Solvik, Jens

3 file folders
2 photographs
1 sound cassette

This interview was conducted with Jens Solvik on December 16, 1982 in Everson, Washington. It contains information on family background, emigration, work, marriage and family, and return trips to Norway. The interview also includes two black and white photographs of Jens in 1982. The interview was conducted in English.

Folder Contents

Box 10, File 3 Personal and Family History
Tape Archive Sheet, Family Background and Tape Index

Box 10, File 3A Correspondence and Forms
Checklist and Forms
Letters from Janet Rasmussen regarding Mr. Solvik’s participation.
Handwritten Tape Archive Sheet and Family Background

Box 10, File 3B Photographs and Slides
Three photographs
Two slides

Interviewed by Cindy Klein
Transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky Husby
Encoded by Kerstin Ringdahl & Amity Smetzler
Recording Quality: Good

Biographical Note

Jens Solvik was born Jens Berg Andreason on September 5, 1903 in Solvik, Norway, which is located 55 kilometers east of Bodø on the southern shore of Øvrevatnet. His parents were Bernhard Andreason and Marie Wickstrøm, and there were five other children in the family: Annette, Peder, Norman, Alfred, and Bjarne. Bernhard was a common laborer, and Marie was a homemaker.

Bernhard immigrated to Bellingham, Washington in 1910, in hopes of making more money and returning to Norway in a few years; he never returned. When Jens was seventeen years old, he began working in the copper mines, but due to health problems, he had to quit after two years. Jens had stomach ulcers, and they were terribly irritated by the copper and sulfur fumes in the mines.

In May of 1923, he immigrated to Bellingham, where his brother Norman also lived at this time. For the first two years he was there, Jens worked a fishing trap arranged by Norman and at a sawmill, and then worked in the woods for the next fifteen years at a Saxon-Norway camp. He married Myrtle Hillard in 1927 and has two children, Gerald Neil and (Marvin) Gene.

Jens retired in 1968 and visited Norway the summer of the following year. He and Myrtle stayed for three weeks and had a wonderful visit. Jens's mother and brothers, Peder and Alfred, were still there. Jens and Myrtle returned again in 1973, and spent much of their time visiting Myrtle's relatives.

Lineage

Full Name: Jens Berg Andreason Solvik
Father: Bernhard Andreason
Mother: Marie Wickstrøm
Brothers and Sisters: Annette Andreason, Peder Andreason, Norman Andreason, Alfred Andreason, Bjarne Andreason.
Spouse: Myrtle Hillard
Children: Gerald Neil Solvik, (Marvin) Gene Solvik.