Long time no see yall

I’m back! Unexpected hiatus there, sorry for disappearing! I moved from one side of the US to another and things have been BUSY! I’m going to be working on clearing out my ask box for now :) please accept this picture of my cat as compensation lol

Happily!!!

So the research is centered around my great grandma (Grandma Vi) and trying to find her parents.

The story that we have from my mom and grandma (grandma being Vi’s daughter in law) is that she was born in ND in 1910, her mother died of TB when she was four, and her dad left her with “her mother’s people) right after. Supposedly he was Irish/English we’re not sure. She was left with some cousins, the Petersons.

We’ve all done DNA tests, and we know (and I know through the extensive research I’ve done tracing most branches of my family to at least the 1600s) that we’re Norwegian. Grandma Vi is the only source of that, and so either we’re biologically related to the Petersons OR her mother came from the Norwegian/Swedish community settling in ND. I’m really hoping it’s a cousin because having a link like that would be easier to find but I’m looking for church records. But these people were pig farmers who were homesteading—the records aren’t easy to find. I’ve had to find historic maps to locate the townships and then also find where they are—Garborg Township, where the Petersons are in the 1900 census, no longer really exists as far as I can tell, but the cemetery does so I was able to pin it that way. Same with Sandoun Township in 1920 which is the first time Grandma Vi pops up.

I’ve confirmed I have the right Petersons (1910 census, 1920 census that includes a Viola Peterson) because she’s listed in her adoptive mother’s obituary living in San Diego (with her husband’s name so she’s Mrs. J. E. Brennan—helpful.)

Speaking of grandpa Joe, who I unfortunately never met, he met her while he was traveling with a circus. He played the saxophone (my mom still has it) and they ran away together. She converted to Catholicism to marry him and she never had another partner after he passed in the 60s. They moved to San Diego and opened a restaurant together. They got married in 1928 in Wilkin Minnesota

And as I’m going back and forth between my notes I realized I MISSED that he lived in ND from at least 1917-1925 and I’m going to dig into that

Salted butter

Francisco International sour dough