In Tengens.net, half sisters, Margaret Tifft Janis and B. Mary Tifft Froelicher present the results of their research into the history of the Tifft, Goodrich, Hallberg, and Watson families, which became one complex, extended, and blended family when Cyril Tifft and Margaret Jean Goodrich Watson were married in 1947. Tengens.net is their family storie, told in posts.
Margaret Jean Goodrich (“Jean”) was born into a family of English immigrants with a touch of German and a touch of Irish thrown in for good measure. The Goodriches and Bakers were early immigrants to New England, and came together around 1900 when Cora Baker and Arthur Goodrich—Jean’s parents—met as young adults in North Minneapolis. This is the story of Jean’s ancestors.
William Wallace Watson II was born into the Watson-French family—a family of brilliant and colorful characters. Virtually all branches of the family are of English and Scottish heritage. They all came together when Percy Watson met Clara French at Carleton College in 1899. Percy, a doctor, and Clara, a teacher, were missionaries in China for twenty-five years, where they raised five extraordinary children. This is the overview of the complex Watson-French family.
Cyril Richardson Tifft was born into a family of pioneers. Most were among the earliest settlers in New England in the mid-1600s. Later they became early settlers in Illinois and Minnesota. This is the story of Cyril’s ancestors in America.
Carl Hjalmer Hallberg and Anna Elisabet Jonsdotter, the parents of Beatrice Hallberg Tifft, were immigrants from Utterbyn, in Värmland, Sweden. They settled in North Minneapolis in the early 1900s. This is the story of their ancestors.
Cyril Richardson Tifft, a widower, married Jean Goodrich Watson, a widow in 1947. Over many years of their marriage, they created a large, blended family made up of four sets of grandparents, four children, eight grandchildren, many great-grandchildren, in-laws, and several foreign students. This is the story of how the extended and blended family of Cyril and Jean Tifft came to be.
Margaret Tifft Janis has been interested in family history for as long as she can remember. Following a fast-paced career and a major health scare, her life finally slowed down enough to start researching her family history in 2012. This is a brief recounting of her life before Tengens.net.
As a child, Margaret Tifft heard many stories about the history of her blended and extended family, told by her parents, and her many grandparents. She was intrigued by these stories and always wanted to research the genealogy and history of her extended and blended family. This is the story of how her passion developed a very early age.
Mary Tifft Froelicher’s mother died when she was just over two. She always gravitated to her mother’s Swedish parents who ignited her interest in her Swedish ancestry. Following a career as a public health nurse and later a home health nurse, she spends much of her time researching and writing about her Swedish roots.
Mary Tifft’s “momma” died when she was just two. Missing her mother’s love, she gravitated to her mother’s parents, Swedish immigrants Anna and Carl Hallberg. In college, she went to Europe for the first time and visited her grandparents’ home in Utterbyn, Värmland, Sweden. There she met several second cousins who have become lifelong friends, and found records of her grandparents’ departure from Sweden in the parish church, igniting in her a lifelong passion for discovering her Swedish roots.
