Genealogical research is a collective exercise with many individuals and organizations playing important roles. I have benefited immensely from these individuals and organizations. I want to acknowledge publicly their contributions and thank them for their help. I would also like to encourage you to support these organizations, especially the nonprofits that need our financial help.
While not a comprehensive list, I'd like to highlight the following organizations for the help they have provided with my research.
NOTE: The names that are underlined are links to their Web Site.
Clarice Bergerson has for years been very active in keeping ancestry records for several families in the Strum area. All of the data for the Bergerson and Halverson families that came from Norway was provided by Clarice. Clarice has also collected a great deal of pictures relating to Strum. Many of the pictures on this site are from Clarice. I am thankful for her support.
Amby Dragee was for years very active in keeping ancestry records for the Tackett family. Amby was able to find ancestry connections for the Tackett family all the way back to Kentucky, Virginia, England and France. All of her findings are in this web page along with some interesting articles that she inspired to be written.
Fred Matson formally from Strum has been inspirational and helpful in many aspects of gathering information on Strum. His father, Roy Matson has written much of Strum and this site has incorporated many of his amusing and interesting writings. Fred has also assisted me in how to search out ancestors in Norway and understand the way names were handled before 1922. A special credit also to Erik Matson who finished writing and organizing the book "History of Strum and the TOWN of UNITY" that his father researched for years.
This for-profit organization continues to add databases and improve its online presentation and search capabilities. I have relied heavily on this resource.
LDS provides one of the most inexpensive methods for microfilm access to one of the largest collections of primary source genealogical materials from around the world. Their provisions for broad and inexpensive document delivery are to be commended.
Whenever individuals ask me how to start doing genealogical research, I refer them to Cyndi's List as a starting point. As stated on the website, Cyndi's List is "a 'card catalog' to the genealogical collection in the immense library that is the Internet." I continually browse through the hundreds of online links to genealogical resources and am always discovering new tidbits of information.
Digital Archives is a free public service from the National Archives of Norway, providing access to a large amount of Norwegian genealogical resources. Digital Archives has one of the best sets of search strategies available online to access materials. Of special note are the digitized census data for the national censuses of 1801, 1865, 1875, and 1900. The Norwegian government has also funded the digitization of microfilms of parish registers from all churches throughout Norway. Since the entries in these parish registers are not indexed, you need to do page-by-page reviews; nevertheless, they are a gold mine for genealogical research.
The Foundation is a not-for-profit charity registered in England and Wales. It also hosts the Medieval Lands project, authored by Charles Cawley, which "presents narrative biographical genealogies of the major ruling families of over 140 territories in Europe. His research is used to determine the validity and authenticity of individuals living during the medieval period, roughly defined as 500-1500.
Bill Christianson
20 October 2009
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