The Elusive Augustus Lind -- Brickwall #1 Part 1

The 14-year old boy, a stowaway, arrived in America. He was all alone in the New World, in a city called Philadelphia, in the year 1865. It was nothing like the Sweden he just left.

There is no record of his arrival. There is no record of his naturalization. In fact, there is no record of the first 32 years of his life.

The first definitive record of his existence is in Nevada City, California in December, 1884 where he is getting married to his wife, Elvira Lenora Gillett (whose ancestors can be traced back to Antoine De Gylet of the Huguenots in 1500-1600s Bergerac, France), she is just sixteen.

Together, they had at least seven children, and it is thought that three of them died in early childhood, including young Anne Mariah Lind (20 Jul 1899 - 12 Aug 1899) who succumbed to Cholera Infantum at just 22 days old. The children who made it to adulthood were:

• Thomas Augustus Lind (1887-1956)

• John Albert Lind (1889-1976)

• George William Lind (1894-1943) (my Grandfather)

• Leonard Lewis Lind (1898-1992)

• Viola Lenora Lind (1901-1954)

In 1906, Augustus Lind, aged 58, dies of Gangrene of the Lungs. He had been working as a millman in his father-in-law's mill (William T. Gillett). He left behind a large family, and a large mystery.

Where did he really come from? He had mentioned on occasion that he was a first cousin of Jenny Lind (Anna Maria Goldschmidt Lind), "The Swedish Nightingale". Was this true? There is little known about the father of Jenny Lind (who was born out of wedlock).

So to help solve this puzzle, I've taken a Y-DNA test at FamilytreeDNA.com. I am still waiting on the results of half the test. The three out of six portions of the test that have been completed do indeed indicate he was Swedish and my Haplogroup is most likely I1.

Since Y-DNA is passed from father to son with little to no change, the Y-DNA that me, my son, my brother, and his sons all carry should be almost identical to that of Augustus Lind. And also that of his father, his uncles, his brothers, etc. The DNA will never tell me who his father was (and help fill in the blanks of the story), but it can help point to common ancestors. If I can hop over Augustus to others in Sweden with the same Y-DNA, I might be able to pick up a paper trail that leads back down to him.