Christianna West

According to an Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Annotated Record of U.S. Census for 1850, Samuel Walker West was living with his first wife and children, including: himself, Samuel, 46 years old, Margaret Cooper West, 46, (his first wife, who he married January 29, 1829 in Tennessee), and their children: Susan Elizabeth, 19, John Anderson, 19, Emma Seraphine, 14, Margaret Fletcher, 12, Lydia Clementine, 10, William Moroni, 8, and Nancy Malinda, 6. Christiana Johnson West is not listed as being a household member, but this record mentions that Samuel and Christiana were married February 20, 1858, and his third wife, Karen Marie Hanson (known as Mary), and Samuel were married May 15, 1858. Mary was older than Samuel by a few years, and they had no children together. Samuel and Christiana had six children, the first when he was about 55 years old. Karen Marie Hansen was born in 1798 in Denmark, and her first husband was Christen Anderson, who she married in 1817. Mr. Anderson was born in 1793.

In the 1860 U.S. Federal Census for Beaver, Utah, Christiana is living with her husband, Samuel Walker West, (who has two other wives, his first, Margaret Cooper West and his third, Karen Marie Hansen West, known as Mary) and their one year old son, Isaac Walker West, who is one year old. In this census, Samuel is 56 years old, Christiana is 30, and also in the home is Mary, age 60. Margaret Cooper is living elsewhere with her family at this time. In this census, Samuel was listed as a farmer whose real estate is valued at $550 and his personal estate at $1,250. He was born in Tennessee and both Christiana and Karen Marie or Mary were born in Denmark.

Next door was Jesse Nathaniel Smith and his wife Margaret Fletcher West (Samuel's daughter with Margaret), and their two children, Adelaide M., 3, and Joseph, 10 months old. Jesse Nathaniel Smith was the cousin of the Prophet of the LDS Church, Joseph Smith, Jr. Sadly, just a couple of years later, Margaret died while her husband, Jesse, was on an LDS mission to Denmark. Her two children were raised by Jesse's first wife, Emma Seraphina West Smith, who was Margaret Fletcher West's sister.

By the 1870 census, Samuel, 66, and Christiana, 40, were living in Washington, Utah, and Samuel was still working as a farmer, and his real estate was valued at $800 and personal estate at $300. They had 4 more children, and in the home were: Isaac W., 11, Phebe W., 9, Christina, 5, Hannah, 2, and George A. West, 7 months old.

In the 1880 census, Christiana was a 50-year old widow, since Samuel had passed away February 22, 1873. With her were her children, Isaac W., 21, Christina, 15, Hannah, 12, George A., 10, and Samuel's other plural wife, Mary, 81. Christiana was working as a carpet weaver, Isaac as a farm laborer, Christina, worked in a factory, and the two younger children were at home; Mary was keeping house.

By 1900, Christiana, 72, was still living in Washington, Utah, with her son George A. West, 29. They owned their own home free from a mortgage. In this census, George was listed as a Minister. His mother was not working, and the record noted that she immigrated to America in 1857 and had been in the country for 43 years. Her oldest son, Isaac, 41, was living next door with his wife Levicie, 24 years old. They had been married for only one year, and although Levicie stated she had 4 children, 2 were no longer living. Her two living children were Nancy E. Shurtz, 6, and Francis L. Shurtz, 2. Isaac was working as a farmer, and he owned his farm free from a mortgage.

In 1910 Christiana, 82 years old, was living as a boarder with a family by the name of Caldwell. Thomas Caldwell, 65, his wife Susan C. Caldwall, 52, and her two children, Alonzo S. Marler, 33, and Karl M. Marler, 13. Don't know if any of these people were related to Christiana. Thomas was working as a farmer, and Alonzo as a laborer on the home farm, and Christiana had her own income.

Six years later Christiana Johanson West passed away on December 26, 1916. at the age of 88 years old and was buried in the Enterprise City Cemetery on December 27, 1916.

The following information is from another descendant of the West family, Daniel Craw, and was posted on Ancestry.com: All information that I had, before uploading my GEDCOM onto Ancestry.com, had her name as Christianna Johnson.

This same information only shows one marriage to Samuel Walker West and that her parents were John Eggy Epperson, born 1802 in Maribo, Storstrom, Denmark, and Katherine Neilson, born 1806 in Denmark. This same information can also be found in several family trees on Ancestry.com. So why did she have the last name of Johnson? Could it have been due to an unknown marriage to a Johnson? Do not think so as her head stone has the name Christiana Johansen; which means that the Johnson spelling is an English version of the spelling of Johansen. Why people want to change the names of people from other countries to English I am not sure, but this was done in my Italian line as well. My 2nd great-grandfathers name was listed as James Baudino in all records found here in the U.S. But "James" was born, lived and died in Italy - his name was not James, but Giacomo, the Italian version of James.

When I found her headstone I found the following: Christiana was the daughter of John and Maria Johansen. She was the 2nd wife of Samuel Walker West and the mother of six children.

Although her headstone gives her date of death as 28 December 1916 her death certificate states her date of death was 26 December 1916 and she was buried on 27 December 1916.

Her death certificate lists her parents as John and Maria Johnson; is this an English version again or is her family name really Johansen? John is an English version of: Hans, Jens, Jan, Jon, Johan or Johannes in Denmark.

In fact, her correct name should be Christiane Johansdatter (daughter of John or John’s daughter); Johnansen is son of John. In Scandinavia daughters took their fathers first name and added "datter" to it to get their last name, while all sons took the father first name and added "sen" to get their last name. As they took her name and turned it into an English version and as we do not follow the convention of adding daughter, only son, to last names, her family name became Johnson or son of John. This is why her fathers name is Johan Ekhardsen (Eggertsen) as he was the son of Ekhard or Eggert. Her mother was Katrine Marie Jacobsdatter as she was the daughter of Jacobs.

Information had her place of birth as: Lowland or Loland, Denmark. A search for Lowland or Loland finds the correct spelling is Lolland, which is the fourth largest island of Denmark. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of Region Sjælland (County of Zealand). Lolland is also known as "The Pan-Cake" island because of its flatness.

SOURCE: Ancestry.com