The Challenge - Final blog for week 9

Ancestry Library.

1.  I looked up my own name under Sioux Falls, my hometown.  I did not find anything.  Maybe I didn't look deep enough or follow enough links.  I went to Deadwood as my residence and there I was.  I found me in voting records and census.  I also found my wife, Stacey.  I would dig deeper for myself, but am on a time at RC Library.  Probably tomorrow during the snow storm.

2.  On to my real quest.  My grandfather and family secrets/questions.  I put in my great grandfather's name, Alexander Asmussen, for Schlesdwid-Holstein Germany/Denmark.  Nothing.  I searched for my great uncles, Peter and Lawrence, in Minneapolis.  I searched under Asmussen and Sanders.  I found an address and phone number for a Peter that could have fit, but could not be exact.  Then I searched my grandfather, August,  Here's the new stuff that I found:  His middle initial was F., he was born in 1894, and he immigrated in 1914 at the age of 20.  I did find anything on the oldest brother who stayed in Germany.
  The mystery.  My grandfather was born in Schleswid-Holstein Germany/Denmark to Alexander Asmussen in 1894.  He was the youngest of 4 sons.  He and his two brothers, Peter and Lawrence, immigrated to the United States.  They were all supposed to report back to Germany to fight in WWI.  The oldest brother who stayed was Kaiser Wilhelm's personal guard.  My grandfather kept the Asmussen last name, but changed it to Sanders sometime after the 1920 census and 1924 when my father was born.  According to my father, the two uncles also changed their names Sanders at about the same time.  Neither my father or my aunt Jean "claim" to have known the name of their uncle in Germany.  These are my questions:
    What caused my grandfather to go through the hassle of changing his, his wife's, and his two children, Marie and Roy's, names to Sanders.  Not even Alexandersen like tradition.  The war was over in 1920 when they were still Asmussen.
     Why did Peter and Lawrence change their names?  And then disappear from records.
     What was the oldest uncle's name and what happened to him?  I find it very odd that my grandfather's family would never even discuss him at some point.  Not even a mention of his name.  Did he immigrate to the US after 1920 and his brothers did not want him to find them (they were draft dodgers, and he was an officer).  Did follow Kaiser Wilhelm into exile in 1918 to Holland?  Did he stay in the German military.  1920 - 1924 was before any of the holocaust, so the Sanders name change wouldn't be because of that.  Did he return home to Holstein?   If he had died in the war, I think it would have been mentioned in my father's family and my father would at least have known his name.
   Maybe his descendents will try tracking us down.  But then they would be looking for an Alexandersen or Asmussen, not Sanders.

3.  South Dakota - Pictures.  I did not find any pictures of me, but I did find my sister Becky.  It was in the year book from Augustana College from 1972.  She was Becky Sanders then, but now she is Becky Ekeland from Brookings.  I also searched for more old friends.  I'll probably come back here tomorrow to do my week 10 wrap up blog and spend the afternoon doing more searches.  During the nasty weather.