Mons Monssen NESDAL

                   Dorthe Ola's Dotter Gyrva married Mons Monssen Nesdal.  Dorthe Gyrva wasthe
daughter of Ole Salamonsen Gyrva and Marte Steffen's Dotter Innvik.  Mons
Monssen Nesdal was the son of Mons Olsen Nesdal and Dorthe VanbergInnvik.  When
Dorthe and Mons were married they lived with her folks or rather on their
farmstead and so the married name of Dorthe and Mons was Gyrva instead of
Nesdal.

Dorthe and Mons had six children: Mons, Ole, Marte, David, Jakob, Dorthe.They
lived on the homeplace of Gyrva, in the village of Styrn, Norway, locatedon
the Nordfjord about seventy-five kilometers from Alesund, Norway.Alesund is
located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

February 1868 was the year that the fateful snowslide came and killedmembers
of the Gyrva Family.  It was an unusual winter that year; first rain-then
freezing weather, more rain with a buildup of ice on the hill behind theFarm
Place.  The hill wasn't so steep, but that year it snowed and more rain.The
weather getting very cold, leaving the hill slick with ice.  Later itsnowed
very heavy.  Nothing of the underbrush was left sticking up to hold backthe
heavy snow and so one February day it slid down covering an area of twohundred
fifty meters wide killing eleven people and destroying several homes.

The eleven killed included Mons and Dorthe (the parents) and a daughter,Marte
(12 years old), a hired girl, Ingenborg, and another relative, LassieLunde.

Dorthe and David, the son and daughter were dug out later.  David was hitby a
spade in the forehead leaving a scar.  Dorthe, along with a dog, was inan
overturned cradle.  The rescue crew had given up hope when they heard adog
whimpering and they continued to shovel, finally finding Dorthe.  As aresult
of being hit in the hip by one of the spades Dorthe walked with a limpfor the
rest of her life.  We don't know if Jakob was in the snowslide or not.

A mass funeral was held and the eleven people that died were buried inone
grave,  east of the church at Stryn.  The graves since has been moved toa new
place.

Mons, the oldest son, wasn't home at the time of the snowslide.  When he
received word of his parents death he returned home and rebuilt a home bythe
creek, where there was no chance to be hit by another snowslide.

Jakob, Dorthe, and David were left without a home or parents.  David waseight
years old and the family of Abraham Linrud in Veslebyzda Fostered Daviduntil
he came to the United States.  Jakob was fostered by Berent Larson andDorthewas fostered by the Nesdal Family.

This story is from the letter that Joel Monson (grandson of Jakob, son ofMidel
Monson) received from Martin Gjorven of Stryn Nordfjord, Norway back in1966.
Martin is the grandson of Mons Gjorven (the brother of Jakob).  Martinsfather
was also Mons.

Bits and pieces have been gathered along the way about their childhood,but
until the letters from the relative in Norway we were not really sure howmuch
was accurate.

This letter was entered here by William A. Nenneman II who copied it fromthe
records he received from his grandmother Irene (Monson) McClaflin.