Here's to Public Trees!

Many people have asked why is your tree on-line?  It is cousin bait.  As recently as last week I made several new connections.

Christiania, Norway 1814

My Hansen tree has found several connections over the years, the most recent being a descendant of my Grandfather Adolph's half-sister Edit Bull Hansen.  My Grandfather Adolph came to the United States with his sister Dagny and brother Artur shortly after his father's re-marriage and before Edit was born. Edit married Harald De Lange and had had five sons. This week I was contacted by Liv from Norway who has the De Lange family as part of her tree.  Previously I had connected with the De Lange family through my blog "Hanging from the Family Tree".  Anders De Lange was reading my blog to his Grandmother Edit and he emailed me with some questions.  Anders and I have kept in touch and he has provided me with some critical information.  He told me about two of my Grandfather's siblings of which I had no knowledge.  Einer Adolf was born in 1885 and Aagot Dorette was born in June 1887.  Aagot died in June 1887 and her mother died 4 July 1887.  Anders also sent me copies of the death notices of Aagot and Dorette from the Oslo newspapers and a picture of the house where my Great-Grandfather was born in 1852.

I currently have public trees at Ancestry.com, , MyHeritage, and FamilySearch and they have all helped me make connections to branches of my tree.  All three sites will search in the background whether I am at my computer or not.