Linda (Dragland) Dickinson


THEN (1971)	NOW

Name In School: Linda Dragland
Name Now: Linda Dickinson
Linda's Email: turnaroundranch@yahoo.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Jon Bakken
To: Knudsen Larry
Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2002 3:15 PM
Subject: Pomona High School

Hi Larry

You are probably wondering about getting a letter from Norway, but let me try to explain why.

My wife and I surfed the Internet looking for her relatives in USA when we came across the Pomona High School Class of 1972. Her grandfather was Alfred Dragland and we have been looking for him and his brothers. He emigrated to USA in 1907 leaving his wife and two daughters behind. He didn't correspond with his wife and in 1923 she made a trip to look him up. They probably met and get divorced because he at that time was living with another lady. He's wife returned to Norway in 1925 and she would never talk about what has happened. Alfred Dragland died in 1974 and we visited the cemetery in Chicago where he is buried in September 2001.

Now I'm coming to the Pomona High School Class of 1972. Linda Dragland Dickenson had an advertisement in Ancestors from Norway Guest Book in 1997. We came across the advertisement in 2001 and sent her an e-mail. We have since, now and then, been corresponding, but it has always been Art Dickenson who has been answering and we know very little about Linda, her parents and sisters/brothers. When we found the Pomona High School we decided to try to write to one in the class and ask about Linda's girl friends. As webmaster we picked your name and we are asking you helping us find anyone from the class knowing about Linda's family.

To convince you that we are not cheating, we will give you some information about the family:

Alfred Dragland (1884 - USA1974) was married to Julie Aune (1882 - 1956) and had two daughters Åshild and Selma. Selma Dragland (1907 - 1971) was married to Erling Slørdal and had two daughters Inger and Sissel and a boy named Tor Stein. Sissel Slørdal is my wife born in 1944.

Alfred Dragland had a brother Hans Dragland (1877 - USA1939). Hans emigrated to USA in 1923 and brought with him five children and among them Birger Hal Dragland born July 12th 1920. He died in Pomona 1983. Birger was married to Louise Erickson and they were the parents of Linda Dragland born April 14th 1954. Linda is married to Art Dickenson and lives in Ava, MO. and has six daughters and one son. As far as we know she probably has a sister born in 1952.

Do you think you are able to find anybody from the class who can give us some information about Linda and her family ?

We hope that we are not bothering you too much with our question and we will not blame you for not helping us.

Sincerely yours Sissel Slørdal and Jon Bakken

jon.bakken@netcom.no

Jon,

Thanks for your email. I do a fair amount of genealogy myself, so I know what it is like to try and find leads that will give you information about your relatives. My grandparents came from Denmark about the same time that yours did from Norway.

I see Linda Dragland Dickinson mentioned on our web site but I did not put her there. There have been at least 2 other webmasters for the PHS72 wesite before me. I do see that there is a link to her email on the site ( aldcknsn@getgoin.net ). Have you tried that? I'm not sure if it is a good email address or not.

Linda's photo is not in our 1972 yearbook but I checked and it is in our 1971 yearbook and our 1972 graduation program does have her name listed as Linda Louise Dragland. As webmaster, I will post her 1971 photo on her PHS72 alumni page along with your email and possibly one of our classmates will be able to give you some additional information. I will also forward this to our Reunion Coordinator (Devany Vickery-Davidson) and see if she can offer any further information. (She knows everyone!)

Good luck on your search,

Larry Knudsen
Pomona High School Class of 1972 Webmaster