Preparing a visit to the Valdres Area in late July

Greetings!

I've read the materials from Trudy Sondrol Wasson, and integrated the information from them into this blog and the family tree information on my Ancestry.com account. That history connects the earlier information on my Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota relatives which I received from Shirley Manning and my aunt aunt Eloise Skare - to relatives around the towns of Vang and Hedmark in Norway.

Of my ancestors in Vang, I know much more due to the many resources I've been guided toward from the Valdres Samband. I've obtained many texts, a DVD, and links to quite a few websites and other materials. I have less information on the my great grandfather's side of the family (from Hedmark), and may learn more research connections while traveling to there.

But my main hope is to see the farms where my great great grandfather (Jon Johan Johnson Lajord Soine) and his wife (Ingaborg Ovesdatter Kattevold), and their parents, were born. Those are the farms with the following names and gardnummers: Ovre Kvale (38/7-8); Berge (22); Norde Tune/Sender (36/2); Soine (50); Lajord (51/3); Myre (47/1); Kattevold (44/1-4); Boe (42); Sore Ellingboe (34); and Norde Haen (70).

I'm going to contact the genealogist for the Valdres Samband to see if he can help me make contact with someone in Vang who might be of help during the four days I will be there. Some have said that the local residents wouldn't mind my showing up without notice, but I would feel much better with someone in the area who knew our relatives or who could direct me to best use my time.

We leave this Thursday, July 6th, and will be gone until mid August. I'll post trip journals as I can on our travel blog (www.gfpktravels.blogspot.com). When I return, I'll make a slide show and post it on YouTube.com for those interested in what we saw and did.

Have a great summer.

Gregory Fearon
Pat Kuta