Christian Lokken

  General Notes:

Information taken from Johan I. Borgos: Norway Farm Names
http://www.nndata.no/home/jborgos/farms.htm and related pages
Many Americans have a Norwegian farm name as their surname, incorporat ed as a type of location identifier. Tracing immigrant ancestry backt o Norway does have some stumbling-blocks. Migration history is necess ary knowledge. When a person moved to a different farm, it was not un usual for their surname to change to the different farm name. Exampl e: "To make a living of harvesting the sea is to live with ups and do wns in the economy. After 1875 there came a 'down', and many of thepe ople who had come from Southern Norway some years before, now finally decided to try America. But since moving north they could have marrie d, bought a farm - and changed their names a little bit to better sui t the regional dialectal naming pattern. A man coming to Northern Nor way as Casper Hermundson Tveit could leave for America some years late r as Kasberg Hermansen Lien."

Facts learned from others (with a Norwegian background); Like thousan ds of people of many backgrounds, names were changed in many cases bec ause they didn't understand the questions being asked of them. Many N orwegians migrated to Minnesota and the Dakotas. Around 1905-1910 wor d came to the Norwegian communities in those states that land was avai lable in Saskatchewan for a cheap price and in quantity. Dozens of fa milies picked up and moved to Saskatchewan and Outlook. Outlook was a lmost entirely Norwegian in the 1950s and many of the original immigra nts spoke little English.

A book you might want to read is: "From Fjord to Frontier: A Histor y of the Norwegians in Canada, Gulbrand Loken, 1917-1997, Toronto: Mc Clelland and Stewart, c1980. RSN 8650088797

Minot, North Dakota is the county seat of Ward County. Nearly half o f North Dakota's population in 1890 had large settlements of Swedish,N orwegian, German, and Russian emigrants. Each fall Minot hosts the NO RST HOSTFEST (the largest Scandinavian festival in North America)

1910 US Census, Polk County, Winger Township, Minnesota. Informationf ound for Christian Locken family. ED 236, Sheet 6, Line 23. Emigrate d to America in 1883 with son, Christen. Was listed as a widower on t his census, so assume wife emigrated also in 1883 and died in America.

Internet land records for Minnesota: Christian C. Locken, Crookston,D ocument 8832, Misc Document 13941, Homestead, 9/25/1896, Section 29,To wnship 147N, 160 acres, Volume ID 528

In the 1983 publication, THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF THE THIRTEEN TOWNSH IPS (those being the 13 southwestern townships of Polk Co., includingW inger) provided by Forrest Brown, Archivist, The Norwegian-American Hi storical Association, page 161 shows that a C C Lokken owned a 120 acr e farm in section 29, Platt of Winger, Township 147, North Range West of the 5th Principal Meridian.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Fact 3: Farmer. ¹⁶⁶

• Fact 5: Farmer.

Christian married in Norway.