Much of the information about the Melland famiily comes from a Norwegian genealogy SLEKTEN REINERTSENS STAMTAVLE published in Norway in 1931. It consisted of both a small 69-page booklet and a large family tree chart.

The booklet begins with Reinert Reinertsen Maeland, born in 1826, but the chart includes hundreds of earlier relatives and is so crowded that some descendants couldn’t directly follow their forebears. The booklet’s introduction explains one such puzzle:

“Space limitations [on the chart] resulted in that grandfather’s grandfather wasn’t able to be connected with his grandfather. But the relationship is as follows: Grandfather’s father, Reinerd Brandvik [born 1826], is the son of Reinert Agdesten [born 1774], whose father is Ole Agdesten [born 1750], whose father is the Reinert Agdesten who is entered [elsewhere on the chart] under the Agdesten branch and who died in 1754.”

The introduction also apologizes that the chart traces only direct lines of descendants and omits their siblings. It then names Reinert Reinertsen Maeland’s three brothers and one sister and their children.

HOWEVER …

The vast and generally reliable genealogy website of the Mormon Church shows a different line of succession which doesn’t include