Ron Madson's Family History

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Family History¦¦ Rognlie Page¦¦ Rognlie Books¦¦ Unknown Rognlie Photos¦¦ Aug 2009 Reunion¦¦ Genealogy Resources¦¦ Ron's Home Page¦¦ Patricia's Home Page¦¦ About Me¦¦ Contact Me¦¦ Site Map



I use Family Tree Maker 3® to organize our family history and genealogy. Using Family Tree Maker, I have produced several "descendants charts", which is what genealogists call a printout starting with a person, typically the oldest ancestor on one branch of the family tree and showing all of that person's descendants, at least all that are in the file. The first one provided here is the Rognlie line which is my paternal line of the family from the Rognlie Farm in the small village of Værran, Norway. There are pictures of the Rognlie Farm both current day and as it appeared over a hundred years ago. Peter Gunerius (Zachariasen) Rognlie, my great grandfather, was born in Norway in 1835 and emigrated to the US with much of his family in 1870. He was one of the first pioneers to settle and homestead in the Caledonia, North Dakota, section of the Red River Valley. Peter Rognlie's Story as best as I have been able to piece it together is an interesting tale of an early American "sod-buster".
Next is a descendants chart showing the Drake blood line beginning at the end of the 17th centry in Virginia. The Drake line represents one branch of my wife Patricia's family tree. This chart contains Sir Frances Drake. Can you find him? This is a Sir Frances Drake, but not the historical figure - Sir Frances Drake. Another way to display ancesters in what is called a "pedigree tree". Check out Ethan Madson's and my own pedigree charts. Now check out a descendancy chart where my grand daughter, Riley Grace Madson appears 66 generations down from the top guy. She on page 3. Her blood line is traced back to 140 AD!

Other genealogy charts that you can view here are of our cousins and good friends, the Braseths, in both Norway and the US. From the family of my mother's second husband, Wendell Phillips, are listings of the descendants of Daniel Meyer Cohen and of Samuel Gensler. My sister-in-law Cheryl Petersen's family descendancy chart is presented here thanks to the research work of Karen Petersen of Seattle, Washington.

For the adventuresome, you can try this Viking Kitten song by Led Zeppelin. In the 1970s they called it the "Immigrant Song".

A fine example of a turn of the century Traill County, North Dakota homestead farm was the Clarence Rognlie (1896-1968) farm at Herberg a few miles southeast of Hillsboro. This was typical of the Rognlie farms of that area.
When we were in Norway we heard a lovely traditional Norwegian in an old STAVE Church. You can hear that wedding song sung by Bjorg Bjoberg in Balestrand, Norway, by playing the sound control below.
Our family tree genealogy file has more than 31,000 folks in it now. Please let me know of corrections and updates that you may have for any of the above family tree 'branches'.
Thanks, Ron



Norwegian wedding song


Family History¦¦ Rognlie Page¦¦ Rognlie Books¦¦ Unknown Rognlie Photos¦¦ Aug 2009 Reunion¦¦ Genealogy Resources¦¦ Ron's Home Page¦¦ Patricia's Home Page¦¦ About Me¦¦ Contact Me¦¦ Site Map


Name Meanings
Last updated: September 14, 2015
Copyright © 2015 Ron Madson
El Granada, California, USA
email: Ron Madson