Family History Research

Some time around last Christmas, I began researching my family history. My Mom and Dad and I were going through some old photographs that I was scanning to preserve and make copies for myself. My grandmother had passed away not too long before this, so there were photos that I had not seen that were discovered when the family dealt with her home and belongings.

There were many great old photos of my dad, aunt, and uncle growing up. A few of my brother and I when we were young that I had never seen. My favorite is a picture of my Grandma Jo with my brother and I. It brought back all kinds of memories when I first saw it.

From Monrad Family Photos

Since that time, I became very interested in learning more about my family's history. I decided to begin with the "Monrad side" of the family first. Armed with an introductory subscrition to Ancestry.com, I began my search.

I was amazed at the information I found within minutes. I found old US Census records from 1910 and 1920 showing my great-grandparents. I found the ship register showing my great grandfather Carl coming to America from Norway in 1907. With each new record I found, I learned more and more about how to search for documents, opening the door to more information.

SS Ivernia, the ship that brought my Great Grandfather Carl Monrad to America in 1907.

From Monrad Family Photos

Carl Otto Monrad, 1885-1971.

One day I decided to begin searching Norgegian sources. I had always heard that Norway had excellent resources for genealogical records. I ended up at the website for the Norwegian Digital Archive, which offers vast records of Census data and church registers going back centuries. The first record I located was the Norwegian Census for the year 1900, where I found my Great Grandfather as well as the names of his parents and siblings.

At the same time, my Uncle Brad came up with some pictures believed to be that of my Great-Great Grandparents Adolf Groth Monrad and Anna Rebekka (Olsen) Monrad.




I continued my search and found more and more information. I began to build my family tree and found that each new fact I gathered helped to open the door to another... I was amazed at the information available at my fingertips, but eventually I rached a point that I couldn't go any further. I had simply gone as far as I knew how to.

I was thrilled to have learned what I had, but one of my goals was to hopefully make contact with some relatives living in Norway. I found that it was easy to trace the family back to a point, but I had no idea how I would trace the family "forward" to modern times...

Then, the weather got nice, summer arrived and the project was put on hold.

This story gets more exciting. Oh yes, it does...