Earlier extended family immigrate to the U.S.

 My grandmother emigrated from Norway in 1924, Members of her family had emigrated far earlier. 

My 4th great grandparents, Ole Gundersen 1775-1860 & Karen Halvorsdatter, had ten children. As often happened in the past, only 3 would reach adulthood. Four sons to inherit the farm had passed. Three of the six girls remained; Aaste Helene, Joanne Elisabeth and Karen Oline. Aaste, the oldest child never married. Johanne, the eighth child and her husband Nils Jensen, my third great grandparents, inherited the right to work the farm Øvald. Karen, the baby? She married but unfortunately her husband died young. She remarried and she, her husband and children left for America in 1863. They settled in Michigan.

Here is a lovely photo of four of Karen's grandaughters. I found this on Ancestry.com posted by a DNA cousin.

Anna Oleson Lee  1877-1920

Jessie Oleson Hood  1883-1955

Mabel Oleson  1884-1974

Louise Oleson  1875-1951

  I do love those upswept hairdos, Louise however could use a do-over.

Johannes Johannesen signs a contract to go to Chicago.

Emigrating from Norway to America was a fairly involved process. The Norwegian emigrant would sign a contract with an agent. That agent would, for a price, arrange the trip every step of the way, from Norway to England to the U.S. and to the final destination. They would meet the emigrant at the takeoff point giving them instructions and tickets for each step of the journey. An additional agent would meet the emigrant at each stop along the way insuring a safe and correct journey to the final destination.

This is the contract signed by my cousins grandfather, Johannes Johannesen, 22 years old. He was known in Chicago as John Johnson. As kids I remember him as "Old Man Johnson".

CONTRACT
between

CUNARD LINIEN (The Cunard Steam Ship Co. Ltd.
and passengers listed below regarding Carriage
to Chicago (Cook) Illinois for Kr. 199.00
and Johannes Johannesen age 22

I, Ivar Grotte, Chief Agent for Cunard Linien, hereby undertake to convey the persons mentioned herein to the Determining Office for the above-mentioned Sum, which I acknowledge to have received as full payment.

The journey must take place as follows:

1. From Bergen on 6/3 1907 on or about with Midship Steamer in Mellemdæk to Hull.

2. By rail from there to Liverpool.

3. By Midship Steamer from Liverpool to New York.

4. By Rail from New York to Place of Destination.

Bergen on 5/3 1907

signed Ivar Grotte

Presented at the Police Chamber on 5 March 1907 for the Chief of Police
Official stamp and signature of the Police Chamber

Note that 199 krone would buy approx. $53 dollars worth of goods in 1907. A hefty amount no doubt for a poor Norwegian.

Johannes Severin Johannessen (John Johnson)

b. 7 Sep 1884 Sandviken, Bergen, Norway

d. 8 Jun 1971 Chicago, Cook, Illinois USA

**click on contract to enlarge for easier viewing on your computer**

p.s. If Johannes had left Norway a decade or so later his journey would have been less involved as Norwegian steamships left for the New World directly from Norway eliminating the need to first travel to Liverpool for a cross Atlantic trip.

One hundred years ago - The streets were NOT paved with gold.

This year marks 100 years since my grandmother Dagmar left her home in Norway for a new life in Chicago. It seems a good time to repeat a recollection I had written some years back telling  my grandmothers story as she had told to me. The story of her coming to Chicago.

In 1984 I traveled for the first time to Norway to visit my grandmother Dagmar. At that time I was not all that curious about my ancestry. Grandma, however, sat me down and showed me photos of the family prompting me to write the names on the back of the photos. She told me one story after another and my interest began to grow. The stories were of a large loving family. A family that had lived in the same beautiful area of Norway for as long as anyone could remember.  Looking around me Norway seemed like a lovely place to live. The most obvious question was...why? Why Grandma did you leave Norway? How did you come to that decision and what was it like? As well as I remember some 30 years later, this is the story she told me.

_____________________________________________

"It was not my idea but Paul's. When we were young Norway was not how it is today. People were poor and life was hard. For decades already many Norwegians were leaving for America where they said: "the streets were paved with gold". Letters arrived often, from those who had left, bragging how well they were now doing, sending photo postcards of their smiling well-dressed families posing in front of their home or with their new car.  Paul and I were never foolish enough to believe that the streets were actually gold but we were young, hopeful and it seemed like a good adventure. Paul was totally swept up in the America fever and I was totally swept up by Paul. Our courtship was pretty quick. I had broken up with my boyfriend and stormed off to Oslo. Paul, who was my boyfriends' friend, had always had his eye on me. With his friends' approval, he followed me to Oslo. Not as tall or good looking as my old boyfriend but he was such fun. He danced so well and told jokes and best of all..he thought I was the most beautiful girl in the world. I would have followed him to the ends of the earth." And then she laughed. "I guess that is exactly what I did!"

"We returned to Skien and married when I found myself pregnant with Gerd, my first baby. Paul talked constantly about America and saved money for the ticket. The plan was that he would go first and I would stay here, near my mother, with the baby. He would surely send for us. He had an aunt in Chicago who he would stay with. There were lots of good paying jobs in Chicago, they all said, He left when Gerd was 15 months old.

Paul sent money. It does not seem like much now but at the time it seemed like a fortune. I had some doubts and fears about leaving but Paul wrote letters and sent photos. He and his friends were dressed so fine. They must be rich in Chicago!

1923 Chicago, Illinois: Paul and friends 

At the end of 1923, the tickets for Gerd and myself came. Just a few weeks before our boat sailed Gerd died. She is buried in a paupers grave at Nordre Gravlund, I don't know exactly where. I had just one small suitcase and I took the train to Oslo. The agent helped me get on the boat. Paul had bought us cabin tickets! I did not know at the time but with cabin tickets, I did not have to go through the embarrassment of being looked at by the doctors on Ellis Island. I had some money that I hid under my skirt and although many others got very seasick, I was lucky and did not. I was afraid though. I thought I would never again see my mother and I worried what would happen if Paul was not there to pick me up. Right then I wished I was home and I didn't even care that I was about to be rich.

Chicago was not what I expected. Our apartment was in his aunts' basement. We had just a bed, a chair and a rug that the Salvation Army had given Paul. The pictures he had sent were taken in a studio. At the studio they rented the clothes, hats, and shoes just for the picture! Paul worked long hours in a Chicago brewery, fishing rats out of the vats of beer! I had to work too. I was so ashamed because married women never had work back home in Norway. I worked as a maid for a rich Danish family on the Gold Coast. I could not tell her I was married or that I had had a child or I would be fired. Chicago was loud, dangerous, mean and dirty. We lived in a neighborhood that was a mix of poor immigrants. At night the men would go to the Norwegian clubs where they would smoke, drink and do who knows what. Paul loved it in Chicago. I did not.

1928 Chicago, Illinois
Arnold and Grace Sevald

Time passed and I had your uncle and your mother.  In 1929 I took the children back with me to Norway. But it wasn't the same. It wasn't my home anymore. We went back to Paul and Chicago. Paul had grown tired of drinking and dancing and dedicated his life to God and our family. We had a nice apartment in a Norwegian neighborhood and Paul had a good job now.  We had made many friends. Chicago was our home now. And it was a good one."

_____________________________________________

I remember my grandmother as a bold tough and determined woman, a real force to be reckoned with. But once upon a time, a hundred years ago, I envision a poor scared young woman who had just buried her baby, standing alone on the deck of the Bergensfjord.  For two weeks she must have looked out across the vast ocean ahead of her clutching her small suitcase and praying her husband would be on the New York dock to meet her.

Thank you, Grandma,
I love you.

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

The Bergensfjord

 

An advertisement from 1923 promoting the Norwegian America Line. 1923 is the year my grandfather passed through Ellis Island on his way to becoming an American. He, and my grandmother in 1924, both arrived on the "Bergensfjord". It was a much nicer trip than the trip that the Norwegian immigrants of the 19th century took. What many don't realize is that many Norwegians, lonesome for their homeland and family often traveled back for a visit or more. The Norwegian Bureau of Statistics has estimated that about 25% of immigrants to North American in the years between 1881 and 1930 resettled back in Norway for good. My grandparents returned with their children 3 times on the Bergenfjord's sister ship, the S.S. "Stavangerfjord". My mother remembered "the ship was lovely but on one voyage the seas were rough and I spent most of the trip vomiting over the rail."

Ellis Island, revisited

My Norwegian grandparents, Paul and Dagmar Sevaldsen, came to the United States through Ellis Island. Paul arrived first on the "Bergensfjord", of the Scandinavian lines, in 1923. He was ferried from the ship to Ellis Island itself where he joined the many other hopeful immigrants to be questioned and inspected before entry. Perhaps knowing and experiencing what he did and not wanting his young wife to endure the same, he worked extra hard to send his wife and young daughter cabin tickets. Those in cabins were considered "cleaner, richer and less likely to be a health risk or financial burden to the country" and were cursively inspected on board the boat and disembarked directly from the boat to New York harbor. Grandmother was very proud of that!

Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, within the states of New York and New Jersey.  The first Ellis Island Immigrant Station opened on January 1, 1892,  The first arrival was Annie Moore, a 15-year-old girl from County Cork, Ireland, who’d come to the U.S. with her two brothers to join their parents in New York City. As the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 to 1954, it processed approximately 12 million immigrants to the United States through the Port of New York and New Jersey. The last immigrant came through Ellis Island in 1954 and he was Arne Peterssen, a 48-year-old merchant seaman from Narvik, Norway. A year after Peterssen was processed, the Feds declared Ellis Island as surplus property and all but abandoned it. The historic buildings, already in disrepair, kept deteriorating until a decade later, when President Lyndon B. Johnson incorporated the island into the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

Today, the island is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, a U.S. national monument,  that contains a museum  The north side of the island hosts a museum of immigration, accessible only by ferry. The south side of the island, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is abandoned but accessible to the public through guided tours. Below is a news article from my grandmother's home town in Norway. It details a visit made to the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island that was made by two of my grandmother's Norwegian nieces, who told the personal story of my grandparents arrival at Ellis Island.

Another blogger has written a well documented and interesting post, complete with pictures about Immigration to the United States that is well worth the read.  Check it out? 

Thank you, Maggie Land Blanck, 

I could not have done better! 
click↓

Immigration to America and the Immigrant