Ed's Day Wednesday
Dear FOLKS,
Here it is Wednesday again, and my day to share with you more about my late cousin Ed Ostrom's ancestors. I have been sharing the stories, documents and records that Ed left with me. In recent weeks we have been learning about his great-grandmother, his mother's mother's mother whose name was Gurine Marie Thomasdatter.
On her birth record her name was spelled Gurina Maria Thomasdatter, but soon we find her name spelled as Gurine Marie. Her maiden name also changed over time, sometimes her last name was written Thomasdatter and other times it was Tomasdatter. Her patronymic last name wasn't seen again after she came to America as the wife of Peder Christian Nilson. In America she would be known as Gurine Marie Nilson, most likely pronounced Gurrr - Eee - Nah.
Like we have learned earlier, Gurine was born on 05 January 1832 in Nord Rana, Nordland, Norway near the Arctic Circle. Today Nord Rana is known as Mo i Rana. We also have learned that she accompanied her husband and children to the United States in 1866. You can read more about Gurine in earlier articles by clicking here or here.
Once they reached Minnesota, they would homestead on a plot of land that was partially in Kandiyohi County and Meeker County, Minnesota. Their home was actually on Meeker County portion of their land and it is here that their younger children were born.
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| IMAGE: The Nilson house that was completed after Peder C. Nilson had passed away. His death was in 1888. It is not known who is in this photo. From the collection of Edwin J. Ostrom. |
Her husband Peder would die in 1888 and Gurine would be left to raise their younger children with the help of their son, Thomas who worked their farm and completed the construction of the family house that Peder had started before his death.
Gurine would continue as a widow for the next sixteen years, then she too would die on 26 January 1904. At the time of her death she was still living at the family home. I have not been able to find the cause of her death and there is no record of this event within Ed's records. In fact, there is little information about her death on any of the online trees I could find.
To complete this missing info, I was lucky to notice her misspelled name on the Minnesota Historical Society's State Death Index. At http://www.mns.org I found an entry for Nilsen, Gurnia, certificate number 1904-34-450. Notice how her mothers's maiden name is misspelled as well, MATSON is somewhat like MATTISDATTER. Perhaps this name was unintentionally morphed over time, but I can still recognize the intent.
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| IMAGE: Minnesota Historical Society's State Death Index, showing a Gurnia M Nilsen entry. Accessed 03 September 2017. |
I have subsequently ordered Gurine's death certificate and look forward to sharing it with you once it arrives. I am hoping this document also states a place of burial, as that too is currently an unknown. I suspect she was buried next to her husband, Peder at the Nordland Lutheran Church Cemetery, but that is still to be proven. I have written a letter to the church asking for contact information for the cemetery's sexton. I am hoping to hear of Gurine's final resting place. When I learn more, of course I'll share.
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| IMAGE: Peder and Gurine Nilson, taken circa 1885, Paynesville, Minnesota. From the Edwin J. Ostrom photo collection. |
With yet some items to discover about Ed's great-grandmother Nilson, we must kindly tell her, "Resten i fred bestemor" [Rest in Peace Grandmother]. I look forward to more stories of cousin Ed's family. I hope you are having a good week. Thank you for stopping by and joining me here.
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The URL for this post is: https://homefolktales.blogspot.com/2017/09/good-bye-to-gurine-marie-thomasdatter.html
Please comment regarding this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then use the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Or contact me by email at dsteff4246[at]gmail[dot]com. Thank you. I am glad you stopped by today.
Copyright (c) 2017, Darlene M. Steffens
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