Tombstone Tuesday

Frank L Carboneau, Mary Doyle Carboneau, Lilly Connors Carboneau

St. Marys Cemetery- Claremont New Hampshire

St. Marys Catholic Church- first Catholic church in New Hampshire

Madness Monday- Aunt Edna where are you?

Taken around 1915 in Claremont, New Hampshire.

back row; Lilly, Lucinda (Cindy), Mary, Alma, Albert

front row: Rose, Mother-Mary, Wilfred, Father-Frank holding Edna, Marion

See that adorable little girl, the one in her Dads lap with the big bow? Thats my husbands Grandfathers sister, Edna Florence Carbonneau. The tall man on the right is Albert, his Grandfather. Anyway- Edna is making my husbands sister, Janet, and I crazy!

We have her on her birth record in 1913, in a 1930 census, in an obit in 1939, in an obit in 1957 and at the bottom of a document she is thanked for her secretarial services in the 60's. But thats it. We have been told she died in 1970 in Boston, but have been unable to find any kind of obit, census record after 1930, SSDI record, nothing...not a stinking thing.

Possibilities? Maybe she was disabled. We noticed in the above picture she has different shoes and socks on each foot where everyone else's things match. Maybe she married at a late time in her life so her surname was different. Maybe she was in assisted living if she was disabled, possibly in a nursing home? We don't know, but she is seriously making us crazy!

Just write them

I had been searching all the "normal" genealogy sites and really not finding much of anything. I finally did a google search for Knute and Aslaug (Thimrud) Roundal. I found them on a site called the "Norwegian Statehood Pioneer project, Celebrating Minnesota Norwegian Pioneers" I went to the site, and yup, there they were! Of course I ordered the book they had put together and it has their name in it. Nothing more about them. However, the book has so much information on other families and what their life was like coming to the states and starting over in America. Its very interesting!

Anyway... I emailed the "contact us" link asking if they could put me in contact with the person who sent in my GGGrandparents names. The very next day I got an email from ST in Minnesota! She is friends with the person I contacted on the Norwegian statehood project! Aslaug and Knute are her GGrandparents!

From ST's email-

"Knute and Aslaug had 5 children. Knute, Ingeborg (ST's Grandmother), Amund, Tomina, and Ole (my ggrandfather). Ole was confirmed at Concordia Lutheran Church and is on one of the confirmation pictures that is on line at Concordianews.org."

Confirmation Class 1896

Pastor A. A. Oefstedal, Anne Anderson, Henry Anderson, Ola Breiland, Oscar Christianson, Martena Engebretson, Gina Espeland, Henry Hauge, Anton Jensen, Marie Jensen, Olaf Jensen, Thea Kleiv, Clara Knutson, Oliver Kragnes, Theodore Langlie, Clara Lee, Alex Morken, Gustaf Muhle, Halvor Osmundson, Ola Roundal, Salve Salveson, Emma Osmundson, Sofie Storaaslie, Tilda Svenkeson, Ed Tangen, Ole Thompson

(the names are not in the same order as the people in the picture-I think Ole is on the back row towards the center...still contemplating it though)

More from ST's email-

" So, Knute and Aslaug came to Houston, Minnesota from Telemark, Norway in 1874. They moved to Averill, Minnesota by wagon with Ingeborg and Amund in 1875 according to one family source. Knute the son stayed in Norway with his grandparents and his uncle, but later came to the United States. Knute the father had a homestead near Averill. Aslaug died in Flowing township April 5, 1893. On her stone it reads that she was born in Molands Presleyjeld Norway October 17, 1834. Knute the father went to Canada with his son Knute to look for gold after his wife died. He died in Canada and Knute the son returned to Averill alone. Knute the son later sold his homestead to my mother's parents and went out west. They ended up living in the state of Washington."

Im still processing this information, and doing some searching on Chronicling America to try to find something, but no luck yet. St said she would send me what she has and a picture of Aslaug's gravestone when school is out, she is a public school librarian.

I'm sure several brick walls are in store with this information, but for now I will "happy dance" with the enlightenment and contact with someone from my G'pa Randalls family :)

The beginning

I have been taking a genealogy course at church for a year or so now. The teacher is amazing and I'm sure she was "Nancy Drew" in a former life. I've always loved hearing about my ancestors, and visiting historic places, old pictures, antiques that kind of stuff so I guess this was inevitable. My Dad is a history buff, maybe its in the "genes" so to speak :)

In the class we are encouraged to start with ourselves and then work back. Look through your "old" stuff, your parents "old stuff" and other relatives. My sister-in-law and I have been chasing down Carbonneaus for awhile and I found some stuff while Bobby and I were back east.

Another thing we're encouraged to do is interview our older relatives.

After looking through the "stuff I have, I called my daughter in law and we went to Yarnell to visit my Maternal Grandfather. He is the oldest living direct relative I have.

In the interview I realized I knew almost nothing about his family! Crazy! So after finding out that His grandfather, Knute Roundal, came from Norway, he was a farmer, sheep-shearer as well as a miner, and very strict Lutheran minister. The name is spelled Roundal, Raundal, Randall and I even found a Roundale!, it was time to jump into the Family history rink with both feet.