey-Eye-See"

"Here you go, Mrs. Eye-See-Uh"

or Mike's favorite

"ASS- Ey-Uh" (which was how it was pronounced on a loudspeaker, during a football game)

Having had this weird name thing my whole life, it is now really funny that now that it is MY name that is being mispronounced,
I don't care at all.
It is really cute how people get so excited when you tell them they got it right.
And it is super amusing to see people struggle with it (maybe I am a little mean)
But it doesn't bug me at all.

I wasn't around for it, but I guess Robyn would tell people, "It's Aissa, not Asshole" which is very classic Robyn!
Maybe I should make it up on a t-shirt....

So it is EY-S-UH.
Aissa.
Originally, the name was Ay-Eye-Suh, but that is when the family was sheepherders in Spain.

While I am at it, it spelled AISSA, not ASSIA.
Just saying.

DNA ancestry

I so want to do one of those new DNA test that can find your ancestral origins. I think they are so amazing! They are crazy expensive though. There are some that are less expensive, but really only give you general outline. My father in law did the one through ancestry.com and even though it wasn't as informative as we expected it to be, it is still pretty freakin' cool!
Vic's family is Spanish Basque on his dad's side and German/Swiss from his mom. His haplogroup came back and is R1b which they refer to as The Artisans.
Here is a paragraph from his results that explains who they are:

You belong to haplogroup R1b, The Artisans, who first arrived in Europe from west Asia about 35,000- 40,000 years ago at the dawning of the Aurignacian culture. This cultural was remarkable for its subtle yet significant technological progress, like the shift from random flint collection to the use of a single stone core to shape flint tools as needed. Aurignacian decorative beads and jewelry could also be the first sign we have of the uniquely human quality of self-awareness and adornment. Additionally, some anthropologists believe that the Aurignacian culture was the first to paint. Either way, the people of this time period left behind fascinating cave paintings in France, Spain and Portugal.

The best part is at the end and it talks about his sub-group:

R1b1c4 and R1b1c6 are very specific Artisan subsections found primarily in Basque populations, but also in Catalan, Spanish, French, British and German populations.
A unique modern day population, the Basque people self-identify as a discrete ethnic group in north-central Spain and southwestern France. Early Basque culture was basically democratic and their pre-Christian religion was formed around a superior female goddess, Mari. A rich mythology of Basque creatures and characters includes imps, giants, dragons, soothsayers and other nature-based deities.

Love it!
I mean, how great is it to get a confirmation of where your people originated --

What I really want to do next, is to have Mike's maternal line tested. We have no idea where is mom's family is from because she was adopted.
At some point Robyn had tried to find her biological family. Her adoption was done though the church and the story is, that the Sister's destroyed all the records from her adoption. She had a really close relationship to her mother, so I don't know that she had a lot of motivation to search any further. She also told me that when she was born they didn't give her to her parents right away. The Sister's kept her for the first few weeks -- so her mother wouldn't "be disturbed" by a newborn! This was something her mother was not pleased with, but had to follow the rules to be able to get her baby.

Since we have Vic's haplogroup, if we test Mike, it would be easy to tell what Robyn's was. Right? I am not sure if it would work that way -- being as there are paternal tests and maternal tests, and one is more detailed that the other.
I just think it would be fun to do!

blue eyed ancestry

Lately, I have been working on our tree adding the old photos from Aunt Betty. I have also been filling in information I found on the back of them and doing new searches on that set of Hopper's and Lively's.

I think my favorite thing to view on the ancestry.com website are the original WWI and WWII draft cards. They are usually in the individuals own handwriting, which I find really cool, and they sometimes have more information than just the name and date of birth. It might have *name of individual that will always know your whereabouts* which is helpful in making sure it's your Thomas, John or David. It usually doesn't say their height or weight, but instead asks -- tall, medium or short, and thin, medium or stout. It does ask for hair color and eye color.

My mom and her mom had blue eyes, but her dad had brown. My dad and his parents had brown eyes.
I have hazel eyes -- and most of my girl cousins on my dad's side do also.
My brother has brown.
Paige has hazel eyes, like mine.
DJ's are blue. And like I said, my mom has blue -- and DJ's bio dad has blue, so it was not a surprise that he got blue. It's funny, DJ looks like my brother, but with blue eyes.
Kelly has brown like Mike's, but lighter.
Mikey has blue!
We have been laughing about it for 17 months! Who figured we'd have a blue eyed baby? Oh, and they are blue. We even thought he could be a red head, since Mike and I each had grandmothers with red hair. We will see. That is, if he ever gets hair!

Now... I have been digging around all these draft cards and realized that there have been many blue eyed men in our family -- on both my sides.
My grandfather from my mom's side had brown eyes, but his father and all those male relations were blue. So my mom and her brother got their blue eyes from both of their parents.
My dad has brown eyes, but his grandfather on his dad's side had blue eyes and so did all those male relations that I have been able to track down.

Next I will be tracking down the blue eyed Aissa's!

ancestry

I have not blogged in a bit. Everyone has had a cold and nothing else has been happening. Well, Paige had her first soccer game of the season in the pouring rain. I tried to take pictures, but who knows how they even came out. I was running back and forth to the car, trying to warm up and bringing the other kids back and forth so they could warm up. Mike didn't even get out of the car -- haha. Paige's team lost too.

A few years ago, I started our family tree on ancestry.com. I started it with Kelly since she was the youngest, and then that way I figured I could get both branches. I do like the website and it has upgraded a lot of the features over the years, but there is only so much you can do with their free account. So, I was showing the tree I had made at that point to my father in law, when he tells me that he started one too, but never used it, oh -- and he bought the membership (!) so did I want to use it?
Yes I did!
Like I said, there is only so much you can do with their free account, but there is a ton of records you can search when you have a membership. I worked on our tree all the time!
I have always had an interest in genealogy. When I was little, I loved looking at The Tree in my baby book and I knew all the names of my great grandparents. I also used to count up all my cousins. Like, name my aunt or uncle and then their kids. In my head. And count them. I know, weird right? Thinking about it now, I guess it made me feel more connected but it might not be a genealogy thing (or that's the excuse I'll use to feel less like a dork)
Working on our tree takes up a lot of time, so I tend to work in spurts. It is harder to find information one generation back than 100 years ago, and even harder if you don't have a mother's maiden name, but still I search. The website is always being updated, so I can find even more things now than when I started.
I have also shared it with other family members, but no one really seems all that interested in checking it out or has answered my request to help me fill in blanks. I'm not sure why. I think that the website itself makes it hard to share with people and is one thing I would change.
In January I received a call letting me know that my great aunt had died the month before at age 93. She was my grandfather's sister on my mother's side and had never had children. We always called her Aunt Betty, but she was called Nettie Belle as a girl. The name on her birth record is Jeanette Belle Hopper. I didn't really know her very well. None of my grandfather's siblings had kids, which is one of the reasons (I am sure) why I got the awesome box of her old pictures. After ooo-ing over the ones I had sent her of my kids -- and me as a baby, I started scanning some to post on our tree.

Some of the pictures have writing on them, letting you know who the people are and/or where they were and when. Some are blank. Some have a name, but I still can't figure out who it is... Some of them belonged to her sister, Sarah Katherine -- Aunt Kay. She died when I was about 12. The oldest one I have come across is of my great grandparents.

I grew up only having seen pictures of him when he was old, and never one of her. His name was Thomas Abert Hopper and she was Georgia Beatrice Lively. They were married when he was 19 and she was 13! (crazy, right!?!) They do not look happy in this picture, that is for sure. See how her fist is all balled up? He just looks mean. Another interesting thing about them is that his brother John, married her sister Lillie and so their children were "double cousins" to each other. All I know, is that it makes it confusing when you are searching for people!