Bev and I are pretty well consumed with genealogy research.

A poem written by another Norwegian descendant describes why
we and others have such a drive to learn more about our ancestry:

SPEAK TO ME, ANCESTOR
Where did you come from, ancestor of mine?
What made you travel so far back in time?
What did you look like? Were your eyes blue?
Were you fair-skinned and freckled? Do I look like you?

Were you a tinker? Did you work with your hands?
Did you leave family back in your homeland?
Did you know what awaited? Was this land harsh or kind?
Had you any idea of what you would find?

Did you feel like a stranger so far from your home?
Did you travel with family? Did you travel alone?
Did you pass Lady Liberty with her arms open wide?
Were you brave and excited or were you terrified?

Speak to me, ancestor. Help me to know
some clues to this mystery that began long ago.
Give me the answers so one day I’ll see
the link in the history that joins you and me.
Copyright 1996, Alana Thevenet



This home page contains links on the left to the sites and topics that are of interest to Bev and I.


The Hendricks site was created years ago to help in the research of the immigrants that founded Hendricks MN as they all came from the same area in Norway as did my grandfather Jens Winsness.  Each of those families in the 1873 wagon train that crossed the prairie had one or both of the adult parents who had descended from my ancestor, Per Persen Vinsnes, born 1638!

LRWMA - Lake Russell Wildlife Management Area
That area between Toccoa and Cornelia Georgia was where Bev's ancestors settled and we enjoyed researching the history of the area with a group "Faded Footprints of Families and Friends of the LRWMA".  When I moved my original site to this location, many of the old newsletters and pages were lost, but it remains a great repository of information.


email jim at    jim.winsness  @  gmail.com
(no spaces)

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