Christensen and James

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This site collects the Genealogy and Family Histories for the relatives of Erik Christensen and Katherine (James) Christensen. To protect the privacy of our family members, all information connected with living or recently deceased relatives can only be viewed by members of the family who register on the site (by clicking "Register for User Account" above) and are approved for access. In order to be approved, you must be a direct descendant of one of Kathi's or my grandparents. Personal details, pictures, documents, and stories connected with living family members are only visible for registered users in their specific branch of the family tree. If you have any questions about privacy, access, or navigating the site please see the Frequently Asked Questions or get in touch using the "Contact Us" section below!

The dashing gentleman to the left is Charles Spong, one of my great-great-grandfathers on my mother's side. Learning more about my ancestors has been a fascinating project and has helped me to better understand the person I am today. Similarly, learning about Kathi's family has made me feel even more connected to my wife and her family.

Creating this site has been possible only because of the time and efforts of many family members. In particular, the following individuals have contributed an exceptional amount to this site in the form of their own genealogy research, their time documenting family histories, and their willingness to answer my many requests for information: Mary Jane Schmitt, Lynne Zick, Hank James, Hazel James, Esther Christensen, Dale Blanchard, Jani James, Evelyn Hoffbeck, and Arlene Pochart. Kent James helped with technical issues and hosted an early version of this site. My wife Kathi has constantly supported my work on this project and is an excellent editor. Many other family members have provided valuable information and encouragement. My hope is that this site can be a resource for you and spark an interest in discovering more about your own personal history.

I am always searching for more information about our family and this site will forever be a work in progress, so check back often. If you have anything to add, please don't hesitate to contact me. A hazy memory or an old document just might lead me to another ancestor, and every piece of information is valuable. I am interested in tracking down more photographs, especially photographs of our older family members when they were younger and higher quality scanned photographs of deceased ancestors. In many cases the photographs here are the only ones I have, so if you have something better please send it my way!

A note on reliability: the information presented here is only as good as the sources you see listed. In some cases information is presented where I believe it has a reasonable chance of being correct and I have no evidence to the contrary. That does not mean it is definitely correct. As I learn more about genealogy, I learn more about what is unreliable and my standards become higher. I am still in the process of adding sources (often found in the Notes field for now), and probably always will be. As you go further back in time, you should be more willing to accept that not everything is 100% correct, since each generation in the past relies on the accuracy of all the more recent information. If you have any corrections or additions please contact me or use the "Suggest" tab on individual pages!

Navigating The Site

The easiest way to start viewing the family trees is to click on either the "Christensen" or "James" links near the top left of the page. This will take you to pedigree charts going back from either Erik or Kathi. From there you can click on a name to get more details, see photographs and documents, or view a new tree from their perspective. By navigating the tabs at the top of an individual's page you can see their Ancestors, Descendants, chart a Relationship to another person in the database, or see a Timeline of life events. If you are looking for a particular person or family, try the search box on the upper right. Many other features can be accessed from the links on the left side of this page, including Photographs, Histories, and Documents. Navigating the database can be overwhelming at first; I recommend starting with the Histories. View the Frequently Asked Questions for more help finding your way around!

Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about the information on this site, please contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.