Who are these ladies?

A photo taken on a 1937 visit to Norway. It is not the best quality but I do recognize the little boy as my uncle Arnold Sevald. My great grandmother Gunhild is all the way on the left and my grandmother Dagmar is behind Arnold in the white dress. I really wish I knew who the other two ladies are? Gunhild did have three sisters; Helene Marie b. 1871, Olava b. 1878, and Valborg b. 1887
Any ideas?

Gunhild, ? , Dagmar, ?
Arnold
Skien, Norway 1937

update: The woman between and behind Great grandma Gunhild and Uncle Arnold is Margot Skaugen Øvald. She is great grandma Gunhild's daughter in law, the wife of grandma Dagmar's brother Finn. In 1937 Finn, Margot and their son Nils were living upstairs of my great grandparents on Vinjesgate in Skien. Thank you Arild!

Garnesmordet...What about Ole?

A few weeks ago I blogged about the GARNESMORDET or Garnes murders. Only two survived that horrendous night; my great X3 grandmother Anne and her young uncle Ole. I can see why Anne survived. It would take a particularly brutal person to kill a baby lying in her cradle and besides an infant cannot witness to the identity of the thieves/murderers. But Ole? The story he gave was that stabbed a few times the criminals left him for dead and when they left the room he hid. Hearing him rolling out of bed and scrambling for cover, they returned but in the dark could not find him.

So Ole was the lucky one? Depends on how you look at it.

👍16-year-old Ole survived the Garnes murders of 1806.
👎 but Ole suffered the loss of his father, two brothers and a sister.
👎He also lay for weeks recovering from his "disfiguring" wounds and blood loss. (Remember no antibiotics, pain meds or blood transfusions back in the day). Do you think someone stitched him back together? Ouch.
👍Ole recovered from his wounds, inherited a properous family farm, married Martha Jonsdatter Storvuku in 1809 and started a family.
👎In 1811 the entire farm burned to the ground. Four servants living on the farm were killed and Ole's wife Martha was seriously burned trying to save them.
👍The farm was rebuilt, prospered and Ole and Martha had 6 kids who have many descendants in Verdal today.
👎In 1843 Ole, coming home from an auction, attempting to cross the river Stenselven, drowned.

It was said he beat the killer's hand and fire but water took him down.

Norwegian Digitalarkivet (click here to go to original record)

Well, that's life I suppose. Sometimes you're lucky 👍, sometimes you're not 👎.

Like Mom always said, "who told you life would be fair?"

my 5th great Uncle

Ole Pedersen Garnes

b.1790 Garnes, Inndalen, Verdal, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway

d. 25 April 1843 Inndalen, Verdal, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway

*click on document to enlarge for easier reading*

Great Aunt Magda Sevaldsen

Great Aunt Magda Sevaldsen

Anna Magda Sevaldsen was my grandfather Paul's younger sister. Born 1906 in Hadsel, Norway her birth wasn't recorded until 1909 in the "dissenters" portion of the birth register. Even though she spent quite a few years living in the US, I never met the woman but I got a distinct impression that my grandmother Dagmar did not like her. She made a few vague negative comments about her that ended with her sucking in her breath and shaking her head.  Sisters in law often are just basically good folks that have nothing in common with each other but family ties throw them together in a way that irritates them both. Now, I do wish that I had known her.

Two cousins of mine in Norway, whose judgment I would trust, thought very highly of her. I have recently met through Facebook another remote cousin whose sister was a friend of hers and she told me that Magda was quite an intelligent lady and a poet. Another cousin by chance met Magda's daughter in, of all places, Hawaii. That daughter gave him four books of poetry written by Magda which he generously passed on to me. I am now in the process of translating them with the help of my old friend Google. Meanwhile, I googled Magda herself and find she was fairly well known in her area of Norway. Works she had written were included in the yearly Verdal books. Upon her death, she was eulogized quite kindly in the 1999 Verdal yearbook. 

Even those you love, admire, and trust dearly can be wrong sometimes. Magda seems like she was a free thinker, an artistic, imaginative woman with a very forward thinking, romantic view of the world.  Conversely, grandmother was a solid, "let's make a plan and get down to business" kind of a person. She had strong opinions about most everything. Dependable and constant. I loved that about her.  Magda and my grandmother were probably polar opposites. It is no wonder they weren't close. I loved Grandma but I wish I had known Magda also. Maybe for very very different reasons I would have loved her too. 

My Great Aunt 

Anna Magda Sevaldsen

b. 2 Nov 1906 Hadsel, Nordland, Norway

d. 22 Jan 1999 Verdal, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway