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My name is Roger David Thingvall Gilmore Ramirez. I was born in Redwood City, California on April 8, 1952 at Sequoia Hospital, the first year it opened. My real name is Roger David Ramirez, but when I am writing about my genealogy work, I add in my full blood line. The name Thingvall comes from my farmor (Swedish for grandmother), Tekla Evelina Thingvall; farmor was born in Skön, Västernorrland, Sweden on July 5, 1890. The Gilmore name comes from my granathair (Irish for grandfather), Harvey Anthony Gilmore; granathair was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA on August 22, 1883. The Gilmore name is from Ireland, but I have not gotten very far in that research. Finally, the name Ramirez comes from my ingkóng (Filipino for grandfather), Castor Ramirez; ingkóng was born in Baras, Rizal, Philippines on March 27, 1875. Castor’s fifth child Francisco Ramirez was my amá (Filipino for father).

I grew up in Redwood City, California not thinking about or understanding that my farmor, Tekla Evelina Thingvall, was born in Sweden. It was not until about 1997 that I first got interested in genealogy. One day as I was searching through some of my mother’s old pictures and records, I found my farmor’s Swedish birth certificate. The next day I had a Swedish friend at work translate it for me and I have been hooked on genealogy since. The research on my farmor started by researching my far farsfar (Swedish for great grandfather) Karl Johan Edward Thingvall.

Over the past 3 years, I have found over 700 relatives from all three sides of the family, Swedish, Irish and Filipino. The documenting of the different birthplaces, types of jobs, how many times they were married, and how many children they had and where they were buried has been very interesting and important to me but during the past year I have decided to find my living cousins and their children.

My first genealogy trip was to the Philippines in late April and early May in the year 2000. My second genealogy trip was to Minnesota, North Dakota and Washington in late June and early July in the year 2000.