Mar 14, 1998

Thomas Elton Family Tree images and narrative

Gale / Eltons, Thomas Elton / family tree /

I was able to trace my Thomas Elton’s lineage back to 1498 on Ancestry.com due to the hard work of a couple of other people related in some way. It’s on the internet – it’s got to be fact, right? Just kidding. I realize what I found may not be 100% accurate, but just getting the broad stokes is very satisfying. I wish Josh was here to see this since he was so fiercely proud of his Scandinavian heritage — he’d love it.

The full images of the detailed and simplified (parents only) family trees are posted on Thomas Elton Family Tree – Diagrams, but since the detailed image is sort of overwhelming I wanted to discuss some of the specifics here.

Generations 1 & 2

Erland Strand was generation 1 and was born in 1498 – over 500 years ago. His son Erland Erlandson Strand was born 50 years later in 1548. Erland Erlandson married Sigrid Helgesdatter.

A few early observations. I love how the children have the father’s first name with “son” or “datter” added. That trend holds until the generations right before my grandfather when naming conventions must have changed. I should note that Ancestry.com come had several of the girls with “son” instead of “datter” and I corrected them to be gender correct. A lot of the family members were missing death dates.

If the birth and death dates are anywhere near correct for Erland Erlandson and Sigrid Helgesdatter it’s impressive he lived to be 79 and she to 95 in the 1500’s. It makes me wonder if this is the heredity that enabled grandpa to live to 97, his father to 95, and Aunt Ovie to 94.

Generation 3

Erland Erlandson and Sigrid Helgesdatter had four children with Tord and and his wife Joran being the ones who led to Thomas Elton. The three children who have both birth and death dates lived to be 85, 85, and 70.

Generation 4

Tord and Joran had seven children (again, according to Ancestry.com) – 4 boys and 3 girls. The last two children, Ole and Sigrid, lived to be 95 and 96. I would love to know why Bo and Skavelden were added to some of the names.

Helge Strand Skavelden married Ingeborg Thorsdatter are the ancestors of Thomas Elton.

Generation 5

Helge and Ingeborg had five children. This generation must have been harder because the ages at death (in order of birth) were 30, 45, 37, 26, and 1.

Jul married Regnhild Olsdatter and she lived the longest of that generation at 62 years.

Generation 6

Jul and Regnhild had 12 children – I numbered them to avoid confusion. The life spans (of the 7 with death dates) of this generation vary from 25 years to 84 and 90 years for Joren and Henrik.

The first born Helge married Anna Haraldsdatter, who was 3 years older, and are the ancestors of my grandfather.

Generation 7

Helge and Anna had seven children – 5 girls and only 2 boys.

Not a lot of death dates available for this generation, but grandpa’s ancestors Juel and Ingrid lived to be 90 and 87. Note the name Juel changed from his grandfather Jul in generation 5. Juel married Ingri Andersdatter and is my grandpa’s ancestor.

Generation 8

Juel and Ingri had seven children. Not a lot of dates to work with. There were duplicate names for this generation on Ancestry.com so I wasn’t sure if the name was used again from a child who had died or if it was a duplication. This duplication happened in several generations and I eliminated people with same birth dates.

Child five Ole is the ancestor of Thomas Elton and married Anne Knudsdatter. He only lived to be 41.

Generation 9

Ole and Anne had six children. This is the first generation to show someone coming to the US, although it wasn’t my grandfather’s ancestor. That was the first born Juul (yet another spelling) who married Siri Knudsdatter and stayed in Norway. Jull lived to be 66 and Siri died when she was only 37.

Generation 10

 Juul and Siri had five children. The last was born in 1839 and Siri died in 1841. It’s surprising the earlier generations had more death dates than later generations. The first born Ole married Agnette Nettie Johannesdatter. My grandfather is a descendent from them. Ole and Nettie lived to be 53 and 73.

Generation 11

Ole and Nettie had eleven children and this is the first generation to have a lot of immigration to the US. Of the 11 children 7 immigrated and only 4 stayed inNorway.

The name Elton shows up for the first time and I’m not sure why it was tacked on to Olson and Olsdatter which is what would come from their father. There is also a spelling of Olson and Olsen – Olson should have been correct forNorway. It’s also a bit curious that Johan was born in September 1881 when his father supposedly died in March of 1880, so I suspect the dates aren’t accurate.

Nonetheless, Nels (also Nils) was my great grandfather and brought our branch of the Eltons to North Dakota. Nels married Oline Thompsen Sween. I make the assumption the spelling Nels is correct since that was in his obituary and on his gravestone.

Generation 12

Nels and Oline had six children. The first were twins Albert and Thomas. I was told grandpa’s twin died of pneumonia while they were homesteading and it was a very sad thing for grandpa. It also looks like he might have lost a brother in WWI. I found grandpa’s draft registration from WWI but he was never drafted. Not sure about the duplications of Olga and Olga J. Maybe there were only five children.

I remember my great aunt Inga – she was a fierce lefse maker and a very nice lady when we visited her inFargo.

Generation 13

Stating the obvious — Thomas and Mamie had 4 children: Ovie, Kenneth, Verda, and Donald.