Hadsel Island
Lofoton Islands, Norway

As we entered Hadsel Fjord we witnessed a scene of marvelous beauty and mysterious loveliness. It was more like the imagined landscape of a fairy tale than real.

Willard Hadsell
For a Thousand Years
Page 12

The Hadsell Line has been traced back 1000 years to Norway. Situated in the Lofoten Islands north of the Arctic Circle, Hadsel Island sits like a jewel. Willard Hadsell describes his first visit there in 1957.

In the year 851, the Viking fleet of the Norsemen invaded England. That was the beginning of the Hadsell settlement there.

The first Hadsell landing in America is recorded in 1635, however, there is an unverificated mention of a Richard Hadsell even before that.

The Hadsell’s in America split into many different lines, and the Nathan that we refer to is the first we can trace of our Hadsell line.

Willard Hadsell visited our home in Alhambra in 1953. He had made contact with my father, Clayton, who had never known of any history or any details about the Hadsell family. His father died very young, and he never knew his grandfather, James. I remember the wonderful feeling it gave our family to know that we at last had another group of relatives; it was a connection to something larger.

And it gave us a sense of pride.