My Family History
As a young boy I always wondered about two things. First, why my dad always was humbuggy around Christmas and secondly why all my friends had grandfathers and I didn’t.
It wasn’t until much later that I learned that my dad’s father died when he was young. My grandfather Oscar Leopold Anderson died December 21st 1935, my dad was 15 years old at the time. He was buried December 24th 1935, Christmas Eve. That put in me a desire to find out more about my grandfather.
It wasn’t until recently that I purchased the tools I needed to dig further into my past. I started using Geni in 2008. This grew my family tree to around 120+ blood relatives. This year I created an account at Ancestry. I found many more relatives and living distant cousins and that has made this more exciting and fueled me to look deeper.
My plan for this page is to document some of the stories and information of my family in one place. Stories like my great uncle William Anderson who was in World War I with the 42nd Rainbow Division that was commanded my then Major Douglas MacArthur. Reading some of his letters he wrote back to his brother Oscar, my grandfather, during his time in Europe between 1917-1919 are like a window to the past. Or things like my grandmother and grandfather who were both born in Sweden in the late 1800′s.
Let me tell you something of myself and my family. I am the fourth born of five children to Madelyn Mae Henriksen and Raymond Anderson. Lived my growing up years in Des Moines Iowa.