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