Ole Sorlie August 7

This is an update for you Sinruds out there. We had a family discovery day today south of Trondheim. Frithjof and Åse drove Ruby and I to the Sorlie farm where Ruby, Ruth, Almon, Gordon and Doug's Grandfather Ole Sorlie came from. Well sort of. There is a Sorlie farm and it is likely that Ole's father Ole Kaspersen Sorlie worked on that farm, But according to Frithjof, when Ole Kaspersen married Gunhild Johnsdaughter Sjølisanden, he took her last name of Sorlie (the first part of Sjølisanden) such that Sjoli became Sørlie which became Sorlie in America because we don't have the ø. Or maybe he took the last name of the farm he worked on, but in any event he became Ole Kaspersen Sørlie. After getting married, Ole Kaspersen Sørlie and Gunhild Sørlie moved to Sjølikleva (the kleva part means steep). The actual home is long gone (Ole's brother Christian (born in 1863) tried to find it after WWII - we talked to a lady today who remembers meeting Christian several times when she was a little girl!) But we did see where it was located and it is indeed steep. Ole and Gunhild's children were Esten, Christian, Ed, Ole and Erik. Esten, Ole (Ruby's grandfather), and Ed went to America. How they raised a family at on that steep farm is amazing, but I can see why 3 of 5 boys went to America, with Christian and Erik staying in Trondheim. It would have been difficult to make a living on that farm. Erik is Lisbeth, Turid and Åse's grandfather which is how we are related to our Norway cousins.

So as we were talking to this man and his wife (who knew Christian), he pointed out a house down on the lake below and indicated that the house was built on the site where Gunhild was born and lived until her marriage. Pretty cool. Her name Gunhild Sjølisanden is basically Sørlie by the sand. So we have Sørlie by the sand, the Sørlie farm in between and Sørliekleva up above on the steep mountain. I'll try to post some pictures when I get back to Oslo. Ole Sørlie came to Wisconsin in 1880, died in 1922, and is buried in St. Maries.

The entire Sørlie farm was owned around 1900 by a man named Simz who was a mining engineer from Cornwall and became wealthy in the mining business. His grandson apparently lives in Spokane, because another man we met today talked to the grandson 13 years ago when he came to Norway to look up the farm.

The countryside is very rural, green and beautiful. About 100 kids and their families were swimming in the lake and enjoying a beautiful 75 degree day on the lake. It was a large lake, maybe same size as Hayden Lake, but no jet skis or water skiing. Just a bunch on kids swimming.