Donsberg Family, Snappertuna, Ekenas, Karis

[Shay]

I am trying to trace back or find out what happened to some of my Donsberg ancestors, and would be really interested to know if I have some living relatives in Finland or elsewhere.

My great x 3 grandparents were:
Magnus DONSBERG born 20.8.1820 in Karis, Finland and Sofia Vilhemina NYLUND b. 27.7.1828 in Snappertuna , Finland . They were married on 20.4.1856 in Snappertuna. Sofia died 3.4.1879. No information on a place of death or date for Magnus.
Sofia and Magnus has the following children

1) Viktor Leonard DONSBERG b. 15.9.1849 ? in Snappertuna. Marriage: 10.11.1874 Death: 26.3.1897 Spouse: Klara Sophia FORSBOM
2) Aurora Matilda DONSBERG Birth: 13.7.1852,in Snappertuna reportedly never married but had a child, Axel Alfred b. 8.12.1877 in Helsingfors(not sure of his last name, whether it was the same as hers or of the father). She moved to Helsingfors 13.11.1886.
3) Amanda Viktorina DONSBERG Birth: 5.3.1860 in Ekenas Marriage: 19.3.1890 to Berndt Viktor QVIST. They had 6 children, 4 of whom I know died in childhood. The two surviving children were: Alfred August Qvist b. 27.11.1881 in Ekenas and Aina Augusta Qvist b. 11.2.1887 in Ekenas.
4)Hilda Wilhemina DONSBERG Birth: 5.12.1866 in Pojo Marriage: never married Death: 17.12.1868
5)Augusta Maria DONSBERG in Ekenas Birth:2.8.1872 and reportedly never married.

I am descended from Viktor, who was my great x 2 grandfather.
Viktor and his wife, Klara (nee Forsbom) had 4 children.
1) Algot Ludvig DONSBERG(my great grandafther) b. 24.11.1875 in Ekenas, married 8.8.1903 in Western Australia to Louisa Sarah BEART. He died in Adelaide, Australia on 2.12.1942, and had 4 children.
2)Lydia Sofia DONSBERG b. 6.1.1878 in Ekenas d. 26.4.1910 and reportedly never married.
3) Klara Irene DONSBERG b. 23.1.1880 in Ekenas married Henrik Oskar Ewald FAGERLUND on 23.12.1900 and had at least one child, Oskar Irne FAGERLUND b. 11.8.1901.
4) Karl Viktor DONSBERG b. 14.1.1892 in Ekenas and reportedly never married.

Algot came to australia in 1894 , and changed his name to Louis Abbion Donsberg , but not legally, which made tracing him here very difficult! His second child was my grandfather, and his name was Leonard William Fabian Donsberg.

At this stage thats about all I really know, and I would appreciate any help anyone can give me to fill in any gaps. I would also be interested in finding pictures of the locations I have listed.
Kind regards,
Shay

[staffan]

Hello Shay and welcome to the forum,

An entry can be found in the (still incomplete) database of seamen at http://194.100.116.230/asp/merimiehet1.asp?lang=fi

Dönsberg, A.L.: Ajankohta: 1893; Sisäänkirjoitettu: ei; Syntynyt: 1875 Ekenäs; Lähde: Tammisaaren merimieshuone B4.

which translates to:

Dönsberg, A.L.: Date: 1893; Enroled: not; Born: 1875 Ekenäs; Source: The Seamen's House of Ekenäs B4.

Dönsberg, A.L. is obviously your ggf Algot Ludvig DÖNSBERG

Good news:
A superficial Google search reveals (10 result pages) that the name Dönsberg (it is necessary to use the scand ö [o with dots] for a successful search) is not at all uncommon in Finland today.

Regards,

[granskare]

while pressing on the alt key, press 148 in sequence on the number pad and voila, ö

Chuck:)

[staffan]

Thanks Chuck,

And for the rest of us - I think mainly of the proud Macintosh users like me and also know some others on this board... - optionkey + A

If the computer configuration requires coding of the scands I do never myself remember the key board codes so I simply copy the scands from somewhere :)

Of all obstacles non-Scandinavian users encounter when doing online genealogy, searching Swedish and Finnish databases etc, I suppose neglecting to invariably use scands, AKA the three small pigs (å, ä, ö; capitals: Å, Ä, Ö), when appropriate, actually turns out to be the single most devastating obstacle for successful searches. It is however not easy to always know when it is appropriate, but try all of the characters ...a, o, å, ä, ö... if you are not sure.

Regards,

[granskare]

alt 132 = ä
alt 129 = ü
alt 134 = å
alt 142 = Ä
alt 143 = Å
alt 148 = ö
alt 153 = Ö

wish I had one for the euro sign but if you have a yen for it, alt157 = ¥

edit: of course this is for an English language keyboard and we shall rely upon you to help the mac users on this forum. I've not done a mac since I had a Powerbook 150 that belonged to my old education agency.
:)
Chuck

[Shay]

Thankyou for all of that information Staffan and Chuck. I must confess that I spent about an hour yesterday trying to work out how to get my computer to type a scand. I have just tried to use your method in both a search and plain text writing, and its not appearing as a scand either. Cutting and pasting isnt an option as my computer is turning the scands into question marks. Any other suggestions? This is so frustrating!
Kind regards,
Shay

[Shay]

Ok, after fiddling around a bit , this is what I have to do for my computer to insert scands into text. Control, Shift, Colon , and then the letter. Unfortunately Google still wont let me insert that into a web search, without it coming up as a question mark. (Maybe I need to change my preferences within Goggle or try another search engine?)

Shay:)

[Shay]

I managed to do it ...finally...sometimes being computer challenged is a curse, but I feel a real sense of achievement! Thanks for all your hints and tips which pointed me in the right direction to start with.I would likely still be struggling otherwise.
kindest regards,
Shay

[staffan]

I do have problems with searches of selected text containing scands on a web page when using Google in the toolbar, and have to retype the scand directly into the search form , but I am not sure how this works in the PC-Windows environment.

Sorry to hear that the copy & paste method does not work. I have used it only with some configurations (Mac and virtual PC) so it might not be a good general solution.

I have copied the instructions below which I suppose are for PC-Windows configurations from the Institute of Migration web site:

------
How to type Skandinavian characters in English keyboard?

1. Make sure NUM LOCK is on.

2. Hold down ALT-key, and then, by using the numeric keypad (on the right), type the character code. Then, release ALT-key.

Character codes:

ALT+0229 = å
ALT+0197 = Å

ALT+0228 = ä
ALT+0196 = Ä

ALT+0246 = ö
ALT+0214 = Ö
--------

Here are some links http://www.starr.net/is/type/kbh.html

For the Mac:

å Option+A
Å Shift+Option+A

the rest (äÄ,öÖ) can be found for instance here
http://www.umich.edu/~langres/diacritics/german.html

[granskare]

so maybe that num lock bit was the problem in Australia?

On the English keyboard, tle ALT key exists to the left of the spacebar, at least here it does:)

And yes, you must hold the alt key while doing those keypad numbers and the ones I posted were the ibm pc extended character set.


My old dos user book, yes, a real book, also has these sets of numbers that can be used: This is for the ansi character set for which one holds the alt key while at the keypad typing 0 (zero) plus the digits:
alt 0196 = Ä
alt 0197 = Å
alt 0214 =Ö
alt 0228 = ä
alt 0229 = å
alt 0246 = ö

but why do 4 digits when 3 will obtain the same results?

Chuck
:p

[Shay]

Actually Chuck, Im sure the num lock wasnt the problem...I think the inexperience and ineptitude of the user was the issue ! These boards have been very helpful for all sorts of things , this issue being one of them.I thank you all for your generosity in being patient with a newbie!
Shay:)