Jacobine "Bina" Nelson and Mathilda Wennberg1923 - Serendipity!

Why did I poo-poo this DNA stuff so much? It seemed so cut and dry and since I already had a well documented family tree going back many generations, why would I need it?

Through DNA I have now been in contact with a third cousin, a great grandson of Mathilde Amalie Gundersen. Mathilde was the older sister of my great grandfather Nils Gundersen. We shared information. I gave him the link to our common family in Telemark, Norway and he gave me this lovely photo.

Such serendipity! I had been recently researching both of these great grand aunts and had only just discovered that they had been earlier family emigrants to of all places...Chicago! In fact they were most likely the reason my grandparents chose Chicago. On his Ellis Island ship manifest my grandfather Paul listed Mathilde as his U.S. contact. Listed under her married name of Wennberg I only made the connection a short while ago.

1923 Manifest of the ship "Bergensfjord" Oslo to New York - steerage line #7 Paul Sevaldsen

If  I am to be honest I have to say that much of the particulars of this DNA stuff .....whew.....really just flies way way over my head and I don't think I am particularly stupid. My brain just doesn't work that way. I will however pay attention to those emails from 23 and me and My Heritage in the future. I will certainly also answer  those folks that contact me, claiming to share a few bits of the DNA that is me.

My Great Grand Aunts

Jacobine "Bina" (Gundersdatter) Nelson

b: 11 February 1869 Eidanger, Telemark, Norway

d: 18 Jun 1935 Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA

Mathilda Amalie (Gundersdatter) Wennberg

b: 22 February 1873 Eidanger, Telemark, Norway

d: 22 January 1931 Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA

Thank You cousin James!

***click on photo and document to enlarge for easier viewing***

Great Grand Aunt Mathilda Gundersen 1873-1931 - I had the information all the time!

After finding my great grand aunt "Bina" last week I followed up with a search for her sister Mathilde Amalie. I also had no more than a birth record on her. Once again, why not Chicago? If her brother Laurits, sister Jacobine, niece Dagmar and niece Jenny had all left Telemark for Chicago then why not  Mathilde? I had such good luck with the Lutheran church records, I started there.  I figured if she left Norway unmarried she most likely would find a boyfriend within a few years and then would most likely marry in the church. Bingo! How easy was that? Mathilde Amalie married Jon Wennberg, also a Norwegian immigrant, in the Bethania Lutheran church of Chicago December 19, 1896. The name Wennberg  did not ring any bells for me but...in the US census records Mathilda and Jon lived and raised their family at 5028 Sawyer Avenue. Didn't my grandparents live there at some time? I checked and no they did not. Who lived there or why did that address seem familiar?

One of the first family history records I found, before I started a family tree or caught the genealogy "bug" was a manifest of the ship Bergensfjord. On the Ellis Island website I saw for the first time the documentation of my grandfather Paul coming to America. I remember how excited I was as I saw his name among the many poor third class passengers hoping for a better life in the U.S. My grandmother had told me that my grandfather and she, on first arrival in the U.S., had stayed briefly with an aunt in America. "She was not nice, mean and stingy that woman was and we got out as quickly as we could". I assumed it was his aunt? Wrong!

from the manifest of the NAL "Bergensfjord" , leaving from Kristiania, Norway and arriving at the port of New York August 1, 1923, page 35, line #7, steerage passenger Paul Sevaldsen:

colume #19 - whether going to join a relative or friend, and if so, what relative or friend, his complete name and address

That's no "friend" Grandpa, that is your wife's  "mean and stingy" Aunt Mathilde! I had her name and address for over twenty years and never put it all together. Uff Da!

my great grand Aunt

Mathilde  Amalie Gundersen Wennberg

b. 22 Feb 1873 Eidanger, Telemark, Norway

d. 22 Jan 1931 Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA