Peter Who? - A Genealogy Diary

My research trip out to South Dakota was very successful. I was about to get about 90% of everything I wanted to accomplish. One of those things I wanted to find was to find about was my great-granduncle Gustav Gudmundson's family out who lived near the town of Nunda, South Dakota.

The first place I went to look was in the Karl E. Mundt library on the Dakota State University campus in Madison, South Dakota, which is the county seat of Lake County in which Nunda is located. The Mundt library has an obituary index to the Madison Daily Leader from 1930 to present. There I was able to find two obituaries for Caroline Gudmundson, Gustav's wife, and one for Clarence and Howard, Gustav & Caroline's sons.

From the obituary you can tell Caroline was born September 1, 1878 in Fillmore County, Minnesota and died October 11, 1962 in Madison, South Dakota. Also she married Gustav Gudmundson, June 10, 1899. Burial was at the Prairie Queen Cemetery next to her husband and four of her children who proceeded her in death.

The two other obituaries I collected were for Howard and Clarence Gudmundson. Howard Gudmundson was born January 29, 1905, in Fillmore County, Minnesota, and died February 14, 1940 when he was only 35 years old. It says in the obituary that he died in Colinga, California, but I believe they mean Coalinga which is just south of Fresno. According the obituary is states that he had been living in California 12 years working as a oil well driller. He was buried in the Prairie Queen Cemetery. Clarence

Gudmundson was born 1902 in Minnesota and died February 22, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It doesn't say in his obituary but I know he is buried at the Hillside Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

After I was finished looking at the newspapers in the Mundt library I traveled north about 10 miles, just to the southeast of Nunda, where the Prairie Queen Cemetery is located.

Apparently the second 'I' in prairie fell off but the bird above the 'E' posed quite nicely while I took the picture. It is not a large cemetery so it did not take too long to find the Gudmundson family. Another interesting observation was everyone in the family used the surname Gudmunson without the second 'D' which is not uncommon for people to slightly change their last name back then.