Royal family ties
- Sr Perspective
- Jun 6
- 6 min read
In unique way, Alex man learned he has direct bloodline to a Norwegian king

BY JULIE PARENT
Editor’s note: Sanford Olson, who is featured in his article, passed away on May 10, 2025, at his home in Alexandria after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. He died just a couple weeks after the interview.
Sanford and Clara Olson have been married for almost 61 years and have lived in Alexandria for nearly that entire time.
Anyone who knows Sanford, knows how proud he is of his Norwegian heritage. What people didn’t know, including Sanford himself until recently, is that he is not just your average Minnesota Norwegian... he has a direct bloodline to Norwegian royalty.
It all started with Sanford’s nephew, Kevin Hoff of Blaine, Minn., who finds genealogy fascinating.
“It’s fun and cool,” Kevin said. “You never know what you’re going to find until you start digging.”
He started working on his family tree in 2013. However, he hit a roadblock when he couldn’t find much information about a family tree leaf with Andrew A. Olson’s name on it.
In 2016, Sanford, Clara, Kevin, Janet Lundebrek, LuAnn Olson, Sandy Hoff, and Arlene Quam went on a cruise to Norway together.
“It was wonderful! The trip was awesome! Going around every curve was more beautiful,” Clara said.
However, there were rough seas, and the ship could not stop in Geiranger, Norway as planned. The Norwegian Coast Guard diverted the cruise ship to Olden, Norway. The passengers on the ship from places all over the world were disgruntled. They wanted to see the Seven Sisters Waterfall which was on the original itinerary. The epic Seven Sisters Waterfall has seven streams of water and is part of the West Norwegian Fjords World Heritage Site. Kevin and his traveling companions were the only people who were thrilled they were getting the opportunity to go to the village of Olden, because they thought they might have ancestors from that area.
When they reached the new port of call, they went on a bus tour to Eid Church in Nordfjordeid, Norway. The wooden church was built in 1849. It replaced the church that was there that had been built in 1691. They also went to the Myklebust grave mound nearby. In 1874, archeologist Anders Lorange was at the mound that contained the largest Viking ship that has ever been found in Norway. Part of the treasure-filled ship was excavated where it had been buried on the Myklebust farm. While having coffee at a hotel restaurant close to the attractions, Kevin’s group learned many people in that area had similar names to people living in Starbuck, Minn.

After returning to Minnesota, they decided to start doing DNA testing. The astonishing results, which matched DNA found in ancient graves, helped them solve their family’s mystery. Over 1,000 matches, many descendants of Vikings.
“We ended up in the wrong spot and look at what happened,” Kevin said.
On his Facebook page, Kevin posted: “We found out with family records, DNA matches, and Norwegian records that Sanford, Janet, LuAnn’s husband Dave, and Sandy’s grandpa was Endre Andreas Abelsen Myklebust from Nordfjord, aka Andrew A. Olson.”
Andrew was born Nedre Myklebust by Bryggja, Norway in 1865. His oldest half-brother had inherited the family farm. There was a depression in Norway and times were tough. As a result, people moved frequently to find work. It was common to change their names to a different variation when they moved to a new farm or emigrated to America and accurate records were not maintained.
It is believed that John Jacobson, aka Johan Jokomson, owned farmland in Minnesota. He agreed to pay for people’s tickets to emigrate from Norway if they would work on his farms for three years. Andrew decided to emigrate to America when he was in his mid-to-late teens.
On a Minnesota census, Andrew was listed as living on one of John’s farms in 1885.
Andrew became a United States citizen. When he married Sarah Mary Nilson in Rolling Forks Township, Pope County, Minnesota in 1905, his father-in-law Engebret Nilson, aka Nelson, gave him 160 acres as a wedding gift. Andrew and Sarah passed away before Sanford was born, but Sanford grew up on their farm.

Even more surprising, Sanford’s DNA test results were traced back 11 generations to Norwegian King Audbjörn Frøybjørnsson. According to the Sagastad Viking Center website, the king was cremated and buried with his Viking ship in the Myklebust grave mound Kevin’s group had visited. If it in fact was King Audbjörn in the burned ship, historians determined that he probably died in a naval battle off the island of Solskjel in Nordmøre during the 9th century. He may have been alive between 840 and 870. The deceased had been given a full set of weapons, jewelry, and a Celtic bronze vessel that held the cremated remains indicating he was a very wealthy and important person. Other fun facts about the ship on the museum’s website include:
1. It is estimated that the ship had 24 pairs of oars.
2. The number of seams/nails with thread was approximately 7,000 pieces.
3. There were approximately 700 wooden nails.
4. The ship weighed approximately 16 tons.
5. There was a wide moat around the ship.
6. Forty-four shield bulges were found, which may have represented the crew of the ship.
When Kevin became aware that a full-scale replica of the 100-foot-long Viking ship was being built by boatbuilders from Bjørkedalen, Norway, his family decided to donate money to the project. Now, the Myklebust ship is housed inside the Sagastad Viking Center in Nordfjordeid, Norway. The popular museum opened in May 2019. Visitors can walk on a gangway onto the ship. A dragon head at the front and a tail at the stern of the ship were intricately carved by Rolf Taraldset from Hornindal, Norway. Currently, plans are being made to eventually rig the replica ship with sails. The seaworthy ship is launched on fjord voyages at least once a year. It takes a lot of manpower to get the ship out of the museum and into the water. One of the launches was filmed for Amazon Prime’s show “Travel by Dart.”

“We were not supposed to be in Nordfjordeid that day,” Kevin said. “In a true Viking way, we found safe passage home through Nordjord that day and ended up in Nordfjordeid.”
Since then, Kevin has excitedly had 126 bright yellow T-shirts, and six sweatshirts made with a Viking ship logo for his family members to wear proudly. He has also passed out the 26 large binders he assembled for them. Each binder is packed with 200 sheet protectors. The protectors are filled with 8 ½ x 11 sheets of paper detailing six-years of research. The information proves that some of Kevin’s family members are part of the oldest three Scandinavian family tree lines. He credits eight people from the United States and Norway, the Sagastad Viking Center, and the Arkivverket Digital Records of Norway/Forum for helping him obtain this information. Since discovering them, his family members in America have communicated with their relatives in Norway. At the end of June, Kevin and Ryan Lundebrek plan to travel to Norway to celebrate the 200-year anniversary of the first Norwegians emigrating to America. It will be the fourth time Kevin has gone to his homeland.
A special thank you to Sanford Olson and his fun-loving family who graciously agreed to be interviewed for this article during an extremely difficult time.
Sanford was born on Oct. 9, 1943, in Starbuck. Before retiring, Sanford was a gardener at Bachman’s Floral in Minneapolis and Northside Floral in Alexandria before taking a factor job at 3M for 33 years (with perfect attendance). After retirement, he worked with Gardonville Cooperative for 11 years, was a handyman, property manager and entrepreneur. Clara owned an operated a beauty salon (Hair Profiles) in Alexandria for many years. Sanford died on May 10, 2025 at his home in Alexandria after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. A visitation for Sanford will be held at Anderson Funeral Home in Alexandria on June 8, from 4-7 p.m. The funeral service will be held on June 9 at 11 a.m. at Bethesda Lutheran Church in Alexandria.
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