This is interesting since the family lore of the Hoel family I'm looking for is that some of them began as Hoel and may have changed their names to Olson to assimilate sometime after they got to Wisconsin! I don't know if my story is right since they're long gone but ours stayed Hoel.

I have a Matthais Hoel, b. Nov 1844 Norway who came to the United States in 1880 and was naturalized in Pennsylvania. He ended up in Wisconsin at least by 1900, when he is recorded in the Deerfield Township, Dane county, Wisconsin Census.

Thanks, Susan