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6/11-95
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▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊Mrs. Martha Solsness,
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Dear Martha Solsness.
First of all I hope that you will forgive me this little "inquiry" regarding your evt. true relationship with Egil (Eagle) Solsness (Born 1904, died 1971, Hennepi, Minneapolis), son of Agnes Huitfeldt (Born Devold 1883, Stockholm) and Lars Porsenna Solsness (Born Veøy, Romsdalen 1865, Norway).
If you really are an ancestor or a relative of Lars and Agnes Solsness then I or we have, to state it bluntly, been looking for you over the last 3 years checking various Census Schedules and City Directories and so on in USA and to day I accidently got up from an Internet version from American Directory Assistence and what did I see? Your name and address!
I immediately called Mrs Gudrun Croeger Rafsol, who is the grandchild or niece of the mother of Agnes Devold Mengshoel, Helle Margrethe Croeger (Born Bergen, Norway 1860, died Minneapolis 1929) and she got quite exited when I told her about my last and fresh Internet-luck! Gudrun has a brother named Jan and as children they often heard of "Aunt Helle", one of the first women-socialists in Christiania (older name for Oslo) 1884-1893. Helle immigrated March 1893 from Bergen to Minneapolis together with her 3 children, Olaf Andreas, Dorthea and Agnes, got a divorce from her first husband, Niels Devold (Born Ålesund 1852, died Ålesund 1920) and 1898 married Emil Laurits Mengshoel. Mengshoel was a journalist and died June 1945 also in Minneapolis.
For the last ten years I have been working on several biographies, describing in detail the lives of a sudden branch of the Norwegian Croeger-Dynasty.
One of the 3 volumes tells about the grandfather of Agnes Solsness, the minister Jonas Wessel Croeger (1807-1867). He immigrated 1854 to Brasil and returned home again in 1856. During his journey to The Norwegian Colony Joinville he kept a diary over his experiences. Parts of this diary was printed by Helle M. and Emil Mengshoel in their own newspaper Go On and The Voice of the People the same year (1917). Helle's son, Olaf Andreas Devold, became a senator in Minneapolis. The absolute climax of the journey to Brasil was Jonas Wessel Croeger meeting with the Brazilian Emperor who had blue eyes and fair hair!The biography mentioned will be translated into English under the title The Journey to Brasil and its Aftermath.
In short. It is this particular diary in its originally form I have been looking for with the blessings of Gudrun and Jan Croeger, Bergen. I have several old photograhies of Helle, Agnes and Mengshoel from the family albums of Gudrun and Jan. A collegue-scientist of mine in Chicago has been very helpful with the investigations in the National Archives trying to track down possible descendants of the Norwegian-American Solsness-family.
Of course I do not know if you are born or married into the Norwegian-American Solsness-family (Agnes spelled it Sølsness in a postcard she wrote 1908 from Chicago to her family in Norway) but I am pretty shure that their is only one genuine SOLSNESS living in Minneapolis.
I found a poem written by Agnes in NorgesPosten 1918 (Boston).(Enclosed)
I have enclosed too a resume of what we know untill now.
Not long ago I found more than 100 letters written by Helle Margrethe Mengshoel to her many friend in Norway from 1907-1925.
Then and at last I must introduce myself. I am a Danish-Norwegian scientist working as you can see at the University of Oslo. I have known many of the Croeger-families for years especially Gudrun (70 years old) and Jan Croeger (69 years old). Their father was Conrad Wessel Croeger (died 1961) and their mother Gudrun Simonsen.
But I just have to stop my idle "babling" away, forgetting myself completely. We will all live in a great excietment untill we hopefully hear from you.
If I have made it all wrong I apologize "in all humbleness" to cite Charles Dickens!
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Åge Skjelborg