The working side of the site

The Casebook

The story page tells what we know. This page keeps track of what we don't, what we half know, and what it would take to be sure. Each question has a number; the small ? marks on the story page point here. When something is settled it moves to the bottom with a note on how, so the whole thing reads as an investigation rather than a list of chores.

Last updated 21 September 2026 (evening), from Norway. Questions marked for the family are ones Barry, Lorna or the cousins could answer over a cup of coffee.

Status: open

What we don't know yet

Q1 When and how did John leave Norway? Open

What we have: John is on his parents' farm as a small child in 1847, absent from the 1865 and 1875 censuses of Finnøy, and a father in America by 1879.
What's missing: The year, the port, the ship, and whether he travelled alone or with his brother Laurits, who is also gone from Finnøy by 1875.
What would settle it: The Stavanger police emigrant registers for 1867–1928 burned in 1929, so the Norwegian side is thin. The U.S. side is better: the 1900 and 1910 censuses of Hendrum record a year of immigration and naturalisation status; a naturalisation file in Norman County would name the ship and date. The Finnøy church book also kept a list of people who left the parish (utflyttede).
Who can help: for the family: any story of "the crossing", a naturalisation certificate, or a family Bible with a date written in it.

Q2 Where was John in 1865, aged seventeen? Open

What we have: The only "John Johnsen, born 1847, Finnøy" in the whole 1865 census of Norway is a different young man, son of a widow at Hanesand.
What's missing: Our John under any name. He may be recorded as Johannes, with his age a year off, as a farm servant elsewhere in Rogaland, or at sea and never counted.
What would settle it: A wider search of the 1865 census with name variants, and the Finnøy confirmation records for 1861–63, which would show whether he was still in the parish at fourteen.

Q3 Who were John Johnsen's parents, one generation further back? Open

What we have: John Johnsen the elder was born about 1810 in the Talgje part of Finnøy parish, farmed Mjølsnes, and was alive in 1875. His wife Marte Larsdatter was born about 1815 on Finnøy.
What's missing: His baptism, which names his father, and the couple's marriage, which usually names both fathers.
Searched so far: The couple's marriage was found (4 Nov 1846: John Johnsen, 35, of Mjølsnes). But every Jon or John baptised in Finnøy parish 1804–1815 has been opened, and every baptism whose father was a Jon, Jonas or Johannes. None is him.
What would settle it: The Talgje confirmation lists of about 1824–28 (scanned, not transcribed), the baptism registers of neighbouring Rennesøy and Jelsa for 1809–1812, or the Talgje volume of the Finnøy farm history.

Q5 Where were Jack, Louis and Martin born? Open

What we have: Clara was born in Wisconsin in 1862; the first child we can place at Hendrum, Minnesota is Alfred in 1887. Louis's headstone says only "Minnesota".
What's missing: Where the family lived from John and Clara's marriage (about 1878) until Hendrum, and where the three eldest were born.
What would settle it: The 1880 U.S. census, which is free and fully indexed, and the couple's marriage record (probably Wisconsin or Minnesota, 1877–79).

Q6 Who was the eleventh child? Open

What we have: The family history says John and Clara "raised eleven children". Ten are named on their memorials: Jack, Louis, Martin, Mary, Alfred, Clarence, Joseph, Willie, Lorenza, Endred.
What's missing: One name. Possibly a child who died young, or a married daughter recorded under her husband's name.
What would settle it: The 1900 and 1910 censuses of Hendrum, which list everyone in the house, and Immanuel Lutheran's baptism register.
Who can help: for the family: anyone who remembers a great‑aunt or great‑uncle not on this list.

Q7 Did Louis and Minnie marry in 1902 or 1912? Open

What we have: Two family‑supplied accounts disagree. More Big Hill Country (2009): homestead 1910, married 30 December 1912, Louis "a mature thirty years old". The Sundre museum's biography of Minnie (from Chester, Gladys and Mary Mjolsness): married 26 December 1902, to Canada 1907. Their first child, Gladys, was born in 1914.
What's missing: A record rather than a memory.
What would settle it: The marriage certificate (Minnesota marriage indexes are free online), Louis's Alberta homestead file, or the 1911 census of Canada, which would show whether Minnie was in Alberta that year.
Who can help: for the family: Barry's sense of which is right, and any wedding photo or anniversary date.

Q10 Who was Beryl Chapman's family? Open

What we have: Beryl arrived in Sundre in the summer of 1945 as a friend of the ranger's wife, Marg Larson, worked at Jack Macleod's store, and married Chester on 27 June 1946. Born 17 February 1925, died 3 December 1996, buried at Bergen.
What's missing: Where she was born, her parents' names, and where the Chapmans came from.
What would settle it: Her obituary (1996), the marriage registration, or simply asking.
Who can help: for the family: Barry and Lorie will know.

Q11 Martha, Chester's second wife Open

What we have: Chester's 2021 obituary names "his wife Martha of Bottrel".
What's missing: Her surname, when they married, and her own story.
Who can help: for the family: Barry.

Q12 Steven, who died in 1956 Open

What we have: Chester's obituary lists a son Steven among those who went before him, with the year 1956.
What's missing: His dates and where he rests.
Who can help: for the family: Barry.

Q13 Lorna's side: the Cavanaughs Open

What we have: Lorna Jean Cavanaugh, raised in Canmore, married Barry in August 1970. That is all the records have said so far, because we have not started.
What's missing: Everything: her parents' full names and birthplaces, her mother's maiden name, and where the Cavanaughs came from before Canmore. The name is usually Irish.
What would settle it: Lorna. Then Canmore records and the 1921 and 1931 censuses of Canada.
Who can help: for the family: Lorna, first and best.

Q14 Are the Nedstrand Mjolsnesses cousins? Open

What we have: A second Mjolsness family in the same Minnesota township, the Christianson line, was born at Nedstrand, across the Boknafjord from Finnøy. Holger Christianson Mjolsness (1845–1920) and Peder Andreas (1848–1931) are a near‑exact match in age to our John.
What's missing: Any link. Same farm name in two parishes can mean a shared ancestor or nothing at all.
What would settle it: Nedstrand and Finnøy church books before 1810, or a Y‑DNA match between the two lines.

Q15 Joseph Mjolsness, killed in 1918 Open

What we have: Private Joseph Mjolsness, 1891–1918, homesteaded at Sundre in 1909, went overseas with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, has no known grave and is named on the Vimy Memorial.
What's missing: His unit, where and when he died, and what his service record says about his birthplace and next of kin.
What would settle it: His CEF personnel file at Library and Archives Canada, free and fully scanned, and the Commonwealth War Graves record.

Q16 Clara's mother, Maria Hanson Open

What we have: Maria Hanson Rustad, 1834–1898, wife of Andreas Anderson Rustad of Hurdal. Their daughter Clara was born in Wisconsin in 1862.
What's missing: Maria's birthplace in Norway and the couple's emigration, which would be in the 1850s.
What would settle it: Hurdal church books and the 1860 U.S. census of Wisconsin.

Status: probable

Good guesses waiting for a record

Q8 "Hedalen, Sør‑Valdres": whose memory is it? Probable

What we have: Barry and Lorna's family understanding, September 2026: the family emigrated from Hedalen in Sør‑Valdres, a mountain valley in eastern Norway. The Mjolsness line is proven to Finnøy, on the west coast, by a church book and two censuses.
Our best guess: The memory belongs to a different branch. The strongest candidate is Minnie Granum's family: Granum is an eastern‑Norway farm name, and Minnie's mother lived with the family for nearly twenty years, long enough for her stories to become "the" family story. Clara's Rustad line from Hurdal, sixty kilometres from Valdres, is the other candidate.
What would settle it: Finding where Isaac Granum's parents came from (Q9). If it is Hedalen, the memory is placed.
Who can help: for the family: was it Grandma Granum who talked about Hedalen?

Q17 Is Christopher Rasmussen (1701) the father of Christopher Christophersen (~1740)? Probable

What we have: The 1701 head‑count lists Rasmus Jonsen, 47, on Østebøe with sons Peder, Christopher (12) and Joen. The 1801 census lists Christopher Christophersen, 61, farming Østebøe. Same farm, right name, right generation gap.
Our best guess: Father and son. If so the line reaches Rasmus Jonsen, born about 1654.
What's missing: Anything between 1701 and 1789. Finnøy's baptisms for those years are not transcribed; the 1717–1734 church book survives as scans.
What would settle it: The Talgje volume of Finnøy: gard og ætt (1993–98), which reconstructs every Østebøe household from these same records, or a baptism about 1740 in the scanned church book.

Q9 The elder Isaac Granum Probable

What we have: Minnie's father Isaac Granum was born in Wisconsin in 1855, so his parents were the immigrants. A newspaper index mentions an older Isaac Granum, born in Norway in 1825, who came to Grant County, Wisconsin in 1851, married Beret Nilsdotter Eggen, moved to McLeod County, Minnesota in 1856 and to Todd County in 1882, the year Minnie was born there.
Our best guess: That older Isaac is Minnie's grandfather. The places and years line up neatly.
What's missing: The actual obituary, not a search summary, and the elder Isaac's Norwegian parish.
What would settle it: The Todd County Argus obituary, the 1860 census of Grant County, and a Norwegian emigrant record for 1851.

Status: resolved

Settled, and how

R1 Was John's father Jens or John? Resolved

The puzzle: A Find a Grave volunteer transcribed the 1847 baptism as "son of Jens Johnsen and Marte Larsdatter".
How it was settled: We read the page ourselves at high magnification: the parents' column says "Gaardbruger John Johnsen og Marte Larsdatter, Mjølsnes", and the child is "John Johnsen". The 1865 census then found John Johnsen (56) and Martha Larsdatter (50) on farm 80 at Mjølsnes with children Laurits and Laugrentse. The son's own later name, John Johnson, fits a father named John, not Jens.
Settled: 21 September 2026.

R2 Finnøy or Nedstrand? Resolved

The puzzle: Another Mjolsness family in Hendrum, Minnesota was born at Nedstrand, Tysvær, so for a few hours it was unclear which parish was ours.
How it was settled: John's memorial, the Finnøy church book and the Finnøy censuses all agree: Mjølsnes on Finnøy. The Nedstrand family is the Christianson line (see Q14).
Settled: 21 September 2026.

R3 Who was "Uncle Hale" Gochee? Resolved

The puzzle: The family history calls Hale Gochee, the mechanic who built Chester's first sawmill, an uncle, without saying how.
How it was settled: Find a Grave links Hale Peter Gochee (1898–1986) to his wife Cora A. Granum (1902–1990), Minnie's youngest sister, both at Bergen Cemetery, with their sons Orville, Roy and Jay. So he was Chester's uncle by marriage on the Granum side.
Settled: 21 September 2026.

R5 Who was Marte Larsdatter's family? Resolved

The puzzle: Only her name and approximate birth year were known (this was Q4).
How it was settled: The 1846 marriage register gives her as Marte Larsdatter, 31, of Søndre Vignes. The Finnøy baptisms have a Marthe, daughter of Lars and Berthe of Søndre Vignes, on 5 March 1815, with a sister Kari in 1812. The marriage register for 1 January 1812 gives Lars Christophersen of Østebøe, Talgje, marrying Berthe Eriksdatter of Søndre Vignes. The 1801 census puts Lars, 25, at Østebøe with his parents Christopher Christophersen and Marthe Holgersdatter. Four records, one chain.
Settled: 21 September 2026.

R4 Who were Minnie's parents, and did they come to Alberta? Resolved

The puzzle: The family history named Minnie only as "Minnie Granum, teaching school in Minnesota".
How it was settled: The Sundre museum's biography names her parents, Isaac and Caroline Granum of Little Sauk, Minnesota. Find a Grave then found both at Bergen Cemetery: Isaac (1855–1928, killed in a farm accident at Sundre) and Caroline Johnson Granum (1862–1947), with their children Minnie, Oliver, Victor and Cora.
Settled: 21 September 2026.

Method

How this works

A question goes in the moment it comes up, with whatever fragments we already have. It stays Open until there is at least a good guess, becomes Probable when the pieces fit but no record has been found, and moves to Resolved only when a primary record, a church book, a census, a certificate, settles it, or two independent sources agree. Family memory is the most valuable thing we have and the least reliable, so it is written down exactly as told and then tested.

Numbers never change. Q7 will always be the wedding‑date question, even after it is answered, so a note on the story page keeps pointing at the right place.

Corrections and additions: tell Dean or Terry.