The Norwegian Munson and Lee Families:
History and Genealogy

Links to documents that are posted here are in red-orange, the other listed ones will be done eventually.
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Web kittymunson.com

This site has a list of individuals with full genealogical information in combined MASTER DATABASE for the families MUNSON, LEE, LARKIN, FESSENDEN, and THANNHAUSER. I have also contributed this data to the world family tree at Ancestry.com (of which I am an affiliate) as database 2043614. They have a free program for displaying and working with genealogical data. You can or from the database on Ancestry.com

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Lee Family 1894
Sections on this page (click to go to them) are:
  • Personal Stories - Written and taped recollections and letters
  • Lineage - Lists some information about the original emigrants in each family line with links to charts of their ancestors and descendants
  • Photo Album - Photos of ancestors and their descendants
  • Documents - Scanned in copies of public documents such as newspaper articles, Norwegian farm book records, and original music
  • Websites of Munson family members:
AndrewChristianJohnAlfredLawrenceIngeLauritzBestefarGertrudeJosie1914.jpg
Munsons 1914  
LauritzMonsen.jpg JosephineMonsen.jpg

Personal Stories and Recollections

  • MUNSON (MÖNSEN): about our ancestors "Bestafa" - Lauritz Christian Andresen (Mönsen) 1840-1922 and "Bestamor" - Josephine Halling 1844-1914
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  • LEE (HALVORSEN): about "Dada" and "Mormor" - Henry H. Lee and Maren Wold Lee
    • Alex Munson's memories of his maternal grandfather "Dada" and his parents
    • Stories about Maren Wold from a letter to Maren (Lee?) by Marian Munson Pasquet (1910-1997)
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AnnaLeeMunsonandchildren.jpg
  • MUNSON: Lawrence Josiah Munson's family

Lineage - online ancestry charts

List of individuals in Munson, Lee, Larkin, and Thannhauser ancestry database
(Larkin and Munson research done by Richard (Dick) Fessenden Larkin, Lee research by Lee Munson, and Thannhauser research by Kitty Munson Cooper )
The Norwegian Munson Family (originally Mönsen)
Lauritz Christian Andresen (Mönsen) , known as Louis C. Munson in this country, a ship's carpenter, emigrated from Christiansand, Norway in 1883 and brought his wife, Josephine Pedersdatter (Halling), and 9 children over in 1884. This genealogical data is from the research of Richard (Dick) Fessenden Larkin.
The Norwegian Lee Family (originally Halvorsen)
Henry Lee, born Henrick Hans Halvorsen in Etne, Norway, (near Bergen and Stavanger) was the 9th of nine children. He went to sea for a number of years and left ship in 1869 in Millerstown, New Brunswick, Canada. Three years later he went to New York City where he met and married Maren Wold (pronounced Vold) from Drammen, Norway, and made his fortune in harbor businesses.
The research that traced Henry Lee back to the early kings of Norway was done by his great grandson Lee Munson, son of Alex Munson. Henry Lee is descended from Charlemagne , King Harald Haarfarge (fairhair) who united Norway into one country and Saint Olaf , the King of Norway who converted his country to Christianity, as well as many other royal families of early Europe including king Harald of England who lost in 1066 and Ethelred the unready and even some Byzantium emperors. To find the path to these ancestors go up from H.H.Lee's grandfather:
his grandfather Aamund Bjornsen
his grandfather Ole Hanson Brekke
his grandmother Katharina Helvig Lauritsdtr. Galtung
her mother Elisabeth Ottesdtr. Orning
(some confusion here on the clicks due to my poorly done GEDCOM mergers)
her grandfather Thomas Svendsson Orning
his grandmother Gjertrude Jensdtr. Rotfeld
her grandfather Niels Eriksen Rotfeld
his grandmother Margrethe Henriksdtr. von Eberstein
her grandfather Albert Albertsen von Eberstein
his grandmother Countess-of Gleichen Adelheid
her grandfather Count-of Orlamunde Siegfried-III
his grandfather Albert Bjorn (Bear), Margrave-of Brandenburg
his grandfather Duke-of Saxony Magnus
his grandfather Olav-II Haraldsson, the-Saint, King-of Norway
his grandfather Gudrod Bjornsson, Viceroy-of Vestfold
was the grandson of Harald-I Haarfarge (Fairhair) Halvdansson
etc
go back to Albert Bjorn (Bear), Margrave-of Brandenburg and find many of the early kings and queens of northern Europe
go back to the Ebersteins to find the path to Charlemagne (many routes, he is our ancestor many many times)
Of course it is mathematically possible to show that everyone of North European descent is descended from Charlemagne. Here are a few links to sites that discuss this:
http://itotd.com/articles/226/most-recent-common-ancestors/ http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-along-kid-charlemagne.html
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/GenealComp1.html
http://members.aol.com/acadac/gnlgy/cousin.html
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/misc/ancestors.shtml

Photo Album - Click here for the new Gallery of ancestors

KittyMunsonandSusanLeakeSummer1954withBinksAnneCharlieGeordieBetsy.jpg
Larry and Kitty Munson
with the Leakes, 1954

Documents

Translations of Norwegian Farm Book entries for the Etne farms where (Henry Lee) Hans Halvorson's ancestors lived (our ancestors' names are bolded)
Translations of extracts from Norwegian Farm and History Book entries for the Wold family
Newspaper Articles
LJ Munson's musical compositions
Great grandmother Josephine Halling Munson's lullaby

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