Finnestad Ancestry

Here is a photo I took recently of the Vallem plot located at Union Cemetery in Lee county, Illinois. In the background is the Vallem monument, which I posted in August 2010.   In the foreground is the marker for Lena Josephine (Travland), the first wife of Peter John Vallem.    To the left of Lena is Peter's marker. To the left of Peter's marker is that of his second wife, Sarah (Anderson) and to the left of Sarah is the marker for Peter's daughter, Lena Verdelle (Vallem) Dover .   The marker says 'Doner' though I am not sure of the correct spelling.

Here is the grave marker for Sarah (Anderson) Vallem, the second wife of Ole and Mari Finnestad's grandson, Peter Vallem . Sarah married Peter Vallem on February 27, 1913, two years after the death of Peter's first wife, Lena Josephine (Travland). Sarah was born August 23, 1884 and died July 16, 1934; she is buried at Union Cemetery in Lee County, Illinois. (Peter Vallem was the son of Rachel (Finnestad) and Lewis Vallem.)

Sarah (Anderson) Vallem, the second wife of John Peter Vallem applied for a US passport for herself and their only son, Orville on January 12, 1920.   (John Peter Vallem and first wife Lena Josephine (Travland) had possibly 7 children; I've only been able to track down 5 of those, leading me to believe there was an error in the 1910 US Census.) Unfortunately, if the lower left corner was the photo of Sarah, it didn't come out on the xerox copy. Line #11 and #12 show Sarah and Orville as passengers on the Bergensfjord   arriving in New York from Stavanger, Norway. I don't know if any of Sarah's stepchildren felt slighted by not having been included in the trip, but it may have been the source of some animosity toward their half-brother, Orville. Here are some photos of the Bergensfjord. Here is a postcard of the Bergensfjord.