Updated December 24, 2020
Here we have the beginnings of a geneological mapping of the family, relatives, and
ancestors ofmy children, Brii-anna Joy and Winter Aaron. There is also some branching
out to include some family history, people not directly related, but included as the
result of marriage.
(NOTE: Living relatives can only be viewed by members of the family to whom
I have grantedaccess through this web site. Please ask for an invitation using the link
in the top right corner of the home page.)
(NOTE: The corollary of this is that living relatives to whom I have granted
permission can view all of the information entered about all the other relatives who
are members of our family. If there is any information displayed that you would prefer
to have hidden from other members of the family, please let me know by email so I can
consider your request.)
NOTE TO FAMILY MEMBERS: I keep my genealogy records on my personal
computer. Ever so often I upload updates to this web site. This erases what was here
previously (except for photos) and replaces it with the newest version. So if you see
anything that needs changing or correcting, do not make the changes here.
Instead, please notify me by email.
(brian@wyomason.net)
Since the last time I updated this genealogy, I have continued entering our Norwegian
relatives based on the information provided by Stein Wisted on his website, which
provides the history of the people who lived on the farms in what is now Sokndal,
Norway. In figuring out who is related to whom, and who married whom, etc., it
seems like everyone in the county is related. I have a ton of people that I still have
to include in our genealogy. For now I am trying to concentrate on those that I can
call my direct ancestors. Their relationship to you would depend on your
relationship to me.
Norwegian names make genealogy simpler than in many countries. This is because
up until the 20th century, the second name of a child was the father’s name + “son”
or “daughter”. So, the son of Ola had the second name of “Olsen”. The daughter had
the second name of “Olsdatter”. The third name was the name of the farm where
they lived. However, this meant that if they moved, their third name changed to the
name of their new farm. If a person moved alot, their third name changed alot. Early
documents did not always include all three names. Also, over the years, before the
increase in literacy, the spelling of names would vary considerably. To simplify
matters, mostly in line with the convention used by Stein Wisted, I have used the
name a person had at birth, using today's spelling of the name of the farm where
they were born, even though they might not have used that name themselves. In
1923, it was ordered by law that each family should have a single, hereditary last name.
Also, I must say that there are several times when Stein Wisted indicates doubt or
conjecture about certain relationships. I just go ahead and enter the relationship as
if it were certain. This often happens when he encounters partial names, for example
two men named “Lars”, and comes to believe that they are actually the same person.
I have no way of showing this uncertainty, and therefore set these relationships down
anyway trusting the conclusions that Stein comes to.
The Norwegian genealogy also includes information provided by my third cousin,
Thor Evje. He did a lot of research on the Evje side of the family, especially since the
19th century, providing many details of the lives of the individuals. Unfortunately,
Thor passed away in 2017.
A lot of the work for this genealogy was done by my brother-in-law, Loyd Campbell, Jr.
and my cousin,Maureen Crook, with some assistance from my mother, Doris Zolnoski.
I received the information fromLoyd over 40 years ago. Needless to say, the information
on the Campbell side of the family isincomplete. Maureen's information represents over
30 years of research. Sadly, both my mother and Maureen died in the latter part of 2014.
I received a lot of information from my mother's second cousin, Baldwin Petersen
and from a genealogy chart done by my grandfather, Emmett Gillis, in 1916. A lot of
information added was provided to me by Kimball Everingham and pertains to one
of the Holliday branches of the family tree. Finally, relatives who found this site on
the web have passed additional information on to me. I want to especially thank Kevin
Holm.
If anyone has any information that can fill in some of the missing details, please email
me at
brian@wyomason.net.
I will continue to try to fill in the details as they become known to me.
Also, if you understand Norwegian, any help you can give with
the notes that are written in Norwegian would be greatly appreciated. Google
translation just isn’t adequate at times to explain the correct meaning.