Well let's start at the beginning. About six weeks ago, I received a message from a DNA match. 23andMe said we were 3rd cousins, but actually we are 2nd cousins. He didn't need to tell me much, and I knew exactly how we were related. Our grandmothers were sisters. I sent him some information I had collected on my grandmother's family (I may have overwhelmed him). To be honest, these lines overwhelm me too! They are my Olerud and Thoresen lines. The reason I say they overwhelm me is they are my Norwegian lines and every generation back in Norway, and even the first generation or two in the US, they would change their surnames (well in the US sort of) if your father's name was Hans, your surname would be Hansen (son of Hans). In the US they had to use a regular surname, but sometimes they'd forget especially in church records and a few other records.
Well because of this DNA match, I have been diligently working on these lines. I'm finding it isn't quite as hard as I thought it was. I just always need to keep it in the back of my mind if I can't find a record, could it be under the father's name with the -sen at the end. I don't think I'll get brave enough (yet) to explore too much of the Norway records. But we'll see.
I grew up being told my great-grandmother Thora Maria Thoresen was born in North Dakota. But then others said no she was born in Minnesota. As I was researching, I found the source of the confusion - 1/2 of the documents showed her being born in Minnesota and half being born in North Dakota. I even tried a general search of church records in North Dakota thinking if she had been born in North Dakota, that would be where she was baptized. The search turned up empty. Tonight I came across the baptismal record from her brother who was slightly older than her and the only one of her sibling who was also born in North Dakota and there it was.....Bluflat Lutheran Church, in Portland Traill County, North Dakota!!! Pay dirt!!! I did a search in Ancestry Card Catalog for Birth, Baptism, & Christening Records, then by church, town, and I put in her birth year of 1885 and as I scroll down the names, there she was! She was most definitely born in North Dakota and I have the proof!