This week's theme had me stumped until I decided to see which ancestor lived closest to the middle of North America since all recent generations of my family have been widely scattered throughout the United States and Canada. There seems to be a bit of disagreement as to exactly where that is, but it is generally accepted as being in North Dakota. I did have ancestors in North Dakota, as it turns out, and other distant relatives living there now, including a second cousin once removed who farms near the area thought to be the "middle". Although we'd only met them previously one time at a family reunion in 2000, we had a most enjoyable visit on our road trip to view the solar eclipse in the summer of 2017.
That got me thinking about the other highlight of our trip through North Dakota: the Arne Brekke Collection in the Chester Fritz Library at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. For decades, the pinnacle of my wish list of resources for review was the Norwegian bygdebøker for the regions in Norway where many of my ancestors originated. These books were put together over one hundred years ago by respected Norwegian historians to detail farm and family life; they contain a wealth of genealogical information about individual families and, along with census and church book records, form the backbone for Norwegian family history research. Having tried unsuccessfully to obtain any of these treasured books on inter-library loan, and not having any repositories near my home on the west coast of Canada, I had almost despaired of ever getting my hands on any of these.
Our proposed route to Grand Island, Nebraska for viewing of the solar eclipse provided an ideal opportunity for a day at the Chester Fritz Library, one of the best homes for a vast collection of bygebøker. I knew that one single day would not really be enough but thought that my husband could easily find ways to entertain himself for a day and that, with careful planning, I could make significant inroads with my wish list.
The website for the Chester Fritz Library makes it easy to plan a visit. They provide details of the farm books they have in their collection enabling a visitor to make note of call numbers and relevant farm names. I prepared a binder with details of the books I hoped to find, the farms, the relevant ancestral names and dates. I also communicated with the librarian in advance to be sure they were open during the summer and to let them know which day I would be there. I did bring along my laptop with my genealogical database in case it was needed, but I found my binder of material to be quite adequate for my purposes. I also brought along memory sticks for anything I was able to scan and save from the books.
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| University of North Dakota - Chester Fritz Library |
17 August 2017 dawned bright and clear, an auspicious sign. My husband dropped me off at the university just after its 8 A.M. opening. The librarians were most helpful in getting me oriented with the library layout and their user-friendly and efficient scanning equipment. As the only member of the public visiting the library that day, I had full run of the stacks and scanner.
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| Inside the Chester Fritz Library Arne Brekke Collection |
It was very easy to find the books, but more difficult to ensure I was finding all the relevant farms for my families. (My father's came from Nordland, Oppland and Buskerud counties and my mother's from Buskerud and Telemark. Within each county there were many relevant farms and families. We are not talking about a single family here, but dozens!) I could see the route ahead of me: it was going to be a full marathon.
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| In the middle of the fun - stacks of bygdebøker and some of my prepared family tree background |
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| My husband captured this shot of the happy researcher when he picked me up at closing time |
Were there farms and families that I missed? Yes, absolutely. I continue to make discoveries that would have entailed scanning other pages. But I have a lot of material to show for my one day well spent.
Of course the books are in Norwegian and, although I've learned the basics, I do not have the depth of linguistic skill to understand the complexities without resorting to dictionaries and online translators with their often rather bizarre results. Part of the problem is the changes to the Norwegian language over the years since the records were created. Here are a couple of examples of results I've obtained for other Norwegian ancestors with Google Translate: "In 1746 Kristoffer made an agreement with Trond Hamre about the change of power, but Trond had the right to renegotiate because they were drowning when they made an agreement in a bar of beer at Hamre." And another: "Knut carried the storage team in 1591. In 1599 he got into the place of the fox for a butcher's sauce. Marit, who used to be in 1612, might have liked Knut, and Herbrand might be the son." Sometimes one can hazard a guess, but at other times it's just plain bewildering!
Trying to pinpoint a "middle" of Norway for selecting a particular ancestor for this week's story is a bit tricky because of Norway's shape. I randomly selected an area from the interior of the southern bulb of Norway: Vang in Oppland.
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| Google Earth Image - Vang is marked with the red pin |
The bygedbok for Valdres, Oppland included my Dad's paternal grandmother Anna Ericksdatter Elton's family in Vang. Surely something could be found relating to a "middle" in this family! Anna Elton's farmor (the Norwegian name for the grandmother who is the father's mother - as opposed to a mormor who is the mother's mother; such a useful distinction!) was a woman named Tora Iversdatter Kjerstein. Already we are talking about 2 farm books here: Elton (Eltun) and Kjerstein. (You can see how this multiplied into a full marathon, can't you?)
One must go from the general genealogy found in the bygdebok to the official kirkebøker for the actual records. Tora was probably born in July 1794 on the Kjerstein farm since she was baptized 20 July of that year at Vang, Valdres, Oppland.
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| Baptism record in the Vang kirkebøker for 1794, p. 427 |
Tora was confirmed into the state Lutheran church in 1809 and married Andris Erikson Elton (often spelled Eltun) on 6 July 1815 at Øye Kirke. The church was about a mile from the Eltun farm land. She was 21 and her groom 29.
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Photo courtesy John Erling Blad Wikimedia Commons |
Andris "gjorde soldatteneste" according to page 269 of the Valdres bygdebok; Google translates this as "did the soldier thing"! He had been running the Nordigarden farm at Eltun since 1806 and was probably well set up to start his own family.
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| 6 July 1815 marriage record of Andris and Tora from the Vang kirkebøker, p.194 |
Tora and Andris, like her parents, had a family of 11 children, many of whom died in childhood. Their oldest was Erick Anderson Elton, my 2X great grandfather. In 1838, his father turned over Elton farm to Erick, who ran it until 1853 when he sold to emigrate to America,
Tora predeceased Andris by about 8 years; she died 31 March 1861 and was buried 9 April at Vang, Oppland, Norway.
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| Death and burial records for Tora Iversdatter at age 67, Vang kirkebøker for 1861, p.172 |
The bygdebok listing for Tora's family enabled finding the records that give us a bit of a picture of her life. It would be nice to know more about her, of course. What were her skills? What did she love doing? Did she have any eccentricities? What sort of woman was she, this middle daughter who survived?
Resources:
- Valdres Bygedbok I, Del A, Skriftstyrar Ivar Aars, Gardar og Slekter i Vang av Anders Frøhom, Valdres Bygdeboks Forlag
- Vang, Oppland Kirkebok, LDS microfilm 125645 and available online through the Norwegian Digital Archives.
- Valdres Samband Genealogical Database (available to Valdres Samband members online) is another resource for the bygdebok for Vang.
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