Peninsula
Genealogical Society- Door Co., WI
Peninsula
Genealogical Society- Door Co., WI
PGS SERENDIPITY!!
updated 26 Apr 2011
ser-en-dip-i-ty n. the faculty of making desirable but unsought-for discoveries by accident [f. (The Three Princes of) SERENDIP (who had this faculty) by H. Walpole + -ITY]; The American College Dictionary, 1967, Random House.
The following serendipity is hopefully the first of many that will occur on the PGS Website. We hope you will enjoy this story of the unexplained!
Please contact us if you have more information on the following people at: [email protected]. Feel free to send us your unknowns via e-mail as well if you would like to find out who is who-you never know when PGS SERENDIPITY will be at work!
PLEASE CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM or FIND OUT MORE!
PGS Serendipity -26 Apr 2011:
25 Apr 2011: Our thanks to Nikkie HOWARD who sent the PGS her Photo Survey of the Town of Gibraltar-Pioneer/Thorp Cemetery. Sue HOHNEKE, PGS Webmaster, while readying the pictures to be linked to the index, read the stone for Freeman E. THORP, noting that he "Perished on board the Steamer Erie L. HACKLEY". The old 1977 index had a different spelling for the boat-her husband Bob provided the SERENDIPITY! Click on the picture of the stone below to go to the PGS SERENDIPITY of 26 Apr 2011!
PGS Serendipity - 20 Aug 2010:
30 Jul 2010:
-Ginny HAEN, PGS Secretary and Assistant Curator of the Door County Historical Museum e-mailed a picture of an UNKNOWN FAMILY that was contributed by Jean KLANSKY to Sue HOHNEKE, PGS Webmaster, to be included on the PGS Website's UNKNOWNS. Jean knew that the daughter second from the left in the front row of the picture lived next door to her parents, Jim and Gladys SULLIVAN and at one time at 333 Parkway (now Joliet Street) in Sturgeon Bay and had wanted the picture to be returned to its rightful family. Sue put the photograph on the HOMEPAGE of the PGS Website as well on the Door County UNKNOWN Folks Page.
11 Aug 2010:
Morgan OLSEN, of Norway, visited the Door County Historical Museum where he met Ginny HAEN. He had been born in Door County. After his father died his mother moved the family back to Norway. Morgan had visited the Town of Nasewaupee-Hainesville Scandinavian Lutheran Cemetery looking for family stones but had been unable to locate one particular stone that was in an old picture he had with him. The picture was of Isak BERGSLAND leaning against his brother George BERGSLAND's stone at Hainesville Cemetery. Ginny was able to show him the PGS Website where Bob and Sue HOHNEKE had recently completed a Photo Survey of that same cemetery and where they had taken some pictures of that same George BERGSLAND stone. Morgan was very pleased to find that the stone was still there. Ginny scanned the picture with his permission and sent it to Sue to be included on the Hainesville Cemetery page. Sue put the photo on the HOMEPAGE right underneath the UNKNOWN Family picture (above) and also on the Hainesville Cemetery page. The original Norwegian writing on the back of the photo identified who it was and where.
20 Aug 2010:
Mary Beth KIRCH, who has been contributing information this summer to the PGS, especially regarding the different VISTE Families-of Tanum Lutheran and Forest Lutheran Cemeteries, called Sue HOHNEKE on the phone telling her that she had a cousin Gary MAEDKE who sent her the same picture as the UNKNOWN Family picture (above) with all the people's names as well as who they married and where they lived. It was the GIGSTAD/GIGSTEAD family-Knud and Randi (ELLISON/ELIASON) GIGSTAD/GIGSTEAD and their children. She also said that the daughter second from the left sitting in the picture that lived next to Jean KLANSKY's parents was Regina and she was the wife of Isak BERGSLAND in the other picture on the PGS HOMEPAGE right below the UNKNOWN Family picture. What a wonderfully unbelievable coincidence!
"I'm still awestruck and amazed"-Sue HOHNEKE
Serendipity has struck the PGS Website!!
Our thanks to the wonderful contributions of Jean KLANSKY, Morgan OLSEN and Mary Beth KIRCH (and her cousin, Gary). Their willingness to share had yielded much fruit!!!
Above: Wedding picture for Isak BERGSLAND and Olga "Regina" GIGSTAD-1 Jan 1897 (Isak is a bit younger here than in the Hainesville Cemetery picture!)-WHO ELSE is in the picture?? GIGSTADS & BERGSLANDS??-contributed by Mary Beth KIRCH's cousin Gary MAEDKE on 26 Aug 2010!
BELOW: Wedding picture for Knud GIGSTAD/GIGSTEAD and Randi ELLISON/ELIASON (parents in the GIGSTAD/GIGSTEAD family picture-contributed by Jean KLANSKY with help from Ginny HAEN (11 Sep 2010
