In June of 1927, an O. M. Jorstad published an article in the
Transactions A.I.E.E. (Transactions of the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers) entitled “Railway Inclined Catenary Standardized
Design”.  The biographical information in that article lists him as an
Associate of the A.I.E.E., and that he was employed at that time by
Westinghouse Elec. & Mfg. Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa.  This paper
was also presented at the Summer Convention of the A.I.E.E. in
Detroit, Mich., June 20 – 24, 1927.

I am looking for any information on Mr. Jorstad.  Very few women were
employed in the sciences at that time, so “O. M.” is almost certainly
a male.  Considering the year and the fact that electricity was still
pretty much a state of the art science, he was probably 35 – 55 years
old.  I would tend to favor a middle age, as those are the folks that
get to go to the Conventions and present a paper.

Also, older folks who present papers are often “fellows” of the EE
associations, or are “members”.  An “associate” is typically a
first-level joining, or a person who has joined the association
without proper educational papers or time in the profession.  This
again supports a younger man.  (I have not found any printed records
telling of the qualifications required to join the A.I.E.E., but I am
aware of the current levels for the IEEE.)

From the sophistication of the mathematics in the paper, O. M. is
clearly educated with a scientific background, probably physics or
mathematics.  However, since college was not as common at that time,
he might not be an alumnus of an institution;  it is even possible
that he attended night school or the like to advance his education.

I am especially interested in whether there was a Chicago connection,
especially around this time frame.  I am more interested in
professional connections, dealing with (obviously) railroad-related
companies as opposed to genealogical relationships.  But family
connections would be interesting if they existed.

I will gladly accept even “suspicious” information that I can pursue
further, or locations that I would have to search in person.

I have asked the IEEE (the successor to the A.I.E.E.) if they have any
historical records of members.  While I got a hysterical reply, it
certainly was not very useful.

P.S.  If more than one researcher finds interesting things, I will
open a second question to pay that person.

---

Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 29 Sep 2003 11:50 PDT

Dear liner,

I am in quite a problematic situation. Assuming that my colleague,
markj-ga, was basically on the right track, I continued searching and
found quite a bit of genalogical information on the person who was,
without any doubt, the O. M. Jorstad you are looking for. However, I
found absolutely nothing about his professional background.
I could tell who who his parents were, his exact dates of birth and
death, information about his wife, etc. But nothing about his
education or professional career.

The question is: Would you like what I found out as an answer, so you
have something to base further research on? Or is that information of
no use for you?

Regards,
Scriptor

---

Clarification of Question by liner-ga on 29 Sep 2003 12:30 PDT

Scriptor:  You may post your answer.

If that is my target, I certainly guessed the age correctly!

Do you know anywhere that I can find the obituaries from the
Pittsburgh papers, without having to travel to Pittsburgh?  That might
help with the professional life.

Dear liner,

My Fellow Researcher markj-ga certainly found the right Jorstad. I did
the following:

1. I searched a database of deceased owners of Social Security Numbers
for all "Jorstads" who match the given frame. I found only one:

OSMUND JORSTAD
Born: 01 August 1880
Died: November 1967
Last Residence: 15218 (Pittsburgh, Allegheny, PA)
SSN: 172-12-6052
Issued in: Pennsylvania

So this was obviously the same person as the "Osmand" Jorstad who
married Marie Edith Tirrill. I could not yet decide whether "Osmund"
or "Osmund" was the correct spelling of his first name, but more
important was the question: Did this Jorstad have a middle name
beginning with "M"?


2. I now searched the Mormon's extensive genealogical database for
"Osmund Jorstad" - and I was successful. Osmund Jorstad, born 1 August
1880 in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, indeed had a middle name: Marcellus! So
his initials were: O. M. Jorstad! No doubt, he is the one I hoped to
find.

3. And this is what further research about Osmund Marcellus Jorstad
and his wife in the database revealed:
- He was born 01 August 1880
- His birthplace was LaCrosse, LaCrosse County, Wisconsin
- His father was Johannes Jorstad
- His mother was Anne Martha Stavrum
- He died 17 November 1967
- He was buried in Pittsburgh in November 1967
- Marie Edith Tirrill was born  10 December 1884 
- Her birthplace was Lodi, Columbia County, Wisconsin 
- Her father was Dewitt Terrill (born 22 Feb 1846 in Stewartstown,
Coos, New Hampshire / d. 1927 in Madison, Dane, Wisconsin)
- Her mother was Matilda McCurdy Riddle (born 20 March 1847 in New
York State / died 1926 in Madison, Dane, Wisconsin)
- She died 17 February 1964 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Osmund Jorstad and Marie Tirrill had four children (3 daughters and
1 son). Their three daughters were still alive as of 1999 (and thus
their names are not listed), while their son John Tirrill Jorstad
(born 1910 in Lodi, WI) died as early as 1938.

I could trace Marie Edith Tirrill's family background even further
back, but I doubt that this would be very useful for finding
information on O. M. Jorstad.

Unfortunately, I did not find any way to view obituaries from years
before 1991. But additional information on O. M. Jorstad will
certainly be available from the Allegheny County Vital Records Office
(services are subject to fees):

Allegheny County Vital Records Office
Register of Wills
City-County Building
414 Grant Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
--
Phone: (412) 350-4180
E-Mail: webmaster.regwills@county.allegheny.pa.us
Website: http://www.county.allegheny.pa.us/regwills/index.asp


Sources:

RootsWeb Social Security Death Index
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

FamilySearch Genealogical Database
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

Vital Records Information: Pennsylvania Counties (A)
http://www.vitalrec.com/pacounties1.html#Allegheny

Search terms used:
pittsburgh "vital records"
://www.google.de/search?q=pittsburgh+%22vital+records%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&meta=
pittsburgh obituaries
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=pittsburgh+obituaries&spell=1

I hope that this will prove useful!
Best regards,
Scriptor

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 29 Sep 2003 15:53 PDT

A brief addition that might or might not be important:

O. M. Jorstad's mother, Anne Martha Stavrum, was born 24 March 1847 in
Ytteroy, Nord Trondelag, Norway. She married Johannes Jorstad on 24
November 1873 in Ytteroy.

Regards,
Scriptor

Thank you very much for the help.  I will continue my research.

Incidentally, I have not been getting email notifications from Google,
and everytime I try to login I have to ask them for a new password, so
I apologize for the time to respond.

liner --

I have found only one clue, which is tantalizing but certainly a long
shot.  I started with a Google search with the terms "jorstad" and
"pittsburgh", which I ultimately narrowed down by eliminating results
containing the name "diane" (since Diane Jorstad is apparently a
fairly well-known artist).  This search turned up a genealogical site
that contains the following entry:

"Marie Edith Tirrill was born 10 Dec 1884 in Lodi, Columbia,
Wisconsin. She died 17 Feb 1964 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Marie
married Osmand Jorstad. Osmand was born 1 Aug 1880 in Lacrosse,
Wisconsin. He died 17 Nov 1967 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was
buried Nov 1967 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania."
Descendants of William and Rebecca Simpkins Therrell: Seventh
Generation
http://www.famhist.com/tirrellhtml/aqwg37.htm 

This places a man with the right last name and the right first initial
in Pittsburgh for at least some of his adult life, and establishes his
age as 47 in 1927.

While "Jorstad" is not a rare name (returning about 8000 hits with a
simple Google search), Osmand is an extremely unusual name, and a
search using the terms "osmand" and "jorstad" returns only the link
cited above.

No useful results were provided using a variety of Google searches
with such terms as "O. * [wild card] jorstad", "Oscar Jorstad",
"Oliver Jorstad" and many other combinations of search terms.

My hope is that further inquiry at the IEEE and elseshere regarding
"Osmand Jorstad" might lead you to pay dirt.  It is also possible, of
course, that other Google researchers might be able to use specialized
genealogical resources or other databases to come up with more
information.

Good luck!

markj-ga

liner -- 

One way to approach the question of locating an obituary would be to
e-mail the library at the Pittsburgh Gazette and ask them to check
their microfilm copy of the paper from around the date of Jorstad's
death.  Here is a link to the page at the newspaper's webwite that
includes an invitation to contact their staff with regard to "specific
research projects"  at library@post-gazette.com .
http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20021201webcontentguide9p9.asp#3

markj-ga

10-1-2003

Excellent work by Google Answers--I had a devil of a time trying to
find out what this man's first name was and I'm glad someone else was
resourceful enough to find out what it is!!  I just wanted to suggest
some other options.

(1) Visit the www.reversetelephonedirectory.com website and do a
search for phone numbers for all persons with the surname JORSTAD in
Pittsburgh, PA and you will find 2 listings--try calling both of these
to see if perhaps they are related to O. M. Jorstad.

(2) Visit www.westinghouse.com to look at the website for WESTINGHOUSE
LLC to perhaps contact them to ask someone to check their archives to
see if any of Mr. Jorstad's work or information is still on file.  I
found a listing for WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CO, 11 STANWIX ST,
PITTSBURGH, PA, phone (412) 642-3604, but I don't know whether this
address is related to the corporate website since the website has US
and EUROPEAN office locations listed, but more than 1 is in
Pennsylvania.

I'm still having trouble finding out what is it you want to
get--previous work from Mr. Jorstad or just basic biographical
information about his career?

SINCERELY,

4KEITH (I'm NOT a GOOGLE RESEARCHER)

For the record, I am actually interested in Mr. Jorstad's professional
career.  The specific article I mentioned has a very interesting
history, dealing with the construction of electric railroad overhead
wire, and I am writing a short paper about this topic.

Another source nobody has mentioned are local chapters of the AIEE
(now IEEE), which although volunteer-run often have archives of
newsletters.  Or, sometimes the local university keeps those
newsletters.

Finally, since Mr. Jorstad was Norwegian background, and there is an
active Norwegian heritage society, I will probably contact one of
those groups.