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Archiver > TMG > 2001-04 > 0986131984


From: Karla Huebner <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Which line to trace first?
Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 09:32:20 -0500


I had a similar Library of Congress experience (though not quite so
dramatic, at least not yet).

I have a mysterious g-grandfather named Kittel Olson, about whom I knew
little except for what appeared on the 1900 census and that he left or was
kicked out of the household after that and the children reverted to the
previous husband's name. I had found a possible Kittel Olson in the area on
an earlier census, but he was married and had a small son, and the name
Kittel Olson is not that uncommon among Norwegian immigrants. We then got
the tidbit that he was also known as Kittel Olson Moen. Well, there are a
lot of Norwegian farms named Moen.

But one day as I was looking through the Fyresdal bygdebok at LC, it
occurred to me that perhaps Kittel came from the same area as my
g-grandmother.

Lo and behold, there was a Kittel Olson Moen of the approximate right age,
with the wife and child seen in the American census. So while I still
haven't proven that he's the correct one, I think the probability is strong
and that his wife and son died in Minnesota.

Karla Huebner

Message text written by INTERNET:
>I did have an awaking at the Library of Congress. I was supposed to fly
home after a week seminar in DC, the rain was so bad they canceled the
flight, so I decided to spend the day at the LOC. <

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