It's Relatively Complicated

Something has been slowly dawning on me since I started work: there are a lot of multi-generational families here at FLC. In true "Sons of Norway" fashion we have households made up of:

• Amundsons (3) 
• Andersons (10) 
• Bensons (2) 
• Carlsons (3)
• Christiansons (5) and Christiansen (1) 
• Erickson (3)
• Hansons (4) and Hansens (7)
• Hillsons (2)
• Ingvaldsons (10)
• Iversens (1) and Iversons(2) 
• Johnsons (22) 
• Kittelsons (5)
• Knutsons (6)
• Nelsons (3) and Nielsens (2)
• Olsons (2)
• Pedersons (1) and Petersons (22)
• Seversons (2) and Severtsons (3)
• Sorensons (2)
• Swansons (2) and Swensons (7)
• Thompsen (1) and Thompson (3)
• Williamsons (4)
• Gullicksons, Jordisons, Larsons, Matsons,Thorsons and Tollefsons are clans of only one household

And many of them are related - to each other and to the -bergs, -ruds, -dahls, and -stads, not to mention the descendants of German and Czech settlers and people with boring last names like Smith and Brown. To further complicate matters, sometimes these people get divorced and remarried, and still all go to church here.

I will get them all sorted out eventually, or at least most of them, but coming from a church that made families out of strangers, it's fascinating to see the dynamics of a church where so many people are connected by blood or marriage. That's enough for now, just thought I'd share. More soon!