Otis Larson

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/166659477/otis-larson

GEDCOM Note

According to my grandmother's records, Otis came to America with his parents from Malmo, Sweden. However, subsequent evidencehas proven this to erroneous. Instead, it appears the family came from Norway. Also, my grandmother's notes do not mention Otis' several other siblings, nor did she know the name of Lars Stole's second wife, Betsey Thompson.

Otis' mother, Ann Sjursdatr, died off the coast of New York, during a 2 week quarantine, and was buried at sea. Otis settled in Grundy County, Illinois with his father, but was placed in the home of a John O. Larson later. Otis was found on the 1880 census of John O. Larson, of Norway, as a boarder. His age is given as 22, though he'd have been only 17 at the time, according to my grandmother's data.

In 1905, Otis moved to Lyon County, Minnesota, 2 miles north of Tracy. He retired in Tracy in 1922 at 200 Craig Avenue, just five blocks away from the house (at 124 Emory St.) where Noel Bates Rea and Luella Larson lived (and where my father, Russell Allen Rea, was born).

Given the surname of Otis' siblings (Stole or Stolle), as well as the Norse tradition of using a patronym as the middle name when the surname was not a patronym, I believe Otis' true name would have been Otis Larson Stole or Stolle. Emma's would have been Emma Larssdotter Stole or Stolle, most likely.

Otis' real name is unknown. He called himself Otis Larson, but no record I know of gives his real name.