Grandpa Charles Rosendahl had a few tales circulating about him. The earliest being that he fell head over heels with grandma Rosendahl the first time he met her. As this tale goes, he begged her to marry him several times and she kept turning him down.
She left Sweden for the United States. Grandpa may have been in the military and his given surname was Jacobson or was it Jacobsen. Heck only the Swedes and Norskies could tell that.
Grandpa decided he would change his name to Rosendahl and may have run off from the military or just plain ran away from and followed his heart to America.
While on board the same ship with Grandma Rosendahl, he presured her to marry him on more than one occasion. She got so put out by him that she threstened to have the Captain of the ship marry her to the first guy she came across if he did not leave her alone. Not to give up totally, Grandpa cooled his jets until the ship came to this country.
He followed Grandma to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Once again put the pressure on her to marry him or else he would kill himself and leave a note placing the blame on her rejection of him. Well, to make the story short, she agreed to marry him finally else my mom wouldn't have been born and I wouldn't be here writing this tale, true or not. Come on, it's better than staring at a blank page here, ain't it?
There is another version I shall toss in here latter.
Less romantic tale told me about how the two came here.
Grand pa and grand ma always had feelings for each other back in Sweden. Grandma's relatives were coming to this country and she wanted grandpa to come along. She supposedly paid for his ticket on the boat to this country. The two eventually got married within a few days of arriving here.
This tale would work out if one combined some of the above tale.
Grandpa followed grandma to Minneapolis.....
Another source shows that when "Hattie" got here she and her relatives went to Dassell, Minnesota first. Several miles from Minneapolis.
How did the two of them get together and get married?
Don't know for sure if Dassell had even a McDonalds back then. "Hattie" may have come to Minneapolis just to find work and found "Charles" instead.
Bad thing about it all was they never talked to their kids about this much and them "kids" may have made up the above tale to fit their fantasy.