Welcome to Ranae's Norwegian Family Heritage: Karl Magnus Sevald

Saturday

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!