After spending some time looking at these lovely rolling hills where so many family farms were located, we drove into the little town of Leland. We went to the churchyard where an extremely old cemetery is situated. Oddvar said that my Bestefar's parents may have been buried there, but the headstones had deteriorated so much over the years that they were removed. Graves were considered a part of a family's duty to maintain and, if families moved away, or were not diligent in keeping the gravesite mowed and the stone in good condition, such things happened. The family had 'ownership' of a grave for 60 years and, after that, if needed, someone else could be buried in that place.
In a newer part of the cemetery, Oddvar showed us the headstone over his grandparents' grave. If you remember from the family chart at the beginning of this blog, Ole Andreas and Hans Martin (my Bestefar) were brothers and their adventurous spirit in heading to the wilds of the Territory of Alaska in 1912 had some significant consequences, such as my existence and, ultimately, your reading of this blog!
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