DAILY GENEALOGY PROGRESS

I have decided to try to keep everyone informed on the daily discoveries I am making in the family genealogy and history.

Sept 1, 2002: This was a sixteen hour day of steady work. Today I had several conversations on the phone and through email with Margaret Anderson, the Rodvold family genealogist. She has been very helpful. Thanks to her I have added all of Peder Rodvold's siblings and their birthdates, marriage dates, spouses names, etc to our database. I also learned from her about a thick 500 page book written in Norwegian called DRAXENFOLKET or The Draxten People. It is expensive, over $50, but I will try to get a copy of it. The book is a complete genealogy of the people who lived in the area of Selbu known as Draxten, and it gives all the details of the people who emmigrated to America. It also has many photographs, including a photograph of Torsten and Johanna Uglem when they were very young. I had to make several long distance calls to finally connect with Elmer Draxtin, who is the person who has been bringing copies of the book to the States and distributing them for the past 20 years. Margaret Anderson has a copy. Over the phone and through email on this day we managed to add quite a few names and spouses and dates of birth and marriage, etc, to the old Uglemfamily database. Altogether over sixty names were added, mostly Draxtens. Not our direct ancestors though today. Rather the line I worked on was the ancestors of Torsten Uglem's sister Sigrid Svengaard's husband Sivert A. Draxten's ancestors all the way back to 1575 AD, which is all new to the database. I am hoping that this lineage will form a sort of ladder that I will be able to build an extensive Draxten database upon that will connect to all the other known Draxtens in our family tree. I have also been able to add complete dates, with month, date, and year, to replace many that were only listed as years. In addition to this I was able to discover a Norwegian database of a family that interconnects with ours and added quite a few more bits of information to what was previously known.

Another interesting discovery on this day was that Johanna's sister Brynhild's two children, Kari and Anna, had two different fathers. Birth certificates in Norway reveal their names. And the information is found in DRAXENFOLKET. So now I have added that information to the database.

Sept 2, 2002: I began the day around 6 AM by discovering a Norwegian database that interconnects with ours at the point of Johanna's grandmother Mali Andersdatter Venn. I found the correct years of birth and death for her and her husband. I was also able to add the lineage of their son Anders Larsen Qvelloaunet. (This name may also be spelled with a K.) He married Marit Olsdattr Eidem. All their dates were found as well. Plus an interesting connection: Marit's father was already in the old database but with no wife or children, so I connected the two. He is Ole Sjurdsen Eidem, 1789 - 1843.

It is nearing the end of the day. Formerly we only had the years of birth and death for Johanna's mother Anne Larsdatter. Today I have added the complete dates thanks to DRAXENFOLKET. She was born Apr 20, 1835 and she died Feb 18, 1898. Also new today, we now know the date of the death of Johanna's father: Jun 6 1877. The DRAXENFOLKET BOOK gives his surname as Almaas, so I have changed my database to that. The old database gave Johanna's father's mother as Sigrid Dragsten Bersvensdatter, born in 1800, with no date for her death. Today we know she died Apr 9, 1877. The old database ended there. But today we added her father and mother and her grandparents to the database. We have gone back another hundred years to about 1700.

Sept 3, 2002: Hylma wrote in the first chapter of her book:   "So far, that is all I know of the aunts and cousins on Pa’s side of the family. There are Uglems living around Northwood, N.D. who must be distant relatives, Not too long ago, in the N.D. State Class B Basketball tournament there was an Uglem playing on the Northwood team. It is a very unusual name, even among Norwegians."  There probably aren't many among Torsten Uglem's descendants who know exactly how we are related to the Uglems of Northwood, N.D.   Well, it's like Hylma says: they come from Johanna's dad's people. If you go into the database around here -- http://www.gencircles.com/users/thomasholme/1/data/412 -- you will be at Sigrie thhe Younger's family. She was Johanna's father's mother. Her fourth child was Marit Paulsdotter Uglem. She married Anders Anderson Uglem. Marit died in Selbu, Norway in 1881 at 53 years of age. Her husband Anders took the children across the ocean to America. Anders died in Northwood, Minnesota in 1901. They had three sons and three daughters, all of whom remained in and around Northwood, Minnesota. So, there you have the Uglems of Northwood. Draxton and Eidem cousins live there too.

This has been quite a day. I have added over 250 names to the old Uglem database today, twelve hours of straight work, adding lineages of Eidems, Draxtens, Sirims, Uglems and other kindred.  The Uglemfamily database I have on the interenet at this time is more than twice the size of when I received it ten years ago. And it will continue to grow.  Today I also extended the database back to about 1650 AD in this line. You may see the furthest extention here: http://www.gencircles.com/users/thomasholme/1/data/8093 --

Sept 4, 2002: I added 55 names to the uglemfamily database this morning, then spent the afternoon running errands and paying bills. The evening was spent working on my holmefamily database, scanning and retouching photographs for the site that came in the mail today from cousin Adrienne.

Sept 5: 2002: Woke up and got on the computer at 4:25 AM this morning to work on genealogy. I am lucky to have a wife who tolerates such idiocyncracies. Had to buy new reading glasses yesterday with a stronger perscription. Long hours at the computer screen are taking their toll.

I spent the day until late in the evening adding photographs to the holmefamily website.

Sept 6: 2002: Added about fifty names to the uglemfamily database today.

Sept 7: 2002: Spent the morning very enjoyably, talking with some wonderful elderly people, members of the Uglem family of Northwood, North Dakota. First I spoke with Parnell (born in 1917), then with his brother Berthold's wife, Marie, then with Florence Uglem, sister of Parnell and Berthold. Added much family information to the tree. Next I telephoned Robert Uglem, age 88, and his brother Wallace, of Minneapolis and St Paul respectively, to see if I could find out how they figure into our Uglem tree. Unfortunately I did not learn exactly how they are related to us. Their father was Oscar Uglem, born in 1892 and their mother was Mamie Peterson, born in 1892. Their grandfather was Ole Uglem, 1853 – 1937, and their grandmother was Agnes, 1853 – 1927. Ole Uglem and his wife Agnes came to Minnesota from Sogndal, Norway. They had nine children. At this time no one has a record of the name of Ole's father and mother. But we are just beginning our search.

I spent much of the remainder of the day working on the holmefamily website.

Sept 8: 2002: Today I found some nice pieces of genealogical information. The old Uglem database was missing a lot of bits of information, like the marriage dates for Johanna's siblings, Sigrid, Mali, Brynhild, Paul, Lars and Petrine. I have now found them all and put them in the database. Also a lot of little things like the surname of Lars' wife Emma, (You will remember the story Hylma told us about them in her book). She was Emma Kirknes. I also found all their complete birthdates, not just the years as was in the old database. Much more. Plus, on Torsten's side, I found his mother's complete birthdate: Marit Johnsdatter Eidem, born Sept 18, 1823. The old database said 1824. I also found the complete dates of birth for Torsten's sisters Brynhild and Helga. And added a few new names to the database too.

Sept 9, 2002: I have spent so much time working on genealogy lately that I have neglected other things that need my attention. But that is how I tend to get things done: I put all my energy into one project until it is complete and then I turn to the next project. I have added a great deal to our uglemfamily database recently so I think I will suspend my research in these areas for the time being. I really need to spend a few days working on my Goldwing motorcycle and Volkswagon bus. Neither are running. Both need major repairs. I have put it off long enough. One thing I think we need for our uglemfamily website is a family historian/genealogist who will field questions that people may write in and ask. The younger people are getting more and more computer literate and I expect some of them may start asking questions about such things. Their parents may encourage them to submit the questions here. If anyone believes they have the ability to do that and would like to give it a try, please contact me and I will create a page for you. You will have so much fun answering questions! i.e.: "Dear ________, I am curious! Did Torsten and Johanna row to America with their family in their farm boat?"