Karl Magnus Sevald

My great Uncle Karl Magnus Sevald did not emigrate to America, yet he shortened his surname from Sevaldsen to Sevald as my grandfather did in Chicago. I could not tell you his reasoning as to why he did that. He and my grandfather, along with all their siblings, had a rough childhood. Their mother died young and their father was (according to my grandmother) a religious, strict, cruel parent. Maybe he didn't care to carry his father's surname or perhaps the shortened Sevald just seemed more modern or concise and meant nothing more than that.  Thank you is owed to a gal I wish was my cousin. She is actually the wife of Karl's wife's nephew. Genealogy can get confusing can't it? Besides, everyone on earth is a cousin, right? Anthropologists say any other person on this earth, no matter how far away or how different they appear, is no more than your 40th cousin. So...

Thank you cousin Inger for the photo of great Uncle Karl!

my great uncle

Karl Magnus Sevald

20 Jan 1896 - 11 Feb 1968

**click on photo to enlarge for easier viewing**

Fellesferie - July vacation in Norway

photo by Roger W on Flicker  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Summer homes on a small island in the Oslofjord

It would seem that Norway is the place to be if you value your summer holiday.

Fellesferie. 

That is the Norwegian summer holiday and it would seem most everyone tales advantage of it. Three weeks off! There is no official starting day but the second week in July seems to be the time when the 4.6 million or so folks in Norway all take a summer vacation. At the same time! Many head to summer cabins in the south of Norway such as those pictured above. The south of Europe is also popular but it can be difficult to get an air ticket because flight workers are also taking the time off and fights may be cancelled for lack of workers! Even in larger cities like Oslo stores may close early or restrict their opening times and I can just imagine how difficult it must be if you need a plumber or some other skilled person during this time.

Wow...another of the many reasons you just have to love the country of Norway.

Modern Viking Ship To Sail From Norway To Chicago For Tall Ships Festival

Draken Harald Hårfagre 

named for the first king of Norway, Harald Fairhair

Check out this website to learn all about this modern replica of a Viking ship that left Haugesand Norway in late April 2016 for the 3,000 mile trip across the North Atlantic. It is scheduled to arrive in Chicago for the Tall Ships Festival this coming week.

Modern Viking Ship

Carrie Gundersen

When I found my great grand uncle Lauritz Severin Gundersen, I also found his wife,

my great grand Aunt Carrie.

from the Norwegian National Archives the "Digitalarkivet"

Møre og Romsdal county, Tingvoll in Tingvoll parish, official parish register

#586A13 (1879-1892) birth & baptism records 1881, page 20

Karen Oline was born 18 May 1881 and baptised into the Church of Norway 3 June 1881. Her parents were Johan Edvard Erlingsen b. 1854 and Ane Torresdatter b. 1841 of the farm Berget under Tingvold. Her sponsors were Knud Jensen, Lars Selven?, Arne Tingvold, Dorte A Tingvold and Gunhild Tingvold.

my great grand Aunt

Karen "Carrie" Oline Erlingsen Gunderson

born: 18 May 1881 Tingvoll, Møre og Romsdal, Norway

died: Sept 1962 Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA

**click on photos/documents to enlarge for easier reading**

The search for Uncle Lauritz ends - Louis Gunderson

Last November I blogged about my great great uncle Lauritz Severin Gundersen.
In 1900 he was counted in the Norwegian national census living on the family farm Øvald in Eidanger, Telemark, Norway. The farm that the family had worked since the mid 1600's. He was living with my grandmother Dagmar, my great grandparents Nils Gundersen and Gunhild Olsdatter and my great great grandfather Gunder Andreas Nilson. He dissappeared from Norway and the family farm. Where was he I wondered?  I found him later living in the Chicago area, his name "Americanized" to Louis Gunderson, married and with a slew of children. Chicago! the same area in which I now and have for the last 64 years lived. He must have some descendants in the area. "Where are you my cousins?" I had asked.

Wow. Louis came to this country 115 years ago and this past week I finally had the opportunity to meet those cousins for the first time. A third cousin who had contacted me some months ago arranged for me to meet the matriarch of the family, Louis' youngest daughter Adeline.
Adeline is 93 years old and has a great memory. She kindly allowed me to take her picture to post on this blog.

Adeline, I and additional family members chatted in her home for some time. I told her what I knew of the history of Louis' family and their farm Øvald in Norway. How my grandmother Dagmar, her first cousin, had left Norway with my grandfather, to also settle in Chicago. Showing her copies of the documentation I had collected about Lauritz, we marveled at the long and difficult journey he undertook as a young man to find a better life in the United States. I met with her hoping to get additional documentation about my ancestry. She gave me something better. I got to know a bit about the man Louis Gunderson.

My Great Grand Uncle

Lauritz Severin Gundersen 

known as Louis Gunderson in Chicago.

b. 27 Jan 1882 Eidanger, Telemark, Norway

d. Nov 1970 Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA 

Adeline described him as "good looking even with his big ears". He was a thin quiet fellow who never really talked much about life in Norway but in his later years did take a trip back to the village of his birth to visit family. He was a devoted husband for 58 years and a kind and loving father of 10 children and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren. Three of those children sadly he would see die too young. He never put much stock in religion but was an upright honest man you could count on. He was a strong and skilled carpenter who with his son in law built the home that his daughter Adeline still lives in today. His grandson remembers him fondly up on the roof swinging his hammer well into his 70's. A good man.

So I truly did find Lauritz and along the way found some really good people I am pleased and proud to say are my cousins.

**click on photos to enlarge for easier viewing**

Beautiful Norway, Why would anyone leave her?

Norway. Just the name gives me a sense of peace. My maternal grandparents came from Norway and settled in Chicago in the early years of the 20th century. My grandmother returned, after the death of my grandfather, to enjoy her remaining years in and ultimately die in Norway. I totally understand why. I visited her in her home in Skien, Norway three times. Welcoming and generous people, general economic prosperity, universal health care and unbelievably beautiful landscape. I have to admit a pang of jealousy of those children and grandchildren of my grandparents siblings. What a wonderful place to live. But things were very different at the time of my grandparents emigration. Let's be realistic, I would not exist if they had not emigrated. Nor my children or totally adored grandchildren. "If wishes were horses.." huh? Besides, for better and worse, I am way way too "American" to ever fit in.

I would like to share this great article that explains perfectly why grandma and grandpa and many many others chose to leave Norway for the uncertainty of life in a new country.
click here→   Peace-Potatoes-and-Pox-Norwegian-Emigration-in-the-1800s

Skien Church in the hometown of my grandparents, 

Skien, Telemark, Norway (unknown photographer)

***click to enlarge photo for easier viewing***

Happy Fourth of July - America Medley | Anthem Lights

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, 

that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, 

support any friend, oppose any foe to assure 

the survival and the success of liberty. 

--- John F. Kennedy

Sibling Saturday - Arnold and Grace Sevald

When they went to the studio in Chicago for family photos, they had to return another day as the photographers camera malfunctioned. Arnold forever after teased his sister Grace..."Your face broke the camera!".   Just like a brother.

     my mom Grace Gunhild Kallman 1927-1975

my uncle Arnold Calvin Sevald 1925- 1983

***click on photo to enlarge for easier viewing***

FIND MY PAST, the family history website, is FREE this weekend

Find my Past, the family history website is Free this weekend. Through July 4th 2016 when you establish an account you can access their database of records for FREE. For sure the price is right. This is a family history site I have not yet explored and I have heard it is heavy in U.K. (English, Irish etc) records but this weekend I am going to check it out. After all, the operative word here is FREE, isn't it?

Click here to go to their website ► FIND MY PAST

Below is a you tube from Findmypast on how to make a family tree which will introduce you to their site.