The Sjur (Sivert) Markusson family I would think is fairly typical of families that took root in the 1850's and 1860's. Both Sjur and his wife Ingeborg were born in Norway. Actually they lived fairly close to one another while growing up. About twenty miles separated them. They both ended up in Goodhue County, Minnesota living across the road from each other. They married in 1860 and had at least ten children. They are a couple of gaps in the ages of the children indicating that another child or two might have been born during those period of time and died for some reason. Of their ten children six of them, including my grandfather, stayed within the area, two ended up in North Dakota, and two ended up California.  ¶ 8:53 AM 1 comments

 
The Hauge Lutheran Church of Kenyon, Minnesota was first formed in 1861. Its original congregation consisted of just three families. They were Sjur Marcuson (my g-grandfather) and his family, his brother Lars Marcuson and the family of Lars N. Bye. Soon after this I believe Sjur's in-laws, Christen and Brita Benson and their family became members of the church. The picture is of the their church which was built in the mid-1870's. It is still standing and is known as the Old Stone Church.  ¶ 9:15 AM 0 comments

 
This chart shows all my ancestors up through my thirty-two ggg-grandparents. In the ggg-grandparent column the first twenty-four ggg-grandparents lived in Norway and the other eight were living in the United States.  ¶ 12:28 PM 0 comments

 
The picture is of a postcard that my gg-grandfather (John Edward Meader) wrote to his son (my g-grandfather) for the son's birthday. There is no mention of his wife in the card. She died in October, 1915 and he died in July 1918. Because of this I believe the card was written sometime between 1916 and 1918. The father was living in Dent, Minnesota with his oldest son at this time and the son that the card was sent to was living in Glenville, Minnesota.  ¶ 9:18 AM 1 comments

 
The picture is of Sarah E. Young Prentice. She is the sister of my gg-grandmother Emma Ann Young Meader. Their parents were my ggg-grandparents John S. Young and Mary B.C. Young. Sarah was born in 1849 in Wayne Township, Hamilton County, Indiana which is about 15-20 miles from where I presently live. She moved to Polk County, Iowa in 1861 with her family where she married Pitt Prentice in 1872.  ¶ 7:59 AM 3 comments

 
My g-grandfather Orren Ellis Meader was born in Kansas in 1874. His parents had moved there from Mitchellville, Iowa several years earlier with other family members. The family was forced to return to Iowa in 1874/1875 due to the grasshopper plagues. 1874 was an especially bad year. They did return to Kansas in a couple of years and stayed until 1894. The grasshopper that caused the plagues was really the Rocky Mountain Locust. The picture is of a Rocky Mountain Locust.  ¶ 8:33 AM 0 comments