Gregorius and Marianne Loftnes: From Norway to Minnesota - 1872

In 1870, Gregorius and Marianne Loftnes were middle-aged Norwegian parents struggling to feed their family of nine children. Gregorius was a fisherman in the nearby Nordfjord. Life on Bremanger Island was difficult, as there was very little land to grow crops or raise cattle. The sea was Gregorius’ livelihood, and in some years, fishing was very poor.Peder Oleson Blaalid, younger brother of Marianne, had left for America in the early 1860s and wrote letters to his sister convincing her to bring the family to a better land. In 1872, with money provided by Peder, the family boarded a ship to start a new life in America. Behind were family and friends that they would never see again. They arrived and settled in Minnesota, eventually moving to rural Gibbon to a farm which is still in the Loftness family.This book is a compilation of family history stories, photos, and letters about the Loftnes family and their first generation children. Significant credit for this goes to Viola Loftness O’Day, who organized family reunions, assembled and typed up stories and distributed booklets of information. Without her Herculean efforts, most of this history would have been lost. For those of us with a passion for family history, we have a great debt to Viola and others of her second generation of Loftness’ that took the time to write their memories for us to enjoy.Gregory LoftnessNovember 2017