Here is one of my Cowlitz County stories: My grandfather Erland Robert (Bob) BAGGE was born in 1882 or 1888 (records conflict) in Sweden and died 18 December 1938 in Kelso, Washington. He was the only son born to his parents; they had 5 daughters but only 1 daughter lived to adulthood. After his mother died, his father remarried and Erland did not get along with his stepmother. When a favorite sister died at age 16, Robert left Sweden for the U.S. and never returned. I have never learned why he ended up in Washington State. In Kelso he worked for the Post Office, and hoped to become a writer although as far as I know he never published anything. He wrote a lengthy semi-fictionalized story (in perfect English) describing his courtship of my grandmother, Katherine (Kit) Brown (parents Wylie Bradford BROWN and Anna Mary MOYER), who was raised in the Lexington-Castle Rock area. This courtship took place mostly by mail; they were introduced (by mail) via a "Miss Lonely Hearts" newspaper columnist. Both had written to the columnist, asking for help in finding a spouse. Two years ago I learned that his parents' families (father Patrick Heinrich BAGGE and mother Hedvig Charlotta HJARNE) were prominent in Sweden and can be documented 8 generations back beyond my grandfather. Swedish encyclopedias contain articles about individuals from both sides of his family, and upon discovering a distant cousin in Sweden, he told me that he had to study our ancestors in school. Nancy Christie Portland, Oregon mailto:christie@bmb.ogi.edu