Another Ancestor Came to America

Lately I've been trying to use Find A Grave to help fill in some blanks. I had great luck the other night finding Griswold & Hilliard family members. I decided it was time to try finding more Eikenesses. I've looked & looked with no luck. But as I was searching & re-looking over what I had, I realized I was missing quite a few people in census records. For some reason I started searching for Swen Eikeness' brother Johan Ludvig Hansen. And that's when I found something exciting. It turns out their mother Ragnild, who I thought died in Norway, actually came here.

A few years ago I was searching for Swen & Hilda in the MN censuses and found that his father Hans Andersen was living with them in Walcott, Rice county, MN in 1900. I noted at the time that it said Hans was married but I figured it must be a mistake or she was still in Norway. I had Ludvig Hansen in 1920 living in Twp. 157, Pierce, ND. He is listed as Ludvik Hanson, 61, widow, b. Norway. With him is John Hanson, 26, his son; Helin Ekenes [Helen Eikeness], 25, divorced, servant (his niece), b. MN; Ramon Ekenes [Raymond Larson], 6/12, her son, b. ND; and Helga Ekenes [Eikeness], 5, sister to Helen, b. ND.

Working back, I found him in 1910, in the same place. Listed as Ludvig Hanson, 50, widow, b. Norway. With him then is his son John Hanson, 18, b. ND; Ragna ??, 21, niece, single, working as his housekeeper. This has to be Ragna Eikeness, the age is right & she was his niece. However, it says that she was b. Norway & immigrated in 1904.

It turns out he was living there by 1900. I never would have found him in 1900 had it not been for his son. He is listed as Jacob Hanson, b. Dec 1858 Norway, widow. I would've had my doubts had it not been for the other people with him. Hans Hanson, b. Nov 1890 ND, his son; John Hanson, b. Mar 1893 ND, his son; and ta-da . . . Ragnild Iversen, b. Jun 1833, Norway, married, immigrated 1880, his mother! Not only that but the year is right on, the year she was married, 1855, the number of children: 12 with 10 still living. It is all perfectly right.

My guess is that Ludvig's wife died leaving him with two young boys so his mother went to stay with him or live with him in ND, leaving her husband, son Swen & his family behind in Walcott, Rice, MN. Supposedly my great-grandmother Ann was born in Berwick in 1904, the first in the family born in ND. So the family moved from MN to ND between 1900 & 1904.

Working back again in MN, I found through another hard-fought search, Hans & Ragnild Anderson together in Walcott in 1885. Also with them were the two youngest children Ole b. 1878 & Christian [Kristiane] b. 1880.

Now the question remains, what happened to Hans & Ragnild? Did she go back to MN or did he move to ND with the rest of the family? Where did they each die and when? This has been a difficult family to search. They went by so many names: Ekenes, Egnes, Eikeness, or the patronyms Hansen, Andersen & Iversen. Moving to ND doesn't help me any either as the records for ND are no where near as good as MN back then. This is my new quest now that I know Ragnild came here also and before her son Swen!