Friday, February 13, 2015

My grandparents' DNA trails, Part II - Bergstad Y-DNA

Next up on my DNA trails is the Y-DNA of my maternal grandfather, Roland John "Tom" Bergstad. He was the one grandparent I never got to meet, having died two years before I was born. He was the sixth of nine children of Jack Bergstad and Katherine Jane (Hammer) Bergstad (though Jack's first two children were from his first marriage to Mamie Wells). I haven't had much contact with the Bergstads, and online sources for North Dakota (where my Bergstads lived for a long time) are far and few between, so I don't know all the descendants of my grandfather's siblings. Thus I can't say for sure how many Bergstad men are out there from those lines. But I do know my grandfather's descendants pretty well.

Tom and Sally Bergstad had three children, two girls and a boy. They later divorced and remarried, but never had kids with any of their subsequent spouses, so that limits the Y-DNA carriers in my grandpa's line to his only son, my uncle.

My uncle has lived a very eventful life (at least what I know of it seems eventful). He is married with four kids, three sons and a daughter. None of  his sons have married and had kids yet, so at this point, that's where things stand. With three sons, I'd say there stands a pretty good chance of the Bergstad Y-DNA carrying forward to future generations.

Just out of curiosity, I looked my grandfather's siblings, to see what I do know of their male descendants. Again, my knowledge is spotty at best on some of these lines, so if anyone out there reading this knows these folks, by all means speak up! Here are the results, as I have them:

Clayton Bergstad - one son, who had one or two sons
Virgil Bergstad - two sons, one of which had a son
James Bergstad - no known descendants

So even if my uncle's boys for some reason didn't have any sons, there would be some second and third cousins out there who could carry the name forward. The Bergstads have been in this country since 1847, and it looks like they'll be here a while longer yet.

1 comment:

sequimitesal said...

I Saw this old blog on line and wondering if you have much contact with your uncle Bill as he has connected with Toms youngest brother James and several of Toms cousins some are descendants of Otto Bergstad such as Delores Olsen! Just info you may or may not have . Love you, Gram Sally