I searched for myself under my married and maiden names, but no matches. I located my grandpa Olson in both the 1920 census when he was 1 and the 1930 census when he was 11. There were a total of 8 records that matched for his name, but I was surprised that nothing from WWII came up (I will have to do some more investigating). In the census it listed his parents, brother and sisters. His father, Olaf, was born in Norway and his mother, Marie, was born in South Dakota. I printed out the original record for the census and after a closer look discovered that my grandma was listed just two families up on the same page! The photos and maps search for South Dakota brought up over 3 million matches. Some of the ones I found interesting were those of children, houses, farming scenes and the Corn Palace.
In HeritageQuest, I did a search for South Dakota and looked at the History of Dakota Territory by George W. Kingsbury. My hometown is in Kingsbury county which is named after him. This book was from 1915 and was 5625 pages.
In Sanborn Maps, I selected De Smet since this was the closest town to my hometown that was available. As far as I can tell the lumber yard is in the same location which makes sense since it is near the railroad tracks. Also the farm implement is in the same location as it was in 1925.
I found this very interesting and can see genealogy becoming a new hobby!
You're right, librena, these resources have turned many non-genealogists into genealogists! So, grandpa married the girl next door, it sounds like. Fun to see what you can discover in here. For WWII, you can click on the military section, click all, and it will show you holdings and dates, which may help you find what you are after. Thanks for this interesting look into your family tree!
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