About my Genealogy pages:

I've just started (mid 1999) researching my family tree. I have plenty of information to start with, but of course I'm always looking to hook up with distant relatives to fill in gaps in my knowledge. I am currently trying to input the family data from about a dozen sources, like the genealogy that my Grandmother did to join the DAR. She did it herself, so I don't think it is as suspect as the hired DAR genealogies that people understandably question. I also have access to my mother's grandmother's family bible, a book about the STOWE family of Grafton, MA, a book assembled by one of the AHLNESS/STIGERSAND cousins about that line, and a pile of data over 6 inches thick with clippings, documents, etc. I have been told that some of what I have goes back to the 1600s in England, and if I link into the CALDWELL line that I think I do, back to mid 1500s in Scotland. Pretty overwhelming for someone just getting started. I have over 1300 people in my tree and I don't have the data from half of my sources in yet. When I get my own tree entered in to my LegacyFamilyTree software, I'll try to decide which method to use to move it to the web. Also check back from time to time to see how my Links pages are doing.

Countries -- My main locations are:

• America (back through the 1600s). Includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and the Carolinas.
• Norway (before 1900). I have lines from Vaage(Vågå)/Kristians Amt, Lom/Kristians Amt, Feiring/Akershus Amt, and other parishes. I am still figuring out which parishes some of my family came from.
• Sweden (Before 1900). Smaland, Askryd, and others. Still figuring these out.
• England (Before 1800?). Haven't compiled the known data on these lines yet.
• Other Locations include: Scotland, Ireland(Scots Irish).

SURNAMES:

• AHLNESS/ALNAES/ALNÆS (and STIGERSAND) - Norwegian farm names from Feiring. Related to the Wagnerian opera singer Kirsten FLAGSTAD from Hamar, Norway. One AHLNESS helped capture the Younger Brothers after the failed Northfield bank robbery attempt by the James-Younger gang. Another of the AHLNESS clan was a delegate to the Eidsvold Convention (Norwegian declaration of Independence).
  
• BAKKEN/BAEKKEN/BEKKEN/BÆKKEN (SKOMAGERBAKKEN and SANDVIKBAKKEN) - Norwegian farm names.
  
• CALDWELL - Scots Irish, I believe. Came through Wisconsin, probably earlier from the Carolinas. Said to be related* to John Caldwell Calhoun, Vice President of USA. and thereby to Oliver Cromwell.
  
• CARVEY - Unknown origin, married a STOWE.
  
• ERICKSON/ERICKSEN - Norwegian patronymic from Toten, Norway.
  
• FILEP - Norwegian, unknown origin.
  
• HOLLY - Unknown origin, married a CALDWELL.
  
• KNUDSEN/KNUTSON - Line of Knut KNUDSENs ended up on Trolddalen Nordre in Vaage, Gudbrandsdalen, Norway, then emigrated to Hanska, Minnesota.
  
• LUND - Swedish, maybe a farm name, from Smaland.
  
• OLSDATTER - Norwegian patronymic, married a KNUDSEN, ancestor of TROLDDALEN line.
  
• OLSEN - Norwegian patronymic, married a BAEKKEN.
  
• PETERSON - Swedish patronymic from Lend, Kopenglan, Östergötland, Sweden
  
• SANVEGAN/SANDVIKEN - Norwegian placename.
  
• SARGENT - Norwegian, likely placename, associated with# SVENDBY.
  
• SOUTHULET - Norwegian, likely placename, associated with# SPERSTAD.
  
• SPERSTAD - Norwegian farm name, from near Lom, Norway.
  
• STOWE - English, then Massachusetts. Said to be related* to Harriet Beecher Stowe.
  
• SVENDBY - Norwegian, likely placename, associated with# SARGENT.
  
• TROLDAHL/TROLDALEN/TROLLDALEN/TROLDDALEN - My family name, from the farm Trolddalen Nordre in the late 1800s in Vaage, Gudbrandsdalen, Norway.
  
• ULSBO (ULSBU?) - Norwegian, likely farm name ULSBU in Vaage, Kristians Amt.
  
• YDEEN/YDEN/UDEEN - Swedish name from Askryd, Forsamblig, Östergötland, Sweden.
  
• ZACKRISON - Swedish name, looks patronymic but it is for a female, so it may be that they were from the city (mid 1800s). Married a LUND and had a daughter.
  

# "Associated with" means that I have more than one "lastname" listed for a person. Sometimes three. Many Norwegians changed names when they moved from one location to another before 1925.
* "Said to be related" means just that... I think the sources are good people, but I have not proven the link, so I make no outright claims.

Sources I can do lookups in:

I have a copy of a privately published family history book: "The Families of Ahlness and Stigersand", compiled and published in 1984 by Joel Botten, Jr., who was kind enough to give me permission to share that information with anyone who links to that Farm in the Feiring area of Akershus, Norway, on the southwestern shore of Lake Mjøsa. My primary surnames from that book are AHLNESS/ALNAES, STIGERSAND, and BAKKEN/BAEKKEN, but there are surely dozens of surnames and hundreds of Norwegians and Norwegian-Americans in the book. The families that emigrated mostly settled in southern Minnesota around Hanska, Madelia, Mankato, and the surrounding areas.

Please sign my Guest Book.

My Rootsweb Genealogy Pages:

The main Troldahl/Trolldalen/Trolddalen Genealogy page.

My first cousin twice removed Winfield Forsberg wrote an essay on Great Great Grandmother Peterson back in 1930 and retyped it to share with the family.

My third cousin twice removed was the world renowned Wagnerian Opera singer Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962) from Norway. She sang at the New York Metropolitan Opera House.

I have my Father's cadet book from flight school in the Korean War era Air Force. It is from Ellington AFB, marked "52-24" which I assume means 1952, class 24. It is similar to high school yearbooks.

 

My Other Pages: