Jennifer's Journey: Tracing the Family Roots

My husband and I just returned home from a trip to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. We met a group of French Acadians there who work at a Historic Acadian Village. Each of them are direct descendants of the original people who founded the village. These people are building dory boats the way their ancestors did. They are fishing for lobster using the same techniques. They are walking upon the same ground as the people who dreamed of having children and great-grandchildren walked. They know where they came from. That experience got us to talking. Where do we come from? How far back do we know our own history? Time to trace the family roots.....

Mary Bearfield

Samuel Bale

Let's start with my dad's side of the family. His mom, my Grandma (Winnifred) was the ninth of eleven children. Her parents were Mary and Samuel. Samuel was born in 1856 in England. He grew up on a farm and became a farmer. He loved to read and talk about politics. He read books about law and helped people the way a lawyer would. He had sixteen children, five by his first marriage and then eleven after he married Mary Bearfield in January of 1899. Samuel was a strict father who demanded silence on Sunday afternoons. He was seldom home because he was busy working. He and Mary had a home in town and a home on the farm. Some of the time, Samuel lived alone on the farm while his wife and children lived in town.
Mary Bearfield was born in 1876. She had been a teacher before meeting her husband and she taught again later when her children were in school. She did needlework, sewing, and quilting. She helped tutor the neighbors in math and foreign languages. Mary was also a poet. She was very close to her sister Minnie who never married. Minnie's nickname for Mary was Frankie.
Mary and Samuel had eleven children: Dwight, Gertrude, Helen, Sanford, Katherine, Edith, Stanley, Robert, Winnifred, Constance, and Mills. Here is a picture of Mary and Samuel later in life.

Samuel and Mary Bale

My dad's dad (Norman) was an only child to his parents Florence and Iver. Florence's parents came from Bienne, Switzerland. Their names were Fred and Marion Wissbrod. They came to America in 1865 in a sailboat. They lived in Breckenridge, Minnesota and then in 1871 they moved to Erhard, Minnesota. They came to America to homestead available land. Fred and Marion had thirteen children and Florence was the eighth child. Florence was born in Erhard on January 28th, 1881.
Iver Iverson was born in Watson, Minnesota. His parents were Norwegian. Both he and his future wife Florence moved from Minnesota to North Dakota before they met. They both attained land through the Homestead Act near Flaxton, North Dakota. Their land was eight miles apart. Iver ran a restaurant in Flaxton and Florence worked for him there. Florence lived with her sisters Martha and Bertha before she and Iver were married on March 6th, 1907.
Iver and Florence bought a general store in 1909 and ran that for many years. Iver was very dedicated to that store. He also loved to hunt and fish. Florence enjoyed baking, sewing, quilting, and tending to her flower and vegetable garden.