Lillejord Descendent Reunion

Ryder Hesjedal – the cyclist

ingestrand — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:16:32 +0000

Hardly anyone in Norway could avoid hearing about the Norwegian triumphs in Tour de France with athletes such as Thor Hushovd and Edvald Boasson Hagen. However, many people may be unaware that Canadian cyclist, Ryder Hesjedal, also is of Norwegian heritage.

You may ask, why write about this here? But, Ryder Hesjedal is one of “our people” and here is the rest of the story: His great-grandmother was Hans Petter Olsen Lillejord’s grand-daughter. Her name was Hanna Ingebriktsdtr. She emigrated from Beiarn in the early 1900′s and joined relatives in Minnesota. There, she met Mons Hesjedal, he was from Stamnes, just north of the Norwegian city of Bergen. They married in 1909 and later moved to Saskatchewan in Canada, where they had 7 children. One of them was Ruben, born in 1919. His son, Leonard, was born in 1950. Leonard’s son, Eric Ryder, was born in 1980 and he is racing in Tour de France with his fellow Norwegians, Hushovd and Boasson Hagen.

The last few days we have had more than 30 hits on our website for “Ryder Hesjedal Norway” or similar key words, so we wanted to tell the story and let you know the connection to the Lillejord family.

Syklisten Ryder Hesjedal

ingestrand — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:39:16 +0000

English version here:

Ingen har vel unngått å få med seg dei norske triumfane i Tour de France med Thor Hushovd og Edvald Boasson Hagen, men alle er ikkje klar over at den kanadiske syklisten Ryder Hesjedal også er mykje norsk.

Kvifor skrive om det her, spør du kanskje? Men det har seg slik – som vi har vore inn på før – at Ryder Hesjedal er av “vårres folk”. Oldemora hans var dotterdotter til Hans Petter Olsen Lillejord. Ho heitte Hanna Ingebrigtsdtr. og utvandra frå Beiarn tidleg på 1900-talet og kom til slektningar i Minnesota. Der møtte ho Mons Hesjedal frå Stamnes litt nord for Bergen, og dei gifta seg i 1908 og flytta seinare til Saskatchevan i Canada der dei fekk sju ungar. Blant dei var Reuben f. 1919 som i 1950 fekk ein son med namnet Leonhard. Han er faren til Eric Ryder, f. 1980, som no herjar i Tour de France saman med “landsmennene” Hushovd og Boasson Hagen.

Vi har hatt meir enn 20 søk etter “Ryder Hesjedal Norway” på nettstaden vår dei siste dagane, så vi fann å ville informere om tilknytinga til Lillejord-slekta.

Milda Hofstad Lillejord teaching school

ingestrand — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 05:24:28 +0000

Another photos from Minnesota Historical Society’s collection. Milda Otevia Hoftad was married to Henry Lillejord in 1915. Henry was son of Peder Johan and Jorgina Lillejord, living in Madison Township, Lac Qui Parle County.

The photos are from 1913-14 and before Milda married. She was teaching school near Louisburg, in District 64. We are not sure where she and Henry exactly lived, and if she continued teaching school. Maybe someone know more about that? Please tell us.

Milda Hofstad Lillejord teaching school near Louisburg. Photo from Minnesota Historical Society.

School picnic, District 64, Lac qui Parle County. Milda at the end of the cloth. Photo from Minnesota Historical Society.

Nils Lillejord feeding pigs …

ingestrand — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:32:42 +0000

So was the title of a photo we found on Minnesota Historical Society’s website. The caption also tells that the photo is taken near Bellingham ca. 1905.

Is there anyone who has more information about the farm and Nels & family at that time? Please make a comment.

Thanks to Minnesota Historical Society for letting us publish the photo.

More Lillejord Family information

ingestrand — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:53:09 +0000

9 months after the Lillejord Reunion this website is still visited by 20 people each day in average, and we still get some new information on the family. To the reunion we had no contact with the Hans Martinus branch of the family, and we had just some tentative contact with a descendant of Olea Melia. We haven’t known more than the names of her children, and none of them were to be found on “White pages” – not surprisingly since the youngest was born i 1907.

Last week an obituary of Helen, Olea Melia’s youngest daughter, showed up. She died in 2006, 98 years old. As usual the obituary gave information on the family, among them her son Michael Rusten. We called him and met a 73 year old gentleman who was glad to get information on his grandmother’s family. He informed us about his own family and promised to contribute with more family information. So in a few days we will probably know more about Olea Melia’s family.

Mission completed!

ingestrand — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:06:22 +0000

The family reunion committee has met for the last time. All tasks have been completed and the accounting is almost done. The impression of the reunion and the many feedbacks we have received indicate that the reunion was a success. We thank all who contributed with the preparations and accomplishment of the reunion; without your hard work the reunion would not have been as successful as it was.

We also thank all the participants that came from near and far and contributed to a festive weekend; considerably extending our friendship base.

The statement of account shows a surplus of about 30,000 NOK. This means that we can finance the video project with this budget, as well as contribute economically to the final placement of the memorial stone for the people who emigrated from Beiarn.

The DVD project has been changed as follows: We don’t need to ask for money for the video production and not send a DVD disc to the ones who have ordered; instead, the video will be available to all on our web site, http://lillejord.worldpress.com. Please look at the top menu, The Reunion Video. There you can download the video from YouTube. We are working on an arrangement where you can download the video to your own DVD disc.

This web site will continue to be open, but understandable there will be few updates in the future. Of course, we will still accept new information regarding our family tree and new and important information about the Lillejord family.

Thank you.

Oppdraget utført!

ingestrand — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 05:34:22 +0000

English version here:

Slektstreffkomiteen har hatt sitt siste møte. Alle oppgaver er nå gjennomført, og regnskapet er på det nærmeste gjort opp. Inntrykket fra slektstreffet og de mange tilbakemeldingene vi har fått, forteller oss at slektstreffet ble en suksess på alle måter. Vi takker alle som bidro ved forberedelsene og gjennomføringen av treffet. Uten deres innsats ville ikke treffet ha blitt det det ble. Vi takker også alle deltakere fra fjern og nær som bidro til ei festlig helg og til at vi har utvidet bekjentskapene våre betydelig.

Regnskapet kom ut med et overskudd på vel 30 000 kroner. Det betyr at vi kan finansiere videoprosjektet innenfor budsjettet, og dessuten bidra økonomisk til den endelige plasseringen av minnesteinen for utvandrede beiarværinger.

DVD-prosjektet er således blitt endret. Vi trenger ikke å be om flere penger for produksjonen av videoen, og heller ikke sende ut DVD-plater til dem som har bestilt. Vi legger ut videoen på nettstedet vårt: http://lillejord.wordpress.com undet ei side i toppmenyen som heter Slektstreffvideo. Der kan dere laste ned videoen og se på den i Youtube.

Dette nettstedet vil fortsatt være åpent, men det vil forståelig nok ikke komme så mange nye oppslag heretter. Vi tar sjølsagt imot ny informasjon til slektstreet, og dersom noen der ute har ny, viktig informasjon om Lillejord-familien, er det fortsatt rom for det.

Takk for oss!

Slektstreffkomiteen har hatt sitt siste møte. Alle oppgaver er nå gjennomført, og regnskapet er på det nærmeste gjort opp. Inntrykket fra slektstreffet og de mange tilbakemeldingene vi har fått, forteller oss at slektstreffet ble en suksess på alle måter. Vi takker alle som bidro ved forberedelsene og gjennomføringen av treffet. Uten deres innsats ville ikke treffet ha blitt det det ble. Vi takker også alle deltakere fra fjern og nær som også bidro til ei festlig helg og til at vi har utvidet bekjentskapene våre betydelig.

Takk for oss!

More information on Martine and her family

ingestrand — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:00:57 +0000

Mervyn and Phyllis Nelson have sent us some lovely greetings. They wished to join us at the reunion but had to attend the marriage of a grandson on Hawaii. They write:

- It sounds like you had a wonderful reunion with a program, visit to Hans’ farm at Lillejord, greetings from the Mayor and Historical Society, fiddler music, a choir from Canada, unveiling of of a memorial honoring emigrants from Beiarn, good food and dancing, Sunday services and coffee – WOW! Wish we could have been there!!!

You and your committee have to be commended for originating this and putting it all together. We are working on putting all the information from the Internet (all the various fingers of the relatives) into a booklet.

Thanks again!

Merv has also sent us more information on his grandmother Martine.

It sounds like you had a wonderful reunion with a program, visit to Hans’ farm at Lillejord, greetings from the Mayor and Historical Society, fiddler music, a choir from Canada, unveiling of of a memorial honoring emigrants from Beiarn, good food and dancing, Sunday services and coffee – WOW! Wish we could have been there!!!

Thanks again!

Pictures from the Elling family

ingestrand — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:59:15 +0000

The business man?

Ella Bergland, Ellings wife (below)

Elling Lillejord and his wife, Ella Bergland.

Their children Howard and Elaine.

Howard graduating from West High, Minneapolis.

Wedding picture of Howard and Delphine Lillejord.

Delphine and Howard’s oldest daughter Terry.

Terry and her brother Gregg.

More pictures of Elling

More pictures of the Elling family

ingestrand — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:49:54 +0000

Elling’s granddaughter, Terry Oscarson, has sent us a lot of new pictures of Elling and his family. In the collection there also was a picture of Nils Lillejord’s three sons. That picture is to be found in the post Nels’ family.

Elling was a bachelor for a long time and married Ella Bergland at the age of 49 and got their two living children after the age of 60. He died in 1930.

Elling was both a farmer, a land owner and a business man. He had a farm near Wheaton, MN, where he also was in banking business.