Digging for ancestors...

[Randi]

Thought I’d share this with you all! It seems I have relatives in USA!

My uncle’s (father's brother) oldest son rang me recently, I have not seen him since I was 7 years old. His mother had died - I suppose he found some Christmas cards I sent to her.

Anyway, we had a long chat and he told me that my grandfather’s brothers had emigrated to USA at the turn of the Century. So he gave the information he had, and I started searching.

One of the brother’s went to Minnesota, and after 4 years, he moved on to Montana. There he started farming and had 7 children. One of these (John Sr.) went to College, and later worked for REA (Rural Electric Association). He had 4 sons.

One of them, John Jr. (son of John Sr.) sent an e-mail to an Archive in Denmark in 1997 to search for ancestors. This mail I got a copy of. He writes that he has three brothers, himself and one of them are working for US Air Force, and the other two work for civilian Airlines.

At some point, some of them must have moved to Walla Walla in Washington, where they had something to do with Walla Walla Community College. On that site, I found this:

“John and Judy Hofman will be saying good-bye to Emmanuel and Walla Walla May 16.
John has accepted the position of General Manager of Northern Electric Co op in Opheim Montana. Opheim is where John started his Rural Electric Co -op career.”

Northern Electric Cooperative, Inc.
P.O. Box 287
Opheim, Montana 59250-0287

Manager: Mr. John Hofman
President: Mr. Robert J. Fouhy

This Company don't seem to have an e-mail address, but I kept searching, and found this yesterday:

“John, Stacy, Tyler and Megan live at Mountain Home Air Force Base ID. John is a TSgt, Stacy works for a CPA firm in town.
Jim lives in Vancouver WA and drives across the River each day to Portland to work at Rosenbluth International Travel Agency,
Chris, Geri, Cody and Shane are at Beale Air Force Base in CA, Chris is a TSgt, Geri is in Child Development.
Kevin is in Richland WA which is part of the Tri-Cities, he works for Charter Communications(cable TV)as an installer.

Our parents, Ag & Marie Hofman and Marie Gandrud are living in Northeast Montana, Culbertson to be.
Both of us have two sisters each, Kathy and Dean Bjorge in Williston ND and Judy and Dick Jensen in Sidney MT, Nancy Sundvold in Culbertson MT and Debbie and Mike Nielsen in Billings MT.

Concerning the above... what is a CPA firm? And TSgt?

It would be interesting to get in touch (even if we have nothing in commom, other than family.

Are any of you PTalkers living in those areas and know of the places? And have any of you searched for your ancestors? A lot of you must have relatives all over the world!

[Cinder & Smoke]

WOW!
You're making real Progress in tracking the relatives down!!

Concerning the above... what is a CPA firm? And TSgt?

"CPA" firm =
"Certified Public Accountant" - a company who employs "CPAs" to manage the
financial accounts of other companies or individuals - for a fee.

TSgt =
Technical Sargent = an enlisted member of the armed forces who has the rank of Sargent,
AND has been trained in some military "specialty" - such as a weapons expert, an electronics repairman, an aircraft mechanic, or other skilled trade.

You'll make a good Detective!

[Randi]

WOW!
You're making real Progress in tracking the relatives down!! You'll make a good Detective!

Thanks! I'm at it again today, have now sent a brief e-mail through infospace where I found one of them, so I may hear back - if my new e-mail works!!

Of course, I could ring, but that would be sooo expensive! Strange though, that Northern Electric Cooperative, Inc. don't have an e-mail address. Hmmm! Now, I'll just sit back and wait.

[lbaker]

Randi!!!! I tracked down my family in Germany by using the internet to track names (fortunately it was not a terrible common family name) I have since had a visit from one cousin and hope to meet others when I visit Europe again. Isn't it wonderful

[Catty1]

Randi - maybe one of your airline pilot cousins might be going to Denmark? They could certainly get inexpensive flights there if they weren't actually going there as part of their job!

Great news! I wonder if there is a family resemblence!

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

Wow, that is so exiting for you!!

Years ago we got the opportunity to sign in for a book about my hubby's last name "Gabriels". It is a great book, and it has a chapter with "Gabriels" people from all over the world! Of course, our name and address are on that list too

[Freedom]

Wow, that is so exiting for you!!

Years ago we got the opportunity to sign in for a book about my hubby's last name "Gabriels". It is a great book, and it has a chapter with "Gabriels" people from all over the world! Of course, our name and address are on that list too

How exciting!

I started working family trees when I was in my teens. It has been SUCH fun, very interesting. I was able to do both my Mum's side and my Dad's side. I can still remember the anticipation each time I'd reach for the phone to make initial contact. (This was pre Internet.) Would they be willing to talk to me? Would we be able to figure out how they fit on the tree?

I also got the book mentioned above, for my Dad's side of the family.

Great job, keep at it!

[Randi]

Yes, it IS really interesting, I didn't even know how many brother's/sister's my grandfather had, or their names. To begin with I thought only two of them had emigrated, but I've later been told that possible three others also emigrated. Can't find them on the ship though.

In the e-mail I have a copy of, the guy says: "I have been thinking of trying to transfer to Germany, so I could tour the area - I have yet to convince my wife" Mind you, this was written in 1997! (they had a boy 3, and girl two at the time) In any case, he seems interested to find out more too.

Apart from this, you come across many other interesting sites, you'd never thought of visiting.

Laurie, it's great you got contact! Hope I do too! Perhaps he'll give me a tour in an F16 - or whatever they fly these days!!

[Lady's Human]

Tsgt (Or tech sergeant) is an E-6 in the US Air Force.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_Sergeant

[Randi]

Thank you, now I know who I'm dealing with - more or less.

[lizbud]

I think it's great to find or keep up with relatives in other countries.
I never had to dig too far on my Mom's side of the family as she & my
Grandma regularly corresponded with family back in Ireland. My brother,
my children and the nieces & nephews have even gone back to visit
with family still there. I sort of drifted away from my Dad's people, but
most of them are still in Indiana.

[Sevaede]

Oooh! Do you have any tips on searching for family? I have tried googling names and using some sites but nothing ever pans out for me.

Congratulations on your finds!

[Sevaede]

I found his address and telephone no. in Walla Wall... what a name for a town!! - and possibly a valid e-mail address, so have written a short note.

Are you sure it's not Walla Walla? There's Walla Walla, Washington. That's not terribly far from where I live.

Your family seems to have traveled much of the same path as my dads.

[Edwina's Secretary]

I have been following along with Randi as she has been doing her investigation. So exciting! An excellent resource, if you foreparents immigrated from Europe is the Ellis Island website. We found the ship, etc, of my grandfather on there.

[Randi]

I have been using this first one a lot. When you get on the site, click Advanced Search and then click IGI in the left side - type in the names and go to Region and choose. Take a look at the other links as well!

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.cyndislist.com

http://www.ellisisland.org/

http://www.genhomepage.com/world.html

http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson23.htm

http://genealogy.com/index_r.html

http://www.ancestry.com/myancestry/

Good luck hunting!

Wenisrubber, do you know of a site where you can find people's e-mail address in Walla Walla? I do have the snail mail address... and yes, it is Walla Walla - it was a typo.

Liz, I sort of drifted away from my dad's family too, he had only one brother, who had 3 children. The thing is, I have lived in Copenhagen all my life, my parents moved here in 1948, and the rest stayed in the countryside.

I also found some pictures from the areas they came from here:
http://www.grytner.dk/~grytner/H-Arkivet/index.htm

Click on Billedsamlingen, and then Flere billeder.....