The Reason for my Scandinavian Obsession

Hello, everyone! 

I’m pleased to make your acquaintance. I hope we become better friends as I discuss all things genealogy on this blog. First, let me tell you how I became interested in genealogy.  Long ago in high school, my church youth group did an assignment to find our grandparents on census records or any historical record. I was partnered with a kind older man in his 70s and he was showing me how to use FamilySearch.  This was in the late 1990s so Family Search has changed a lot since then, but it was still fascinating to me.  I typed in my paternal grandfather Melville Ray Rosencrantz, Jr. and up popped a census record that showed he was a 19-year-old boy living with his parents and two siblings.  I was so excited to actually find something on my grandfather.

My grandfather had died when I was three years old so I never knew him personally.  I saw pictures of him as a middle age or older man and that’s the picture that I had in my mind about him.  When I saw the census record, I could imagine him as a younger man.  I started wondering what his life was like as a 19-year-old living on a farm.  I was 16 years old at the time of seeing this census and it made me think about him as a teenager. It sparked my curiosity to know more about my family.  

The older man helping me was happy for me, but didn’t believe I was going to continue my search for my family. He was pleasantly surprised when I came back on my own the next week to discover more. As a typical teenager, this new curiosity didn’t last long when faced with life. Therefore, genealogy for me went on the back burner until I got married and was a stay at home mom with a baby and more time on my hands. The curiosity came back and I started asking my family more about genealogy.

I had lots of fun tracing my Rosencrantz family back to the 1700s in Orange County, New York. However, the real fun came when I discovered my maternal great grandmother Johanna Krogh. My grandfather, Melville Rosencrantz, Jr., married Gertrude Alice Webb.  Gertrude’s mother was Johanna and Johanna was from Norway.  I had found my first immigrant and she was Scandinavian.  As far as I could tell, nobody had researched her line.  I wanted to know more about her Norwegian roots.  That’s where I’m at right now.  I’m still discovering her Norwegian family.  So far, I’ve discovered that I have a lot more Norwegian cousins living in the United States then I thought!

I’ve learned many things about how to uncover your Scandinavian roots and I want to share that with all of you. My specialty is Scandinavian research; however, I want to help any of you with your families, whether it’s American research or Scandinavian research.  Bring it all and we’ll have fun!

Happy Hunting, Everyone!
From left to right, Kenneth Webb, Johanna Krogh, Gertrude Webb
Tiffany

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