Surnames were not in use in Norway until well after our ancestors left Kristiansand to come to America. People were known by their father's name and their farm name. When Lauritz Andresen came to America in 1883 he took the surname Monsen for his distinguished ancestor Lars Monsen and anglicized his first name to Louis or Lewis.

  Lars had been a seaman from the Bergen area and met a girl from Farsund (near Kristiansand) and so settled far from his home in Hamre near Bergen. Of course he was the 8th child and 6th son so there was probably not much for him at home.

  His family lived at the farm Aastvedt in Hamre and his father was Mons Olsen (1737-1802) the son of Ole Monsen (1702-1764), a drummer and a younger son from farm TItland in Hamre, Hordaland who married the widow who had the farm Aastvedt. His father was Mons Knutsen Titland (1665-1725)



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