If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. George Bernard Shaw
This section of my web site is where I'll attempt to document anything I find while digging into my families past. I am just getting started with my genealogy research. So I hope to keep adding to the content here for several years. I'll continue to add pictures and information as I get it. So if you are interested in any branches of my family, send me an e-mail or sign our Guestbook, mention that you want to be kept informed of any additions or changes, and I'll drop you a line whenever I change or add anything here.
If you are just surfing past these pages I am concentrating my genealogy research on Larson and Olson sides of my mother's family. So starting with the oldest members of those family branchs that I have been able collect any information on, I'm looking for information about:
My maternal Grandmother's, maternal Grandfather - Erick Olson. Erick was born on 13 February 1831 in Norway. He immigrated to the USA in 1852 with his mother and three sisters. They briefly settled in what is now South Eastern South Dakota, near Vermillion. In 1865 he married Karen Olson (Olson may have been her maiden name, we're not sure) in Decorah IA. In 1871 they moved back to the Dakota Territory and settled in Orland Township. Erick was a charter member of the St Peter's Lutheran Church in Orland. He and Karen had 10 children between 1865 and 1890 - Olivia, Peder, Ole, Karn, Carrie, Elias, Mathinus, Johanus, Josephina, Martha, Karl, Karl and Olaf. Erick died on 20 April 1899 and is buried in the St. Peter's Lutheran Church Cemetary.
My maternal Grandmother's, paternal Grandfather - Ivar Larson. Ivar was born on 23 April 1850 in Norway. after immigrating to the USa he married Carrie Gilbertson. Ivar and Kari had 10 children from 1870 to 1890 - Lara, Gilbert, Bertha, Larve, Lewis, Karina, Adolf, Toral, Clifford and Inga. After Carrie's death Ivar married Martha Thompson. He and Martha also had 10 children - Martin, Eddie, Clarence, Leslie, Ida, Hattie, Alga, Bertie, Mable and Lester. Ivar died in April of 1935 and is buried in the Olson Cemetary near Madison SD.
If you have any questions about the Who, What, Why or Format of my genealogy pages, hopefully you will find some answers here. The main navigation of this site will be via the wooden buttons at the top of the page, which are on every page in this site:
The Cordes Main Page button will lead you back to our Home Page..
The genealogy button will lead you back to this page if you are somewhere else in the genealogy section of this web site.
The database button will lead you to the main WWW component of my main genealogy research.
The stories section will detail any stories, tales or documents about our family background.
The pictures section will include some older family pictures of people, cemetarys, tombstones, etc.
The Other Stuff section is full of miscellaneous stuff like family recipes, our coat of arms and WWW links.
"A family tree can wither if nobody tends it's roots." Veneratio Cognomen
