See a section of the Singsaasboka - click here - see how the farm history leads to genealogical information!
Experience Norway - Genealogy research with a home base in Singsaas!
Hosting Opportunities - Norwegians to America and Americans to Norway??
Click on the Norwegian Flag to hear the Haltdalen Mannskor sing the Norwegian National Anthem, "Ja vi elsker"
Click on the US flag for the web site for the town of Hendricks! - a great place to live!
Hendricks Minnesota has a very unique history! In 1873, 31 settlers came to the area in covered wagons, made clame to land on the NW side of the lake in South Dakota just to the west of what would later become the town of Hendricks MN. There was a very unique bond between these settlers. They all had come from the same town in Norway! Singsaas Norway which is located midway between Trondheim and Roros Norway was the home of each of the settlers. Other family and friends came from Singsaas to Hendricks, a Singsaas Lutheran Church was built which duplicated the church in their home town of Norway, sod homes became houses, and descendents from these true pioneers now have fanned out across the United States.
This project has the goal of identifying the descendants of these pioneers and then to identify their ancestors which is expected to show how each of these pioneers was related.
Jim Winsness has begun this project with that goal in mind. In 2001, he spent 3 weeks in the Jakob Winsnes home, Storstuu, in Singsaas Norway where he worked on the reconstruction of buildings to house foster children. Each evening, Jakob and Annbjorg Winsnes arranged for Jim to take his family tree to friends and family near the farm and without exception, every family found that they had an ancestor that was also found on Jim's family tree! They all found that they were related!
Jim's family tree information had been given him by Dag Einar Winsnes who lives in Stavenger and had never been at the farm. While in Norway, Ingebrigt Digre also provided Jim with family tree information and it is expected that these family trees will provide links between the ancestors of the settlers of Hendricks.
The real goal of the project is to find and develop family links between descendents of the settlers of Hendricks and their Norwegian relatives. However, the only 'restriction' would be that your ancestor should be from Norway. People who came to Hendricks from other than the Singsaas Norway area probably also had family links so it would be fun to try to find those links to prove why they went to Hendricks!
Starting in the fall of 2003, this will be a work-in-progress and we will update each of the family page links on the website and provide newsletters on-line and by mail so that at any time, you can see where we are and what we need. The input from the descendents we find will be invaluable to building the family tree and then finding the interconnections!
To contact Jim, send email to winsness @ charter.net (no spaces)
Wish me luck!
Jim Winsness
Flags courtesy of www.theodora.com/flags used with permission
Be nice to all Norwegians you meet on the Internet -
they probably are your cousins!
"If you have ancestors from the Singsaas Norway area, you probably are descended from Per Persen Vinsnes (1638-1701) or Elev Anderssen Singsås (1681-1744) or both! Doubt it? Give me a chance to prove it!"
Jim Winsness - December 6, 2005
(Elev Anderssen Singsås was also the nephew of the wife of Per Persen Vinsnes)
Sod House in Hendricks!
