As tributes were made to Norway for the Centennial of their Independence in 2005, an interesting question comes to mind. How many Americans are there with Norwegian Roots?
Norwegian Ancestry will be a featured topic in October of this year with a Symposium “Norwegian Heritage in the United States: Resources and the Research Experience” to be held in Grand Forks, North Dakota on October 10 - 11 preceding the annual Nørskfest which is held in Minot, ND October 11 – 15. It is hoped that persons interested in Norwegian Heritage will be able to attend both events. They plan to invite prominent genealogists from Norway and America as Symposium speakers and propose active participation by Bygdelag and other ethnic organizations.
In 1980 Librarian Colleen Oihus and Associate Professor Arne Brekke began collecting bygdebøker (genealogy books for various areas in Norway to assist those doing family histories). This collection is located at the Chester Fritz Library at the University of North Dakota. Through the efforts of many people in Norway and America – the library totals have now reached 1000 bygdebøker. In celebration of this feat and the 25th Anniversary of the collection the Library has decided to hold this Symposium on Norwegian Heritage co-hosted with the University Department of Conferences and Nordic Initiative, an organization of volunteers promoting Nordic Heritage, Research and Scandinavian Studies at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. For updated information check www.nordicinitiative.com
Other events celebrating Norway’s Centennial will be posted on the website www.norway.com The Norwegian/American Foundation was formed in 2001 as a non-profit with the vision of furthering cooperation among all Norwegian American organizations and strengthening the ties between Norway and people throughout North America, who through ancestry and interest have a special relationship with Norway.
The Norwegian/American Foundation challenges the 900 Norwegian organizations and institutions to hold 1000 celebrations in America to make the Centennial Celebration in 2005 the most widely celebrated Norwegian Anniversary in modern times.
The major Norwegian Emigration began in 1825 with the Sloop “Restauration”. As more people in Norway learned about America and the land available, a wave of emigration began that continued for more than a century. Over 850,000 Norwegians came to America. There are more Norwegian/Americans in the United States and Canada today than the total population of Norway, but with a large variation in statistics, a number of genealogists would like to determine a more accurate number. Many Americans consider themselves 100% Norwegian, but even among those with a lower percentage of Norwegian roots, all Norwegian Americans should be proud of their Norwegian Heritage.
From the original immigrants – some family histories show 12 or more generations of growth in America. A large percentage of the first few generations married other Norwegians, but with increased mobility in our society, there are now less Americans that are full blooded Norwegian. From the census records in 2000 there are over four million Americans that consider themselves of Norwegian descent. America has become a “Melting Pot” of nationalities and some Americans don’t know their ethnicity.
From O.M. Norlie’s book, “History of the Norwegian People in America” 1925, Norlie states, “ in 1920 the number of Norwegian descent was guessed from 1 to 5 million. From his estimates of a 20% increase per decade or 2% increase per year the total for 1925 would be 2,385,290 without counting any mixed marriages. He felt the total would exceed 2,500,000. Ragnvald Jonsberg, Chief of Statistical Central Bureau of Norway allows for 1,532,000 in 5 generations in 1920.”
If you follow the next 8 decades at Norlie’s rate you would have 10,800,000 of Norwegian descent in 2005. From our family research, we feel 20% increase per decade is low. Last summer I visited with a man whose grandfather had 12 children with the first wife and when she died, he had 12 more children with a second wife. His other grandfather had 14 children. This is not a general rule but many early families were much larger than families in Norway. The sizes of the families varied during different time periods of American history.
In 1980 we were collecting information on our Overland family - we found in nine generations from our emigrant ancestors – there were over 2,500 direct descendants. That summer we held a family reunion with 400 relatives interested in finding out more about their roots. They came from 26 states and 3 countries. The mobility of our society results in Norwegians in every state of the union and Canada in varying percentages.
Arne Brekke wrote, “It has been common to talk about 3-5 million North Americans of Norwegian heritage, but several outstanding genealogists believe the number is more likely to be 30-60 million! The difference, of course, has to do with the way one defines ethnic heritage. We believe that Americans with one or more ancestors from Norway should be included in the statistics. An increasing number of researchers have counted the number of living descendants from specific emigrants during the different years of emigration since 1825 and found surprising numbers. Important elements here would be the size of the families during the different periods, and the amount of inter-marriage to another nationality. When a Norwegian male or female married a non-Norwegian, the number of descendants with Norwegian genes doubled in relation to the number of emigrants.”
There is a great deal of progress in research materials and data bases of information available. Vesterheim Genealogical Center in Madison Wisconsin was started in 1974 by Gerhard Naeseth. He stated “With the Sesquicentennial (150th) of Norwegian Immigration in 1975; the Bicentennial of American Independence in 1976; the publication of Roots by Alex Haley; our country has seen a vibrant growth of interest in family origins and histories.” A wonderful history of the work of Gerhard Naeseth and his protégé Blaine Hedberg is featured in a 2004 Vesterheim publication as well as many suggestions for doing research.
The Bygdelags in America have done many sagas about these early emigrants and many of these have been translated into English. Valdres has already celebrated it’s Centennial with many to follow in the next few years and some lags have written books about their areas in Norway and settlement in America. An effort has been made to collect microfilm, census, bygdeboker and other research materials available for annual genealogy sessions.
Through Sons of Norway and Norwegian American Historical Association publications and work through various colleges and museums – the general story of Norwegian Emigration has been told. In order to help individuals locate the areas in Norway where their families originate – more specific information needs to be available.
With the computer and internet, we have entered a new age of technology where sharing information and doing research has become much different. With a genealogy class I taught in Community Ed., in the second session, one of my students was on the Internet 15 minutes when she made a connection to a genealogy chart done by a relative in Norway - obtaining information on one line of her family back to 1500 and up to her grandmother. This is a wonderful starting point but the information should be verified from other research.
With the improvements in communication, many younger people are becoming more interested in finding out more about their own families. Genealogy has become a favorite hobby. Our Telelag genealogist, Darrel Johnson shares a caution about using internet genealogy. “Recently I read a very good article on Netscape titled “Internet Pluses and Minuses”. The gist of the article was that the internet has created a perception that it makes genealogical research easier and that the laborious task of basic research has been replaced by searching existing data bases. A warning was included in the article that it also makes it easier to go astray in that errors and outright fiction are propagated as unimpeachable research.” Darrel goes on to say, “The internet can help one narrow the research by using the various primary databases. One of the problems is that submitted research is similar to the bygdebok in that it is a secondary source and can contain typos such as dates of events and undocumented assumptions. One cannot forget the basic fundamentals of research; one step at a time in forging the links back in time. Just because something is written in a book whether it is in English or Norwegian does not always make it free of errors or mistakes.”
There are a number of monumental projects being done to provide research materials for improving the search for our ethnic history. Margit Bakke of Flom, Minnesota and Olaf Kringhaug of British Columbia, Canada have teamed their efforts to publish a translation of the book “Nordmaendene i Amerika” by Martin Ulvestad 1907. Margit scanned the pages, Olaf translated the material and Margit has posted it on free pages of Roots.com. It can be viewed at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~maggiebakke/ulvestad.html
The original is posted at a Norwegian site. Margit and Olaf met through the Lists for Roots where various people can post questions about their families or history and others help to answer them. Margit Bakke was very active in doing the Flom History and coordinates many of the questions for Oppland. Olaf has helped translate many Norwegian articles. He is originally from Trondheim and was recently featured in the Trondelag publication.
After translating about 12 books and other articles, Malcolm Rosholt translated Hjalmar Holand’s book “De Norske Settlementers Historie” (The History of Norwegian Settlement)
in 1987. Before his recent death at 96 years of age, he and his daughter Mei-Fei Elrick of Ontario, Canada made plans to print a number of copies or make a CD available for research, and possibly post it on the internet. This tells history of the Norwegians that lived in many early settlements from interviews done over a hundred years ago.
With Malcolm’s permission, Lorna Anderson used this translation plus other sources in 1987, summarizing the Norwegian Settlement History in charted format to show where the settlers were from in Norway. This was used in the books published by the Telelag of America and a book co-authored by Jan Frye and Lorna Anderson “Norway to America – Genealogy and Settlement History Guide”. These charts will now be posted on Lorna’s web site: www.norwayinnovation.com It is hoped that it will help newer researchers locate the areas in Norway where their ancestors came from and help Norwegians locate their relatives.
The historian in Grant County Museum went through their Minnesota records and listed the family names of the settlers with the areas in Norway that they came from. It is hoped that we can get some of these links coordinated with Norwegian settlements in America. It takes hundreds of people working together to accomplish some of these wonderful resources.
If any of you have information, suggestions, or questions about these projects contact Lorna Anderson – PO Box 193 Perham, MN 56573 norwayinnovation@hotmail.com or 218/346-6284.
Lorna Anderson has spent most of her life promoting her Norwegian Heritage and collecting Family History. She made three trips to Norway totaling 3 months doing research and photography. She hopes to make another research trip to Norway. In 2007 she and her husband, Glen hope to join the 2007 Telelag Centennial Tour to Telemark and the Tour to the Telemark Settlements in America. Lorna co-authored the Overland Family History with Audrey Overland; Norway to America – Genealogy and Settlement History Guide with Jan Frye; helped with the Telelag books; and other family projects. She developed her first video production and is working on her web site and projects on Telemark Rosemaling: a traveling photo display of early rosemaling now featured at Norskedalen near Coon Valley, Wisconsin and replications of 1800’s rosemaling with other projects being planned.