Welcome to the Morrison News Network website. This site is dedicated to the history of my family including significant stories and news items related to present family. The Martin Morrison page has several links telling about him and his family. Martin was my great grandfather and also a remarkable photographer. Many of his Story county pictures are included on this site with more to be added later. The My Family page has our baby pictures plus (soon!) pics of us growing up! The Vault page has past stories that have appeared on Morrison News Network since the site was created. The Computer Stuff section contains good resources pertaining to Macintosh computer systems. More OS X information will soon be added. My Inspiration Page takes you to some fascinating and cool Bible topics, Movie Reviews, and writings submitted by friends and family. Thanks again for stopping by!

Note: Morrison News Network now is on a new Apple server running the Leopard OS. Thanks! RLM

Lots of things have happened since I last updated this website. Some of the events are sad such as the passing of my mom on January 16, 2006 and the passing of my dad on August 1, 2007. I will be including some memorial info on my parents soon.

I also have received some remarkable photos from my relatives, Dan & Barb Danilson in Pennsylvania. These stereographs taken by Martin Morrison actually show one of the pieces of furniture Martin made that is shown in detail on this website. Another stereograph has one of his paintings of Skaanevig, Norway that is displayed on this website. Barb also provided me with some pictures of some nice paintings painted by Martin and his daughter Dena. These I will post soon to the Martin Morrison section.

Another surprise came by way of a phone call to my sister Sandy in Iowa City from Ed Johnson. He had seen my dad's obituary in the Story City paper and recognized the name of Zebulon Morrison. I then called Ed and soon arranged a meeting. He told me he was related to Bertha Charleson (wife of Martin). Ed provided some fascinating information that will soon find its way on this website. He also provided another family protrait that I have put on the website below.

Above is a picture of Martin's home in Fruithurst, Alabama. For the longest time, I thought a picture David Myers had submitted to me was the one in Fruithurst. But, it was his home in Birmingham, AL. I will add the Birmingham house photo soon. This picture was from a collection donated to me by Dan & Barb Danilson.

For something completely different, you may have heard by now that next year (midnight of February 17, 2009 to be exact), all full-power TV stations will start broadcasting totally in digital. This means for those that have analog sets and want to keep them will have to purchase a convertor box to allow you to view the new digital signal. The government is providing up to two coupons each worth $40 toward the cost of eligible convertor boxes. For more information on this program and to sign up for your coupons, please go to this website: www.dtv2009.org

Some time ago, Annalisa Knutson from Norway found an old newpaper article dated 1895 from the Stavanger Aftenblad. This newpaper is still in existance today. Anyway, two people from the Aftenblad came to interview and observe the daily living activities of Martin Morrison on his farm in Jæren, in the SW corner of Norway, starting around 5 miles south of Stavanger. They spent several days with Martin talking with him and finding out why the locals there called him "mad."

Since the article was in an old dialect of Norwegian using the fraktur (the old german font), Annalisa had problems translating it. Recently, I told another Norwegian friend of mine who lives in Ames about this and he surprised me by saying he has a friend named Jim that lives in Oslo. This friend happens to have a PhD in Norwegian language! To make a long story short, my friend sent the article to him and after a couple of weeks or so, it was translated! So many interesting facts came to light from this article. Soon I will be posting the complete translation along with the original newspaper clippings for you to see and read.

I also recently acquired a couple of Martin's stereographs over eBay! One is a picture taken in Stokka, Norway and the other is a great stereograph of Bergen! This Bergen photo was in a collection right in my hometown of Ames! So, I didn't have far to go to pick this up after I won the auction. A sample of each of these pics is below. Clicking on them will take you to another page with info plus a much bigger view.

Family in Stokka, Norway	Bergen, Norway	The Fleischer Hotel in 1889

My new friend Annalisa and her family from Jørpeland, Norway has sent me much information about Martin. She lives about an hour away from Stavanger (by ferry). She works at the Strand Bibliotek (library) in Jørpeland and has access to much historic information since she also is a member of the local historical society. I am very greatful to her for her kind assistance in supplying information about Martin and his family as recorded in the historical archives in Norway. She has recently uncovered much info including some newspaper articles about Martin Morrison at the Stavanger Archives plus found family information on Bertha Morrison. I will get this info posted ASAP. Way to go, Lisa!

My wife Maxine has also been very busy researching her family tree. To see some of her family pictures, go to this link! Eventually, much more will be added when she has time.

Martin Morrison Family Photo