Surprise! A phone call from a Chicago relative of the Halverson's, Carol Damlos!

A couple of weeks ago my father received a call from a Halverson relative in Chicago! My father, George Halverson, gave Carol my number and I later returned her call and we had a great conversation.

It seemed surreal to actually be talking to a Chicago relative as for so many years I had just heard stories of our Halverson Chicago family.

It was such a joy to talk to Carol. She filled me in on so many things I did not know about my great-grandfather's(George Henry Halverson) family.

Sadly, Carol's mother, Laverne Halverson Damlos,  passed away not too long ago. Her mother had suffered a stroke prior to her passing away.  The family was going through her belongings and found a box of pictures and letters left to Laverne after her father (Edwin Halverson) had died. The family found pictures of a ranch in Montana and some letters from Montana and other memorabilia such as a post card from George to his mother from San Francisco I in 1908,

Carol filled me in on a lot of the Halverson family history. She told me that Gustav Halverson (Edwin and George's and their many sisters' father) had immigrated to America by way of a steamship. from Norway.The ship stopped in New York and then Gustav traveled to Chicago. His wife, Althea(not sure of the spelling at this time) followed Gustav later sailing on another steamship and meeting up with him in Chicago. This is my understanding - I may be mistaken on some of the details.

I have always wondered where in Norway my Halverson relatives lived. Carol told me it was Oslo! I've heard of Oslo all my life and never knew this was the city of my ancestors. Carol told me that Oslo used to have a different name, however, I've forgotten what it was only that it started with a "C".

I can't write all of the interesting things about the Halversons that Carol told me about for lack of time, however, I plan on writing more about our conversation soon.

One last very interesting bit of info - our Halverson name was spelled differently in Norway! It was spelled: Halvorsen. The spelling was changed when the family came to America as I understand.

Thanks to my second(or third - not sure on this) cousin Carol for calling me and filling me about our Halverson family in Chicago. I am so thrilled as are my other family members to learn more about our Halverson family history!

Note: I have never been to Chicago, however, I know that Harold, my grandfather(whom I've never met) and my father, George(Georgie) did travel to Chicago. My father remembers quite a lot about his trip to Chicago when he was about 8 years old. My grandma Lilly, remembers that Harold went to stay with the Chicago relatives for about 3 months and he came back quite a bit heavier than he left - ha. Maybe because he got to relax a little bit more than he did on the ranch where he no doubt had a lot of chores.