This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/0gB.2ACI/210.2 Message Board Post: If it were possible for me to have dinner with one of my ancestors, it would have to be my great great grandfather Nils Ivarsen, who came to America from Meraker, Nord-Trondelag, Norway with his family in the spring of 1854. His second oldest son Jonas (better known as John Nelson), was the very first to file for a homestead in Minnehaha County in 1866. My great great grandfather Nils could tell me about all of my ancestors and relatives living in Norway, plus tell me about the journey to America, which took seven weeks by sailing ship. My ancestors, along with John Thompson, were the very first to settle in the Mapleton Township of Minnehaha County, Dakota Territory in 1866. Donald Nelson