New Ethnicity Breakdowns at 23andMe: Some New Leads for My Dad

Varmland, Sweden, and County Wexford, Ireland.  Possible leads for Gustav Andersson and Hester Patterson?

Two of my dad's recent ancestors (Dad's great grandfather Gustav Andersson, c. 1850 - ?, and also Dad's 2nd great grandmother Hester Patterson, abt 1800 - 1856) have been brickwalls for me for a long time.

Gustav Andersson (as Andersson Bergstrom) and Hester Patterson in situ on my father's tree.

Gustav Andersson Bergstrom

According to Dad's grandmother Mette Karine "Mary's" birth record, her father was railworker/roadworker Gustav Andersson Bergstrom (Andersson Bergstrom in the image above) from Lidkoping, Sweden.

Counties to focus on for Dad's great grandfather Gustav Andersson Bergstrom.  I have already been following some promising leads in Varmland and Vastra Gotaland counties in DNA matches.

Hester (Patterson) Rittgers

As for Hester Patterson, I've only been able to determine that she had a few Patterson siblings who had descedants that Dad matches to on Ancestry.  There was a Samuel Patterson in 1820 in the Fairfield County, Ohio area where Hester married and was living in 1830, and her first son with Jake Rittgers was Samuel Rittgers (oldest brother of Esther Loretta Rittgers, who was my grandfather George Hartley's grandmother).  Maybe Samuel Patterson was her father??

Hester Patterson's children who lived to the 1880 US Census and beyond put the following as mother's place of birth (note that her husband Jake Rittgers (the "father" in the following list) was definitely born in Virginia):


Daughter Esther Loretta:

1880: Father--PA, Mother--Virginia


Son Samuel G. S. Rittgers:

1880: Father--PA, Mother--England
1900: Father--VA, Mother--Ireland


Son John A. Rittgers:

1880: Father--PA, Mother--Ohio


Son Israel Patterson Rittgers:

1880: Father--PA, Mother--Ohio


Daughter Margaret Rittgers:

1880: Both parents from Ohio
1900: Father--Ohio, Mother--Ireland
1910: Both parents from Ohio


Son Jacob R. Rittgers:

1880: Father--PA, Mother--VA
1910: Both parents from Germany
1920: Father--PA, Mother from Ireland


Son Eli D. Rittgers:

1880: Both parents from VA
1900: Father--PA, Mother from England


Son Perry C. Rittgers:

1880: Both parents from Pennsylvania
1900: Father--PA, Mother--Scotland


Daughter Sarah Rittgers:

1880: Father--VA, Mother--PA
1900: Father--Ohio, Mother--PA
1910: Both parents from Virginia


Son Peter M. Rittgers:

1880: Father--PA, Mother--??
1900: Father--PA, Mother--Ireland
1910: Father--PA, Mother--Ireland
1920: Father--PA, Mother--Ireland


Son Henry Charles Rittgers:

1880: Father--PA, Mother--Ohio
1900: Father--VA, Mother--Ohio
1905: Father--Germany, Mother--Ireland
1920: Father--Germany, Mother--Ireland
1930: Both parents from VA


On the 1850 Census Hester (Patterson) Rittgers was listed as born in Maryland lol

From all this I gather that Hester was likely at least somewhat Irish, and may have been born in the East (Maryland or Pennsylvania) or was born in Ireland (or possibly England).

23andMe estimated that Dad has ancestry in the past 200 years from only one county in Ireland (County Wexford).  Dad has only one known suspected Irish ancestor in the past 200 years, Hester Patterson.  Could this be a big clue for Hester's origin??  I hope so.

© 2019 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Free Webinar: "Have Nordic Ancestors? Count Yourself Lucky - Nordic Records Are Amazing" by Mike Mansfield

Do I have Nordic ancestors.  Why yes, I do!

But have I made any progress in my Nordic research?  Why no, I haven't.  And that's my own darn fault.

Mike Mansfield presents "Have Nordic Ancestors? Count Yourself Lucky - Nordic Records are Amazing":

An overview of available records in the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, & Finland) will be presented.

Runs 1 hour 29 minutes

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Limited Time Free Webinar from Legacy Family Tree Webinars: "Finding Your Nordic Parish of Birth" by Jill Morelli

I know the area where my great grandparents Mette Karine and Berdines Rasmussen come from (Nedstrand and Fister, both in Rogaland, Norway), but this webinar, "Finding Your Nordic Parish of Birth," presented by Jill Morelli on December 15, 2017, reminds me how little I've done in that direction this year.  I didn't even get a single step closer to finding out who Mette Karine's birth father was beside being a Swedish railworker.  I need inspiration! (and to be done cleaning my tree's locations...):

Is that parish of birth of your Nordic ancestor proving to be elusive? Without it, we cannot make the trip “across the pond.” Often that parish is identified in the records located in the United States and research will reveal the name or at least narrow it down. We will explore numerous US record sets where the parish could be recorded and then we will identify the international databases that can also assist in our identification of the parish of birth.

1 hour 28 minutes
Free to non-subscribers through December 22, 2017


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: Swedish-Language Newspapers Archived Online

As this article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune explains, more than one million Swedes left their homeland in the 19th century and immigrated to the United States in search of a better life for themselves and their families. And that naturally led to Swedish-language newspapers.

Now, an international partnership of the Royal Swedish Library, the American Swedish Institute, the Minnesota Historical Society and the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., is leading an effort to digitize some of the more than 600 Swedish-language newspapers that were published in the United States in the 19th century and early 20th centuries.

[Chicago City, Minnesota. A Swedish-American reading his Swedish newspaper, 1942. Jack Delano, photographer.

Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540] 

This project began in 2008 and should be completed by the end of 2015.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.