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United States National Archives

When searching one's genealogy, much information can be found in by visiting the National Archives. The archives provide access to microfilm and other documents, including census, immigration, military and land records. You may experience long wait times due to the number of people that are attempting to trace their ancestors, so it's recommended you do some homework BEFORE you head to the local office.

If you do not have an office nearby, you can join ancestry.com but if you want to view documents, you will have to become a member and pay a monthly or annual fee. The National Archives also provides access to ancestry.com, but the documents available may be limited.

It can be tedious finding the records that pertain to your particular family tree, especially when you understand there will be misspellings, typographical errors and bad handwriting. Though after you grasp how it works, it can become very rewarding.

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Ole Finnestad Jr obituary

Here is the obituary for my great, great grandfather, Ole Finnestad Jr from the Dixon Evening Telegraph of July 9, 1928. Note the misspelling of his first and last name, though Finnestad was spelled correctly within the content of the article. You will also note that his brother Rasmus had moved from Canada to Washington by the time of his brother's death. Oddly, there is no mention of the sisters that survived him, leading me to believe they may have lost touch by the time of his death.

Kenneth and Lillian Finnestad obituaries

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Finnestad Farm - Stavanger, Norway

It was customary in Norway to take the farm name as the family name. Prior to arriving in America, Ole Finnestad was known as Ole Olson. According to the Regional State Archives of Stavanger, in 1862, Ole Olsen bought a farm from Bjørn Larsen. The following link provides some farm information along with the family members in 1865: http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?slag=visbase&sidenr=59&filnamn=f61126&gardpostnr=582&sokefelt=vis “Merknad 387b” now means property nr. 16 of the farm Finnestad. (Please keep in mind that accuracy of records is less than perfect - so ages and other information are not always correct) For more information on Stavanger and a map of the area, please go to the following wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavanger