Individual Details

Letter from Ida, translated in late 1980s by Else Bigton.
Menmonee, 5 January 1898
Dear Uncle and Family,
Since I haven't heard from you for years I thought I should send you a few lines and see if you are still on the old place in Hudson.
We are both well and we have a nice little boy of three years. His name is Roy Andreas. I hope you and yours are well.
Poor Dad, it is not easy for him these when the fishing failed again this year in Finmark.
Jens was confirmed the 17th of April. I think Dad is too old to think of coming to America, especially in these critical times with war with Spain. What do you think? I am afraid they are going to take married peope too, but we have to hope for the best.
How is uncle Hans? I haven't heard from him. Is he still alive? I think it is a shame to have relatives in the same country and not to know if they are alive or dead.
Dear uncle Nils, if these lines find you please write to me and I or my husband will answer right away.
I was sick all last winter and summer and you can believe it cost a lot of money fo Ragnvald, but he is so nice.
A heartfelt greeting to you all and also to uncle Hans.
Your brother's daughter, Ida

A second letter about 5 years later, from her brother Jens, told of her husband's death and her re-marriage.
Menomonie, 11 Apr ca 1903/04
Dear uncle,
I have many times thought to write to you but I didn't have your address until I got a letter from home. They tell me to greet you, your wife and children. I don't know her but I can remember you.
I suppose you know how it is in Nordland and Finnmark.
Have you had any letters from your brother Ole? I can remember talking to him.
There is very little work here,especially shipping. I need to go out with a steam ship from here.
You have to be so nice as to write to me when you get this letter.
I don't have much news to tell you. You know that Ida's husband died three years ago? And that she is now remarried with a Norwegian from Mandal. He was a widower with three children. They took one boy to the people they lived with. They are Swedish and childless. The boy have it good there. My brother is also living there, and also Trygve, if you remember him. He is the one that got lost when the One Hundred Years Party was held in Hammerfest. You will probably get a letter from him.
I can tell you that Grandmother, Bernhart and Oluf are still the same. Papa has been sick all year and is not doing good.
You have to tell me if there is any good farmland there and if there is any jobs. You know that a person sailing in the summer is forced to work in the woods in the winter.
You have to excuse me, Bernhardt says you were not at the Hundred Year Party.
You have to answer me as soon as you get this letter for I have to go out next wee. I will end for this time with many greetings to you and your family from us here in Menonomee but mostly you are greeted from your brother's son Jens Jensen.

Birth	3 Dec 1868	Hammerfest, Finnmark, Norway
Christen	26 Dec 1868	Hammerfest, Finnmark, Norway
Marriage	21 Sep 1890	Hammerfest, Finnmark, Norway, Bysoknet Parish - Ragnvald Hoeg
Emigration	25 Jun 1892	Hekla, Christiania to New York, N.Y.
Marriage	22 Nov 1901	Menominee County, Mich. - John Jorgensen
Death	14 Apr 1936	Chicago, Cook County, Ill.
Burial	17 Apr 1936	Mt. Olive Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, Ill.

Spouse	Ragnvald Hoeg (1864 - 1899)
Child	Gunnar Hoeg (1891 - )
Child	Agnes Hoeg (1892 - )
Child	Roy Andreas Hoeg (1895 - )
Child	Harold Hoeg (1898 - )
Child	Ragnvald Hoeg (1900 - )

Spouse

John Jorgensen (1862 - )

Father	Gulle Andreas Jensen (1846 - 1903)
Mother	Karoline Bremer (1849 - 1920)
Sibling	Agnes Emilie Jenson (1870 - 1886)
Sibling	Jensine Birgitte Jenson (1873 - 1883)
Sibling	Adolfine Jenson (1875 - 1893)
Sibling	Karl Severin Jenson (1879 - 1886)
Sibling	Karoline Gunhilde Jenson (1881 - 1882)
Sibling	Jens Bergethon Jenson (1883 - 1913)
Sibling	Trygve Bernhard Jensen (1886 - 1945)
Sibling	Karl Andreas Jenson (1888 - )
Sibling	Borghild Jensen (1892 - 1920)