Write your story....

The mowing machine's whirring sounded cheerfully from the old buffalo wallow south of the claim shanty, where bluestem grass stood thick and tall and Pa was cutting it for Hay."  Your sitting there in solitude curled up on the couch reading Laura Ingall's Wilder's  The Long Winter.

Think of your research as writing your families story  just like Laura Ingall's Wilder did.  Your research, gather and hunt for all this little bit of information here and there.  But in the end when you piece all that information you gathered together it starts to form their story.

Below is My Kinship (well a little bit of it).  As I work at becoming a Registered Genealogist or Certified one, I have to make my portfolio showing I am well educated and versed in research.  One of these Items I have to do is make a kinship report.  Showing I can write my family or A family story by all I have found.

First Generation

Ole Halvorsen Svang , was born on 13 Mar 1822 in Nes, Hallingdal, Buskerud, Norway.² He was christened on 2 Jun 1822 in Nes, Hallingdal, Buskerud, Norway.³ Ole and Birgit Nilsdatter Brekke were married on 11 Jun 1853 in Gol, Hallingdal, Buskerud, Norway.⁴ Birgit Nilsdatter Brekke was born 19 Feb 1832 in Gol, Hallingdal, Norway ⁵ and Christened on 15 Apr 1832 In Nes, Hallingdal, Norway. ⁶ They were sealed in marriage together on 19 Nov 2004 in the Chicago Illinois Temple of the LDS Church ⁷ He immigrated on The Ship Sirius with his Wife and 8 Children, arriving in the New World by means of Quebec on 11 Jun 1866.⁸ Travel on the Ships at this time where hard and many became sick and or died on board, Living below decks usually was cramped. The Sirius ¹⁵ was carrying 235 passengers in Steerage, records state that two passengers died of senile debility on the voyage and two children were sick with diarrhoea. The ship was so filthy that it was detained in quarantine till cleaned. They boarded another ship that took them down the St. Lawrence Seaway to lake Michigan and onto the Port of Chicago. Once arriving in Chicago they started to make their way west making home in The Montevideo, Minnesota area .

In the mid 1870's he was able to obtain land in Lisbon, Minnesota and at least three of his children had gotten married. He filed his Declaration of Intent for ¹¹ Citizenship on 20 April 1872⁹ in the District Court in Chippewa Cty, Minnesota. Moving around 1872, Ole, Birgit, and their unmarried children moved via covered wagon to the Area around Webster in Day County, South Dakota ¹⁰ to make their final home near Lynn Lake. Ole Finally was Naturalized In Day County, South Dakota on 12 Nov 1888.¹¹ Ole obtained a Homestead consisted of 200 acres of land ¹²next door to his Daughter Kari. He most likely was a farmer, turning his land over for food for his family and or pay. Farming wasn't as it is now, they did not have the power machines we have now. Farmers were continually clearing the land. Depending on where they lived. Grubbing out tree stumps and burning them, using an old fashioned plow, being pulled by an oxen, or horse. Building log barns to house the animals. Bringing in enough hay and grasses to supply the animals for the winter months. Hauling dried wood to heat the homes with an old wood burning stove. Chopping wood and hauling coal in from the Mississippi river area. Planning enough food for survival during the winter months. Hunting and then processing the hides properly . Maintaining a horse and buggy to get back and forth to shop and attend church. Baby's born at home. Having to go fetch the Doctor. Butchering their own meat. Preparation and storage. Washing clothes. Indian visits. Making their own ammunition for their guns. Keeping a good water supply for them and the animals. Grain storage. Home schooling the kids. Asking for visit is from the local Minister or Preacher. Fencing to keep the animals confined. and the list goes on.

Ole lost his farmstead in 1897 and his wife Birgit his wife passed away just two days later.¹³ He continued to live on the farmstead until 1905 when it was sold to another gentlemen, and he moved into the nearby town of Pierpont where he lived for the Next year until his death in 1907. ¹⁴

As you can see I stated the facts and labeled those facts with the Sources.  (Well I'm not listing the sources here but you can see the numbering for the sources in the Article.  This is still a work in progress.  But by this you can see the story of my Great Great Grandparent's Life.

 I can not stress enough how important it is to talk to OLDER  family members.  Why, well If I had talked and listened and taken notes from My grandfather he would be able to tell me more of His Grandparents as he most likely knew them and talked to them.  Log your information  Plus write their story in whatever form you choose.  Be a book format,  a Scrapbook using photograph's and words.

Religion........

When writing up your family History one thing you should keep in mind when Collecting your information.  Is Their Religion.  WHY?  Well to me  it is not big deal. But it is for many  and how our ancestors lived was based around their churches.  Ex.  Just about all my Grandfather's from my 3rd Great Grandfather back on my dads side was a high up in their church,  I'm happy for this as  Churches always kept good records of their leaders and if your Royalty the same.  So if your hunting for Ancestors  they are a good place to start.

Also As in Norway  the Farms or Communes centered around their everyday living around their church and lived by them.  It helped keep them in line and centered.   On many of the Genealogy programs you have the option of inputting that on It is optional.  But comes in handy  for in the future if you write you family History up into book form.

When writing up your Family History your telling the story of your Ancestors lives. how they survived and their everyday living.  So knowing what that Religion is and the aspects of that Religion you will have for this time.

What NOT to do

Enter information onto  your tree when you are over tired and falling asleep  :)  Fingers seem to enter wrong stuff   ( Wanted to give a little chuckle to my readers)

How do I begin ???????

This is a tricky question. How do you begin? First and full most you gather as much information you can from living relatives. talk to you Parents, Grandparents,Aunts and Uncles. Take notes on everything they tell you, your primary information needed is FULL names (first, middle, last) Dates (Birth,Christening,Marriage,death) Places (birth,Christening,Marriage and Death). Do not worry if anyone you talk to doesn't have a clue most information can be found online (if they are deceased) and can be obtained by the clerks office. I have made myself a template I call census records  (see Pictures Below) each line is for every Grandparent and then I have columns for key Items I am trying to obtain.

As you can see I just black out what I DON'T need  and Highlight what I have gotten.


Second would be to set up a program to store all this new information in. If you use the computer, there are a couple programs you can use. I Use a combination of PAF = Personal Ancestrial File this you can obtain in the attached link to the LDS Family site. the other one I use is a similar program with a tad bit more Link is attached to this post. BOTH programs are realisiic and easy to use. Neither really needs any explanaition to how to use it unless your an LDS and need to do Temple Ready

My beginnings

Don't find new cousins! Just kidding.

How my Family mess started was actually rather simple. We got our computer in 1999, At this time I had found Rootsweb.com. My Aunt had started my family tree in the early 1980's, she even went to Norway and Germany and got some information. Well I took that information and the 100 name's she had come up with and put them on this site, here I thought I am not going to get any farther then she did. WRONG WRONG WRONG. 

Just about the middle of January of 2000 I received and email from a guy in Minnesota subject line simply said "HI, I am your cousin" OOOOOOOOOk. Well we talked back and forth for a few days, but now this had peaked my genealogy interest a tad more. So I started deeper hunting and searching and this is exactly how it went. The next week I found my cousins in Norway who actually still live on OUR family farm, the next week he found a cousin in Australia. This was blowing my mind. Then he found another one in Oklahoma. 

Then one Wednesday night I was on the computer after dinner as normal and Googling my last name and going through a ton of sites I came across this one tree that had my 3rd Great Grandparents on it so I said I' am going to see just how far back she has. So I started clicking on the fathers then it split to the mothers. It was going and going. THEN the wording started to change and since I do not know Norwegian I had to Google. WHAT Hey no. Curious the word was Kong Means King. 

Seems that my (if my memory is correct) 6th Great Grandfather was married had a son, his wife died and he remarried my 6th Great Grandmother and this is my line. SO to find out through a half brother we are connected to all the Kings of Norway and Denmark from 1580 Ad to think it was 34 BC, I kid you not. BUT as you search and such you find out that this line of the family is High up and are hooked into English Royalty, William 1st, OK my Head was spinning. OK from 100 names to over 22,000. And about 1/4 documented and verified. Isn't that a good reason for my head to be spinning? OK NOT all are blood related and technically connected, how my tree works is there are all the branched and leaves over all blood relatives and then their family huh? OK Johnny married Mary Turner. Mary's blood relatives and at least 4 generations if not more if they had more, are attached. 

You Will notice I may repeat myself.  Why I do this is to stress what is important to keep in mind to help you on your journey.

Truth or Not the Truth thats the Question

You go to Ancestry. com,  and Rootsweb.com and also Familysearch.org  and you find your umteenth Great Grandpa.  IS it him?  all looks good  so you take the information and add it to your tree.  then find out its wrong.  KEY NOTE.   These sites the trees are uploaded by you and me so if YOU have wrong information  your just passing it onto the next and so on. So MY suggestion.  write the information down and store in notebook and keep going back use it as a base not a law.  If you find out its true  cool  but if not then it's not on your tree yet.

AHHHH a Brick Wall

Yes the famous brick wall.  I'M not talking about the one at the end of an alley where you can't go any father  but at the same time I am.  This Brick Wall is in your mind and in research it the point where your research stops and you seem like you can not go any farther.  THE solution.  Put it aside for awhile and go onto something else.

    I have a few Brick Walls  One on my mothers Mothers side and the other on my fathers side. NOW  not all brick walls aren't because YOU simply can't find information  that all depends on if its there.  Some brick walls  are  there because YOU can't access that information.   EXAMPLE:  My Great Grandparents on my Moms Mothers side came from Lithuania.  Problem lies with  Occupation of the country, for years it jumped from being part of Russia  to Being Part of Poland  and Back and then Back to being Lithuania.  The records  are scattered. DO you look in Warsaw or Moscow  or Vilnius.  Alot of countries  these Included  you  have to actually go to these countries to obtain the information or Pay and arm and a leg to have someone do it for you.  Put it aside YOU never know when and where It will be available.

   Same with Germany.  Now  you can obtain information on ones in Germany.  I haven't been so lucky, finding out unless I know the church they went to  I maybe out of luck.  Due to the Wars   a lot of records were lost to bombings, fires.   BUT alot of churches kept records. so its  a hunt.  But don't let it discourage you.    I had received information I didn't know was true, so I had put it aside.  then I hit a brick wall and came back and received more information to find out I already had some.  SO  not all bric kwalls are bad  just irritating.   Just breath.