A Painting Hangs Over My Life

[Jackpine Radical]

10. My father's family, originally from Denmark, homesteaded in South Dakota

in the early 1890's. My great-grandfather and his brother were--for lack of a better term--"co-patriarchs" of the tribe. In 1910, the majority of the family left SD for Saskatchewan, while my grandfather and one brother moved to Wisconsin. There was some contact by mail between the 2 branches, and I believe my grandfather took the family up to visit in Saskatchewan in the 1920's (either by rail or by Model T), but by my era, I had little knowledge of the Canadian branch. All that changed a few years ago when I made contact with one of my cousins via the Internet. We've maintained contact online ever since, & I now have knowledge and even pictures of my ancestors that would have been very difficult to obtain in the years before our wonderful worldwide communication system.