Hello everyone;my name is LEO MATSON my grandparents were edwin and adel matson who resided in wittenberg wisconsin in the mid 1800's say 1850 or so,i would realy like to know if this last name is strait norwegian and if their is any matsons left their to talk to or realitives of,my grandparents and dad would talk norwegian to us all the time.please help me for i have more :)MR Leo Matson.
replied to: thisismatson
Hi Leo,
Matson is not that common in Norway, chances are it is has changed over time from the more common Madsen, where the D is pronounced more like a T. After what I've understood the Norwegian names got "americanized" after awhile.
As an example Norma Jeane Mortensons (better known as Marilyn Monroe) father had the surname Mortensen.
The suffix -son is common in surnames from Sweden and Iceland, while -sen is more common in Denmark and Norway.
A quick search in the Norwegian phonebook returns 377 Matson's and 3421 Madsen's.
I can't help you much in finding relatives, but you can search for names in the Norwegian phonebook yourself, http://www.gulesider.no/tk/, and see if you find any :)
Richard
