Anyway, there was nothing really earth-shattering or surprising about my DNA results.
When I first got these results I was astounded and my first thought was that I "have no ancestors in France or Germany or these other countries included in "Europe West" ( Primarily located in: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein)! And then I started getting really curious and so I went to my tree on Ancestry and started looking at each of my lines going back. I got to my great-great grandma Jensen's line, which goes back quite far, and was astounded to discover that all of her lines go back to the Netherlands, France, and Germany!!
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| Susan Laura Dobbs Jensen |
How had I missed this!?!? (Or forgotten it!) For years I have been hyper-focused on just a few of my family history lines to the complete exclusion of all others. I have found other lines that go bck to these countries as well. I have also found more lines that the one I was aware of that go back to Ireland. This was a real eye-opening experience for me, and has helped me branch out my research a little more and look at collateral lines along with my direct lines.
A little about Susan:
"Susan Laura Dobbs (daughter
of Thomas Dobbs, Jr.), was living in Fountain Green, Utah and working at a restaurant
living with her older sister Jane Anne when she and Andrew Jensen met. Andrew took her a
"courtin". In December of 1879, they journeyed to Salt Lake City, where they were married in
the Endowment House on December
18, 1879.
For the next nine years, Andrew lived in Castle Dale and
raised his family and sheep. During the cold winters they would drive the sheep
to Nevada for
better grazing.
Susan was a good housekeeper and a good
"rustler", which at that time meant that she could create useful
things out of little or nothing. She worked out of the home a lot, doing
housework for other people and she always had money set aside. Susan could not
read very well, but she was a hard worker.
In October of 1883, Andrew
again journeyed to Salt Lake City,
where he was married, in polygamy, to Susan's older sister Jane Anne Dobbs,
always know as Aunt Anne. They were married on 11 October 1883.
Anne couldn't write, but she did a lot of reading. She
suffered from frequent headaches and would wear a bandanna around her head. She
was a quiet, bashful person. She was a good judge of character, who felt that
on meeting a person she could tell what that person was like and she was always
right. She was a thoughtful and considerate person, especially towards her
husband. She was a good cook, who thoughtfully prepared her meals for her
family.
In 1889, persecution of
polygamous families under the infamous "Edmund's-Tucker" law was
increasing, so Andrew made plans to move his families to the Mormon colonies
being settled in old Mexico.
Quietly Andrew gathered up his families: two wives and five children by now,
and left Castle Dale. The Fountain Green Ward records simply say "removed
to Mexico.
The family, along with other saints, made their
way to old Mexico
and settled in the northern-most settlement of Colonia Diaz, in the State of Chihuahua. Colonia Diaz
was just across a small river from the little Mexican town of Ascension. Life was once again difficult for
this pioneer family. They lived very ruggedly, faced with a foreign language and
a second culture shock. The Mexicans were both friend and foe. The desert land
made farming a struggle. Andrew built a small home and the two families lived
together for a time, until eventually he built two homes exactly alike for each
of his two wives. Susan's house was built next to the street and Anne's house
was built back in the field in a grove of Cottonwood trees. They were built of
adobe with single roofs and the floors were made of on-by-twelve rough lumber. They had two rooms… and this
was quite an improvement over the fist house which both families had shared.
A river ran bout four miles south of the town and there was
a large dike next to the town to control the water. The dike broke one time and
the water came down the main street and destroyed Susan's house. This forced
both families to occupy the single two-room house belonging to Anne. There was
an attic which was reached by climbing up an outside ladder and some of the
older boys slept in the granary. (Excerpt from "Windows of the Past - A Jensen Family History by William (Ray) Jensen. 1993.)
"Milton and Edna Jensen
moved from Hatchita, New Mexico to Virden in February 1919. They
had two small children, Martha and Andrew. They brought Milton's mother, Susan Jensen with them. Milton bought a farm at
the old Gila Ranch and began farming. He and his brother Dave, bought 3 lots in
Virden and helped each other build a two room adobe house on two of the lots
and built on the other for their mother.
Three other children were born to them after they came to
Virden. Pearl
was born in 1920, Thomas in 1922 and Mary in 1926.
It wasn't long until Milton
homesteaded on land across the river from Virden and the family lived on it
part time until it was proved upon. There he had cattle and sheep.
Milton's
mother lived next to him, with her son Paul, who helped on the farm. Also her
sister Ann came and lived there with her until she died. The children grew up and all
married and moved away except Andrew. He stayed and helped his father farm and
when Milton was
hurt Andrew took over the farm.
In 1942 Susan Jensen passed
away.
I am still exploring and trying to figure out all of the DNA information and implications. I have MANY matches on Ancestry, but the majority do not have family trees and so I don't know I am connected to them. Just another piece in this wonderful puzzle of Family History Research!
