Olava Olsdatter Dalum Solved!

I have a new article out.  The Spring 2026 issue of Generations has published my story about great-grandaunt Olava Olsdatter Dalum (1846-1898).^[1]Olava was born at the Dalum farm in Eidsvoll, not at the Bønsmoen husmannplass where her parents later lived, so in proper genealogical fashion, I use her farm name at birth as her proxy surname.  … Continue reading  Click this link to open a pdf copy:

MGS_Spring_2026_Jonnes

Generations is the quarterly journal of the Minnesota Genealogical Society.

The article follows up on a similar article published five years ago about Olava’s sister Maren Olsdatter Bønsmoen.^[2]View that article here.

The two sisters were daughters of my second great-grandparents Ole Larsen Bønsmoen (1820-1902) and Dorthe Olsdatter Dalum (1819-1893).  Olava and Maren were the only members of the family to remain in Norway.  Their parents — Ole & Dorthe — and four siblings all emigrated, incuding my great-grandfather Bernt Olsen Bønsmoen (1856-1937).  The six emigrating family members adopted either Bohn or Bonn upon arriving in Minnesota between 1875 and 1886.

Mom and Susie and David and I found Ole & Dorthe’s gravesite in Stephen, Minnesota in 2018.

In completing this research, I have finally filled out the details of the family of Ole & Dorthe Bønsmoen/Bohn.  We now know the proper order of all the children, when they were born and died, and who they married.  The only details still missing are Olava’s precise birth date, although it must be in 1846, and Ole’s death record.^[3]Ole was enumerated in Warroad, Minnesota in the 1920 U.S. census but I’ve never found anything beyond that.

My goal in researching Maren and Olava was to find out if either had living descendants.  I hoped to learn new family details from the descendants and discover new photographs.

As described in the 2021 article, Maren had no biological descendants.  However, Olava does and I’ve made contact!

Here’s the line leading to the descendants:

• Olava bore a son named Kristian Amundsen (1875-1912).  Kristian worked at a sawmill with his father Ole Amundsen.  Kristian was my grandfather Bert Bonn’s first cousin.
• Kristian had two children:  Arve Amundson and Kirsten Amundson.^[4]In Norway, the family’s surname was spelled Amundsen but became Amundson in America by 1930.  After Kristian died of lung cancer in Norway in 1912, his widow remarried and the family emigrated to America in 1916. Arve died in a car crash in 1962 while Kirsten lived to 2003.  Both had children and grandchildren.
• Arve had three children, including Marvin Amundson.  Arve was my mother Beverly Bonn’s second cousin.

Amazingly, Marvin Amundson is still alive today, age 94 — as is his sister Jean, age 97.  I spoke with Marvin on the phone and am also conversing with his daughters.  Marvin is my third cousin and his daughters are my third cousins, once removed.

The family provided several old photographs.  The featured one at the top of this post is very likely from the late 1890s and shows a lumberyard crew at a sawmill in Eidsvoll.  The tall man sitting front center with the distinctive hat is Ole Amundson, the crew’s foreman (fifth from left).  He was Olava’s husband.  Sitting next to Ole is their son Kristian Amundson (sixth from left).

Here is a photograph of the Arve Amundson family in 1951.  Arve is front left and Marvin is top center.

Marvin has submitted a DNA test, so I will have more to report on this relationship later.