This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Sorem, Ostrem, Mikkelsen, Swedin, Ousbye, Knudsen, Oudensen, Udneseth Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/wg.2ADE/1643.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Lea, Thanks so much for the obituary on Mons and the naturalization information. The dates were helpful. I was able to recognize Sarah Ostrem's brother (Ole) and some married Sorem relatives. There were 8 children in the Ostrem family. I don't know how many immigrated or if any of them settled in Grundy besides Sarah Ostrem married to Mons Sorem and sister, Kari Ostrem, married to Lars Ole Sorem. It will take me some time to sort that information out. I am going to check to see if I have any information on a Martin Sorem in my records, but the name is not familiar and he may just be from that area in Norway. There is one remaining son in the Sorem family that I am searching for. Niels Nielson Sorem, born 1833, age 33, emigrated to Morris with his wife Sarah (Siri Jacobsdatter), born 1826, age 40, and their three children, twins, Niels and Jacob, born 1858, age 7, and Brita, born 1860, age 5. They left from Bergen/Stavanger on June 1, 1866, one year prior to brothers Mons and Andrew and their families. I do not have their date or place of arrival but their departure was in the Digitalarkivet on the ship Leif. I do know that Mons and Andrew came by way of Quebec. My understanding is that Niels passed away shortly after arriving in Morris and his wife, Sarah, raised the family there. She and her sons moved to Kansas about 1879. Brita married Christian Jergensen Anderson, 19 Nov 1878 in Grundy, and I believe they also may have moved to Kansas with her mother and brothers in 1879. Do any of them appear in the History of Grundy County? Mons and Andrew did but it was in 1892 and Niels had been deceased for quite sometime. Since they left Illinois before 1880, they are not in the census and I have not found them in the Kansas census. I have no death, obituary or burial dates or information on Niels. As far as I know, he was the first Sorem to arrive in the US. His widow died in 1910 in Hodgeman County, Kansas. I would appreciate any information you might be able to add on Niels or his family. Thanks, Kay