The reason the Holtans and Tweeten families are so interested in the Mandt family is that both of our families have the same great great great grandmother. That woman was Else Mikkelsdatter Mandt Nordgarden. She came from the high-status Mandt family and was married to the lensmann (sheriff) of the Mo area of Telemark. She was descended from and named for an even-more-famous Else, Else Resen Mandt.
That made Stan and Ruth Holtan third cousins, a not uncommon situation in the isolated valleys of Norway, but for centuries, the priests who were the record keepers and others made sure the relationship was no closer than that. So, the two great great grandmothers, the sisters, were Sigri Tarjeisdotter Nordgarden and Margit Tarjeisdotter Holtan. Their stories are some of the most important in the Journeys book from Ruth Tweeten Holtan.
The Mandt family has always been interesting and stood out from the crowd. The September 4, 1974 AFTENPOSTE says “the Mandt descendants were regarded as people who could master any situation. Besides being outstanding artists and craftsmen, many of them had more knowledge than was usual at that time. They could read and write and get high positions of influence”.
We will include several articles and stories about the Mandt family but the Mandt’s of Upper Telemark by Lorna Mandt Robertson from Issaquah, Washington and a life-long student of the Mandt’s, is particularly well worth reading.
We now include a number of articles, many by Lorna Mandt Robertson, who has spent her life hearing and telling stories about her Mandt ancestors. We thank her for permission to share these stories:
- Annie Grimdalen, Mandt Sculptor was a sculptress who after struggling for recognition, was honored with some fine commissions, including at Oslo City Hall. You can visit a museum of her work at the Grimdalen farm near Mo in Upper Telemark.
- Knut Haukelid, another Mandt relative, led the Norwegian agents who during World War II, attacked and finally destroyed the heavy water from the Rjukan Hydro Works that were at the heart of the Nazi nuclear program. Their actions are immortalized in the movie “Heroes of Telemark.” We include three tellings of the story, A series of articles on the Destruction of the Rjukan Heavy Water, with extra sections on skiing, and scouting in Norway, Sinking Hitler’s Bomb, and a review of Haukelid’s book, “Skis Against the Atom”
- Gunnar Utsond- Sculptor is an article written by Lorna Robertson about another significant Mandt artist.
- Anund Alvson Vamartveit- Bishop of Vamartveit, as he was called was a memorable figure in Upper Telemark and had “dozens of cousins” who moved to America.
- Stor Gunnar Mandt and His Sons, including T. G. Mandt, outstanding leaders in immigrant Wisconsin.
We have two articles about Dyre Vaa, a legendary figure in Norway of the 1500-1600’s, a kind of a Paul Bunyan. First we have a story of Dyre Vaa and the trolls and his relationship to the Mandts. Second we have more stories of Dyre Vaa, The Scream from Lake Totak. Another page tells you something about the mythology of trolls in Norway.
You can see the far back genealogy of the Mandt family in this 5 Gen Pedigree Chart for Margit Nordgaard Holtan
You can see how both Margit and her sister Sigrid fit into the last column of the family tree in this 5 Gen Pedigree Chart for the Stan Holtan children
Another article is from a local Norwegian newspaper, The Mandt Family has filled Telemark with Artists
We also include several other articles or sections of book about the Mandt’s. Lars Mandt and Descendants has an impressive bibliography but the authorship is not clear. Lars or Lauritz was father to Mikkel Mandt, the first of the family to move from Denmark to Norway.
One of my favorite articles is this one, about Engebret Mikkelson Mandt, a silversmith and artist, who wrote a Description of Upper Telemark, a book that described the natural beauty of the area. He also is said to the first to bring potatoes to the area. The article is long, but very well written and a fascinating homage to the Mandt influence on Telemark and all of Norway.
Paul Mandt’s book, Relatively Speaking, the Mandt Family Tree, is an extensive treatment of the family and also includes the story of TG Mandt, who started the very successful Mandt Wagon Co. in Stoughton, Wisconsin. We have left out part of the book that is more of interest to TG’s family, but it’s easy to find and download from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, easily found with a Google search.
We have some mixed feelings toward the Mandt’s high status because it excluded Sigrid and Margit’s families when they both married below their station. Sigrid and Margit were both born and baptized at Eidsborg, Dalen and at the Stave church where their Mandt people had lived for centuries. Their father Tarjei Nordgarden was “lensmann” or sheriff of Upper Telemark.
Sigri lived in the remote valley of Froland where her hussman husband Jorgen Bendickson had family there of many generations and was overpopulated for the opportunity there. In the Fyresdal Mandt family tree Sigrid and her sister Margit Holtan, who also married a hussman’s son from Froland, were left off the family tree for marrying beneath their family status.