BLACK DEATH in Norway

My grandmother Dagmar was the last of our line to be born on the family farm, Øvald.
Øvald had lain vacant and bare since the Black Death decimated Norway. 
Her 7th great-grandmother, Maria Lukretia von Boeselager, a German immigrant, bought Øvald as a christening gift for her granddaughter, Sophia. 

I direct you to the website "Norwegian Genealogy and then some" and an interesting and informative article on the Black Death in Norway by Martin Roe Eidhammer.

click here→ THE BLACK DEATH (Svartedauden) in Norway

The blog NORWEGIAN GENEALOGY AND THEN SOME has many articles of interest should you, as I am, be interested in our Norwegian family history, 

Check it out as I highly recommend,

Here also is my post on Øvald → Dagmar's Ancestral Home - Øvald

200th Anniversary of Norwegian Immigration to America

 The journey began on July 4, 1825, when 52 passengers set sail from Stavanger aboard the sloop Restauration, seeking religious freedom, economic opportunity, and a new life in North America

One hundred years ago my Norwegian grandparents came to America.  Two hundred years ago came the first Norwegians. Read about it in a favorite blog of mine

                                      NORWEGIAN GENEALOGY AND THEN SOME

Check out also other interesting posts the author, Martin Roe, has blogged. A great help especially to beginning Norwegian genealogists.

Thank you Martin!

For The Love of Norway: Vesterheim

  Click here → For the Love of Norway: Vesterheim

Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Heritage Center, in Bluff County of Northeast Iowa at Decorah, explores the immigrant experience and keeps alive Norwegian folk-art traditions.

Welcome to the FEICK KRÄNZLE KÄLLMAN SEVALD family tree

My family tree on Ancestry.com is now a "public" tree. What that means is that anyone with an Ancestry.com account may get one of those "shaky leaves" that points them to my tree. I have been working on my ancestry ever since the mid 90's.  I have put lots of work into it and previously kept my tree private for a few "reasons" that I no longer feel are valid. I am ashamed to say I was selfishly motivated. I was family hoarding.

Notice the word "my" comes up again and again. Early on, a remote (very remote) relative on one of MY grandparents lines contacted me with a request to see MY tree. Next thing I see is that he attached MY entire tree on to his, including the lines of MY other 3 grandparents who were in no way even remotely related to him. Okay, then I decided I only want "close" relatives whose names I actually recognize to look at MY tree. Here comes the wife of a second cousin with a request to share information. I was particularly excited as I knew little of this particular line. That person promptly downloaded every photo I had and gave in return nada, bupkis, nothing, zilch. As I invited other family members to MY tree I began to notice MY photos on other trees that had been downloaded to someones computer and then uploaded to Ancestry without MY name as the contributor. Worse still a photo of MY grandmother in the gallery of  another persons grandmother! Didn't they understand the work I had put into MY tree? Relatives who download a few photos and never again showed one ounce of interest? I didn't understand those people.

Two truths have finally made their way into MY brain.

1. This is not just MY family.
Although for security reasons I will not post photos of the living, particularly children, nor their personal information, that beautiful photo of Grandma as a young girl? It belongs to me but equally to her many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, nieces nephews etc. etc. and the many more yet to be born who will see her photo and feel a sense of belonging to that beautiful, young, possibly frightened, immigrant girl who sent her photo home to the family she missed in Sweden.

2. I love family history!
I mean it is more than just a hobby, it is a passion with me. Digging through old books, histories, internet sights, archives, figuring out old documents in old fashioned script, illegible hand-writing and foreign languages. Love it, love it, love it. Not everyone does. I have a good friend with a minor in art history. We traveled together to Europe and I truly appreciated the information she told me as we visited the The Hague museums in Amsterdam. But that's enough for me.  Some family want a couple of photos and a brief look at the tree findings and that's enough for them. Same thing right? and that's okay.

 Sooo...Welcome to the Feick Kränzle Kallman Sevald family tree. Wouldn't it be cool if we're related?

***Wish to see the tree? Check out the invitation at the bottom of this blog***

p.s. June 2023 - So here I go reversing myself again! My tree is going "private" once more. Yes, an ancestor of mine may be an ancestor of yours. I am ALWAYS willing to share information, stories, photos etc. with family but... I have worked too hard to have my work strewn indiscriminantly across Ancestry.com. Family? Send me a message (see instruction below) and I will send you a link to my tree.

A New Year and New Cousins! The Gundersen Family Genealogy Group on Facebook

2017 ended on a great note.

I never cared a lot for Facebook. Who cares where a remote acquaintance is at this very moment or what they had for dinner or who they voted for. I finally hopped on board when I found out I could do so incognito and just sign up for groups that were helpful to me in my family history pursuits. They were very helpful and that was reason enough to join Facebook.

One day I was found out! Good thing too. A second cousin in Norway sent a friend request. How could I refuse? Well, this cousin had joined me to a Facebook genealogy page for the descendants of my Norwegian great grandparents. Now I was out there I guess and you know what? Within 48 hours I had oodles of more cousins! Cousins who all were thrilled to share old family photos and memories. This was particularly precious to me.  I was 7 when my great grandmother died and 10 when my great grandfather passed yet I had never met them. Of the seven children of my great grandparents only my grandmother had emigrated to the US. All these cousins had memories and photos of the great grandparents I had never met. Plus much more.

How great was that? Should anyone ask me now what I think about using Facebook for Genealogy? 

Some helpful sites

• Using Facebook to grow your family tree.

• How to use Facebook for family history

• Social Networking for Genealogy >> Facebook

• Using Facebook for Genealogy

Family History Month, how I began my family history journey

October is Family History Month. Family History/Genealogy is a very popular hobby right now. I am guessing that it is a hobby mainly of those of us who are older, the huge amount of baby boomers who have seen the passing of grandparents and parents and are now facing their own mortality. Who are we and where did we come from? 

I remember as a child wanting to think of myself as strictly American. I am ashamed now to say I was a bit embarrassed of the thick accents, and what I thought friends would perceive as strange ways, foods, clothing and culture of my grandparents. Why did we not question Grandpa and Grandma? We only now appreciate the answers and knowledge they could have given us if we had only thought to ask before they left us.

Grandma Sevald. She was my reason and the one who spurred my interest in family history. My maternal grandmother, Dagmar Gundersen Sevald, left Oslo, Norway on the ship Bergensfjord in 1924. She landed two weeks later at Ellis Island where my grandfather, who had emigrated the year before, was there to meet her. She and my grandfather Paul raised a family and lived 40+ years in Chicago. After my grandfathers death she returned to live in Norway but would periodically return to Chicago to visit. After the death of my mother and uncle (her only children) I realized she was now elderly and most likely would not return. So I visited her in Norway three times. We did some sightseeing and visited some relatives but mainly we talked and talked. She told me stories of her life and her family. We looked at her photos, identifying them on the backside. She prompted me to write names, dates and places she remembered. After she passed, a cousin sent me a box that contained those photos and memories. I wasn't sure how to honor her memory or the memories/photos/stories she had entrusted to me. A local librarian first introduced me to building a family tree and loaned me a computer program to organize my box of Grandma's memorabilia. It was 1992 and I was on my way. 

I have since branched out to explore my paternal Swedish ancestry and the ancestry of my German born husband but it all began with and is dedicated to Grandma.  This is the dedication which I will always leave at the top of this blog.

Dedicated to Dagmar

Long ago I read that each of us will have, on average, ten great grandchlldren. 

Only two of those great grandchildren will even know what our name was.

She was born on a small farm in Eidanger, Norway on which her family had been crofter's since the mid 1600's. She had only a fifth grade education after which she worked as a cook on her father's boat. She lost her first true love and married a man on the rebound "because he could dance and he had a car". Her husband's dream was "Amerika". He left for America, worked hard and sent home money and two pre-paid tickets for his young family to join him. She buried her infant daughter in a paupers grave and two weeks later took a three hour train ride alone to Kristiania where she boarded a boat for America. She expected never to see her mother, father, brothers or sisters again. She arrived almost two weeks later at Ellis Island, New York. She spoke no English. She prayed that her husband would be there when she arrived. She had twenty five dollars pinned to her underskirts, one small suitcase, a train ticket and a tag tied to her coat that read "Chicago".

I want her descendants to know her name and more importantly, who she was.

She was Dagmar Gundersen Sevald from Skien, Telemark, Norway.

Dagmar, was my mother's mother. She had black curly hair and brown laughing eyes. She was not very tall but amply built. A joyous, positive woman of strong faith and spirit who never passed up a chance to tell you exactly what she thought or believed. She made me feel safe, special and loved. Before she died I visited her, living again in her beloved Norway, three times. She shared with me the stories and pictures of her life and that of our family. My interest in family history and genealogy had begun. I have dedicated all my family research to her. "Don't forget who you are" she would say. Don't worry Grandma, I won't.

Grandma, the way I remember her best.

My "Brick Wall" - great great great grandfather Nils Jensen

Everyone researching their family history has a "brick wall". That ancestor that brings your research to a dead end. For me that ancestor is my 3X great grandfather Nils Jensen.
Much is available about Nils and his wife Johanne and their lives on the family farm Øvald. An Eidanger bygdebok (local farm history book) mentions them as famous for their entertaining on the Eidanger fjord. This is an etching of Nils and Johanne.

The rights to the farm Øvald came through Johanne's father Ole Gundersen. The first time we hear of Nils is in the Norwegian Eidanger church parish record of their marriage. The record although in Norwegian and over 150 years old is very legible and even I as an American not versed in Norwegian can read quite clearly his name (Nils Jensen) and the date of his birth (1812) and the name of his father (Jens Hansen). The record also clearly states that Nils was born in Bamble. The 1865 Norwegian National Census states Porsgrunn and bygdeboken states the same. And that is where it ends. Before his marriage to Johanne, Nils and his father Jens are nowhere to be found. I have searched the 1801 census extensively for Jens and scoured the Bamble, Porsgrunn (and surrounding area) parish birth records in a 10 year window for the birth of Nils.......................no luck. Did the marriage record of Johanne and Nils state the wrong patronymic for his father Jens? I can't believe Ole would give his wife in marriage to someone who just showed up in town, someone without family and history?

WHERE DID YOU COME FROM NILS??????

I GIVE UP! 

Well, for now anyway, but I have quit before and as the Terminator said "I'll be back".

chip chip chip chip chip....someday, somehow, someway I will find you Nils and Jens. Just you wait and see.

Facebook for Genealogy

For the longest time you couldn't even speak to me about Facebook without getting a furious lecture or at the very least a sour look on the face from me. I could care less what you had for breakfast, where you are this very instant, who you are voting for, or even less see picture #48 that you took of yourself. Puhleese. I have know friendships ruined and otherwise normal? people wasting hours exercising nothing but their index finger flicking from friend? to friend? Okay, who has 576 friends anyway?

I WAS WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!  


Oh, I know that silly stuff still goes on but I have found Facebook invaluable in my Norwegian genealogy searches. There are many genealogy groups out there. Technical, organizational, how-to groups and groups specific to the country you are researching. The members are from all over, including the country you are searching in. Have you ever tried to "Google Translate" a Norwegian parish, birth, death or marriage record? Sometimes the results are hilarious but often I was better off just using my own "genealogical Norwegian" skills to figure out what it says. There are some wonderful people out there who are proficient at reading old Norwegian/Danish or the faint, sloppy, misspelled, tiny handwriting of an overworked 18th century priest. I have "liked" many groups and become a part of them but I actually have very few "friends" and I use a high privacy setting. I feel it avoids those who want to share their selfies or pictures of their dog dressed for Halloween without hurting their feelings. Check it out, you won't be disappointed. Don't forget to look for other genealogical gem pages. Ancestral towns may have their own facebook page. Sons of Norway pages. Genealogical Society pages. Surname pages. Use your imagination and just start searching.

Katharine R. Willson, a genealogist, has a free pdf of 5,500+ links to Facebook Genealogy groups
SOCIAL MEDIA GENEALOGY   Thank you Katharine!

Word of advice. Keep your requests or questions brief. Do as much of the initial footwork as you can and provide a clear jpg or link to your item in question. Don't expect someone to do genealogical work for you. These groups are mainly people helping people. Be kind. Kind to those who help you, and kind to "newbies" whose questions may be simplistic, or "silly". We were all there once and don't want to discourage anyone from the enjoyable and satisfying hobby of family history. You never know but one day that "newbie" may "find" your elusive great great grandma Solveig.


Happy hunting!
Ranae

Norwegian Naming Practices- there IS a method to the madness

Last week I visited a cousin I had not been in contact with for many years. We were born just two months apart and our families were close when we were children but life intervened. I happened to speak with his wife about my interest in genealogy and she offered sharing some family photos.  She expressed an interest in her family history and mentioned her grandmothers name was Jeanette Hanson. Get out of here! That's a Scandinavian name! And I was off again on the family ancestry hunt.

The search for the ancestry of her grandmother Jeanette Hanson was the perfect example of the double edged sword of Norwegian naming practices. I mean how great is it that the women of Norway kept their maiden name? Yet the patronymic names with the addition of the farm name? which could change as they moved?

The great influx of Norwegian Immigrants to America came at a time when Norwegian naming practices were in flux. Immigrants arrived in America with their patronymic name as a surname, or their fathers patronymic name as a surname, or their farm name as a surname, or a name a relative already in America had adopted as a surname, or actually they could call themselves just about anything they fancied. And spelling? Whoa. Traditionally the patronymic is sen in Danish and Norwegian and son in Sweden, but in America?

As for Jeanette Hanson? She was Norwegian! or half anyway. We had another Norwegian in our family! Her Chicago birth certificate listed Harry Hanson as her father and this was confirmed by census records. Harry Hanson's Chicago death listed his father as Peter Hanson of Skien Norway. Census records also confirmed Harry and Peters relationship. In a Norwegian census I found Peter using his fathers patronymic of Pedersen as a surname but when he emigrated to America he used his own, Hansen, which in America morphed to Hanson. Back in Norway by 1900 the remainder of his family began to use the farm name as their surname. Jeanettes cousins in Norway were now known not as Hansen or Pedersen but Kamphaug!

Confusing? Yes but there is some method to the madness. There are some really good explanations on the web of Norwegian naming but I find this one to be the best. Check it out, if you are lucky enough to have had a Norwegian ancestor!
                                           
                                                   NORWEGIAN NAMES


- Ranae

Norwegian Heritage Center: LIVSREISE (Life's Journey)

Last May I attended the Syttende Mai (Norwegian Constitution Day) festivities in Stoughton Wisconsin. My German-born husband I know would have taken me but I also know he would not have enjoyed it, nor would I have enjoyed it as fully as I did when I went with a new-found friend also of Norwegian ancestry.  Get out of here, it was a riot! I for sure will go next year and tell you about it but for now you must know about THE BEST.

I went to the grand opening of the Norwegian Heritage Center: LIVSREISE (Life's Journey) newly built in Stoughton, Wisconsin. Stoughton was settled by Norwegians who came there at the end of the 19th century. They have a wonderful interactive display of what the journey must have been like. Although my Norwegian family arrived a bit later, during the 1920's and landed in Chicago, much of what they offered was of great interest to me. They also had a bank of computers in a Genealogy Center. It operates in conjunction with the Norwegian American Genealogical Center and Naeseth Library with direct access to their databases. Free no less! You don't see that very often.

Even if you are, like me, 1-2 hours ride away, check it out, it is SO WELL WORTH THE RIDE.

click► LIVSREISE (Life's Journey) Norwegian Heritage Center

277 W. Main Street Stoughton, Wisconsin 53589

T: (608) 873-7567  E: Marg@norwegianheritagecenter.org 

-Ranae