Hendricks Family Tree Project

Newsletter: Volume 1, November 2003
Author: Jim Winsness, 323 Broadwater Circle, Anderson, SC 29626
Phone: 864-261-7139 Email: winsness@charter.net
website: http://www.LRWMA.com/hendricks

My association with the people of Hendricks MN started in Singsaas Norway in 2003. I was fortunate enough to have followed my lineage back to Singsaas through a web posting found and answered by Dag Einar Winsnes. Dag and I are 'step-related' as he descended from children born to my grand-uncle's wife after my grand-uncle died. Dag found that I had a living Winsnes (one 's' at the end of the name in Norway) still on the farm in Norway and so I started communication with Jakob Winsnes in Singsaas. Jakob was in the process of rebuilding 2 old log buildings on the farm to be used for his Foster Children Institution and I volunteered my assistance. I spent 3 wonderful weeks at the farm near Singsaas working on the buildings in the daytime and in the evenings going to meet family and friends. With Dag's genealogy data, it became apparent that everyone around was related if we just looked back far enough.

But everyone was telling me about family that went to Hendricks MN.

Frankly, I didn't have a clue where Hendricks MN was! But I promised those people in Norway that I would find Hendricks and visit the church with the name Singsaas Lutheran to see if there was a cemetery and I would try to find what happened to those that went to Singsaas.

In 2002 I had the opportunity to take early retirement from GE and Bev and I immediately started a 9 week trip that included finding Hendricks MN. My luck was with me when we appeared on a Sunday morning at the Singsaas Lutheran Church and the congregation found us roaming the cemetery. We went to church and we met such wonderful friends who made sure that the historical society museum was open and who even volunteered to send us copies of many documents. We had an outstanding day in Hendricks - we were 'hooked'!

In 2003 we spent the summer in Upstate NY and planned to go to the old family farm in ND and then return back through Hendricks. We now had a second goal of trying to see how we could help a young man in Norway, Jens Winsnes, who had planned to do his Masters Degree Thesis on the immigration between the Singsaas area and the US concentrating on Hendricks. Jens lives in Trondheim and he met me at the airport in Trondheim and took me to the Winsnes farm starting a great friendship. Then an incredible email connection was made when Lorenchia Scott found my website and we began corresponding about my need to get to Hendricks to see what we could do to help Jens with his project. Lorenchia contacted Gail Kvernmo and they were so nice as to offer us lodging at Gail's home for our trip in September. Bev got a neat idea and said to me "Why don't you start a Hendricks Family Tree Project to get the lineage down a few generations for all the early immigrants to Hendricks!"

So I presented that to Lorenchia and the project started! We came to Hendricks and Lorenchia and Gail had arranged for us to meet with several individuals and groups during our 48 hour stay including a meeting after the combined church service at the park and then back at the Singsaas Lutheran Church. What an incredible time we had!

Many neat things happened during the discussions. Trygve Trooien was at one meeting and was showing me a photo of the horse teams digging the basement of the church and on the back of the photo were the names of the teams and owners. I noticed the Trooien name and looked at a document I had printed from the genealogy file of a friend in Norway (Ingebrigt Digre) and guess what - Trygve Trooien was named in that Norwegian document. Ingebrigt somehow knew of the lineage in the US down to Trygve! They were related.

Milton Johnson came by Gail's house to see us and brought with him the history book for Singsaas. We quickly found that Milton had been to Norway in the 80's and had been with the family of Jakob Winsnes who was my host for my 3 week stay 20 years later! Then, looking into the Singsaas history book about the oldest Winsnes home in Singsaas, Nordstuu, I thought my eyes and mind were playing tricks on me. I read the name of the mother-in-law of the man living there today and her name was Petra Kvernmo! In my mind I thought "isn't Gail's name Kvernmo? - that isn't possible - I must be mistaken - what is Gail's name - yes it is Kvernmo!" So I then asked Gail if she was ready for a shock and I had her read that part of the book and she just gasped. A Kvernmo married a Winsnes and stayed in Singsaas! I knew Petra's daughter and son-in-law! I really knew them!

It just proves my belief that if you have lineage from the Singsaas area, you are all related!

Now, Bev and I are back in South Carolina and I am ready to get this project going! Actually, while in NY, I built a website for the project and I'll copy some of that website documentation to this newsletter. I also created the Hendricks Family Tree file in my computer and added the lineage I had for the Lunde, Grande, Fjeseth, and Winsness families and their lineage back in Norway. Just that provided over 800 names in the database and we have hardly begun.

I have also entered each of the 31 people named in the Immigrants Trek and other families that joined them shortly after their founding of Hendricks. I have already begun adding data provided by others around Hendricks and from other states (Sue Cook and Claire Geesman).

I plan to contact every line and to see how much information I can get. We have access on-line to the US Census records and that will be a great source of data also.

So I ask for your support and I hope you will enjoy following us as we get this lineage figured out in the US and try to tie it to families in Norway. Maybe, just maybe, we will get some long lost families connected across the ocean just as I was with Jakob and Annbjorg Winsnes in Norway. Then it will be all worthwhile. And don't forget Jens Winsnes as he has applied for funding for his Masters Thesis. He will be interested in the reasons that people left Norway for the US and he wants to know why most stayed but some returned. He wants to know if someone came starting a chain of people coming to the US. He wants to find out what the conditions were like for those who came to the US and how many succeeded and if some had terrible times. If all goes as planned, he will be spending time next summer in Hendricks and the surrounding area talking to people and doing research in any historical society or library that has information.

Please give me any names that should be added to the mailing list and for those on the internet, go to http://www.LRWMA.com/hendricks where I will have not only the newsletters and photos, but I have placed there the family tree file in pdf format and will keep it updated with the latest information I have. It is there NOW! Please give me any corrections or new data!

Wish me luck!

Jim Winsness

Photos from Hendricks - Sept. 2003

Group Meeting at the Nursing Home in Hendricks.

Front row. Jim Winsness (red shirt)--Pernie Fjeseth, Hattie Aune
Second: Right behind Pernie in wheelchair is his wife, Alice.
Third: Gail Kvernmo, Bev Winsness, Lorenchia Scott, and I believe that is Paul Knutson in the white shirt, Trygve in overalls and I don't recall the names of the other 2 men. I do not know the names of the 4 women on the right side.

Bev and Jim with Paul Grande and his sister Kathryn McKinney

Lunde families at the picnic table: The man in the striped shirt behind Lorenchia Scott is her cousin Charles Nygaard, his wife, Julie and her son Brandon.

Wendel and Ron Lunde at the cemetery.

We were so delighted to meet Ginny and Duane Oien at their home which was the farm of Nils Winsnss!