Welcome to the Ystanes/Ellickson family tree website.  Gabriel Øysteinson, born in 1636 in Norway, is our oldest found relative.  Jim Ellickson started the Ellickson family tree website in 2006 with about 200 names from a family tree book handed out in 1979 by Leo Ellickson.  He began this project after his first  trip to Norway with his son Ted.  He was able to locate the Ystanes farm outside of Kinsarvik, Norway and met third and fourth cousins.  They were fun and gracious just as he thought  they would be.  Then in 2008, he was talked into going back with his sister and first cousins.  They not only returned to Kinsarvik but were able to locate Onstad relatives in
Fresvik, Norway.

Jim Ellickson and Amy Ellickson converted the Ellickson family tree website into the Ystanes/Ellickson family tree website in 2023.  We are delighted that family members are interested in their genealogy, history, stories and associated pictures.  This family tree website is for the direct descendants, and their spouses, of Gabriel Øysteinson.  We discovered that approximately 250 names had been added to the tree that weren’t direct descendants or their spouses.  We encourage anyone who wants to build their own individual family tree to do so on a site such as Tribal Pages or another family tree site.  Subscription prices can vary as well as quality.  Some sites allow anyone to edit anyone’s profile with unreliable sources while other sites place more restrictions on who can edit which profiles and what constitutes a reliable source.  You can also purchase software to build your own tree.

This is a private family tree for family members use only.  Information and photos  shared in this tree are not to be shared, redistributed, copied or uploaded for other purposes without permission from the person the information is about.  Stories, blogs and notes require permission from their author to be shared, redistributed, copied or uploaded.  This is out of respect for family members and to protect their privacy.  Not everyone is okay with having their information shared on other sites or elsewhere on the internet.   It is okay to share the name, birth date and death date of deceased family members since that is public information but no personal details, please.  

Our Ellickson family name was most likely Aslakson originally.  Lars Aslakson Ystanes used the name Ystanes since that was the family farm name.  Many Norwegians used the family farm name as a last name while others used their father’s first name and added son, sen, dotter or datter.  Some of the Ystanes moved across the fjord to the Hauso side so they changed their name to Hauso.  When Lars moved away from Ystanes and emigrated to America, he used the paternal naming system so his last name became Aslakson.  Norwegians were notorious bad spellers back then according to the director of the Norwegian-American Genealogical Center and Naeseth Library.  Also, the way a word sounds in Norwegian can be different than the way it’s written in English.  For example, the word lefse in Norwegian sounds like lefsa in English.  I have found both Lars and his son Arthur listed with the last name Aslakson in some United States Census Records although incorrect spelling was common back then so the Aslakson name was often misspelled.  Arthur’s last name is spelled Aslakson in a church record.  It’s unclear when the Aslakson name legally became Ellickson.

Anna Marie Ohnstad’s gravestone in East Koshkonong Cemetery in Cambridge, WI has an inscription error. Her gravestone is inscribed as Anna Maria instead of Anna Marie.  According to my dad, Donald Ellickson, the family was aware of the mistake on the gravestone at the time but decided not to have it corrected since they knew her correct name.  The person who inscribed the gravestone probably thought Marie was spelled Maria.  The director of the Norwegian-American Genealogical Center and Naeseth Library used the lefse example for this.  Lefse sounds like it should be written as lefsa in English.  The East Koshkonong Church records have her listed as Anna Marie and that’s the name she went by and what family called her.  The mistake on the gravestone was most likely due to a language translation error.  At some point after she emigrated to America the h in Ohnstad was dropped.  Small name variations like that are not unusual when one moves to a place where a different language is spoken.  Someone else at the Norwegian-American Genealogical Center and Naeseth library said not to get hung up on spelling for any names or places.  Spelling all depended on the person writing the document.  Spelling is a new thing and most of the time was not taught until recent times.

Amy Ellickson is the owner of the site.  Amy Ellickson, Jim Ellickson and Jack Ellickson are the administrators.


Amy Ellickson