Day 40 The Odds Were Against Us

Sunday June 10 –  Dorothea Petersen was born in Drammen Norway in 1828. She and husband Andreas emigrated to the U.S. with their eight children in 1871.  Another child, Martin, was born in 1873 when Dorothea was 43.  The family farmed in Angelica, WI west of Green Bay until Andreas’ death in 1889. In 1912 at age 84 Dorothea moved with her son Martin to Newberg Oregon about 20 miles southwest of Portland. She passed away four years later in 1916 a few weeks before her 88th birthday.

Dorothea was Earl’s great-grandmother and Carl’s great-great-grandmother.

We knew of Dorothea’s burial in the Newberg Friends Cemetery but had not reached out to the cemetery association for location info before leaving home. We had a picture of her headstone and a second photo showing its general location although this photo contained no significant reference points.  The cemetery is fairly large given Newberg’s population of about 23,000 people. By all accounts, our odds of locating her gravesite were significantly against us.   Still, we persisted and somehow with some very appreciated insight “to go here, go there” we walked right up to her final resting place with a cheer of childlike excitement!

Carl at great-great-grandmother’s gravesite

We took good reference photos for future Petersen-Rasmussen descendants who want to make this pilgrimage.   We moved on to our next destination of east-Portland with happy hearts!

3 thoughts on “Day 40 The Odds Were Against Us

  1. Lois A

    Congratulations on finding the cemetery stone of your great,great grandmother.
    ANCESTRY shows the WI state census of 1 June 1905 with the following:
    Martin Peterson
    male, white, married, age 32, born WI about 1873,residence:Angelica,Shawano Co.WI,USA
    head of family:Martin Peterson,32
    spouse, Alta Peterson,28
    mother, Dora Peterson,76
    Ruth Peterson, 8
    Rachael Peterson, 5
    FIND A GRAVE:Martin Peterson,death:28 May 1938, Vancouver,Clark Co.WA,USA
    Park Hill Cemetery,Vancouver
    Spouse:Alta Bell Peterson
    Is Martin your great uncle?
    I look forward to reading your blog every day..especially to see what you are wearing which
    indicates the weather you are experiencing….stay safe

    white

    1. Carl Post author

      Thanks. Yes Martin is my great uncle. Obviously if we could have reached out to the sexton before hand it would have been much easier search. In the end we liked making the “find” this way. We have had an incredible string of good weather. Its been hardly over 80F for almost 7 weeks now every place we’ve stopped. Rain has only dampened our activity a bit in Newport and Newberg Oregon, then on our third day in Yellowstone and again today at Mt Rushmore. Carl and Lynn

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