Legacy of Love, Joy and Laughter

This is my absolute, hands down, favorite photo of my Mother, Uncle, Grandmother and Grandfather. The Sevald Family. It is a posed portrait studio but none the less it shows the true nature of the family. Joy. How often in older photos so you see everyone smiling? My grandparents leaning in toward their children and each other, my mothers hand on her father's knee and my uncle standing proudly behind grinning widely. This was a happy loving family. And they all knew how to laugh,.... lots. That is the sort of legacy I am most thankful for today.

@1937 Chicago, Ill- The Sevald Family;
Paul Dagmer Arnold & Grace

Happy Thanksgiving!  

Karl Gustav "Charles" Andersen - my 3rd great uncle

My grandmother Dagmar, I remember as a very outgoing, friendly person. She always had friends from near and far visiting her or she was going to church group meetings or parties at the homes of friends. I find it so funny how as I get deeper and deeper into this hobby of genealogy I find more and more of her family in the U.S. Right in Chicago, no less! Family I don't ever recall hearing about. Did she not know they were here? Then again I have cousins that live not far from me who I see rarely and I am sure my grandchildren have no clue who they would be.

Karl Gustav Andersen, the son of Anders Olsen Herregaardstranden and Maren Kirstine Andersdatter was born in Eidanger, Telemark Norway 25 Feb 1860. His oldest sister, Marthe Marie, was to be my great great grandmother. He returned to Norway for a visit in 1920. According to his passport application (below) he immigrated to the U.S. in October of 1884 and became a naturalized American 16 Feb 1891. Karl Gustav adopted the name "Charles". He never married, working as a sailor, his home port: Chicago, Illinois on Lake Michigan.

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

History of Veterans Day | The History Channel

"On this Veterans Day, let us remember the service of our veterans, and let us renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free." – Dan Lipinski

To those who have honored and defended our country

through  their military service

THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS YOU

My gold tea set in Mommy's china cabinet

This lovely set of Norwegian pastel plates and demitasse cups with gold interiors sat in my grandmother's china cabinet. As a very little girl I admired them so much. After all they were gold and Grandma would serve hot chocolate in the cups and little almond cookies on the cold rimmed plates. "When I am gone, these will belong to you because you are my first grand daughter and then you could remember me by them" she told me. I hope I am at least a little more tactful and a little more mature now because she told me that every time I would come to her house I would run to her china cabinet and ask her "Are you going to die soon?" I really don't remember saying that but Grandma got a kick out of telling me the story. "Well Ranae, since I really don't hope to die very soon anyway, I will give you the set now, but you have to keep them in Mommy's china cabinet until you get big". Well they stayed in Mom's china cabinet until I married and brought them with me.

My own grand daughter listened intently as I told her the story of how I came to have the pretty little pastel set with the bright gold interiors. I could tell by the excited look in her eyes and the way she stared wistfully at the set she was thinking that as the oldest grand daughter maybe  she would get the cups some day. Last week I told her "Well Sophia, since I really don't hope to die very soon anyway, I think you better have this pretty set now to remember me by, but you have to keep them in Mommy's china cabinet until you get big."

Sophia's gold tea set in her Mommy's china cabinet.

Visiting Family in Norway 1937

I am pretty sure that my grandfather Paul could have stayed in Chicago and never returned to Norway. I don't think he was particularly close with most of his siblings.  As I have spoke of in previous blogs, he did not have a particularly happy childhood. His mother died when he was young and his father was reportedly, well let's just say not a fellow you missed when away from him. For my grandmother Dagmar it was different. Her family was close and loving. I am sure they had their differences but she missed Norway terribly and the family made a point to return to visit when they were able. In 1937 all four of the family, grandpa Paul, grandma Dagmar, uncle Arnold and my mom Grace returned to Skien, Telemark, Norway for a visit. Outgoing Arnold quickly fell in with his cousins. It was harder for Grace. She was more shy and speaking Norwegian did not come as easily for her as it did for Arnold. "Everybody likes Arnold and nobody likes me" is how she told me she felt as a young girl back in Norway. Her mother reassured her with "you are grandma's favorite, she likes you best". She told me she did enjoy and feel at peace and somehow "at home" in Norway and sometimes wished her parents had never moved to Chicago.

my Mom 

Grace Gunhild Sevald Kallman

1927-1975

in front of her grandparents home in Skien, Norway 1937