I struggled trying to decide what to do this week for my entry for Curious. It's not a hard prompt, but I had several options, and couldn't decide between them, but I figured since I started this talking about how I got into genealogy, I'd end the month with a similar story. The story of how our family found out about my great grandmother Oline's family.
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| Oline, Maggie, and Holger Hansen ca 1920 |
When I was young, my grandmother and her sister and brother decided to find out about their mother's family. Oline had died when my grandmother (the eldest of the three) was nine, and they'd lived in the US, while most of Oline's lived in Denmark, so the family had quickly lost all touch with them. So they dug into the records they could find for Oline here in the states, and found a location they thought she was born. My great aunt wrote to the government there and asked if they had any information on her and her family. What they got back was a treasure trove. A full family tree from their grandparents down through the current generation.
Even better, they learned that one of their uncles, Hans, was alive and well--and living in the US. The three quickly got in touch with Hans's step-daughter, who was taking care of him, and arranged a meeting, where they spent a few days talking to him about their mother, and about their family and their life in Denmark.
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| Maggie, Hans, and Marilyn about 1988 |
Shortly after meeting their uncle Hans, Marilyn took a trip to Denmark with one of their cousins on their father's side, and met many of the other members of their family, gathering so many fabulous stories. I'm still digging through all the information Marilyn got from those visits. It's amazing, how much you can get out of a single visit.
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