Melvin Loen

Diverse artiklar 7. Visitors from USA to Loen on August 3rd. 2005.

Relationship to Loen

The relationship to Loen was on Melvin Loen's side. His father Anders Olsen came from "Sjurebruket" (see below) in Loen. His grandfather's name was Ola Andersen Loen born in 1847. Melvin's mother (Netti Pedersen) was born in America, but her mother came from Strand in Loen church-area (sokn). Her name was Anne Jannike Strand. Netti's father is supposed to come from Olden but there have not been established contact with any relatives of him.

It is impossible to explain the history of farms and farm-names in Norway in a few sentences. Back in history we can think of whole Loen as one farm owned by on or a few owners and several families living on the farm paying tax for using a part of the farms resources (agricultural area, pastures, forests, right to fishing, hunting etc.). For all this families the farm-name was Loen, and each had in addition a local name after a person who had been the farmer. Later the families living in Loen bought their part of Loen. In this way each holding became a separate farm. The farm-name for them all is Loen, and the local farm names are still in use. "Sjurebruket" has its name after Sjur Rasmusen who was the farmer up to 1723. "bruket" is the Norwegian name of the farm.

Melvin's nearest relatives in Loen are the descendants of his uncle Andreas who lived on "Sjurebruket", and of his aunt Olina (born 1867) who was married to the farmer of Monsbruket in Loen and lived there. The daughter of Andreas, Olina (born 1905), was married to the farmer of Markusbruket in Loen. Representatives from these families met with the guests from America.

More information about the farms and the families in Loen are given in Audun Loen's Local History System (LOKHIS) on the internett. Member of the family may get access to this system.