Gene Estensen

Like many Norwegian-Americans, I am a product of life on the Great Plains. I was born at Morris, Minnesota and raised at nearby Hancock. My Norwegian ancestors came to America early, before the Civil War. There were two sets of g-g-grandparents from Vestfjorddalen, Tinn, Telemark. They came to Minnesota before it was a state. They got caught up in the Civil War and the Indian War of 1862 in Minnesota. I have a rich pioneer family history, and much of the story was preserved on paper by a pioneer grandfather.

In 2001 I visited the ancestral farms near Rjukan, Tinn, Telemark. The farm names were Bøen, Tveito, Miland, Bøkasse, Bømogen, Såheim, Blomhaugan, Vemork and others. I find it interesting that the ancestors grew up on and near the old farms which became famous as the site where the Nazi produced "heavy water" during WWII. It is a beautiful area. Mount Gausta (Gaustatoppen) towers over the ancestral farms.

It was my pleasure to develop the 2nd generation of the Telelaget of America website over the past few years. My efforts on this website were dedicated to the two sets of great-great-grandparents from Tinn; Ole Østensen Bøen & Astrid Johnsdatter Bøen and Tov Østensen Kaase & Astrid Kjetilsdatter Tveito.

I am a graduate of the University of Minnesota - Duluth (BA) and Georgia State University (MS). My pre-retirement occupation was computer related, Director of Information Systems, but my passion is Norwegian-American history. The two interests came together in the development of the Telelaget of America website.

My wife Dianne is from Benson, Minnesota and was a banker with Wachovia prior to our retirement to Florida. We are "empty nesters". Our two daughters are college graduates. Laurie lives just outside Atlanta, Georgia. Laurie is a graduate of Georgia State too and is a registered dietician. Lisa is a graduate of the Northwestern School of Law and is an attorney in Portland, Oregon.

My Norwegian-American hero is Torkel Oftelie of Telelaget fame. He traveled by horse-and-buggy throughout the Midwest selling the virtues of membership in Telelaget in those critical first years of the organization. He also authored the first 50+ issues of our journal Telesoga. Some day, I would like to retrace the steps he took one hundred years ago and take a look at how the descendants of the early pioneers are doing today.

Dianne and I retired early so that we could travel and spend lots of time with our grandson, Osten.

[Officers]