I love following a photo which was posted on line on social media, finding that it leads to a new branch (or root if you will) of our family tree.
In this case this lovely woman pictured here was much older when I met her. Gladys.
So I'm looking through the Norwegian family records, and there was this wonderful photo of Glady's possible father. I say possible, because I don't think she was his blood child...having been born after his own five children were born. I think she could have been fostered by him and his wife. This is based on my memory of something that was said in some history or other, where it was said the Nelsens fostered 7 other children.
Nels Martin Nelsen had been born in Norway, in Svartnes, Galsfjord, Troms. There he lived in a large port city on a peninsula, looking at moutains across the water. Below is a family photo of Nels as a young boy, with his parents, Nils A. Mathiasen and Madsine Josephine "Massina" Olesdatter, and his sisters Konstance and Helge.
Nels moved to the US in 1900. Here's a photo of him at Bird Island MN.
By 1903 he was living in Lake Lillian MN, where he lived the rest of his life. That year his mother Massina died in Lake Lillian. He married in 1906 with Henrietta Wicklund Solomonson when he was 19 and she was 20, in Lake Lillian MN.
They had five children, all mentioned in his obituary, none of whom were born later than 1913. Their sons Oliver and Eldon were still living with them on their farm in Lake Lillian in the 1940 census.
Etta died in 1951, so is on the 1950 census, and Nels died in 1973. Interestingly enough, Etta is listed in 1950 as living with her sister, not in Lake Lillian. Here's Nels later in life.
I don't know who put the next 5 names of children on a census or Ancestry record for these Nelsens. But when Gladys M. Nelsen was added, it was a mistake. I just found her real Nelsen family!
So once again I've enjoyed getting to know a family which wasn't at all related to mine! Of course the Nelsens in Buffalo NY may have also had roots in Norway. I'll be checking on that in the next hour!
If you ever waited in line for a bus, the Sepia Saturday post is here for you. I've waited in line more at TSA to check in at airports...not since COVID though. Check out what others come up with for Sepia Saturday HERE.
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Your Gladys has such beautiful hair in her young photo.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking at recent photos and older photos of the same people so your post fits right in.
How exciting and wonderful to discover a new branch of your family. I know how invigorating it is in giving a spurt to family history research and writing, especially when you turn to resources in a fresh country. I too love that beautiful head of hair and her matching brown eyes in the young Gladys.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, Google won't allow me to sign in with my account or with my name and URL. Weird.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I love (and envy a tad) how women styled their hair in days gone by. Gladys' hair is like a movie star's.
Learning about a family that ultimately turns out not to be related to your family tree is sort of like getting into a surprisingly long and fun conversation with someone who accidentally called your phone number by mistake (or you, theirs). :))
ReplyDeleteSometimes veering down an “unrelated” path can yield an interesting family story, such as your here about Gladys. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of "waiting" even in family history research... ;)
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely portrait for Gladys. In my eclectic research I'm always looking up people that have no relationship to me. Very often I find an Ancestry.com family tree that I recognize as incorrect because some descendant has mistakenly followed the wrong branch. Most of the time it is someone compiling a gigantic family tree with all the cousins and in-laws. Those trees can be useful, but shouldn't be trusted completely without checking the sources.
ReplyDelete