Hello, welcome to our website! We are the Jens and Delores (Wolff) Tinjum family from the great state of Alaska, third and fourth generation "Pommeranian, Norwegian, and Swedish-Americans". We, through our mother, Delores, are descended from Johann Gustav Lau, Gros Borkenhagen, Kreis, Naugard, Pommerania, (Germany), and Wilhelm (William) Wolff of Pommern, Prussia (Germany). From our father, Jens, we are descended from Jens Andersson Tynjo (T�njum), Sogn og Fjordane, L�rdal Parish, Norge (Norway), and Marie (Mary) Anderson, Sweden.

After four years of service in the U.S. Air Force (during the Korean War), Jens married the woman of his dreams, our mother, Delores. He went on to earn a B.S. degree from Black Hills State Teacher's College in Spearfish, South Dakota and from there, worked toward an M.S. degree at the University of Iowa, followed by additional studies at the University of Minnesota and University of Alaska respectively.

After graduation from college, Jens received the call that would forever change our lives, or at least alter the path we were to take...We were moving north! Jens was called to Alaska and thus began a rewarding career in school administration and teaching here. We fell in love with the state, and its peoples, and have called it home for over thirty years.

Jens and Delores have long since retired (after raising two terrific daughters...that'd be us!) and now spend much of their time on September Lake,in Trapper Creek, Alaska, nestled in the shadows of North America's highest peak, Mt. McKinley. The serenity you feel when out at the lake can best be described as the feeling one gets when glimpsing "The Great One", Denali, (as it is called by the native peoples of our state) for the first time. It is awe inspiring to say the least!

Both my sister, Lois (Tinjum) Wetzel, and I were raised here. Lois went on to marry and have three wonderful children, Tyson, Tara, and Travis. She lost her beautiful daughter, Tara, in a plane crash on June 16, 1989. Not a day goes by that we don't think of this sweet child...she is sorely missed by our family and those whose lives she touched. A college scholarship (The Tara Lea Wetzel Memorial Scholarship) has been awarded to graduating seniors of Cook Inlet Academy (the school all Lois' children attended) for several years now. It is our tribute to this very special young lady.

I'm single and currently reside in Wasilla, Alaska, a small town situated in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, about 40 highway miles north of Anchorage. After 10 years in the "lower forty-eight" states working in a career I loved, I returned to the place always considered "home". It seemed no matter where I was, California, Oklahoma or Texas, something was missing! It is true that when we live in a place for so many years, we begin to take its beauty for granted. I realize that now after making the journey back. And, I believe you truly CAN go home...who was it that said you couldn't anyway? I worked for over twenty years in the aviation industry, most recently with American Airlines in Dallas, Texas. My career ended as a result of acute hearing loss, and although I miss having a career I'm much closer to family now. That has come to mean more to me than perhaps it did in years past. And so, I've had time to put these pages together.

Although as a family we have always been interested in our family's origins, our desire to learn more about our roots and Norwegian culture in general was renewed after Jens & Delores attended the Knaack/Wolff Family Reunion in Minnesota this past summer. After meeting so many new relatives and getting re-acquainted with those family members we hadn't seen in years, that interest grew into something much more.

Jens & Delores (Wolff) Tinjum

And so, we begin this journey aided by the research of those who have traveled before us (Larry Tinjum, Ginny Johnson, Winton Fuglie, to name a few), and those we've met along the way. Should any errors be sighted, please let us know.

Lois & Lori Tinjum

We hope you'll enjoy looking through our pages and links to other "relative" websites as much as we've enjoyed putting it all together. Although we may not be able to open all doors or solve every mystery we find along the way, we will all be richer having added a few pieces to the puzzle that is our family, our people, our heritage.

If you discover a connection with any of the families we are researching, please be sure to sign our guestbook and send us an email.