For our upcoming The Lives They Lived issue, we invite you to contribute a photograph that illustrates a story from the life of someone close to you who passed away this year. It could be a wedding snapshot, a travel brochure, a book cover, a blueprint of a dream house: any image that you think captures one moment from the life of the person you’re remembering.

The deadline is now as the issue comes out December 25, 2011. They are requesting high-resolution scanned originals or digital images representing the life of that person, along with a 200 word explanation and permission to publish.

Can you pick a single picture that represents an entire life? As I think back over the past of the family members we’ve lost, is there a single image that represents their life in total? That’s a tough question.

For my Aunt June DesRochers, the last picture of the whole DesRocher clan around her taken just before she died a few years ago represents her life to me. She had six kids and managed to raise them by herself after her husband died when the youngest was in diapers. It wasn’t easy, and maybe she didn’t do a perfect job, but the six kids turned out great and they all have children and grandchildren, an amazing family, one that June was actually pretty proud of even though she might not have said much about it.

I’m trying to find it, but the only image I have that comes immediately to mind of my grandmother, Nora Knapp Anderson, is one of her reading to me in bed. I think of it every time I think of her. I don’t remember her physically, so this single photograph represents my visual memory. I was only two or three years old and it was months before she died. As I look through all of the family history photographs I have of the Knapp family, Nora, the only girl among eight boys, is often seen with a brother hanging off of her, helping them read or reading to them, laughing, playing, or just hugging together. Images of the close knit family they were. According to family members, me, her first grandchild, brought back those happy and joyous family feelings and she dreaded missing a moment with me. To me, that photograph represents the sense of togetherness, family, and sharing that made up most of her childhood.

Tent built by Robert and Wayne Knapp circa 1924 along Peshtigo River, Taylor Rapids, Wisconsin. Burnt down by Earl Fugate in bully prank.

For my father, I wonder if I even have a photograph in my collection that would sum up his life. I have pictures that represent moments in his life when he played various roles, and the picture I used on the cover of his funeral card taken in the last few months of his life looking happier and healthier than anyone had seen him in 30 or 40 years, but does that truly represent his life or a moment in time?

Actually, when I stop and think about his father, Howard West, Sr., then I find the picture that completely represents both of their lives. It is of the two of them standing next to each other in their Coast Guard uniforms, standing apart from each other yet looking so much alike. Howard Senior has the same expression I ever remember on his face, stern, unsmiling, just there because someone told him to stand there and he wants to look like he had the idea in the first place. My father, Howard junior (“Bud”) so wanting to look proud but knowing he would never measure up to his father or the expectations of the world in general. While only serving about 18 months in the Coast Guard, almost all of it on land, my father spoke of the Coast Guard as if he was a lifer. It defined who he was, what he did, and he used it to create expectations with others. He wore a Coast Guard cap and told long stories of his “life” in the Coast Guard, but most of those were built upon little moments not a life time. He wanted the world to think of him as someone better than he was, but who he was was good enough, if you just looked past the made-up stories to the caring and simple humanitarian who wanted so much to be like his father, though his father seemed to barely notice.

I’d have to say that photograph of the two of them completely defines my father’s life.

As for my mother, I have many photographs but only one that comes immediately to mind when I think of a “defining” image. The picture is in a frame in a box right now, but I’ll use a similar one of my mother, Ramona Anderson West Boylan Fletcher, from 2006 until I can find the one I’m thinking of. The picture features her dressed up in a bright red pants suit made of nylon or some high-tech fabric, her blonde hair all punked up, a lightning strike painted on her cheek, safety pins in her ears, all dressed up for a fun day in downtown Seattle at the Bumbershoot Festival. We decided we’d dress up like punkers for the event just for fun. She’s swinging off a stop sign, laughing and full of life.

That’s my mother. To the world she is vivacious, energetic, and the first to jump off the bridge, out of an airplane, off a cliff in a hang glider, or tell someone exactly what she thinks of them so they actually thank her afterwards. She’s quick witted, terrible with a joke but great with a pun, and ready for anything. She’s led an incredibly full life and while she tells me she’s too tired to come for a visit or too old to travel, she’s off on another airplane to Cancun, Bahamas, Hawaii, New York, or wherever, sailing her boat, skiing down a mountain, hiking the foothills, dancing the night away.

These are pictures that don’t visually represent a life. They represent the story of the life lived not the life itself. Finding an image to contribute to The New York Times is harder than you think.

If your family member invented something or spent their life’s work on a specific project, then that would be an ideal image to contribute. For the rest of us, this is an excellent exercise in how we define the life of our family members.

In researching the Lutheran Church records and historical information for the 1950s, trying to find some records as to the parents of Hans Anderson, including records of his marriage on June 15, 1867, to Sarah Olson in La Crosse. Wisconsin, I found some interesting resources that may help others on similar searches.

There is an excellent History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod timeline that shows the chronological events and history of the Norwegian Synod (1853) and Evangelical Lutheran Synod (1918) which records much of the Norwegian immigration time periods.

Here are some highlights as pertains to the Anderson Family migration.

1825: Beginning of the Norwegian Migration to America. The sloop Restoration sailed from Stavanger, bringing 52 Norwegian Quakers to America.

1845: The first Norwegian church building was inaugurated March 12 in Muskego [Wisconsin].

1851: Kirkelig Maanedstidende (Church Monthly) was launched two years before the official founding of the Synod.

1853: The Synod for the Norwegian-Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (the Norwegian Synod) was organized at Koshkonong and Luther Valley near Madison Wisconsin. The Synod adopted the ritual of the Church of Norway. Three leaders of the Synod were Herman Amberg Preus, Jakob Aal Ottesen, and Ulrik Vilhelm Koren.

1861: Luther College, founded first near La Crosse, Wisconsin; relocated to Decorah, Iowa, the next year.

1872: The Norwegian Synod participates in the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America along with the Missouri, Wisconsin, and Ohio Synods.
History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod

Here are more links and resources on the history and records of the Norwegian and Missouri Lutheran Church.

• Algonkian Church History: 1900 Census: Menominee and Shawano Counties (Wisconsin)
• Church of Norway – Wikipedia
• Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America – Wikipedia
• Evangelical Lutheran Church (United States)
• Norwegian American – Wikipedia
• Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – Wikipedia
• United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America – Wikipedia
• Lutheran Historical Conference
• Rural Sociology – Religion: Wisconsin Agriculture and Rural Life Bibliography – Steenbock Library, UW-Madison
• Pictures of Shawano Area Churches & Parishes – WIGenWeb
• History of Jerusalem Lutheran Church, Lunds – WIGenWeb
• St. James Lutheran Church & School, Shawano, Wisconsin – WIGenWeb
• Manitowoc County, Wisconsin Genealogy : Church Histories St. John’s
• Christ Luther and Deforest Norweigan Lutheran History in Wisconsin
• Church Histories from Norwegian Lutheran Pastors in America – Concordian News
• Archives of the Evangelical Luthern Church in America
• Roots of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• Family Tree of ELCA Predecessor Bodies – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• Regional Archives – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• Lutheran Roots in America – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• History of Emmaus Lutheran Church, Racine WI USA
• Lutheran Genealogy — Wisconsin Lutheran Church Records and Histories
• Wisconsin Genealogy — Ethnic Groups
• Google Timeline results for Norwegian Lutheran Church Wisconsin History
• Project Wittenberg – Works by and about Martin Luther and History of the Lutheran Church
• NAHA – Norwegian – American Studies
• Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, History – Menomonie, Wisconsin
• Marinette County Churches – Rootsweb
• Atlas of Norwegian-American History
• St. Olaf College – Northfield, Minnesota, USA
• The Association of Religion Data Archives – Denominations
• Lutherans in Wisconsin – Wisconsin in History
• University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Area Research Center of the Wisconsin Historical Society
• Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles – Wisconsin in History

From the Shawano County Journal, Shawano, Wisconsin
October 30, 1996
Obituary: Gladys A. Anderson

Gladys A. Anderson, age 77, died early Monday morning, 28 Oct. 1996 at Birch Hill Health Care Center in Shawano.

She was born Oct. 23, 1919 in the town of Lessor, daughter of the late Anton and Lilly (Peterson) Anderson. Gladys was a teacher for 43 years.

She is survived by a brother Milton (Marcella) Anderson, Green Bay; nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by 2 sisters and five brothers.

Memorial services will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Muehl-Boettcher Funeral Home, Seymour. Friends may call at the home funeral home from 2:30 until time of services. Burial will be in Our Savior Lutheran Church Cemetery.

Decades spent guessing at our family tree, my mother sat in the chair next to me with white gloved hands holding the citizenship papers of her first ancestor in the Anderson line to cross the sea. The 154 year old half sheet of fragile paper lay on her fingers and the chills of the history shivered across our arms.

The signature of the 40 year old immigrant to the new world, Anderis Anderson, was shaky but graceful as he signed away his fidelity from Oscar I, King of Sweden and Norway, to the United States.

We’ve found many spellings of his first name, and games with Anderson and Andersen, and this small piece of paper confirms the Andersen, but still leaves us questioning if he was Anderis, Andrias, Andiras, Anders, Andres, Anders, or other combinations. The closest we can read on the paper is Ander_s. His tombstone says “Andrias” but we’ve never been completely sure.

State of Wisconsin, County of Manitowoc, ss.

Anderis Anderson personally appeared before the subscriber, the Clerk of the Circuit Court, for said County, being a COURT OF RECORD, and made oath that he was born in Norway on or about the year Eighteen hundred and Twelve, that he emigrated to the United States, and landed in the Port of New York on or about the month of July in the year Eighteen hundred and Fifty-one, that it is bona fide his INTENTION to become a CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign Prince, Potentate, State or Sovereignty whatever, and particularly to Oscar I, Kind of Sweden and Norway, whereof he is a subject.

Subscribed and sworn to before me the 2nd day of November AD 1852.

F. Alrich, Clerk
by E. Salomon, Deputy

Ander_s Anderson [signature]

We finally had the connection to our Anderson/Andersen family immigrants to Norway.

He owned a store with his wife in Navarino, formerly known as Galesburg, in Shawano County, not far from Lessor, Wisconsin. According to the obituary, he was a town founder and successful businessman in the Township of Galesburg. He was buried in Lessor, Wisconsin, in Our Savior’s Lutheran Cemetery.

In our Anderson family tree, Otto was the child of Hans Anderson (1844-1924 and son of Andrias Anderson) and Sarah, daughter of Ole Olson, married on June 15, 1867 at La Crosse, La Crosse, Wisconsin. His father, Hans, was born in Fredriksvern, Norway, arriving with his father, Andrias Anderson, at age 7 to the United States in 1851 in New York, traveling onto Wisconsin immediately after arrival.

Otto was the first generation of this Anderson line born in the United States. His early years were filled with traveling adventures as well as death. His father was a farmer and he and Julia had 11 children with only 5 surviving. We known the names of 9 of the 11 children so far: Amelia, Louis (b. 1869), Johan Christian (c1875), Carolina (c1871), Gena/Jenny (c1873), Mary (c1877), Ida (c1879), and Anton (April 18, 1880). Otto was born in South Dakota after his family moved there to find work, we believe.

According to the birth records and census, the family lived in Wisconsin in the nearby towns of Manitowoc, Cicerco, and Lessor during the first few years of their arrival from Norway. By 1869, the family was in Yankton, South Dakota, possibly to find work as part of the migration to look for work. Otto, Louis, Johan, Caroline, and Gena were born there. Mary Anderson was born about 1877 in Town of Cicero, Wisconsin, in Outagamie County, and the US Census has them back by 1880, where few of them left until their death. Most of them are buried in the Out Savior’s Lutheran Cemetery in Lessor.

1911 Navarino Township, Shawano County Plat Map shows Otto Anderson owning two lots, 30 acres in the township of Navarino either hosting or next to a school and the other was 160 acres very close by. In 1920, the 1920 Navarino Township Plat Map shows these properties owned by Otto’s wife, Julia. In 1923, court records show that Julia filed for mortgage foreclosure.

Using the Shawano County Plat maps, I compared them with Google Maps Satellite and Street Views to get a visual picture of where the two properties were and where the store was located. When I was last there in 2006, no evidence of the store remained, as best as we could estimate from the plat maps. However, across the railroad tracks are the buildings that look like they might be the restored train station or train stop buildings, though it looks like a home now. It’s fascinating to guess what it looked like 100 years ago. While the agricultural areas remain much the same, the town appears to be more of a bedroom community.

Most of the Anderson family lived in or near Lessor Township, about 4 miles away, though according to the 1911 Navarino Plat Map, father Hans Anderson lived to the northwest a couple miles in plat section 7, along highway 156 past the Hilda Cemetery, turning off onto County Road K to the next unlabeled road it crosses. Even today, this area of the Navarino Township remains fairly natural, highlighted by the Navarino State Wildlife Area in the center of the township area.

Galesburg was renamed Navarino sometime after 1930, though I can’t find history on why the name change. It is located in Shawano County, Wisconsin, with the survey title “Township 25 North, Range 16 East, Fourth Principal Extended Meridian.” For fun, we researched the latitude and longitude as 44° 38′ 12.9″ N by 88° 32′ 56.4″ W. The elevation is 244 meters above sea level, and if you are really serious about tracking it down, the US Geological Society’s GNIS Feature ID is 1583781.

In 1908, Julia and Otto were involved in an assault case with two others in their store. I’m typing up the records and will add them soon. No one was hurt, and the courts decided it was a false claim against the Andersons.

He had moved only recently to Green Bay, Wisconsin, at the time of his death. His wife, Julia M. Anderson (born February 9, 1875) died on May 11, 1959, and is buried near him. Next to them is Helen S. Anderson, August 28, 1902, to October 18, 1920, Otto and Julia’s daughter who died at age 18, less than four years after her father.

The obituary from the local newspaper in Shawano, Wisconsin, reads:

Thursday, June 8, 1916
Man Who Founded Galesberg, Dead
OTTO ANDERSON, ONE OF THE BEST KNOWN BUSINESS MEN IN SHAWANO COUNTY, DEAD
VICTIM BRIGHTS DISEASE
Amassed Considerable Wealth In Store At Galesburg And in Shawano Land

On Monday morning, May 22, the sad news flashed across the phones, that Otto Anderson had passed away at his home in Green Bay, of Brights disease. He was confined to the house only about four or five weeks, but had been in failing health for a year or more. A year ago he disposed of his business at Galesburg, in Shawano county, at which place he kept a general store, and last Fall moved with his family to Green Bay, to procure better schooling for his children. He was a man well known thruout this community, and well liked by all. He was a man of business in every sense of the word, and attained considerable wealth. Mr. Anderson was only forty-six years old, and leaves to mourn his early departure, his wife, three children, Harold, Helen, and Blanche, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hans Anderson, two brothers, John and Antone, three sisters, Mrs. John Svendson, Mrs. Peter Hovie and a sister married in Sawyer, Wis. The funeral was held at the Norwegian Lutheran Church at Lessor. Services at Green Bay in the morning, Wednesday, May 24, conducted by Rev. P. Bongsto (sp). Then the sad long journey to Lessor, where the church yard was filled with people from Navarino, Cicero, and surrounding country. It was the largest funeral ever held at Lessor and the many beautiful flowers bespoke the high esteem of the people. Rev. J. Bugge (sp) of Green Valley and Rev. Phral (sp) of Cicero, together with the Bongsto conducted the impressive ceremony. We all unite in extending our sympathy to the bereaved ones.

His tombstone reads:

Across the top: Otto Anderson, Born March 24, 1870, Died May 22, 1916
Front: He has gone from his dear ones, his children, his wife, whom he willingly toiled for, and loved as his life. Oh, God, how mysterious and how strange are thy ways, to take from us this loved one in the best of his days.

Only 46 years old, Otto Anderson must have suffered greatly during his last few weeks of life, and the loss of him at such a young age was great in a family that lived long, is clear from the tombstone.

According to Wikipedia, Bright’s disease is a “historical classification” of kidney diseases and no longer used. Modern terminology calls them acute or chronic nephritis. Described in 1827 by English physician, Richard Bright, there are any number of things that could be described as Bright’s Disease. In general, it’s an inflammation caused by the formation of kidney stones as part of chronic kidney disease, which can come from vitamin deficiency, poor eating habits, high blood pressure, and more. The symptoms were extreme with back pain, fever, high blood pressure, vomiting and nausea, edema, respiratory difficulty, and sometimes painful urination. The traditional treatment involved blood letting, diuretics and laxatives, but by 1916, William Howard Hay’s diet, the famous “Hay Diet,” was a popular cure all, as many claim it to be today. Hay claimed he cured himself of Bright’s disease by changing his diet to stabilize the blood’s pH levels therefore maintaining the alkali and acid balance. There is no evidence yet that Anderson tried this or any other treatments, or how long he suffered before his death.

As I dig into the life of Otto Anderson and his family, I found mention of his wife, Julia Anderson, in A Walking Tour of the Lessor Cemetery by Rolf H. Erickson, Evanston, Illinois, 1991, published by Northwestern University Library.

Julia Anderson (1875-1959) and her husband Otto Anderson (1870-1916) ran the general store at Galesburg (Navarino) for many years. Julia was a daughter of +Thor Tostenson and +Helena Nwvra. Their children were +Helen who is buried here, Harold and Blanche (Mrs. Jerald McCoy). Harold became a doctor and lived in Washington state; Blanche died in San Francisco. Otto was the son of +Hans and Siri Anderson. His brothers were Johan and +Anton; his sisters were Elizabeth (Mrs. John Svendson), Ida (Mrs. Peter Hovie) and “a sister married in Sawyer, Wisconsin.” Barbro Ramseth wrote that Otto was so prominent there were four ministers at the church service and six at the grave.

The mention of Sarah Anderson as “Siri” is an interesting twist in the Norwegian family names being converted to American names and may help us track down more information on her.

The book, Navarino Timber Trails and Tales was published in 1992 by the local township where Otto Anderson’s store was located in Navarino, Wisconsin. It is available used from Amazon.com for USD $149.00 and as high as $180 elsewhere. The Waupaca County Website features an index list of the citizens mentioned in the book and Otto and Julia Anderson and their store have a lot of coverage but I haven’t figured out how to get my hands on the book to copy those pages except by going there or nagging someone in the Wisconsin Shawano County WebGen Project.

There is more to the story of Otto Anderson, a man who clearly made a big impact on his community in 46 short years. I’m still digging.

Related Anderson Family Resources and References

• Anderson Family in Town Lessor, Shawano County, Wisconsin
• Searching for Grandfather Anderson | Family History
• Anderson family tree
• Wisconsin Shawano County WebGen Project

NOTES

For those searching in Wisconsin for the many Otto Andersons in their family history, the following may help you. Please note these are NOT my relatives and I have no information about their family line. If you ask about them, I cannot help you and may delete your comment as it only adds to the confusion.

Otto Anderson (1869 – 1916) listed in the Find A Grave Memorial. The information is similar. Born in 1869 in Norway, died March 9, 1916, in Adams County, Wisconsin. “About 1888 he married his wife Emma, and they immigrated to America that same year. Otto was the father of Lena, Agnes, Clara, Ella, Minnie, Alice, Ovidia, Olga, Elmer and Otto Jr.” which brings another Otto into the picture.

Otto Anderson (1884-1973) at the COPP CEMETERY Chippewa County Wisconsin.

Otto Anderson (born 1849, Middle Sweden) was a merchant tailor in Galesburg and was married to Eva, daughter of B.J. Nelson, and you can find more information in the 1886 Portrait & Biographical Album of Knox Co., IL.

I hope this additional information is helpful, but I have no further information on these unrelated line.

But these numbers are arbitrary. Some filed and received their naturalization within a few years, for others it took much longer.

Many filed their Intent in one state and then finalized their application for naturalization in another state, complicating the process as paperwork had to be exchanged across distances for verification. Some had to await court dates, and courts were often backed up. Others had to travel great distances from where they settled to the largest town, county seat, or state capital to do the paperwork, get interviewed, and make court appearances. Because travel was often expensive or intensive, much time passed between Intent and final naturalization.

Some file their Intent but never finalized their naturalization, sometimes hiding from authorities, so their descendants would never know, until they went looking for records. Records get lost or destroyed, so how can you really prove it 100 years later?

For Andreas (Andrias) Anderson, my first Norwegian ancestor who arrived in 1851, filed his Declaration for Intent in 1852. It was finalized in 1871, nineteen years later. Standing in the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay Area Research Center Archives holding the original naturalization papers with his signature was an incredible experience for my mother and I. Signed over 125 years ago, the fragile paper still exists, a record of our ancestor’s existence, too.

Things were not so easy a century or more ago. Migration through Liverpool was a special form of hell, tolerable only because of the better life to come. The miracle is that so many went ahead instead of turning back.

The migrants were generally illiterate, had never traveled before and were most gullible – and Liverpool took them for all they had.

…Crooked travel agents in Liverpool sold tickets or the journey beyond New York “at special bargain rates.” When the migrant got there he found that the tickets were phony.

…Migrants to Wisconsin were often routed via St. Louis – at twice the normal fare.

…most migrants had to travel cheap, in rotten boats manned by brutal crews, with food unfit for hogs and the strong likelihood that none of them would live to see the promised land.

The average ship out of Liverpool weighted a thousand tons, carried 750 passengers and took 35 days for the 2,900 mile crossing. When the migrant bought his ticket he imagined he had bought a berth, but all he got was a quarter – a fourth part of a berth six feet square.

…Between 1847 and 1853 – the busiest years for Liverpool emigration – 59 ships were lost at sea with 18,000 passengers. When vessels foundered in mid-Atlantic, rescue rarely came.

Before the Civil War, most migrants headed for New York. But thousands headed for Wisconsin. The English, Irish, Scots and Welsh usually made their way first to Canada because the British government insured slightly cheaper passengers than the New York route…from Canada these British migrants drifted through the Great Lakes and disembarked on the Wisconsin shoreline. For them, New York and the East was unknown territory; they never saw it on the way over and rarely experienced the grim conditions of the New York route.

…But Scandinavian settlers had a tougher experience. They were not eligible for government help in Canada and therefore took the New York route, with all the hazards it involved. Speaking little English, they were fleeced first at Hull, when they reached England, then at Liverpool – and finally picked clean in New York.

But the urge to reach Wisconsin never flagged. In the summer of 1855, the stated destination for nearly 5,000 migrants passing through Liverpool was Wisconsin – second only to New York. For Minnesota, the figure was 127, and for distant Oregon, one.

For my Norwegian Anderson family, the passage from their home to New York or elsewhere was a rocky one, with people out to pick them clean at every turn. Yet, as the article states, their determination to cross the ocean to a foreign land was strong and they kept on going.

The question I’m still puzzling over is why Wisconsin. Was there a campaign to encourage settlement? Were there stories of cheap land? Did their churches reach out with an invitation or was it the thrill and risk of the wilderness? Were conditions back home so horrible and pitiful that risking their lives in a new land was better than coping with what they lived with daily? Or were the ones who arrived earlier and settled there calling back home begging family and neighbors to leave their own homes to come to this strange new wilderness?

From Wisconsin, many Norwegians and others traveled on within a few years to the newly formed Dakotas, but many returned to Wisconsin, often broke and broken. Why? I’m still seeking answers.

In another article I found from “The Ensign” in July of 1991, “Sail to Zion”, it tells me a little more about the struggles of the immigrants crossing the Atlantic, and their determination to survive. The story highlights specific voyages made by members of the Latter-Day Saints to America:

..during the crossing, measles, chicken pox, and other ailments claimed 48 lives (43 of the children), or 11 percent of the company. Mortality was especially high among children.

In Liverpool, the Merseyside Maritime Museum has a mock-up of steerage quarters. It is a confined area with tiered bunks ranged along each side. A ladder or steep stairs provided the only exit, and during storms, the quarters were “hatched down” to prevent water from flooding the hold. The only light came from a few lamps hanging in strategic locations and shedding a dim yellow glow. The only sanitary facilities were buckets or chamber pots. Some later packets had water closets build on the main deck, but during severe storms – sometimes lasting for days – steerage passengers were hatched down and could not get to the deck. It is easy to imagine the resulting chaos and stench.

…Overcrowding compounded the misery of seasickness, dysentery, cholera, and other diseases. Many emigrant companies exceeded five hundred passengers. Between decks, these men, women, and children huddled together in a heaving, rocking craft, suffering in body and spirit. Even under the best conditions and disciplines, the situation created a fertile environment for the spread of disease.

Living in Israel for five years, a new immigrant rich country, I caught some glimpses of what it must have been like for the newly arrived immigrants in American and Canada, struggling to survive and care for their families while coping with a language and customs they are completely unfamiliar with. But the horrors of the immigration route amazes me.

People all over the world continue to face horrific terrors, victimization, and rigors to escape their native lands to get anywhere. They wanted to get here, anywhere away from there, in the worst way, and they did, and they still do today.

Ancestry.com has released the book “History of Door County, Wisconsin – the county beautiful” by Hjalmar Rued Holand for their registered members. Published in 1917, the book includes biographies of local popular and influential citizens, the history of Door County, Wisconsin, its development, and the natural wonders of the area.

There is an online FTP index of the book at Rootsweb USGenWeb – History of Door County by Holand to help you find your ancestor mentioned.

I have the Knapp and Anderson family branches in Door County, an area I didn’t get time to explore during my recent visit, so I may find some information about them. At the least, I will learn more about the area in which they lived and worked.

You may be able to find copies of this book in your local library or Family History Center or through library exchange programs.

The spot next to his first wife, Nora Knapp Anderson, has a casket but no tombstone. It’s likely it’s Raymond Anderson, but the helpful caretaker probed with a pole to see if she could find a casket there (and did) and checked other “closed” or “unmarked but known filled” spots to see if any of them didn’t match up with her 3×5 card file, which might turn out to be my grandfather. Unfortunately, this method tells us that someone is buried there. It doesn’t tell us who. I’d hate to pay for digging up strange people just to run DNA tests to determine who is buried where and if it is my Grandfather Anderson! The cemetery lost him. Shouldn’t they bear some responsibility? So the hunt continues.

We spent hours walking every row of the small but populated cemetery, examining tombstones with dates from the early 1800s, many of them worn away to flat stones. Grandfather Ray Anderson was only buried 30 years ago. His tombstone should be easy to find.

We will contact the Masons who helped to bury him, and the undertakers, to see if they have some record of where he may lay. As for the tombstone, we don’t have a receipt in our records, so we’ll have to call around the various gravestone companies to see if anyone still has a record from 1974. They might have information on where the headstone was installed.

We have all the information on him, but it is frustrating not to be able to find his body in the cemetery.

Raymond Anderson was a long time member of the Masons and IOOF, and a union man, working as a welder in Snohomish and King Counties. He and his family lived in Sunnyside, which is now part of Marysville, Washington, in the same home for over 50 years. Hopefully someone will remember him or attended his funeral and can give us some clue as to where he might be buried in the cemetery.

It also pains the family who paid for the tombstone, only to find out that it wasn’t taken care of by the other family members. It brings up dark and sad memories of his fast and miserable death with cancer, and the heartache of his second and newly married wife trying to break the prenuptial agreement (for a couple of thousand dollars worth of nothing estate) and get money from the family, unexpectedly turning into a greedy, raging and demanding monster no one recognized. It’s a tough way to say goodbye, but now, 30 years later, new memories can be formed and now he’s gone missing!

If you have any information on where Grandfather Raymond Anderson might be buried in the IOOF cemetery in Monroe, Washington, we’d love your help.

UPDATE: 2010

After no luck tracking down any specific information, Raymond’s daughter, Ramona, bought a new tombstone similar to her mother’s and had that one replaced with both of their names on it, as well as her married names in order to preserve the family history identification process for future family members.

The family now has a place to go to remember this former teacher from a one room school house in Taylor Rapids, Michigan, the second generation of Norwegian immigrants. He traveled from the agricultural country of Lessor, Shawano County, Wisconsin, to the wild north lumber town of Taylor Rapids, Michigan, married Nora Knapp, then made his way with the Knapp family across the United States to Washington State in the Pacific Northwest. He spent the next 50 years in a very small two room home in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains overlooking Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains in Marysville, Washington. Now he rests among beautiful trees at the IOOF cemetery in Monroe, Washington.

Consider yourself “found,” Grandfather Anderson.

We are still working hard to fill in the many blanks of our Anderson family line from Norway, including looking for another lost grandfather Anderson, Hans Anderson of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, if you can help us there.

Anderson, Chester

Age 73. Passed away at his home October 13, 1971.

Mr. Anderson was born in Lessor, Wisconsin, May 2, 1898, and had lived in Racine most of his life. He worked at Gordon Machine for 33 years, retiring in 1967.

Mr. Anderson was a member of Holy Communion Lutheran Church for over 50 years, taught Sunday School, was a member of the choir, and the Church Council, in addition to serving as a member of the Building Committee of the present church. He was a member of Belle City lodge No 92F and A.M., the Gorton 20 Year Club, the Forward Together Senior Citizen Club of Humble Park, and the Senior Citizen Choir.

Survivors include three sons and two daughters-in-law, James and Lavern Anderson of Huntington Beach, California, Russell and Genevieve Anderson of Racine, and David of Los Angeles, California; two daughters and two sons-in-law, Miss Marjorie Anderson, of Racine, Nancy and Robert Stark of Racine, and John Drydyk, of Cedarburg, Wisconsin: 14 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; three brothers, Rudolph Erwin Anderson, of Racine; Floyd Anderson, of DePere, Wisconsin, Raymond Anderson of Seattle, Washington; other half-sisters and half brothers; other relatives. His wife, Elizabeth, preceded him in death, Jan. 9, 1969.

Anderson Brothers circa 1940
(from left) Raymond, Rudolph, Chester, Floyd

Funeral services will be held Friday, October 15 at Holy Communion Lutheran Church, 1:30pm, the Rev. Dale Hallberg officiating. Interment will be in West Lawn Memorial Park. Friends may call at the Hanson Funeral Home, 722 N. Memorial Drive, Thursday afternoon and evening from 4 to 9 PM and Friday at the church from noon ’til time of service. Masonic services will be held Thursday evening at 7:30 pm at the funeral home. All Master Masons are asked to meet at the Temple at 6:45 pm.