Cover art: "Rata Tree" by my great-great-grandfather Frederick, who sketched throughout his travels. For a while he even supported himself by taking commissions to do portraits. The Rata Tree grows in his adopted homeland of New Zealand, where his family settled when he was a child. Born on the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel, he nearly circumnavigated the world during his adventurous life, panning for gold in Australia, working before the mast on a tall ship, preaching to miners in the San Francisco gold fields, even manning a Pony Express station in Utah during the few months that system carried the mail before steam locomotives took over.

Another ancestor took to sketching as well. Here you'll also find several illustrations by Jesse, my great-uncle -- youngest brother of my paternal grandfather, Oscar. In 1979 he self-published stories from his life in "50 Years in the Sandhills and the Forest." The "sandhills" refers to homesteading in Nebraska during his childhood. The "forest" refers to the timber country of Wisconsin and Minnesota during his teenage years and later.

Jesse's father Simon -- American-born, 100% Norwegian -- had a great-uncle in Norway who was not only a locally-renowned competitive ski jumper but also a counterfeiter!

Jesse's mother Dora had a grandfather who changed his name when he crossed the border from Canada to the United States. Apparently he was on the run from the Canadian Mounties, also on a charge of counterfeiting!*

Shake that tree hard enough, and you never know what fascinating tales will rain down!

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* That's the story we heard once, but it appears with further research not to be true. Should I be disappointed?

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