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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Tombstone Tuesday - Severt T. Leland (1804-1889) of Deerfield WI

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On our Midwest Family History Mystery Tour, we stopped at the St. Paul's Liberty Lutheran Church in Deerfield, Dane County, Wisconsin on 17 September.  Linda has at least three ancestors buried here. 

The church, with its graveyard on three sides, is on the west side of Oak Park Road, just north of US Highway 12/18.  It looks like this (taken from the road):


That's Linda in the blue sweatshirt by the door of the church.

It took awhile to find Severt T. Leland's gravestone.  We walked the south side of the graveyard first because it looked like the oldest stones were there.  We finally found Severt on the west side of the graveyard, directly in back of the building, and near the west boundary of the cemetery:



The stone inscription is:

SEVERT T.
LELAND
DIED
MAR.29.1889
AGED
85 YRS.8 MS.
14 DS.

The stone has LELAND on the base. 

Severt T. Leland is Linda's second great-grandfather.  He was born Sjur Torgersen on 19 August 1804 in Tungeteigens, Voss, Hordaland, Norway, the son of Torger Olsen and Anna Sjursdatter.  He married Brita Olsdatter (1818-1895) of Midtun, Voss, Hordaland, Norway on 21 June 1850 in Vinje, Voss, Hordaland, Norway.  They had children:  Torger Sjursen (1850-1933); Ole Sjursen (1851-1914); Mathias Sjursen (1853-1856); Ingeborg Sjursdatter (1856-1939) and Anna Sjursdatter (1859-1892).

After the change of Norwegian surnames in the 1870's Sjur Torgersen was known as Severt Torgerson Leland.

Update: Reader Tom spotted a discrepancy in the age at death.  If Severt was born 19 August 1804, and died 29 March 1889, then he would have been 84 years, 7 months, 10 days old at death, not 85-8-14 like on the gravestone.  This may be "informant error" or the 19 August 1804 date might be a christening date in the Voss, Norway church records, and his birth date might be 15 July 1803 if the 85-8-14 is correct. 

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