Part One: The Pedigree
2
This chapter displays Diane’s direct paternal line back to her oldest known Gram ancestor Simon Gram. It shows pedigree charts made by her tree on ancestry.com.
Please keep in mind that much of what follows is developed from “hints” on genealogical websites. A hint is an alleged fact that appears with sources. If we can find a source we shall include a copy of it either inline or in an appendix. It thus becomes a primary source or a secondary source. Without sources hints are just folklore or myth with a low level of confidence. But with a primary source a fact acquires a higher level of confidence.
DNA evidence can give us scientific level of confidence. We have Y-DNA evidence of the Gram line and a good deal of autosomal evidence to go along with it. Part of the reason for the book is to assemble these evidences in one place.
Let us start by showing the paternal Gram line of Diane Jorgenson Gram starting with her as generation zero and counting backwards to the 13th generation preceding her. I shall show pedigree charts about three generations at a time because these allow the dates to be displayed by the pedigree chart generated by ancestry.com
Diane Jorgenson Gram (Generation 0) TO Jorgen Christian Hansen Gram – 1824 (Generation -3)
This first chart goes back to her second great grandfather Hans Jorgensen Gram. This is generation -4, or 4 generations ago. In this first chart here are also other lines worth noting beginning at Diane’s great grandparents Hanna Molde Indahl, Hans H Gaard, and Ovidia Heggelund. Heggelund is of particular note. You may wish to read about the House of Hegelund Foundation for a background on one of Diane’s other major Danish/Norwegian lines. Our explorations tell us about the ancestors of the Hegelund’s in Denmark back to Sophia, who herself descends from Vladimir 1st, the founder of Russia. More on this later. Needless to say, it is an interesting area of research. I shall be including chapters on the Heggelund line as time goes on.
Jorgen Christian Hansen Gram – 1824 (Generation -3) TO Mads Pedersen Gram – 1717 (Generation -6)
The next chart begins with her second great grandfather Jorgen Christian Hansen Gram and goes back to Diane’s sixth great grandfather Mads Pedersen Gram, born 1717. Mads was generation -6, or 6 generations ago. Jorgen Christian Hansen Gram was the person the American name Jorgenson was taken from, and this became the family surname thereafter. In 1891 Jorgen and wife Hanna Bendikte Molde Indahl emigrated to Minnesota from Nordeidet, Norway along with three of their children.
Jorgen’s youngest son Johan Amindahl Jorgenson is Diane’s grandfather and he homesteaded the 160 acre farm in Steven’s county Minnestota which operates today as Gram Farm, Inc. with Diane serving as president of the company.
Mads Pedersen Gram – 1717 (Generation -6) TO Johan Petter Jorgensen Gram – 1610 (Generation -9)
I want to point out one other side connection. Peder Hansen Gram was exiled to the far north in the early 1700’s. He married Ahlet Christensdatter Lorch. This Lorch family descends from Ludvig Munk, who was made Stadtholder of Norway in 1537 just after Christian III became king. He was the second Munk to become stadtholder, and his other daughter married Christian IVth and became queen of Denmark. Diane comes from his illegitimate daughter. The Munk family deserves research. For example, Ivar Munk was bishop at Domkirke, the oldest cathedral in Denmark. I don’t know how they were related. Obviously they ran in somewhat rarified Danish circles. And this is the third Danish connection of the family.
What we don’t know is whether this Lorch girl’s family connections had something to do with Peder Hansen Gram’s exile. More on this later.
Johan Petter Jorgensen Gram – 1610 (Generation -9) TO Niels Simonsen Gram – 1495 (Generation -12)
The fourth chart begins with Diane’s 9th great grandfather and ends with her 12th Gram ancestor Niels Simonsen Gram. Niels is her 10th great grandfather, or generation -12, born in 1495 in Gram Denmark, was ordained in 1529, and was sent to Gudbrandsdal as a priest and magistrate. He is the original emigrant to Norway.
Niels Simonsen Gram – 1495 (Generation -12) TO Simon Gram – 1450 (Generation -13)
Finally we end with the oldest Gram ancestor Simon Gram who lived in Gram, Denmark during the reign of Frederick I.
The above charts are taken from a tree in ancestry.com. Not all the date information has been entered. That will be fixed later as we flesh out the history and document details from sources.
In above comments I mentioned some other ancestral lines. I will add later chapters on those pedigrees. For right now we have a goal of fast-rewinding to 1450/1460 AD and taking a look at the life of the oldest Gram ancestor, Simon Gram, to see what we can find about him. But that will require some context on where Simon and his son Niels originated. This is important because we need to understand why the family took the farm name Gram and used it like a farm name for over 400 years. It has to do with Lutheranism, politics, and power. To grasp this we must first examine the history of Gram Farm so we can understand it’s significance in Danish history. And in order to do that we shall rewind to the year 1230 AD and the reign of Viking King Valdemar II. so that history will be the subject of chapter 2, Danish Origins.