CARL FREDRICKSON FAMILY       

FORWARD

Some cautions and confessions to the reader seem particularly necessary and appropriate at the outset of this section. First, I am a reader of history but not a historian. Secondly, good history requires the objective perspective that only detachment, dispassion, and the benefit of time can provide.  I can make no claim to any of these.  Finally, genuine history is interpretation and insight rooted in a solid base of fact. As you will soon see, our forebears have been far more concerned with living life than with recording it.  Facts are scarce in places!

For my own part, the assembly of this material has left me with a mixed set of reactions. I am somewhat frustrated and disappointed that we do not know more about our own family, even that one or two generations removed. That being said, however, the questions raised both by what we do know as well as what we do not are more intriguing than ever. More profound for me than the frustration and disappointment or even the fascination with the open questions is a renewed sense of awe and appreciation for the raw daring and determination of those from which we come.

I have attempted to strengthen and enrich this offering by soliciting contributions and criticism from Jan, Linda, and a number of our cousins who did have a longer opportunity to know our grandparents than did we. Their assistance has been both generous and invaluable. I am, however, completely responsible for the content of this attempt to commit history.

APPROACH AND ORGANIZATION

This history is structured around our parents, Carl and Alma, and their parents, Charles and Christina and Edmund and Amelia, respectively. Accordingly, at the bottom of this page are links to pages dealing with Carl and Alma together and each of their parents separately. The pages dedicated to the earlier generations include that attempt to record biographic summaries and  such recollections about them as people as could be recaptured at this time.

Navigation in this section of the Website requires returning to this page or to the Archives page to proceed elsewhere on the site.