Covid-19 Jeopardizes Trip to Europe

I'm sure we're not the first victims or the last, but it appears that the Covid-19 coronavirus situation is finally impacting our planned trip to Europe this year. Our 3-week trip is supposed to happen 16 April - 7 May.  It includes stays…

Photo Colorization Tool Makes Big Splash

MyHeritage launched a new feature on 11 February called MyHeritage In Color™.  It became popular so fast that within 5 days over 1 million photographs had been colorized, according to their website.  I noticed a lot of comment about it right…

Marit Tredahl Redux

In December, I posted about the Norwegian roots of a friend's great-grandmother.  See it here.  In the post, I was able to identify my classmate's ancestor as Marit Andersdatter Tredahl (1864-1928), born at the Skrøen under Trædal Farm…

SLIG 2021 Courses Unveiled

I just completed another week of intense instruction at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG).  This was my second year.  (See last year's blog post here.)  I attended Introduction to Genetic Genealogy taught by Paul Woodbury , who…
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John K. Vermilyea was neither Danish nor Lutheran

I've always been saddened by the way John Knickerbocker Vermilyea (1851-1925) died.  He is a 2nd great-grandfather (2GG) and one of very few direct ancestors who died in an accident. I happened to be looking at him again recently and was…

Another Ethnicity Update from AncestryDNA

AncestryDNA recently rolled out another ethnicity estimate upgrade.  The 2019 upgrade is based on over 40,000 reference samples, a jump from 16,000 when the last revision occurred in 2018 (and from 3,000 prior to that).  They also fine-tuned…
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The Mystery of an Antique Immigrant Trunk from Nordmøre

I recently helped a high school classmate with her Norwegian ancestry.  We both graduated from Stillwater High School in Minnesota and, although I didn't know it at the time, she has a Norwegian first name: Maret.  I always liked the name,…

Projects & Plans for 2020

All plans must adjust to reality.  My 2019 plans were somewhat waylaid by my Mother's cancer diagnosis in February and the long road to her final adieu in October.  I think I made seven trips back to Minnesota, but all were tremendously rewarding. …

Norwegian Death Song Circa 1880

In going through my Mother's file boxes and papers, my brother came across a carton of stuff left by her uncle Jack Bonn (1896-1985).  Jack was an interesting character whom I will write more about in the future.  Growing up, I always heard…

R.I.P. Beverly Bonn Jonnes (1932-2019)

My Mother passed away peacefully yesterday after an 8-month battle with bile duct cancer.  She was 87.  She remained alert and witty until the last few hours. Her cancer is a rare one, but then, she was a rare woman. She was born Beverly…