I am working on a 60th birthday present for my Norwegian Fiance, and like the author of this site his family has lost track of their heritage so I thought it would be great to find it for his 60th.

I am planning a trip to Norway, the first anyone in his family has taken since his Great Grandfather came over to the US in 1883. I would love to find some living relatives to reconnect with and give him a part of his history no one in the family seems to know about.

His family name is Haugan. His Great Grandfater was John Waldemar Huagan. He was born August 17, 1866. He came to the US via New York in 1883 and first settled in South Dakota. He married a Norwegian, Anna Anderson, and they had several children, Ivar (my fiance's grandfather who married Oline Olstad), Nels, Annie, Fritz, Henry, Agnes, Gilbert, Ralph, Gunnar, Dagny Ellie, and Edward. The family is from Stjordal Nord- Trondheim. His great grand parents are Nels (Nils) and Ingeborg Haugan. Ingeborg was from Lesja and Nels from Stjordal, Nord-Trondelag as I found it in the parish register that listed their marriage in 1864

Any help that anyone might be able to offer in connecting me with possible family would be very much appreciated.

I am planning a trip to Norway in mid April, so hope to spend 3-4 days in the Stjordal area.

Thank you in advance for any help you might offer.

Kathi

Only suggestion I can give is to do a search on phone directories in the town in Norway fiance's family is from and look for a last name and then try to contact them.

here is a website that i have found pretty useful in trying to discover roots for ancesters from norway as well as applying the search techniques to other European areas ( not much info on line here in the us) , perhaps you will find some use of it to, good luck, i think that is an awesome idea for a present, have fun on your trip!

http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/sab/howto.html

Thank you. I was able to find out where his grandmother's family is from and found his 4th cousin who still lives there and runs the farm, and where his grandfather was from too and a few cousins tjere as well. I emailed the national archive in Trondheim and connected with a historian who has not only been helpful but it seems is related to my fiancé!

I have him the gift, we leave in late April, and he is so excited.

Thank you again, i will check out the site.

Kathi