� Ventura Co. Reporter, August 1997
The internet - what a tool. You can find that exotic wildebeest recipe, or the complete filmography of Adrienne Barbeau. You may even be able to find your father, whom you haven't seen for more than three decades.
Oxnard resident Kristin Olsen-Alls never wondered during her childhood about the man who gave her life.
"My mother and he divorced when she was eight months pregnant," she said. "I never knew what a father was."
Her mother's subjective and less-than-accurate portrait of Daddy as a no-good scoundrel emprisoned somewhere in Denmark, was all Kristin needed to leave well enough alone. But she could never entirely forget the mystery of her missing parent.
"I wondered about it off and on over the years," she said, "and then when I hit my late twenties, I decided to see if I could find him."
With no birth date, no hometown, no middle name, no pictures, and her mother still carrying the baggage of her bitter marital association, it didn't look good. Kristin had only two pieces of information: a partial name - Wilhelm Olsen - and the knowledge he was born somewhere in Norway. Predictably, her inquiries to the Danish and Norweigan consolates proved fruitless.
Enter our tale's twin heroes: the aforementioned internet, and Kristin's new husband, Ben Alls. Ben had launched his own computer consulting firm in 1993, shortly before meeting Kristin. Romance blossomed, and she joined Ben in his business the following year.
In 1996, Ben and Kristin married and moved into her mother's house to set up their new household. There, among her mother's documents, Kristin encountered some new information vital to her search.
"I found an envelope stuffed full of papers about my father," she said. "Letters from him to me - unopened - and his address and phone number."
She learned her father was born in Christiansen, Norway, now had his birthdate, and discovered, to her surprise, she had siblings.
Ben, who wisely recognized the lingering unresolved family conflict within his new bride, encouraged Kristin to renew her search for her dad. Confident in the potential resources of the exploding internet, and armed with new information found among her mother's papers, early in 1996 Kristin began e-mailing anyone faintly relevant to her search.
About seven months later she met a Dane named Stig, who led her to a cousin, Jan, who in turn led Kristin to another cousin, Ellen. It was she who provided the critical link, revealing that Kristin's father Wilhelm spent half the year in Denmark and the other half in Spain. Ellen didn't know Wilhelm's Danish address, but she gave Kristin his phone number and address in Spain.
"I e-mailed, and I called, and I sent letters, and I got no response," Kristin said. "Finally, I sent one last letter to Spain."
Exactly one week after her final letter, and about eight months after meeting Stig, her father called from Spain, the same day Kristin's letter had arrived. It turned out he hadn't been at his Spanish home, and was unaware of Kristin's prior, frustrated attempts. The people who had been living in the house had returned all Kristin's mail, and deflected all her phone calls.
After months of getting acquainted with her new father by telephone, Kristin and Ben packed up their three children this past June to journey to Denmark to meet Wilhelm in person. The timing was especially poignant.
"We went to Denmark [last] summer because he was dying, he's got emphysema," Kristin said. "They only give him six months, so I figured it was my last chance to meet him."
Their initial reunion was predictably joyous, but Kristin's long search would end somewhat ambivalently. Her father had seemed pleasant and likable on the phone, but in person Kristin came to share some of her mother's perspective.
"He can be a very charming man, but he's a typical military man with no ties," she concluded. "A 'woman-in-every-port' type of thing."
Indeed, Wilhelm had been a busy guy.
"I have a half-sister that I met over there, Tanya," she said. "I have another half-sister, Brenda, in Florida, whom we're going to meet next summer. And there's another half-sister in Germany, but I haven't met her yet."
Still, Kristin has no regrets.
"He is extremely intelligent, and he is also extremely family-oriented," she said. "He's been married for many years now, to a wonderful woman ... He will do anything in the world for his family members."
Beyond that, she cherishes her new connections. Talking nearly every other day in the beginning, after their meeting in Spain Kristin and her dad still chat regularly two or three times a month, and Wilhelm makes sure to send his grandchildren birthday cards and holiday greetings at every opportunity. Contingent upon Wilhelm's health, Kristen's oldest son is planning to stay with Wilhelm in Spain for several months next summer.
"I now have sisters and family, and I'll do anything in the world to help them ... Everything that I had to go through to get here - including the cost of having to go to Denmark - was well worth it."
Ironically, Kristin learned her father had previously tracked her down, getting as far as Oxnard before his leads evaporated.
"My mom's phone number is unlisted, her address is unlisted, I got married so I'm no longer an Olsen. But they got really close to finding me."
The experience Kristin gained in her quest to discover her father has instilled in her an unexpected and lingering interest in geneology.
"I've done my husband's geneology all the way back to 600 A.D.," she said, adding that she freely shares her time and expertise with others seeking family members. "I've helped two people find their parents, and it felt really good."
