Crapser Family Genealogy

This is the genealogy of my great-grandfather Oral Crapser's family. Oral Percy Crapser was born on the 10th of September 1906 to Melbourn W. and Teolina (Kjolseth) Crapser. His grandparents were Timothy and Louisa J. (Lane) Crapser and Martin J. and Anna (Hansen) Kjolseth.

On the 9th of May 1927, Oral married Leola M. Workman. They had five children, four sons and a daughter. Oral passed away on the 10th of May 1972 in Brookings, Brookings County, South Dakota.

Ancestral Summary Locations of Interest Photos References

Ancestral Summary

CRAPSER: This family has been traced to Catskill, Greene County, New York, but then they emigrated to Illinois and Brookings County, SD. According to family stories down the line there is Austrian-Hungarian ancestry. It is said we are related to Johannes Krapsen von Rotenflau, who showed up in the New Amsterdam area in 1690 from the Austian-Hungarian border area. The name was changed to KrapSER, either officially or by poor penmanship, in 1696.

The farthest back I've been able to trace is Timothy Crapser, who was born in 1825. I'm attempting to connect Timothy to Johannes. For more info see my Brick Wall page.

Possible variations on the Crapser name: Krapsen, Krapser, Crasper, Krebser. I've seen several instances of families with the Krebser spelling; at first I discarded the idea, but the names and dates are all the same. One major difference between them is the homeland. Krebser lines usually claim to be from Switzerland, Krapsen lines usually claim to be from Germany or Austria-Hungary area.

LANE: This family has been traced to Catskill (Greene County), Dutchess County, and Westchester County in New York. They have many connections to the Overbaugh and Linzey families. Grandpa Joseph C. Lane served in the Revolutionary War.

KJOLSETH: The Kjolseth (aka Chaulsett) family was from Norway. GGGG Grandpa Jens and Martha immigrated; I don't know when, but have reason to believe it was in late 1870s. Their first child Ole immigrated from Christina, Norway on April 20, 1875. Their second child Martin (my GGG Grandpa) immigrated in 1866, and was naturalized in 1871. The third child William came to the U.S. in 1869. He first settled in Minnesota. His homestead is in present day Sinai, South Dakota. Jens, Martha, Martin, William were all living in Brookings County, Dakota Territory during the 1880 U.S. Census. Martin's wife Anna (my GGG Grandma) and daughter Teolina (my GG Grandma) were also living with the Kjolseths. Some of Teolina's siblings changed the name to Chaulsett (easier to spell/sound out??).

HANSEN: have not yet researched

Locations of Interest

See a map of these locations

State	County	Surnames	References
Illinois	Boone	Crapser, Walker	Boone County
	Cook	Crapser, Walker
Iowa	unknown	Crapser, Dodge
Michigan*	Genesee	Crapser	Genesee County
New York	Dutchess	Crapser, Doughty	Dutchess County
	Greene	Crapser, Lampman, Lane, Lewis	Greene County
South Dakota	Beadle	Crapser, Gunn
	Brookings	Crapser, Kjolseth (Chaulsett)	Brookings County
	Marshall	Printup
	Turner	Anderson
	unknown	Hanrahan

*not sure of the relationship to these Crapser families yet.

Country	Area	Surnames	References
Austria-Hungary		Crapser (Krapsen von Rotenflau)
Norway		Kjolseth
Switzerland	Rothenflue, Embrach, Zurich	Crapser (Krapsen von Rotenflau) or Krebser	I'm still verifying this, but it is possible that the Krapsen von Rotenflau family is actually from Zurich, Switzerland.