Translated from 'Nordmændene i Amerika' by Martin Ulvestad. 1907. Jackson County Near the California border where my current work was completed, a number of Norwegians are found in the vicinity of Ulvestad Post Office. In this connection I will take the liberty of of telling a true anecdote about myself. It goes so: Naturally, people became weary of Martin Ulvestad (me) and the consequence was often that they refused to take my questionnaires out of the post office, they let them be sent back to Minneapolis where I lived. But then I had the clever idea of changing the name. On the envelope I printed for example, 'Publisher of Statistics', 'Publisher of Norway' etc. And when I could not come up with more names that suited, I sent the letters without a name - that is, no name or return address. Just the same it happened they did not wish to receive them since from the postmark they saw that they came from Minneapolis - and from me, obviously. But then I moved to Oregon. And - while I have been busy with the work - and always felt pressed with its associated costs, the advocates for 'Det norske Selskab' (The Norwegian Society) has been busy telling (through newspapers) that they will publish a similar work.* And people who have believed and waited for them have naturally found it superfluous to support me. But inasmuch as one works for a good cause and has sufficient faith in it, one will be in a position to continue. Instead of complaining I will give thanks. All that is significant about the Norwegian-American people I have now managed to scrape together - gotten information about. The finances will also straighten out. In Union County there is a post office with the name Hilgard that certainly sounds Norwegian but the author has been disappointed with the hope of finding any Norwegians in that area. *It should be noted that I have a couple of personal enemies in this Society and that was because they in this manner sought an opportunity to injure me and in this way they also had the chance to advertise themselves. The society as a whole is without fault. But should these men actually decide to publish a similar book then perhaps this one (now finished) will be of help? Or perhaps they will restrain themselves from using my work since I (unfortunately) do not possess any of what is known as higher education. It is in any case the only defense I can wish for in this circumstance nor can it be relied on. These advocates (not the Society) are of the sort to take the fruits of the toil and drudgery of others.