A Happy Family - Paul and Dagmar Sevald

I read somewhere that only those from happy families want to look into their family history/genealogy. I don't know if that is true or not but in the twenty years I have been involved in investigating my own family history I am proud of what I have found. 

 

A family member in Norway recently made this photo available to me. My grandparents Paul and Dagmar Sevald. They are the first generation of my family in the U.S.  My family history journey began with them. Hard working, salt of the earth, joy filled people who loved God and their family.  As my research branched out I found more and more of the same. Many people go into family history convinced of and to prove that they are descended from or related to someone famous or infamous, exciting, daring, brilliant, accomplished etc. etc. etc. I found no such surprises.  I have traced my family in all lines back many generations and have found no one considered extraordinary. No one  "rich"; my ancestors were generally poor tenant farmers, sailors and tradesmen. No one smart; only some in my own generation ever finished college, my ancestors mainly were literate but had a very basic education. No one famous or infamous; I have not yet found any criminals. Am I disappointed? Heck, no. I discovered my family lived through poverty, illness, war, tragedy and still they went on. Ever loyal to their faith and family. Yes, I come from a happy family. And THAT IS extraordinary.

Next Monday is Christmas Day and I will be busy making new happy family memories. 

until next year!

Nils Gundersen Øvald

Nils Gundersen Øvald 1875-1961 was my great grandfather. The father of my grandmother Dagmar, he was my only great grandfather still living when I was born. I was nine years old when he died, old enough to have remembered him but unfortunately I never knew him because he lived in Norway and I in Chicago. I recently was invited to a facebook group, "Gundersen Family Genealogy Group" which was started by a second cousin in Norway. Many of the grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren of Nils post photos and tell stories about Nils on Facebook. Many of those photos I had never seen and I have to admit a twinge of jealousy that I did not know him as they did. Just the fact that so many of his progeny still desire to get together and swap stories and photos of him, says something good about the man.

Nils was born in Eidanger, Telemark, Norway which was a small farming village which has long since been absorbed into the larger community of Porsgrund, Norway. His father was a poor crofter on the small Øvald* farm that had been run by his family since the mid 1600's. He was one of ten children. His mother died when he was just 11 after the birth of his youngest brother Karl Oscar.

Nils began his adult life, as many young men in Norway did at the time, as a sailor. Working up the ranks while raising his young family of 3 boys and 4 girls he eventually became a captain of a Union company boat on the Telemarken Canal. His three sons followed in his footsteps as sailors. He built a home for his family in Skien. A home now owned and lived in by one of his grandsons.

In photos he always appears well dressed and distinguished, back straight, looking you right in the eye, hand on hip. A few of the cousins referred to him as "the boss" but in an affectionate way.  Of course, I realize that if his daughter, my grandmother, had not emigrated to America I would not have even been born. Still, I wish that I too had known the man. Documents, photos and family stories must suffice to tell me who was Nils Gundersen Øvald, my great grandfather.

my great grandfather

Nils Gundersen Øvald

b. 13 Sep 1875 Eidanger, Telemark, Norway

d. 02 Feb 1961 Skien, Telemark, Norway

double click on photos to enlarge for easier viewing

*the story of the family farm Övald can be found HERE

Christmas with the Andersons

 Christmas is now a few weeks off and today 

I wish to share a memory that I wrote about before. 

On my Swedish family blog I wrote this last year. 

A Christmas memory that returns to me with joy each year about this time.

Christmas with the Andersons - Love and Lutefisk in 1961

It's funny how some things or experiences you have as a child really stay with you.  A treasured memory of mine was our yearly lutefisk Christmas with the Andersons. Al, Mr. Anderson, was a good lifelong friend of my Dad's. He had known him from childhood. I think their parents even had been friends. He and his wife Ruth were wonderful people. Each year, sometime during the Christmas season, our family would go to their home for a lutefisk dinner. I never did like the lutefisk but Mrs. Anderson's meatballs were so so good. Mr. Anderson and my Dad would laugh over people they knew in their childhood, like "Snusbox Benson" and tell stories to each other in Swedish laughing all the while.

Their Chicago home was small and simple but oh so welcoming and comforting that I really treasured those visits. They had a dog named Patsy. After my kids were born I insisted on a Springer Spaniel just hoping it would be like that great pup that laid under the Andersons end table. My Dad was a bit older than my Mom and the Andersons had married young so their children were already teens when we were very young so I don't remember much interaction with them. Except, their son Len had a foosball table! How rich was that I thought! and they set it up right in the living room just for us! And even better, a Lionel train that really smoked and a station master that came out with each circle of the Christmas tree! You know that I HAD to buy that same station master for my Lionel. My husband and I built a beautiful Christmas train layout but that station master is the favorite of my grandkids as it was for me. For some unknown reason they call him "Bob".

The Christmas of 1961, now over a half century ago, is one that stands out above the rest. The Andersons, after prayers, lutefisk, Swedish jokes and reminiscing gave us the best presents ever. That year I remember in particular because my sister and I got Storybook Shirley Temple Dolls. She got Shirley Temple dressed as Little Bo Peep and I got Red Riding Hood. I couldn't believe it!   Christmas with the Andersons, a yearly treat even if we did have to "just try" the Lutefisk.

 playing foosball while Mrs. Anderson reads to my little brother
 a Christmas with the Anderson's in the early 60's

Great Grandmother - Anne Marie Sevaldsen

Anne Marie Høyset 1871-1909

This lovely lady is my great grandmother, Anne Marie. This is the only close up photo I have of her. She was the mother of my maternal grandfather Paul. He was her firstborn. I never knew her, nor did my mother and I don't recall my grandfather ever speaking of her. She died young, as many women did back in the day, during the birth of her seventh child.  I do think that her life as a missionary wife was difficult. They moved often, their children born in all different areas of Norway and they most likely were poor. Was her hair red curly and unmanageable as mine? It appears so and I would wish it so. I would also like to think she was kind. Her eyes look kind don't they? My grandfather was a very kind and loving person. Perhaps it was she that passed that trait to him?

my great grandmother

Anne Marie Pedersdatter-Høyset Sevaldsen

b: 31 Mar 1871 Solum, Telemark, Norway

d: 14 Apr 1909  Hadsel, Nordland, Norway

Dad was a WWII Veteran and he never talked about it.

In a few days is Veteran's Day. We honor those men and women who answered the call of defending our country. My father Melvin, was a veteran. A World War II veteran and he never talked about it.

As a child I saw this picture of him in uniform, displayed proudly in my grandmother's home. I asked him if he had been in the war and he replied only that yes, he had been in World War II and he had been in the Army. Other than that, he never talked about it.

I know that he received Christmas cards and periodically long letters from men he had served with and even visited Army buddies on occasion. However he always went alone, never taking my mom or we kids with him. He never talked about it.

AP photo, now owned and a copy may be purchased from www.realwarphotos.com

In the late 80's I came across this AP photo in the National Enquirer. It was titled"Ghosts haunt Omaha Beach" with some typical bogus National Enquirer story of people seeing ghosts of the soldiers that died on D-Day invading Europe. The photo however distinctly showed my father in the foreground! I took the paper to him and his response was "hummm, looks like me, we came off a landing craft like that into the water, I had a helmet with a cross on it like that and carried the exact same supplies." The photo prompted him to also identify other men by name. He explained that he did indeed land on Omaha Beach but not on D-Day. He was part of the reinforcements. I questioned him more. It seems that he was more than willing to defend his country but didn't feel he could ever find it in himself to shoot someone for any reason. His helmet with the cross indicated that they made him a medic.  "You didn't believe you could shoot an enemy?" I asked him incredulously. "How long did that last?" He thought for awhile and with a small sad smile said, "Halfway up the beach". I remember questioning him further about the war, just general questions, and he rebuffed me with "you don't need to know about those sort of things." He never talked about it again.

After his death I found in his dresser quite a bit of WWII memorabilia. Photos of him and other soldiers in boot camp and somewhere in Europe, his discharge papers, draft notice and other memorabilia. Those photos were never displayed or in an album and that was the first time I had ever seen them.

He had never talked about it.

After the death of my grandmother I became interested in my family history. The movie "Saving Private Ryan" was out and I wondered again what part my Dad had in the war. I pulled out Dad's discharge papers and did some internet sleuthing. He was in the 3rd Armored division, Spearhead unit that along with others fought their way from the beaches of France, cold, hungry and often with inadequate supplies all the way to Berlin. His particular unit, the anti-tank company, 423rd infantry, had high casualties. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge where 19,000 American boys died in that battle alone. His unit had liberated a concentration camp. He never talked about it.

from the pamphlet (passed by censor for mailing home)
Spearheading with the 3rd Armored Division, in the Bulge, Duren-Cologne, The Ruhr Pocket, East to the Elbe

Dad was part of what we now call the "Greatest Generation:" Those men and women, out of duty and love of country went when called during WWII. They saw lots and did what they had to do. They saw no need to glory in it.  Although I am sure what they experienced, saw and were forced to do must have haunted them, they did what they had to do, for their country, for their family, for their children.  They bore the burden of those memories to protect us. "Those are things you don't need to know about." 

He never talked about it.

Thank you Dad,

November 11 and every day

Remember all of those men and women who served. 

They did what they had to do

...for our country...for our families...for our children.

HONOR OUR VETERANS

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

The love story of Sebastian Heußler and Maria von Boeselager, my ninth great grandparents

My maternal grandmother came from a small area in south eastern Norway where her ancestors were recorded living for generation upon generation. They lived and worked the farm Øvald in Eidanger, Telemark for hundreds of years. However a German couple once long ago became a part of our Norwegian family!

In past blogs I told of how my grandmother claimed to be descended from the German noblewoman Maria Lukretia von Boeselager. That blog post can be found HERE. Maria came to Norway as a widow. This is the story of her husband, Sebastian Heußler, my ninth great grandfather.

Sebastian Heußler was from a family of Bookprinters in Nürnberg, he was the oldest son of Leonhard Heußler. Not much is known about his youth other than that he apprenticed in the family trade and in 1599 was working as a typesetter. Upon the death of his father Leonhard in 1597, and with perhaps as many as twelve family members to care for, Sebastian took over the family business. He was married in August of 1601, to Sabina Prünsterer, marriage being a requirement to become a Master in the Guild. He was twenty years old, his occupation a book printer. In 1603 he paid 1000 Guldens for a House in the nailmakers alley, where he set up shop for himself. In the official Guild book records he was recorded as a Bookprinter from the years 1601-1603, and 1606-1607. He printed additionally, news items, devotional booklets and items for the church in Nürnberg. 1607 ended Sebastian's occupation as a Bookprinter, His name disappeared from Nürnberg Guild Books.

Since a youth he had been interested in, "the Knightly Arts of Fencing" (as Sebastian described it). Fencing was less appreciated and practiced in Germany, so he traveled in 1604/05, and from 1608 on Sebastian was in Italy, France, England and the Netherlands and took lessons from famous Fencing masters. He not only increased his skills of fencing but used his knowledge of book binding to author and publish books in Nuremberg on the theory and skill of fencing, along with engraver Gabriel Weyer (1576-1632), who drew the different fencing images. He became a fencing master of the rapier sword and dagger. The books and fencing style of the fencing master Sebastian Heußler are in use even today.

Sebastian Heußler is described as both a Kriegsmann (man-at-arms) and monatsreiter ("month-rider"), which seems to indicate that like many fencing masters he supported himself as a mercenary. Sebastian Heußler, was a major in the Royal army of Christian IV, king of Denmark-Norway. He likely held the elite position of color guard in his unit,as he would later also author a book on the art of flag-waving.

After 1608 it seems that he did not stay in Nuremberg. He moved his wife to a new home in 1615, but in 1617 when the old home was sold, his wife Sabina negotiated the deal in his absence. Sabina, died in 1628.

**********

Maria had been born in 1609 in Honeburg close to Osnabrück in Niedersachsen, Germany. The youngest daughter of Wolfgang von Boeselager and Anna von Kerssenbrock she grew up in noble surroundings. Around 1630 the young Maria gave birth to Sebastian's daughter. Sebastian at the time was close to 50 years old. It was written that Maria was expelled by her family in Germany. It is easy to assume that a child born by a single mother, which she most likely was, was not particularly appreciated by the elite family von Boeselager. The fact that the father, Sebastian Heussler, was 28 years older probably made it worse for Maria. Her brother-in-law, Mathias von Buchwald, married to the sister Heilwig (born 1606), wrote to Maria's father, not even having heard about the wedding; "er ist schir ein alter mann" (he is already an old man).Sebastian and Maria did perhaps have a second daughter before he died. We do know that after his death Maria lived as the widow of Sebastian in Copenhagen. Being expelled from her family she took (or stole?) some family monies and moved to Grenland Norway about 1650 bringing her daughter/s with her. There in Eidanger she found a new home and a new husband.

Her eldest daughter, whose name unfortunately is not known to us, married the vicar of the church in Eidanger, Jon (Johannes) Lauritsson Theiste. Their daughter Sophie was given a christening gift by her grandmother Maria. That gift was the family farm Øvald. The same farm on which my grandmother, seven generations later, was born in 1900.

my ninth great grandparents

Sebastian Heußler

1581-1647

Maria Lukretia von Boeselager

1609-1685

→unknown Pedersdatter→Sophia Jansdatter→Jørgen Bendtzsøn→Malene Jørgensdatter→Ole Gundersen→Johanne Elizabeth Olsdatter→Gunder Andreas Nilsen→Niels Gundersen→Dagmar Gundersen→Grace Gunhild Sevald→ME!

***abundant thanks to my second cousin once removed, Jørn Erik Øvald. He is an educator and amateur genealogist, who has researched and continues to study our German connection, freely sharing his many findings with the family.***