Last November I first posted about my great X2 uncle Lauritz Severin Gundersen. A younger brother of my great grandfather Nils, I found him in the 1900 Norwegian National census but then he seemed to disappear. I discovered through my research he had emigrated to the U.S. and "Americanized" his name. Surprisingly, after some years in North Dakota he landed back in Chicago. I was pretty tight with my grandmother and she never mentioned she had an uncle living in the same city as we did! I think perhaps she didn't know. Louis Gunderson and his wife Carrie had a good sized family and I felt there was a good chance some of his descendants may still remain in the Chicago area. I posted this "shot in the dark".
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I had a hit! I recently was contacted by a woman who is the great grandaughter of Louis. She informed me that her grandmother, the youngest daughter of Louis, is still living in the Chicago area.
I would love to get together with this gal and share photos and family history. Here's the rub.
I am a total stranger! To her anyway. A stranger who is obsessed with family trivia (as all we family historians are). She is a "newbie" to genealogy using up her first free 2 weeks of Ancestry.com. I fear I may have already bombarded her too much in my excitement. So for now I hold my breath and hope she did not view me as a crazy relative who, as my husband says, "is looking for money or a kidney"! Then again she may get the family history bug too. And when she does she'll know where to find me.
