RootsWeb is funded and supported by
Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community.
Learn more.
About Us | Contact Us | Copyright | Report Inappropriate Material
Corporate Information | Privacy | Terms and Conditions | CCPA Notice at Collection
A web site for the genealogical research of George D. Foss.
The primary surnames included here are:
Foss, Jensen,Lauritzen,Smith,Magoon,Young, and Steinhauser
This page is a work in progress--initiated in July, 2002. Every effort has been made to assure the accuracy and completeness of the information. Your suggestions, corrections and comments will be appreciated.
Scroll to the bottom of this page to find the links to the family data,
and hundreds of secondary surnames.
When I started this project in early 1965 my original plan was to find out as much as possible concerning the families of both of my parents. The original plan was to try and prepare a single book which would encompass the entire relationship to which I was a part. As time went on, my database continued to grow, and it expanded to include my wife's family. As it turned out, my rapidly evolving project was greatly simplified and expedited with the advent of the personal computer.
I just wanted to say a few words about the writing of this work. First of all, I put this history together primarily for my own edification, and as a family memento to pass on to my children. It is written in the first person and as such it is autobiographical. It is presented from my point of view, with my observations and opinions. Every effort has been made to make this as accurate, colorful, and interesting as my ability permits.
One of the aspects of this work which I have tried to uphold throughout is accuracy and truth. I took great care to document and quote from original primary sources whenever possible, and when something was hearsay it was reported as such. That has been the real fun of it for me--to unravel the myths and folklore and report the real facts as they were uncovered. In spite of careful proofreading by myself and my wife Bette I cannot rid this document of all errors--some will continue to remain.
By the time I started writing I was using material that had been collected over a period of twenty years, beginning in 1965. The volume of my raw data and support material was enough to fill two large 4-drawer filing cabinets. The bottom line after all of this, was, the people I researched were no better nor no worse than any other family that one might research.
The Bottom Line
After nearly 37 years of research on the various lines, I have made the following observations:
My advice to anyone who plans to carry out a family history is to gather anything and everything from as many relatives and family friends as you can. Assume all that you have gathered is an absolute fact. Then start collecting supporting data and proceed to throw out the bad information until you are satisfied that what you now have is accurate. There is an Aristotlian maxim that "when we have refuted all the errors, what remains is the truth." By collecting supporting data I mean such things as court records,Social Security Death Index records, Census records, reading old newspapers,reading old letters,military records, reading obituaries, one on one interviews with people,visiting cemeteries, and visiting the actual sites where people lived.
In addition to oral interviews and written records, a good source of information is to be found on the backs of old photographs. On the backs of many photographs you may learn the identity of the people,where and when the photograph was taken, etc.
IN THE BEGINNING
When I first considered writing a family history I didn't think I would get very far because I had so little to go on. It looked quite hopeless. It didn't seem possible to go much beyond either of my grandfathers.
As I searched through my mother's photo album I tried to determine how the various people were related, and how they fit into the family tree. At that time I didn't even know whether Grandpa Smith had any brothers or sisters, and to make matters worse, no one else seemed to know either. We had heard that Grandpa Smith had married a cousin or at least a relative, and that they came to Wisconsin from New York state--but that was about all
Through all my youth I was continually exposed to the small talk of my parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins concerning the trials and tribulations of the Smiths(the maternal side of the family). Now this didn't mean much to me at the time, being one of the youngest in the entire relationship, and more than that, I wasn't much interested. All I knew was this was a large family, and we seemed to be related to half the people in River Falls, and many jokes were made about it.
Sometime during the early part of 1965 it occurred that I still didn't understand my place in this relationship, nor did I know anything of the real history of these people. It was then I decided to take immediate action. My plan was to find out as much as possible about the families of both of my parents. The urgency of the situation became apparent when I discovered the only living relative on my Dad's family was my Uncle Chris Foss(age 80), and similarly, on my Mother's side only my Uncle Cliff Smith and my Aunt Ruth Erickson had survived a family of 13 children.
It is interesting to note that I had arrived at an age which seems to trigger a curiosity towards one's antecedents and life as it was lived in other decades. Very few young people care. It's only when we pass into our 40's and 50's that maturity stimulates an interest in ancestry. I now believe that sooner or later we all wonder where we came from, how we came to be where we are, and who our ancestors were. We want to know what they were like, how they came to do the things they did, what they saw, how they lived, who their friends were, and why they moved and lived where they did.
Relflecting as to how to proceed, it became clear to me that for most people the most interesting part of a man's life are the years of his youth up to the time he gets married. After marriage his time is taken up with the business of raising a family and providing for them. Certainly from time to time events occur to break up the staid routine of married life, but it is the lives of young people that are filled with events and crises on a daily basis that provides the colorful viewpoint. When a group of people get together it isn't long before the conversation drifts to the days of their youth. I know I was always fascinated when my folks talked about their childhood days. It was fun to listen when Dad talked about his boyhood down on the farm near Martell. All three of us kids would beg Uncle Eldon to tell us about "The olden days."
After listening to stories of days gone by I began to wish that someone had taken the time to write down what they had seen and done, no matter how trite it may have seemed at the time.
Thoughts like this prompted me to begin my research. As I started collecting my genealogical information, and systematically compiling name on name, I became more interested in the details that tell the real story of these people. I began to wish that every family had had a family historian to pass on the story of their family. No matter how insignificant one may feel about his place in history, the fact that we exist at all is unique and more far-reaching than most of us realize.
Upon searching through the literature and newspapers I found little that I thought told the story of our family and the people they associated with. After more than a year of this, I felt like saying, "We lived here too!" Our place in history should be recorded. Just that fact that we were born is justification enough. It isn't necessary that every schoolboy know the history of everybody's family, but I think the record should exist. I want my children and their children to hear the story from our own lips, so they will know history as we saw it and lived it. Oh, sure, we are the "Small Potatoes," but why leave it at that? I think we are all capable of telling our own story.
I've often wondered when in history would be the best time to have lived? I guess there's something good to be said for every age. Even if you don't realize it at the time. There are memories that have special meaning that can't be shared with anybody. Looking back through the years, looking back remembering the joys and pleasures that are gone. Looking back I find the kind of memories that bring me pleasure still linger on. I believe in the past. When the past is out of sight there will soon come a day we can all look forward to, a day when we all can say "How pleasant it is looking back on today."
From the time I was five years old I have nearly total recall of my boyhood in River Falls. This was about the time we moved from Aunt May Belle's place on Spring Street to the Denzer house on Cascade Avenue. Whether it was my age or the impression of the crises our family was experiencing at the time I don't know, but in any event it remains clear in my mind's eye.
I suppose almost everyone can eventually say he has seen the passing of an era and the beginning of another. This happens to be true for me as well, but I think in my case the distinction between eras is much more dramatic than most. The fact that I grew up in a small rural community such as River Falls is probably a big factor here.
Now as I reflect on these times I realize what a unique childhood I had. According to my age I shouldn't know about cultivating with a team of horses, milking cows by hand, shocking corn and grain, or Model T's, or steam threshers, or horse drawn sleighs, or hitching posts for horses that were still being used, a man cleaning up horse manure from main street every morning, horse-drawn water wagons to keep the street dust in check, dirt streets, oiled streets, and the steam railroad engine--but I do! I saw and experienced all of this first hand, and I remember it as if it were yesterday. It would be hard to find a decade with more grim and melancholy events than the 1930's. Still, many of us who lived through those days look back on them with affection. Looking back, all things assume pleasing forms, even the tragic and terrible are not so bad as they take place in the picture of memory. How often we go through what seems to at the time a disagreeable experience, only to have it turn into a happy memory. Often our most vivid and enduring remembrances are of apparently simple, even trivial things. As I have compiled this family history I have asked many friends and relatives to reach back into their childhoods and tell me what they recall with greatest clarity. Almost always they mention experiences or incidents of no great importance. Not crises or traumas or triumphs, but things which although small in themselves carry sharp sensations of warmth and joy, or sometimes of pain. Nothing is trivial. We all have those memories and we cannot get another set; one has only those. If only we could relish each day as we lived it, rather than finding pleasure in the sad afterglow of reverie. If only we could learn to overlook the petty annoyances, the needless fears that obstruct our enjoyment of the moment, and recognize the true value of now before it is gone forever. Perhaps someday these things will be a pleasure to recall.
This family history is the result of a great deal of time, effort, and expense, from which I have derived much personal pleasure. No doubt some who read this will find fault in it for one reason or another, yet they themselves would not or could not do this for themselves or their families. To you I say--"Here it is, I tried to do my best, and now you are the beneficiary of it."
I only hope my effort here may make you feel a part of history, a touch of immortality here on earth, and to know that after you have gone somone will know and care that you once passed this way. I would also hope that it may serve as a stimulus and guide to those who might want to continue this work. There is much more which can be done-- a genealogy is never finished.
Here are links to my genealogical data, and other significant websites:
The Foss genealogy page
The Jensen genealogy page
More Jensen genealogy by Herb Paul
The Smith genealogy page
The Young/Steinhauser genealogy page
Michaelle Sheridan's Homepage
The Magoon genealogy page
What I Believe
Through The Bible with Les Feldick
Pierce County Wisconsin Historical web site
St.Croix County Wisconsin Genealogy site
File manager
How to do just about anything[including HTML]
LDS Site(press search)
Very good German/English dictionary
Ancestor Guide
NEXT